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loquaciousquark · 3 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E116-119 (Dec. 15, 2020)

Hi! I missed the first three minutes or so and opened the stream to Brian giving an absolutely incoherent ...ad? for some jewel game? Six thousand jewels just for logging in? Some app in the app store and he’s literally been talking about this now for six minutes and I don’t know what he’s talking about. He finally wraps up, Laura brings the show to a close, and we’re all a little worse than we were before.

Ashley tries to get us back on track and Henry bays over her. Brian tries to ask the first question and breaks off into feigned sobs halfway through. This is chaos incarnate.

Tonight’s guests: Laura Bailey & Ashley Johnson.

How’s Yasha feeling right now about Molly? She and Jester both are desperately curious about whether there’s a spark of Molly left in Lucien that can be brought back. It’s not the same as when Yasha was controlled by Obann; this seems more like just the way this is now. They’d settle for even finding the good in him, like they did with Essek. Brian jokes that they can monitor his mental state if Matt’s Irish accent starts to slip a little bit.

Jester is a little wary about scrying on Lucien now since he’s able to see her back. She’s interested to try again now that Fjord’s given her the necklace.

Ashley has to run and grab a replacement set of headphones from Brian after hers get “crunchy.” It’s pretty cute seeing them run around and smooch on another screen. Brian teases that he doesn’t have any more questions for Jester since Caduceus has been doing all the healing lately. Laura tells us indignantly that she had Heal prepared for Caduceus in that last big fight, but Fjord got to Cad first. Brian explains how this is the same as all the good jokes he always lines up for Talks but never tells. Ashley’s crunchiness continues and we go briefly to a technical difficulties screen while Brian hops up to fix it.

Dani pips in to get this show back on track. Save us, Dani!

Ashley hadn’t thought about the aspect of Lucien controlling his friends’ minds, but finds it really creepy. It’s a cool game dynamic, and it’s a little different because they’re there willingly, but it’s really weird.

Jester thinks that “the tarot cards know all. She wants to buy into it real hard.” If it doesn’t make sense now, it will later. Laura has an Idiot’s Guide to Tarot Reading.

They’re super interested in why Aeor is like it is. Were they more advanced than us? Did they evolve along a different line? Ashley loves sci-fi and is all about this, especially since she wasn’t there for Happy Fun Ball time & hasn’t been able to get caught up on some of the things she missed in between, so she’s using this as an erstwhile replacement. She can already tell there are some things from this campaign that will bother her the way the unopened box did from C1. She and Laura both seethe at the camera about having to leave the spider behind.

Cosplay of the Week! Harland3r on instagram with a gorgeous winged Pike with a shield & mace. It’s an incredible photo and the wings look great.

Travis distracts Laura by dancing like a Trex offscreen. That seems right for this episode.

Jester’s encouragement of Yasha pursuing Beau was important in a lot of ways, not least because Ashley considered herself as uninterested in D&D romance as Travis & was a little unsure of activating a romance among her friends. However, it felt really natural within the game and it was really helpful to have Jester’s in-game encouragement. Yasha’s grown a lot and is in a much more positive place and is ready to find out what’s possible. Laura: “Jester from the get-go has seen Yasha as this wonderful soul from the beginning, and has seen how sad Yasha’s been through everything, and to see the difference that she exhibits when talking about Beau is drastic and wonderful. Jester’s joy in life is helping others find joy.”

Ashley points out it’s also so fun to “yes-and” with Laura because you’re like a little kid being dragged along by the hand - you don’t know where it’s going, but you know it’s going to be fun along the way.

Ashley does have a sense of “thank goodness Marisha isn’t jumping right into this” so she can coax herself into it, but when she tried to figure out the poem she had a lot of drafts that didn’t survive. She intentionally crafted the letter to give Beau an out if she didn’t feel the same way. There’s a lot going on with Lucien right now and there’s constantly a running thought in the back of her head about “maybe Beau is not into this.” Even the last couple episodes with Jester & Fjord have had Ashley finally understand shipping.

Brian brings us to the moment “almost as romantic as the pre-season finale of the Bachelorette.” Jester was “goo” afterwards. Early on in the campaign, Jester was very forward with her flirtations with Fjord & he shut her down. And then he kissed her underwater and immediately went and slept with Avantika, and Jester automatically shut herself down, because she thought she was misunderstanding & would only be hurt by those emotions. She deliberately focused on just being there with her friends, making everyone healthy and happy. These last few episodes where Fjord was flirting back felt like “my teenage heart again, my first kiss, the boy I like actually likes me back!” and she was able to open back up.

Yasha definitely has some instrument plans for those bones. She doesn’t know if she’s going to add to her harp or create a new one.

Ashley and Laura cheer about Travis stepping out his comfort zone. Laura thinks it was really good that he was doing it with her, his real-life wife, to see if he likes that sort of stuff in his D&D campaign. “It was just so sweet. It was just so sweet.” Brian says he’s actually a really romantic dude & Dani is so glad he asked before the kiss. Brian: “It’s going to be so sad when he breaks your heart and goes back to the corpse of Avantika.” Laura: “It’s fine, Jester will be long dead by then anyway.”

Jester does believe the four-year time trade was worth it, but that the city leaves “a mark on your brain,” especially as in-depth as she saw it. “Jester’s always been reticent to talk about her age because she’s aware she’s perceived in a juvenile way by a lot of people, and she’s insecure about that. She grew up by herself without a lot of social interactions and is experienced in a lot of ways now and naive in others; she’s very aware of human emotion around her, but chooses to see it in a certain way.” Losing the time makes her wonder if she needs to grow up & become an adult about certain things now. Laura: “I think actually she’s closer to Fjord’s age now. Actually, I’m not sure about his age. I don’t know how old he is - I’ve never even asked Travis!” Brian: “I think he’s definitely fifteen.” Laura: “Travis, how old is Fjord?” Travis, off-screen: “Sixty-five,” but he’s had the Mask of Many Faces up this whole time. Later, he adds that he’s in his early 30s.

Ashley has really enjoyed digging into Yasha’s more humorous side lately. It’s how she gets comfortable as a player, making it fun and light in a way that this year needs. “It’s also really funny to think that Yasha doesn’t know how Message works.”

Brian congratulates Laura & Ashley both on their game awards nominations. Brian vamps trying to get himself in as the presenter, but incidentally refers to Laura as his sister in the conversation and it’s super cute. “I would like to be the one to give the award to either my fiancee, or my sister!”

Fanart of the Week: @ethanmaldridge with an illustrated page from the Katzenprinz book. It’s just beautiful.

Jester’s polymorph gambit was terrifying, but the stakes got even higher when everyone else got stunned. She does lament choosing a bunny at the start. “Frickin’ Fjord’s armor!”

Yasha loves being polymorphed lately. She thinks it’s kinda funny, especially given her rigid upbringing with such defined roles.

Laura feels like Jester and Vex are weirdly two halves of herself. Brian: “You see the very bargainy, I’m gonna use my wit & smarts to negotiate situations. But at the same time, you’re very open to what people are thinking & feeling and navigating that. What you end up putting out (though it comes across as innocent and naive) is something pure because she truly believes it.” Laura thinks Yasha and Pike are the same way for Ashley, though Ashley feels a little closer to Yasha right now. Sometimes you just feel really exposed. Laura compares how much idealism she put into Jester to her character from Fruits Basket.

Since Yasha didn’t belong to either side in the war, she’s not hugely concerned by the fallout; she more wants to make sure her found family are okay and safe. Jester is the same way, Laura tells us. Jester doesn’t have any greater vision of the Empire & Dynasty interacting; she cares about the people, and it hasn’t been until the vision with the city that she kind of woke up and realized they have to really stop this now. It feels bigger than the Dynasty/Empire. Ashley: “It seems more of a thing for Beau and Caleb to care about.”

Really, up to now Jester was mostly concerned about getting Molly back, but now the stakes seem much higher. “We have to do this. We have to complete this, to beat them, to keep them from doing this.” Yasha is just going with the flow for now. There’s a lot coming at them and they are ready to find out what’s next.

And that’s that for tonight! Brian thanks the crew especially for working incredibly hard on switching everything to home-based streaming. He then gets stuck halfway spinning around in his chair and the last thing we hear is him idly wondering “What’s Fjord taste like?” which seems pretty on brand for tonight’s show. Is it Thursday yet?

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long post for ts

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rfadaydreaming · 3 years

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the rfa playing minecraft

oh the chaos a mysme minecraft server would bring ♡

jumin

• does not know how to move in any direction except straight

• keeps falling into caves because he just… walks

• stands there in the dark for a few seconds to process what happened

• “the game broke, i cannot see”

• yoosung is like wtf how is it broken

• cave noises start to happen

• “h elp”

• seven has to track him down and it takes absolutely forever just because jumin does not know where he is… not even a hint... he was just walking around

• finally seven finds him and brings him up with a fishing pole, but when he finally gets him up, they both get blown up by a creeper

• “i don’t like this game very much.”

• has a house with v because there’s no way in hell he’s about to share a home with zen

• their house is actually so cute, modern on the outside but super cozy and cute on the inside

• here’s some reference pictures of what i think their house would look like !! starter home / end game home

• his room is so naked omg v comes in and adds a desk, some pictures, plants, just to make it more homey

• has so many cats to the point where it lags HEAVILY when you enter his room, it’s just a giant barrage of meows

• his playstyle is fishing, taming cats, naming cats, fishing again

• he gets lost in the boats so much though, you have to come save him because he’s stranded in the middle of the ocean

• you show up and there’s a cow stuck in the back of his boat, he’s starving to death, the phantom is killing him

• but the nice part about fishing all the time is he gets really good loot and enchantments so he’ll give them to whoever wants them since… well he doesn’t really need them

• except zen omg he gives him like. chain link boots, seaweed, paper

• zen breaks into his room and takes whatever he wants though because jumin doesn't know how to make a locked chest

• he’s honestly just here for the vibes, he’ll lay on his bed even when no one else is sleeping and listen to what everyone’s talking about in the voice chat

• you cannot even see him on his bed because it’s just a sea of cats + a drop in frame rate the second you open up his door

zen

• he’s so bad with technology so he has to read the tutorial like three times before he plays

• takes awhile to get used to the controls so he’ll stop walking, jump over a block, pause, keep on walking

• it’s cute to watch actually

• he follows everyone else around and likes to pretend he knows what he’s doing? but really doesn’t

• beats the shit out of jumin for just existing

• gets stuck in a village well and silently flips out because he’s too embarrassed to ask for help

• jumin finds him and they just stare at each other in silence… jumin figures out how to hit him one singular time before running away

• he lives in a dirt home with the green top for so long it’s actually embarrassing

• inside is just a torch, furnace, crafting table, basic bed and chest literally just a straight mans home

• it’s so ugly

• v tries to spruce it up a little because he just does not like to look at it… every time he walks by he gets the ick

• jaehee eventually adopts him out of pity and they live together, but she has to do all the hard work

• their house looks like this

• he mooches so hard oh my god she’ll spend an entire day cycle mining only for him to take all the iron and make himself a silly little outfit

• she never complains though because he’s really appreciative about it

• will give her little flowers in exchange for outfit materials

• and of course gives you flowers just because you’re you

• leaves them in a pot in your room with a sign that has a little winky face

• is always changing his clothes, every time he wakes up he changes into something different

• jaehee works so hard to find diamonds for him so he can be the first to have some diamond armor

• seven kills him the second he steps out of his house and snatches it from his dead corpse

• zen’s playstyle is just following everyone else around and pretending to help but he doesn’t do much, being sweet to jaehee and you, annoying jumin

• he gets bored easily so he doesn’t play for very long :( also gets mad at jumin and rage quits omg

yoosung

• absolutely loves minecraft and he’s been playing for years, he’s really good at it!!

• so sweet and fun to play with hehe he’s like the cheery little team leader

• helps everyone get settled and works hard to make sure the newbies have a nice amount of starter materials

• even if they die and lose them all he’s like “oh that’s okay don’t sweat it you guys!!” and runs to get them new stuff

• hums to the music while he’s playing, always updates people on what he’s doing and asks if anyone needs anything

• a man on a mission, gets to work on gathering materials with jaehee the second the game loads in, knows exactly what he’s doing

• he’ll move fast to make a quick little community house for everyone to sleep in for the night

• doesn’t like the day one dirt homes it gives him anxiety

• it’s a little small but cozy!! makes everyone a chest and puts a sign above it with their name on it

• adds a “:D” at the end of everyone’s names on the signs, but a “♡” to your name only!!

• zen goes off and makes his gross little dirt house because he doesn’t wanna sleep next to jumin

• he ends up just expanding off the community house once everyone leaves and lives solo with his little parrots

• unless you want to join him!! go ahead he’d love the company

• so nervous in caves and will only go into the shallow parts where the sun still hits, a very silent miner because he’s concentrating

• he’ll go deeper into mines when seven and saeran are with him but he almost pees his pants when the cave noises start to play

• gets startled so easily and screams whenever something happens, it's so loud that the mic automatically cuts it off– so you hear 0.2 seconds of a scream, dead silence, then suddenly “yoosung fell from a high place” it’s so funny

• 9 times out of 10 seven pushed him off too

• takes it seriously, wants to play until the end of the game but everyone else is busy running around with gremlin energy

• his playstyle is a little bit of everything, he’s not a bad builder but he doesn’t spend too much time on it. goal for him is survival and exploration

• if anyone needs anything he’ll run to get it without a second thought doesn’t get the appreciation he deserves >:(

• seven picks on him so much oh my god, once he asked him to come help mine diamonds but actually pushed him into lava and yoosung started to cry

• everyone made seven feel kind of bad for it so he apologized with a full set of diamond armor, tools, flowers and a cake… it still hurt though

jaehee

• minecraft queen

• plays by herself a lot, the music, building on peaceful mode, all the alone time she gets

• loves it a lot actually, especially after a hard day at work

• but she gets so stressed out playing with everyone else

• it’s kinda bad for her health

• sighs into the mic whenever someone’s acting like an absolute fool

• tolerates no bullshit

• do not hit her. not even by accident. do not do it

• it’s so tense, she slowly turns around stares at them for what seems like forever it’s actually so scary

• only you’re allowed to hit her because for the two of you it’s not a smack, it’s a boop

• she does it back too

• “boop!” with a cute little giggle afterwards

• instantly goes to get the basics set up when the game loads in, sticks with yoosung in the beginning to get a bunch of starter materials gathered together

• is always running around doing something but no one knows exactly what because she doesn’t share. she is doing something though, a very productive crafter

• she has never died, ever. probably the highest level here out of anyone else

• the resident necessity provider, will throw you stacks of bread exactly when you need some, it’s like a 6th sense

• has basic mining chests set up for everyone to take from if they want to, so torches, food, tools, dirt, armor etc

• she really likes to decorate more than build, but she’s still really good at it!

• loves designing up floor plans

• not the best at adding the little details though

• her homes always look kinda square so v helps her out with that

• she organizes other people’s chests because she just hates how messy it looks, seven gives her so much anxiety especially

• she’s always cleaning up after him and shutting his doors since he leaves them open constantly

• her play style is a little bit of everything, not afraid of the caves whatsoever so she’ll mine if no one else wants to do it

• you can usually find her decorating though

• spends so much time making a cute little kitchen in her house especially

• a “coffee machine” is definitely a must in her house, also has a really pretty and huge bedroom

• white concrete and dark wood slabs, her house looks so lovely

• decorates zens room for him too

• she doesn’t talk much in the voice chat when jumin’s in there because she doesn’t wanna get fired

• likes to come into peoples houses and jump around a few times to say hi before running off again

• her and zen throw flowers back and forth to each other while crouching up and down like a couple of nerds ♡

seven

• the second the game loads he is off to the races, he is gone baby!! no one knows what he’s doing but everyone knows he fears nothing so it must be exciting

• “GOD707 was slain by enderdragon”

• we’ve been in the game for an hour max how did he- nvm don’t question it

• he’ll randomly show up to the community house out of nowhere, do a few random things here and there, leave again for a few days

• comes back on a skeleton horse, enchanted diamond armor, a fleet of dogs, elytra, the wandering trader enslaved on a lead

• saeran follows him around most of the time so they’ll usually be off doing something together

• seven dies so much omg every five minutes there’s a death message in the chat

• if you manage to track him down you find that he is living absolutely lavish

• has so many bases scattered around like this, this, or this

• spends a lot of time building once everyone else goes offline, does not sleep until his base is done and he’s actually an amazing builder

• v loves to go around in his bases and just gawk

• he does not decorate whatsoever, that's for saeran to do! jaehee comes and organizes because he just throws everything into a chest and leaves

• his playstyle is chaotic horrifying, he does a bit of everything but the main goal is to get to the void and beat the ender dragon with his bare hands, he wants to become god

• never shuts his doors so there’s just big creeper explosion holes in his home that he’s too lazy to fix, claims it adds ~character~

• he loves spelunking so you can find him running around in caves most of the time, there is no fear in this man's soul whatsoever, loves battle and fighting mobs, insults them most of the time while killing them

• throws his diamond armor into lava just for the funsies, always parkouring in caves, you will get so much anxiety being around him

• sometimes mimics the cave noises just to scare yoosung

• burns down villages, starts random fires, jumps into holes, beats up any animal he sees

• sometimes he comes in to hit jumin’s cats just to hear him raise his voice a little and be like “Hey!” it’s really funny but annoys jumin

• he edges the creepers omg gets them to the point where they almost blow up but backs up before they actually do

• redstone master!! builds so many insane things out of it, has an entire theme park dedicated to himself, definitely has a torture room somewhere in his mansion

• he’s always joking around with everyone, especially with you

• “hey mc, hold this for me?”

• he slowly gets real close to you until your hands are touching and your heads are almost morphing into each other

• “bro... are we ab to kiss rn...”

• will come into your bedroom when everyone’s asleep does NOT knock first this man barges right in and stands over your bed, silent for a few seconds before suddenly tossing hundreds of diamonds down on you, throws back some ass a few times before running off once again

• hits people for absolutely no reason and yes he will hit with the intention to kill

• “no swearing in my christian minecraft server”

• gets motion sick at video games usually but he actually really likes minecraft!!

• a complete dad so he takes a little bit getting used to the controls but warms up quick

• don’t you dare hit him. that’s evil. he’s like “woah!! something just happened, i got attacked out of nowhere!! we have to be more careful you guys!”

• he’s genuinely so confused and concerned for everyone’s safety

• adores building so much, not just houses but also little structures here and there

• he’ll make greenhouses, vineyards, beach homes, treehouses, statues

• villages get completely revamped if he thinks they’re ugly which most of the time, he does

• his playstyle is completely just building and decorating, sometimes he’ll send jumin out for supplies but it ends badly most of the time

• aka jumin gets lost and/or dies

• he helps build everyone their own little structures so jumin gets a luxury cat mansion, zen gets a shrine dedicated to himself, yoosung gets a stage for his parrots to dance on, jaehee gets a coffee shop in the village, seven gets a giant ph pepper statue, saeran gets a sunflower farm all to himself, and of course you get whatever you want! omg he’d make you a heart shaped nether portal

• he’ll help when he’s needed but he doesn’t really play, he just builds

• everyone brings their spare materials to him if they don’t need them, yoosung and saeran help him farm for stuff if he needs something in particular

• really loves giving house tours when he’s done with a build and it is the cutest thing in the entire world

• he is just so insanely giddy and excited as he shows off all the little details, you can hear the smile in his voice

• everyone validates him and matches his energy too it’s so sweet :’)

• he’s always complimenting everyone on anything and everything they do

• “look at you, finding diamonds! good job!”

• “this house is so very lovely, i love the warm energy it brings.”

• he likes to wander around and find white cats for jumin to tame

• on the rare occasion he comes caving, he’s always the little cheerleader for everyone else of course

• “good luck down here everyone, please stay safe and call out if you need anything. we’re all here to help each other, alright?”

• two seconds later yoosungs drowning in lava, seven is mining bedrock, jumin is being shot by a skeleton, jaehee is fighting off a mob spawner, zen is lost, saeran is riding minecarts around

saeran

• he’s pretty quiet while he plays so no one ever knows what exactly he’s up to, he’s just shy

• picks flower fields absolutely clean, not a singular flower in sight, only if he finds a beehive somewhere then he’ll leave some for them

• has a lot of dye because of that, resident banner creator!!! he’ll make anything that you’d like

• he follows people around– especially seven, and just goes with the flow of whatever they’re up to, chaotic or not

• sometimes you think he’s afk so you just stop and stare at him but then he moves and you jump a little

• yoosung and him will just spam crouch for minutes on end together when they’re bored

• by himself a lot of the time, you can find him playing with some turtles on the beach somewhere or planting flowers

• builds a lot on his own solo server, but doesn’t really like to in the main one because he gets insecure comparing it to v’s and seven’s work.

• he does have his own little house away from seven’s mansion basement though

• if you come in and start complimenting it he gets so shy and blushy

• “thanks… it’s not that impressive i just whipped it up really quick…”

• seven knowing damn well that house took him several hours: 👁_👁

• he hits people to get their attention and then crouches all guiltily when they turn around, throws them a quick little flower before running off

• he has a ton of pink sheep collected outside his house, an army of jebs live in his basement

• his playstyle is just doing whatever he feels like. sometimes he’s getting materials for everyone, other times he’s just sliding around on ice with the polar bears for awhile

• he likes enchanting potions and that kind of stuff

• smacks seven with random potions like slowness, fire, poison

• had a pet fish in a little aquarium at his place, one day it despawned and he nearly burnt down his whole house from being so upset

• still convinced seven killed him

• he doesn’t get scared from the mines

• the nether though is is a different story, it’s terrifying to him

• especially ghasts and the sounds they make. will not go in there unless you are and you beg him to hold your hand or something

• has secret little minecraft pinterest boards full of silly statues and stuff that he likes to build around randomly

• blames herobrine for all of them which scares yoosung

mc (hey thats you!!!)

• jumin lets you name his cats, dye their collars, anything you want even if it’s silly. if you have your own cats then sometimes he brings his favorites over and they have little baby kittens together, you both spam crouch and jump around afterwards from the excitement of it all. don’t worry he pays child support !! you don’t know where he got diamonds but. you’ll take them anyways

• zen brings you random little presents that he thinks are super useful but… are not. you don’t have the heart to tell him that though. thinks spider eye is like the rarest thing in the entire game, secretly comes in to give them to you and message you something like “shh… keep it secret jagiya~ ;)” it’s the thought that counts

• yoosung is always so sweet with everything he does, he’ll bring you any sort of materials, tools. anything you need it’s yours. once he ran in front of you to take the hit from a poison spider when you know he’s absolutely terrified of them so you could get away safely. he tries his best to be brave for you <3

• jaehee invites you to her kitchen for taste testing, you’ll come in and try all the lil cakes she has sitting out while giving your feedback on all them in detail. mm yes very good, love the electric taste of the pixels in this one! finally she’ll be like wtf are we doing

• seven surprises you by making a cute little heart shape out of redstone, you press a button and it lights up red, fireworks go off, he’s jumping around throwing flowers and diamonds at you. he’ll put a sign down that says “will you… put your minecraft bed next to mine?”

• v is constantly checking in on you, he’ll say “knock knock!” before coming into your room, you’re like hey what’s up!! he replies i missed you! i just wanted to say hi :) before leaving again, comes in every day cycle with snacks to make sure you’re eating properly of course

• saeran brings you flowers all the time, he’ll shyly sneak into your room, crouch over to the bed super slowly, suddenly start throwing stacks of flowers all over you, crouch up n down a couple of times before running for the hills. forgets to shut your door and runs back real quick to shut it before leaving again

thanks for reading! find more on my mysme masterlist ♡!

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blarfkey · 4 years

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director’s cut, director’s choice of ⭐️Dear Fen’Harel⭐️? (Though generally speaking, I’m intensely curious as to how you develop characters because everyone you write is so brilliantly layered)

So um, this exploded. And I apologize. I am very much a character-driven writer versus a plot-driver writer. Also, how I develop characters is not a process I think about, it just happens, so this is also me finding out for myself how my own brain works, haha. If you want the full fucking three page essay this turned into, there’s more under the cut.

If not, and I don’t blame you, TLDR: I break a canon character down to their parts based on what I see in-game, I look at how their personal quest affects them, and I try to find a modern day equivalent to that. Each character has an issue they need to get past and I create situations to challenge those issues. And Ellana was created to be a foil for Solas and I dumped all my negative traits into her because neither she nor I can afford therapy so this is our best bet.

First of all, developing characters in fanfic is different than OC characters because I have a pre-set personality to work with rather than making someone from scratch. So for this, Ellana’s development is different from the rest of the cast.

For fanfic characters, obviously I look at the source material and see how they’ve reacted to certain situations and what they have canonically expressed about themselves in both deed and word. Honestly, I pay more attention to what they have DONE versus what they have SAID because a lot of characters tend to fool themselves into thinking they’re one way when they’re not (here’s looking at you, Solas).

Because DF is a modern AU, I take what I have seen in Canon (which is a lot because Bioware is very good at giving so much material to work with having all those different dialogue trees) and I apply it to the Modern Day. Some characters fit very easily – Dorian was made for Academia. Krem seems a more modern character anyway with how he constantly roasts Iron Bull. Josephine’s prowess in DA:I translates very easily to political science. Varric kind of has a modern writer’s career anyway.

Some are not easy – Solas is actually super hard for me to write in DF than he is in Thick as Thieves because so much of his characterization, his world views, his prejudices, are rooted in the fact that he is an ancient being out of time – which is impossible to have in this AU. I have crafted a sort of back story for him that might explain some things later, but it’s flimsy at best, haha.

So I’ve had to really look at what Solas is like in Inquisition when he’s pretending to be a “normal” hedge mage hermit from nowhere and how he behaves in his romance and extract from that. Solas is a nerd, he’s socially awkward from self-imposed isolation, he constantly struggles with what he wants and what is the morally correct thing to do and the temptation to be loved usually wins out over his convictions until the last second when he gets his common sense back and ruins everything.

It helps that in both DA and DF Solas is keeping a massive, massive secret from the Inquisitor about his identity that will shift the power balance between the two, so I’ve used that to guide me when I’m unsure. He still feels off to me, but it’s whatever at this point, lol. I did my best.

Once I’ve boiled a character down to their usual traits, I figure out how I’m going to have them grow throughout the fic and use their growth to help Ellana’s growth. I try to pull from their personal quests as much as I can, when I can get it to fit.

Some people, like Iron Bull, are static because they’ve already gone through their journey and have reached acceptance. I didn’t really know how to work his Leaving the Qun story line in the modern day, since it is tied so closely with war and potentially killing the Chargers, so by the time Ellana meets him, he has already left the Qun and made his peace with it. I use his static nature to help guide Ellana when she’s conflicted about her identity.

Some people, like Josephine, have personal quests that don’t fit with a modern era but I want to show them grow anyway, so I create something else for them. Right now, Josephine is mired in family drama and trying to figure out how to balance shouldering the weight of her responsibilities to her family with being her own person. That I drew from my own personal experience with being the only sane person in my family with their shit together, haha.

Or Cassandra, who is definitely NOT going to be Divine here, lol. So instead she gets to struggle with her art and how she can express herself in a way that leaves her vulnerable to scrutiny and yet can be so freeing.

Some people, like Krem, get a character arc that I think should have been explored but never was. Krem being trans is something that’s mentioned and talked about a little and never explored. I mean, he’s not a main character, so I get it. And I liked that Being Trans wasn’t his entire character. But there was no way to put him in the modern AU without his trans identity impacting some of his story and growth, even if he had already made his peace with it.

Now, I will say this upfront: I am not trans, and I haven’t had the opportunity to be close friends with a trans person, but I have done a lot of research on what trans people have said about their own experiences, and combined this with other research I’ve done over the years with other minorities and tried to put together what could be lingering insecurities for him and how he could overcome them.

I’m definitely not saying that I’ve done this perfectly and I’m always open to any trans reader who would give me correction, but being trans was not an aspect of Krem’s character that I wanted to ignore just because I wasn’t familiar with it.

I will say that his romance with Josephine was Not Planned. It just kinda happened and I happily ran with it, haha.

Varric’s arc with Bianca is just wishful thinking because I hate her so so much and Bioware just dropped that bomb in Varric’s lap and then just lets him keep holding on to it and it’s bullshit.

The other character journeys are just ways to explore vulnerability in them that I didn’t think got enough attention in the game or I think they could realistically have even if it wasn’t in canon. Like Dorian dealing with his father. Now, in the game, Halward doesn’t have a disease and he dies unexpectedly. But I wanted Dorian to have a realistic reason why he would reach other to his estranged father in this AU and a ticking countdown to an inevitable death seemed right.

Now we get to see Dorian really struggle with this new-found connection with his father that he always wanted to have and now it’s temporary and heartbreak is inevitable and is it still worth it to him? I think Dorian has similar feelings in Trespasser when he found out his father was murdered because he still invested himself to rebuild a lost connection, only to lose it so soon after.

Zevran’s past with the Crows is also something that I really wanted to explore because in the game he is sad for a hot second and then moves on with the Warden and his newfound goal of destroying the entire Crow organization. So I wanted to see Zevran struggle with his inner worth, the fact that he can’t hide forever and his past puts his loved ones in danger, the fact that he can even HAVE loved ones and how it scares the shit out of him. I wanted to have a character who puts on such a good front about not giving a shit about anything to hide how very deeply afraid he is. We are going to see more of this also before the story is over, lol.

Now, Ellana. Like all original characters, Ellana has a lot my personal experiences tied in her. But I originally created Ellana to fill a need for a type of character that I wanted to see with Solas and don’t really get to. I mean, I have not scourged the corners of the internet to find it so I’m sure there are other characters like her, but I haven’t found very many.

I see a lot of very beautiful, very delicate and feminine, very kind and gentle Disney Princess kind of Lavellans. I see a LOT of them. And I don’t hate that necessarily. I mean, Josephine is all of those things and more and I adore her and I sort of crack ship her with Solas anyway, in the secret recesses of my heart. And I love seeing a female character who is the epitome of a “weak” female use those “weak” traits to succeed.

But I am also not very beautiful, I am NOT delicate at all, I’m not gentle. I am not anywhere close to a Disney Princess or a Josephine. And it was disheartening to see Solas romance all these Ocs that were nothing like me after a while because it kind of gave me the message that someone like Solas, a character that I admire and def have a fictional crush on, would never want someone who looks like me or acts like me. That even with unlimited freedom in creating a romantic counterpart for him, I saw so much of what society already reinforces as an ideal that I will never match up to. It doesn’t help that Bioware’s body diversity for elves ranges is nonexistent.

So I made Ellana for me. Not because I want to hate on other Ocs or prove that mine is superior, but so that I would have something that I connected to. And I wanted to explore a dynamic with Solas that I didn’t get to see very often.

So when I first imagined Ellana, I wanted her to be strong and tall and muscular and powerful in a way that makes a lot of unenlightened men uncomfortable. I wanted somebody used to manual labor and dirt and the outdoors and solving problems with their fists and just totally unrefined because I wanted her to be the complete opposite of Solas. (So like Cassandra but in elf form, haha).

I did not want her to be soft or conventionally attractive at all. Ellana doesn’t shun femininity, because I don’t think femininity is inherently wrong, but she is uncomfortable with it and she doesn’t indulge in it.

(Just FYI I am NOT built like Ellana at all either, haha. This is the wish fulfillment part of the OC. I greatly resemble the dwarves, which is why I love them so much.)

But I also needed her to have a reason to leave home, and to have some points of commonality with Solas, so I made her a nerd. A jocky nerd who is insatiably curious and stubbornly independent. And then because I wanted Ellana to feel like a real person instead just a wish fulfillment fantasy, I needed her to grow. So I gave her all my complicated anger issues, my bluntness, my struggles with homesickness, the way I compartmentalize negative events in my life so I don’t have to deal with them just so they can bite me in the ass later, my experiences of going from a lifestyle where all my needs were met and I was oblivious to how great I had it to living with serious poverty for the first time.

And then I devised situations with her life and the other characters where Ellana has to confront these issues and learn to accept them and either move past them or learn to control them. Sometime she gains wisdom and imparts it to people like Sera or Dorian when their struggles come up. And her biggest challenge has yet to arrive, so she’s still cooking, so to speak. Ellana still has a long way to go before she really reaches maturity.

As far as her relationship with Solas goes, I wanted her to challenge him and give him a total upheaval everything he thought he knew about his own culture and his own self. And I wanted him to do the same for her. And then when all the pieces are done falling, they have grown into two people who can handle being together.

So that’s basically it. If there is any character in particular you want to know more about or why I made certain decisions, always feel free to ask!

#asks #dear fenharel #my fic

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brokebuckkmountain · 3 years

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Today was the worst

(long rant ahead, mostly about workplace politics with irl problems sprinkled in for flavor)

So. I’ve already been in my feelings lately due to like: life sucking, it’s the plague times, I am struggling to find a psychiatrist despite being told it was imperative I get help immediately, it’s winter and winter makes me sad, I’m losing friendships left and right thx to Miss Rona, I hate my job, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my breakup, there’s tons of gossip about me at work for things I genuinely did not say, and some of my work buddies are ignoring me for no apparent reason (including my best friend who has been ignoring me since my literal birthday a month ago? It’s all her friends that are ignoring me to it’s hard not to think it’s something related to that). Also, those PMS mood swings are a bitch.

I wanted today to be a good day. I wanted to get up early. I wore my new clothes and new perfume and was excited to train a coworker I genuinely like who was never trained when she was hired a year ago and struggles to get through her shifts. I mean I volunteered to do it for free because she deserves the help. But no no. Today was not a good one.

-I was woken up at 3 am to a litany of text messages from an ex asking to hook up again. Promptly fell back asleep and missed my later alarm, causing me to have to skip my workout this am and rush my shower.

-My boss didn’t assign my trainee online learning or make a schedule, told me I was a “strong enough trainer” to just do what I felt needed to be done. That was all he said to me, no further instruction. This is important later. Trainers and trainees are considered non-coverage and I run into an issue with this everytime I train- shifts want us on the floor doing different tasks than what I’m actually teaching. I personally think being a little backed up for 30 minutes is preferable to new hires not knowing how to do things because they never got one on one time, but most supervisors think otherwise.

-My trainee and I had about 25 minutes until our joint lunch break. She had expressed to me that knowing more about the mechanics of coffee- what is the body of a shot, why does it expire, what’s the difference between blonde and regular- was helping her, so I decided 25 minutes whizzing through that part of training before lunch was fine. I was immediately chastised by someone we’ll call Manager 1 because that “isn’t part of the training”. It very much is, and is available on every training resource, it just never gets taught because of time constraints and corporate not really caring about coffee quality. Manager 1 has consistently made a scene every time I train a new hire over us doing training and not just whatever she wants to get done. Manager 1 is also known for berating almost every one, and has lied about altercations that never happened between me and customers before to our manager. So she’s not exactly a fan favorite of mine. I maintained that the coffee basics was part of training and returned to the back, planning to use that time to do coffee basics and more memory games for drink recipes.

-After about 5 minutes, my coworker came to the back and told me the two managers wanted us out there helping. I went out alone to tell Manager 2 (who was technically in charge and generally less awful) what we were working on and asked if they really needed us or if they’d be okay. She said they needed us and Manager 2 began snapping that we were floor coverage, that my trainee was supposed to be on the floor all day, and that she had no business in the back “staring at a computer screen” (which we were not doing, but I digress). Since this is about the fourth time I’ve had this issue with this particular manager, I responded that we were supposed to be doing whatever I felt needed to be done, not working the floor. When they maintained that they were “under the impression” from our boss that my trainee and I were to remain on the floor all day, and we were coverage, I said “I guess I got confused by the dashed lines on the schedule that signify non-coverage as us being non-coverage” and went to get my trainee.

-My trainee knew the situation because she had overheard, got super nervous, and started making drinks wrong that she had been making correctly all day. During this time I overheard Manager 1 and Manager 2 not-quietly discussing them both texting our boss to complain about me. Fair, I guess, since I planned on doing the same when I was on my lunch. At one point they both left the bar area to send their texts and squat by the safe while waiting for it to unlock (it’s on a timer and beeps when it’s ready, no need to hover) which only infuriated me more- they moved us to bar so they could leave it. When it was finally our lunch time I sent my trainee and was pulled aside by Manager 2. I tried to move the conversation to the break room (something I have always been adamant about- not publicly berating coworkers in front of others) but she stayed on the floor where multiple people were and reprimanded me for my bad attitude. I told her I was never instructed to stay on the floor, had a schedule, and would’ve been more flexible if they had actually spoken to me rather than yelling and demanding. She maintained that I had a bad attitude and needed to follow orders. I said, once again, “mutual respect goes both ways, if you want me to incorporate things into my training schedule then you need to have an actual conversation with me about it and not demand it at random”. She said that as my superior I wasn’t allowed to “talk back” (ignoring my point that they had both, indeed, begun yelling at me) and told me my bad attitude “wasn’t a good look” and that she didn’t feel I was understanding. I said I understood perfectly that I shouldn’t be rude, but that they shouldn’t yell at me either, and I wasn’t going to take unprofessional yelling to pull me off my job as a trainer. Manager 2 didn’t listen to a word I said and kept going “you can’t have an attitude, do you understand?” so after a period of staring at her silently I said “Can I clock out for my lunch now and proceed with training?” and walked away.

-After lunch I was able to continue training, only because that part of the training constituted us being on the floor helping. I apologized profusely to my trainee for putting her in that situation, reassuring her that regardless of who was in the “right” or the personal issues of the people on the floor, my first priority was her being able to successfully learn and feel comfortable. She told me she had a hard time focusing on drinks and was anxious after the scene, and that she felt the public reprimanding I received was far out of line and unprofessional. I told her I knew that, but being as it was two managers against one me, I would probably still receive a write up tomorrow morning and not to let it worry her when it did go down (tomorrow is our final day of training and my last day before a long break from work, so I know it’s going to happen in front of her). She said she would talk to my boss on my behalf and I told her not to worry, I didn’t want her pulled into workplace drama, but she insisted it wasn’t right (she is considerably older than everyone in the workplace and I think a little protective of me since we volunteered together and I’m the only one who doesn’t chastise her for small mistakes). We’ll see if she says anything tomorrow but I don’t want her to feel like she has to “go to bat” for me and involve herself in unnecessary drama against people who will lash out at her.

-While trying to clock out, I overheard Manager 2 trying to get other coworkers of mine to give accounts against our boss to his superior over not liking their scheduling. Perhaps I’m biased, because I am friends with my boss and literally vacationed with him this summer, but he is the type to listen to concerns and always give people the benefit of the doubt. I’ve never seen him give a write up and he bends over backwards to accommodate people. So whatever their issues are, something tells me they haven’t brought it up to him. Manager 2 frequently breaks safety protocols because she “doesn’t care if she gets Covid” and has vacationed out of state many times resulting in us not allowing her to come back to work and being short staffed. Despite this, I’ve never given my boss her name when he asks who is breaking safety protocols. Manager 2 is well known for being deeply unpleasant, her and my boss have been at odds for years from working together at another location, and has frequently tried to egg on other employees to get our boss in trouble while refusing to make any formal complaints herself. If you’ve been following for a while, she’s the same ass-kisser who used to say my old boss could break any rules she wanted and allowed herself to be constantly demeaned in hopes of a promotion (10 years without a promotion and she thinks it’s unfair rather than realizing she’s mean and unpleasant, chooses to attack the people who do get the promotions she wants). I know there’s a way to spin those two plotting against my boss as a way to cast some doubt on their accounts of me, but no way to do it without being a blatant shit disturber who’s just retaliating. Which is not how I want to live my life. But he deserves a heads up.

-Now I’m sitting at home with an arts and craft project I came up with to give my coworkers all a gift before the New Year and no desire to do it. Like, fuck these people, why should I do something nice for them? Even though I know the majority are good people, just not the ones in management. No energy, completely lethargic (yay depressive episode and still no antidepressants because I can’t get ahold of a goddamn psychiatrist even though my GP okayed the antidepressants herself), wishing I just could get a better job but I need the insurance at mine. It’s one thing to be constantly belittled and insulted by customers (and a very big thing, at that), but to get it from coworkers too just makes me feel awful, day in and day out. I know I’ve hated my job for the entire 3 and a half years I’ve been there and bemoaned how much less interwork drama I’ve had at every other job I’ve had (so I don’t think it’s all me, many agree it’s a toxic environment likened to a high school), but quitting a job you’re great at, passionate about (at times), live super close to, that gives you insurance, during a pandemic? Harder than it looks.

Life sux. Super anxious for tomorrow. Thanks for reading. Pls don’t reblog.

#i should text my boss since i KNOW he's gonna wanna talk tomorrow and my anxious ass will forget half of what i want to say #but thats also nerve wracking i guess #personal

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silenceandpatiencepining · 5 years

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Rambling—there’s a lot on my mind today

For a while there were a couple songs on Rep that I thought were not about love at all, and were instead about Taylor’s management team—mainly I Did Something Bad and Look What You Made Me Do. Initially I wondered if Taylor was at all resentful over her PR and how it’s forced her to hide a lot of significant aspects of her life, and especially relationships (particularly with Karlie). Even though I thought it was plausible that Taylor would write about Tree/her PR team, I’m think it’s more likely that she wrote these about being bullied by her record label, how it made her feel, and how she’s been trying to break out of it.

Taylor signed with BMR when she was still a young country artist with a strong conservative fan base. Efforts to craft her public persona focused a lot on her youth and innocence. And while this really suits her first two even three albums, as Taylor started getting older, I think the scope of what she was “allowed” to say and share in her lyrics became more restricted. Any lyrics about potential relationships with other women, or songs with female love interests were edited to be gender neutral, we see the beginning of bearding, planted PR stunts/details to make the public associate already written lyrics with men Taylor was spotted with. All the shaming and overreaction about Taylor dating really picks up and there’s scandal over Taylor doing things that are incredibly normal for a girl her age to be doing. A beautiful, talented 20-something year old woman casually dates a few people and maybe has physical/sexual experiences all turns into Taylor being slut-shamed. The wholesome image of the small town girl who grew up on a Christmas tree farm and moved to Tennessee to pursue her country music dreams no longer fits the reality of a young adult exploring her art and her sexuality and expression. She’s starting to widen her genre pool. Her fan base is expanding. She’s grown. The one size fits all innocent curly blonde country sweetheart image gets tossed out entirely and now we see the beginning of Taylor’s fashion era’s—the annual style switch up that’s since given us bold red lips, vintage dresses, a bob haircut, bleached beach waves, leather and snakes, black motifs, and now pastel rainbows galore. Taylor embraced them all and always looked amazing but they were carefully crafted veneers that just went over the top of the true cat-loving, peace sign throwing Taylor we know and love.

Anyway all of this to say, Taylor has spent the majority of her career being told who to be and even though she’s truly taken on so many styles as her own, she’s been forced to or maybe just chose to communicate and express her truth to dedicated fans through the tiny little messages and Easter eggs she leaves behind. Subtle enough for the general public to glaze over, but super fucking loud for those who are willing to look closely. Quiet because anytime she talks, people are so quick to criticize without even listening.

It’s widely believed that LWYMMD was about public feuds Taylor has been involved in with other celebs and the criticism she faced for “playing the victim” but let’s consider for a moment that the PR strategy in place for Taylor to beard [with Calvin and Tom and Joe and all the others before] came initially NOT from Taylor or Tree, but instead from Big Machine Records and that these experiences helped drive the direction of the Rep album and Taylor’s behavior/Easter eggs. She really called them the fuck out while she rode out the rest of her contract and hoped to negotiate something better for her future.

I don't like your little games

Don't like your tilted stage

The role you made me play

Of the fool, no, I don't like you

I don't like your perfect crime

How you laugh when you lie

You said the gun was mine

Isn't cool, no, I don't like you

Ever since Taylor has been under BMR they’ve basically played her and exploited her for their benefit and for profit. They crafted and controlled her image, forced her to be and act like someone she isn’t, all while making a fortune. They probably tried to make her feel like she got to have a say in things but she really wasn’t given much control over herself.

I don't like your kingdom keys

They once belonged to me

You asked me for a place to sleep

Locked me out and threw a feast (What?)

The world moves on, another day, another drama, drama

But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma

And then the world moves on, but one thing's for sure

Maybe I got mine, but you'll all get yours

Here I think Taylor is saying that yeah, at one point in time she did have some control, the power was in her hands, but once her fame and notoriety was amassing, they (BMR and management) took it from her and then went on profiting from her hard work while she continued to be used. They use her, control her public reactions, and get her involved in these feuds to stir publicity but she’s been sitting back silently taking it and plotting her rise. They’re all removed from these stunts. She’s the one that had to live with it. But she’s biding her time. She’s plotting her next move. Her hints have been getting more obvious. She’s getting more bold and more public, which is showcased particularly well by her political activism and Lover era imagery.

I feel like the Reputation era in general was Taylor saying that she’s done putting up with the bullshit. She’s tired of men with power they don’t deserve constantly calling the shots and making plays at her when they only see her as dollars they can use. She’s tired of not being able to show who she loves and how she really is. She’s ready to be happy. She’s ready to put this behind her.

I think that’s what makes me feel so sick about the news of the BMR sell to fucking Scooter Braun—after all of the shit Taylor has had to deal with, after giving her all to a management team that she trusted but that used her, she entrusted her life’s work to Scott and moved on to a new label that actually gave her ownership and empowerment and actually valued her craft...and Scott sold out to the shady powers at be who are financed by people that only want to hurt, punish, or profit off of Taylor. Fucking Josh Kushner, his criminal family, and the Carlyle Group really went out there to financially back Scooter just so they could aid in his takeover of Taylor’s historical catalogue. It’s sick.

My heart really goes out to Taylor. She’s fought so fucking hard to create the incredible work she has, all while trying to make things better for other artists who don’t have the same negotiating power, and people still have the nerve to say that she’s being dramatic because she didn’t get notified of the sale sooner—this is so much bigger than that.

I know swifties are doing what they can to show their support, so I know I’m not alone in saying that I wish I could give Taylor a hug in the wake of the news breaking and the back and forth he said she said of the guilty parties desperately trying to save face through their lie-laced rebuttals to her blog.

Taylor—We stand with you. We see you. We believe you. And we’re ready to support the hell out of Lover.

#i stand with taylor #we stand with Taylor #taylor swift #lover era #big machine records #taylor swift masters #kaylor #lover album #taylor nation

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dandelliongirl · 4 years

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What a start

to 2020

I have been working from home since the afternoon of the 16th of March and it feels like forever. I am so glad this week is Easter weekend and a 4 day vacation.

My family has been healthy and life for me hasn't changed that much other than working from home. My friend who lives across the street got a Nintendo Switch and Animal Crossing New Horizons for herself but she doesn't have Nintendo Online membership yet so we have been spending a lot of time together. Besides her and my family I have no other contacts. My friend works at the central hospital though, so it's obviously risky and probably stupid... She came to our cottage a couple of weeks ago and we had the best time going on a forest walk to collect sticks for macrame tapestries and finding photoshoot locations and spending the evening going to sauna, playing ACNH and visiting each others islands to see a meteor shower. We are planning a photoshoot for easter weekend but I think I’m going to move it to a later date. I really need time with my family and by myself after almost 3 weeks of being shut in.

I am so glad we have our cottage and I feel awful for people in one room apartments right now. Spending all my working hours and freetime within a few steps definitely affects my mental state even though I am definitely a homebody. Working from home has been going really well though since I have my own PC with two monitors and my work laptop with VPN separately. I am definitely super glad to have a stable job and the possibility to work from home through this whole covid-19 business. I really struggle coming up with local entrepreneurs to support when there are so many but I definitely feel like I have to because I am lucky enough to have a stable income.

So buying ACNH was an ordeal. My local electronics store didn't list the special edition Switch console bundle until launch day (March 20th) and the place I preordered from didn't get the shipment until 5pm. We drove about 2 hours and started off before 8 am to get the console and game from a different store only to see that it was stocked locally right after opening. Anyway I got the game and it has been an emotional journey. I hate that I got oranges and an orange airport. I'm also not very happy with my town name or my character name but despite spending months making lists and thinking about it I didn't really have better options. I also didn't want to place down the museum before I could access the other side of the river but turns out I needed to place it in order to proceed and lost one day of progress because of it. I was so upset. The map is pretty good and I eventually grew to like my island but then I got Pietro as my first camper and was forced to move him in.. I also ate 10 turnips this Sunday and was absolutely fuming because of it. The first week of listening to the same background music was also an infuriating design choice as well as the recent barrage of bunny day eggs everywhere. Anyway overall I like the game and have spent awesome times with friends playing hide and seek, doing treasure hunts and designing and decorating the place. I'm taking it easy and going my own pace even if it means avoiding spoilers (even from my boyfriend who constantly spoils something because he’s too excited to keep his mouth shut!) like the plague.

Mum and dad had the rest of their house renovated during March since the bedrooms were renovated a few years ago. Me and mum spent so much time choosing the materials and planning the new layout of the kitchen and living room but it's so beautiful now! So open and light and airy and clean!

This whole covid isolation thing has really put all of my personal goals on hold. I feel like even though externally I haven't been affected too much the whole mental side of it has taken a toll. With no hobbies me and my guy are both constantly at home and even though I love it and we have a lot of fun together I also hadn't realised how much I relied on my couple of hours of weekly alone time to work on my crafts and baking and organising the house. I feel like the first 2 weeks were spent on survival mode and then ACNH took up all remaining free time and brain capacity as a form of escapism so I'm not getting anything done and that's eating me up. Also the lack of physical activity is taking a mental toll on both me and my boyfriend since we don't have a whole lot of room and I definitely don't feel like working out when he's just haning out on the couch in front of me.. I have also had a lot of restless nights and nightmares which tells me that I'm not as unaffected as I think I am. I have definitely been avoiding the news and trying to get into some new normal routines as fast as possible. I drafted this message while in a Teams meeting where our coordinators can do their own year and resource planning and ask me tech questions when they need help. Now I’m finishing and posting this before I start the next one. I don’t want to accidentally screenshare Tumblr..

My last post was from January 19th and since then we've had a fun birthday party for my high school friend on the 22nd, a brunch at and a visit to the future wedding venue for another friend on the 23rd, an adorable photoshoot with a big teddy bear on the 29th of January, sushi with my family on the 6th of March and this whole covid situation. My colleague with whom I had a lot of issues moved away and no longer works with us. Work without her has been great and I have been thriving. I love feeling important and needed, and it gives me hope for my future since my current contract ends at the end of this year. There are 5 of us in our team looking to get a permanent contract for one of the 2 open positions so we'll have to see what happens, but I'm definitely applying anyway.

Mum is on vacation this week and went to take food to granny and grandpa's door on Monday. Today (Wednesday) I plan on leaving work early and going to the cottage, and to work remotely from there on Thursday if I have no meetings that require a more stable Internet connection. Since the kitchen renovation and a relatively warm and snowless winter we got to start our cottage season early this year. My guy is also spending Easter with his family at their cottage. It's his 27th birthday next week! We are really bad at socially distancing ourselves from our families but apart from my friend those are the only connections we have.. My spring allergies started and it's definitely hard to know if I have flu symptoms or allergies but so far I've just felt sniffly and it helps after I take my allergy meds so I think I'm safe. If either of us or any of our loved ones got flu symptoms we would definitely stay home and we are well prepared for that.

In a few months once this whole thing calms down this will feel like such a weird alternative timeline or fever dream and it will seem very unreal that a disease drove us into global and local isolation of this scale where even schools were closed. Our capital is quarantined and the police are making sure people who cross the border have a valid reason to do so.. People are placing teddy bears and other stuffed animals to their windows for children to spot on their walks outside.. Wild.

Meanwhile I'll go back to playing ACNH, dreaming of summer and finding my new norms. I hope everyone stays safe and healthy! I’m trying to get the most out of my time working from home because it means I can do embroidery and other crafts during meetings.:)

#personal #diary #April2020

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bridgeburningbucky · 6 years

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Mr. Hot Teacher Man (part 3)

Part 1 Part 2

Summary: You’re taking care of your nephew while your sister is at a business trip and you find out his teacher is attractive af.

A/N: Sorry for the delay and for being inactive these last couple of months. I finally finished this part and I have another two works almost done, stay tuned!

Warnings: Like a couple curse words but other than that FLUFF

You had tossed and turned all night too nervous for what the day would be like being around James. Talking to Nancy had made you more conscious of the moms and now you could feel their eyes on you.

You feel nervous walking into Caleb’s school for lunch, holding onto a lunch box you borrowed from Caleb. As you enter the lobby of the school you notice other parents there and immediately feel the moms stare at you. As you stand there, hugging your lunch box to your chest, you got a message from Nancy.

Nancy: The moms say your outfit looks cute and that Mr. Barnes is definitely going to like the whole t-shirt and rolled up jeans you went for. Simple but effective 😉

You look up and the moms give you a nod, and one of them even winks at you in approval. You awkwardly smile and then have your attention take away to what you think is someone important to the school. He walks with a confidence that you’ve never seen before and you stand a little taller. He’s wearing a tailored suit but has on sneakers and somehow pulls it off??? Also, he’s wearing glasses indoors and you feel like you should call him a douche but you oddly respect him???

“Hello parents, I’m Tony Stark, principle of this magnificent establishment. Shaping the minds of the future,” he says like if he’s speaking at a science convention and you might as well be in one by the way all the parents light up and start clapping their hands as if he’s a savior of some sorts. “Thank you all for taking time out of your day to come and eat lunch with your children. I think it is important and it’ll make a world of a difference in their lives. Please feel free to find your inner child as you work along side the kids during the crafting part of your day.” He then lifts his arms and says, “Off you go!” And you honestly think he might be a savior because when he says that the doors open and the small beans line up outside their classrooms waving at their parents with big smiles.

You spot Caleb right away and you jump and wave your hand excitedly trying to get his attention. When he does see you, he waves back just as excited as you and you’re thankful that he’s still at an age where he thinks you’re cool. You don’t see Mr. Hot Teacher Man and as much as you joked that you were going on a date with him, you remind yourself that this is for Caleb.

Another teacher steps up and asks parents to stand in line with their kid so that they can make their way to the cafeteria. You make your way to Caleb and you crouch down to his level, “Oh my goodness Caleb! What are you doing here? I didn’t know you came here???”

Caleb laughs at your cheesy joke, “Aunt Y/N you don’t come here, it’s just for kids!”

You gasp, “What! I thought I was a kid? Are you saying I’m old???” Caleb nods his head, “Wow, you’re so mean Caleb.” He just shrugs his shoulders and laughs. Big mood Bub, big mood.

The line starts moving forward and you hold hands with Caleb as you’re lead to the cafeteria. Once there the same teacher gives the option of eating outside or staying in the cafeteria. It is a nice day out and Caleb agrees eating outside is a must.

Those who choose to go outside are handed a blanket and once you and Caleb reach the playground, Caleb leads you to where he says is the best spot. It’s under a tree that has a view of the whole playground.

“This is a nice spot Bub! Is this where you hang out during recess?” you ask as you extend the blanket. Not to your surprise he just gives you a nod.

You both sit down and open your lunch boxes. You packed sandwiches, grapes, fruit rollups with the tattoos cause they’re bomb as fuck and a capri sun.

You honestly feel so content sitting with Caleb just enjoying the breeze. Caleb tells you who all his classmates are and even dishes some gossip like how David likes Jess but Jess has a crush on James but David says that she has cooties so that James will stop liking her. You eyes widen as you eat grapes and take in the intricate drama that supposedly goes on in pre-k. Also, you’re extremely proud of Caleb for being so observant.

Lunch finally gets to the part that you were most excited for since you packed lunch this morning; putting the tattoos on your tongue.

You got some that are based on some super heros that Caleb likes and yours ends up being some shield. You make silly faces at Caleb as you both stick out your tongues and hold the fruit rollup against them. Caleb is giggling and it’s such a confidence boost which quickly disappears when a figure stops right in front of you.

Of course it’s Mr. Hot Teacher Man.

You look up, looking like a dog with your tongue sticking out and eyes wide open.

“Do you mind if I join you guys?” You just shake your head because you know you’ll look like even more of a dork if you try to respond and also you don’t want to ruin your tattoo.

Mr. Hot Teacher Man sits down next to Caleb and across from you. You immediately remove your fruit rollup and face Caleb so that he can see, “How does it look Bub?”

Caleb removes his fruit rollup and says, “That’s the Cap’s Shield! How does mine look?” He sticks out his tongue and it’s a bit smudged but you can tell that it’s an iron mask.

“It looks so cool Bub!”

Caleb basically bounces in his seat and gets up saying, “I need to show Bella!”

Mr. Hot Teacher Man says, “I think she’s over by the swings Caleb.”

Caleb dashes towards the swings without a second thought and you cry a little at how cute he is, “I can’t believe my nephew really has more game than me,” you say as you see Bella looking very impressed at Caleb’s tongue tattoo.

Mr. Hot Teacher Man chuckles and then says,“I don’t know, I was pretty impressed when I saw your tongue tattoo.”

You turn back to look at him, “You’re such a flirty little shit aren’t you?”

He just shrugs and juts out his lip, “Just a bit.”

Nancy might kill you for talking about the moms to Mr. Hot Teacher Man but it just slips out, “If only the moms knew how much of a shameless flirt you really are and not some innocent, cute bean.”

“Did you just call me a cute bean?”

“That’s not the point.”

“The moms? Is that a band?”

“Oh fuck, I mean shoot!” You cover your eyes with your hand and say to yourself, “Nancy’s going to kill me. Now I’ll never be in the group chat.”

“There’s a group chat?” Mr. Hot Teacher Man asks with amusement.

You drop your hand, “Did you honestly not think the moms didn’t have a group chat about you?”

“I like to think I’m humble enough to not think there’s a group of parents who talk about me constantly.”

“Yeah well now you can’t pretend there isn’t a group chat, so deal with that buddy.”

There’s a moment where you pop some more grapes in your mouth and Mr. Hot Teacher Man just stares at you.

He breaks the silence and curiously asks, “What do the moms say about me?”

“I don’t know if I should tell you,” you say looking at Caleb play with Bella.

He nudges your foot with his and whines, “Come on, I want to know.”

“Truth be told, I only know what they say about me.”

“You? I thought you said that the group chat was about me?”

You roll your eyes again, “Okay, it involves me and you...”

A smirk grows on his face, “Oh.”

You scrunch your face, “Honestly you are way cheekier than I thought.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me. So what did they say about us?”

You’re not able to answer because the kids start lining up at the doors, Caleb also making his way towards you.

“Aunt Y/N it’s time for arts and crafts!”

You are now sat in a tiny chair, meant for tiny people and that fact makes it ten times more fun for you. After lunch, Caleb dragged you by the hand to his tiny desk and you had to stop yourself from awwing at all the small things. You’re in the middle of admiring all of Caleb’s stickers on his name tag when Mr. Hot Teacher Man stands in front of the room and claps his hands.

“Okay who’s ready for craft time?” All the kids cheer and their parents along with them. “Alright awesome! So since we have been learning how plants grow and help our environment, we are going to be making greenhouses!" The children cheer because James is their hero.

He starts passing out plastic bottles, "So we are going to be using the recycled bottles you guys have been bringing all year to act as the home for your plants."

"We love a recycling king," you whisper under your breath.

Mr. Hot Teacher man starts passing out the bottles, "Parents I want you to cut the bottle in half, we will be using the bottom half as our green house. Also make about three holes in the bottom for the drainage."

You grab the bottle and look through the opening, like a telescope and point it at Caleb's face. It gets a giggle out of him and then you begin following Mr. Hot Teacher Man's instructions. “Please be careful when cutting the bottle.”

After that is done, the kids fill in the container with soil and they plant some seeds provided by Mr. Hot Teacher Man. Throughout the process, James summarizes the lesson they went over about plants and you understand why the kids love him so much. He’s makes learning not feel like learning and you honestly think he deserves a raise. Once everyone has a little greenhouse, James instructs them to place them along the window. Sticking there names along their little green house.

“We will be able to see the progress of the plant and in a couple weeks we will even be able to transfer them to the schools garden!” Mr. Hot Teacher Man explains and the students ‘ooo’ and ‘aw’, you along with them.

Once everyone has a clean work space area again James takes his place in the front of the room, “Okay so I know we won’t see results of this project for a while, and I wanted you to be able to take something home to remember this amazing day. So we will also be painting!”

Unsurprisingly, the kids go wild.

Everyone gets a little canvas and paint bottles get passed around. Mr. Hot Teacher Man explains that we have to paint something that makes us smile. So while you sit in this tiny chair, your body almost folded in half, you think real hard about what makes you smile. You look over at Caleb who is focused on his own painting and you smile.

“Hey Caleb?” His little head pops up to look at you, “Can I borrow you hand real quick?” He unquestionably places his hand in yours and you flip it palms facing up. You grab the blue paint because that’s Caleb’s favorite and you swipe some on. He giggles at the cold feeling and then you gently place it on your canvas, his hand is just small enough and you want to cry.

Once his print is on there you take a napkin and wipe his hand clean. He goes back to his painting and you feel good about what you want to do with the rest of the canvas. The pastel colors in front of you bring out the impressionist that you want to believe you are, and can’t wait to dab the paints around Caleb’s hand print.

You pour some paints onto a piece of cardboard that Caleb has in his desk and place it on your left knee. With the canvas on your other knee you have quick access to the paint and you begin a nice routine, changing up the colors as you please. It’s starting to look super cute and you’re too focused to pay attention to the figure who stands behind you.

“That’s sweet.”

You snap your head up and the movement makes you lose your balance and you fall back. You manage to hold up the canvas but on your way down the paints end up on your shirt.

“Aunt Y/N!”

“Y/N!”

Caleb and James exasperate at the same time. The parents stare at you, some want to laugh and others look concerned. Personally you want to be friends with the ones who look concerned.

“Ow,” is all you manage to say, the back of the tiny chair dug into your back. Mr. Hot Teacher Man helps you up and you catch the eye of one of the moms, a smirk plays on her face. You ignore her.

Caleb looks at you with worry in your eyes but you reassure him with a smile and nod to him to continue painting.

You place the canvas on the desk so that you can start cleaning up your mess. You feel embarrassed and your face heats up more when Mr. Hot Teacher Man bends down to hand you some paper towels. “Sorry about this.”

He shakes his head, “I should be the one apologizing, I should have pulled out some normal sized chairs.”

This time you shake your head, “Nonsense, these tiny chairs are adorable.”

You stand up and start wiping away at the paint on your shirt, “These colors should come out right?”

Mr. Hot Teacher Man looks down at your shirt and says, “Yeah these paints are washable. I have a shirt you could borrow?”

“N-no I think I should be fine!” you stutter out.

“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable the rest of the time, I’ll be back!” He insists and you argue against his offer because he makes his way to a closet in the back corner.

You try to ignore the stares of the moms from around the room. Nancy is definitely going to hear about this. James comes back with a black tee that has the name of a gym on the front. “Here, you can change into this.”

You don’t know what to say because this is definitely his shirt and you don’t want to say something stupid. Especially in front of all these parents, moms in particular.

You tell Caleb you’ll be back and Mr. Hot Teacher Man leads you to the bathroom in the back of the room. You change into his shirt and not only are you overwhelmed by the size of it but the fact that this smells just like him. You feel like such a creep but you can’t help it.

The shirt sits just above your knees so you tie a knot in the front. You try and wash some of the color from your shirt in the small sink but in the end you just fold it. You make your way back to Caleb’s desk. Again, you ignore the looks from the parents but do catch the eyes of Mr. Hot Teacher Man staring at you. His stare makes your stomach flutter and you turn away, face heating up.

You manage to not make a fool of yourself for the rest of the craft time session. That’s a lie. Every time Mr. Hot Teacher Man would bend down to admire and praise a students’ painting you couldn’t help but stare at his ass. Your mouth would hang open and it wasn’t until Caleb giggled and poked your side, did you realize you were ogling his teacher.

When you weren’t blatantly staring at Mr. Hot Teacher Man’s ass, you were trying to make Caleb giggle as much as possible. You knew he missed his mom and you gave him the idea to paint his mom some flowers.

Mr. Hot Teacher Man made his way back to Caleb’s desk and he got on one knee to admire your nephew’s work.

“Wow Caleb! This looks awesome! Is it for someone special?” Mr. Hot Teacher Man asks, sending you a knowing look. Probably thinking it’s for Bella

“It’s for my mom Mr!”

Mr. Hot Teacher Man’s smile grows bigger, “She’s going to love it bud.”

Caleb nods his head, “My aunt Y/N said that these flowers will never die, so- so she can enjoy them forever!”

“Well your aunt is pretty smart huh?”

Caleb nods his head enthusiastically.

Mr. Hot Teacher Man makes his way to the front of the class one last time and claps his hands again, “Okay class we have five minutes until the bell rings.” The class, including the parents and you, aw in sadness. Mr. Hot Teacher Man chuckles, “I know, I know I’m sad too. I hope parents enjoyed our class activities today and kids looks like there’s no homework today!” The kids of course cheer.

The kids are ready to go, desks cleaned, and paintings in hand. Parents mingle and some even huddle around Mr. Hot Teacher Man and talk. You stand by Caleb’s desk as he goes and talks to Bella. None of the moms approach you and you try not to make eye contact with any of them. So you awkwardly stand alone. You feel silly wearing Caleb’s backpack, clutching your painting and lunchbox to your chest. You regret not finding the time to ask James out on a date and you end up bumming yourself out.

The bell finally rings and Caleb quickly makes his way back to you. On your way out of the room Mr. Hot Teacher Man says bye to everyone and you give him a small smile.

Walking out of the building you look back and sigh. You told Nancy you were going to ask out James on a date but that clearly didn’t happen. Maybe tomorrow? Yeah, tomorrow you’ll have more confidence than you did today. That puts you in a better mood and you skip back to the car with Caleb.

Once you get to the car you look down at Caleb with his painting for Nancy and you ask, “Bub do you want to send your mom a picture with her painting? Or do you want to wait until she comes back?”

Caleb thinks about it for a second and then says, “Now!”

You smile and pull out your phone, “Okay hold the painting up annnnd smile!” Caleb smiles big, a couple of his teeth are missing and it makes the picture all that much cuter. “Yes Bub! She’s going to love this!” Caleb just giggles.

You turn the car on and open the back door to buckle in Caleb. As you close the door you nearly scream, clutching your hand to your chest, “Jesus James!”

Mr. Hot Teacher Man holds his hands up chuckling, “Hey-hey I’m sorry!”

You turn to Caleb and give him a reassuring smile, also pointing at James who waves at Caleb.

“I really didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Yeah well, the adrenaline pumping through my veins says otherwise.”

He just laughs, “I’m really am sorry. I, uh,” he stutters and puts his hands inside the pockets of his jeans, “-wanted to know if you would like to go on a date with me?”

“Oh how the tables have turned.”

“Is that a no?”

“No no, I mean yeah I want to go on a date. I meant like, I was going to ask you out today.”

He looks taken aback, “You were? Why didn’t you?”

You shrug and tuck a piece of hair behind your ear, “The thought of being rejected isn’t nice.”

“I agree.”

“I was going to do it tomorrow I swear.”

He chuckles, “Well you can ask me out tomorrow too. This guarantees me two dates with you now.”

“What if I don’t like the date you take me on first?”

“Then our second date would be extremely awkward.”

“I can’t believe you actually have a date with Mr. Hot Teacher Man! I can’t wait to tell the moms!” Nancy cheers after you tell her the news through facetime.

“Can you do me a favor and not tell them?”

“What? Why not?”

“I don’t want to jinx it or something. What if the date really is bad?” You confess your worries.

Nancy rolls her eyes, “Fine I won’t tell them but you’re going to have to tell me something. You owe them for snitching them out to him.”

“Okay, but they’re super obvious, they would have gotten caught eventually. Also, this is my business. The only reason you know is because you’re my only friend and because I told you.”

Nancy holds her hands up, “Right, right, I won’t tell them, I promise.”

“Thank you.”

“Now tell me, whose shirt is that?” Nancy asks teasingly.

“You know exactly whose shirt this is.”

“I know but I want to hear you say it.”

“I’m not going to say it.”

“You’re no fun.”

“And you’re annoying.”

“Are you going to sleep in it?”

“Yes.”

Tags: @vechkinfan @take-my-life-not-my-heart @softwhispers @bookgirlunicorn @faunacea @shortycraft13 @yesixoxo @sergeant-james-bbarnes @alycul @pancake-pages

#Mr. Hot Teacher Man Barnes #Bucky Barnes #bucky x reader

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metalandmagi · 5 years

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December End of the Year Media Madness!

It’s a new month and a new year! And what a crazy month it was what with Tumblr imploding and all. But I’ll still throw this on here just because I’ll be on this site until it literally boots me out. But I do have a twitter now…@metalandmagi where I’m also barely active at all.

Anyway, why make top 10 lists for the entire year when I can just ramble about all the media I consumed this month? There’s only a marginal amount of holiday things on here by my standards!

November media

Movies!

Give me some credit there’s only four Christmas movies on here.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?: A documentary about Mr. Rogers starting with the birth of the television show to his death. This is the fluffiest most heartwarming thing I could have possibly picked to watch on Christmas, and I encourage everyone, even people who hate documentaries and/or never grew up with Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, to watch it. There’s a lot of important messages about acceptance, dealing with tragedy, and mental health that people can learn from and feel good about. Not to mention how he completely revolutionized children’s television. So yeah, he was awesome.10/10

Spider-man Into the Spider-verse: When a rip between dimensions is opened, a bunch of different spider themed superheroes from every comic fan’s wet dreams all get together to close it. Guys I’m not that big of a Spider-man fan, but dang this movie was a ton of fun. I came for the amazing visual effects and stayed for the amazing...everything else. The music, the performances, and the story were all top notch. Also I now have a new favorite Nick Cage role. If you thought the trailer made the animation look interesting, it was just the tip of the iceberg because it is the most visually interesting movie I’ve seen in the last three years. I strongly suggest any fan of animation...or even any fan of great stories and movies in general go see it even if you’re not that big on Spider-Man. Now I’m demanding a Spider-verse Aunt May movie because I have so many questions! And the post credits scene was the best out of any Marvel movie. Period. 10,000/10

The Wiz (2015 musical): I should start making a section for musicals or plays instead of just lumping it in with the movies. It’s the Wizard of Oz...but cool. I’ve never seen any iteration of The Wiz and it seems like I’m constantly hearing about it. So I watched the 2015 version of the 1975 Broadway musical that NBC aired. And yeah it’s good. There were some great performances. But I wasn’t very impressed with the songs themselves, and it’s not really the same without a dog along for the ride, but whatever. 7.5/10

Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle: The surprisingly fun reboot/sequel thing of Jumanji where four teenagers get stuck in a video game that follows every “stuck in a video game” trope you can imagine but actually does it well. It’s a sweet, funny romp through the jungle with some great comedic performances. I really don’t have much to say about it except that this movie is better than it has any right to be. 8/10

The Christmas Chronicles: Two children stow away on Kurt Russell’s, I mean Santa’s sleigh and go on a dangerous, balls to the wall adventure throughout Chicago trying to save Christmas or something. After everyone started talking about how crazy this Netflix movie is I had to watch it to verify if it is indeed as wild as they said. And yes...yes it is. It is so laughably ridiculous and questionable that it’s impossible to actually hate. The elves are some unholy mixture of minions and gremlins, one of the children is a literal felon that no one is concerned about, and Kurt Russell is super into the role but has some sort of thing about fat-shaming Santa. I just...have so many questions! But it was certainly a trip, so I’d have to recommend it just so you too can witness the insanity. -10 “savvy, straight-talking St. Nicks”/10

Arthur Christmas: No, it’s not a Christmas special related to the aardvark cartoon! This is the 2011 animated movie that no one remembers exists. Santa’s clumsy but enthusiastic son Arthur must deliver a forgotten present in less than two hours while the rest of his family deals with some Arrested Development style family drama. This is by far the most underrated Christmas movie of all time; even I didn’t realize it was actually good until I watched it for the first time in 2016! The fun road-trip style plot and the entertaining characters were victims of bad marketing. Arthur is hilariously endearing, and there was so much heart and effort put into it that I can find new things to notice every time I watch it. Not to mention the amazingly animated opening spy sequence! And also Mrs. Claus is secretly a total badass and Bryony the elf is the coolest female character in a Christmas movie ever. The movie’s message of old vs new is nothing we haven’t seen before, but I really don’t care because at the heart of it all, it’s about making people happy on Christmas. If you’re like me and just assumed this movie would suck...or didn’t know it exists, please give it a chance. It’s not perfect, but it’s worth seeing. 9/10

Neo Yokio Pink Christmas: Yes, it’s the Christmas special for Neo Yokio. No I cannot accurately describe it with mere words. There’s a rich bachelor gift exchange, demon possession, and pompous French aunts slinging insults at each other. It is unironically my favorite holiday episode of a show ever, and to me it’s the best Christmas special ever made. I thought I was prepared for the absolute bat-shit ride I would go on, but no...I wasn’t even close. At this point I don’t know if it’s written like this on purpose or if some divine twist of fate made the executives believe this is truly brilliant television. Either way, it is a masterpiece in its own right. There’s even a somewhat intriguing plot and a message about gift giving and capitalism under all the crazy! If you haven’t jumped down the rabbit hole yet, I implore you to watch the insanity that is Neo Yokio and follow it up with Pink Christmas because it will truly make your holiday season. 100,000 demon DNA drugs out of 100,000!

Die Hard: Nothing says Christmas like terrorists taking over a skyscraper and Bruce Willis having to take them all down by himself. Yeah...so I’ve never seen Die Hard before, but this is one of those movies that is so famous that I felt like I’d already absorbed everything important through cultural osmosis. And even though it’s pretty good, I would have liked it better if I didn’t know what was going to happen. My only real complaint is that I think it goes on way too long. More than anything it just made me sad to remember that Alan Rickman is gone. And it bothers me so much that John McClane goes through this building that’s under construction WITHOUT SHOES! 8/10

Books!

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis: The 4th/6th book in the Chronicles of Narnia, in which Eustace Scrubb and his classmate Jill Pole go to the underworld to find King Caspian’s long lost son. Even though my children- the Pevensies aren’t in it, I actually think this book is my favorite of the series so far. Jill and Eustace are both sassy enough to play off each other, Puddleglum absolutely hilarious, and the book actually has a clear cut plot! It reads much more like a Greek myth than a children’s fairy tale since there aren’t nearly as many of Lewis’s trademark author interjections, and you know...it’s a literal journey to the underworld. And can I just say that it’s super refreshing to have an author write two main characters WITH ZERO ROMANTIC INTENTIONS! Especially since they’re freaking children! Now I just wish Disney had continued the movies even more! 9/10

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare: I’m going to do this with only minor spoilers. It’s the final book in The Dark Artifices trilogy. Will Emma and Julian break the parabatai bond? Will the reflection of the modern day American government- I mean the Cohort/ the Clave fuck up the relationships between Shadowhunters and Downworlders forever? You’ll have to suffer like the rest of us to find out! In my opinion, 99% of this book is amazing, but in the last 50 pages there are some...bullshit ways of solving problems. Like everything that went down with the Cohort in Idris. Not to mention we’ve been so invested in the parabatai curse and how Julian and Emma’s bond would go down and...let’s just say the resolution was way too easy. And if you thought Clare’s other finales were jam packed, you ain't seen nothin’ yet. My copy is 880 pages and there was still more stuff that I wanted to happen...like any sort of scene between Dru and Ash...or an ending between Kit and Ty that doesn’t make me want to cry (the Wicked Powers is going to be brutal). But the rest of that 99% is mind-blowing! There’s so much good I can say that it mostly outranks anything I didn’t like...I mean we finally got a Malec wedding and a proper polyamorous relationship for the Angel’s sake! It may be my least favorite of her finales by default but it was still a fun ride! 9/10

TV shows!

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018): An elite soldier finds a sword that can transform her into a super buff magical girl who helps princesses take down the forces of evil. It’s a reboot of the 1980s cartoon, and holy crap it’s AMAZING! I have a whole new group of children to adopt, each episode is entertaining in its own way, and there’s so...many...good...ships! And it gives Steven Universe a run for its money with the care that went into making every character a different kind of warrior, which I love because the cast is 99% female. My only real complaint is that I never warmed up to Catra because she wasn’t particularly sympathetic to me from the beginning. But I understand why some people love her. If you love well crafted adventurous character driven cartoons and haven’t watched it yet WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? 10/10

Nailed It Holiday: Yes, my favorite baking show (and by that I mean the only baking show I watch) has a holiday season out on Netflix, in which newbie bakers are tasked with making incredibly professional desserts with a very short time limit. And whoever makes the best treat gets 10,000 dollars. I’ve talked about this show before in my June media madness, and I don’t know what it is but I’m so addicted to it. 10/10

Brooklyn nine-nine (season 5): Come on we all know the cop sitcom. It’s the best sitcom. Just in general it’s the best. Great characters that subvert expectations, great humor, and a lot of heart. I’ve known that this show is supposed to be amazing for years, but I only started watching it a few months ago. And since I couldn’t find season 5 anywhere...I got a Hulu subscription just to watch it before season 6 comes out. That’s how good this show is. 10/10

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (season 2): Our favorite underdog comedian is back, and she’s slowly gaining popularity and doing...stuff. Like going on tour. And hanging out with Zachary Levi. Yes, this season is great, but my problem with this series is that every character aside from Midge and Susie are the fucking worst, especially the parents. Midge’s parents suck, Joel’s parents suck, Midge and Joel are appropriately neglectful parents for the time period...I could go on. And it’s not even in a funny way; like it’s just disgusting to watch these power dynamics. Not to mention how old the comedic bits for the parents get (how many times can we hear about Joel needing to date or Midge needing to get married?!) Yes, I realize that we’re supposed to be annoyed AND YES I realize that this is a product of culture and how society was, but none of the parents have any redeeming qualities. In episode one, we’re led to believe that Midge’s parents will grow and change through the season and they never do! At least there are moments where Joel can kind of be redeeming and expand on his actual character before he reverts back to being an asshole. Anyway, my thoughts are pretty much the same as the first season. It’s funny and interesting to watch, but it can be ridiculously frustrating when you hate almost all the characters! 8/10

Fuller House (season 4): Yes I do watch the ridiculous Netflix reboot of Full House. And yes, it is absolutely terrible! I really really hate it! But will I stop watching it? Let’s just say you can pry this pile of garbage from my cold dead hands. I don’t know if I’d call this a guilty pleasure or a hate watch type of show... it’s certainly not so bad it’s good territory like Neo Yokio...but Full House was pretty much my entire childhood. And yes, the original show is also not great. I loved it as a kid, and it was my first real exposure to a non-traditional family in live action, but yeah it doesn’t age well. What I’m trying to say is...I have no good reason for watching this.

I don’t mean to say that there’s nothing good about it, especially this season. They really back off on the more cringe-worthy catch phrases, Stephanie being aware of how stupid the writing is and constantly pointing it out is actually funny, their Christmas episode was surprisingly genuine, and they impressed me by actually make two female characters try and work through their difficulties instead of pitting them against each other for laughs. It has its moments, just like the original but definitely not enough to make up for the worst of it. Maybe this generation of children will like it the way lots of my generation used to like Full House...but yeah it’s awful, I hate it so much. -1 missing Tanner child out of 3

Voltron Legendary Defender (season 8) SPOILERS: It’s the final season of Netflix’s Voltron, and boy it was...something. I didn’t want to make this a big rant/defense of the show...but I feel like I have to highlight some things because this fandom is a shithole that refuses to see the good in anything.

There is so much good and so much...not good I can say about it, so here’s a couple things. I know this show didn’t go the direction anyone wanted, but that doesn’t make it bad. In addition to the stunning fight scenes and music, the performances this season were just amazing! I literally wanted to cry every other episode even though sometimes I didn’t know why the fuck something was happening. I don’t know how I feel about Honerva’s plan. I understand her motivation, but I was constantly questioning how we got from point A to point B... so yeah the plot and writing could be...weird at times. Also everyone seemed to have super pointy chins this season...

Spoiler alert: Not many of us wanted Lance and Allura to happen, but I truly believe it wasn’t done in a half assed way. At the very least, I appreciate that they had a genuine bond that developed over so many seasons. BECAUSE YES IT DID! Anyone who says they had no development or that it felt forced never paid attention. I wanted it to stay platonic; I wanted Klance to happen, but...I can’t be too mad at the writers because they at least tried. I still believe that Klance was endgame and the creators were forced to change the outcome of the show later on. AND YES LANCE DID GET A CHARACTER ARC! It may not have been the one we wanted to see, but I’m baffled that people think Lance living with his family, surrounded by people he loves-which is what he wanted all along- is not a happy ending. I just wish his relationship with Keith wasn’t pretty much ignored all season. But I believe Allura is his past that taught him to genuinely love and Keith is his future who will make Lance his “first choice”. And I’m not even gonna try to explain how I feel about Shiro and Allura’s endings because everything I feel is so complicated and layered. There is good and there is bad.

TLDR: This show teaches us that we’re stronger together, and I think the “fandom” completely missed the point because they do nothing but tear others down and refuse to look at things from other perspectives. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO NOT LIKE IT, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE AWAY OTHER PEOPLE’S ENJOYMENT AND BE A DICK ABOUT IT. It may not have been everything I wanted, but I’m glad I went on this ride. Besides, there are canonically infinite realities so there’s got to be a reality where all your dreams for the show come true. As a season, I’d say it’s a 7.5/10.

Honorable Mentions

I watched Avengers: Infinity War again. And yes it’s still great.

I’m watching Superstore because when another sitcom comes on before The Good Place, why not? Also since I finished season 5 of Brooklyn 99 I had to use my Hulu subscription for something.

Camp Camp has a holiday episode...so naturally I watched it...several times. Please watch Camp Camp.

Hellsing Ultimate Abridged finally ended, and I feel obligated to shout this out because, hey when you put out one episode a year it’s a big accomplishment to finish it!

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is finally here!!!!!!!!!!!

ALL THE WINTER ANIME IS ENDING!!! They were all so amazing! So shout out to Iroduku-The world in colors, Bloom into You, Hinomaru Sumo, Dakaichi, Banana Fish, Jingai no Yomen, Golden Kamuy, Skull-faced Bookseller Honda-san, Tsurune, AND RUN WITH THE WIND even though they’re not finished yet.

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adventuresaroundasia · 7 years

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After two years of working as a college counselor in Beijing (and over five years of living in China), I’m finally moving on. That’s right, my job is finished, and soon I’ll be leaving my cozy Beijing apartment for bigger and better things.

I know, I can’t believe it either. I never thought this day would come, and now it’s almost here. I know quitting my job and leaving China is a huge deal, not just for me but for this site as well. But it had to happen someday, and that day is… six weeks from now.

Pin Me!

Let Me Fill You In

Leaving my job in China is obviously bittersweet. On the one hand, I’m super excited to finally be able to travel as long as I want and work for myself without having to worry about round-trip tickets and vacation days. On the other hand, China has become my home, and I know many of you are a bit upset that I won’t be living here anymore.

Who wants another bland, professional travel blogger who hops nomadically from country to country, living in cheap digital nomad hotspots like Chiang Mai and Bali. We have enough of those, thank you very much.

So today I thought I’d talk a bit about all of the huge changes going on in my life to give you all a little insight into where this site is headed.

Why did I quit my job? What’s next for me? Will I still be writing about China? Where am I going? How am I going to survive without a full-time salary?

Well, read along folks, because this one will answer all your questions!

My first few weeks as a college counselor in China!

Why I Quit My Job in China

Well, first things first, I didn’t actually quit my job in China. My two-year contract as a college counselor expired and I personally chose not to renew it, much to the disappointment of my boss and coworkers. While working as a college counselor was an incredible experience (and a great way to pay off all of my student loans!!), it just isn’t my dream job.

I’ll be honest, working as a full-time college counselor while also managing this site AND creating a new teach abroad site was REALLY HARD. I was constantly stressed and exhausted. During admissions season I developed panic attacks, and I suffered from some hard-core FOMO whenever I was offered an incredible opportunity I couldn’t take because I had to be at work.

My story is the same as any other person who wants to start their own business without the capital to quit their full-time job. Side hustles are hard. Developing a new business with a full-time job is time-consuming and exhausting. I haven’t had the time or energy to fully devote to this blog because I’ve been too busy actually working at work.

It’s my hope that leaving my job as a college counselor will actually give me the time and energy I need to make the most of this site. For the last year and a half, my traffic has been pretty much stagnant. I struggle to crank out posts on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, and I’m not making as much money as I would’ve hoped by this point.

But now you finally have my full attention, and that’s super exciting!

Me over two years ago, finishing up my dissertation at the University of Nottingham in China

So… I’m Still Actually Working for My Job in China

Wow. So many over-exaggerations! Not only did I not quit my job, I’m actually STILL working for my old company part-time.

As much as I want to dive head-first into being a professional travel blogger, I’m also a little too responsible for my own good. I’m not a fan of having a low bank account balance or taking any financial risks, and I couldn’t bear to leave my students right at the start of admissions season either. So, I decided to sign a part-time contract with my college counseling job for the remainder of the admissions season.

This fall I will be helping my students craft and design their college admissions applications remotely via email and Skype. I’ll be paid for each final draft I help my students complete, as well as each hour I meet with them to chat. So far, this hasn’t been too much work, but I know things will ramp up when deadlines start approaching.

I’ll also be coming into the office 1-2 days a week throughout October and the first half of November. I’ll be meeting a ton of students back-to-back to prep them for upcoming application interviews (my specialty!), and I may also teach a few large classes on specific topics like interviewing, essay advice, etc. Thankfully my company is paying me pretty well for these meetings, and I’ve been working closely with my coworker to schedule them all as tightly as possible.

Exploring the Summer Palace’s Suzhou Street

Why I’m Leaving China

I’ll obviously write a full post on this later because there are many, many reasons why I can’t stay in China forever, (crowds, pollution, censorship, food safety, bureaucracy, and if I get bumped into one more time…) but there are a few major reasons I can quickly address here.

I Want to See the World

Firstly, there’s just so much of the world I want to see that I haven’t been able to explore because I’ve been living as a full-time expat in China. There are even some major parts of China I still haven’t been able to travel to, mainly because I only get Chinese holidays off from work, and I don’t necessarily want to go to Huangshan at the same time as 2 billion other Chinese tourists.

I know that if I was paying rent in China, I’d constantly feel guilty whenever I was on the road. Why am I wasting all of this money on an apartment I’m not even in?! I know there’s Airbnb and subletting, but to be honest, I’d rather just put all my stuff in storage and actually travel without worrying about an apartment.

Bye bye expensive apartment

Beijing’s Rent is Way Too Expensive

Seriously, I paid more for my room in a 5-bedroom apartment in Beijing than my friend Edna did for a room in Paris! Sure, I could easily move to a cheaper city like Xi’an, Chengdu, or Kunming, which might be an option in the future, but why do that when I could have my own villa in Bali for half of what I’m paying to share a room in a tiny rundown apartment by the Beijing Zoo.

China is Horrible for Digital Nomads

Two words: internet censorship. Sure, I can get around it using VPNs, but I’m SO TIRED OF IT. Did you know I have 6 VPNs?! Yep, while I usually use Express, I have five other VPNs as a backup. FIVE.

I’m sick and tired of just not being able to get on Instagram, or having to drain my 4G to load a Snap. If I can’t get my VPN to work I have zero access to my email, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Snapchat, YouTube, GoogleDocs, Pinterest, and basically everything I need to actually do my job.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the Internet just worked? I’ve almost forgotten what that’s like.

Chillin’ with Mao in Tiananmen Square

I Need a Break From China

I love China. I just spent two weeks showing my parents around Beijing, Xi’an, and Yunnan. I had such a great time and even contemplated coming back to Yunnan for a month or more! I imagined myself picking out an apartment in Xi’an and possibly opening up a cute boutique hotel there (because for some reason Xi’an doesn’t have any boutique hotels).

China is incredible, but I need a freakin’ break! China is not the easiest place to live, and after 5 years, I just want some peace and quiet! I just need a break from the constant construction, crowds, pushing and shoving, oily food, pollution, and internet censorship.

I know I’ll be back, but for now, I need to take a breather so I can appreciate all of the good things about this incredible country without becoming the dreaded ‘Jaded China Bitch‘.

Big Adventures Ahead!

So… Where Are You Going?

With all of this free time comes the desire to pack it to the brim with adventures and travels. At one point I really thought I was going to show my parents around China in September, head to TBEX Ireland in October, travel around Ireland and UK, then go to WTM at the beginning of November, head to Africa in Mid-November, and Australia in December.

Oh my god. Not only would that completely drain all of the money I’ve saved up. I also wouldn’t have ANY time to actually work.

Thankfully I was able to put my foot down and give myself a solid 6 weeks for working here in Beijing. But come mid-November I will be traveling to Japan to work with the Mie Prefecture and spend two solid weeks hiking the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage trail! Then Chris and I will be exploring a few other major cities: Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo!

After that, I’ll be heading to Australia to celebrate Christmas with Chris’ family in Ben Lomond Australia, a tiny village in Australia’s New England. To be honest, some peace and quiet after a few years in China sounds like heaven.

Finally, I’ll be visiting my parents in Palm Desert California, and then I’m onto a friend’s wedding in Atlanta!

What’s Happening With Adventures Around Asia?!

Australia? The US? What’s going to happen now that you’ve left China?

I get it. I’ve actually had multiple people message me saying that they’re disappointed I’m leaving China. People have come to associate me with this country, which is actually incredible, but also a bummer for many people now that I’m leaving.

So, to answer all your questions and quell any worries, here’s what’s happening with Adventures Around Asia!

Hanging out at the summer palace

I’m Still Going to Write About China

I have so much content on China I could literally create a new site tomorrow and never run out of blog post ideas. Seriously. I almost wish this blog was only about China so that I could have the time and energy to fill it to the brim with useful China content, crazy stories, and detailed guides.

Even though I’m not living in China full-time, I’ll still be writing about China. I’ll still travel to China, I’ll still create awesome guides, and I’ll be sure to keep all my info up to date. The only thing that will change on the China front is that I will no longer be continuing my expat monthly recaps, This Beijing Life.

I’ll still be covering Asia off the Beaten Path!

I Won’t Be Writing About Places Outside of Asia

I decided a long time ago that Adventures Around Asia will focus on Asia off the Beaten Path. I’m not going to all of a sudden start writing about Australia or Europe. I want to use this blog to show off the destinations and cultures that not everyone visits. I want to inspire people to explore like a local and get off the typical tourist trail.

There are enough blogs about Europe and North America. There are enough sites teaching you how to quit your job and travel the world as a backpacker or digital nomad, and there are far too many blogs talking about traveling Southeast Asia on the cheap.

I don’t want to compete with them. Frankly, they’ve been doing it better and longer than I have. While I do plan to share what’s going on in my life with all of you through personal posts and my new monthly recap series, The Freedom Life, I don’t plan on restructuring my blog to talk about something completely different.

Gotta update all the stuff from 2012!

I Will Be Writing More, and Updating Old Content

You know what’s great about not having a full-time job? Having the time and energy to actually commit to this site. Every time I read an old post about Sichuan or Yunnan from 2012, I squirm with embarrassment. Every time I check my most recent posts and see that I’ve barely written anything, I feel guilty.

Now I finally have the time and energy to fully commit to this site. Sure, I won’t be in China, but my China content will only get better in the following months. Promise.

Sometimes it feels like I’m the only blogger that’s NOT location independent

Aren’t You a Little Late to This Digital Nomad Game?

It’s a bit weird becoming a “digital nomad” when it feels like most travel bloggers are finally starting to settle down. To be honest, I almost feel like I missed the boat. Isn’t the digital nomad fad a huge cliche now anyway?

But despite all that self-doubt, I know I need to do this for me. There’s so much of the world I still want to see, and I want to be able to run my business and make money while doing it.

I know I’m late to the game, and I don’t care. I’m not becoming a “digital nomad” because it’s cool, or popular, or because everyone’s doing it. I just want to travel and see the world while also contributing, helping others, and growing a business I’m proud of (and without worrying about money all the time.)

I know the nomadic lifestyle doesn’t last, and I’m not even sure how long I’ll travel for. I’m an expat at heart, and once I’m tired of traveling, I’ll be settling down somewhere, probably in Taiwan. I’ll get a cute apartment and a cat, practice my Mandarin, find local friends, and buy some fuzzy blankets.

For me, “digital nomad” isn’t the dream. My dream is location independence. I want to be my own boss. Travel when I want to travel. Take opportunities when they come my way, and stop constantly worrying about vacation days and being in my office at a certain time, dressed a certain way, every. single. day.

I want freedom. I want control. I want to work for myself. Whether that’s on the road, as an expat, or at home in the USA is up to me.

What About Money? How Will You Survive?

Good question.

To be honest, I don’t make much money off of this site. It was my goal to be consistently making $1,000 USD a month by the time I quit my job. However, I can pretty much say I’m only hitting $600. While this isn’t a huge issue, it’s also not where I want to be, and definitely not enough to comfortably live in Beijing.

That said, I do have a few major income streams right now, and many more ideas where that came from!

Firstly, I had about $16,000 USD saved up when I quit my college counseling job. I have to say I’m pretty proud of myself for saving that much, considering I spent the first 1.5 years paying off $20,000 in student loans.

On top of my little nest egg, I have my part-time college counseling, which is a nice little consistent source of income. I’ve also been working as a recruiter for a few different schools and education companies in China. For every teacher that arrives in China, I make about $150-300 USD. This is a pretty slow moving process (especially since I’m SUPER picky about which schools I work with), so it can take months and months of work before I finally see a penny. However, I think this will be a pretty decent stream of income for me in the future.

Upcoming Business Projects!

In the next few months, I also really hope to work on boosting my passive income by fixing old blog posts to focus on affiliates. I feel like I’ve really been dropping the ball in this area, and I’d love to fix it.

FINALLY, I have a huge project I’ve been working on for the past few months. I can’t tell you all yet, but I will say it has to do with teaching abroad in China. I’m really hoping I’ll be done with everything by January, but it’s been a pretty slow-moving process.

If you’re at all interested in teaching abroad in China and you want to be one of the first to know about my HUGE MASSIVE INCREDIBLE PROJECT, be sure to sign up for my Free Teach Abroad Mini-Course and you’ll be the first to get all the info!

Just casually climbing a mountain in Yunnan

What About Your Boyfriend?

Oh, Chris? He’s coming too!

Chris has been location independent for a while now and works from home as a travel blogger and safari sales expert for a popular Tanzanian safari company. The only reason he lives in Beijing is because I’ve been stuck here (and his brother and nephew live here too).

To be honest, in the past I always imagined embarking on this new adventure alone. I was kind of excited about the prospect of long-term solo female travel. I embraced the challenge.

However, now I’m super excited about the idea of having someone to share everything with. Chris will be with me every step of the way, from hiking the Kumano Kaido, to working till the wee hours in a cafe with horrible wifi. Thankfully we have pretty much the same exact travel style, which makes things fairly easy.

…and we’re NOT combining blogs. I’m too much of a control freak for that.

Anything Else You Want to Know?

I know these are some huge changes, and this is a lot of information to process. That’s why I want to know: Is there anything I haven’t covered? Is there something you want to know about in more detail? Please let me know in a comment so I know what to cover in my next few posts!

Also, are you curious about hearing more on how I’m surviving as a “digital nomad”? Would you like a monthly income breakdown with personal updates on how I make money and emotionally handle working for myself? If so, would you like to see it in a monthly recap or as a post of its own? Be sure to fill me in on your thoughts!

After FIVE Years in China, I’m Finally Moving On After two years of working as a college counselor in Beijing (and over five years of living in China), I'm finally moving on.

#China #digital nomad #expat #location independent #personal

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moltensunlight · 7 years

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More (like a lot more) Altean!Lance arrives on earth by way of a crashed ship and then gets raised by a human family AU because my brain won't shut up about it lmao

like this is something i actually don’t think i’ve seen yet??? and i’m craving it now so i’m trying to be the change i want to see in the world lol here we go

so in this idea that’s been pestering me for like two weeks now, Lance and his family live on a completely different part of planet Altea than Allura and the royal family do

mainly because i want to explore more of Altea as a fully-realized planet with different climates and ecosystems and cultures

and when the Galra attack Lance looks like the human equivalent of an eight year old

how old is this in altean? who fuckin knows I'm still debating this b/c I can't decide how I want to break up the growth stages for alteans

his Altean family and maybe more escaped the fall of Altea in a ship (maybe one not unlike a smaller version of the castleship??? aka one of those ‘buildings that can turn into ships’ deals) and in order to escape detection by the galra they went into cyrosleep and shut down the ship (which we see is totally possible in the castle of lions) to keep it untraceable

they're either aimlessly drifting through space or they have a specific course, but basically they’re trying to keep themselves always on the move

then around 10,000 years later something happens that essentially rips part of the ship off (still debating the cause for this one tbhhhhhhh) including the section of the cryochamber room with lance's cryopod (which is miraculously unharmed) in it

the damaged part of the ship then ends up on a collision course for earth

lance's human family (like in my head it’s mainly his dad and his dad’s brothers (a personal headcanon i’ve based off my own family lmao) but honestly it could be any of the adults) finds the broken ship bit and searches the wreckage for survivors, thinking maybe it's a damaged Garrison craft or something until they're inside and they realize this is definitely not From Earth

during this exploration they find Lance in a pod that’s been damaged in the crash, it's cracked and Lance has a head wound that does not look pretty and probably a broken bone or two to boot

they pull him out and he's clearly not human but he looks like a child they can't just leave him there, but they also can't take him to a hospital

cue like an aunt or uncle who's medically trained patching him up the best they can (or even better sneaking him into a hospital for x-rays and bloodwork and the like, but i’ll get into those ideas later)

when lance wakes up he doesn't know who he is or where he's from aND there's a language barrier there

like I refuse to believe in canon vld that the castle and their lions and suits aren't constantly translating stuff for them because hOW DOES EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE SPEAK ENGLISH

but these people take care of him and they're really nice from what he can tell

I actually have this whole scene in my head where the family finds altean writing on lance's clothes that looks like "Lance" too, it says something completely different but it looks like “Lance” to humans that use latin-based alphabets, so boom name matching canon immediately addressed

but haven, how are you addressing his markings and altean features???

simple, my dudes, imagine that young alteans tend to shape shift to look like people they really like - oftentimes for other alteans it's hair or eye color, but for aliens there can be a lot more shifting involved. plus this whole process is encouraged because it's good practice for their shape shifting abilities too

habits also aren't going to be forgotten so soon, especially if they're a kind of muscle memory, and kids tend to do it without thinking (imagine a kid going "I want a haircut to match my best friend!!!!" with the strength of conviction that only a child can have; it's a strong enough thought that they just kind of subconsciously shift to that)

and Lance has no recollection of his life before he wakes up to this family, he's got nothing to go on, so he latches on to them (I imagine he bonds with his new siblings (that are around his age) super quick too) and shifts to look like them pretty early on, like way before he ever actually learns Spanish and English

and since he has no other influences for him to latch onto shifting-wise, and also no one to tell him "hey you can shift back too you know" he ends up just staying shifted human

also idk if any of y’all have ever had a concussion before but like there are like months-worth of time after the concussion itself occurred that are still fuzzy to me, even four years after the fact

this is relevant because if Lance shifts so early on in recovering from his concussion, he might not even remember that he looked like anything other than human to begin with

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other things to help reduce plot holes include:

Lance’s human family homeschooling him until he at least learns Spanish, since there is literally no one else on the planet who can explain things to him in his native tongue

they also need to figure out where his level of knowledge is at so they can figure out what grade to put him in

because of this time spent with his human family and seeing how humans work in the process, he quickly absorbs that shifting isn't a thing humans do, even if he wasn't fully conscious of the fact that he did it in the first place

he watches his siblings' hair grow and then get cut (no shifting involved), he listens to his brother complain when their sister grows taller than them because he wants to be the tall one!! but he never shifts to do so

basically a lot of "subliminal" messages that teach Lance about how humanity works, aka how we human children learn about how society and social settings work too - we watch others and copy what they do because they seem to know what they're doing (aka also how we get ourselves in trouble too because no one actually knows what they're doing lbr)

another fun thing: Lance subconsciously adjusting his strength to match that of a typical human after watching the amount of effort it takes others to do things

because of all this and a lack of memory surrounding his life beforehand Lance fully believes he's human through and through, because what else could there be???

now saying this, he probably totally has a phase where he wants to be/believes he is a mermaid, but his subconscious is rooted in humanity firmly enough by that point that he can’t accidentally shift into one (though imagine an au of this au where he does omg. imagine That Reveal. Lance voice: [after pidge reveals she’s a girl] well if we’re coming clean about secrets then i guess you guys should know that i’m a mermaid *finger guns and grows gills to prove it* Allura voice: no you’re just shapeshifting, you’re clearly Altean. wait, whAT-)

Lance's parents only tell him (and other family members like grandparents and such) the basics of finding him (we got you out of a nasty crash and we couldn't find anyone else in it so we don't know what happened to your birth parents but we love you very much and will always be your family)

because like how do you tell your son that now looks and acts and believes he's a human that he's really an alien??

also like, what would that accomplish??? Lance doesn't remember anything about his life before earth, what would he even do with the info??? He can't get back, he wouldn't even know where to even BEGIN looking in //all of space// for his birth parents, and that's IF they're even still alive, like, it's just a Bad Time all around

so they love their star boy very much and try to give him the best life that they can here on earth

(this also breaks my heart but imagine Lance’s parents’ reactions to him deciding to go to the Galaxy Garrison and then working really hard to get in - they’re so so proud of their star boy and they want him to follow his dreams but there’s a part of them that wonders if he was always going to return to the stars, if he never truly belonged with them)

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now cue the entirety of canon VLD events

literally nothing changes, i just have the idea of a few extra scenes thrown in to raise some questions, but nothing that really comes to a head until after Shiro’s disappearance

this post is so long already tho i think i might just continue these ideas in another post lmao

#Voltron legendary defender #altean lance #lance #what do i even call this au omg #star boy au?????????#i mean i guess that's fine unless i think of something better lmao #star boy au #haven speaks

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dorothydelgadillo · 5 years

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Why You Need a Content Manager for Your Company (Some Tough Love from a Former Content Manager)

Let's cut to the chase. If you want to see results from inbound and content, someone in-house has to own your content as a full-time job.

Now, inevitably some of you are saying to yourselves:

"We're not ready to commit yet. We want to dabble first to see if inbound is for us."

You'll never get 110 percent results by putting in 50 percent (or less) effort. Success will only come if you commit fully. There is no in-between. (This is true for almost everything in life, so I'm not sure why anyone would think inbound would be different, but whatever.)

Or maybe you think you've got it covered:

"We've got a few people who can use part of their time on inbound, it's fine."

No. No, it's not fine.

You've got a few people who will deprioritize your content strategy the second something else "more important" comes along -- and you won't have anyone to hold them accountable.

As we've spoken about at length before, you need to hire a content manager if you want to walk an inbound path to attain the growth, revenue, and expanded brand awareness you're looking for.

You can call them whatever you want -- content strategist, content marketing manager, chief content officer, grand high priest (or priestess) of words... I don't care!

You just need someone in that seat.

We've also shared what questions to ask when interviewing for a content manager, as well as the most important qualities to look for in a content manager.

But I think we need to roll this narrative back a bit.

Lots of people -- including us -- are telling you that you need a content manager, but why?

Why do you really need a content manager? What do they bring to the table that can't be covered by someone else on your team? ("Seriously, can't the marketers we've already hired just take care of it?") Are the skill sets we're suggesting you look for actually necessary?

Most of all, will having a content manager really make a difference for your team and your company, beyond accountability?

Those are the exact questions I'm going to answer here for you.

But first...

A Brief History of Liz the Content Manager

Before we joined forces with IMPACT in 2017 -- where I was first a content strategist and I'm now our director of web and interactive content -- I was Quintain Marketing's content manager.

Although I didn't start out in that role.

I joined Quintain Marketing in 2014 as an account manager (and then a senior account manager), before Kathleen Booth (then-owner) created the content manager position for our company and moved me into that seat a year or so later.

Kathleen's move solved two challenges.

Coming from a writing and publishing background -- part of the reason she hired me in the first place -- I was much more suited to that role. As a result, I was able to thrive and excel professionally in a way that would have never been possible as an account manager. (Truth be told, I wasn't that great of an account manager. I was the right person in the wrong seat.)

More importantly, however, it helped us centralize content creation efforts for ourselves and our clients.

Kathleen realized what many other marketing leaders (agency or otherwise) had not at that time -- mediocre content no longer gets results.

So, if an organization doesn't bring centralized content and publication expertise in-house, they will fail in the long-run.

Through my experience as our content manager, I could not agree more.

What It Feels Like When You Don't Have a Content Manager (Spoilers: It's Painful)

No matter what your marketing strategists and subject matter experts tell you, creating content feels like a burden. (Although some will be upfront about it. Really upfront about it.)

There are those who will be exceptions to that assertion, of course. But, for the most part, creating content -- even when they see the value in it and want their voice to be heard by your audience -- will always be that thing they have to do.

It will always be in the way of what they really want to be doing.

Without having a content manager in place:

You will have some folks who grow to resent your strategic content efforts. Even if you're getting results, their pain doesn't go away or get better.

Marketers who want to create and execute innovative campaigns and strategies will leave, because they didn't sign up to be a brand journalist who is forever caught in a loop of chasing people down for edits and approvals.

You won't have someone in-house who can empower others to create truly engaging content that actually gets them noticed and gets better results.

Deadlines will be missed, strategies will go off the rails, and -- eventually -- your little inbound experiment will fall apart.

I want to draw particular attention to that second point, because this is something that often gets overlooked.

One of the top things I look for in a content manager or specialist hire is the desire to do that exact role.

Unfortunately, it's my experience that digital marketers who end up with content manager responsibilities they shouldn't have (and/or didn't ask for) always end up leaving or cycling out to another role within the company.

Even if they say they want that role, it's not going to work out. That's not to say there aren't marketers who later go on to find their passion as a content specialist -- that's exactly what I did, as did Ramona. But someone either has the foundational skills and (more importantly) the passion for content, specifically, or they don't.

I've seen too many super-talented social media strategists and digital marketers try to backdoor their way into a different dream marketing job via a content specialist role, and it never goes well.

If you don't take this into account, you will hire the wrong people or worse, lose the people you've already got in-house.

Which leads me to a personal bone to pick with the digital marketing industry, as a whole.

Stop Expecting Your Digital Marketers to Be Everything to Everyone

There are way too many of you out there who expect your digital marketing strategists to wear as many hats as possible.

They need to be experts in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, community management, LinkedIn, HubSpot, WordPress, Adobe Creative Suite, conversion rate optimization, social advertising, PPC, Salesforce, sales enablement, marketing automation, business writing, SEO, keyword research, brand messaging, website user journeys, privacy laws, public relations, video production, graphic design, web design, HTML, event production and marketing, email marketing, public speaking, personal branding, podcasting, audio editing, audience research, data analysis and reporting, wood carving, baking soufflés that never deflate, predicting the future, and so on.

Now, you're also expecting them to become storytelling, publishing, and journalism experts?

Those are areas of expertise people get degrees in and build whole careers around, because you can't just "wing it" or watch a few YouTube tutorials to learn the required skills to excel in those areas.

Here's a story to show you what I mean.

Almost two years ago, a senior marketing strategist who is absolutely brilliant at crafting results-driving campaigns for his clients came to me with a problem that had been keeping him up at night.

"I have this outline for a guide a client wants to publish, and I want you to look at it," he said.

He shared they were way over their timeline on the project. A fully-designed version was supposed to have been published the week prior, according to their original timeline -- and they were still mired in the outlining phase, with no end in sight.

"I don't know what's wrong with it or why we're stuck -- can you take a look at it?"

It only took me a five-second glance to realize what the problem was.

The topic they had chosen for their guide was so broad in scope -- with no specific problem they were trying to solve clearly identified -- there was no way they were ever going to agree upon an outline, let alone actually produce the damn thing.

They were doomed to fail from the start.

To toot my own horn, this is what my background in writing and publishing has trained me to do.

But it wasn't his fault that he couldn't see that -- we're simply experts in different things. Seriously, some of the strategies he would share with me blew my freaking mind, because I knew I could never make my brain work that way in 1 million years.

Bottom line, asking your digital marketers and other subject matter experts to suddenly become storytelling wizards and editing geniuses is a bridge too far. You're creating unnecessary friction while also guaranteeing your inbound content strategies will ultimately tank, because you're not putting someone qualified in place to own it.

I say this because the story I shared above is not a unique one.

There isn't a week that goes by where I don't have between at least three and five people approach me with a content problem. They do so because they know it will take us 10 to 15 minutes (on average) to solve it together, instead of the many hours (days, weeks, or more) it might otherwise take them to do so on their own.

Content nerds like me know how to manage writers, make content more powerful, edit content efficiently (so you can produce more, better and faster), make writing blogs less painful, spot why content projects will fail (long before they do), get other stakeholders participating (and enjoying) the content creation process, and manage competing deadlines for lots of projects -- all of which are inevitably a "top" priority.

We spend our late nights obsessing about new ways we can tell our brand's stories in ways that are more helpful, engaging, and innovative.

We go out of our way to find the content tools and applications your company needs to make content creation and collaboration easier and more productive.

We're constantly trying to find new methods and processes for empowering our internal subject matter experts to have more time to do what they do best, while still getting their names and insights in front of our audiences.

This is the stuff we're born to do, and that's why you want someone like me (and Kevin Phillips) on your team.

(Not us, specifically, of course. We're IMPACTers. But you get the point.)

If You're Still with Me, Here's What You Need to Do

If you want to see exponential gains in your website traffic, lead generation, and the numbers of deals you are able to close, you've got to hire a content manager. It's that simple.

And if any of the pains I outlined above sound familiar, trust me when I say a content manager will make a lot of that go away... assuming you hire the right person.

To do that, you need to:

Commit to memory the top qualities your content manager needs to possess.

Use the interview questions and situational activities Marcus Sheridan outlines in this article.

I know Marcus mentioned this in those articles above, but I want to reiterate how important it is to hire for the right skill set and company culture fit over industry expertise.

If you happen to find someone who checks all of those boxes, that's great!

But never, ever exclude a candidate because they're unfamiliar with your space -- especially since some of the best content managers we've seen were fresh out of college with journalism degrees.

If you hire for the right skills, your content manager will quickly accumulate the knowledge and expertise you want them to possess simply by doing their job.

They'll become unstoppable.

And you'll wonder why you ever questioned investing in a content manager, because (in hindsight) you'll see you never could have afforded not to.

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/why-you-need-a-content-manager

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connorrenwick · 6 years

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Building a Personal Online Brand with Brendan Fallis

The following post is brought to you by Squarespace. Our partners are hand picked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design.

As Jeff Bezos famously said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” It’s real, it’s authentic, it’s your essence – and it’s difficult to fake. Building your personal brand is more than having a well-designed logo and more than just getting your name out there, it’s also ensuring that every one of your messages and actions works toward growing your influence by controlling the narrative. People are going to talk no matter what, so you may as well take part in the conversation!

Squarespace can help your brand’s narrative by making your site a true reflection of what you’re trying to achieve and making you look like a pro from the start. Their award-winning templates are easy to personalize while their marketing tools will help you grow your audience and be found.

Brendan Fallis is a Canadian import who has quite the resume – he’s a worldwide sought after open-format DJ, an impressive style icon, and a partner in a talent management firm. It’s safe to say that he knows more than a little about building a personal online brand, so we reached out to get Brendan’s take on what makes him shine among the masses, as well as how Squarespace helps him and his online brand be viewed in the best possible light.

Make yourself standout.

For Brendan there’s one quality that stands above all others, “Number one would be authenticity. So many people in the space are not true to what they are. Lots of people see a lane they think will fit them and then grow into that lane. For me, I just post the life I live in a way I like to portray it. In my mind, a lifestyle is your brand and it needs to resonate in all aspects. A lot of people who fall into this category are strong in one space but fall short in others, and I think it’s highly noticeable.”

Build relationships.

In the case of personal branding, influence lies in the authority of self-expression, so taking control of what’s being put out there about you is vital. The more authentic you come across to your audience, the more lasting power you’ll be building day to day. In Brendan’s case, the worlds of music and fashion share some crossover.

“Music definitely got me my ‘keys to the city’ so to speak. It was the first part of my life in NYC that took me out of an office job. From there, I began to use fashion as a tool for more work in the music space, and from all of that, the talent management company was born. It’s great that all the verticals play into themselves. It allows me to have leverage in all sorts of creative ways through relationships old and new, for both the talent we represent and myself.”

When it comes to advice for designers working with influencers, Brendan suggests “Your brand is only part of the equation. Although you might be and should be heavily invested in your own brand if you’re looking to work with an influencer keep in mind that they’ve created a brand for themselves that you need to be conscious of. As in any relationship, it’s a two-way street – be open, listen, learn and react. There are plenty of great things to accomplish and a lot of roads that will lead to nowhere, but just keep pushing and stay positive and it will all go the right direction.”

Find your people.

In order to acquire that all important influence and sway, you’ll need to identify your audience, keep them engaged and energized, and figure out where to find them. One or two social platforms are sure to stand above the rest when it comes to all of this, and the only real way to find out which is through experimentation.

Brendan says, “I don’t target an audience specifically when I think of creating content, but the audience formed and now falls into a majority between the ages of 26 and 40. I used Facebook and Soundcloud originally to get my word out around music and then when Instagram was born, I learned how to create new content that promoted growth around my personal brand.”

“Engaging your following is more difficult than most people think. You have to be creating and sharing content constantly. As much as people say the job must be easy, putting together 3-5 original pieces of content a day that represents quality and is engaging is super time-consuming. Once you post any content you need to be there to support it cross-platform and, then follow up with all followers who engage to give it more of a personal touch. I also feel it’s important to engage directly with those who reach out because, at my level especially, I feel listening, learning, reacting, and being motivated by your following is super important. Instagram is where I spend the most time but trying to give YouTube a solid amount these days as well, which I’m finding the most challenging.”

Put yourself out there.

As you can see, there’s a good amount that goes into growing a personal brand after launch as well. As a seasoned veteran, Brendan has some good tips and advice for those just starting out on building their own personal brand.

“There’s a lot that goes into building a brand and it largely depends on what the vision is, but in general some key pieces of advice are to be authentic, be transparent, be humble and listen,” according to Brendan. “Your brand will be how the world sees you before you get a chance to explain yourself or respond to any questions, so make sure you feel confident and comfortable with what you’re going to go to market with. That being said, if something is too over-thought you may never even roll it out. In this world you can pivot and grow within reason, so don’t stew on an idea forever. Sometimes it just takes it getting out there to understand what it needs to be and where it can go.”

Craft your look.

Squarespace is a great resource for not only easily building a sleek and intuitive website but also injecting it with the personality of your brand. And the beauty of it all is that everyone can achieve the look and feel they’re looking for without breaking the bank.

When it comes to Brendan’s approach to his own brand he said, “I like to keep my own brand quite simple – clean and classic – but make myself approachable, humble, and relatable. I think the site design speaks well to all of that.”

His site was designed by Robert Levine who shared, “The intention was to build a website sophisticated in its simplicity, just like Brendan himself.”

“Robert mood-boarded the whole project. He understands my brand from afar, so he was able to come to me with a very concise plan about color, font, copy, and use of photos. Robert has a very clean, precise taste so I knew he’d be able to take my analog qualities and allow them to live in a digital world in a comfortable way,” Brendan said

He then added that “It’s always refreshing to find a company that makes something very daunting incredibly simple. Squarespace takes the guesswork out of searching high and low for an answer on how to build a website. It’s simple, efficient, and on top of that focused on great design. There are plenty of options to choose from to find the vibe you want, and then you can tweak it a bit from there. By alleviating the stress of building a site, it allowed me to focus on how I creatively want my site to live and gave me a quick but professional looking tool to use as a point of reference, landing, and resume so I could spend more time in the field building relationships and work.”

Ready to get to work on that branding? Take the first step with a Squarespace website. Use coupon code DESIGNMILK at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

via http://design-milk.com/

from WordPress https://connorrenwickblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/21/building-a-personal-online-brand-with-brendan-fallis/

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russellthornton · 7 years

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How to Entertain a Girl Over Text: Excite Her Mind with Words

The song was right! Girls just want to have fun. Here’s how to entertain a girl over text and keep her coming back for more of your wit and charm.

Have you ever wondered how to entertain a girl over text? Does it make a difference? I’ve found that you don’t have to entertain a girl through text to get her out and on a date, but having the skill set still helps me:

#1 Keep long-term female friendships going even when we don’t meet often.

#2 Keep long-term intimate options open, even when we’ve yet to meet up.

#3 Convince a girl to meet up if she’s unsure about me or busy.

#4 Get a girl excited about me.

#5 Have lots of hilarious conversations over text that make me actually LOL and my week feels that much cooler.

For me, entertaining a girl is not about tap dancing for her. Rather, it’s about getting my unique voice across. Obviously, communication limitations occur with texting.

However, I’ve not only used text to convert a girl from being unsure about me to saying I was super fun and amazing. Once I even had a girl text me that she would leave her boyfriend because I’m the man she really needs in her life. *I actually told her I would not go out with her because she already had a boyfriend, which is why she decided to leave*

How to entertain a girl over text

You can absolutely keep a girl’s interest and excite her over text. Here are a few tips on how to go about it.

#1 Using memes. If you’re like me and don’t want to work when you send text messages then memes are invaluable. Memes are shared pictures, sayings, general ideas, or sometimes very short video clips that for whatever reason have become so popular that they get shared over and over again within a culture.

Maybe it’s a still from a movie or some YouTuber who went viral or a presidential blooper moment that got snapped and used by journalists all around the world. Others are specific to particular cultures such as Jamaican patois. People sometimes write text on top of these images or videos or sayings—to support or make a point or just be funny or satirical.

Maybe you have a still of a cat wearing a small top hat and looking untrustworthy. If a girl says something that seems unbelievable, rather than reply with words, hit her with the meme. Or surprise-meme her during your day with one that made you laugh.

Memes are great because they don’t need a proper reply. They are casual, but often start a fun conversation. Here’s where the skill comes in: if you use memes that show you’re playful and fun but also show you get the type of culture she’s into, you tap right into her world, which may well be her Twitter and Facebook feed—people these days… [Read: Smartass quotes: 48 smart and sarcastic lines that kick ass]

#2 Writing how you talk—just more punchy. Example:

Her: Hey how are you sweetie? Me: Good hun x. I went for a run. Super thirsty now @_@

I think sometimes the more you try to be clever or invulnerable or whatever ‘supreme confidence’ persona, the more you come off as odd or insecure. Not everyone has time to sit down and craft a well-thought out text. We all have busy lives. I trust she knows this and doesn’t expect that with every text she sends, I’ll spend 15 minutes thinking about my reply. [Read: 18 casual things to text a girl and leave her addicted to you]

#3 Not overanalyzing her. This probably just makes you seem try-hard. I prefer going with the flow and if something doesn’t make sense I might just text her ‘okay… I’m following you *insert confused emoji*’.

#4 Making statements not questions. You know the saying *I’ve just made it up by the way*: ‘it’s easy to make a question, it’s hard to make a statement.’ Making a statement tells her about your personality, the way you think, and that you have your own opinion. It’s entertaining to try and decode somebody.

However, a barrage of questions usually makes me feel as if the person’s trying to get something out of me. So, I never drill her for answers. Although it can be fun to drop some daring questions about her interests and personality suddenly and briefly, to catch her off guard. [Read: How to text a girl you like and make her want you]

#5 Being casual *think Twitter*. Nothing kills entertainment more than when someone cares too much about what others think of them. Or when they’re too structured. When I’m texting to entertain, I write as if for some crazy blog, not for a formal essay.

I’m never afraid to be random, instant, or shocking when looking to entertain. Entertainment is all about holding attention and moving it where you want it to move. I’m not long-winded. I’m thinking 150 characters rather than 1500 words. I want to leave her wanting more and not as if she has homework to do when she receives a text message from me.

Here’s the key I use, which serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk calls ‘document, not create’: I don’t need to create a new text idea or thread every time I send a message. I might post a photo of me hanging out with a mate. I ask myself: what’s happening right now? Or when something happens I share it, sometimes with a twist.

Example:

Me: ‘My neighborhood cat is just watching me.’ Her: ‘LOL, what?’ Me: ‘It’s expression kind of reminds me of when you look surprised.’

You can always go back to an old thread if one dies out, because new things are always happening to you. [Read: How to start a text conversation with a girl – 15 rules to impress]

#6 Disagreeing. Nothing is more annoying than a people pleaser. I’ve definitely been there before. You are way more interesting when you have your own opinions. I’ll avoid being too serious when I disagree if she doesn’t know me well.

#7 Talking about ‘we.’ This can be used in the silliest of contexts: ‘We should climb Mount Everest this weekend or maybe that’s a bad idea?’ Using ‘we’ creates a feeling of progress in a cool way, as if you build something together. [Read: Texting etiquette: 20 unwritten rules of savvy flirting]

#8 Not setting a date/place/time to meet. It can be boring and even annoying when you know what’s going to happen before it happens. Yeah, maybe it’s safe and secure but not exactly exciting.

So, even though I might use ‘we’ to let her know that I intend on doing something with her at some point, I’m not overeager to put it all in digital ink. This is an adventure together, not a business deal.

#7 Matching the length of her text messages. The only time I ignore this rule is if I’m in a particularly no F’s given sort of mood or tipsy. But generally, if a girl always replies to my messages with a much shorter reply, I take this to mean she’s not as invested in me as I am in her.

In that case, I slow it down. Anything too abundant in supply and too low in demand usually has low value, let alone low entertainment value. [Read: How to play hard to get with a girl and do it just right]

#8 Avoiding emojis if she doesn’t reciprocate. This keeps more mystery with regard to my level of excitement and interest. I’ve experimented with using lots of emojis and I suspect it makes you seem too keen if it’s only one-way. [Read: 18 really obvious signs a girl likes you over text]

#9 Being cheeky. I’ve written about this before because it so damn useful. The problem with text messages is that you can’t give a nod and a wink when you’re being playful. But you don’t need to when you can send a ;-).

Emojis also let you get away with more than you would think. So when you send a risqué message that might surprise her, just add a 🙂 afterwards. We all have busy lives and don’t have the time to read between the lines constantly, this helps her know you’re being cheeky.

#10 Doing these and seeing how she reacts. I’ll show different sides of me and see how she reacts to it. I might:

a. Be bold – ‘Yeah, I kill people for a living.’

b. Be cheeky – ‘Sp, what are you wearing right now?’

c. Be cocky – ‘My nickname is God.’

d. Be complimentary – ‘Wow, you are seriously cute, love that pic.’

[Read: What to text a girl – Dos, don’ts and all the secrets to know]

#11 Responding to her tests fearlessly. The key I use when keeping an entertaining conversation going is to respond rather than to react. For me, being reactive becomes like an addiction that makes my mood shift with each reply. Whereas, when I’m responsive I just share my good energy and invite her to also share.

So if she becomes rude then I just call her out on it fearlessly and without getting emotional. Sometimes I improvise a joke out of it, because I don’t really care what some girl thinks of me if she doesn’t know me. I try not to text if I’m in a crappy mood or if she’s pissed me off.

Example *this is roughly how it’s panned out in the past for me*:

Her: ‘That’s not funny. You actually sound like an asshole.’ Me: ‘Yes, I keep getting rewarded with coitus for it. I’m a victim.’ Her: ‘Okay… sure weirdo.’ Me: ‘Listen, I was having fun, but if you really don’t like my sense of humor then maybe we just won’t hit it off as I like to banter. It’s a pity because I liked you when we met.’ Her: ‘LOL. Okay… actually I was just teasing you :-).’ [Read: How often should you text a girl? 17 must-know rules of texting]

#12 Not always being available. Distance makes the heart grow fonder. I don’t text a girl on a Friday or Saturday unless I already created the habit of meeting her on those days. I don’t text her because those days are for people who are actually part of my social life in person.

I also don’t always reply immediately. I might leave it a day in some cases. Other times we might have a text marathon—I play it by ear. Also, if she delays in her reply to me for a significant amount of time then I might give it a bit of time before I reply.

Casual, playful, unpredictable, challenging, and fearless are good approaches for entertaining text. Keeping some mystery and unavailable at times lets her do the rest of the work for me in her imagination.

[Read: Texting your crush: A step-by-step guide to doing it right]

Use these tips on how to entertain a girl over text, and be that textual drug that makes her want to read your messages before any of the other boring texts she receives from the other guys.

The post How to Entertain a Girl Over Text: Excite Her Mind with Words is the original content of LovePanky - Your Guide to Better Love and Relationships.

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