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kleenex-tissues · 1 year

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Yours Truly (4)

AO3 version here

Ch. 4 - Sometimes, Annoyance is the Best Policy

Marinette spends the better part of a week pretending she never sent an email to this ‘Redbird’ fellow. Growing up in the bakery, her parents had always told her that everything cooks slower when you watch it, and she tried to apply this theory to all aspects of her life.

Long checkout queue? Scroll through twitter.

Fabric store out of your favorite silk? Set a reminder to check back in a few days and go about your shopping.

Pen pal hasn’t responded to your email yet? Throw yourself into being the most helpful and positive person you can possibly be to make time go faster.

And that was exactly what Marinette did.

Every akumatized villain was met with a smile and a polite greeting, no matter how many cars they threw at her. Victims were given hugs and pep talks. Not even Chat Noir could keep up with the amount of compliments she was spewing his way. Citizens remarked that the lights throughout Paris glittered just a little bit brighter whenever Ladybug smiled.

The kwamis, which were now in her care as the officially appointed guardian of the miraculi, were feeding off of her happy smiles and care gladly. A new corner dedicated to cushions and snacks became their designated hangout when freed from their places in the miracle box. When Marinette was happy, they all seemed to have more energy, and they would never complain about that.

This also translated into her civilian life, her sunny smile bringing lots of attention to the bakery whenever she manned the register. Her classmates were treated to a new baked good every day, whether they spoke to each other or not. Orders for her designs were being sent out at rapid rates, and nobody could deny the feeling of warmth whenever they donned the clothes she had meticulously hand-sewn. If she was unconsciously imbuing some of Tikki’s power into the fabric, that was between her and the clothing.

Every day was accompanied by the cheerful light Marinette seemed to radiate, but every day ended with a storm cloud above her as she opened her empty inbox. After the fifth day of checking her email and seeing no reply, Marinette threw her head back in exasperation.

“Maybe the email just didn’t go through,” chimed TIkki, rather unhelpfully, from her place in Marinette’s jacket hood. The girl tried her best to be upbeat, but it seemed impossible to ever reach the level of optimism that the kwami exuded. Marinette thought it must be tiring for Tikki to be so happy all the time. She knew first hand how exhausting it was.

She was supposed to be the happy, carefree girl in her everyday life and an otherworldly protector surrounded by an air of confidence as Ladybug. All of Paris relied on her to be the best, to keep them safe, to keep them whole. But she was tired of having to do everything just right.

Marinette sighed. “I don’t know, Tikki. Maybe I’m just not meant to learn English.”

She moved Tikki from her shoulder to the desk and began spinning in her chair. A soft calming motion, around and around. It had become her favorite way to get rid of any negative thoughts. She let her mind shift to blank for a minute or two, a quick reset in the midst of her hectic day to day life.

“It’s not like you to give up so easily,” Tikki countered. “He probably just missed the email. You can always try sending another one!”

Her smile was infectious, breaking through Marinette’s empty stare and bringing her back to the waking world. The chair’s velocity slowed, and Tikki flew up to look her chosen in the eyes. “I’m sure it will work out for you.”

The way she formed her words so sweetly was enough to give anyone cavities. Marinette’s mind began to stir once more, and unfocused eyes moved towards the monitor with intent. She forced a smile onto her face, albeit a little reluctantly.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Let’s try it again.”

To: [email protected] From: [email protected] Subject: Hello again :)

Good evening, Redbird!

Oh, but you’re not from Paris, so it’s probably not evening for you. Good whatever time of day it is!

I wasn’t sure if you missed my last email, so I figured I should send you another one just in case. As a recap, my name is Marinette (but you can call me Mari, almost all my friends do), I live in Paris, I’m the class president, a fashion designer in the making, and just one year away from University.

Feel free to let me know if there’s anything you would like designed (clothing, album covers, accessories). I could probably get you a pretty good ‘friend’ discount! ;)

I look forward to your reply. Afterall, why would you have signed up for a pen pal in the first place! XD

Au Revior, Mari

–

Marinette, concluding that the best course of action was always to “kill with kindness,” or in this case annoyance, decided to send an email to her unresponsive pen pal every single day for the next two weeks. She refused to be ghosted by a complete stranger, and Tikki was right – Marinette didn’t know what it meant to give up. Her entire life relied on not giving up on, and kwamis be damned, she would be fluent in English!

This ‘Redbird’ guy was going to be her friend, whether he liked it or not. At the very least, bombarding his inbox with emails was still helping her learn the ins and outs of English grammar rules, so she could thank him in that regard.

Alya laughed as she watched her friend type out another email during their lunch break.

“You’re really enjoying this whole ‘pen pal’ idea, huh?”

This comment brought the attention of Nino and Adrien, who slid around the lunch table to see what all the fuss was about. Adrien placed his head on Marinette’s shoulder to get a better look, a friendly gesture he had recently begun doing with her.

Although Marinette had slowly grown out of her crush on her classmate, the things he did still tended to make the butterflies in her stomach dance around. As their friendship developed, Adrien became more touchy – a side-effect of living with a cold and distant father. He looked for physical touch where he could, and she always had plenty to offer. Besides, he was still ignorant to the crush she had harbored for him for so long, so she would hate to ruin this experience for him. Above all, Adrien needed a support system, not for his best friend to start chasing him around like the obsessive fans his model career had already warranted.

Marinette scrunched her face up in annoyance. “Sort of. I’ve just kinda been sending him emails. He hasn’t exactly responded to any of them.”

Alya looked at her in horror, throwing her arms around Marinette’s head and tucking it into her chest. She yelled, “Who does this guy think he is? No one has the right to ghost our Mari like this!”

“I second that,” commented Nino. Marinette felt a hand pat the top of her back, and she assumed it belonged to him. “Our Mari is too good for a guy like that.”

While Alya and Nino continued shouting about Marinette’s ‘honor,’ Adrien leaned into her further to whisper in her ear, “Are you alright?”

She blushed a little but replied, muffled by Alya’s arm over her mouth, “Yeah, it’s just a little annoying. I’m just using it as grammar practice in the meantime.”

Alya’s arms began tightening around Marinette further, and Nino joined in, both wailing together. The girl in question couldn’t help but to laugh. She was glad to have the reminder of how much her friends cared for her. It was easy for her to get lost in the image of ‘perfect’ Marinette and ‘godlike’ Ladybug, but these moments were what reminded her she was allowed to be just her – no expectations required.

She reached up to poke Alya’s arm.

“Alright, I tap out! I tap out!”

Alya stood, placing her right leg and the table and flexing her arms like a bodybuilder. Nino met her enthusiasm with an imaginary microphone in his hands, while Adrien held up a pretend camera, supported by obnoxiously fake clicking noises.

“Miss Césaire, Miss Césaire! Would you care to comment on your take down of THE Marinette Dupain-Cheng, six-time Mixed Martial Arts Champion,” said Nino, shoving his hand in Alya’s face. Marinette only laughed harder.

With a smug grin, Alya replied, looking directly in Adrien’s fake camera, “To all my beautiful losers out there, you can beat that champion. Overcome the mountain standing before you and check out the Ladyblog while you do!”

They all dissolved into giggles, and the tables around them did, as well. Marinette felt like she was home.

DING!

“What was that?”

Marinette looked at Alya, not sure of the answer.

“Mari, it's your email,” Adrien gasped. “Redbird finally messaged you back!”

#wolfish-writes #maribat #daminette #marinette dupain cheng #maridami #damian wayne #batman #batfam #bat family #mlb x dcu #dcu x mlb #miraculous ladybug

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sibyl-of-space · 1 year

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School stuff below readmore. I think, in my kokoro of kokoros, I have already made my decision. I just need to talk myself through it and be certain.

It’s only the second day of the semester. I’m already really, really stressed. This is quite obviously not sustainable.

I don’t think I realized, when I was signing up for classes last semester, how much mental energy I would be focusing on the fact that I am graduating and I need to have some form of income figured out by June. I no longer have the luxury of 100% focusing on learning and creating art and immersing myself entirely in school. I need to be transitioning out.

I mean, on the other hand, I am certainly still paying for a semester’s tuition so I want to make sure I get everything out of it that I can. I just need to figure out how to make the most of this semester, while acknowledging that getting the most out of this semester is going to look very different from last semester. Graduating with some form of financial stability/income laid out will certainly qualify as getting something out of it.

As-is, I am signed up for way too much, and there’s no way to manage all of it. It’s not happening. I need to drop at least one class. I am very, very seriously considering dropping two and supplementing with a different one.

Currently, I am taking 2 for-fun theory/analysis classes. Both classes look like they will be a lot of work. One of them looks like it is going to be EXTREMELY difficult, I am in fact attending office hours in less than an hour after one day of class. If I continue taking both of these throughout the semester, I have no doubt that by the end of it I’ll have a much, MUCH deeper understanding of theory and have added a lot of compositional fundamentals to my toolkit. I think they are valuable.

However, neither of these classes are going to directly provide me opportunities to work on music that is what I want to make. They will guide me toward writing exercises that I might later use in pieces, but the classes themselves won’t help me write finished pieces. So that’s a lot of time spent learning but not necessarily creating. Is that time valuable? Yes. Is that time going to take away from creating, which this semester, I really need to do to finish a portfolio I can use to apply for jobs? Also yes.

There is another class that is pretty much dedicated to composing pieces to flesh out your portfolio. I’ve heard from other students that it’s pretty common to write 6 pieces and really like 2 of them throughout the semester. Will I learn anything about counterpoint fundamentals or modernist music analysis in this class? No. Will I write music I otherwise would not have written? Yes.

It’s difficult. My other units are all taken up with classes I basically have no choice but to take (and my lessons, which are, objectively, the most important thing for me this semester). It’s impossible to learn literally everything in a 2-year Master’s program, so I need to figure out what is reasonable for me to learn this semester, and accept the fact that I can’t do everything. I’ve taken 16-17 units every semester so far when the minimum is 13. I have absolutely taken every advantage to learn as much as I can. I’ve grown a LOT. But it’s ending, and I need to figure out where I’m going to draw the line on my way out.

I think.... the “smart” thing to do, in terms of making sure I have time to work on personal projects and trying my best to be professionally prepared when I graduate, is to drop both extra theory classes and take the portfolio class. This will make sure I have LOTS of time to really focus on projects, lesson work, applications, resume stuff, everything. If I do this, I need to accept that I’ll still look at 20th century music scores and not know where to start in terms of analysis, and that I’ve only ever learned the very rudimentary basics of counterpoint and nothing beyond that. Those are things I can always learn later if I choose to, but there’s no question that I’d get a lot from them. I need to accept that loss.

The thing I most certainly cannot do, is continue as I am. I’m already overwhelmed on the 2nd day of the semester. I need to drop something.

I could drop just one course. Between 20th century harmony and tonal counterpoint, it’s a trade-off... the 20th century harmony course is certain to be more rigorous (and therefore I’ll probably learn more from it), the tonal counterpoint course will probably be more fun and less stressful, and I’ll certainly learn from it as well. I can’t help feeling like I’d have regrets either way. It feels like dropping only one will result in a semester where I’m still kind of working hard and still don’t have time for my projects and compositions.

I think.... I am going to attend office hours with my 20th century harmony professor, and talk about this. I know that some of our projects will be writing for solo instrument performance. I want to ask him if it might be possible to write solo pieces with an electronic backing track or other synthesized elements, basically to ask if I can use this as an opportunity to write something I want to use as a portfolio work anyway. If he is willing to work with me to make our assignments into something I can use (say, if I can use them as BGM in the game I’m working on) - then I think it’s worth it. But if they will only ever be solo exercises for live performance, the course may be too rigorous to dedicate my time to.

I’m going to meet with this professor. After that, I may or may not meet with my counterpoint professor as well. And then I am going to ask a friend taking the portfolio course how it is. And at the end of the week, when I’ve done all of these things, I will make my final decision on what this semester will look like.

It’s not going to be as awesome as last semester, but that was always going to be the case. I just need to make a decision that I’m happy with and dedicated to, an informed decision, so I don’t have regrets. That’s what my boy Luke fon Fabre of Tales of the Abyss fame taught me

#personal

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getawayheaven · 1 year

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These people are just feeding their own minds by creating a perfect world in their heads where nothing is wrong, everyone is a good human, celebs live highly authentic lives where they do not lie

I feel like these two antis in particular are just here to make themselves feel better and smarter than everyone else. If you listen to their podcast it becomes dead obvious that there must be a reason as to why they are so obsessed with the Larry thing when it’s something they don’t even believe it’s real. Especially anticonspiracist gets overly emotional sometimes when reading Larry stuff out loud in her pod and it’s just so funny how deeply invested she is in something that she doesn’t believe in. I mean i don’t believe the earth is flat but I don’t feel the need to make blog in order to debunk flat earther theories. I don’t even know why anyone would want to do this. If I know it’s not real why trying to convince people it isn’t when you just can live your life in peace. It’s one thing to have a Larry blog and to ‚prove‘ that Larry is real but it’s another thing to make a blog about something that in your opinion isn’t true anyway only to shit on people who believe in it. The energy to make these long posts. I don’t get how someone would have the energy for that. And it’s not like they make larries listen to them bc they are just insulting them 90% of the time. It’s not like their ‚work‘ is effective. They just rant and call larries names and that’s it. And you can tell it makes them feel more worthy and more confident about themselves, they get such a thrive when making fun of larries. It’s laughable. They make themselves look like complete idiots. For the most part it just comes across like they have to compensate some childhood trauma. Someone go tell them how smart they are lol.

Agree with everything. Not gonna lie I've gone through their blogs but I've kept my sanity a bit by not listening to any of the podcasts. I heard the latest one a bit where "the lady" was doing a "dramatic" reading of a post by a larrie. I tried my best not to laugh out loud in the middle of the night but when she said "Harry Styles who may or may not be queer" I totally lost it. LOL. Pls tell me which straight man ever said that he's unlabeled? Just imagine someone who can't even grab a simple concept of being queer is doing deep research on larries. This is just height of stupidity. Those 10 min of listening to that podcast was pure comedy. Think about a person(a larrie) who posted their opinion online to share their experience with fellow mutuals and she(an anti) woke up one day and decided that she will pore all her frustrations out on that person and criticize their opinions to the best of her ability just to scream at the end YOUR OPINION IS WRONG. There is seriously something very wrong with them to be honest.

Aaaannnd she calls herself anti conspiracist. The person who has a whole tag called psychology of larries has a really fucked up psychological imbalance to be fair. These people have whole blogs dedicated to larries where they talk about a thousand different theories and conspiracies comparing them to larry dedicating their time and effort in doing so just to prove at the end that larries are wrong. This is a whole new level of obsession.

I can understand why others stalk larries like, hets, rads, solo harries, holivias, they are just enjoying themselves, they are not doing deep researches to prove anyone wrong. But this is just entirely different level of passion and enthusiasm for larries. LOL.

#antis #anticonspiracist #back-to-louis #total insanity

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bensiskos · 2 years

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2 3 6 15 22 28 for mat'athy and also mary/lucas. ALSO do matos and t'athy want kids..

this got so long I need to put it under a readmore

2. Any sleep habits either had to get used to?

T’athy doesn’t sleep as long as Matos does, so early into their relationship Matos would wake up to find T’athy meditating, reading, or sometimes just looking at them, but after a while she’s quite used to it.

3. Jealousy issues?

T’athy gets Slightly jealous when Matos flirts with Hot Woman Alien of the week but since she’s Vulcan and also knows Matos loves her, it’s pretty easy for her to forget her jealousy

6. Double Date? Thoughts? Who?

Hmmmmmm I think they go on a “double date” with Madam Q but it’s just Madam Q and t’athy and Matos and they all kiss

15. Why do they like each other?

Matos loves T’athy’s strong values, and how dedicated she is to her causes, they love her steady presence, and feels like T’athy is her rock keeping them tethered to reality and the day to day life. T’athy loves Matos for her spirit and her energy, she loves that Matos always has a bright side, and that they always know when T’athy needs some fun. They love each other for keeping them both balanced and secure, especially in times of war and unrest.

22. Who is the photo bug?

Assuming “photo bug” means they love to take photos of every moment, it’s not either of them. T’athy is too Vulcan for any photos other than Family Portrait, and Matos likes living in the moment too much to be taking photos of everything.

28. Who takes the longest getting ready to leave?

Hmmmmm I think they both take about an equally long time, they’re both like Grandma old at this point so they’re slow at things sometimes which is okay

And Matos definitely wants to be like a grandma to some kid, maybe adopt/mentor, and t’athy might need some convincing but I think she really loves kids and would come around to the idea after retirement. I think they adopt a teenage Vulcan and have a nice time on Bajor after their final mission

2. Any sleep habits either had to get used to? Lucas snores. She says she doesn’t but she does. They sleep in a like magic glamping tent for most of their time together, so Mary makes her sleep on the floor b/c they have an “only one bed” situation

3. Jealousy issues? oh so many <3 Mary hates it whenever someone else gets to order Lucas around, and feels like she should be the only one able to tell Lucas what to do. Lucas hates it whenever Mary’s attention is on someone else, because while she doesn’t really love Mary at first, she’s come to trust her and Mary is the only person who really gives a shit about what happens to her . I’m sorry they’re so fucked up

6. Double Date? Thoughts? Who? Uhhhhhh with the bugs that get into their tent. Yeah

15. Why do they like each other? Mary loves Lucas because Lucas actually takes the time to listen to her about her scientific theories and doesn’t immediately dismiss her as “crazy” and (she thinks) that Lucas won’t ever exploit her in any moments of weakness. Mary doesn’t have to keep up as much of an act around Lucas, and she craves that comfort. Lucas loves Mary because Mary doesn’t just use her to further her own needs, Mary actually takes the time to consider what Lucas’s skills are, and how she feels. Lucas also likes that Mary wants her attention in return, and that Mary actually lets down her guard and gives some vulnerability over to Lucas.

22. Who is the photo bug? it’s Mary. She’s always sketching images of cool plants and rocks and fungi and animals (and occasionally Lucas but shhh don’t tell)

28. Who takes the longest getting ready to leave? it’s Mary again <3 they’re actually both pretty quick cus Lucas has like A Getting Ready Routine down and Mary can use magic to like do her hair and makeup, but comparatively it is Mary b/c she’s a bit of a perfectionist

THANK U SODA I LOVE YOU AND I LOVE MY LESBIAN OCS!!!

#ella’s ocs #sodabutch

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itsthebethblogever · 9 days

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Water fasting: why, when, and how?

Though I am no nutritionalist, I have compiled just a quick outline of what my water fast consisted of as well as some of the reasonings behind doing it, and the aftercare. I was inspired to do a water fast after hearing many female friends of mine talk about how much they loved it - how they felt their most creative and energetic, some even claiming to feel an euphoric high. During my Vision Quest back in October 2023, I also did a 3 day water fast; however, that felt different, as I was less focused on the health effects and more on the spiritual side. As I remember the lack of eating being way easier than I thought, I was hopeful that doing it again would prove to be the same result. Spoiler alert: it totally was.

Why?

To give my body a break to allow itself to clean and purify itself. Our body begins to burn white fat into brown fat, stem cell growth is stimulated, our dopamine system gets a reset, diseased cells get a chance to be flushed out while white blood cells increase and have time to do their reparative work.

Ancestrally, when we would go on a hunt, this is a period where we would not be eating. This would allow us to be lighter, more agile, and put us into a more focused state. Then, in the spiritual sense, it gives us more space to dedicate our energy towards something else. Cultures and religions worldwide practice fasting for various reasons - Yom Kippur, for example, is the Jewish day of atoning for our sins. Growing up, the decision to fast was always optional (and then encouraged after you had your bar/bat mitzvah (age 13 for boys and in some communities, age 12 for girls). After I had my Bat Mitzvah, I chose to fast as I wanted to be a part of what the community was doing. This day was spent home from school and usually doing homework with my friends at temple while services were going on. Because of this, I know doing a 24 hour fast is totally doable, and many people report the first 24 hours is the hardest. I can attest that to be true - this is the first day where you wake up and think “aw man, my stomach just grumbled and I can’t do anything about it”. This is when you reach for some water, use that to fill yourself up, and find something else to do to distract yourself.

When?

After my bleed, before ovulation. Can also be done after ovulation as long as it’s finished before bleed time. When I don’t have much to do so I’m not stressing about needing energy.

I found Dr. Mindy Pelz on YouTube when looking up advice for how to fast as a woman and am now a fan of her podcast, The Resetter Podcast. Here is a video where she explains when women should fast. I like it because she has visuals and is very clear and concise! Then, if you want more detail, I’d recommend this podcast where she is interviewed and talks about the benefits (she says that it has helped women who had been struggling with fertility to become pregnant! And help heal people with PCOS!), do’s and don’ts of fasting, and what goes on in our bodies hormonally.

The first day was when I thought the most about food. Day two was pretty breezy, I’d say the easiest of them all. I woke up feeling quite energized! My theory is that I feel like my tendency to eat at night makes my body get less rest as it sleeps. This meant waking up with a fully charged battery made me feel much more rested! On the third day, I was getting more head rushes if I got up too quickly, and did not feel as energetic. Every morning I stuck to my ~half an hour morning yoga/pilates practice as my exercise, and was doing minimal walking besides that. I had some goals for what I wanted to do with my time, like finish a few projects, practice guitar, meditate, then my evenings were spent reading or chatting with the people at the campsite where I was staying.

How?

It is recommended to decrease the amount of carbohydrates you eat three-four days before the fast so your body already gets used to burning fats for energy (instead of carbs). Though, I did not do this. Take my advice, I don’t need it! Hahahaha. Anyway, from Monday until the evening of Wednesday, my water fast looked like this:

* morning cuppa: herbal tea (I chose ginger and lemongrass) with a capful of apple cider vinegar, a pinch of salt, and a few teaspoons of MCT coconut oil

* water

* black coffee with MCT oil

* water

* herbal tea

Water fasting makes it sound like you can ONLY drink water, when in reality, the emphasis is keeping yourself in a fasted state. This means your blood sugar does not rise and your body can go into ketosis, where it burns fats as fuel instead of carbs. This is why Vinnie from Jersey Shore ate just the pepperoni and cheese off the pizza that one episode - he did not want to break his state of ketosis with the carbs of the dough.

Truly another big reason I wanted to fast is because I love the extra time it gives me in the day. It feels so spacious to not have to think about what to eat, cook it, eat it, clean up… because that’s actually a large portion of the day if you eat three meals! Instead, any time I feel hunger, I take a swig of water and the moment passes. I love knowing how optional food is, as well. This helps when I am going about my day and feel hunger arise. If I can survive three days on water, it makes any other time in my life pale in comparison! It lowers my anxiety about eating since I know what I am capable of.

After the fast, it is recommended to eat mainly broths and soups for the first 48 hours. The idea is to remain in ketosis for longer, so stick to proteins, fats, and cooked vegetables (steamed or boiled so the fiber is easier for your body to digest). Introducing fruits and carbohydrates comes in later.

I broke the fast with:

First: half cup of water, apple cider vinegar, and lemon juice.

Second: one cup of bone broth*

*I love “Best of the Bone” brand here in Australia. It’s about $30 AUD and lasts me around two months. All I do is heat up some water, pour it in a mug, scoop out about a half tablespoon or so of the concentrated broth, and stir it in. Best way to coat the intestines to prepare for food and it is sooo delicious! I’ve tried every flavor and can say my favorite is the bio-fermented coconut, lemon myrtle, Tumeric, and papaya leaf one.

Third: boiled broccolini with an organic beef hamburger patty*, kimchi, avocado, and goat cheese. I boiled the broccolini then sautéed it with some coconut oil, salt, and pepper. Everything I served with a bit of ghee** on the side.

*Note: I do NOT recommend breaking the fast with beef like I did. After doing more research, I would have stuck to a more lean kind of protein, like fish or egg or chicken, as I think my body freaked out with the beef. For vegetarians, pea protein was specifically recommended. I actually had painful diarrhea and believe it was either the meat or the goat cheese that my intestines were not ready for. Whoops. So please, learn from my mistake :-D

**This is the first time I purchased ghee for myself - I had had it before in small amounts to test and see how my stomach reacted (I am lactose intolerant, not very sensitive though) and always felt fine! It’s like butter as it’s made from cows milk, but has a lot less lactose. The reason is because its made by melting butter, separating it into liquid fat and milk fat, and then they toss out the milk fat so just the pure fat remains.

How did it feel to eat for the first time in 3 days? INCREDIBLE. It felt so different to be so intentional with choosing every ingredient. Another thing I loved was that I knew exactly what was in my body, so that if I ate something that made my stomach feel funny, I could repeat the same meal and take out an ingredient to experiment. This is a great blank slate to test for intolerances!

As I said before, something I ate did not agree with me, so later I tried just eating goat cheese to see if it was that, or the hamburger. The goat cheese felt fine, and later since I’ve eaten a hamburger happily, so it could have been too much, too soon.

For the next days, I had miso soup with a boiled egg, kimchi, and whatever random vegetable I had boiled with it (one day it was a carrot and a seaweed snack pack, another a squash, another a sweet potato) for breakfast, lunch was quinoa with smoked salmon, avocado, and cooked random vegetables (spinach, bell pepper). I actually didn’t really eat dinner the first day, I just had more broth and snacked on some fermented goodies like olives, kimchi, plus guacamole. The second night, I had two bananas with cashew butter inside. For break the fast recipe inspiration, I found this website (I love it for its clear visuals and concise information, can you see a pattern?), so feel free to check it out and borrow from them! Their tofu, protein powder, and chia seed pudding is now a favorite of mine - I had never thought to blend tofu!

Hopefully this has inspired you to give a prolonged fast a try! It has helped me to be more conscious about what I am eating and slow down to think: what do I actually need? Also, I liked aligning it with where I am in my cycle, as anything I do that helps me tune in with my body makes me feel more cyclical and empowered.

Feel free to share your stories and reactions with me! If you know something from your lived experience that you think would be beneficial to add, I’d love to hear it and add it to this post :-)

Lots of love to you and your beautiful body!! Xx

#health #fasting #36 hour water fast #water fast #three day water fast #nutrition #cyclical eating #cyclical living #female fast #woman fast #spiritual

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orsinium · 8 months

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lets be real it was only a matter of time b4 i made a self-insert dremora oc

General Info

Name: Arkrazz

Nickname: “Ark,” but used very rarely

Gender: none, it/its pronouns

Race: Dremora (Dagonic)

Hometown: Desert of Rust and Wounds, The Deadlands

Age: Ageless

Languages Spoken: Dagonic, Cyrodiilic, some Sanguine and Ancient Aldmeri

Appearance

Height: 5’8’’ (172cm), somewhat diminutive for the average Dremora

Weight: 250lbs (113kg), it’s chunky, and pretty muscular under its soft exterior

Hair: shaved/short cropped; dark brown-black, average body hair

Skin: ashy gray-red, crimson face tattoos typical of Dagonic Dremora

Distinguishing marks: broken left cranial horn, septum piercing, gauges

Eyes: glowing Dremora yellow-red

Clothing: Arkrazz prefers light armor and clothing with sharp, defensive barbs over the standard heavy mail worn by Dagonic warriors

Personality

Temperament: Patient, quiet and studious, all qualities rare in the Deadlands. Arkrazz would rather study the ontology of Oblivion than clash with other clan Dremora over territory and honor.

Moral/ethical beliefs: While a black sheep compared to other Dremora in many ways, Arkrazz still exhibits their typical blue-orange sense of morality; it finds it hard to relate to others, especially mortals, as they rarely see its point of view.

Religious beliefs: Arkrazz is a dedicated follower of Mehrunes Dagon, and spends its days within its combination laboratory and atelier deep within the Deadlands. It has a minor obsession with figuring out Oblivion’s origins, and with providing Dagon a definitive answer to how it will end, or how such a fate could be avoided.

Hobbies: When not researching the fabric of reality, Ark can be found cataloging the flora and fauna of the Deadlands, as well as their alchemical uses. Most don’t understand why, but it loves what it calls the natural beauty of Dagon’s realm.

Habits: A bad habit Arkrazz has gotten into is conjuring new minor tools whenever it loses one, wasting energy and contributing more than its fair share to the collective recycling bin of Oblivion’s etheric energies.

Quirks/eccentricities: Arkrazz has a habit of thinking aloud, and then following up on those thoughts without warning. It’s not uncommon to have it portal away in the middle of a conversation because it remembered something unrelated.

Likes:

fire, fire magic

alchemy and its mysteries

calm, religious reflection

exploring the Deadlands

Dislikes:

violence, fighting

loud noises

confident ignorance

eggs— will eat anything but eggs

Fears: Inexistence; Arkrazz habitually researches the origins of reality, and how to escape its limits, including death. Dremora may not die under normal circumstances, but it’s not foolish enough to think the ultimate end of all things won’t come eventually.

Strengths: Arkrazz may not enjoy combat, but its powerful Dagonic fire magic and deadly poisons are a force to be reckoned with. Outside of combat, Arkrazz is not one to give up on an idea or theory, and will pursue it to the ends of Oblivion.

Weaknesses: Arkrazz does not handle conflict with other Dremora or Daedra well; while most mortals can be dispatched (or at least ignored), beings on its own level present risk of pursuit or worse.

Short term goals: None of Arkrazz’s goals are particularly “short term”; with theoretically endless time, it gets what it wants eventually, more or less.

Long term goals: Arkrazz’s ultimate goal is to transcend physical existence, and survive the ending of the kalpa. Lord Dagon could possibly hide it away until the start of the following epoch, but convincing a god to make that kind of exception for just anyone is difficult.

Hopes and desires: To be left alone, or at least to have its ideas and research catered to. Ark wouldn’t mind visitors so much if they contributed something to the academic conversation, or maybe stopped trying to slay it in the name of the divines.

Occupation: Lighthouse keeper; Arkrazz is the sole keeper and tender of the only lighthouse in the Deadlands. Standing tall upon the rocky shores of one of the Deadlands’ countless lava seas, its magically-imbued searchlight watches for breaches in space where invaders attempt to infiltrate the realm. The lower levels of the spire contain Arkrazz’s personal library and workshop.

Skills:

Astronomy

Alchemy

Mysticism & Thaumaturgy

Pyromancy

Secrets:

Gear

Always has:

Daedric crescent pendant

pig-iron mortar, pestle & retort

dagger/pruning knife

Sometimes has:

iron staff with gold inlays

Daedric recording tablet

#my ocs

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yuna-writes · 1 year

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The world of nerds

I feel like these days there isn’t really a linear lifestyle when it comes to nerds and not many people know about them. It’s like being a jock seems to be a lot more linear than being a nerd. A jock is a stereotype of a person who is interested in sports and sports culture, but does not partake in intellectual activity. In the real world, there a huge culture surrounding sports. There are team sports, competitions and people who specialize in athletics' health. Funny enough, in cartoon shows, the jock is depicted as the group who bullies the nerds. I guess jocks don’t like nerds as much and I can see why. The jocks probably pays more attention to the physical world, while a lot of nerds are introverted and focus their energy inward.

I think the closest thing to actual livable experiences of a nerd is e-sports. It’s basically sports, but online and most of the gamers are nerds. Who else spends majority of their life indoors, playing League of Legends, to compete for a national prize in virtual gaming? The culture is still rather new, but it is growing by the year. To be honest, I don’t think e-gamer career is a very sustainable long-term career compared to regular sports. I never really see a gamer who played competitively for over ten or twenty years compared to athletes who dedicate majority of their life to sports until retirement. Sometimes it might be the game industry itself, a lot of games become outdated or old rather quickly. World of Warcraft used to be really popular years ago but not anymore.

There isn’t really notable nerds accept for the cliche’s such as Bill Gate, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. They are all mega nerds, but not the most diverse representation of nerds. Out of the three, I find Elon Musk to be the weirdest one. He is a weird guy because he tries to act ‘cool’ but he’s not who he’s trying to convey since he’s really awkward. Although, I find him the most intriguing, because he doesn’t really behave like a regular CEO. Time will tell if his strategy to lay off all those Twitter employees will work out or not. I don’t see that many business owners taking such drastic change for a result. Whether you love or hate him, he’s interesting because people can’t seem to predict what his next move would be. I bet a few years ago, if we were talk about the idea that Elon will buy Twitter, most people would have found it hilarious and a joke.

I suppose I should be grateful that there is some positivity in being a nerd but I honestly feel like they are redeemed respectful because of their success in business and they found wealth through it. The only thing that appeals to the audience is being rich, I doubt if they weren’t rich and they had a nerdy idea, it wouldn’t be received as positively. Not many people understands nerd culture because money speaks louder. To be honest, most nerds are not going to have the opportunity to be a business owner. Many nerds are forced to assimilate into a world that isn’t really designed for them anyway. The challenging part is how to include them in a regular job or social scene.

I think over time, maybe nerds would be understood better. And yeah maybe it will always be difficult to understand a nerd versus a jock for example. A jock seems to be easily understood because you can physically see them playing a sport which is a very simple activity. A nerd would be focused on describing more abstract concepts, theories, and they are most likely interested in explaining the universe.

#notes

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lakelandseo · 1 year

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How to Advance Your SEO Career – Whiteboard Friday

As SEOs, we know how to optimize websites, but what about our careers? In this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Noah shares his insights from his own search marketing career path, with tips for those people in the beginning and middle stages of their career.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. This is incredibly exciting to be with you here today for Whiteboard Friday. Most of these help you with really cool strategic and tactical stuff, and today we're going to be optimizing something super different. It's your career. It's the most important thing in the world.

This talk is going to be especially useful for people in the beginning and middle stages of their career. Perhaps you've just started out in your journey in SEO, perhaps you've started to take on some more challenging work, perhaps you're given more areas of responsibility, and you're trying to understand how do I get to that next step. You're thinking about, "How do I go from maybe being a specialist to a manager, to a senior manager, or maybe even better, to a director or a vice president in an organization?" For me, this was a really exciting journey. I want to share with you some thoughts that I've gathered along the way in the hopes that you, too, can have a little bit of the same kinds of outcomes that I've been able to do.

The steps are pretty simple. The execution takes time and a lot of dedication and a lot of effort. So if you're a striver, a trier, someone who just really has a lot of energy and drive, you're going to get a ton out of this today.

The first thing that I want to say is that if you are just slightly strategic, just slightly strategic, imagine yourself as a shepherd and you're up on top of a mountain and you have all of these sheep, and all you know is that you need them to go downhill. It's that level of strategy that's necessary to get to the next place. You don't have to know everything. You don't have to be an expert in all areas of SEO, and we'll get into that in a second.

What are we really talking about? We're talking about craft, and we're talking about people primarily in this process that we're going over. For me, a lot of this comes from a blog post that I read by a guy named Jason Roberts. He published this in 2010. It'll be a link in the show notes. For him, it was called the Surface Area of Luck. This blog post blew my mind when I read it, because it's all about the doing. It's about the craft. It's about the skills. It's what we learn, it's what we do, and it's about the telling. It's how we communicate to others the qualities and the skills that we bring to the craft every single day.

So what we're talking about are things like learning how to do great work and how to tell people about it. The better we do and the more skills we learn and the more people who know about it, and it's not just all of the people, it's the right people, that will accelerate your career through all those steps that I talked about before, whether it's from specialist to manager, manager to director, or director to vice president.

So what are we really talking about? We're talking about getting smarter. We're talking about when we start in SEO. I think it's crazy important to start in an agency environment. My theory is that if you're in an agency, you're exposed to all different types of problems and all different types of clients and all different types of verticals.

As you get started, part of learning is learning how to think. It's learning how to make decisions. It's learning how to look at data. It's learning the fundamentals of the web, how to build HTML, maybe some cascading style sheets, maybe a little bit of JavaScript, just a little just to know what it is. Learning a lot about different types of SEO with different types of clients, learning the challenges that happen in a local SEO type challenge, learning about the challenges that come into play when you're learning how to build content, learning how to build stuff around strategy, learning all about e-commerce SEO as well. So getting this wide array of exposure so you can learn all about the different types of problems.

What you're going to find in that process is you're going to start getting excited and passionate about something, and you're going to find yourself talking to people, and you're going to find yourself following people on social media that are experts in one specific thing. You're going to watch Whiteboard Fridays about specific topic areas. You might find yourself going super deep into technical SEO. You might find yourself going super deep into e-commerce SEO. You need to listen to that, because that's your inner self telling you where your passion is.

This is our Moz-shaped superpower. This whole process of learning is really important, and it's really important because it helps you unlock your superpower. Going from going wide, almost like what Rand talked about all those years ago with a T-shaped marketer, that's a lot what we're talking about, getting a really nice wide foundation early in our career so that we can unlock what our superpower is.

What is our superpower? It's that thing that keeps you up at night. It's that thing that when you wake up, you think about. It's that thing that you can't find yourself stop talking to your colleagues about or reaching out to other people on social media. Notice, when we start talking about reaching out to people on social media, that's where we get into the people portion of this process.

So once you find your superpower, you want to get really, really good at it, and you're going to find yourself up-skilling religiously. You're going to learn all kinds of new technologies. You're going to learn processes and workflows to help you get the most out of that superpower.

This is where we get to the next stage, and this is incredibly powerful. As you start to improve and start to go down that path, remember this concept of the sheep. When you start to unlock your superpower, it doesn't mean that you're going to end up walking in a straight line. It's going to be meandering, and it's going to be in a direction, and you should expect that and be open to change and open to possibilities.

Once we know what our superpower is, we can start to think about our board of advisors. These are the people who are 6 to 24 or 36 months ahead of you. The reason that we're targeting that very specific range of time and world of experiences is that they're going to be able to have all of the same recent learnings and recent challenges that you're going through in the back of their own minds, and they're going to do everything that they can to help you.

So start to pay attention on social media, places like Twitter, places like LinkedIn, and start following the people who are doing the thing that you're really passionate about. Start liking and commenting on their tweets, maybe comment, and eventually you're going to find yourself reaching out to them directly and saying something like this via a direct message. "I love what you're talking about and the problems that you're working on. Would you be open to a Zoom? I'm trying my hardest to build my network, and I'd love some time. Thoughts?" Keep it really simple, value their time. What you're going to find is that if you're kind and you're nice, people will go above and beyond to help you in your career.

So we're building our board of advisors here. What you're going to find is that these people care a ton about your outcomes, and they're going to do whatever they can to introduce you to other people who are going to be able to help you as well.

Now that we're talking about people, we all know how to be a good person. The core of it is being nice. You're going to find, and this has played so well for me in my career, that if you're kind, genuinely caring about your peers and colleagues across our industry, you're going to find that the industry will open up to you like an oyster.

More things on people. You're going to find a need to connect with these people who share that same passion, and that's when we get into this idea of community. This is critically important. When I started in SEO, I had no idea how I fit into anything. I had a 20-year career doing retail, and I also had a lot of experience building websites, but I didn't have direct SEO experience. I knew I liked automation. That was my sheep down the mountain moment. But I didn't really see my community. I would advise that you try and find one on Slack, Discord, or maybe a YouTube channel that you're really passionate about. If you don't see a community, make one. Sounds crazy, right? Then, after you join this community, you're going to find that if you're producing content, we're telling mode, we're telling the world about what we do, if you're producing content, whether it's a podcast, a YouTube channel, or maybe it's articles because you don't feel comfortable yet being in front of your peers, maybe imposter syndrome is still like totally overwhelming at times, you're going to find that starting to get in touch with that community is going to open up more and more doors for you. It's this concept of the Luck Surface Area. The more we do and the better we get at it and the more people that know about it, the better our world will become.

What you're going to find is that the next stage, if possible, if you can get yourself to that place, is to consider speaking in public. You're going to find that that's incredibly powerful. If it sounds scary, start really, really small. Go bigger, start at a local meetup, speak at a local conference, try and go a little bigger and see what your comfort level is. If you like it, you're going to find that there's no better opportunity for opening doors for you.

So that's it. It's the Luck Surface Area. If you embrace this and really dedicate yourself to upskilling, you're going to develop the types of skills and relationships that make you impossible to ignore in our industry. If you do that in five, six, seven years, you'll be able to move from being a specialist through management into being a director and hopefully a vice president. I hope you guys got a ton out of this today. I'm super grateful to be here, and y'all take care. Cheers.

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bfxenon · 1 year

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How to Advance Your SEO Career – Whiteboard Friday

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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dailytatsu · 3 years

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Hello! I saw request were open so i was wondering if i could request some headcanons of the Archons and/or the Adepti meeting a God reader who is the God of Chaos and destruction. The reader is not a Archon tho and travels all over Teyvat cuz small bits of destruction were ever they go. They're pretty mischievous and somewhat smug but despite how they act they're actually a good person. They dont mean to cause problems(most of the time anyways) chaos follows them were ever they go. Idk if you have a character limit but if you do please tell me so i wont make a mistake again. And if there is you can just do Zhongli and Xiao. Optionally could you make them a dendro user, there not a lot of dendro content and if not thats fine. I understand. Could you make the reader Gn or Non-binary they/them pronouns please? If not male reader is totally fine. Im so sorry for the long post and I hope you have a good day/night!

Ohmy, it’s my first time just writing headcanons! I’m use to write a lot, so let’s hope I did it right (^ ^' )7

Thanks for the request! ✨

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[HC] God of Chaos! Reader and the Archons + Xiao

Characters: Zhongli, Xiao, Venti, Shogun Raiden (Ei).

Gn! Reader

I tried doing it with everyone but I’m no still that confident to try writing with some characters ＿|￣|○

Sorry for any mistakes!

Request are open!

Genshin Masterlist

Second part ->

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VENTI

To be honest, he didn't notice your presence at first. He had other concerns on his mind that day to perceive the chaotic (and slightly threatening) aura that Mondstadt was infected with that day.

Barbatos is a person of habit, so he couldn't help but be curious when the crowd in front of him began to look a little agitated instead of seeming to enjoy his lyre and his songs.

But then a series of domino events appeared in front of his very eyes.

The purity of the chaos was such that he felt overwhelmed, even without the white-haired boy around, if it wasn’t Bennett fault, then how was it possible for everything to be ruined in such a short time?

His patience ended when, out of nowhere, the strings of his lyre jumped close to his face as they snapped. Making that awful noise that couldn’t mean nothing good.

Okay, enough, who is messing around in here? No more joking in his nation!

He concentrated a little, a faint but unique presence kept his nerves on edge, as if he was being watched from afar. He moved away from the busy areas and then chased that ephemeral energy to the highest point of the church, where the bells were ringing in an irregular and stressful way.

Then he found you. Snoozing against one of the columns, somewhat tired because the trip you made to reach Mondstadt.

Surprisingly, Barbatos understood you since the first exchange of words. A god of chaos who was also a free spirit, you followed no rules ever written in Teyvat, and you had no plans to apologize for the mess you made.

Both of you were Zhongli’s worst nightmare, but that’s another story.

He managed to through your arrogance and your teasing nature that you, in fact, were a lonely spirit that liked to witness the life from above of everyone.

The difference between teasing someone accidentally and committing a crime was really visible, but he still couldn't help but feel like he should scold you after your mere presence messed up with the guild's baskets full of fish.

But hey! He also enjoy the company! Venti tried to teach you how to enjoy the calm and the whisper of wind, music can also contain chaos, feelings, old stories waiting to be told again, expressions and desire united, in a wonderful piece of-

As you yawned his lyre broke up again. Making clear the message.

Okay, not even God of Freedom and Wind can control chaos. Anyways, what a tragedy, but there’s nothing a simple bard can do, smh.

“Do you like kids, don’t you?” He said once, after a nice day of hearing him sing before your chaos reached his little concert. Again watching everyone from above on the hands of the statue, with your attention caught by some kids playing tag.

“… I don’t know what do you mean.” Once discovered you had no choice but to remain defensive, pretending to be disinterested.

“Heh, you aren’t a good liar.” It may not be the wisest thing to make fun of someone who could destroy the place where you were resting, but Venti was confident that he knew you well enough to know that you were not so explosive. “You know!, I just have some pieces, but I think it’s because they are little walking concentrations of pure and innocent chaos, am I wrong?”

He wasn’t, no at all. But you would never confess something that embarrassing.

This guy wrote a ballad about the days when Mondstadt got immerse with that strike of bad luck. Kind of an apology of not being able to handle the situation.

Now there’s the rumor that says that, every time somebody sings that song, something unlucky will happen in front of you.

The song is cursed.

One night when the moon was shining on the Cider Lake his well tuned ears distinguished a melody that was broken from time to time by the accidents of his performer, distracting him of his way to look for you.

It could be painful to listen to, but Venti could certainly feel the dedication of the one who was playing the imperfect song.

The ballad of the god of chaos, hummed like a lullaby that instead of making you sleep makes you question the events of the day. Wishing for the slightest thing to be different after an exhaustive week of peace and tranquility.

A lonely spirits cursing their existence, sitting in the highest point of a stranger’s palace, where you can reach the sky by only rising your hand.

The next day, Barbatos invited you to drink some wine, this time near Windrise to avoid accidents in the city.

As he almost dropped the bottle when a lot of slimes were attracted by your presence, he confirmed the theory about that the way to spend time with you would not be his personal definition of hanging out.

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ZHONGLI

Okay, there’s only two scenarios that could happened when you set a foot in Liyue.

Old man has a soft spot for you for being a relative young deity.

Or he’s always lecturing you for not having control of your aura and powers.

How u dare bringing chaos to the nation of order? It’s that a death wish?

Jokes aside, you’re not really a threat. And he could sense that after he saw how you tried to avoid having direct contact with the city. Rex Lapis found your silhouette jumping and crossing through the mountains until reaching the fairest point that allowed you to enjoy the view of the streets that were filled with life and light as the sunsets.

He even noticed how you sighed in frustration when a storm started out of nowhere. A rain dedicated just for the arriving of the God of Chaos. Not even bothering of getting shield, you stayed in your place to look at all the people who were getting back to their places.

The rain seemed to stop over your head, for a second was enough to stop you from being cruelly swamped by the very weather you had created. An elegant umbrella covered you, the long awaited surprise you expected from someone as outdated as Morax.

You looked up, and found his expression calm and attentive, watching you. As if he had made a great discovery that he could not believe

“May I have a moment of your time to keep you company? Letting out your sorrows in the middle of a torrential storm is not what I would recommend as way to spend a good day.”

“… What are you talking about? Get in your own business, old man.”

“Well, you should know that a sorrow shared is a sorrow halved.”

Next time you knew was that he was helping you to dry your hair with a towel once you let him guide you to his place.

Zhongli picked you up like a abandoned cat that day. Even if having you near meant to deal with new the roof leaks.

Also kept you away from Hu Tao, if you two ever get along for being partners in crime he would seal himself underground-

For all the time you spend exploring Liyue, there he was. Like a little kid showing his treasures. But also like a worried father looking after his child for them not to stumble making their first steps.

Look at you! Almost crushing those Treasure Hoarders when a bunch of rocks fell down after you jumped at the edge of the cliff.

Wait, no- come back here! You should verify the surroundings and be aware of the weight of your power if you’re going to explore in that bold way. You, chaotic brat.

Another one who believed fervently that your mood was to blame for the constant chaos you caused. He also tried to show you the wonders of peace and calm, teaching you how to prepare tea while listening to the storyteller (also both being a little far away from the rest of them, just in case).

He couldn’t help but sigh when the teapot arm broke as soon as you tried to serve the tea. What a waste, he thought.

You apologized to him, kind of stressed with yourself after you took all the pieces with your bare hands to run away with them. Leaving a confused Zhongli behind.

Next day you were back, with the teapot repaired and just like new.

He let out a lot of thankful words, some flattering and a lot more cheesy things that you never had received before.

With that unexpected affection you couldn’t help but react flustered; then a cat that was chasing a bird jumped through a lot of decorations and merchandise, almost starting a fire as the chained events kept going.

Yeah,, uh, Zhongli got some useful mental notes about you and your chaos that day.

Hey, before you go, want to make a contract? You won’t regret it!

But as the wandering spirit you were you had no problems in reject his offer, but also promising that you would visit Liyue if he wanted you to.

Of course he wanted! But.. maybe next time you should stay in Huaguang Stone Forest instead of roaming near the city,,

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XIAO

Tried to kill you.

I mean, your aura is threatening and full of a destructive energy, how is possible that you weren’t a demon to eradicate??

Sorry, but he had a point.

Your first met was on your way to reach Huaguang Stone Forest along with Zhongli for introduce you with the Adeptus.

Xiao, in the other side, thought that you were about to attack Morax from behind, so he just struck against you. With his polearm near to go through your chest, just stopped because you felt him before.

Lifting your hand at his direction, summoning chaos, this time, on purpose. The wind gained a wrathful nature and the biggest roots that were hiding under his feet rose to caught him.

And when you were about to hit each other Zhongli’s shield appeared just in time to separate both of you. Preventing a real catastrophic event.

Now stop fighting and introduce to each other.

Nice(n’t) to meet u.

What if you tried to awake Azhdaha to bring chaos and destruction to Liyue? What if you wanted to summoned Osial? What if… ?

Zhongli had to confirm and promise to him that those cruel possibilities won’t be a near future for respecting the real reason of your travel.

No matter if he wasn’t comfortable with your presence, it wasn’t his decision to allow you to roam freely, so he had to get use to it.

He immediately knew after hearing about your nature that was your fault that lately there were a lot more demons and monsters. Even his karma was getting more painful than usual.

(If you ever meet Hu Tao, please think twice before doing Xiao a prank)

You both didn’t interact a lot, and being honest, it was better that way.

He hadn’t a single intention of talking with you again until the day you were practicing the song that your Anemo friend taught you. By the other hand, Xiao noticed that the melody had the same nature as the one he once heard before being consumed by the karma.

It wasn’t a flute, but a worn lyre that was still in one piece after weeks of being repaired again and again.

“That song… ”

“Do you know it?” Xiao just nodded, staying in silence, being your very first audience even if you still have a lot to learn about playing a lyre.

It wasn’t as effective as the original, but was still… nice, kind of nostalgic.

Next morning, the Yaksha called for you. Made you stay still in the middle of a plain and then he disappeared of your sight.

He abandoned y- wait, what’s that? Why those monsters has that weird dark aura?

You were about to defend yourself until Xiao appeared back just in time to defeat them.

That day you became his personal bait for demons and monsters. Naturally you attracted chaos, so anyway you were, there will be also something to fight.

I guess this is your way to pay for all the troubles you made for him and his duty, so no complaining about it.

If you ask for a unexpected experience to Ganyu she would said that once she found both of you fighting along against the catastrophe, looking after each other’s back and almost having a perfect synchrony.

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SHOGUN RAIDEN; EI

Also tried to kill you.

Well, the puppet tried to.

And then Ei tried when you had the opportunity of facing her.

But since killing a god just mean the releasing of a lot, pure, energy she couldn’t afford that risk, much less considering your “speciality”.

Who knows what would happen to Inazuma if your vital energy burst across the nation. Just like that old story about Sal Terrae and their goddess.

She just defeated you. Letting you rest and recovering in the midst of the plane of her reality within her mind. Your inert body in the middle of the battlefield as she kept meditating.

When you woke up she ignored your presence, but also denying your complaints about letting you go out back.

In her words, you were a burden, another enemy of eternity. Something as unpredictable as you and your “accidents” couldn’t get along with her utopia.

Ei could banish you from Inazuma, but she knows your type. Stubborn and not accepting the most simple orders to obey.

She knew that you would found a way to be back.

It’s better like this.

And in the hypothetical case of you being freed when she trapped the traveler (kicking you out) and then having a chance to see her again after the end of the war, then things would be somewhat different.

There’s not that much of civilization on some islands, so she allowed you to explore as much as your heart wanted. But if something serious happen, she promised that would end her work in the middle of the sea so your remains never be found.

Okay, message clear. Just do chaos near monsters and bandits, got it,,

Even if she wanted to spend some time with you and telling you some stories about Inazuma and other gods she couldn’t found the right time to call you at her presence.

As the current ruler of Inazuma she was busier than the rest of Archons you have meet. Maybe just some letters now and then like a way to keep a logbook, but not really a face to face talk.

Until she got the opportunity of a day off, just to found you messing around near some ruins. Trying to solve a puzzle before your speciality strikes in. The structure fell down after your fingertips reached the stone.

When the dust dissipated, you discovered her figure judging you from the other side of the remain ruins.

Give her a good reason for not errase you from the map, I dare u.

You felt the worst was about to come when Ei ordered you to follow her after a long sigh. Crossing her arms and starting to walk away from the bunch of old and worn rock.

Plot Twist, she actually invited you to rest under a tree, asking in her serene voice the reason for your journey and your origin. In such a direct way that it seemed more like a sentence than a talk to get to know each other better.

You answered what you could remember and then the silence stayed like the only way of interaction between you two.

Ohno, you know this pattern. Something’s about to happen-

“There is some strange beauty in the chaos, it may be the calm after the storm, but the catastrophe itself is seen as a necessary evil to appreciate the stillness. How much it would last until the lighting hit the valley?”

“So I arrived to keep order between the humans?”

Well yes, but actually no.

“… You see, if there is nothing but order and a lack of problems, mortals are likely to create them on their own. Their minds feels the need to be tested, to prove their worth, so I guess some of your chaos may be part of the history.”

“… then shall we take a walk in Inazuma?” You did not know if you were right, but you thought you saw a faint smile through his lips in the same way that lightning can be seen in the sky.

“I’ll allow it.” She said.

Her only condition was for you not to approach the huge boxes of fireworks down the street.

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pyroclastic727 · 4 years

Text

Owl House said fuck capitalism

So this episode was interesting. Lilith pretty much killed her sister. Why the fuck would she do that?

Even more interesting: why is Belos like that? How did Hooty put his head through one of those guards? Who the fuck is the Titan, and why does everyone like him? And how are these all tied together?

This episode was a metaphor for capitalism

...and another delicious step towards radicalizing the youth into dismantling this fucked-up neo-feudal system.

We’ll start with Belos.

Emperor Belos is a weird name, don’t you think? We all thought it was spelled “Bellows,” but it wasn’t. In fact, it’s five letters, starts with Be, ends with os, and describes a megalomaniac emperor that restricts people’s freedom in order to accumulate wealth for himself.

Sound familiar?

Emperor Bezos Belos created capitalism. He saw the beauty of magic and decided to make himself the most powerful.

Belos created a system that destroys the masses and boosts his power.

I’m dipping into fan theory a little, because the fan theory fits. We know that people get branded with coven magic that makes it so they can only specialize in one area. We know that Belos is the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles. We know that the excess magic, magic created by restrictions, has to go somewhere.

It’s the same system that many viewers see all the time. A job takes up all your day and tires you for the night, so you can only do one skill for the rest of your life. Jeff Bezos is the most powerful man in the United States. Excess money, money taken by restrictions, has to go somewhere.

The magic goes to Belos, like how the money goes to Bezos. Belos created capitalism, and he won it.

The guards aren’t real.

Look, we’ve never seen their faces. They’re all the same. Why would you work so hard to get to the top, just to become a nameless, faceless killing machine?

Oh, also Hooty stuck his face through one. There is nothing under the armor.

Why? Well, it’s the same reason you see all those celebrities going around flaunting their wealth and bragging about how hard they worked. Like all those songs about how they grind every day and work harder than everyone else while you’re out clubbing, and that makes them dope. And then you take a closer look at them and see that they had a small loan of a million dollars fueling them, or an entire talent agency behind them, or their dad was a famous country star in the 80′s.

They’re fake. They’re hollow. They’re a ploy created by the capitalist emperor to try to delude you into working harder.

Let me put this into perspective. I guarantee that every single one of you has heard stuff like this: “Hard work makes you successful.” “I put in the work, and that’s why I’m successful.” “If you work hard enough, then you can be as successful as Mark Zuckerberg.”

And unless you’re a robot or really lucky, I’m sure all of you have failed at this. Maybe they told you that hard work would make you good at math, so you spent 22 hours a week working on calculus, only to pass it by 3 percentage points and have it destroy your perfect 4.0 GPA. Maybe they told you that if you talked to people enough, then you would make friends, so you spent a lot of time talking to people, only to end up lonely and friendless. Maybe they told you that if you did well in school, you would get a good job, so you spent all your time working hard to be a good student, and then ended up in a soulless, dead-end job.

The guards are there to delude you. Look, who really gains from you being productive? The answer is the ruling class, the CEOs, the government, the bourgeoisie. It has always been that. All you get from working is a paycheck that lets you survive. They get a paycheck that lets them get rich. Just like Belos gets the magic and productivity of the specialized coven witches.

The guards are there to trick you. The truth is that nobody can join the Emperor’s Coven. It’s just there to make you think that hard work will make you successful. Then you spend your entire life working hard, trying to prove to the person in charge that you’re worthwhile. You give your whole life to the Coven, and they give you nothing.

Magic is supposed to be something you pursue for fun. Being skilled at things, being good at something beautiful...that’s supposed to be something you do because you want to. But they took that and made it into a source of productivity. It doesn’t matter if you make good content. All people fucking care about is if you upload the day of premiere, if you make a lot of content quickly, if you maintain a million different conversations with strangers who expect you to be the most interesting person in the room. They don’t care how it hurts you. They don’t care how you crack from the stress. How you cry when you think no one can see you, and then you check your phone and someone can see you, someone did see you, and you have to put on your face and be the charming, magnetic person they want you to be. (oh by the way that’s why I wasn’t online much last week)

And it ruins it. Suddenly you can’t watch The Owl House without being stressed. You can’t make any content. You can’t make spells as powerfully as you want to. Your passion is replaced by perfectionism and insecurity, a voice telling you to keep being the best at what you do, or else they’ll forget you and let you die.

There’s also the Titan.

So nobody has mentioned him before, because in addition to the Boiling Isles being a hellscape full of witchcraft and queerness, it’s also full of atheists.

But suddenly we have people saying all this shit about him? Shit like, he gave witches the gift of magic, and then they learned to use it in a civilized manner, since being uncivilized was disrespectful?

I mean, first off, that’s fucking wrong. The island gives people magic. The island, which just so happened to be shaped like a titan-sized human. But the island/titan gives everyone all types of magic. Hell, even Luz gets to use magic, and she’s human.

It sounds really fucking familiar. (tw for discussion of homophobia and colonialism and misogyny). It sounds like when the news is on and they show some Tr*mp supporter talking about how fetuses have more rights than people and it is their holy duty to take away a woman’s control over her body and force her through unbearable pain and into an 18-year commitment she didn’t want to make. It sounds like all the times people tried to say homosexuality should be illegal, citing a single line in a book written two thousand years ago and heavily edited by a European king. It sounds like all the times people said God wanted them to conquer, to own the entire earth, to force the other races into pain to support them.

This is that bullshit thing people do where they commit awful sins and justify it by citing the will of God.

Or, it’s the Coven using religion as an excuse for evil.

Look, the Emperor’s Coven is clearly colonizer-coded. Saying that people’s original form of magic was wild (and showing a picture with the same joyous, rowdy energy of an 18th or 19th -century Black or indigenous party), and that it was God’s will for them to be “civilized?” Sounds like that thing that powerful white people did where they went and murdered people and forced them into their twisted capitalist system. God, gold, and glory, is what they said, because history books just love to omit the gore.

Lilith is passing the abuse cycle along.

You know, like a good little colonizer. God I fucking hate her. She’s a MILF, in the sense that she’s a Mother I’d Like to Fling off a cliff.

Ah, enough screaming about how much I want to drown Lilith in a tub of Hooty’s mucus. Let’s go into why I want to do that, and how she took the evils of capitalism and just...adopted those.

So, Lilith is sick and twisted for what she did to her sister. But, uhh, that’s the point. You see, there are so many other people out there like Lilith who would do the exact same thing, if given the chance. These are the people who do mean things when the teacher isn’t looking, and then act nice and try to frame you. These are the people who will hate you if you’re better than them. These are people who would do anything to bring you down, if you dare outperform them.

It’s greed, my friends. The mental illness that capitalism blesses us all with.

Lilith herself said it: she dedicated her entire life to the Coven. What she wanted was to be the best. And she almost was...except for her own sister. Someone who lived with her, annoyed her at home, bested her at school. Someone she could never beat, no matter how hard she worked. And her sister was younger than her, too! How insulting was that? Lilith wanted to be the best, and someone in her exact situation did better than her.

Lilith was insecure. And it consumed her.

But why? Why does insecurity consume her? I mean, no one can be motivated by insecurity forever. Well, not unless someone conditions it into you.

The lovely thing about the capitalist system is the morals it teaches you. Things like: “You’re only useful if you’re the best.” “Being school smart makes you smart, while being social smart or sports smart or creative smart or fandom smart is worthless.” “Your worth can be quantified by numbers and is based off arbitrary measures like your income or your grades.” Things that can and will drive us crazy if we let ourselves believe them.

And it did drive Lilith crazy. She got so twisted by a society that said being good at magic is her only worth. Look, Lilith used to be good at things, probably. She was good at sports. At times, she slips up and does an okay job of being Eda’s sister. She has a powerful presence when she’s in a room. And she’s wicked good at manipulating people.

But that didn’t matter. Lilith bought into the lies. She let herself believe that magical skill was the only way to measure her worth. And since she needed to be the best, she hurt Eda for it.

The beautiful thing is, Eda didn’t buy that. "It’s my power, kid. And before you showed up, I spent my whole life wasting it.” Is what Eda said, as she used up the last of her power, the last of her life, to save Luz. In her final moments, she proved that she’s not like them. She’s stronger than them.

None of this matters. Not magical prowess. Not the hierarchy. Not the promise of joining the Coven and having more power than anyone else.

The only thing that matters to Eda is her family. Her real family. Her Luz, King, and Hooty. And by extension, Willow, Gus, and Amity. Those are Eda’s real reason for fighting, for dying: to protect them. Look, there’s no way she would’ve come out of that fight alive. She has a family, and her love for them is stronger than greed or jealousy or capitalism.

Lilith never understood that. She thought the water of the womb was thicker than the blood of the covenant. Or, that the water of the womb and the blood of the covenant are stronger than the bonds of found family. She thought it didn’t matter if Eda loved, her, only if the Emperor loved her. Fucking bitch.

And now, a little something to worry about, before we go. Amity Blight. The girl who wanted to join the Emperor’s Coven more than anything, who dedicated her whole life to doing well in school, to being the best, to being perfect.

And then she met Luz. She fell for Luz. Now she’s in a tricky place, where habit and conditioning want her to join the Emperor’s Coven, but her heart wants her to do the impossible and destroy capitalism.

She wasn’t in this episode. Funny that being injured and unable to work ended up saving her from watching her future mother-in-law die. So she bought some time.

But Luz’s true mom is dead. This is the second mom she has lost, and she’s only fourteen. As powerful as King and Hooty are, Luz needs Amity. Luz needs Amity to support her and help her get back her mom.

So Amity has to make a choice. Fear and insecurity, or love and a high chance of death?

She’ll probably choose death. Because that’s the message that this family-friendly show is giving us kids. Fuck capitalism. All you need in life is to do what makes you happy and be with the ones you love.

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poguesofthebau · 3 years

Text

paranoia

summary: meeting dylan einstein, a genius forensic scientist from indianapolis, musters up some unknown insecurities about your relationship with reid. however, morgan-- and reid, once he figures it out-- isn’t willing to let you think that way. warnings: mentions of bombings (as pertaining to the case)

word count: 3k pairing: spencer reid x female!bau!reader

a/n: set in season 10, episode 14, this one was requested by @koc-help! as per usual, it took me forever to write, so i hope you can forgive me for that and enjoy what i came up with!!

bombing cases were stressful. it always seemed harder for you; figuring out a motive, pushing down the overwhelming sympathy for the victims, convincing yourself that all of your team members were safe. because of your unshakable paranoia in the wake of those cases, you were already on edge by the time the team was boarding the jet to indianapolis. and, of course, spencer caught on to the way you were feeling almost immediately.

with the limited information the team had at that point, conversation about the case was reasonably brief. the file was reviewed and discussed, and hotch delegated a role for everyone to take when the jet landed. when the conversation came to a lull, you slid out of your seat, tossing the manilla folder onto the leather before moving to the back of the jet to make a cup of coffee. jj and derek’s voices were audible as they continued to spitball off of each other, masking the sound of spencer approaching where you stood. “hey,” he called to you as he neared. having been enveloped in the chatter your other friends were creating, you jumped at the sound of your boyfriend’s voice. when you looked up at him, his eyebrows were raised in concern at your reaction, immediately making you recoil into yourself. “you okay?”

“yeah,” you breathed, pulling the coffee pot out of its place to pour the liquid into your empty cup. “i’m fine.”

“that’s not very convincing, you know.” you turned to face him then, sighing and internally shaking the dread away. “what is it?”

“i’m not a huge fan of bombings,” you said sarcastically. spencer scoffed a laugh at that, reaching out to tuck a stray hair behind your ear as you continued with a bit more seriousness. “just a little worried. it’s nothing, spence.”

“i’m not used to seeing you worried in this way. are you sure you’re okay? i mean, do you want to talk about it?”

the soft-spoken concern in spencer’s tone along with the expression he was looking at you with warmed your heart. if there was one thing that could take your mind off of a murderous bomber, it was spencer. your eyes flickered over to the rest of the team, making sure no one was paying any attention to you and your boyfriend huddled up in the back of the jet, before you leaned up and pressed your mouth to spencer’s. the kiss was quick, but it was also just the reassurance that you both needed. “i promise, i’ll tell you if i need to talk. for now, i just want to get this son of a bitch and go back home.”

being present for the disarming of the second bomb only worsened your initial paranoia. the thought of an explosive device made you anxious enough; having to stand your ground and comfort an intended victim while a bomb was armed less than a foot from you was a whole new feeling. you trusted morgan to clip a wire without killing you, but the adrenaline in the heat of the moment was hard to shake. it had been a few hours since the scene had unfolded, but you still felt like your heart could possibly jump out of your chest at any moment the morning after the disarming. despite the underlying terror running through your veins, you were critically analyzing everything going on around you. your focus was completely dedicated to the case unfolding around you, because the sooner you cracked it, the sooner your thinly veiled fear would dissipate.

you were digging around in the bed of the pickup truck while einstein, the local forensic scientist, examined the bomb itself. out of your peripherals you saw reid and morgan approaching, but the bulk of your energy was going into analyzing the scene as best you could. your boyfriend’s eyes lingered on you for a few seconds as he neared, immediately gauging the nerves you were trying so hard to conceal. reid made a mental note to address that as soon as he could get you alone, but fought the urge to do so right then. spencer knew you well enough to know that, no matter how freaked out you currently were, your mind was concentrating on the scene before you, and anything else would simply be considered a distraction. he swallowed down the lump in his throat that formed at the thought of not being able to help you before tuning in to the comment einstein began to make. “he really went for a bigger boom this time.”

the short conversation that ensued between the two following that comment was something that shouldn’t have bothered you. you knew it meant nothing; reid wasn’t the only genius in the world who memorized excerpts from anarchy cookbooks or mathematical theories. just because some young, brilliant, beautiful girl knew the same book as spencer didn’t mean you had anything to worry about.

nonetheless, you became very worried about it.

you strolled around to the passenger side of the truck, sliding into the empty seat with a quizzical look on your face. “you know, it’s a wonder that he even realized he triggered the bomb.”

opening the driver’s side door as he spoke, reid slid into the truck next to you. “maybe he heard something when he stepped on the pedal.”

“and knew not to move? i mean, what’s this guy got, an ex-paramilitary background we don’t know about?”

the back and forth continued a few more times, and within a minute you and reid had developed the idea that allen archer, the bomb’s target, could potentially be your unsub. upon this conclusion, einstein spoke up again. “that’s what you guys do. you just talk a lot.” her voice was joking as the words left her lips, and a bright smile graced her face as she spoke. regardless of the playful tone you immediately identified, the words triggered something in you.

“well, there’s also a lot of kicking down doors involved,” morgan interjected from outside the passenger door, shaking you out of your internally-mortified state. you watched as einstein announced her departure then, mustering up a measly close-lipped smile in return to the courteous and friendly glance she offered you before leaving.

as she walked away, her words repeated in your mind. it was so simple for her to summarize; you just talk a lot. a woman so young and so intelligent had just condensed your entire career into a five-word sentence so simple that you couldn’t even disagree. was that truly all you were capable of? talking? bouncing ideas off of your coworkers’ ideas and hoping you’d end up catching the killer that way?

you spent the rest of the day arguing with yourself. in all honesty, your own inner monologue was starting to get on your nerves. despite your most sincere attempts to focus on the case in front of you, you couldn’t shake the feeling that einstein was right. and maybe she was-- maybe your job was nothing compared to hers, and maybe she was a better match for spencer than you could ever dream of being.

this new uncertainty of your career and relationship definitely didn’t help to settle your previously established fear of being blown up at any given moment.

given the circumstances, it was only a matter of time until someone on your team noticed how uneasy you were steadily growing. they knew you. you were y/n-- sometimes stubborn, oftentimes overprotective, and always capable. sure, you had off days at work, just like everyone else. you weren’t always the one to solve the case, but you were always present and attentive, engaged in the investigation with your mind and body. however, right now, your mind was in two places at once. for that reason, you weren’t surprised in the slightest when morgan approached you at the station.

as you walked toward the conference room to find hotch, you were stopped by the familiar voice calling out. “hey, hold on little lady.”

“what’s up, morgan?”

morgan shook his head at that, a knowing look crossing his features as he began to speak. “nuh-uh. what up with you, y/l/n?” you threw him a falsely quizzical look, trying (and failing) to get him off your back by playing dumb. sadly for you, morgan was too good of a profiler and friend to fall for it. “don’t play with me, girl. i know cases like this always get to you a little, but i also know how badass you are. normally you would’ve bounced back from our brush with death by now, so what’s the problem?”

you squinted at him as your face morphed into dismay. of course you couldn’t fool morgan. your mind flickered to penelope, suddenly relating to one of her more commonly made complaints: damn profilers. “my first problem is that you might know me a little too well.” derek scoffed at that, waiting for you to continue. “my second problem? well, my second problem might be that i’m not smart enough, or maybe that spencer is too good for me, or maybe that our job is too easy, or maybe--”

“woah, woah, woah. slow your roll, little missy. ‘spencer is too good for me?’ where’s that coming from?” you blinked slowly in response, not quite willing to give up any more information than you already had. “fine-- i’ll figure it out myself. let’s see: you’ve been acting weird since we got this case, but that’s not what this is about. i’ve seen you on bombing cases before, and this ain’t that. so... oh, i know. is this about a forensic scientist, maybe? maybe one who has the same name as a very smart, very famous--”

“okay, morgan. i get it. you’re a great profiler, and you know my thoughts better than i do. that doesn’t really change the way i’m feeling right now.” your tone was a little sharp, but the look in your eyes was a mixture of sadness and contempt. “and, in case you needed me to put it simply, i’m feeling like shit.”

a look of pity overtook morgan for a moment. he knew what you were going through. sure, he wasn’t dating a genius with an iq of 187, but he knew how it felt to doubt yourself, and especially how it felt to feel belittled for your work. “y/n,” he said, placing his hands on your shoulders and crouching a little to get on eye-level with you. “don’t do that to yourself, kid. don’t forget how hard what we do is, and how important it is. you save lives every day. no matter how you do it, or how much brainpower it takes, there are people all around this world who are alive because of your work. whether they admit it or not, everyone has respect for that. especially our resident pretty boy.”

“i know, morgan,” you sighed. his hands slid from your shoulders as you finally gave in, looking him straight in the eye as you spoke. “sometimes it just feels like he deserves better.”

“just because it feels that way doesn’t mean it’s true. and i can promise you, reid has never felt that way. not about you.” after giving a comforting pat on the arm to go along with his final words, morgan was walking away.

damn profilers, you thought again. why are we always right?

before you got the chance to speak with reid, the team was off again. instead of splitting up this time, you were simply spreading out; hotch and rossi were scouring the crowd of civilians and news crews at the staged ceremony for allen archer, and the rest of you were divided into two suvs with morgan and kate in one and you, jj, and spencer in the other. your talk with morgan had lifted your spirits a bit, but there was still a tightness in the air as you sat beside your seemingly clueless boyfriend.

unbeknownst to you, spencer wasn’t all that clueless. not only had he caught on to your behavior long before anyone else on the team, but he’d also spotted you and morgan’s secretive moment from across the police station. (and, yes, morgan may have whispered “check on your girl” to spencer when you weren’t paying attention. he just wanted to help.) so, while you thought he was in the dark about your current insecurities, reid was very much aware of what was going on in your head. as much as he hated it, though, he was hesitant to acknowledge it with jj in the backseat and the rest of the team on comms. so, like the considerate boyfriend he was, he waited.

it wasn’t until you got back to the police station that spencer got the chance to catch you alone. everyone else was busy preparing to leave for the jet, the bustle of having solved yet another case causing an uplifting distraction for the team. while your friends were distracted, spencer grabbed you by the hand and pulled you into a nearby empty conference room. the surprise on your face was evident when he looked at you, and he couldn’t help but smile. you laughed nervously at his expression, not completely sure what he had taken you aside for. “hi, spence. you okay?”

“i was actually going to ask you the same thing,” he admitted. “except, i already asked you that once during this case, and you weren’t very willing to share, so i was going to approach it in a more insistent way.” although you were amused by this mysterious behavior of his, you were still confused about what exactly spencer was implying that he knew. “did you really think i wouldn’t notice that you were upset?”

“no,” you said unconvincingly.

“y/n, why won’t you just talk to me?” the desperation in his voice almost shattered your heart. the whole time that you’d been in your own head, spencer had been in his. all because you were scared to talk to the one person you trusted more than anyone in the world.

“i’m sorry,” you breathed, taking a step toward him. spencer’s right hand slid around your waist once you got close enough, and your forehead dropped onto his chest as you sighed. when you looked back up to him, spencer was already anticipating eye contact. “i’m sorry i didn’t say anything. i just didn’t want to worry you, or to make you feel like you’d done anything wrong, because it’s not your fault, i just-- i don’t ever want to feel like i’m holding you back.”

“holding me back from what? you could never hold me back.”

“i could, though! you’re this amazingly brilliant genius, and there are so many people out there who are so much smarter than me, and i--”

“is that what this is about? you think you’re not smart?” you felt his hand tense from its place on your lower back, his disbelief clear in his voice.

“no, no-- i mean, i know i’m smart enough. but sometimes when we have cases like this we meet some really, really smart people, and i can’t help but wonder if you would be better off with someone on your intellectual level. someone like einstein.”

“y/n,” spencer seemed stunned at this revelation, and you realized then that morgan had been right. the idea of you not being enough had never crossed spencer’s mind. “you are the person that i’m better off with. you. i don’t-- i’ve never even thought of anyone else as a possibility since i met you. there isn’t anyone else. i mean, before i knew you, i wasn’t even sure that i believed in love at all. the only reason that i know it’s real now is because of you. i can’t think of any statistics of mathematical theories or scientific discoveries to explain or defend it, but i have always known that there isn’t anything for me aside from you. i mean that. no matter how smart anyone else is, or how cool anyone else is, or how compatible anyone else’s intellect is with mine. i love you, y/n.”

and, just like that, your fears were gone. your inner monologue went silent, and the serenity that spencer’s words brought you washed over your entire body. spencer’s arm tightened around your waist, pulling you closer into him. his free hand moved to the side of your face, brushing back your hair as he waited for you to reply. the anticipation on his face sent another rush of absolute love through you, and you quickly closed the gap between you. as your mouth met his, your hands found their way to the sides of his neck, slowly wrapping around until they were laced together behind his head. for what could’ve been an hour, you stood there, melting into spencer as his words of reassurance replaced the chants of uncertainty that had filled your head hours prior. you were forced to pull back from him eventually, but even then your hands remained around his neck and the distance between your faces was minimal as you reopened your eyes. “i love you.”

a knock on the door suddenly interrupted the moment, causing you to release each other as a third party entered the room: morgan. “hey, lovebirds,” he grinned. “nice to see that you’re back to normal. it’s time to head home.” you smiled knowingly at the man, lacing your fingers through reid’s as you followed morgan out of the room. grabbing your belongings on the way out, the three of you headed toward your designated suv, where jj was waiting patiently in the driver’s seat. “so, you finally confessed, huh?”

“of course i did,” you laughed. “no secrets in this relationship.”

“yeah, and i would’ve figured it out eventually anyway.” at spencer’s interjection, it was morgan’s turn to laugh.

“oh, yeah, 187?”

“he is a genius, you know,” you added smugly.

“well, apparently so am i, because i figured it out before he did. oh, and by the way, pretty girl, i told you.” and with that, morgan was jogging off (in a fit of giggles) to the suv, hopping in the passenger seat before you had a chance to jokingly scold him.

damn profilers.

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid imagines #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fic #criminal minds #criminal minds imagines #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds fic #paranoia

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 3 years

Note

What would happen if Voldemort was caught in a time loop from say, his resurrection through the battle of Hogwarts?

He has an absolutely miserable time.

Loop 1

So, first, some thoughts on Tom Riddle and his demise. At that point, I think he was pretty much committing suicide. He was done, with everything, and with everyone.

And then he wakes up, if you can even call it waking up. He's suddenly in agony, every bit of him aches, and it feels like he's been stuffed into a body that just doesn't work. That's because he has, he's been resurrected in the graveyard in a homunculus body.

And there's Harry Potter, again, like always.

And Tom Riddle has to do this all over again.

Suddenly, he just doesn't have the energy for the Voldemort get up. He doesn't summon his followers, doesn't murder Harry or Cedric, he just leaves to get himself a drink. Probably doesn't work because I doubt that body can consume alcohol.

Barty is caught and put to death.

"My Lord, what are your plans?" Pettigrew asks nervously, Tom thinks about summoning the Death Eaters, about breaking Bella and the others out of prison, but he's just so tired.

Plus, most of them die anyway, and the ones that don't probably go on to live worthless lives or else were erased out of existence. Tom goes, "Eh" and continues drinking.

This leads to hilarious events as Dumbledore is still preaching up and down that Voldemort has returned except... now there really is 0 evidence. Dumbledore is accused of tampering with the goblet: the theory being he kidnapped Cedric and Harry, cast some illusion to make them think Voldemort has returned, and is now using them as mouth pieces so that he can oust Fudge and put in his own puppet/run himself. Everyone just feels sort of bad for Harry and Cedric, Harry becoming increasingly pissed off.

Harry also occasionally has the weird dream of Tom Riddle being utterly wasted and hating life. He's sure he's learning something very important!

Regardless, because Tom no longer even cares about the prophecy or even punishing Lucius, there's no scheme to get it: Lucius would just fuck it up anyways. As a result there's no battle at the ministry, Sirius lives, but the government does not discover that Voldemort's been resurrected.

Instead, Dumbledore is arrested for planning a coup and training child soldiers, as Harry still sets up the DA. Tom, when he hears the news from Snape, thinks this is utterly hilarious.

Tom decides to continue his plan of doing nothing, seems to get better results than whenever he does try to do anything.

There's a giant trial that is the most corrupt thing in every way imaginable for Albus Dumbledore. And it's filled with such hot gossip. Everything comes out: hiring Hagrid as a professor despite his complete lack of credentials/all the injured children, all the debacles going on under Dumbledore's control, the DA, and Dumbledores relationship with Grindelwald.

Dumbledore tries to insert his own people into the trial to get him out but the ministry's doing the same thing. Seeing that it's tied, Tom tries to influence on the sidelines to get Dumbledore thrown in jail, because it'd be funny.

Well, he's not thrown in jail, but he is dismissed as Headmaster. But Minerva inherits the position and immediately makes Dumbledore Honored Advisor, and Headmaster in all but name. Tom can't even.

Dumbledore starts horcrux hunting in earnest, ruins his hand and sentences himself to death, and starts prepping Harry for his task. Tom, meanwhile, still isn't doing anything.

The horcrux hunt happens, Harry thinking this is all very important, except at the very end of it... He can't find Tom Riddle. How can he kill Voldemort if he can't even find the guy? Snape would help, except he doesn't know where to find the guy either: Tom decided to take a vacation to France and has yet to come back.

The day of the battle occurs and...

Loop 2

Tom's back in the graveyard.

He lets out a very long sigh.

God, this is just going to be forever, isn't it? When he said he wanted to be immortal, this wasn't exactly what he had in mind.

Tom decides he has to do something about this, because this is just silly now.

He spends the next several loops researching what the hell is even happening to him and if this is a consequence of soul shenanigans. No one has any idea, because this never happens to anyone.

Loop N

Tom decides to get reckless. New plan: time turners. All the time turners.

He raids the Department of Mysteries, gets himself a bunch of time turners and... undoubtedly makes things worse.

Likely, his entire current situation is due to the fact that Tom[N] decided to use time turners to solve his problems. This created the situation in the first place, and now he's stuck in loops forever.

Tom finds a note somewhere: "Tom, don't use the time machine! - Love Tom" and just dies inside.

Loop N + 1

At some point Tom just legitimately stops caring and does whatever the hell he wants. This is just how his existence works now, he is a mayfly who lives forever, only a few short years until he loops again.

I imagine he dedicates himself to trying to figure out how to stop looping and get himself into a body that doesn't suck. Anything else is just kind of pointless.

#harry potter #harry potter meta #harry potter headcanon #tom riddle #voldemort #albus dumbledore #anti albus dumbledore #meta #headcanon #opinion

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alwaysachorusgirl · 3 years

Text

Adoption Day

Pairing: Frederick Chilton x Female Reader

Word Count: 2089

For: Covers the Animal Shelter square for @adarafaelbarba 's fall moodboard bingo

TW: very brief mention of past childhood abuse and animal abandonment, but other than that, it's mostly fluff

Dedication: This is for the world's best cat mom, @madamsnape921 ,because it's her birthday! Go send her some birthday love today!

Author's Note: Jumping back a little in the Cat Daddy Frederick timeline to cover Buttercup's adoption story. Per my previously established continuity, this would take place in January, right after New Year's, and prior to "Not According to Plan"

Tags: @itsjustmyfantasyroom @prurientpuddlejumper @thatesqcrush @welcometothemxdhouse @raulesparza4eva @teamsladsandgents @rosequcrtz

The winter wind howled outside the window and snow drifted across the windowpanes, but inside Frederick Chilton’s ornate home you were safe and warm. No, our home, I live here now, you thought to yourself. You were still getting used to thinking of it as your home, too. You were unpacking the last of the boxes from your recent move. A fire was roaring in the living room fireplace, giving the room a cozy, comforting glow. You inhaled the aroma of the hearty vegetable stew that was cooking in the crockpot in the kitchen, and your stomach growled. You were going to need to take a dinner break soon, and as if he was reading your mind, Frederick entered the room and came over to where you were placing your books on the expansive built-in shelves.

“How goes it with the books? Do you need more shelf space? I can always move somethings into my office if you need more.”

“Thank you, Frederick, but don’t worry; I think I have more than enough. I am, however, getting rather hungry. I think it’s time we ate dinner, don’t you?

“I couldn’t agree more, my love, shall I set the table?” he asked, taking your hand, and helping you to your feet.

“Thank you, Frederick, that would be lovely.”

*****************

“This stew is fantastic, my love! We’ll most certainly have to use this recipe again.”

When you didn’t respond right away, Frederick started to worry and reached for your hand. “Darling?”

“Oh! Sorry! I zoned out for a moment, must be more tired than I thought; Thank you, Frederick, I have a whole slew of crock pot recipes that are perfect for cold winter days.”

“Y/N, are you alright? Have I done something wrong? Is it the house? Is there something you’re not happy with?”

“What? Oh, Frederick, no!” You squeezed his reassuringly. “You haven’t done anything wrong, my love, and the house is perfectly fine. It’s just…” you paused, not sure how to broach your thoughts.

“What is it? Whatever you need, I’ll make sure you have it! Cost is no object!”

You took a breath and tried to collect your thoughts. You loved cats, but your previous apartment had not allowed pets. You had promised yourself that when you eventually moved you would be a cat mom again. It had been far too long. But it was something that you and Frederick hadn’t discussed yet, and you had no idea what his feelings were on the subject.

“What did you think about getting a cat?” You blurted out, bracing yourself for what you were sure was going to be an argument.

It was now Frederick’s turn to go silent, taken aback by your unexpected query. He mulled it over in his head before answering.

“Honestly, my love, I’ve never thought about it before. I never had a pet of any kind growing up. My parents did not allow animals in the house.”

“Oh, Frederick, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.” In theory, you knew you probably should have guessed that. You knew that Frederick’s father had been a hard, cruel man, and had been abusive toward Frederick and his mother. Frederick’s mother had been so worn down by it that she eventually shutdown, mentally and emotionally, and neglected to protect her son when he needed it the most. Of course, they hadn’t allowed pets, they hadn’t even allowed their son to have a normal childhood, or an ounce of happiness.

“My darling, you have nothing to apologize for,” said Frederick, placing soft kisses on the back of your hand. “If it’s a cat you want, then a cat you shall have. I’ll do some research after we finish here. Cats need supplies, right? Food, litter, toys, those fancy cat trees, cute little sweaters?”

****************

After dinner you and Frederick sat side-by-side on the couch with your laptops, him researching what kind of supplies you going to need to buy, and you were looking at your local SPCA’s website.

“Good god, I had no idea how many different types of cat litter there were!”

“Oh, Frederick, if you think that’s bad, wait until you see how competitive the cat food market is. Hmm…that’s interesting…”

“What is it?” asked Frederick, looking over at your laptop.

“This listing here,” you said, pointing at a blank gray box. “There should be a picture here, like there is for the other listings, but it’s blank. It says it’s supposed to be a 2-month-old black female…. hang on; I have an idea.”

You grabbed your phone off the coffee table and scrolled through your contacts until you found the name you were looking for. You hit “Call” and waited.

“Hello?” A voice finally picked up on the other end.

“Joanne! Hi! It’s Y/N. How are you?”

“I’m great, how are you? It’s been ages since the last time we hung out.”

“I’m good, and you’re right; it has been too long. Is this a good time to talk?”

“Sure! What’s up?”

“Do you still work for the county SPCA?”

“Oh, you bet I do! Oh my god, are you finally in the market to adopt?”

“Yes, I am, and I have a question about one of the cat listings on the website. The one that’s missing a picture?”

“Yes, I just noticed that a few hours ago. Our website person put that up prematurely. The kitten was just spayed, and normally we wait until the animal has had adequate recovery time before we add them to the site, but accidents happen. Last I checked, the little one is recovering nicely and should be ready to interact a couple days. She’s the sweetest thing. Someone dumped her in a cardboard box at our front door. She had a leg injury, but that’s also healing up. She loves to play, loves to cuddle, and I’ll think she’ll thrive in a good home. Would you like to make an appointment to see her?”

“Yes, I would! What time slots do you have available?”

*******************

A few days later, you and Frederick walked arm in arm into the county SPCA. Frederick had rush-ordered all the supplies you thought you’d need and then some. You both excited and nervous. You’d already taken a huge step by moving in together, and now you were adopting a pet. You looked over at Frederick and noticed the uncertainty in his eyes. He also seemed leaning on his cane for support. He always seemed to do that when he was unsure about something. You gave his arm a gentle squeeze and kissed his cheek.

“It’s going to be okay, Frederick, you’re to be a wonderful cat dad. I believe in you.”

Frederick blushed and placed a soft kiss on your temple.

“Thank you, my love, I appreciate your faith in me, even though I’m still not sure what’s done to deserve it, or you.”

Before you could respond to that, Joanne came out her office and rushed toward you.

“Y/N! It’s so good to see you!”

“It’s good to see you, too, Joanne.” You enveloped her in a big hug and then motioned to Frederick. “Joanne, this is Dr. Frederick Chilton, my Frederick.”

Frederick gave you the most loving of looks, and nearly melted into a puddle at your feet at sound of you referring to him as “your Frederick.”

“Nice to meet you, Dr. Chilton,” said Joanne, extending her hand.

“And you,” he replied, shaking hands.

“Well, I suppose you want to meet the little one; right this way!”

You and Frederick followed Joanne to cat section of the shelter. You walked past several cats, each one trying to get your attention from their enclosures. If you had your way, you’d take them all home, but you didn’t think Frederick was quite ready for that yet; but maybe one day…

“Here she is, “announced Joanne, stopping in front of one of the enclosures. A tiny black, fluffy kitten was inside, and her eyes lit up when she saw you. She was immediately on her feet, and you noticed she still had a slight limp in her injured leg, but she was full of energy and mewing incessantly. Joanne opened the door and carefully lifted her out. You reached out to take her, but the impatient kitten leapt out of Joanne’s hands and into your waiting arms.

“Oh! Hello! Hi baby, hi sweetheart,” you cooed.

“Mew, mew, mew!”

You looked into her eyes, and it was love at first sight. You did your best to hold onto her, shifting and adjusting your arms to accommodate her constant movement and attempts to climb up your shoulder. You gave her a little scratch between her ears and kissed her head. She was perfect.

“Mew! Mew!”

“Yes, baby, it’s okay, I’ve got you, I’ve got you.”

Frederick stood there watching you with the kitten, completely dumbstruck. Just when he thought he couldn’t fall anymore in love with you, you had to go and surprise him. You were a natural cat mom, cradling the tiny ball of fluff and talking to her like she was a human. He saw the kitten rub her nose against your chin and looked like she was giving you kisses. He also saw the look of pure love and joy on your face, and he lived for that, wanted to see that every day. He didn’t know anything about raising a cat, but for you, he would try.

**************

Joanne led you to a visitor’s room so that you and Frederick could spend some quality time getting to know the kitten. Frederick removed his coat and offered to take the kitten so that you could take off yours. You demonstrated how to hold the kitten and then handed her to Frederick. He held her close to chest and sat down.

“Mew?” the kitten looked up at him, confused as to who this new person was.

“It’s alright, little one, I’ve got you,” he tried to reassure her. A lock of his normally perfectly quaffed hair suddenly flopped in his face, and the kitten’s eyes grew wide.

“Mew?” she raised a paw and tentatively batted at Frederick’s hair. “Mew…”

“Oh, that’s adorable,” you said, plopping down next to them on a bean bag chair. You saw the smile on his face and nudged him with your elbow. “See? She likes you. And I think she wants to play.” You looked around the room and saw the toy boxes, filled with various dog and cat toys, but then something else caught your eye. “Frederick?”

“Yes, my love?”

“Hand her back to me and take off your scarf, please.”

He did as he was told. You carefully placed the kitten on the carpet and proceeded to dangle the scarf in front if her. Her eyes went wide again, and then she crouched, wiggled her backside, and pounced. Her little paws batted at the scarf, then she would roll around kick at it with her hind legs.

“It certainly looks like she’s enjoying herself,” Frederick chuckled. “So, what are we going to call her?”

“I was thinking ‘Buttercup”,” you said matter-of-factly.

“I am not the least bit surprised,” he replied, immediately picking up on your reference. He looked at the kitten. “Well, what do you think about that little one?”

“Mew?”

“Your name,” you told her, “Buttercup, do you like it?”

“Mew, mew.” She forgot about the scarf and crawled into your lap, kneading you with her paws.

“I think she likes it.” You threw Frederick a smile.

“Yes, I quite think she does. I have an idea, how about a story? Would you like that Buttercup?”

“Mew.” She replied with a yawn,

“Darling, if you check your bag, I believe you’ll find a book there.”

You checked your purse, and sure enough, in the largest section was a children’s book, one that you instantly recognized from your own childhood.

“If You Give A Mouse A Cookie?”

“It came highly recommended by the lady at the bookstore.”

“It’s perfect, Frederick.” You handed him the book and leaned your head against his knee. As he began to read, Buttercup curled up in your lap and shut her eyes, she was soon fast asleep, purring away. When he finished reading, Frederick caressed your cheek with hand to get your attention.

“So, shall we go find Joanne and make it official?”

“Yes,” you replied, gazing down at Buttercup, “If we don’t take her home today, I think I’ll cry.”

“Then let’s go fill out the paperwork and bring her home.”

#frederick chilton x reader #frederick chilton x female reader #frederick chilton #cat daddy frederick #frederick chilton imagines #hannibal #hannibal fanfiction #adarafaelbarbaseptmeberbingo #my writing

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lilacorgi · 3 years

Text

I know some fanfic writers want to accurately write MC/Yuu. So I made a list of what we know of MC/Yuu.

- They wear make up (if you poke ceremonial rook too many times)

- They are beautiful because Rook likes beautiful things (then again Rook thinks everything is beautiful)

- They’re cute (Leona basic lines)

- They need sleep (why else would they sleep through the tournament? You only stay knocked out like 10 seconds or a few minutes. They probably woke up, found themselves in the nurse office and went to sleep)

- They are small compared to Vil (5-7)

- They don’t like being cramped (3-12)

- In Azul’s opinion they don’t have a beautiful voice (3-10)

- Though in Azul’s Uniform Lines he said that they sing pretty good (Yuu could be holding back their voice not to stand out so much since they already get enough attention but after Azul’s insult they probably were offended by it and proved him wrong but that’s just my theory)

- They seem air headed (3-37)

- They have a signature blunt quip (4-34)

- Can be scary according to Grim (4-11)

- The type of soft hearted sucker to be caught up in the moment (4-11)

- Their world celebrates Halloween (Scary Monsters (1-3)

- Silver thinks that they have potential of great swordsmanship (Silver Gym Uniform R voice lines)

- They’re nervous around cameras (5-57)

- At least most NRC students know their name because of their Entrance Ceremony (4-5)

- They’re bad at plating food (Floyd Birthday lines)

- They hate studying for exams (Jade Lab Lines)

- Jade thinks they are quite peculiar for always playing the key role (Jade Bean Lines)

- They want to see Jade’s frighten face (Jade Scary Dress Lines)

- Ace thinks they’re dedicated to being a supervisor (Ace School Uniform lines)

- They are determined to succeed in their classes (Ace Lab Lines)

- They sometimes sleep during class and ceremonies (Ace Lab Lines)

- They persistent to join in intense training (Deuce basic lines)

- Yuu doesn’t know what BFF means (Deuce basic lines)

- Yuu laughed at Deuce when he told them the time he got scared as a child (Deuce Scary Dress)

- They help Deuce study classes (Deuce Lab Lines)

- Yuu wander offs during Ceremonies (Deuce Ceremonial Robes Lines)

- Even though they can’t use magic they work hard (Deuce Ceremonial Lines)

- They don’t sugarcoat anything. They told Deuce that he’s bad at all subjects (Deuce Stargazer Lines)

- Vil thinks their uniform is too big for them (Vil Uniform Lines)

- Lilia says they’ve grown a little (Lilia Ceremonial Lines)

- Yuu wants to know Vil’s diet (Vil Uniform Lines)

- Yuu wants to know Vil’s smoothie recipes (Vil Lab lines)

- They’re always full of energy (Vil Ceremonial Lines)

- They’re small enough to hide behind Vil’s cape (Vil Scary Dress lines)

- Yuu asked Rook hunting tips (Rook Uniform Lines) Why would you need to know Yuu?

- Yuu is embarrassed when they sweat (Rook PE Lines)

- Rook thinks Yuu is lonely because of their situation (Rook Lab Lines)

- Yuu has a bad posture (Sebek PE Lines)

- They play soccer with Sebek (Sebek PE Lines)

- According to Idia, they’re terrible at labs (Idia Lab Lines)

- Idia trusts them because they’re introverted (Idia Ceremonial Lines)

- It’s hard to tell what they’re thinking (Cater School Uniform Lines)

- Nothing is boring with them around (Basically all characters say that)

- It’s hopeless for them to try to avoid trouble (Cater Dorm Uniform Lines)

- Yuu is too curious (Cater Dorm Uniform Lines)

- They think that there are too many traditional events at NRC (Trey Stargazer lines)

- They got mad when Trey offered a chew toy for Grim (Trey Dorm Uniform Lines)

- Yuu enjoys flight class (Azul PE Lines)

- They don’t have Beans Day in their world but something similar (Azul Beans Day Lines)

- According to Jamil, Yuu looks good in their uniform (Jamil Uniform Lines)

- They space out sometimes (Ruggie Uniform Lines)

- Yuu is clumsy (Ruggie Lab Lines)

- They have a strange taste (Ruggie Lab Lines)

- They know Lilia is not a child despite his young appearance. Yuu addresses him as an old fashioned man. (Prologue Chapter 3)

- Yuu considers Grim their kid. (Kalim Dorm Uniform Story)

- On Malleus’ Suit Up Story, instead of just saying Happy Birthday like they do with everyone, they say he looks good in his outfit among the same sentence.

- In the Harveston Event they play the flute well. It means they have a good lung capacity and have above average intercostal muscles. (It also implies they would be a good kisser. Playing the flute requires more muscles in the mouth and lips compared to kissing.)

If there’s anything that I missed, please inform me and I’ll put it on this list. It will be updated with the events and stories.

I really want to meet Yuu now.

#twisted wonderland #yuu

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