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pedge-page · 4 months

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i love your preggo wife drabbles soo much!!! could you write one where joel takes care of reader with her morning sickness? 🫶🏻

Joel dealing with Preggo Reader: Morning Sickness

Notes: Idk why I keep making reader so mean but he's such a trooper! I'm also no pregnancy expert obviously so plz take my minimal effort in research with a grain of salt.

Warnings: mean reader, language, vomitting, morning sickness

- - - -

"I hate your penis."

Joel rolls his eyes. It's only the 11th time you've said it today while being hunched over the toilet, with Joel caringly hovering over you, holding your hair out of the way as you take a deep breath and hurl the breakfast he made you this morning.

"I hate—"

"I know, sweet pea. Just breathe."

You nod in an almost drunken state. He knows its because you've got no energy in you to really fight him, with the baby giving you all the first batch of hell in the life long journey of headaches in child bearing.

He rubs over your spin, caressing the shivers raking over your body so you can focus on not dying right now.

"I hate your toes. I hate your shampoo. I hate your fingernails. I hate your toast. I hate—"

"Ah huh..."

At first he was pretty upset and angered by how much you loath him, but at some point he's tuned it out and just holds and shushes you. While you pout your disdain for the man, you don't oppose his touch.

For now.

"Doin' so good, baby. It's only temporary, baby's just making sure you're a tough momma—"

"Shut the fuck up and get me some water."

Joel stands, his knees reminding him of his less than youthful age, before running downstairs and grabbing a bottle.

You were both a little surprised that all the morning sickness you were warned about hadn't really given either of you trouble in your first trimester. It came with a surprise by the middle of your second, and comes and goes on a daily basis. Today is honestly not so bad: it's your attitude shift that really gives him whiplash.

By the time he gets back up, you're already meandering out of the bathroom like a lost soul with puffy, sleep deprived eyes, and over to the bed, slowly crawling over the mattress, muttering "too tall". You feel his hand supportively on your back, but you snap "fuck off" and get in the bed yourself. He goes to tuck you in with the sheet, but again your hand slaps his away and you close your eyes into darkness.

You can still feel his annoying presence. "What!" You yell, eyes shooting open to see the bottle dangling from his hand. You snatch it without a thank you and gulp.

Joel's just got his hands on his hips, staring at you.

"Kern I hEp ouu, Hondah?" You gurgle through your water sloshing in your mouth.

He just chuckles to himself. "You're cute like this."

You swallow. "I'll fuck you the fuck up."

He laughs even harder, seemingly unserious in your threats. To him, you looked even smaller than before, despite the obvious roundness growing in your tum tum. You seemed like some small puppy finding her growl, or toddler pointing her finger trying to be intimidating but unaware of how badly you're failing.

"So amusing? Why dont you make yourself useful and rub my feet," you demand.

"You need to eat food, baby girl."

"BaBy GiRl" you mock with puppet hand mouth. "NAG nag NAG. I Don't WANT food. I want my FOOT. In your HAND. before I put it up your ASS."

Joel can tolerate the baby cock-blocking him for a few weeks and the endless assult of your words, but he puts his foot down when your basic needs arent being met. "I need you to eat food. You need energy. Baby needs energy."

"Fine! Crackers, you crackhead. Then—" and you thrust your leg in the hair and wiggle your foot in his face so he gets the picture.

"Okay okay!" And he walks out the bedroom.

Joel spends a record 4 minutes downstairs hurriedly putting together a fancy array of cracker options, from Saltines, to Townhouse, to Ritz. He also pops a few cubes of diced ham in his mouth and then holds a few in his hand to snack on later since he too had to abandon breakfast to service you.

By the time you're conplaining "it's been hours!" He's trotting up the stairs, you wiggle your bum so you sit upright in bed, hand over gurgling belly as he brings the tray to you.

Just as youre about to feast on these dry ass cardboard squares, your nose twitches. You see Joel chewing something in his grasp, popping one cube of pale meat quickly into his mouth, and it takes all of 2 seconds for the smell to travel to your brain before you're throwing the tray on the ground, crackers spilling all over the carpet and b lining to the bathroom again to throw up.

As he hears your dramatic gasps and hurls, Joel pulls out his little note pad he's been documenting your pregnancy so far. He writes "no ham" in the lines , right under "hates my penis", before tossing the paper on the bed and stroking your hair lovingly again as you empty your entire organs in the toilet.

By the time you finish, you've got snot and tears running down your face. "but I LOVED HAAAMMMMM" You screech.

It's true. You used to wrap a thick spread of cold butter on a slice of cheap deli ham and eatnit like a cannoli— something he thought was a weird aquired taste BEFORE he even got you pregnant.

Joel grabs a tissue and plants it firmly in your face, and you squeeze your eyes tight and blow right into his palm like a little snot nosed trumpet. He rubs his fingers in your nostrils to get all the boogers out before tossing it and helping you up to your feet again.

All the while you're bawling "l-l-loved—my hh-ham—n cheese" with gross babbling as he tucks you back in the duvet. You were fine with giving up other aversions like tomatoes, pizza crust, and yogurt. Even sex (occasionally). But your beloved ham is one baby step too far.

"Your—"sniffle— "big—"hiccup—"ugly—"choke—"WORM —" cough—"DID THIS TO MEEE," you accuse his crotch and wail into the air.

Then you hiccup very loudly and go quiet entirely.

You look around with curious eyes, fresh tears suddenly unbothering you at the moment.

"Mmmmmmmn crackers," you moan. "Gimme that one," and you point to the mess on the floor.

"What one?"

"That one!"

He bends down and picks up a piece.

But you shake your head. "No that one."

"No." "No the other." "No."

"Which one!" He shouts, unable to contain the lace of frustration.

"The one I'm pointing to, stupid!"

He finally picks up one hes pointed to 3 times already and you clap your hands.

You snatch it out of his grasp, pull a hair off its curved cracked edge before munching on it happily.

He looks at with uncertainty on his face.

You swallow the dry mushed bits and hum contently. "Mmm. Salty."

Not even 12 hours later you two are getting ready for bed, and you mood has completely changed. Still sick, but instead of being unable to stand Joel's entire existence, you praise it.

"Joel, honey? Can you please prop my feet up Under this pillow. I'm sorry. I just can't seem to reach it myself."

"Baby? I'm a little thirsty. Can you get me some water?"

"Im so sorry, Joel. I just can't stomach this food, I know you put so much effort into it. Ugh! I loved this, I really did! I don't know what's wrong with me."

You rub over the discomfort in your slightly swollen tummy and try to be a brave girl and fight the tears, as Joel's been so attentive to your needs, aches, cries and cravings, only to hurl them back up.

You sniffle and look up to him.

He's a bit tense, almost in a fight or flight stance with fear behind his eyes.

"W-whats wrong, Joel?" you ask with a honey song voice.

"Who are you and what have you done with my wife?"

- - - -

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hypewinter · 5 months

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Bruce sighed. He was in over his head. Wayyyy over his head. Honestly he only had himself to blame. Really what was he thinking? He'd taken in one child and suddenly thought he was an expert in traumatized youths? He'd been overconfident and rash and now Danny was suffering for it and would probably hate him forever now and-

"I can hear you fidgeting through the door!" Came a voice that broke Bruce out of his spiral. There was a shuffle before the heavy wooden door swung open. A boy with floppy black hair and ice blue eyes stared up at him.

"You could've just knocked ya know?" Danny said.

Bruce fidgeted a little more, embarrassed that he'd been caught. "Bu- I thought you were-"

"Still mad at you?" Danny interrupted. "Yeah, I can tell by your face. You didn't even bother to wipe off your eyeshadow."

It was true. Bruce had rushed through patrol and gotten back home as quickly as possible. He'd barely shed his armor as he practically tripped over himself trying to get up to Danny's room. He had come up with and memorized the perfect apology to smooth things over between the two of them and had been dying to get it out before he messed anything else up. But now all the words he'd rehearsed left him.

"Wait. You're not angry?"

Danny leveled him with a blank stare as he leaned on the door frame. "Oh I'm always angry. Just not at you. At least not right now."

Upon seeing Bruce struggle to form words, Danny continued. "You were right," he said. "I shouldn't have beat up Dylan and his little minions. I knew they were intentionally trying to goad me into hitting them and I did it anyway. I-I'm sorry."

For the first time since their conversation began, Danny looked away. His look of mild annoyance was now replaced with one of shame.

"I just- they were making fun of my family. Saying stuff like 'they were small town trash and no one would miss them'. And that comment just set me off." Tears were now springing to Danny's eyes as anger took over his features.

Danny's hands balled into fists as he continued. "I couldn't just let that go. Especially not when they're the ones that are trash. They're so bothered by a 'commoner' wearing the same uniform as them that they feel the need to persistently bully me even when I have nothing to do with them. We don't share any classes, I eat lunch alone, I'm not in any clubs or extracurriculars and if I had a choice I wouldn't even be going to that damn school to begin with!"

Tears were freely streaming down Danny's cheeks as he stopped to catch his breath. His whole body was shuddering with fury. Bruce carefully put a hand on the boy's shoulder, ready to back off if Danny pulled away but he leaned in instead. Given the go ahead, Bruce carefully pulled Danny into a hug, slowly patting his back.

It took a while before either of them spoke. "I know what they said was out of line," Bruce started. "And trust me, they'll definitely receive punishment. But-"

"I know, I know," Danny murmured, turning his face to the side while still clutching onto Bruce's shirt. "Sending 5 boys to the hospital with my training is still bad."

After staying like that for a while, Danny finally looked up at Bruce. "Am I gonna be expelled?" he asked.

Bruce gave a soft smile. "Don't worry. You'll be fine. I promise."

Danny finally pulled away, rubbing at his face with his sleeve and returned Bruce's smile with a toothy one of his own. "You're gonna bribe them or something aren't you? There's gonna be a conveniently placed donation or something. You're just like those rich pricks," he teased.

"Heyyyy! How come Danny gets to cuss?" came a small voice from beyond the shadows of Danny's room. Soon enough, Dick made himself seen, Zitka cradled in his arms as he sleepily stolled forth.

"He's not," Bruce answered quickly. They had just convinced Dick to use more "colorful" insults as opposed to outright cursing and Bruce for one was not willing to face Alfred's wrath if he reverted back. A side glance at Danny told him the exact same thought was running through the boy's mind too. Leave it to Alfred to put the fear of God into two vigilantes who beat up criminals every night.

Dick yawned as he reached out for Bruce. "Then why'd he just say-"

"Don't tell Alfred and you'll have my dessert for a week," Danny interrupted in a panic.

Dick grinned. "Deal," he said as Bruce picked him up. The little boy blinked his eyes a few times before falling back asleep in Bruce's embrace.

Danny halfheartedly glared at the sleeping child. "I swear that kid is gonna grow up to be a politician the way he manipulates like that."

All Bruce could do was sigh. After all Danny was probably onto something. Dick knew very well the influence he had on others and never shied away from using it. It was very likely that he would be holding this particular little incident over their heads for at least the next two weeks.

Bruce looked at Danny, a thought suddenly dawning on him. "Why was Dick sleeping in your room? Did he have a nightmare again?" he asked, shifting the conversation.

Danny shook his head. "Nah. He just insisted that we both make up. He wouldn't leave until I agreed. That kid really doesn't know the meaning of 'no'."

Bruce felt his heart melt as he looked down at the boy in his arms. Why was Dick such a sweet child?

Danny grinned as he started heading downstairs. "Don't get all sappy yet. He was also walking me through his plan of how he got back at Dylan and his gang for my suspension."

The smile dropped from Bruce's face. "Wh... what do you mean revenge? Danny? Danny!?"

I told y'all I'd do it myself if I had to.

#dp x dc #dc x dp #dpxdc #dcxdp #winter's tales

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redd956 · 1 year

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Writing Advice: Characterization

Writing characters can be really hard, and conveying personality to readers is just as difficult

I'm expert in this and I'm studying so take my word with a grain of salt

Here are some tips on writing characterization

Show don't tell of characterization

I'm sure my fellow writers are exhausted of hearing show don't tell, especially cause it's difficult to remember to do or master

And there's a lot of different ways to implement it, but I feel it means even more for characters because it gives you a chance to explore their personality

Sometimes it is better to tell, but many times showing grants you an upperhand take for example:

Character A was furious. Character B's voice was annoying them only further. They were ready to punch them in the face.

This can work, however it can easily bore the reader and goes little in the character or world themselves.

Character A glared at Character B, their arms tightly crossed, and leg impatiently tapping. All they could do was roll their eyes as Character B spoke. After all it got their mind off punching B in the face.

This is sentence shows more of the character. It shows that they have an attitude, and are more prone to punching people. I'm not good at explaining show don't tell, so I suggest looking into it, and remember that the rules aren't set in stone either.

Complexity

Character complexity helps aid the reader's suspension of disbelief and makes the characters feel more people-like. Not every character needs to be complex, and sometimes complexity isn't meant for one at all.

However it helps solidify a character, add more potential conflict to a story, and remove one-dimensionality.

Often times many stories start with one-dimensional characters and as installments and exploration increases, even the most silly characters become complex serious designs.

3 ways I prefer to show complexity

Show a character's thought process. Don't drown the reader in it, but dabble in character thoughts at moderate levels. Ig can help pacing anyway.

Give character groups opposing ideologies, beliefs, and ideas. Then show how these characters respond to them.

Give your characters bad traits and flaws. Don't stray towards hate-able personality, but understand that the world isn't black and white and neither shall your character be. The easiest way to do so and keep things complex is by extending already set positive traits. A character kind. Have them be too kind, let people go or trust people who shouldn't be trusted. Or they are kind to only certain groups of people, and need to learn to grow out of it.

Action

Actions, I'm not just talking about what your character does, although that is important too. Show me the character through how they do things, especially good to split up dialogue.

For example

Character A and B watched TV

This sentence works perfectly however if it is a moment where you're trying to characterize it can be utilized. For instance

The TV was playing a horror movie. Character A's eyes stayed glued to it, ignoring the fact that Character B was already clinging to them.

This tells you a lot more about the characters, and establishes a dynamic between the two as well.

Anyway that is all I can think off I hope this helps

#writing advice #writing advise #writing tips #writing hints #writing characters #characterization #writing #how to write characters #show dont tell #show don't tell #writing help #writing complexity

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fleshdyke · 4 months

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hello! on your bird post last June you mentioned a project re: breeding purpler & purpler chickens. do you think that it has the potential of turning out like the purple petunia project?

hi! this is such a good question wow

i'm no geneticist or anything so take everything i say with a grain of salt but basically the reason the purple petunias turned out they way they did (introducing Purple Gene into a flower that already had the Purple gene in an attempt to make them extra purple, but instead they got white flowers) is because the two purple genes pretty much turned each other off so the plant could survive. the purple gene was introduced into the plant's cells in a non-viral way, meaning they didn't use any viruses to assist in getting new genes into the organism, but the plant recognized the new purple gene as a virus anyways because it was foreign genetic material being introduced and that's just what viruses do.

this experiment is pretty much how they figured out what rna is and what it does - dna and rna are similar, in that dna holds the instructions for proper development and operation, rna is the way that those instructions are communicated to the rest of the cell. most viruses are just rna - what happens in the case of most viruses is that they introduce new rna into a cell which pretty much hijack the existing rna and add their own foreign instructions for how to develop (make copies of the virus, usually). the thing is, rna that is working properly only has one strand, as opposed to dna which has two strands, and if a matching strand of rna comes into contact with another one, the two strands can get stuck together and then the gene doesn't express properly. this is what happened with the petunias - when trying to add a copy of the same gene (add more purple), the matching strands paired up, the communication was blocked, and the gene wasn't expressed (ends up with a white flower). this discovery led to a whole bunch of really cool progress in the medical field including curing several diseases.

anyways, the reason these petunias turned white is because a new identical gene was introduced and expression of the gene was blocked - this isn't what's happening with the chickens. i don't know a whole lot about chicken genetics in terms of dominant colours and patterns and everything (i'm not the person to ask for that, one of my favourite blogs in terms of chicken genetics is @homeofhousechickens. they would know more than i do, but they're also not an expert either) but basically rob garren is breeding for the iridescence of the feathers rather than the actual pigment that would come from the genes. iridescence in birds comes from the physical structure of the feather and not the actual pigment by using very very tiny air pockets in the strands of the feather to reflect light in a specific way to appear iridescent (this is also how blue feathers and most green feathers work). differences in the structure of the feather lead to different colours and iridescence, so slight differences in how the light is scattered off the air pockets in the feather can change if the iridescence of a feather appears more blue or more red (and other colours ofc). this is what rob garren is doing - he's breeding his birds to have purple iridescence on their feathers, and the physical structure of the parents' feathers would affect this. i believe he also has a secondary line of gold-reflecting birds.

but you never know! biology is weird and something could happen with one of his birds that leads to another big breakthrough in genetics like what happened with the petunias. super fascinating topic imo

#this is such a good question ty. absolutely love this one #asks #birds #infodump

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butch-reidentified · 8 months

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ID: Screenshot reading "You will recognise it as an arguable point as soon as you switch the victim to a species that you think morally matters. Humans will inevitably die too" followed by a comma before the screenshot cuts off. It is not shown who the author is.

Preface: This will be a long post, but I think it's worthwhile as part of my efforts to open up real conversation about psychopathy and the stigma + misinformation surrounding it. The main reason I'm making a separate post instead of reblogging is that this post is not really intended to be about veganism. I'm more using the contents of the above screenshot to dive more into a topic I've touched on a few times recently.

Humans being "a species that you think morally matters" is an interesting assumption I often see vegan activists make. I've been undecided for a while about talking about this because I know how controversial this is and don't feel a strong desire to deal with the fallout of posting it/saying it outright, but seeing as I've always tried to be as honest and open as possible in here: I do not actually think humans "morally matter." I do not think killing is inherently wrong, either, regardless of species. Just about every creature on Earth engages in killing, either of each other or of members of other species, if not both. I don't think humans are sacred or special in any way, and thus are no exception. I don't see humans killing each other as any more INHERENTLY (this word is incredibly important here... obviously) wrong than, say, leopards killing each other. My culture used to engage in religious human sacrifice, so I have thought about this a whole lot, and it is a bit of a discourse topic in my community to this day (some even think we would be better off today if we had not stopped giving human sacrifices to the gods).

Most arguments for killing being inherently immoral that I've encountered are directly or indirectly rooted in religion, a societal value accepted without question, and/or the result of emotional reactions. One response I often get to this is that if I don't think killing is inherently wrong, I'm not allowed to be sad about it or grieve when people are killed - the idea being that this is somehow hypocritical. This is nonsense. I don't believe abortion is wrong in any way, but I'd never dream of telling someone who had mixed feelings about her abortion that she was a hypocrite for it*. Having complex, mixed, or even negative emotions about something does not make that thing immoral. Not to jump too far into moral philosophy**, but my view is that emotional responses are not - or at least should not be - an indicator of morality in any capacity. I suspect that more people agree with me on this than realize they do, and here is an example of why: Some people feel badly about killing an insect in their home, but most people do not consider this wrong. Even when it comes to humans, many - if not most - people would likely experience negative emotions when they kill out of genuine necessity, such as in self-defense, but very few people will argue that this is morally wrong, that you should just allow yourself to be harmed or killed if someone attacks you.

In this sense, it would be most logically consistent for me to view hunting wild animals in their own territory (as opposed to shit like when rich people transport animals to a personal hunting ground so they're guaranteed not to lose their prey) for food as morally superior to livestock farming, and I very much do. Traditional hunting is the method of killing for food most similar to that of other animals, as far as I understand. That said, I'm not remotely an expert on the topic beyond having hunted before as a kid and having a general understanding of animal behavior at the college level.

However, I will not pretend like I always behave consistently with the moral conclusions I come to. Like I've discussed before, I don't have an emotional response to violating my own morals. I simply didn't come wired with that feature. I don't really feel guilt or shame, so when I do something "bad," whether by my standards or others' standards, I either don't care at all or make a deliberate effort to cognitively "scold" myself, depending on the circumstances. I do consume meat that I have not personally hunted in the wild. While I do not think that livestock farming, especially modern livestock farming, is good in any way (ethically but also environmentally and health wise), because I don't have an emotional reaction to that thought (but do receive dopamine when I eat tasty food), I have so far been unable to convince myself to stop consuming meat.

I have said previously that I am glad that I am the way that I am, and that remains true; I do think my psychopathic traits are overwhelmingly more beneficial than not. This, however, is one example of the ways it actually is a negative to me - I really can't force myself to care about something I don't care about by default, and often have a hard time making conscious decisions that run counter to what produces dopamine. For this same reason, I have repeatedly failed to cut out gluten despite my doctor's insistence that I need to, and despite knowing how much better I feel (no daily migraines!) when I do abstain from it for a while. I tried to go vegan before and found that I latched onto very unhealthy junk food that was vegan by nature, like Oreos, and was eating incredibly badly. It does not help that I don't know how to cook, partly because my genetic disabilities make cooking a difficult endeavor for several reasons.

I am well aware that some people may be upset by this post, and may feel a need to label me a bad person for being this way. This is your prerogative, and I am certainly open to hearing your responses to this post, within reason. If all you want is to "punish" me for this, send me hate anons and insults, feel free, but I'll go ahead and let you know it doesn't do anything to me... not to mention I'm very used to it already as a radfem blogger. If you still want to do so because it makes you feel righteous or something, by all means go ahead, just be aware that it will not elicit a response from me in any way you'd desire, and definitely won't change my thought processes or behaviors. If you want to have an actual conversation, though, I'm more than happy to engage, answer questions, and hear your perspectives.

*I chose this specific example not because anti-choicers think abortion is killing, but because I have seen women be told that their sadness or grief about an abortion (which, btw, does NOT mean she regrets it!) is somehow "pro life" and that she can't talk about how she feels or else the right wing will use it against us. This is also nonsense, and fucked up nonsense at that. The right wing will use whatever they can; I'm in no way disagreeing with that. However, silencing women and girls to serve a narrative is not the answer. The lived experiences of women and girls (or any marginalized persons) cannot ever be devalued or concealed just because the enemy would use them against us. Actually, this is the same response I have given when told I should hide the fact that I didn't regret my mastectomy, or even that I should pretend that I did regret it. My story, my truth, is mine to own and discuss as I choose, whether it could be weaponized by ideological opponents or not. Same is true for all marginalized persons.

** If you are interested in moral philosophy, specifically where morals come from/what people base morals in, this page and the following pages (there's a Next button in the bottom right corner) sum it up pretty well on Page 1, then dive in a good bit more thoroughly with individual pages for each "root cause" of moral systems.

Side note: I will be reblogging this later because it's 6:30am EDT and a lot of my audience is in the USA. I worked hard and spent a lot of time on this, so I'd like it to actually be seen. Not much point trying to educate/inform/raise awareness if nobody sees it lmao

#mine #emotionality #morality #moral philosophy #moral systems #anchor system #personal #vegan discourse #long post #text post #psychopathy

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raayllum · 10 months

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In regards to the post about people occasionally misunderstanding Callum and Viren's flaws, what have you seen people do with there characters that stood out to you as wrong? I only ask cause I'm very much a pantser of stories and write based of what vibes, so I want to know what kind of things to look out for.

Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert but I have been writing/analyzing for a long time, and now in a somewhat professional capacity, so here's just how I personally think of it / what I've personally seen in fandom. I also don't think pantsers are more inclined (from the writing friends I know, they tend to be more intuition based, which can serve you very very well) even if I am definitely a planner.

With all that out of the way, it basically boils down to ignoring all of Viren's virtues / good intentions, and modifying or ignoring Callum's vices and 'bad' intentions i.e. assuming that Viren's motivations are nothing more than being power hungry and selfish, and that Callum's motivations are always pure and good.

One of the things that I think that's really elevated my writing and analysis is digging my heels into like, examining things from a pyschological basis. What this means is looking not only at how a character's flaws or strengths manifest, but figuring out why and where they're stemming from. This is important for like, you can only write a character if you understand where they're coming from, as this process forms the basis for knowing character motivation (and therefore justification).

Because yes, Viren is power hungry and selfish, and we see in 4x02 he kind of knows that, but he's not admitting that or thinking that way for the bulk of the series. That may be how other characters / the audience sees his actions, but how does he see his actions? Understanding how a character can justify/rationalize things to themselves is important if you want to portray them as well rounded. Viren can say something contradictory like "We must be ready to sacrifice, even the things we love" about his family and "I have always been ready to do anything to protect my family, however dangerous, however vile" and have them both be simultaneously true, because most people — or at least, compelling characters — have contradictory notions or conflicts, and it's the war between opposing wants and desires that causes their internal arcs to well, happen.

Same thing for Callum. He doesn't mean to be a jerk to Ezran in either the beginning or ending of S1, we already know how much his little brother means to him and how nurturing he is, usually. But loving someone deeply isn't the same thing as always treating them kindly, as I'm sure most of us know. So Callum blows up, immediately regretting it in 1x02, and remaining far more of a jerk about it in 1x09 until he apologizes. If the takeaway is just that one of Callum's flaws is his temper, that's all well and good (and it very much is) but it fails to consider when and why his temper comes out. (Which, if you're interested on something more in depth, meta on that here.)

For example, for me, a lot (if not the bulk) of Callum's characterization comes back to a Core of wanting to protect/help his loved ones. Which sounds vague, but that's why the specificities are what matters. Callum's temper tends to come out, specifically, when he's frustrated that he can't do anything to help someone he loves, and he either lashes out at the person getting in his way or someone who is (unintentionally) reminding him of that helplessness. Callum's curiosity / ambitious pursuit of magic is also, to me, tied to that same core. He wants magic because he wants agency, and he wants agency because he wants to be helpful / useful.

If you understand why a character is doing something, it leads to being to extrapolate and place them in different / more intense scenarios, but still retain that main core.

For example, Claudia's primary core is to keep her family together. That's not a main motivation in S1, but it's shown in the way she takes care of her family (being Viren's listening ear and trusted with the more important task; trying to cheer up Soren and giving him hot brown morning potion) in ways that they don't really do for her (Soren goes along and helps out with her plans, but there's never an instance of him taking care of her in the same way, even if we still see that he cares and wants to protect her, i.e. doesn't tell her the truth about Viren). Then in S2 it becomes clear that Claudia's main motivation is to keep her family together, and that Core Want stays true even in increasingly insane or worrisome circumstances (S3, S4, S5) as well as explaining some of her more contradictory behaviour. Of course she's going to believe Viren over Soren with the gaslighting the second she's given an option to, because believing her father lets her keep them all together, and believing her brother means losing Viren.

Which is to say, maybe, that most of the mages we've seen in show (with the exception of Lujanne, perhaps, who's built a life among literal solitary ruins for the express purpose of leaving them as ruins) have a Fixer tendency. Magic allows them to fix the issues they see in the world - that's why they chase it.

Viren believes he has to fix the issue of an empty throne and the knife held at humanity's throat, and he's uniquely suited to know how to fix it (hence why he should be king); Claudia leans on her preparedness and perfectionist tendencies because if she's good enough, nothing bad ever has to happen to her family again, right? She can keep them together, she can fix this; Karim wants to fix the issue of humans and losing their way of life, "I will banish that darkness [...] We will be whole again"; and Callum wants to fix issues for his family (the assassination, the fake coup, Rayla's binding, Rayla's family, etc); "And he's my father. It's my duty to help him".

But what fixing looks like, of course, is also a matter of perspective, and that's where you get variety.

But if you look at Viren's desire to fix things - in his case, to ward off weakness - you can understand the through line of his actions. He wants to fix the danger they're in of killing Avizandum and leaving an heir; his desire for more power and knowledge (tools he can use to create solutions and thereby inflate his self importance) tempt him away from killing Zym; he holds onto the egg so that elves and dragons can't 'use it' the way he would. "An empty throne is a beacon of weakness" "[A child king] will make weak choices!" And Viren is man of strength; a man who can get a grip and compartmentalize and repress and do whatever needs to be done to protect humanity. To fix the magical inequality and banish the Xadian threat.

Whereas when you look at our non-mage characters, they tend to have different cores. Rayla and Soren are clear cut Protectors, for better or for worse. Ezran and Janai both continually seek Change and healing. And often times these goals can go hand in hand! Wanting to protect someone can be a Fixer urge (Claudia, Viren, Callum); wanting to fix your mistakes by Protecting someone can also work (3x09 with Soren; Rayla with Zym). But that could be a whole dissection/analysis for another day.

Back to Callum and Viren.

I think sometimes stripping them down to more monstrous or angelic forms comes from people thinking only one thing can motivate a character at a time, even though we as humans obviously have multiple motivations or responses at a time, particularly for villainous characters.

Viren can turn back to help the Queens of Duren because he feels guilty (this was his plan), he wants to help and knows he can make a difference, and because he wants to feel like a hero. Callum can be accepting Rayla unconditionally and be hurt about it and still trying to protect himself a bit in 4x09 by saying "I know" while not going after her; the same action can be growth and regression simultaneously.

When you write a character, you have to approach them from an interior to exterior process - the old phrase "everyone is a hero in their own mind" is certainly true, or rather, "everyone justifies their actions some way or another" - which is largely the opposite of how you view a character as an audience member. Not that the two can't be conflated or overlap, they certainly do (and you do want to be aware of how your characters may or may not come off to well, your audience) but it is a different kind of process.

For example, for Viren, he genuinely believes that what he's doing is what's best for humanity > his own gain. And while he's clearly lying and doing a lot of things out of self importance / convenience, the fact that he Believes the lie means that the lie doesn't really matter, internally, because it's something he either dismisses or doesn't think about at all. And Viren does have admirable traits: loyalty (and I would say most people have conditional loyalty anyway), cleverness/intelligence, ambition, hardworking, globally minded, etc. But a lot of this stems from Wanting To Be Special/Important (his core, arguably, and one I think a lot of people would relate to) and when that doesn't often pan out, he crumbles. Him having an inflated sense of self importance means that he's used to thinking he probably knows better than other people (and gets very frustrated when they don't listen and/or agree with him) and thinking you know better than other people also bodes very well with, if taken to extremes, blatantly dehumanizing them (omg dark magic ideology hi!). He presents as being confident and smooth and knowledgeable, but every time we see him alone/internal he's almost always a hot mess or wracked with guilt/doubt, and he's not very good at adapting to shit, like at all, even if he's great at being cruel/brutal and pragmatic. He's also often times awkward when presented with openly joking/teasing affection, is a guy who waves to little kids, makes dorky jokes with his best friend, and genuinely loved (loves?) his kids once upon a time.

For Callum, a lot of his traits are a double edged sword as well. His attention to detail is born from his curious and observant nature. This allows him to be incredibly nurturing and considerate, but also lets him go for the jugular and what would hurt the most in a fight when his temper gets going. He wants to make his loved ones lives better/easier, but this can sometimes be at the expense of what they need or being overprotective. This can sometimes tie a bit into Viren's own "I know better than you" even if Callum doesn't usually go that far, as he has more self awareness. He has a strong sense of right and wrong but is willing to bend without defense if he thinks the ends justify the means (i.e. never defending his dark magic use, and unlike Claudia, believing/knowing that dark magic is wrong - whereas she doesn't think anything of the sort - but using it and being tempted by it anyway, even if he rejects it in 2x08). His determination is great but can lead to him being obsessive, even if he's also good at knowing his limits / when to yield and fold on things, and will often fold first. While this is great in his relationships and doing relationship repair, it's not so good for his goal setting, as it means he can have a defeatist attitude and then grow frustrated when that "I can't do the thing I want to do / do anything" comes in full swing. This makes him lash out because he hates feeling helpless, particularly when it comes to the people he loves, and all of that circles back to what I've said above, in that he loves his self proclaimed "inner circle" more than "anyone or anything". Just cause he's sweet and goofy and caring doesn't mean he doesn't have teeth (a temper, a ruthless side, etc).

TLDR; characters contain multitudes in their internal psychology and if you can figure out what a character's psychological core is, you'll have a much larger but more cohesive range to write from, emotion / action(s) wise. Feel free to give your happier, more sunshiney characters an edge / claws and fangs (just because someone is nice doesn't mean they're good; external presented attitude is not everything and certainly not necessarily morality) and your edgier, evil characters some redeeming and/or admirable qualities.

#tdp viren #tdp callum #characterization #thanks for asking #pedanticseal #writing advice #tdp claudia #requests #analysis series #analysis #this got so long i'm sorry #did this make sense? hopefully the bulk of it makes sense #that said u (or anyone else) feel free to ask for expansion and/or clarification on anything #callum #viren

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hesokuri-wars · 5 months

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I never got the chance to play this game, but it looks so fun... Why was it shut down? Also, are there any other oso-san games still available?

Well, nobody here was playing around the time of the shutdown, so we wouldn't really be experts on the situation. Either way, game staff in general don't just outright tell players the reasons for discontinuation, but I think the safe assumption would be that they simply didn't have the budget to keep it running anymore. Which... honestly, was a possibility that I had been concerned about for a while, given how much the game grew to rely on its whales. I could be way off on this, but the fact that they flat started requiring to spend money to roll for premium sets had the alarm bells going off in my head.

As for the (mobile) games still available now, there are three - Pokomatsu, Tabimatsu, and NEETPro, all of which region-locked to only Japan (assuming you don't live there, if you want to know of a way to get around this issue, follow the instructions in the FAQ under "how to install the app" - the process should be the same).

And because I have thoughts on all of them, I wrote up a brief description on each game before concluding with my personal thoughts on the current state of the Ososan Gaming Experience, but I'm not sure if anyone else really cares that much so I'm putting it under a cut lol. Links to downloading the games are included below as well for those who are curious.

Pokomatsu (Apple Link / Android Link)

I kind of talked about this one just the other day, but basically, it's the game that "replaced" Hesokuri Wars. Not only does it use a lot of Heso's assets, but the Twitter account for Hesokuri Wars and Pokomatsu is one and the same.

And... that's really it as far as similarities go. Hesokuri Wars was a tower defense game, and Pokomatsu is that one game where you aim and shoot balls at objects/people that are slowly advancing towards you and have to hit them enough times to win (idk if there's a more succinct name for this type of gameplay). Also, you can collect screenshots from the anime, movies, and Heso, either by playing/progressing or by rolling in the gacha. The basic story of the game is that the sextuplets are defending themselves from having their roles as the protagonists stolen by the other characters.

Here's a sample of some gameplay, if you're curious. Note that the voice clips are recycled directly from Heso. Also, it's incredibly noisy, so I guess that's just another similarity the two share.

Mod Ichi's Opinion: If you like this sort of game, then go ahead and give it a try, but I personally can't see myself getting too invested in it. Collecting the cards is its main selling point, but even that's not really all that given that they're just screenshots as opposed to original art. Also, I think I'm bad at it because I can't get past Stage 8. Never mind, I was playing it while I was typing this and I just beat it lol. But now I can't get past Stage 9.

Tabimatsu (Apple Link / Android Link)

AKA the other big Oso game from back in the day, although it still wasn't as big as Heso. The premise is that the sextuplets are traveling to all of the prefectures in Japan to pick up money, and the gameplay is in the form of a board game where you roll a die and move around. Much like Heso, had its fair share of original outfits and events, but it's currently in a bit of a weird place because it's been dormant for the past few years; it's still there for people to download and play, but it hasn't had a proper update since like 2020/2021 aside from the occasional maintenance. It's very clearly on its last legs, but it's still available to the public, presumably because it's not as costly to run as some other games of the past.

A sample of gameplay.

Mod Ichi's Opinion: I really enjoyed this game when it was more active! I'd like to replay it for the nostalgia, but it refuses to load properly on my phone teehee.

NEETPro (Apple Link / Android Link)

This one was released in conjunction with the first movie. It's also made by the same people who made Tabimatsu.

NEETPro is by far the simplest out of all the games, being more of a story-driven visual novel and not much else - I think this is the first and only Ososan mobile game to not have any gacha function? You play as a female showbiz manager, Totoko is your supervisor (she quit being an idol), and you're responsible for managing a sextuplet of your choice. Depending on the choices you make throughout the story, you either succeed in turning him into a movie star, or he stays a NEET.

In other words, this is the closest thing to an official Ososan otome game that exists. Like I said, this game is very much just a visual novel and not much else, so it basically was just released and not really updated since. I also found a tweet posted by the official Tabimatsu account from this September announcing the app would no longer be available on the Google Play store (though people who already had the app can still play), so like. That pretty much confirms that keeping this game up to date isn't exactly a top priority of the staff.

A sample of gameplay.

Mod Ichi's Opinion: I'm playing Ichi's route and I keep trying to brute force him into letting me become his manager and at one point he grew convinced that I was secretly an assassin plotting to kill him. Anyway, I don't think you'll have much use for this if you can't read Japanese or can't find a translation somewhere.

Overall

I feel like I've been hinting at this all throughout this post, but Ososan doesn't seem to be thriving in the mobile game sphere as of late. We used to have games like Hesokuri Wars, Damematsu, and Shimamatsu, all of which were rife with content, but all three current games I described above are fairly low-maintenance to keep running, have very sparse updates, and overall just don't seem to be here to keep your long-term interest. Maybe it's not too fair to say that about NEETPro, given the type of game it is (not to mention that it mainly served as promotional material for the movie), but like. Tabimatsu? That game used to consistently get new content, until one day, all that just stopped.

Idk I don't really have a conclusion to all of this lol this isn't meant to be some thesis or anything. It's just that when I went back to see which games were still available to the public, I immediately noticed the lack of actual content, and it's such a downgrade. It kind of bothers me as someone who not only rigorously played Heso for years, but also was super into checking out every other game the staff would drop.

🐾 Mod Ichi

#SORRY ANON I KNOW YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR LIKE 80% OF THIS ANSWER BUT I HAD THOUGHTS #disclaimer that i have absolutely no clue what's going on behind the scenes i'm just making observations as an outsider #mod ichi #memorial and legacy #ask

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evilwickedme · 5 months

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I think the reason I connected to house so much this time around as opposed to the last time I tried to watch it (and only managed one season) is the chronic pain

When I last watched it my injury was brand new. I hurt, and I hurt a lot, but as far as I know the doctors could fix it. I would eventually go through so many scans and see physical therapists and people I assume are experts in Backs™ and yet. It's been a decade since my injury and it hurts, it hurts all the time and every day. Sometimes it hurts a little, sometimes it hurts a lot, but it never does not hurt. And a few years ago it became clear: I am going to be in pain for the rest of my life.

I've never seen another show other than house talk about that, represent that, treat it with respect. House sucks and is often capable of being a deeply horrible person but we never ever forget that he's in pain. It's never mocked, it's never discarded, treatments wear off and the medication he uses is addictive poison. His injury is technically much worse than mine. But it's the same thing: it hurts. And it hurts all the time. And it's never going to not hurt.

So yeah. There's a lot of other appeal to the show, there's lots of reasons to like it, and I do like it on the merit of other characters and just because I really like case of the week shows.

But I can't deny that when House talks about being in pain, I get it. I get it now like I simply didn't eight or nine years ago. And people keep telling that I'm brave for living like this, but I don't have any choice. It's either pain or it's death. And House is the same.

#house #house md #hate crimes md #chronic pain #gail speaks #can you tell it's a bad pain day?

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bellaxgiornata · 1 month

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Hi...do you have any suggestions for a beginner fanfic writer?? Maybe some tips?? Love your work btw....i absolutely love your falling for the devil series

Ahhh, thank you so much!! 💖I'm glad you enjoy FFTD!! That series also tends to be my favorite of everything I've written, too. There's just something about FFTD Matty...

I could certainly give you some tips/suggestions that I've learned along the way! I've been writing and reading fanfic since 2005 so I've been around for a bit 😅 Though if there is something more specific that I didn't address--like something more specific with writing or editing or something--you (or anyone else who's curious) can certainly always send me an ask and I will always answer when I have a few minutes! But I'm not going to claim I'm remotely an expert on all of this, either. This is just from my experience and talking with other fic writers.

As always, the answer is below the cut!

First, I think it's always important to keep in mind that the more you write, the better your skill will grow with writing. Which goes for everyone, no matter how long you've been writing for or whatever your age is. I always see an improvement in my writing when I read something from even just a few months ago. And I even cringe at things like the very first Matt fic I wrote or even some early FFTD installments. So don't be too hard on yourself!

I think it's also important to remember to not compare yourself to others. We all have different styles and voices and that's a wonderful thing in writing. If everyone wrote the same or had the same ideas, there'd be nothing interesting to read. Everything would sound the same which would be boring. Personally, I didn't find my writing style/voice and grow comfortable with it until almost a year and a half ago when I started writing for the Daredevil fandom, so it's completely okay if you are still searching for yours.

Don't let any negative comments you might ever receive writing fanfic drag you down. Everyone gets them, and some fandoms have different dynamics than others where it may happen more often than in another one (though come on y'all, can we please practice the don't like don't read rule??). I think anyone who writes fanfic long enough will receive at least some hate. I've certainly gotten plenty over the years, and yes, it sucks and it can hurt or piss you off, but you have to remember to brush it off. There are likely many others enjoying your story to make up for that one person who's being rude. Block buttons can be your friend if you need them.

If you're having trouble writing a character that already exists in the fandom, studying them in the source material is always a good route. The amount of times I've gone and re-watched Daredevil, Punisher, or Kin in order to feel like I capture any of the characters in there just right is absurd, but it really does help to see their mannerisms, speech patterns, and to begin to get a feel of how they'd react in different situations based on how they've reacted in the show.

Lastly, when you write chapters for your fics and it begins to feel daunting, know that you can always break things down into more manageable chunks. I used to struggle to write much at a time until I learned to focus on the story in this way as opposed to focusing on everything that I still needed to make happen. Just focus scene by scene or even line by line. How to get Character A to do this or get to that point, for example, and it should hopefully seem significantly less terrifying. If you try to think of everything that needs to happen in a chapter all at once, it might begin to feel overwhelming and you may have the urge to give up. Try breaking things down and focusing on one thing at a time.

I could absolutely go on but I don't want to ramble! If there's something more specific you're curious about that I didn't touch on, or maybe you'd like more detail about, absolutely feel free to send me another ask! And this goes for anyone who made it through all of this! I always love chatting, sometimes it just takes me a moment to have time to sit down and answer. Hopefully any of this was useful/helpful though! I am always happy to help encourage others to write!!💕

#bella answers #tips for beginner fanfic writers #i could go into more depth on specific topics but i didn't want to ramble on #feel free to send me more specific asks if i didn't cover something!

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hurricanek8art · 7 months

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Okay I can't stand it that post about the hairstyles in Star Trek Picard has activated an autism hyperfixation infodump.

I love Rings of Power and the Hobbit movies. This is not an anti-Rings of Power/Hobbit movies post or bashing either thing in any way. If you're looking for that kind of post, please keep going, I don't want to engage with that. If you're trying to avoid that kinda thing, this is mild criticism at best.

While I am fascinated with Galadriel's Rings of Power** portrayal, the lack of styling with her hair is bothering me a little bit. Like I know it's in character since her hair is extremely important to her character and the lore itself, and even in the PJ movies they kept her hair relatively simple compared to the other elves.

But, Rings of Power Galadriel is different from PJ movies Galadriel. This is a Galadriel actively participating in war, as opposed to the PJ Galadriel that is mostly working behind the scenes except for Dol Guldur. And yet, even as she's riding into what she knows is going to be a big battle for the Southlands, all that's really done with her hair is a loose, kinda messy French braid.

And like don't get me wrong, it's beautiful and very Galadriel and I am filled with jealousy because I had to trim my hair after a while without a haircut and I miss my long, loose messy French braid, but even if RoP was trying not to ape the PJ movie aesthetic completely, they still share a lot of the same visual language and those movies gave us so many examples of Elvish braids for battles/conflicts.

(side note: why is it so flipping hard to find good shots of the male elves from the side so you can see their hair?)

I'm not saying go nuts with it, far from it. But there's a way to keep it simple and Galadriel-esque without losing that visual language. Pull the hair on top back with some lace, rope or Dutch braids then braid the loose hanging hair below. Or do something similar to Haldir from Two Towers and pull it back in a simple half-up French, leaving the rest loose. Heck, even just making the braid a French fishtail to keep that sleek Elvish look but still be something that can be easily messed up for the post Mount Doom go Boom* scenes might've looked more visually Elvish than what they did.

I'm no Tolkien expert in any way, shape or form. I love the books but find his writing style somewhat of a struggle to comprehend personally, so I don't know the books inside and out like my brother does. I do love the movies and I love Rings of Power, flaws and all. I'm no hairstylist either, but I love braiding hair and mentally deconstructing how the movies did their elf hair. So, in short, I guess this is my nitpicky Tolkien adaptation opinion. Thank you for attending my TED talk.

(*and yes I know it wasn't technically called Mount Doom yet but that was the first and only thought that went through my head during that scene and I think it's funny, so.)

(**Sorry I had to mildly edit this because i glanced at it and realized I wasn't clear, this is specifically about RoP Galadriel, not movie Galadriel. But really I like all the Galadriels so *shrug*)

#K8 Rambles about Middle Earth #middle earth #tolkien stuff #rings of power #lord of the rings #lotr films #the hobbit #the hobbit films #K8 Rambles about Hair Braiding #hairstyling stuff #galadriel #rop galadriel #(I don't know how to tag Tolkien stuff so I'm just chucking in whatever comes to mind)

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captainnait · 1 month

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Had random thought all day:

"How the F**K do the YDKJ hosts deal with nightmares? I mean, Cookie and Schmitty have been TRAUMATIZED by Bingpipe and Redacted respectively. SURELY those experiences gave them nightmares! And Guy cannonically has reoccurring nightmares! HOW DO THE HOSTS COPE WITH NIGHTMARES?!"

10:44 pm

That's a good question lol. And also, coping mechanisms is an interesting topic, especially for headcanons. . . Which I actually have! So why not share them, hehe. . . Here are my thoughts:

Post-TMP2 Schmitty is probably more likely to talk about his nightmares and/or vent his frustrations to others. He does canonically go to therapy, so he probably talks about his nightmares there for sure. I also headcanon that every time he gets a dream/nightmare that he thinks might be prophetic or mean something important - he immediately asks Master Mentalist about it, since he's an expert in this stuff.

Post-Binjpipe Cookie. . . Ouch. He's not as comfortable about sharing his problems and worries with others, especially about his trauma, so he usually just tries to brush it off and distract himself with something as soon as possible. He either tries something healthy, like going on a walk or playing with his cats, or something more damaging, like stress eating or drinking alcohol. Depends on a day, really.

Guy. . . Well, I think he's kind of a combination of both. Usually he tries to forget his nightmares (if it's not one of those reoccurring ones) and distracts himself by doing exercises, be it something small, like doing stretches or jogging in a fresh air, or more intense, like lifting weights or doing lots of pushups. But he's not oppose to venting and talking about his nightmares with someone who he trusts a lot (his family, Bob, Nate, etc.).

Aaaand I'm kinda lazy to write about others lol

But a lot stuff that I written about these guys applies to other hosts as well

#ydkj #josh schmitty schmitstinstein #cookie masterson #guy towers #ydkj headcanons

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brightgnosis · 1 year

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On the Concept of the "Black / Brown Thumb" In Gardening

"omg you are making me want a garden sooo bad but im still working on learning how to keep my few houseplants alive 😭 i have such a brown thumb it’s not funny!!! but your garden area sounds sooo lovely"

@drowsyjournal I hope you don't mind I'm going to respond to you this way. Because I get this a lot from people and it's really important you listen to me right now.

I have 16 years of experience with plants; I'm a trained Lay Herbalist who is currently undergoing retraining ... I've written a book (that's now unpublished) about getting started in Herbal Medicine and the concerns and realities of it ... I'm a hobbyist Nature Photographer ... I've been a Civilian Conservationist (temporarily, before I became disabled) who worked with professionals ... I'm a Master Gardener with my county, who was trained by and is currently affiliated with Oklahoma State University ... I'm self-training as a Consulting Rosarian with the American Rose Society ... And I read anything and everything about plants that I can get in my spare time, because I'm a nerd who actually enjoys academia and educational content.

Plants are one my major lifelong AuDHD special interests. And while it's certainly safe to say that I'm absolutely not any kind of an expert- and, in fact, I have a very long way to go still in order to even remotely be on the same level as any of the actual Masters and Experts I've had the absolute honor of being taught by or work with over the years (there's a lot of stuff I'm actually just learning about gardening for the first time in the last two years)? I do know one thing that's absolutely integral for every gardener- but especially every new Gardener- to understand beyond any shadow of any doubt:

There is fundamentally no such thing as "a brown thumb" or "a black thumb". There is only a lack of education / knowledge and practice.

Plants are multifaceted and complex, living, literally breathing, intelligent beings with very complex needs- and they've often been shoved into environments that are incredibly hostile to their daily survival on top of that! And they are actually incredibly difficult to keep alive because of that; a lot of the plants that are pushed as "unkillable" by media and 101 guides are actually very easy to kill, and aren't actually well suited for all personality and even neuro-types, lifestyles, and so on!

Additionally, what frequently makes this even harder on us? Is that plants ultimately cannot communicate their needs to us! A lot of the tiny ways that they do have to communicate to us- such as wilting, yellowing, browning, and so on? Are really very subtle; they're easy to miss, especially for those with busy lives. And on top of that, most of these signs can- and do- actually signal a lot of different potential issues at once, even!

It takes a lot of knowledge and years or practice to figure out which one of the 4+ things something like "yellowing of the interior leaf near the veins" (as opposed to "yellowing of the edges of the leaf"- there's a difference, and that difference can even change per individual species of plant, which makes it even more complicated!) means in regards to a plant's health ... And a lot of that is a process of elimination that requires you not to not only (1.) Know what the 4+ things are for that particular species of plant to begin with; but also (2.) Having a good enough record system of your garden (either physically or mentally) to know what you did to that plant in the last week that could've (or could not have) caused it!

Even among those of us who are educated (even among those of us who are actual experts) there's still a lot of guesswork that's involved. We often go through a lot of trial and error, and have things that go horribly wrong for us. We even regularly consult among other Professionals and Gardeners for ideas and methods ... We build networks like Gardening Clubs, and the Master Gardener Volunteer Force, for a reason- and they're amazing ways and resources to learn more and improve your skills at any level of knowledge, too!

There's something I say a lot when I'm teaching people, or even piping up in my own Continued Education classes: 90% of Gardening is just killing things until you either learn how not to kill that particular thing or you learn what you're really good at not killing or find something that's just legitimately unkillable in your region ... And while that really sucks to think about, and maybe even feels a bit callous to say? You ultimately have to make peace with that to (eventually) be a good Gardener.

But the fact of the matter in the end? Is that you can pick up book after book, and you can learn the fundamental theories of certain methodologies. But Gardening is one of those areas where the only way you're going to get better? Is through putting those methods into active practice; by putting your hands directly into the dirt, trying them out for yourself, and risking loosing a plant- or 50+.

So say fuck it and get to building, babe ... I can't wait to see what you grow (and even what you kill)!

This is an opinion piece as a currently active Master Gardener, and is based directly in Research, Training, and Experience. If you found this helpful or interesting, please consider Tipping or Leaving a Ko-Fi (being Disabled, even $1 helps); you can see my other "Original Content" here.

#Gardening #Answered Asks #drowsyjournal #2023 Asks #2023 #Master Gardener #Master Gardeners #Rosarian #Gardening Asks #Green Witch #Green Witchcraft #Verderer #Original Content #Oklahoma #Witchy Gardening #Witches Garden #Witch's Garden #Gardenblr #Plantblr

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sugurushimura · 4 months

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What character alignment would you give to each Yotsuba member? True Neutral, Chaotic Evil etc.

just a disclaimer, i'm no expert on dnd alignments, lmao. i kind of just read a gamerant article to remind myself what they are. i do, however, have many yotsuba opinions...

i'll go ahead and say that none of them, in canon, fit into the "good" category imo. some of them might be pleasant and even sometimes compassionate, but in order to be as rich as they are, you have to hoard a certain amount of wealth, which is selfish by default and pretty much defines who they are. i like the idea of shimura and possibly others becoming more good-aligned after the kira debacle, but they don't have very long to do that considering the murder. none of them are very chaotic, either, so it comes down to either neutral or evil/lawful. so...

higuchi is neutral evil. he murders without regret and while he has some idea of personal morals and what have you, ultimately he's not devoted to much other than his own gain.

namikawa is proooobably also neutral evil? he's not evil on as big a scale as higuchi - i don't think he'd kill anyone if left to his own devices - but he's out for himself and fundamentally doesn't care if others are hurt for the sake of his career.

ooi is... lawful evil, i think. he has, in my opinion, a certain idea of duty regarding his place in yotsuba, and this influences his thinking during the kira debacle. he very actively participates in the meetings and doesn't seem to have any issues killing competitors - although i don't think he's thrilled to kill hatori. he's relatively less evil than namikawa.

mido is just plain neutral (i would say true neutral, but i've been led to believe by my dnd friends that true neutral actually means something else). follows rules but only out of necessity and has no personal reverence for them; takes part in the meetings of death out of necessity but is secretly against it and dislikes killing others.

takahashi is also just neutral for similar reasons to mido. i think he's a better person because he was more obviously opposed to kira and was visibly disturbed by hatori's death, but not enough to get himself a spot in the good category. another victim of capitalism...

shimura is lawful neutral. although he has, like, some amount of morals and could become a good person, he isn't majorly motivated by compassion or selflessness in any meaningful way. he is very much a stickler for following rules... and the law... not that it did him much good...

kida is lawful neutral. he's very, very big on rules when it's up to him and cares about thinks like structure and consistency. i put him in neutral because i don't think he's thrilled to be killing people, but he could be put in evil; we can't really tell based on canon whether he likes the yotsuba kira or is just hiding his misgivings. personally i go with the latter, but otherwise i'd put him in lawful evil. he's definitely not the most pleasant guy.

hatori is neutral. although he does support kira, i feel like he's just in over his head and doesn't realize the gravity of what's going on rather than being malevolent like the other kira supporters in the group. he's basically out for himself but doesn't particularly want to hurt others.

thanks for the ask!

#asks #Yotsuba #Kyosuke Higuchi #Reiji Namikawa #Takeshi Ooi #Shingo Mido #Eiichi Takahashi #Suguru Shimura #Masahiko Kida #Arayoshi Hatori #anonymous

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jokerislandgirl32 · 10 months

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I have a question because I see a lot of self ship stuff on your blog (love your wild violet au btw!!!)

Are there rules to self shipping? For example, do they have to be completely fictional? If I self shipped with a fictionalized version of a real person, would that be okay?

Hi, Anon! Thank you for the ask!

Putting the rest below a cut because it's a bit long!

For starters, thank you so much! I love my little ship, and my little Zach, and my little Violet so much, and I am so happy others enjoy their silly, sweet, and sappy little antics too!

Sooooo to address this question, I want to preface all of this by saying your questions are completely valid, and I relate so much! I am by no means an expert in the field of selfshipping. To be 100% honest, I didn't really understand what selfship, fictional other, self insert, or any of the associated terms meant until late last year. So, I am still fairly new to the selfshipping community myself!

As for "rules" within the selfship community, I think this will depend on the individual. There are many different stances within the community about what is right and what is wrong. The key is to understand what your boundaries are and to understand the boundaries of others.

Most selfshippers have BYF (before you follow) or DNI (do not interact) listed in their pinned posts or banners, a good rule of thumb would be to read such materials and determine for yourself whether or not you fall into the category a selfshipper may not be comfortable with.

For example, some individuals are not comfortable with villain selfshippers following or interacting with them. Okay, welp, here I sits with my bad boy, Zachy, what shall I do? Well, while that places me into a category where I cannot interact with that person, that is okay! That is their boundary so I respect it (BTW: if I have accidentally interacted with someone who does not approve of villain selfships, I apologize, I'm still learning!).

As for a fictionalized version of a real person, I am also here too, in a way...I kind of have something of a poly selfship in the works with two characters from the movie Apollo 13, but I see this as fictionalized versions of the real people. The real people are either deceased or very old, and while I respect them and their historical accomplishments, I am not interested in them in any romantic or platonic way. Rather, I am enamored by their fictive versions portrayed by actors within the bounds of a cinematic universe.

So, I also think this is more of an individual preference. Some people may not be comfortable with this type of ship, but some others may love and support it just as much as you do! When presenting such a selfship, you will have to make your stance clear and understand/respect the stance of others who may oppose such a ship.

I'm not sure if this is the answer you were looking for, but I hope this may help you out!

#asks #ask box #anon asks #thanks for the ask!#self ship #selfship #self shipping #self shipping community #boundaries #respect #if anyone wants to add on to this feel free to #just please don't start discord on this post <3 #ziolet #wild violet au

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adollchild · 11 months

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Hihi~! Recently as of now, I've been debating on whether or not I should become a caretaker/caregiver/etc. This thought first occurred to me when I first took a deep dive into the world of agre! And now has occurred once again, now that I am in a few discord servers with some littles/ageres.

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I'd like/plan to be a long-distance/digital CG (if its possible ofc!)

But if I were to become a CG, I do not feel entirely comfortable with adult littles. I also don't really feel comfortable with in-person CG. (Being online will do me just fine!)

Reason; I am a minor, so I think it would be best preferred of me to CG other littles with big age's like, (eg. 13-17)

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Yes, I have been flipping through your CG guide reblogs. I don't think there's any for new online CGs :{. (From what I found searching, maybe I'm not searching hard enough lol.)

But in your honest opinion, do you feel comfortable and think it's alright for minors like me, to become a CG? Do you think minors should only caretaker other minors? (Sorry for the complicated tie breaker question here!) Uhh Thank You so much if you do answer this ask, it means a million from me~! I've just been doing a lotta thinkin at the moment and self-discovery typa stuffs.

Cheers!

Hi there ♡

I fully understand why you aren't comfortable taking care of adult regressors. I think it’s a really good idea to only engage in this type of relationship with someone your own age, rather than someone way older/younger than you.

I am in no way an expert on the subject, but I’m worried that having the full responsibility of another person’s safety and well-being over an extended period of time might negatively affect your own mental health when you’re still very young yourself.

While I can definitely see the appeal of taking care of a regressor over a longer period of time, I would recommend waiting until you’re older before engaging in that type of relationship and taking on that huge responsibility that comes with it.

If you want to get started as a caretaker as a minor, I’d recommend starting out by looking into being a babysitter for a regressor around the same age as you, since taking on babysitting gigs is something that is also common for teenagers to do outside the context of age regression. It’s still a big responsibility, I’m pretty certain that the risks of it having long term negative effects on your well-being are generally smaller, especially since babysitting occurs during a shorter amount of time as opposed to taking on a full time caregiver role.

Also, remember to be really careful when engaging with people online that you don’t know irl. You never really know who’s on the other side of the screen. I’d recommend not sharing pictures of yourself until you have verified that the other person is who they say they are. Some ways to do this is either by having a video call or meeting up at a crowded public place (like a café or a pet store), and staying there during the first meeting(s) (this option might not be a possibility if you live far away from each other). Another good tip for meeting in person is to bring someone else along with you, preferably a trusted adult.

As a final note, don't share things like your full legal name, social security number, passwords, home address, the name of your school, etc. online. This is sensitive information that can easily be used to hurt you very severely and pose a great threat to your safety in the wrong hands. (You probably already knew this, but better safe than sorry! I don't want you to get hurt.)

I hope you could use my reply. Sorry if it got a bit long ^-^

#asks #sophia speaks #age regressor #sfw agere #age regression #agere #agere post #agereg #safe agere #agerespace #agere space #age regressive #agere cg #agere caregiver #agere carer

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