#(and also lots of import store stuff is different from what we have here)

[alotofpockets]

Out of reach | Mary Earps

Pairing: Mary Earps x Reader

Request: Mary x taller R where they have to keep helping her reach for things

Masterlist | Woso masterlist | Words: 1k

-----

You were browsing your local supermarket for dinner inspiration after a long work day. The day had been filled with important meetings, and you were still dressed for the part. You ended up in the pasta aisle where you saw a woman trying to reach for a jar that was slightly pushed back on the top shelf. Without a second thought you walked towards here, “Let me get that for you.” You say and reach for it. 

The moment you hand the woman the can, is the first time you see her face. You were mesmerised by her beauty. “Thank you, it was just out of my reach.” The woman said with a beaming smile. Her words snapped you out of staring, “Of course, no problem.” The woman in front of you looks between the two of you and starts laughing. “Look at us, full suit versus full tracksuit.” You hadn’t realised the stark contrast in your outfits until she pointed it out but laughed with her once she explained. “Your outfit seems a lot more comfortable, and I definitely switch to something similar when I get home once I figure out what to eat tonight.”

You weren’t usually one to talk to strangers in a supermarket but something about the woman in front of you made it feel like you weren’t strangers at all. She was easy to talk to, and you felt yourself not wanting the conversation to end. “Well, I was going to make some spaghetti bolognese, would you like to join me?” You were intrigued by her offer but also didn’t want to impose. She seemed to notice your hesitation in answering, “Please, let me thank you for helping me.” She managed to get you to set your doubts aside. “Okay, let’s do it then. I’m y/n by the way.” The woman holds out her hand for you to shake it. “It’s nice to meet you, y/n. I’m Mary.” 

“Great, I just need to get something for dessert.” She hadn’t let go of your hand, so she used it to guide you towards the dessert section. “Since I chose dinner, you can choose dessert.” You head to the front of the store once you’ve picked out desserts, and after Mary made sure you didn’t need to get anything else at the store. With a bag full of groceries, you walk out of the store together. “I live like two blocks away from here, my friend dropped me off at the store, so I was planning on walking home. Are you okay with walking there?” You nod over to your car a few parking spots over, “Or we can take my car?” Mary smiles, “Perfect.” 

You get into your car and look down at your outfit, “Do you mind if we stop by my house? I would love to get out of this suit.” Mary buckles up, “Or I can lend you some trackies and we have a cosy date.” Her eyes widened, “Wait, sorry, I never clarified it as such.” You shake your head and laugh, “A cosy date sounds lovely.”

After setting down the groceries in Mary’s kitchen, she leads you upstairs to get you a comfy outfit. She opens her closet, and you don’t think you’ve ever seen that many sports clothes together outside of a store. You notice the Manchester United, and the England crest on many of them. “You’re a big football fan then?” You let your eyes go over the many jerseys. 

Mary smiled at your comment, it was a nice feeling that the stranger at the grocery store liked her for her and not because she was a fan. “You can say that.” She says with a laugh. You turn to face her with a furrowed brow. “They’re my jerseys. Mine as in I wear them when I play for United and for England.” She pulls out one of the jerseys showing the back. “Earps, that’s me.” She says proudly. “Wow, I had no idea. That’s really cool. So you get to wear comfy stuff for work every day then, maybe I should consider a career switch.” You both laugh.

Your first date with Mary was a big success, she was easy to talk to, and while your careers differed immensely, you had a lot in common with her. She walked you back to your car, where you shared your first kiss. Mary was standing on her tippy toes, with her arms around your shoulders. The kiss was short and sweet, with a promise to more since you had already planned your second date.

After a few dates, Mary had asked you to be her girlfriend, which you had happily said yes too. 

One month into your relationship you found yourself amongst the crowd at Leigh Sports Village, where you watched Mary play for the first time. She had explained the basic rules of football to you while watching a match on the tv together one night. Now that she wasn’t by your side to explain what was happening, it was harder for you to follow but that was okay. Whenever you didn’t understand what was going on, your eyes went to her in the goal. 

Mary met you in the family and friends lounge when she was done, she introduced you to a couple of her teammates before taking you back to your place. Since your first date was an at home dinner that you prepared together, you wanted to create the tradition to do the same for your anniversaries. So, starting off with your first month anniversary today, you went to the store you had met each other in to pick out the ingredients. 

Ever since you started dating, you would get everything from the top shelves for Mary, but now you turn around from the pans on the stove to find Mary climbing on top of the counter. “Baby, what are you doing?” You laugh. “I’m just getting some wine glasses.” She said innocently. You take the glasses from her, before you help her down from the counter, and spin her around a couple of times. “You know I couldn’t easily grab those, right?” She pecks your lips. “Yeah, just a habit I still need to break.” 

-----

1maryearps just posted

Liked by ellatoone and others

1maryearps: Creating traditions.

Load more comments

fan1: Omg mearps is dating someone??

ellatoone: Cuties

fan2: they are so cute!

fan3: who is she with?

alessiarusso: Finally someone else that can cook a proper meal

-----

💗 If you enjoyed this fic, please consider supporting me by leaving a tip 💗

#mary earps #mary earps x reader #mary earps imagine #woso #woso x reader #woso imagine #manchester united women #man united #engwnt x reader #engwnt imagine #england lionesses #muwfc x reader #muwfc imagine #mearps

[becauseplot]

Anyway for entirely justifiable reasons (<-is a glutton for angst) I need Chayanne and Tallulah to be present when the hummingbirds come around or a note about the 'wise old crow' appears in their house, causing qPhil to have one of his derealization/reality-questioning episodes. I need it. I need it to happen SO bad. Because they’ve seen Phil get roughed up in a fight, they’ve seen him angry, they’ve seen him wary and even nervous, but they have NEVER seen him doubt like that.

People have already made posts talking about how the cage-for-a-cage/child-of-the-sky stuff has been particularly rough on qPhil, who relies heavily on his constant vigilance, keen senses, and hyper-awareness of his surroundings for reassurance. He's the kind of guy who walks into a room and has already charted at minimum two escape routes by the time he takes a seat, you know? He sees and processes and stores information on everything, at all times, and he uses this to act in the best interest of his and his loved ones' collective survival.

His kids see this side of him too, most significantly in the ways that he looks after them: always keeping an eye on the back of the group, never far from Tallulah, and constantly analyzing Chayanne's fighting style to give helpful critique to optimize his attacks. Chayanne and Tallulah know that everything he's ever done was to protect them. Also, he's always there to offer them advice when they're feeling lost, and even if he doesn't have all the answers they need, he gives enough reassurances and promises to put their minds at ease. Phil is confident in what he knows. In their eyes, he is strong. He is a fortress, safe and impenetrable.

You could say that about a lot of children's perceptions of their parents/guardians/mentors. The older, guiding forces in our lives always seemed strong and infallible to us as kids. That's why it was always unnerving to see them get sick, or get stressed, or cry. Observing weakness in those people felt so, so wrong because we never considered the fact that they were capable of it; it was just impossible.

So, the situation: Phil is suffering in a way that makes him question the very same reality that he was a master of not too long ago. Whenever it happens, he goes quiet, looks around, mutters to himself, breathes shakily, fidgets. He is visibly unnerved and uncertain.

If Chayanne and Tallulah are there, they're gonna notice---they're perceptive, just like him. I'd imagine they'd try to ask him if he's okay, and he'd reassure them that he's fine, and maybe that's enough the first time. But, as more incidents arise, and as time goes on, they start to see more of this out-of-nowhere uneasiness, fear, from him, which is worrying, especially because he won't tell them why.

NOW. Phil has been upfront about a lot of things with Chayanne and Tallulah in the past. For example, during the height of the code attacks, Phil told them everything he ever learned about the codes, every single new development, to ensure that his kids were well informed and prepared. He was frank about the threat on their lives because to sugar-coat anything would be doing them a disservice. It was important they knew all of the cold, hard facts, even if it took away even more of their precious childhood innocence. He values their happiness, but safety comes first. It has always come first.

But this is different. It's not cold hard facts. Phil doesn't know what to believe anymore. When the hummingbirds come around and his reality comes into question, he doesn't know what is real, what he can trust, what is fact. His senses have been compromised. Hell, he's still trying to convince himself that he's not going crazy when all evidence seems to suggest that he's losing his goddamn mind. He doesn't know what to tell his kids, so he tells them nothing.

So now here stands Chayanne and Tallulah. There is something that is scaring their dad, and he won't tell them what is, so on top of the knowledge that their unwavering father is, in fact, capable of true, genuine fear, he's suddenly keeping things from them. Their dad is keeping things from them because he is scared. And I can't imagine a realization more terrifying than that.

#goddamn i did not mean to write an essay i just have SO many thoughts about this #cw derealization mention #look idk if what qphil goes through when he starts questioning the presence of birds/if he's dreaming is like an *actual* dereal. episode #but man if it doesn't make him question his reality and freak him the fuck out #so im calling it 'derealization/reality-questioning' just to cover my bases #yall get what i mean though #dont mind me im just rambling #qsmp philza #qsmp chayanne #qsmp tallulah #actually super nervous to post this longpost so if it vanishes uhhhh you know why

[lua-magic]

Pisces ♓🐟 and what to let go.

I firmly believe that, astrology should not be only used to know the mind and body but also to manifest an ideal life, name, fame and success. You get things in life easily when you are aligned with the energy.

We can't change the planets in our chart but we can surely align our energy to it, so we get atleast what we deserve easily in our life.

I have already discussed the importance of third house and how you could manifest your desires by Aligning with third house Planets. I have written two blogs on it, please check both the blogs.

Third house is of subconscious, while piesces sign is of ancestors or DNA, our past life beliefs that we need to let go in order to evolve, ie colour of Pisces is black because it is deep ocean 🌊 which is beyond your concious, subconscious and even your mind and body.

Which ever planets going in Pisces they are completing their one cycle, that is why it is sign of liberation.

Venus and south node is exalted and Jupiter is the lord of Piesces, because Venus knows how to give and south node knows how to let go.

When you let go the significance of planets sitting in Pisces, then you can manifest easily the things that you Desire, that is why Piesces comes after Aquarius, which house of desire and north node gets exalted in Pisces.

For desires, to manifest you need to let go certain things.

In astrology everything is aligned, we have Capricorn which is house of karma, before Aquarius, so you have to perform your duties first in order to manifest..

Pisces sign has two fishes in opposite direction it means what you give is what you get.

Jupiter in Pisces ♓

Give people free knowledge, don't hold your knowledge and don't get obsessed with the idea, of exchanging money from knowledge. Distribute your knowledge, as much as you can.

Saturn in Pisces ♓🐟

Saturn is slow moving planets hence, doesn't like the idea of letting go.

But, here if you don't let go people, things and even emotions Saturn will trouble you.

Saturn is trying here to pull you towards liberation from all your karmic connections, so listen to it and let go.

The more you let go more Saturn will benefit you, come out if hoarding mentality and distribute things freely, that is why Piesces is sign of charity, do some charity give things freely for Saturn to bless you.

Mercury is Pisces ♓

Don't take it personally but Mercury is selfish planet, it always think about himself/ herself first, that why gets debilated in ♓ Pisces because it house of giving.

I hope, you got what I want to say, give rest to your logic mind and Me first mentality and think about others and do things for others.

Give skills to the people freely so that they can prosper in life.

Mars in Pisces ♓🐟

My Martian guys and girls please don't run back of bed pleasure alot, because more you run back of it, more you will loose your money and career.

Mars is energy and passion, use your energy and passion to build others, use your energy to protect someone ie such native could work in hospitals, and in police or with fire safety easily.

North node in Pisces ♓🐟.

As I mentioned why south node gets exalted because it knows how to let go, so learn to let go your emotions and also your things.

Don't treat your mind and house as store room and keep accumulating stuffs.

What ever you don't need, give it or let go

Moon in Pisces ♓🐟

Moon has lot of past life memories here, and native with such placements usually comes back to same place where they were before death.

Such natives gets Deja Vu, dreams of past life, and premonition easily.

Let go your emotions and hurt, if you died painfully, then let go of all fear and hatred from you, every life is different, so here you are so that you can free yourself from bondages of past life.

Sun in Pisces ♓🐟

Why sun loses all its light in Pisces ♓🐟 because enemy is not outside it is inside you in form of ego.

Only when you let go all the ego inside from you and become grounded and humble sun gives good results.

Here, sun will pull you towards spirituality so that you can learn to detach and become more humble.

#occult #spirituality #vedic astrology #astro community #astro observations #astro notes #astrology

[sillyyuserr]

terukane analysis, and/or just random stuff, i have too many prompts in drafts but they’re too small to be their own analysies so they’re here pt. 2 💫

I already made one of these a bit ago, so if theres anything not here it’s either in that other one, or i just haven’t covered it (yet)

Item A: “I like Akane-san”

When teru says this, it comes out differently in every language. And seemingly equally ambiguous which i find interesting

for example, in the french translation of this line, teru says "I love you more than you might think akane" rather than saying “i like akane-san” and i mean having a mistranslation here is obviously something, but what he actually says is just what?

“i love you more than you might think akane” EXCUSE ME??

also not to mention “san” is gender neutral. He very well could be calling akane by his first name and them (akane & nene) misunderstanding what he said. Although he does refer to aoi as “akane-san”, the translators wouldve translated it to “aoi” instead of “akane” if he was referring to her (or not, im not completely sure on how they do the translation 😭)

Item B: queer association

(Edit: Im fucking dumb and forgot to add the panel of that one dude yelling “no i want to be his boyfriend!” But i can’t find it for the life of me so pretend its here)

not only is this one of the only canon queer characters in tbhk, (my guy only got one panel 💔) but also this associates “queerness” or wtv that means with teru

along with akane mentioning both genders being attracted to teru. Again, associating queerness with him. And you may be wondering, why is this important? well, notice how out of all of the main and/or reoccurring characters, he is one of the ONLY characters to be associated with queerness. (The only others being kou; his friends teasing him about wanting to “undress mitsuba” and akane; the whole yamabuki thing) for example, take note of how scarily popular aoi is because of her beauty, shes like a literal god, everyone loves this girl, but notice how never once has a girl ever confessed to her? actively not associating her with queerness, unlike teru.

and notice how the other characters that are associated with queerness are kou, who (its pretty much been canonized atp) has romantic feelings for his male friend mitsuba, and AKANE. The guy i swear he has a crush on like cmon now AidaIro can you be more obvious

Item C: reoccurring patterns

in tbhk, all of the confirmed/obviously implied romantic relationships between the main characters have been supernatural x human, hanako and nene, mitsuba and kou, akane and aoi, excluding only teru and aoi. But this does not exclude teru and akane, almost showing us that in the love triangle between teru, akane and aoi, it may not be revolving around which one gets with aoi, but which one gets with akane. It seems as though teru x aoi was never an option from the start.

Although teru has said he likes aoi, his actions say otherwise. for example teruaoi’s conversation in the convenience store was obviously extremely awkward, the only non-awkward part being when he helped her out of that creepy interaction with the clerk.

And the face he made when akane asked/assumed he had a crush on aoi

(Which he never definitively answered)

The point of this section was because of these reoccurring patterns we can conclude akane is the main love interest, not aoi.

Item D: their relationship

Something teru likes about akane, is how no matter what he doesn’t seem to ever give up. Which yes in some aspects this can be a bad thing, coff coff

But most times, you can kind of tell this is a big reason he likes akane, almost like a “he pushes him down, he gets back up” kind of thing, its a big part of their dynamic. If akane wasn’t like this, their dynamic would change a lot. He likes this because as stated in the spinoff, he kind of uses akane as a “stress toy” (which has obviously changed, as their relationship did when the series progresses) but he likes this because at the end of the day, akane will come back. No matter how many times he ties akane up, he returns to the student council room. No matter how many times teru pushes akane down (in this example, literally) he gets back up.

Something i like about terukane, is their relationship. The trust and motivation they give one another. For example, its shown early on Teru has disassociates himself from other people. Teru views the living as “delicate” and kind of makes it his job to protect them from supernaturals (when i say he made it his job i mean his dad did). He was raised to have a very different view towards the living vs supernaturals. Rounding this back to Terukane, teru doesn't view akane as “fragile” like other people, and I think that's something to take note of. The reason he thinks like this could definitely tie into the fact that he’s half supernatural but also he views akane in a higher regard then most people. Akane keeps up with him, teru actually acknowledges this, saying he values his intelligence and enjoys talking to him. 

Its kind of been shown teru has had a hard time making friends ever since grade-school, i mean yeah he talks to people, but the only people he’s lowered his guard around has been tiara and kou (siblings), and akane. A literal supernatural (the kind of person this guy is supposed to exterminate??) Literally what makes akane so special? This guy is the most popular person in THE school, second to none, and the only person besides his family that he can let his guard around is akane? They both work in the student council, president and vice president meaning they work in extremely close quarters, everyday, giving them lots of time to talk, so its no doubt they became close, but out of everyone, teru choosing akane to put his trust in is just odd to me idk man

Item E: bringing up each other alot

in many instances, teru and akane bring eachother up when they aren’t even involved in the current situation, or unintentionally show us they think about eachother more than we think they do, a few examples:

Teru talking ab akane to his family. Call me insane but i have alot to say ab this one. This one really gets me because that would mean throughout his entire way home from school, including if he fought off supernaturals on his way back (which he seems to do pretty much everyday), from the last time he saw akane, he had to have been thinking about him the entire time. Since they are in the student council they stay together for most of the day when its not their extra/curricular classes or lunch, meaning they probably stayed together until about an hour after school ended, and according to google

School ends around 3:50 to 4pm and their after school activities last until around 6pm. In one chapter i forget which one, kou complains about his brother not being home much and whenever he is home he’s usually sleeping or too sleepy to answer him properly, (and in art of their ‘home life’ teru is always either sleeping or sleepy) because of his constant fighting with supernaturals well into the evening. Now lets assume at this point teru has left the school building, and about a few (5) minutes down the sidewalk and he runs into supernaturals, fights them off yadayadayada, at this point it’s presumably now 6:30-6:40, now lets also assume they live about a few (5) blocks away from the school, one block presumably taking 5 minutes each, times the 5 blocks they live away, taking approximately 25 minutes to half an hour to walk, plus the additional time he took to exorcise the supernaturals on his way home, which by this point we can probably assume its 7-7:20 now which is around an hour after families/people usually make dinner, we can assume he gets home at the 7-7:20 mark, sits down with tiara and kou to have dinner when this panel was shown

Meaning for an esitmated two and half, to three consecutive hours, akane was on teru’s mind. Thats a pretty long time to be thinking ab someone teru. I know what you are

(it says “Aoi is coming too.”) him blushing while talking ab his bf

akane having a literal DREAM about him. I havent had dreams with life long friends in them so to have a dream about this boy you “hate” is.. hmmm

Innermost subconscious feelings you say? okay okay so not queer at all yk so buddy so bro of them

Item F: the original plot

tbhk was originally going to be a oneshot manga featuring the love triangle between akane, lemon and aoi but later was cancelled, and in the official manga, they made lemon and akane ��fall in love”

obviously as a joke but that shows AidaIro is not oblivious to the idea/premise of the two boys instead falling in love with eachother, rather than the girl, so the idea (i talked more ab in a past analysis) of teru&akane getting together rather than teru&aoi or akane&aoi getting together is ON THE TABLE

would add more but i fear this will take me too long💔 new chapter next week yall prepare urselfs

#AAAHHHHHH #terukane #tbhk #minamoto teru #aoi akane #aidairo #real #analysis

[glittter-vamp]

Hurricane Party|J.B

Warnings: MDNI18+, Smut, LSU!Joe x Reader. Natural Disaster talk. Mention of pregnancy. Fluff with minor angst. Crappy writing per usual.

Summary/Inspo: Got inspired by this storm that's going to unfortunately hit us in FL and Joe's iconic moment of being anti-hurricane party at LSU.

"So you should be expecting it to make landfall at around 9PM. Curfew will start at 6PM and all emergency services will be suspended starting 7PM and will be advised when they start again." You hear the TV reporter say on the tv in your room as you pack up your duffle bag with necessities. It was currently almost 3PM here in Baton Rouge, you and everyone else in the state were expecting a serious hurricane to sadly hit the state of Louisiana.

This wasn't your first rodeo being from an area where hurricanes happen here and there but it was for sure your first ever while away at college. It made you a little nervous, being in a different state for this one but you knew all the the important stuff about them and how to stay safe therefore you were as prepared as one could be. Your boyfriend Joe on the other hand, started to freak out about 48 hours ago when it was confirmed that it would be hitting us and not Florida or Mexico. Other than being disappointed his football game this week & practices were canceled for the remainder of the week, Joe was extremely nervous to experience this hurricane not being from the south.

"You sure Joe doesn't just want to stay over here? It's just going to be me and Beth." Your roommate Ella asks you as she passes your room. "Joe doesn't want to leave his apartment and if I don't go, he'll for sure spend it alone. He's never been through this." You sigh. "He's really freaked out by this isn't he? I saw the interview about him not being a fan of the hurricane parties he's been invited too." She snorts. "He's a legit grandpa about it." You chuckle zipping up your bags.

"Well, I hope you two stay safe! Beth is bringing over some portable chargers so hopefully we can remain in contact with you guys through the storm." Ella says as you walk out of your room with your bags. "You guys too, I think Joe also went overboard with the portable chargers so we shouldn't have an issue with that either." You snort grabbing the bag of snacks and flashlights you had on the dining table. "Bye sprinkles, take care of your mommy's." You pet Ella's cat who was lounging on a chair near the dining table.

"You guys have fun, don't get pregnant." You joke. "I'll try my darn hardest not too with my crazy fertile girlfriend." She rolls her eyes before laughing and walking you out. You put everything in your car and drive over to Joe's. The roads were crazy with people doing everything they needed to do before curfew was set. Long lines for gasoline were wrapped around places and groceries stores were full of people. You were glad you did everything yesterday and had all the important stuff you needed for the storm. Pulling up to Joe's you grabbed everything from your car and made your way up the stairs to his apartment, out of breath from the stuff you were carrying. You rang the doorbell and waited for a moment before the door opened revealing your favorite person. "You should of told me you were here, I would of helped you with all this stuff." Joe says quickly taking a few things from your hands.

"It's okay." You chuckled walking into his apartment and seeing the crazy amount of stuff he got. "Joe...is all of this really necessary?" You ask setting the bag of snacks on his breakfast bar as he goes to his room putting your other bags there for you. "Better safe than sorry." He says coming back into the room giving you a kiss on the cheek. "Five packs of water for two people is a bit much and how many batteries did you buy? I told you I picked some up yesterday at target." You scoff looking at everything. "You know I drink a lot of water and what if we get stuck here for days, I was reading on hurricane Katrina--Joe, honey... you can't psych yourself out like that." You grab his face calming him down. "I'm not, I'm just being smart." Joe rolls his eyes.

"Are you hungry? I can make us some sandwiches." Joe says grabbing your hands off his face and giving them a squeeze before walking into his kitchen. "That sounds good." You nod sitting in his bar chairs at the breakfast bar. "So, any of the guys coming over?" You ask looking into your bag of snacks. "No, a bunch of them are going to a stupid hurricane party. They're out of their minds." Joe scoffs taking out all the ingredients to make a sandwiches. "I've been to one, pretty fun actually." You shrug and Joe gives you look. "What? It was in high school." You shrug. "Then why aren't you at one now?" He asks cocking his eyebrow. "Because my scaredy cat boyfriend needs someone to hold him through the night." You pout. "Pft, I told you I'd be just fine here watching movies until the power went out." He says like no big deal. "Dude, you literally duct tape your windows...which you aren't supposed to do because you're creating bigger shards of glass if the windows were to break." You cross your arms.

"Naw uh." Joe looks at you and you roll your eyes. "Amateur." You mutter. "Well sorry for not being in the know about stuff, I'm from Ohio. We don't have literal tornadoes that attack us from the sea." He says handing you the sandwich. "All those youtube videos you watch and none of them serve for a hurricane." You shake your head teasing him. "Eat your food." Joe rolls his eyes at you making you laugh.

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

"Winds are starting to pick up." You say from Joe's balcony. "Can you please come inside, it's not safe out there." Joe says to you as you look around at the swaying trees across the parking lot. "This isn't anything near bad, I'm fine." You chuckle leaning against the railing of the balcony. Curfew was set for the county you two were in about two hours ago and it was starting to get pretty windy with minimal rain coming in. "Y/N...C'mon please. You're making me me nervous here." Joe bites his lip from the sliding door looking at your nervously and starting to get ticked off.

"Fineee, you're such an old man." You sigh walking inside the apartment, Joe quickly shutting the sliding door and blinds. "I don't want anything to happen to you, winds are starting to pick up and you don't know what objects can come flying and hit you." Joe says as you sit on the couch. "Sit, let's watch some movies!" You pat the spot next to you. "I want to keep watching the weather, I don't have a good feeling about this." Joe shakes his head. "Joe, take a break." You grab the remote and go on a streaming service. You end up picking the movie Twilight and Joe sighs in annoyance. "Go get some snacks, we'll watch this and check on the weather every 30 minutes to compromise." You say to him. Joe agrees, bringing back some chips and water over. You two cuddled on the couch as the weather starts to get worse minute by minute outside. You could feel how tense Joe was so you gave him a few comforting squeezes and kisses on the cheek to help ease his nerves.

The movie went on and before you knew it, you were half way through the movie. "Wait, so he's basically 100 years old and he's falling in love with a high schooler?" Joe asks making you chuckle. "He's forever 17 though, so technically he's just frozen in time." You respond. "What the hell? That's creepy." He cringes making you laugh. "I like that Jacob guy better, he seems more trustworthy and her age." Joe nods. "Oh, you're in for a treat if you watch the other movies." You pat his arm. "Don't tell me he's also immortal and an old creep?" He asks. "No, but you'll see." You smirk. Continuing the movie, all of a sudden you two hear the wind howl a bit and the sound of rain start to get harder. Joes hand grips your thigh and you pat his arm kissing his shoulder as a sign of reassurance. You hoped you wouldn't lose electricity so soon and could at least watch a few more movies. "You know, I like Charlie." Joe says. "Of course you do, he's sort of like you. Awkward, hates talking to people and hot." You wink at joe which makes him blush. "You think he's hot?" Joe laughs. "Yeah, Carlisle is also hot and wait til you see Jacobs friends in the rest of them!" You wiggle your eyebrows, Joe shaking his head and rolling his eyes at you.

"Did you suddenly forget I'm not into dudes or?" Joe chuckles. "You can still find a man attractive without being gay Joseph, its 2018! I'm not asking you to kiss them." You roll your eyes. The movie eventually finished and Joe took that time to check the storm. It wasn't looking great but it wasn't looking as bad as it could either. Once Joe had enough of the weather updates he put on New Moon. "New guilty pleasure?" You chuckle at Joe who seemed to now be invested in this soon to be Vampire/Werewolf love triangle. "Just watch the movie." Joe mutters.

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

By the third movie, the storm was full force and Joe was very uneasy. He kept checking his phone watching the weather radar, biting his nails and bouncing his leg up and down. You were thinking of a way to ease his anxiety when all a sudden you guys heard loud boom outside and the lights immediately shut off. "What the fuck was that!?" Joe says freaking out. "It was probably an electrical transformer, we're fine I promise. It just means we won't have electricity for a while." You say turning the flashlight on your phone on and going to get the flashlights and lanterns, Joe following you. You guys get everything and make your way back to the couch placing down the lanterns and flashlights around the room.

"You okay?" You ask Joe softly looking at his worried face. "I guess." He sighs as we hear the howls of the wind and rains clashing against the windows. "We're fine, promise." You hug him giving him a kiss on his neck, Joe hugging you back tightly.

"Okay let's entertain ourselves, I brought over card games & board games." You clap your hands getting up from the couch grabbing a flashlight going into Joe's room where your stuff was placed and bringing out the games. "I gots us, regular playing cards, Uno, trouble, monopoly & this one is special just for you." You hand Joe a box which he seems confused by until he realizes what is it. "Flying Dutchman's treasure hunt... from SpongeBob? Where the hell did you get this?!" He says shocked. "Target had it, pretty pricey by the way I think it's meant to be more of a collectors item but I thought we could play it once and you can have it for your love of cartoons." You smile sitting on the floor placing the games down.

"This is awesome, thank you." Joe smiles giving you a sweet peck on the lips before he sits down across from you on the floor excited about his new board game. It was things like this you loved most about Joe, he was always so appreciative of things not matter how big or small and you could put a smile on his face with the silliest things. "I don't know how to play yet, but I'm kicking your butt." Joe says making you laugh. "It's on Burrow." You laugh seeing how quickly he gets competitive with you and just about anyone he knew.

************************** "What type of bird is that!? That looks nothing like a bird!" You scoff at Joe. It was later in the night now, storm was still hitting pretty hard and you two laid on his floor doing shadow puppets on the ceiling like the goofiest people you knew. "It's a hawk!" Joe says failing miserably at his shadow puppets. "Wait stick up your finger like that." You say holding your finger up and Joe does it in the light. "E.T...Phone...Home..." You mimic the iconic movie line making you laugh seeing Joe's skinny long finger on the wall. Joe sucks on his teeth annoyed that you hit him with that joke.

"Ha, Ha...so funny." Joe rolls his eyes as you still laugh. "Hey, it's not my fault your built like an alien from the 80s." You shrug. "Well you haven't complained about these alien fingers in bed." Joe clapped back. "Look at you getting feisty!" You giggle as Joe leans over kisses you tenderly. You gently grab his face between your hands and kiss him back, softly at first but that quickly turned into a heavy make out session. His fingers slipping under your shirt and up to your lace bra. All of a sudden a loud noise outside startles you both, Joe immediately looking terrified. "Hey, you're fine. Promise." You smile at him and kiss him.  "Can we move to the bedroom, I like it'd be safer." Joe breathes nervously as we hear thunder rumble outside and wind pick up. "Yeah, whatever you want." You smile and nod. You two move to the bedroom bringing in the flashlights and portable chargers and lay on the bed. "We still have signal." Joe says checking his phone. "I hope it stays that way." You mutter setting down one of the lanterns.  

"How are you feeling?" You ask Joe sitting on his nicely made bed. "I'm alright." he shrugs laying next to you. You give him a smile and pull him towards you to finish what your started in the living room and take his mind off what was happening outside. Quickly you two undress each other and you end up straddling Joe taking in his perfectly sculpted body beneath you. His eyes doing the same taking in your naked body before kissing down your bare chest and sucking on your sensitive nipple. Letting out a moan you run your fingers through his hair as Joe firmly grips your asscheeks simultaneously. 

"I need you." You whisper to Joe. With zero hesitation, Joe aligns himself at your dripping entrance and you slowly sink down on him. Perfectly gripping onto him. "Shit, you always feel so good around me baby." Joe whimpers as you moan and grip onto his headboard. Taking a second, you slowly start to move, rolling your hips up and down as you make eye contact with and smirk at Joe. You get a rhythm going, feeling him play with your breasts. Moans fill the room as the storm outside echoes outside. Hearing another loud noise and the sound of a car alarm in the distance, instead of Joe stopping out of worry he quickly flips you over, not pulling out of you and starts pounding into you. "Fuck! Don't stop." You moan as Joe spreads your legs and focuses on his rhythm. "So fucking good." Joe hisses before he attaches his lips to yours and his fingers find their way to your clit. Between the sounds of skin slapping together, moans, whimpers and whispering sweet nothings; you two forgot all about what was happening outside.

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

The next morning you woke up all sweaty. With a naked sweaty Joe sleeping, arms and legs draping over you you looked around the room hearing his snores with his face in the crook of your neck. It was completely silent outside and you wondered what time it was. Reaching over for your phone it was 7:04AM. "Joe...Joe, baby wake up." You shake him awake before he wakes up suddenly out of a panic. "What?! Are we getting flooded!?" He wakes up looking around with sleep still on his face which made you giggle. "No, the storm is over and we're on the second floor." You snort brushing his wet hair out of his face. "How bad is it?" He asks getting off you. "Don't know, I've been stuck under 200 pounds of man." You joke making Joe roll his eyes. 

You two get up from the bed and you make your way to his shower. Thankfully the water was still on. "We have water, I'm gonna take a quick shower." You say and Joe nods. You both take a nice cool shower in order to cool down with the Louisiana humidity and heat starting seep through early in the morning. As Joe showers, you open the blinds and see a random chair in his balcony that was not there yesterday and a bunch of debris and leaves. You gasped looking at the semi flooded parking lot and a tree that was on the floor and on a car across the street. There was a few students already outside picking stuff up and checking stuff out. "And you were judging me for being nervous." Joe mutters kissing your cheek as he stands behind you looking at everything. "I just didn't want you to have an anxiety attack mister." You roll your eyes at him. You give him a quick peck and then he fetches his phone out of his pocket, someone was calling him. 

"Hello?" Joe answers. You were surprised there was signal and decided to text Ella to see if her, Sprinkles and Beth were okay. "Yeah, where at? I can try my best I don't know how the roads are looking. Half my street is flooded." Joe says and you raise an eyebrow at him wondering what he was talking about. Ella texts back saying that there's really bad  Joe hangs up and lets out a breath. "Guys are getting together to help out with cleaning around campus and some of the neighborhoods." Joe says. "Let's do it." You shrug. "I mean, you can stay here-- and have you walking in flooded waters not knowing there could be an electric wire there and have LSU's QB get fried like a french fry? Yeah, no. I'll put on my rain boots." You kiss his cheek. "Know it all." He rolls his eyes following you inside. "C'mon, now is where the real hurricane party starts where we get to rebuild our community!" You smile cheerfully. "We're still going to finish those Twilight movies by the way!" Joe says after you. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Hope everyone being affected by this hurricane stays safe! Thought a little Joe fic would maybe ease the anxiety of it all 🖤

#joe burrow fanfiction #joe burrow smut #joe burrow x reader #joe burrow fic #joe burrow imagine #joe burrow x y/n #joe burrow one shot #joe burrow fan fic #joe burrow fluff #joe burrow angst

[pencil-peach]

G Witch Onscreen Text: Episode 11

This is part TWELVE!!! Of my attempt to transcribe and discuss all the onscreen text in G Witch (and also just to talk about things I think are cool.) We have reached Episode 11: The Witches from Earth.

<<Click here to go back to Episode 10!

I have to hide..! (Under the cut)

So before we start, I had forgotten to mention something rather important in the last episode, that being that in the final scene with Prospera and Delling, we get a look at Quiet Zero (Or perhaps, the components that were being stored at Plant Quetta.)

We can see that the progress of this component is at 89%, almost completely finished. Bel comments later when she confronts Prospera that Aerial wouldn't need a permet score of 8 to complete Delling's original plans for Quiet Zero, and we can see that here, considering the machine is almost done.

Prospera also just outright gives Delling Aerial's Permet Score 6 data, telling him that with it, Quiet Zero can proceed to its final stage. I think it's really important to remember that the attack on Plant Quetta was not something Prospera had expected, especially with it having been done with Lfrith models. Her original plan was probably just to have Aerial reach Permet 8 and then just like. Kill Delling and take over Quiet Zero. (Maybe torture him a little. For fun.)

But the existence of the Lfrith models threw a wrench in that plan. A majority of her actions in season 2 were done in order to locate and destroy the source of the Lfriths, because the existence of an army of Gundams was a threat to Quiet Zero.

Anyway, speaking of the Lfriths, did you know that the show's OP changes slightly depending on what's happening in the story?

At the start of the show, this scene has Delling appear, and he fades out into Prospera.

But starting with episode 7's OP, shadowy images of Ur and Thorn appear behind Delling, and then disappear before Prospera fades in.

And in Episode 11 - 12, the scene is completely different, showing clearer images of Ur and Thorn, with Sophie and Norea appearing in front of them, turning to the camera.

Also, did you notice that the Ur and Thorn are color coded to Sophie and Norea, but backwards? Ur is colored like Norea, but is piloted by Sophie. Thorn is colored like Sophie, but piloted by Norea.

You'll have to excuse me, I'll probably be spending a lot of time talking about non text stuff as this episode is actually incredibly light on text...

In the opening scenes where the Earth House kids have just reached Plant Quetta, you can see Miorine silently moving away from everybody in both of these shots. Since our perspective is with Suletta for a majority of their conflict, we don't get to see a lot of Miorine's side, but I think it shows in these little moments. She doesn't understand why Suletta is acting so strange and it's frustrating her, so she's just avoiding her and hoping she sorts herself out.

A lot of their behavior in this episode is reminiscent of what they were like before they'd met each other.

Norea is sketching Thorn's face. Damn she's really good...I tried to draw Aerial one time and I got so mad I had to go bed early.

It's an understated thing but it's truly sad to me that Guel is nearly killed trying to defend the honor of his father's company in this scene, not knowing that his father was the one who provided them to the Dawn of Fold.

TEXT: T.S. - TO - D.O.F SYNC MAIN CONTROL SYSTEM MIGRATION: COMPLETED

This is the display shown on the monitor of the DOF member who hacks into its systems.

My best guesses as to the meaning of the acronym are: TERMINAL SYSTEM TO DAWN OF FOLD SYNC TRANSPORT SHIP TO DAWN OF FOLD SYNC TS might also stand for the name of the ship, which we don't know.

We get a look at the Earth House Space Ship's Map Data here, aptly titled EARTH HOUSE SPACE SHIP It's got everything. Two Cargo Unloading hatches, one at the Fore and Aft of the ship, 8 Mobile Suit Hatches across the middle, an Airlock, a Cieling Hatch, and a Bridge..! So cool...

I really love this scene where Nika and Miorine are talking about Suletta. I love how Miorine is just mostly confused the whole time. Cause she really just doesn't understand.

When Miorine says she'll send Suletta a video about Aerial, Nika asks why she can't tell her herself. And she replies, "Why?" Like, "Why would I do that? There's something bugging her, and she doesn't want to talk, so I'll just send her a video about it instead."

And when Nika asks her what happened between her and Suletta, she says "Don't say it like I did wrong." Like she probably didn't even assume there was a problem between them to begin with. In her mind she didn't DO anything, so what issue could there possibly be if nothing happened?

"Not everyone can be like you, Miorine." Nika concludes, and Miorine just says, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Miorine's never really met anybody like Suletta before. When she has a problem, she'll make it clear when she does. She's completely confident, and not afraid to stand up for herself, but Suletta isn't like that. At her worst, she can be frustratingly timid and scared, and won't say if she has a problem so as to not make any trouble for people. There are 5 days between the end of Episode 10 and the start of episode 11, and that whole time Suletta was probably acting really weird and avoidant, and Miorine probably just assumed if she needed something, she'd tell her. So she just left her alone.

That's why their eventual collision is so nice. They're communicating their needs.

I think it's really nice how Kenanji gained weight because it's been 20 years since Vanadis and it's treated as completely fine. Like yeah people tease him for it or are surprised when they see him but it's not presented by the story itself as like, a fall from grace or him letting himself go. He's still a strong and capable pilot, and he's still fully confident in himself. He just got fat. It happens !

(Also the delivery of the workers on "CAPTAIN KENANJI?!!?!" is another one of my favorite comedic line deliveries in the show.)

We also see in this scene where Jeturk's plant patrol fleet (Wormblood) are during the incident. They're heading towards the moon.

The completely emotionless way Prospera delivers this line haunts my fucking dreams. What's she thinking here? What is it about Suletta and the rest of GUND-ARM finally bringing to fruition Cardo Nabo's dream that fills her with such apathy? Such disdain? Is she bitter that it's the daughter of her family's killer that's bringing that dream to reality? Is it a constant reminder of the path she didn't, couldn't take? Is it the fact that the technology that could have saved her daughter's life wasn't allowed to be pursued until it was far too late?

Is she having to reckon with the infinitesimally small doubt remaining in her mind that maybe, just maybe, she did the wrong thing?

When Suletta calls Prospera on the phone, she tells her where they are, and that Suletta should come to see them. When Suletta starts running away from Miorine, she runs in the direction of C Block, towards her mother. (We know this because the rest of the Earth House students, which is where she started, aren't in C block when it gets disconnected from the rest of the plant.)

You should rewatch this scene and see how many times Miorine eats shit on a wall. Also this is one of my all time favorite Miorine frames. She is a kind of creature here.

TEXT: (Monitor) ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM CAMOFLAUGE SYSTEM OPERATIONAL

(Notebook)BIOINFO: IDENTIFIED PMET LINK: CONNECTED DESULTOR

Here we see the cloaking program Olcott, Bessie, and Gristan used to get close to Plant Quetta.

We also see what the Info on an unregistered Mobile Suit looks like, only displaying the status of the pilot and the MS.

Here we get a look at the control room for the plant. It's got a cool hologram...

The Desultors also launch COMP-JAM-PODS, which disables all normal comms within a wide area, and is why the DOF switch to a hopping transmission after launching them.

Here we see in the hallways that there are STRICTLY ENFORCED SPEED LIMITS (of 15b) within the hallways of Plant Quetta. (At least in C block.)

But when the Emergency Starts, all the signs change to EMERGENCY B1, with a reminder to PLEASE CHECK YOUR REGISTERED DEVICES, presumably for the B1 emergency procedures.

TEXT: EMERGENCY PLEASE EVACUATE EMERGENCY B1 OUT OF SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK UNAVAILABLE TARGET AREA: Throughout PLANT QUETTA ACTION REQUESTED: Please put on suit and take shelter immediately. EVACUATION GUIDANCE: Please refer to faculty map below for locations of emergency evacuation suits and designated shelters for each block. C BLOCK MAP PLANT QUETTA Safety Control Center

The emergency alert sent out by the safety control center to everyone in the plant.

When Sophie and Norea prepare to disconnect C Block from the rest of the plant, the command prompt that appears on the monitor is C-BLOCK PLANT QUETTA PURGE.

Also, it goes without saying, but the Monitor UI and cockpit layout of Ur and Thorn are nearly identical to that of the base Lfrith models, complete with the real time Monitoring System updates on the lefthand side of the screen.

That's all for now! Wow...next episode will be the end of the first season...we've really come a long way haven't we..?

I...I'm glad we made this journey together....it means a lot to me that you've stuck with me for so long....(blushing a little)

Unfortunately I have reached the dreaded image limit...so I have no gift to share...forgive me....

Click here to go to Episode 12...if you want..>>

O--Or you could..go to the Masterpost...!

#g witch #gundam the witch from mercury

[thewayuarent]

When things start to fail

SandRay edition

Yes, me again talking about SandRay as I’m their personal therapist good for me I guess. Disclaimer: I do not judge nor Sand or Ray, the most important thing to remember is that all of characters are young stupid insecure boys so everything happening makes a lot of sense. Also let’s remember that it is not about good/bad or right/wrong, it’s about complexity people and their relationships have.

So, this week they’ve reached an interesting point, haven’t they? The point when their mostly surprisingly good communications stars to fall apart. And it was inevitable. Nick and especially Boston don’t minding their own business certainly accelerated the process, but at some point it was going to happen anyway. Because the ultimate question “who are we to each other” been hanging over their heads for some time now and do my boys tried their best to avoid it. But let’s start from so-so good things.

SandRay day together. Ray goes for it like it’s an adventure, not someones real life experience. And of course he is - Ray lives in a different world and Sand’s hardships are not something he’s familiar with. @lurkingshan made a great post about how Ray constantly sees Sand as someone beneath him at well of course he is. And I love what @neuroticbookworm says here that Ray does it unintentionally - that’s just not something he ever experienced in his life. Ray is shamelessly rich and he was like this all his life. I would very surprised if he behaved differently.

That’s interesting tho - I think Ray sincerely enjoys every experience he has with Sand. And in some way he sees Sand as embodiment of freedom. For Ray a lot of it is about wind in a face, and listening new music, and laughing, and drinking, and kissing, and flirting and almost jerking off but no and not thinking about his real problems. For Sand it’s his life. It’s tough and exhausting, but still worth living.

Sand’s 24 hours. I truly appreciate Sand’s approach to life. He tells us that he has 24 hours in a day to work, sleep, being alone and - what I love about him - to dream. And I’m not saying that his life isn’t hard, it absolutely is. But despite that he still has some little things to enjoy. He dreams big. He makes beautiful breakfasts and knows places where to find good music. He has fun in a secondhand store. He finds his happiness in discovering new bands. He allows himself to get drunk and get high.

And I don’t think he never does any of it before Ray. But Ray is important, because Ray is someone he can share all this things with. And while Ray constantly being a bit jerk about that he is really into everything Sand gives to him (subtext here was unintentional but yes, sex is obviously a part of it too). And maybe Ray’s presence allows Sand to let himself go with a flow a bit more. Maybe Ray also symbolizes freedom for Sand.

And I believe that freedom is something both of them desperately need - Ray from his painful past, Sand from his exhausting present. And it all would be so good, it was mostly good for a lot of time, but. Hints were all there since the beginning.

Communication falling apart. So we see them generally enjoying each other. We see them being open and honest with each other. The whole scene where they discuss parents is about trust and vulnerability and it deserves its own post.

Very good-friends-behavior happening here. But also kind of not. And not only because them being ready to fuck each other on a constant basis. Which was hilarious by the way - three attempts to get nasty and all being ruined (1. Thank you Nick; 2. Sand being not so into public sex I guess I don’t believe him for a second he’s clearly into it but whatever; 3. Thank you Nick again and now you bring the whole drama with you good job). But all this cute boyfriends stuff happens left and right? Hugging and smiling on a ride?

Being so into each other that random girl said bye bless you?

Fucking serenade?

Like, guys, you’re not even trying. And they don’t talk about it at all. The last attempt to clarify their relationship was in episode 3 with Sand asking what kind of friends doesn’t stop kissing each other. And than they just. Moved on and never questioned it again?

They are the only couple (of the main three) in the show who doesn’t discuss their status. Even Nick and Boston do it! They are suck at it but it’s at least something. And it’s like Sand and Ray played a bit too much in going with a flow thing.

Sand tells this to his mom

And he seems really upset when Ray says that are friends

And again when Ray says not boyfriend fuck off Nick

And I get it, it really sucks. He is totally in love and his heart breaks a little bit twice in a row.

But it’s Sand who said that

And that

And that one like couple hours ago

So I feel for Sand and I am really sorry for him - my boy fell fast and hard but it’s not like Ray has any idea what Sand wants from him. Oh, wait, he has. Kind of. And he actually tries to make amends and clear the situation. Kind of.

It’s Sand this time who closes up, loosing to his fears and insecurities - and I would guess his last relationship has something to do with this. And of course Ray doesn’t push him into that conversation after one failed attempt. Because he is totally scared of ruining things. And it is so much easier to continue to pretend, for both of them, isn’t it?

It’s also smart thing to not having that conversation before they sober up but will they talk? I doubt it. Also is Ray ever sober, he has a serious problem, my poor boy. Him finishing two glasses of liquor in a row after fight was painful to watch. But I digress.

And the thing is - it isn’t even that tragic. Yes, Ray has feelings for Mew - he tries to move on, he doesn’t expect anything, but feelings (especially so long-lasted) doesn’t go away in a moment. And Ray has a right to falling for Sand while still falling out of Mew. Shit like this happens a lot in real life. It doesn’t mean Sand isn’t special to him only because someone else is.

And I kind of think that they would work it out somewhat fine. Not great, but fine. But here it is, our Boston card. Yes, I blame Boston, that’s my conclusion.

Conclusion. Judging by what we saw in trailer I’m gonna predict that this episode was a start for both Sand and Ray being miscommunication mess. Because both of them are falling for each other. And both are very scared of it.

This is not going to be easy. They will pretend they don’t care for each other and most importantly - that they have no expectations towards each other. They clearly have. We see it with Sand and the moment Sand decides fuck it I’m done we will see it with Ray.

This shit needs a lot of hard work. Will they be able to go for that? Do they even need it? I don’t know. Let’s hope that they will. Or at least that they won’t ruin each other totally over failed relationship.

#I am not totally delusional but I’m also a simp what can I say #I so hope they will figure it out tbh #they are mess but they are my mess and I love them #really Ray’s drinking problem scares me way more than all that feeling stuff #only friends #only friends meta #only friends the series #ofts #sandray #firstkhao #firstkhaotung #first kanaphan #khaotung thanawat

[northwest-cryptid]

I'm going to sound absolutely deranged for a moment, by a moment I mean a while because I have a lot to say here. However, I really want to talk about the very nature of reality and virtual reality and what my thoughts on it are; and for the record; provided you're polite about it I will absolutely take asks on the subject because yea I know I sound kind of delusional here but whatever man.

Anyways, absolutely insane rambling below this so here's your dashboard saving "Keep Reading" break.

Okay cool now that all those who are TOO WEAK to handle absolute WALLS of text are gone, only us STRONG enough to survive the winter shall know the truth!

... I jest.

However, if you're here it likely means you actually want to know my thoughts on this shit and honestly that's pretty cool so thank you for that, like really I realize I have no idea who you are and you might be reading this years after I post it (which is an insane concept) but thanks for deeming either this subject or my thoughts interesting enough.

Without further hesitation then, allow me to explain why I think Virtual Reality and Meat Space Reality are literally equals. Yea, you absolutely read that correctly, I believe 100% that things within Virtual Reality (or VR for short obviously) are just as REAL as things within meat space. However before you go clicking off this because that claim sounds insane and stupid to a great many people, please hear me out. You've come this far, may as well right? Sunk cost fallacy and all that.

So here's the thing, in the early to mid 1990's we added the word (or words) "Meat Space" to the dictionary, it's defined as "the physical world and environment especially as contrasted with the virtual world of cyberspace" so right out the gate I think it's important to understand a few things about the way we use language and definitions.

I will not blame you at all for saying "it's semantics dude, no one cares so deeply about definition you're reaching." I get it, but again; stick with me for a bit here.

We clearly differentiate the Virtual World, or Cyberspace from the Physical World, however notice that we're yet to touch on the words Reality and Virtual Reality. We'll get there, but first a slight detour because I want to quickly talk about Cyberspace.

What the fuck IS cyberspace anyways? Well it's anything Virtual, and for the sake of explanation; Virtual is basically anything non-physical, but more specifically things stored, or run by computers.

That means that the Internet itself is Virtual, it belongs to and is in part; cyberspace. I'd make the argument that the Internet itself IS Cyberspace as a whole if our physical Meat Space is encapsulated by the known universe, then the internet is the known universe for anything Virtual/Cyberspace. I hope you're still following me so far because it's about to get a lot worse here in a bit so hang in there.

So let's look at it like this, the internet as a whole is the known universe of anything Virtual or the world we would call Cyberspace. We also know that anything Virtual is simply anything that is stored on, or run by computers; and is not of the physical world.

Does that mean it's not real?

Well what does it mean to be real? This might sound like some kind of deep philosophy question but it's actually not, I mean come on we literally have definitions of this stuff. We know the difference between fiction and non-fiction.

Simply put Fiction has a really weird definition in today's age, because by definition it's just "something that is invented or untrue" so we know it's something that is created and also is not real.

Alright so let's do a quick exercise here right...

I'm going to show you something and I want you to tell me (or really yourself because you know, I'm not actually HERE I'm just leaving these words behind and you're reading them so tell yourself) if this thing/person/character is Real/Non-fiction or Fake/Fiction.

We'll start with an EASY one, this is the cast of the classic anime from the 90's; Cowboy Bebop. So I'm asking you, are these characters real?

Objectively, no. They're fictional. They may resemble real people, they might share qualities that real people have, wear outfits or style their hair like real people. However they actually don't "style their hair" or "wear outfits" they're just drawn characters.

They are voiced by real actors, they are drawn by real artists, and they are ultimately designed by real people. However they themselves are not real. They are entirely fictional entities they do not have free will, a conscious of their own; or whatever you personally believe to be a "soul" whether you're a spiritual person or otherwise you know these things are just depictions of people. They're not alive and they cannot think for themselves.

Alright well then, here's the cast of the tumblr classic meme show Seinfeld, now my wording here might sound like a trick question but I promise you it's not; just hear me out... Are these people real?

Objectively, yes. These are real human actors; sure their characters on the show are not actually real people. They're invented characters sure, but the actual actors playing them are real and we're looking at those people.

Now you might be asking "well hey hold on, you said that Cowboy bebop characters were fake even though they're also voice acted by, drawn by, and designed by real people; so why do you feel like these characters are REAL but those characters are FAKE?"

To answer that, I need you to again realize that my wording was specific, and I didn't intend for it to be a trick question at all. If you had said "no those characters are not real" you're correct, however you need to realize I asked "are these PEOPLE real" the PEOPLE voice acting for, drawing/animating; and ultimately bringing the characters to life in Cowboy Bebop ARE real people, but we're asking about the characters. Likewise the people acting for the characters in Seinfeld are real but the actual characters they're portraying are not.

Alright so we've sort of established a baseline understanding here so far right?

Even if you don't agree with everything I've said I hope you can at least follow my line of thinking here.

A person who exists within Reality is Real. If that person plays a character who is created and untrue then the character is Fictional while the Actor playing them is Real or Nonfiction.

So let me ask a few more questions here; this one is a bit of a curve ball and I don't want you to worry about whether or not you're "right" or "wrong" on this, but I want you to see if you can sort of predict my understanding of this, see things as I do.

Here is a Vtuber, a character played by a human actor who portrays a character on youtube to stream video games and even act in an anime. This character's name is Gura, and she's widely popular within the company of Hololive/Cover amassing well over 1 million subscribers. However, the question we're concerned with here is whether or not Gura is a real person.

Objectively... that's a bit of a toss up isn't it? I mean no, clearly GURA as a character is not actually real. There's no shark girl running around streaming for people from Meat Space. Now yea I know people very rudely went and dug up who actually plays Gura to make a point about her physical appearance and shit; but we're not concerned about that because at the end of the day that's just shitty. What matters to us here is that we understand that Gura is in fact played by a real person. There is a real human being not just voicing Gura, but actively using Gura's virtual flesh (for lack of better words) to portray herself within a stream. That person is real, they exist in Meat Space, and their motions are being mimicked by Gura, but on her own Gura is nothing. Gura is a set of PNGs that overlap in such a way to resemble a person. Everything about Gura's personality, and the reason I mentioned that she has become so wildly popular is because that's all from her Actress. The person actually portraying Gura or rather the person Gura is being controlled by is the individual so many people have found they enjoy watching. She's very human and when she's not playing up a character she's just like any other streamer (and I mean that in a good way). So then where do we exactly put that line between real and fake?

Well here's how I look at this.

With a fictional character who is created to specifically have lines of dialogue in a show, their actor is not actually lending their personality to the character. They simply voice the lines, and I'm not saying that is easy or that it lacks any sense of personality or personal improv. I'm saying that the character is the character, at the end of the day if I'm hired to be a VA (Voice actor) for a character I'm not bringing my personality to this character to the point where any of my friends would hear the character speak and say the things they do or act the way they do and say "that's Cryptid!" They'd likely say "Cryptid voiced this character" but they wouldn't believe the character to BE me. Because while I might be able to insert some of my personality or personal way of speaking into the character's dialogue at the end of the day I'm following a script, the character will always be animated to do what they do; say what they say; be who they are. That doesn't mean I'm not real as the actor behind them; it means they are not real and I am simply a real actor voicing the lines for them. I give them my voice but they are still just a drawing on a screen.

If a fictional character however is used as a sort of virtual flesh for someone to inhabit and present themself through; this is where things sort of blur the line for me. Because while the actress herself isn't actually a shark girl with magic powers or whatever; Gura IS her actress. Slap anyone else into that mass of PNGs and the personality isn't there, suddenly the Gura we have come to know doesn't exist and we're left with this new individual who speaks, acts, and is; different. So Gura can only really exist when she IS her actress. This can be said of any of Hololive or even Holostar's talent.

So then is Gura fictional or non-fiction? She's arguably both. The character of Gawr Gura is fictional, but if we're talking about her personality, or the person representing Gura; well that actress IS non-fiction. She's real.

So let's take this one step further.

Is Gawr Gura simply the Actress in Cyberspace, and is the Actress merely just Gawr Gura in Meat Space?

Just, pause for a second here; stop reading and think about that.

I don't care if you don't know who Gura even is, if you've never seen her streams, if you have no idea what her "real identity" is or any of that; because arguably none of that matters.

If you're having trouble wrapping your head around it, literally think about it as generic people and generic characters. The important reason I used Gura here is because of the situation she finds herself in.

A real human person with free will, conscious thought; representing themselves through a fictional character who lacks all that; but is given life through the human "piloting" their virtual flesh created from a bunch of PNGs overlapping in such a way to give the illusion of a humanoid person.

So now here's the thing that really gets me right...

One last question regarding what's real and what's fiction.

This is a map of the entire internet, every connection; every website being mapped out. Is this real or is this fiction? This is actually really simple but I really want you to think about this; everything you see in this image including the image itself is merely made up of code, of pixels; it's entirely virtual and can only exist within Cyberspace. However, the question we're asking is whether or not this is REAL.

Once again I must say objectively; yes, it's real.

It has to be real, you're using it right now! If the internet was fictional (such as how we show magic in most fantasy settings) we wouldn't be able to use it (just like how I can't cast fireballs.) We're literally accessing the internet right now, so with this in mind; is something that is virtual or digital or that only exists within Cyberspace considered "fictional" or fake?

Well I think personally that there's literally two Realities that are equal but different.

We as people have created a second reality to exist within, we've literally created Cyberspace. It is Virtual REALITY. It's a Reality within a Reality.

To say Virtual Reality is Fictional wouldn't be entirely true, because the people creating it and portraying it and existing within it are all REAL.

"So are you saying that things that happen within Virtual Reality is all real?" I mean... Yes? No? Both? Both. Both is good.

I wish I was better at explaining this shit but try to stick with me on this one because I genuinely have so many thoughts on this.

Let me use the example from last night, my friend Inaki and I played through a world in VRChat in which we were escaping this old lab overrun with zombies. Do I really believe those events were real? Well no, they are virtual, those weren't real zombies obviously; we weren't really at any risk of dying or in any real danger. It was all simulation. However the actions we took were real, my friend Inaki is real; I am real.

I think the thing about it is that everyone judges Virtual Reality by the same set of rules as Meat Space Reality.

In Meat Space we typically define what's Real by the physicality of it, as well as by how our senses interact with it. Can we touch it? Can we see it? Can we feel it and taste it or smell it? If we it interact with all our senses then the thing must be Real right? Well sure within Meat Space, or the physical world that's not a bad judgement of things that aren't sentient. We can judge sentience by free will and basic instincts; an anime character for example is not sentient; they have no base instincts; they have no free will they are simply not alive.

A lot like those virtual zombies, they weren't really living things, all the actions they took were based on code and programming; or you know AI but people hear that word and freak out because they forget that AI has been around for literally like decades and only became a problem in the hands of the wrong people but I digress.

So then if something in Virtual Reality is sentient how do we judge whether or not it's Fiction or Non-Fiction? I'd argue entirely by it's thought processing. For example,

Let's use the example of Inaki and I walking down a dark hallway, our general thought process was to watch each other's backs, we were communicating where we were hearing sounds, where objectives were, what we were finding; when we had cleared objectives; what to be careful of. Our actions were coming from our ability to think through the situation at hand and determine objectively the best path forward.

Meanwhile you have the fictional virtual zombies who are not real people, they are controlled by an AI script that is basically checking off a list of potential situations. It's checking "is there a player here?" if the answer is yes, then it will go to "am I able to get to the player to attack them?" If the answer is yes it will then move to checking the distance between the player and itself and start moving towards the player to attack them. It's all running code, none of this is actual thought; it's just checks. There's no human thought here, there's no real actual free will or sentience behind the actions.

To me this is the defining difference in whether or not an entity within VR is real or not. At least, when it comes to the sentience of it.

So then wait a second; does that mean GURA IS REAL? I mean... kinda yea? It means that if we look at the question again, about what exactly Gura is, we can deduce that yes; Gura is simply the actress within Cyberspace, while the actress is simply Gura in Meat Space.

They are different but they are the same.

I think we view this whole thing way too narrowly by trying to define whether or not Virtual is Fiction or Non-Fiction when I believe Virtual exists as a sort of place between Fiction and Non-Fiction.

Thing of it like this:

To use that zombie world as an example yet again, we can use Virtual Reality as a sort of bridge between the real and the fake.

Obviously a virtual entity cannot effect me in Meat Space, it's non-physical and thus has no control over the physical world, but it can effect Virtual Reality, and since a projection of myself exists there and I can influence Virtual Reality through that projection of myself a virtual entity is able to effect this Cyberspace me with a simulated output being registered that I can perceive in Meat Space.

Basically to boil it all down, what I'm saying here is that Virtual Reality is a Reality of it's own that we can access through things like VR or through The Internet. However it is not bound by the same limitations of our own Reality in Meat Space because it works with a different set of senses and rules.

You can still see and hear things; but the feeling of touch or like smell/taste is absent. That being said, in Meat Space you have limitations based on your body, gravity, various factors brought by things like physics. Where as with Cyberspace we are essentially all given the power of creation at our fingertips.

This is where I'm going to sound absolutely delusional but I've gotten into creating models specifically to be used as avatars, and watching people go through all the rigging all the weight mapping, sculpting and defining these characters. I'm literally watching the birth of a virtual flesh that someone will occupy. It feels like watching some kind of digital god create new life.

However I will stop myself there before people start thinking I'm in need of some kind of medication for my delusional thinking.

I have plenty more thoughts on this subject but I honestly feel like I'd get a lot of hate from a lot of people if I continue to discuss it as intricately as I wish to.

I think the important thing to take away is that yes there is a difference between fiction and reality; and trust me when I say I know that difference well; and have my whole life. However there is a place that exists, that we as human beings created; that somewhat bridges that gap by allowing us to directly interact with a world of our own design in which we are not bound by the limitations of Meat Space. A place that by all definition exists as both Real and Fiction but can be interacted with and experienced in such a way that it is an equal in my eyes to Reality.

We call it Virtual Reality, we do not call it Virtual Fiction, or Virtual Fake Place. The very words Virtual Reality quite literally define themselves in such a fashion of what I'm saying. Virtual Reality is simply:

Virtual ( 1. not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so. / 2. carried out, accessed, or stored by means of a computer, especially over a network.)

Reality ( 1.the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them. / 2. the state or quality of having existence or substance. )

A world that exists, stored on and accessed by a computer over a network.

Virtual Reality is a Reality that is simply digital, not fictional, not fake; not any less than Meat Space.

We created the word Meat Space to serve a purpose, if we believed Virtual Reality and anything digital to simply be fake or less or fiction we'd simply have "The Real World" or "Reality" and "Fictional media" or "digital fiction" or something. Instead we understand Meat Space and Cyberspace or Physical Reality and Virtual Reality; both being their own Reality.

Anyways thanks for your time, if you've made it this far and don't think I'm stupid as fuck I appreciate you.

[jbbartram-illu]

Hi! I love your art, it sparks such joy in me :))

And I had a question for you, I work primarily in 2D but I've always been interested in sculpture. What would the essential equipment/tools be for someone wanting to start?

Thanks!!

First off, thank you for your lovely words about my work!

Secondly, the truth: I'm a terrible person to ask about this because the second I get involved in a new type of art, I immediately become a little obsessed with collecting ALL THE TOOLS, and pottery gives you a lot of tools to choose from/collect, oh no.

Despite this shortcoming in my creative urges, I've tried to do a roundup of my most-used tools / put together a selection of tools that, if I only had them, I could still do all the things I like to do on my sculptures. Here we go:

Knife!

Mine is pottery-specific (because I was at a pottery shop & it wasn't expensive), but it doesn't need to be. A dollar store paring knife would work just as well! I use this to cut out things from slabs (eg. wings, crowns, etc) & sometimes to do more dramatic sculpting at the very beginning of a larger piece.

2. Pin tool

I use this for scoring clay to attach bits together, to carve smaller designs (eg. on my teeny sphinxes), etc. It's one of the things you really need as a potter (if you're working on the wheel, you can also use it to check the thickness of your bottom).

3. Wooden sculpting tools

I have a comical number of these (mostly because my mom gave me all her pottery stuff), but these are the three I use the most (plus a narrower-tipped version of the pointy one, not pictured). I use them for sculpting my forms before I scoop their insides out, more sculpting after the scooping, to blend the edges when I've attached a limb/other bit to a piece, and to add texture/details. I also use the very blobby end of the one on the right to compress/smooth the insides of smaller sculptures once I've scooped them out.

4. Paintbrushes

Since I'm also an illustrator & paint with watercolour & gouache, I've got an endless supply of brushes that are exhausted from rough watercolour paper but still have a lot of life in them -- now those become brushes for sculpting & glazing! During the sculpting phase, I use them to add water to my scored sections when I'm attaching bits together (I like to live dangerously & just use water instead of slip, like a real ceramics badboy), to smooth out bits where my fingers/a sponge won't fit, and to gently re-wet bits that are drying too fast. Absolutely indispensable!

5. Scoopin' tool (aka trimming tool if you pot on the wheel)

As with almost all of my tools, I have a bunch of these (mostly inherited from my mom, who was mostly a wheel potter so had a bunch of them), but I just got this one for Xmas & the circular end is the best yet for scooping the insides out of my creatures! You could also use these for sculpting, but I find my little knife/wood tools easier to control - these sometimes get a bit gouge-y.

6. Sponges!

Sponges in general are important for ceramics (I also have some cheap cut up hardware store sponges for cleanup purposes), but I find that these Mudtools sponges are the best for actual sculpting - they don't hold as much water & are easier to wring out than the type of sponges you get for wheel throwing, so your sculpture doesn't get sad & goopy, they're amazing for smoothing your surfaces, & the thin edges get into smaller areas vs. other sponges. I'm also hoping they're super durable - I got these at xmas, so have just started using them & can't give any info on that yet.

7. Texture tools!

I love to add texture to my sculptures - feathers, hair, etc, and these sgraffito tools are great for that (whether you're actually doing sgraffito or not)! I have a few (including a set of Xiem ones in all different shapes), but these two are the ones I use the most.

BONUS THINGS:

A few other things I find important to my pottery setup include:

A spray bottle (my bigger Ikea one broke, so I'm using this wee one that came from a travel watercolour set...really need to get another big one!)

A bigger basin/tub for cleanup/cleaning tools while you work (you can also see a couple of my tool/desk-cleaning sponges here). I do keep a smaller bowl of water on my desk while I sculpt, but I find having a bigger water source helps, as I often need to clean tools while I work & would rather not have to go to the sink for that (or dirty my desk-water too much).

Yogurt containers for dried clay bits/tupperwares for sculptures in progress. I have great aspirations of recycling my clay scraps, so I keep them in labelled containers for when I get my butt in gear to do that. These little tupperwares are great for keeping chunks of clay & sculptures in progress because you can spritz up the whole box & get a nice humid atmosphere to prevent drying out if you need to leave them for a few days.

EXTRA BONUS: tools you don't need but that I find extremely useful

Pony roller! It has the best name AND is great for rolling out little slabs/bevelling the edges of them (with the littler bottom roller)

Clay paddle. I feel *insert gif of Rosa from Brooklyn 99 with the puppy* about this tool, which I just got for Xmas. It's AMAZING for roughly shaping lumps of clay before I get into more detailed sculpting, and makes mashing two chunks of clay back into one chunk WAY easier. 11/10, love this tool so much.

Lastly, this isn't a tool, but this stuff is the BEST moisturizer if you do anything with your hands/live in a place with harsh dry winters & would like to keep your knuckles in one piece (I also love it while I'm drawing - I can hold the pencil right away?? Magic?!). It sinks in super quickly, doesn't make your hands all sad & slippery for ages, AND it lasts for a while even if you've got clay & water on & off your hands all the time. Great stuff.

If you got to the end of this, THANK YOU for your great question! I had a lot of fun figuring out my essential tools (tho obviously you don't need all of these to make great work...these are just my most important ones!) and then...uh, rambling on about them, apparently.

#diamond-depot #ask answered #ask #ask me anything #pottery tools #ceramics #ceramic #ceramic studio #essential tools #artblog

[sbmmagician]

This is my first post, so sorry if I end up doing something horribly wrong. I needed somewhere to talk about The Last Dimension’s power system that wasn’t the discord, at this point I’ve built a reputation. Anyway, short stuff, there should be zero spoilers in here (besides spoilers about the power system, obviously) and I’m going to attempt to write it so people who have never read TLD (The Last Dimension) before can understand it. Oh, also The Last Dimension is a webcomic on Webtoon made by Leaglem, go check it out, it’s amazing. Warning: This is… very long, to say the least.

Overview:

Imagine a void, filled to the brim with bubbles. The bubbles press upon each other, filling this infinite void up to the brim. Somewhere, in this infinite amount of bubbles, is one unique bubble, pressed upon on all sides until it has formed a sort of triangular prism shape.

Each bubble is a dimension, a little pocket equal in size to everything here in the universe, and this triangular prism shaped bubble is the dimension which the story of TLD takes place in. There are four main dimensions, which in this story are called Luos (singular and plural), that press upon the dimension, or Luos, that TLD takes place in.

Now, why are these four Luos important? Well, dimensions do not simply stay put in their little bubble. They bleed into the dimensions surrounding them. These four Luos, The Vehc, The Utso, The Kel, and The Baelta bleed into the Luos that TLD takes place in, called The Int.

Each Luos bleeds their own unique thing, which I’ll get into later. What’s important though, is what happens when an organism mutates to produce a large amount of energy. When they posses this energy, they will bond with one of the Luos that borders The Int.

The effect of this bond is called a Chondria, and it allows someone to perceive and manipulate whatever bleeds into the Int from the Luos they’re bonded to. Chondrias are generally separated by how they manipulate whatever their general Luos manipulates.

Now, let’s get onto the fun stuff, the Luos and their respective Chondrias. I’ll describe each thing that the Luos bleeds into the Int, and how its Chondrias manipulate it. I’ll also make sure to specify if how the Chondria manipulates its stuff is just the best theory we have. If I don’t say anything, assume it’s confirmed.

The Baelta:

The Baelta bleeds Essence into The Int. Essence is meanings, concepts, ideas. It makes up most everything in The Int, it’s what makes a rock different from everything else that isn’t a rock. There are three Baelta Chondrias, Sensers, Illusionists, and Casters.

Sensers can sense the essence of people, called their Auras. Weak Sensers can do things like figuring out what someone is feeling from their Aura, while strong Sensers can know information about someone, like what their Chondria is, from their Aura alone. It is unknown if Sensers can manipulate Auras.

Illusionists can change people’s perspectives of essence. They could change a rock’s essence to make it appear green, but it’ll only appear green to one person. It is likely that they can also change people’s perspective of things not related to sight, such as the texture of something, or a certain sound.

Casters can create Paths, which appear as glowing lines. When formed together in certain ways, they can make Formulas. Formulas are like blueprints for changing essence, and when energy is put into it, either from the Caster themself or an outside source, it will achieve the desired effect as long as the Caster made it correctly.

The Kel:

The Kel bleeds Poluk into The Int. Poluk is a fluid found in every living thing, and is basically analogous to a soul. It handles a lot of a person’s mental stuff, like memories, thoughts, and personality. It’s also very good at storing energy. There are four Kel Chondrias, Whisperers, Puppeteers, Molders, and Bridgers.

Whisperers can hear the thoughts of others. This appears to be more of something they have to focus on than something they just naturally hear, and it’s unknown if they can go rooting around in heads. They can also speak telepathically, and seem to be able to set up some sort of connection between two individuals that speak different languages to be able to understand each other.

Puppeteers naturally have stickier Poluk (Poluk is defined by both texture and density), which they can shoot out at others to stick onto their Poluk. From here, they can control the individual/creature. It is unknown how exactly they control them, but the best theory is that they order them around via their Poluk.

Molders can pull Poluk out of living things and push them into others. When enough Poluk is pulled out of something, it appears to wither and die, and when Poluk is pushed into something, it appears to rapidly regenerate it. They can also mold the Poluk into shapes to interact with or weapons to attack others’ Poluk directly with.

Bridgers are the most unknown of Kel Chondrias. Our best theory for how they work is that they Bridge ways for Poluk to reach them, and then can use the energy inside the Poluk for attacks or to power things.

The Vehc:

We’re not quite sure what The Vehc bleeds into The Int. It’s most likely potential/kinetic energy, but most Vehc Chondrias manipulate vectors, and I’m not entirely sure if that can be counted as a common subset of potential/kinetic energy. Vehc Chondrias, or should I say Chondria, is pretty easy. Just Weavers, though there are subsets depending on what vectors they weave, how they weave them, and the size of the vectors.

There are two main ways that Weavers seem to manipulate Vectors. Vectors themselves are like net of threads and planes. You can push and pull on them to manipulate them to interact with objects, causing an effect very similar to Telekinesis. They can also use them to power up their own strength by redirecting them from other forces.

The Utso:

The Utso bleeds information into The Int, and is easily the most complicated to understand. This is mostly because manipulating information leads to very complicated things, mostly Entropy and Quantum Mechanics. There are four Utso Chondrias, Oracles, Protei, Etumi, and Metranteri. Note: The singular of Protei, Etumi, and Metranteri is Proteum, Etumus, and Metranter respectively. I will try to explain these as best as I can.

How Oracles exactly is a mystery, but we have a good theory. What we do know is that they’re able to gain information about the direction of events, and can receive often symbolic visions of the future. The theory goes that Oracles don’t receive information from the future, they simply use information in the present to figure out the future. Why do you need to know the information in the future of a ball hitting someone in the head, when you can know the information in the present of the ball’s velocity heading directly for the person’s head.

Protei, the only Utso chondria that has a fully explained way of how they manipulate information, is next. They can manipulate the flow of energy, for example shifting heat from one place to another, by manipulating thermodynamic entropy. How do they this? Well, they follow a principle similar to Maxwell’s Demon. I won’t get too much into it, it’s a very complicated thing, but it was a thought experiment about a sentient demon opening and closing a massless door that is small enough to only let one atom in at a time. Using this, the demon could supposedly break the 2nd law of thermodynamics (the entropy in a closed system cannot decrease overall). This was disproved by the fact that the demon needing to know where the atoms were and when to open/close the door made the entropy increase. More information spread around, more entropy.

Etumi can manipulate matter and its states. For example, being able to increase the density of matter until it’s very similar to a solid. They can also raise the general temperature of objects. How they do this is unknown, but again, we have a theory. Considering they can compact matter, as well as increase the general matter, plus Utso’s penchant for quantum manipulation, the best theory is that they manipulate an object’s general atoms. They can make them closer together and more dense, or they increase their speed which increases their temperature.

Finally, Metranteri, which aren’t as complicated, mostly because we don’t know much about them. We know they can teleport, and would be the Chondria for portals/small pocket dimensions. They seem to generally manipulate space. It isn’t even known if the teleport is like quantum teleporting, or something different.

Conclusion:

Ack, I’m done with this. I think it’s been around an hour and a half. If you’ve read this far, thank you very much, and if you enjoyed, definitely go check out The Last Dimension. If you have any questions, ask, and if I can manage to find it (I have no clue how Tumblr works), then I’ll answer to the best of my abilities. As you can see by the above, I am totally normal about Chondrias.

#The Last Dimension #Analysis #I hope this makes sense #I’m not sure how much is actually helpful and how much is just my brain #I’ve been dreaming about Chondrias #I needed to put this somewhere that wasn’t the discord #I’m so nervous #I’m going to go to sleep after this and try not to think about it

[wallf1ower]

why does counting start at zero in programming?

happy friday, everyone!

this post got looong, so if you're interested, click "keep reading"! and if you're not interested, you're welcome for not making you scroll through all that on your feed :]

so, i'm currently working through harvard's cs50, which is their free online intro to computer science course. i'm really enjoying it, and learning a lot, especially as someone who up until now has been self-taught, and focused more on the higher level languages.

i'm about halfway through the fifth week's lecture right now, (which is called week 4 because the first week was week 0, which really messes me up when i'm trying to remember how many weeks i've been doing this for, lol) and we're diving into some really cool stuff around pointers and computer memory and etc.

this is the first week where we've finally started covering things i've never seen at all before, and some of what we're learning is really blowing my mind! like, some of the more abstract concepts i've always had trouble with are finally clicking into place.

one little thing in particular that i thought was fun to actually understand is why counting starts at zero in computer science.

we all learn very early on that when you're trying to find the index of an element in an array, the first element will be at array[0], not array[1].

but what we don't typically learn (or at least, not when your first learning languages are python and javascript from free online tutorials) is why.

that's because in these higher-level languages, we're typically too far removed from the lower-level concepts like pointers and memory allocation, so there's no need to dive into the specifics behind this syntax. we just keep in mind that counting starts at 0 in programming, and move on. that's the power of abstraction.

but, in cs50, the first few weeks of the course are taught in c.

c is a lower-level language that directly interacts with the computer's memory. so, just through learning about some new concepts, like pointers, it suddenly clicked for me why counting starts at zero.

i thought it would be a good test of my own understanding to see if i can explain why counting starts at zero in computer science, since the explanation involves going over a lot of these important concepts that i need to know.

so, let's dive in :]

in programming, especially in a language like c, a pointer is like a treasure map. when you're using a treasure map, you don't have the treasure itself; instead, you have directions that guide you to the treasure.

similarly, a pointer in c doesn't hold the actual value of a variable; instead, it stores the memory address where that variable is stored. just like you'd follow a treasure map to find the treasure, you can follow a pointer to access the value of a variable.

let's go through some basic pointer syntax in c.

declaring a pointer:

you can declare a pointer with an asterisk(*) before its name. you can also specify the type of variable the pointer points to. for example,

int *p;

declares a pointer to an integer.

assigning an address to a pointer:

the address operator (&) is used to get the memory address of a variable. so,

p = &num;

assigns the address of 'num' to the pointer 'p'.

here, p is a pointer that holds the address of the variable num:

int num = 10;

int *p;

p = &num;

accessing the value at an address:

the dereference operator (*) is used to get the value stored at a memory address. so, *p gives you the value stored at the memory address held by p.

int num = 10;

int *p;

p = &num;

printf("%d", *p);

here, *p gives you the value of num; so '10' is printed to screen.

pointer arithmetic:

you can add or subtract from a pointer to move to different locations in memory. this is commonly used when working with arrays.

in my post "how the internet works - part 2", i described computer memory as one of those fancy japanese apartment complexes, where everything is lined up in perfect cubes, and assigned an address in order, so that you can find each apartment. you can read that post if you need a refresher of the physicality of how computer memory works.

rather than storing items in an array randomly, anywhere there happens to be a spare room in the apartment complex, array items are always stored in consecutive memory blocks, with each element in order. you can imagine this as an entire floor being reserved for the array, and each element going into each next room, all the way down the hall.

that way, instead of having to make a pointer for every single item in a given array, which could be very large, we only need one pointer, that stores the address of the first element in the array.

then, when we want to grab the array from memory, it's as easy as just moving down the hallway, and checking who lives in each room, one at a time.

just imagine if the amazon delivery guy needed to keep track of an entire clipboard full of pages with every address in the apartment, and needing to check where the next address is for every single array index, and running all over the apartment complex up and down the stairs to get each one in order, and then back up again for the next one, and back down to where he just was for the one after that...

well, he'd be pretty out of breath, to say the least. that is not an efficient system, and it would just be slow and painful for everyone.

but this way, the delivery guy only needs one sticky note that says: array starts at this address: unit 7. then he can go to unit 7, and when he needs the next item in the array, he can simply tell himself, "well, i guess the next element is at unit 8."

and down the line he goes, until he reaches a special unit that contains a null flag, which is just an empty unit (well, technically it's not empty, it's a unit containing the value null) to let the pointer know that it's reached the end of the array.

this is a much simpler and efficient system, that can be used for an array of any size, without killing the delivery guy from exhaustion. (take note, amazon. respect your workers!!)

here's an example of how this looks in c:

int numbers[5] = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50};

int *p;

p = numbers; // remember, the name of an array is a pointer to the start of the array

printf("%d", *p); // prints: 10

printf("%d", *p + 1); // prints: 20

printf("%d", *p + 2); // prints: 30

printf("%d", *p + 3); // prints: 40

here, p is a pointer that we've pointed at our array of numbers. by increasing p, we're moving the pointer to the next item in the array.

now, looking at this code, you should be starting to see why counting starts at 0!

it's because we're not actually counting the number of elements themselves; we're actually doing simple math to count how many indexes away from the start we want to move.

the first index is 0 because we want to move 0 steps away from the start - the first index is the start. the second index is 1 because we want to move one step away from the start. the third index is 2 because we want to move two steps away from the start. and so on.

to sum up:

when programmers allocate memory for an array, the memory cell is referred to by its offset from the starting memory location.

so, counting starts at 0, because when we start at the first index, that first index has an offset of 0 from the starting memory location!

this 0-indexing is efficient, logical, and also happens to work well with many mathematical operations. so, that's why we count that way :]

and now you know! :]

ps: if you want an even better explanation that this, plus way more, consider signing up for harvard's cs50 course! that's where i learned all this. it's their actual intro to computer science course, and it's available completely free from start to finish, for anyone who wants to take it online.

you don't even have to sign up if you want, as all the lecture videos are also available on youtube. so if you just want to learn more about what i covered here in this post, check out their video titled "week 4 - memory" on youtube!

#codeblr #programming #programmer #coding #cs studyblr #compsci #computer science

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #63

I went to the grocery store today! And this time, I actually got some pictures of the general structure and layout! Because I know you said you wanted to know what is an ordinary life.

I don't know if these exist in your world in the same way, so maybe this won't seem very ordinary to you. But it's ordinary where I live, so here you go:

Most places will have the entrance directly in the produce section. This is where we find all our fruits and vegetables. There are lots of pictures because there are lots of different kinds of food here. Some of them come pre-cut and pre-washed; this is very convenient, and also makes it a lot easier for disabled people to cook on their own:

I got a broccoli, some asparagus, and some tomatoes from here!

There's also typically a section that contains deli meats and cheeses. These come whole in plastic packages, and then they get sliced up on special machines on request. This stuff is usually for sandwiches and the like.

I didn't get anything from this section, but I wanted to show it to you anyway!

You have the other cheese sections, too, which are... not for sandwiches? I guess that's the best way I can explain it - usually the cheese is split up for that which is intended for sandwiches and that which is intended for other things. But I don't usually discriminate when it comes to cheese; these are my favorite sections of the grocery store whether they're for sandwiches or not!! Because I am a cheese goblin!! It has been written!! It is known!! Ahahaha~! 😄

(sadly, I didn't get anything from this section today. but you can tell it's my favorite section because I have more pictures of this one particular food than of anything else!! hahahaha! 🤣🤤)

Over this way, you have the prepared foods section, the raw fish and raw meat sections, and the rest of the aisles:

This is the fish section! I only get salmon from here, because almost everything else is either too expensive or it has too much mercury in it, or both! Swordfish, for example, is a fish that lots of people in my world really like, but it's ridiculously expensive, and it's got a ridiculous amount of mercury in it, too, so I avoid it. Mercury is not good for the bodies of living creatures!

I did get salmon from here today. My world has farmed salmon; people say that it's bad for you in other ways, but I know that wild salmon are often not sustainably fished, and farmed salmon is cheaper anyhow, and it's very important to have omega-3 fatty acids in your diet (especially if, like me, you came out of therapy today with a massive paradigm shift; your brain is gonna need that stuff in order to build new neural connections properly; maybe I'll talk about it tomorrow)!

This section is where they put all the custom cut, pre-seasoned, and extra fancy raw meat:

It's in this section that you'll find lamb, wagyu, bison, pricier cuts of beef, and pre-seasoned and pre-marinated meats.

The rest of the raw meat section contains more standardized cuts that haven't been seasoned. It's divided into "beef and sometimes lamb" (it's a real treat when they get whole lamb leg on the bone; I love to season and roast those and save the bone for broth!), pork, "turkey, chicken and chicken organs", and then "other organ meats, things for stock or bird feed, and things that are purchased relatively rarely" - think beef liver, suet, pig's feet, chicken's feet, and marrow bones for making soup stock. But they don't always have those things.

This is the "beef and sometimes lamb" section:

This is the pork section:

Here is the turkey, chicken, and chicken organs, and organ meats sections:

I got chicken leg quarters from here! I intend to make them tomorrow, if I still have energy after my tasks and I'm not in too much pain!

Near these sections, in the middle, is where all the pre-cooked or cured meats are - things like hotdogs, cooked sausages, whole ham, and bacon. Here's an example:

This is where they keep the milk and cream:

And here's where they keep breads and desserts:

I got a couple of surprises here, with you in mind! You'll see at the end! 😁

So far, I've only shown you the edges of the store. There are lots of aisles in the middle, which is where they keep non-perishable items, or items that aren't perishable until they're opened. Things like cereal, canned goods, dried goods, pasta, condiments, sugar, flour... stuff like that. The middle aisles contain lots of preserved or processed foods. Foods such as those aren't necessarily bad things, but it's generally important to make sure that processed foods don't make up your whole diet.

...Unfortunately, though, the reality of our world is that processed foods are generally a lot cheaper, so for most people, it's really all they can afford. I'm very lucky that I can get things like fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and fresh fish. I remember when I was younger, and we could usually only get processed foods, meat, dairy, and bread.

In any case, here's the breakfast aisle:

You can find things here like cereal, oats, pancake mix, tea, coffee, honey, syrup, and stuff that people where I live generally like to eat for breakfast.

This is the honey and syrup section.

I got honey from here because we were out.

Next to it is the tea section:

I didn't get anything from here, but I decided to show it to you anyway because the colorful boxes are kinda pretty!

J was with me, and he decided to snag this picture of me taking pictures for you, for some reason! Hahaha!

Anyhoot! We got home and put everything away! I guess it's time for me to show you the surprises I got! I don't know what you like for dessert, but it's hard to go wrong with things like chocolate and raspberries, I think!

This one is a chocolate cheesecake with purple raspberry frosting and fresh raspberries on top!

This one is a raspberry mascarpone tart thing!

And this one is a chocolate truffle tart thing!

...And... I know I can't give these to you. But I think you would like them if I could. If nothing else, please know that there are people in this world who would get tasty snacks for you just because they think you might like them.

Thank you for coming on this adventure with me. I know that a grocery store is probably just an ordinary thing, but you've indicated before that you just want ordinary things, and... even ordinary things can be turned into full adventures if you're carrying enough curiosity, joy, excitement, and love inside your mind. Even if you go to the same place lots of times, there is still always something new and beautiful to discover, if only you look closely at everything with fresh eyes.

You are loved because I love you. And lots of other people do, too. So don't do anything stupid to get yourself killed, got it? We need you here. We need to see you heal. We need you to be okay in the end. Please. Because there's still so much you haven't seen. There are still so many delightful and wonderful and beautiful things that you haven't experienced. Don't go around thinking like pain and misery are the only things that life can offer you. You're not done yet.

I'll write again tomorrow, so please keep yourself safe.

Your friend, Lumine

#sephiroth #ThankYouFFVIIDevs #ThankYouFF7Devs #ThankYouSephiroth #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 #ff7 #ffvii #final fantasy vii crisis core #final fantasy 7 crisis core #final fantasy crisis core #ffvii crisis core #ff7 crisis core #crisis core #ff7r #final fantasy vii remake #final fantasy 7 remake #ffvii remake #ff7 remake #final fantasy vii rebirth #final fantasy 7 rebirth #ffvii rebirth #ff7 rebirth #final fantasy 7 ever crisis #ffvii ever crisis #ff7 ever crisis #ffvii first soldier #grocery store #ordinary adventures #wholesome

[msfbgraves]

Thrifting: a way to help yourself and others when disabled

My mother grew up in a family that was constantly penny pinching and she hated it. My father was so cheap other people made fun of him or complained bitterly (my parents made an interesting couple). My ass is disabled so "just getting a job" was never on the table. Employment has always been an unreliable option - not impossible, but tumultuous. So saving money has always been a keen interest. But doing it right, like. I feel that people use it as an option to shaft someone, even themselves, and I do not hold to that. Also, you cannot thrift yourself out of insufficient funds. You need mo money, you need mo money. But we also know that society loves an excuse to underpay people, deny promotions and fuck you over in a million different ways no matter how hard you work.

Thrifting is work that will always yield results, no matter who you are, and a good skill to have when mf's keep finding excuses to not pay you, or even employ you. It's even better when you're in a position to say, hm, more would be nice, but I'm staying afloat. Again, this is no feckin bootstrap talk. This is getting more bang for your buck.

And especially during Disability Pride this actually makes me proud to be able to do. Without hurting anyone, for one, and actually helping those without the time for it. I can find The Thing for less for them very often.

OK, first things first.

This is not self-denial 101. Fuck off with that. We want more joy maximisers, not fewer.

The Vimes boots theory is 100% correct. But there are plenty of places where $50 boots are sold for $25 or even $20. Yes, in Ankh Mopork too.

Skills are cash money. I should know, I barely have any.

Many people think that thrifty means "cheap" and "no fun". And that's what people do. "Whelp, I have to economise, so I can't have any treats and can only shop at Primark. Bummer! I hate life."

No, you're going to have to put some more time in preparation, and you need to figure out where to look.

It's an activity.

The first thing I would advise people to do is clean their stuff up. Told you this was work. And that may feel terrifying but if you know what you have you find things you thought you needed to buy. That's an immediate savings without pain. C'mon, do you really think you'd get a high from buying oregano? Of course not, and now you don't have to. You've probably slashed off 25% off your grocery bill for the week without going without anything you look forward to buying. King shit.

You probably have a keen sense of what you need to replace and since you're already going to Goodwill, look there. A lot of second hand is higher quality, and even if it's not, it can still be 25 to 80% below dollar store.

All that extra space will come in handy for buying things and storing them until gift giving season arrives, or birthdays and the like.

Gifts are insanely important. Don't skimp on the quality of something you buy for others. Find the place that stunts with that item. Here, time is your friend, too. If you can wait three weeks for it to ship, you can take advantage of a lower price nearly always.

Ask people what you're looking for and spruce the thing up when they offer it to you. Again, here the skills are a lifesaver.

Personalise. Any small thing that actually fits a recipient will be much appreciated. Gift wrap with care, write a kind message. But only do this when you can't find a "normal" gift for a better price. If you can find a steal, still gift wrap with care.

Do treat yourself! But treat it as anything else you want: best quality for the best price. This can also mean adding a top up. For instance: I generally know what the best bang for your buck is when it comes to theatrical shows: the last preview. Saw a show during the last try out, but spent $30 extra on seats. More expensive than just regular seats, vastly better experience. I did find a discount on parking too - who tf likes to pay for parking anyway?

Buy clothing that fits your body shape. That's what makes you look good. Vintage is fine, who cares if you wear something high quality that looks gorgeous?

Learn what stuff is made of. I bought a stick of foot balm that is supposed to prevent blisters. Felt suspiciously like vaseline. Next time I succesfully used vaseline.

Something I never hear but I find very useful: go on and try the hideously expensive option if possible. See what the fuss is about. Incorporate the thing you like most about it in your routine, don't bother with the rest. Other end of the spectrum: do a taste test with store brand. If it's bad, now you know. If it's good, no one will notice.

Loyalty programmes can be your friend, if you don't look at them as the default option. Do sign up, don't get mad if they keep taking away your credit. Every time they give you something for what you would have done anyway is a win.

Shop around for better banking fees. Who the hell wants to pay those anyway.

Try to pay for what you want and only what you want. Review any package deal; they're rarely worth it.

Try something a little bit different, if you have the skill to back it up. Go do things "people like you don't do". Slovenian wine, people.

Be consistently nice, and people will gladly help you with things. Can be a huge savings. Give where and what you can.

Take the bus, geezus. All that nonsense about it being a poor people thing or dangerous when travelling. How do you think locals get home?

Again I am aware this is work and of course, nobody can do all of it all the time. But I know a lot of people who start by slashing the joy, but why would you? Have your latte! Take your trip! Have your avocado and triple organic eggs. Think about where and when you buy things instead, and be a little adventurous.

If you're disabled with limited energy, this is a way you can help out those around you. Maybe you can do it for them. I am proud of all the ways I have saved my friends and family money without compromising on quality at all. I promise you: loyalty discounted organic chicken thighs with store brand cream cheese blanched in leftover white wine sauce with $0.40 worth of pasta are really damn yummy. And those $40 dollars saved on a taxi because I found the right bus on a trip are welcome too.

People mostly don't want to do this work. But if you can, and know how, you can be a great help to those you love.

#thrifting #disability

[jackawful]

So we all know that Grocery Stores Bad, right? Like second maybe to housing, food is one of the basic things people need to live that currently costs money, and sometimes a lot of money, and that's pretty ethically fucked up. But there are plenty of ways around this, both through the state and outside of it, and I think it's worth talking about. I've especially noticed that folks raised middle-class & folks who have leftist sympathies but currently lucrative jobs have trouble with this, so I put together a handy guide.

Ways to Fight The Commodification Of Food And Also Eat For Free:

Research, utilize, and support your local food banks! Plenty of food banks get funding based on how many people use them, so by getting what you can from a food bank, you're usually helping them stay afloat. Some food banks are means-tested, especially the ones that get federal funding, but often the coolest volunteers will help you wiggle around a way to present your household finances that'll let you qualify (not fraud, mind - just different ways to present the same situation) or not require paystubs/proof of (no) income. Plenty of food banks are not means-tested. Try to find secular food banks, and failing that, low-pressure religious food banks can be great too. Often the "shopping" experience feels a little bit like a food scavenger hunt & they often get fun weird stuff that grocery stores couldn't sell enough of. Consider donating the money you would've budgeted for groceries if you have spare cash, or volunteering if you have spare time.

Check to see if you qualify for food stamps, and apply. Each state administers EBT differently, and will have different rules, but actually taking the step of signing up and de-stigmatizing the use of EBT when you talk to others is important. I've seen too many people assume they made too much money to qualify, miss out on benefits for months, and then get a fair amount when they do. If you wind up consistently having extra SNAP dollars, consider using them on shelf-stable emergency food or (and you're technically not supposed to do this) giving away staples to projects under number 4 based on community need. If you're in a state where benefits don't roll over month-to-month, do a big shopping trip or go to a take-and-bake restaurant like Papa Murphy's on the last day of the month so your excess dollars don't disappear.

Dumpster dive! Every city and state has different laws and regulations on this, and you'll have to decide how to engage with those. Sometimes just asking employees is good - oftentimes especially places that have ready-made food, like pizza and donut shops, differ on both corporate policy on end-of-day disposal and individual employee convictions. Be mindful of padlocks and "no trespassing" signs. For grocery stores, be mindful of expiration dates and packaging conditions. Dumpster diving for food is a thing that takes a lot of personal risk assessment, and especially if you intend to distribute the food to other people, it's important to know what condition that food is in and what risks may come with eating it, BUT generally you're pretty likely to find good quality stuff. Which, speaking of distributing to others, brings me to:

Other free food projects! Food Not Bombs is the big notorious one, but plenty of cities have similar projects that work on similar models (PDX, for example, has a group that broke off so they could serve non-vegan dumpster'd food). Freeboxes and Little Free Libraries often have food pantries for shelf-stable food, and part of the pandemic mutual aid boom was the Free Fridge project. As with food banks, if no secular projects exist in your area, finding the lowest-pressure religious option in your area is a solid route (Sikh Gurdwaras are usually best, Salvation Army worst, imo). Stuff like this is often lowest barrier to entry of the things on this list, and also easiest to be both a contributor and a recipent of the free food. Google is your friend here, but also, these are things that are comparatively easy to start if you don't have resources in your area - don't be afraid to reach out to more established projects nearby to ask about how they got started!

Grow or forage your own food! As opposed to the last thing, this one is pretty high barrier IMO, involving either having land to tend (owned by you, used with permission, or guerilla gardened) or becoming good at plant identification. Honestly, though, you'd be surprised at how many of thr plants around us are edible and tasty - I just had my first acorn muffins this year and they're great! Checking into native plants and low-effort gardening and compost systems and foraging laws and processing what you get can be labor-intensive, so usually I reccomend people pick one familiar thing to start: blackberries, walnuts, acorns, dandelion, even urban fruit trees. This is another thing where knowing your local laws and assessing risk becomes important, but on top of that, connect with local indigenous groups and learn how to respect the land you're engaging with

I'm not mentioning buying local or CSAs or farmers markets here because while a lot of that stuff can be good, it still costs money, and I firmly believe food should be free. That said, you don't have to become a full freegan overnight, or ever, to take these steps. Each thing I've listed is its whole own rabbit hole of research for you to do, especially because all of them will look different in different places.

Ultimately, though, every bit of free food you get or help others get is a load off your wallet and helps build an alternative food system. No one person is going to be able to abolish grocery stores and institute universal free food, but if everyone does what they can to get less money involved in their own food consumption, that makes our non-monetary food systems more robust and resilient. Everything I've mentioned here is also what people turn to during natural disasters or supply chain collapse, and it's worth building these systems up ahead of time so that they're more able to handle the shock of increased demand.

Eat free food. Help other people eat free food. Fight the idea that this should be tied to your income, give back where and when you can, and encourage the people in your life to reduce their dependance on the grocery system.

[wuxiaphoenix]

Zpoc Survival, Retail Style

For some strange reason, a lot of recent zpocs, System Apocalypses, and other world-changing disaster plots seem to catch protagonists at home. Or, at worst, in some kind of vacation cabin or remote getaway. There’s nothing wrong with this, especially if you want to show off how prepared (or not) your hero is in everyday life.

But what are the odds? Seriously, if we’re talking a more-or-less average guy or girl, with a reasonably “ordinary” life prior to Things Going Boom - what are the odds that they’re actually at home when the apocalypse happens? As opposed to at work, caught in rush hour, or even picking up the week’s groceries?

I grant you, if the thought of an apocalypse hitting while I’m at home is bad, the thought of trying to dodge zombies inside Walmart is levels of urk worse. Channeled exits, mazes of shelves and items, people screaming - it’d be worse than Black Friday.

But. It’s a likely scenario. Meaning any serious prepper, or game nerd who’s daydreamed about playing the End of the World before it actually hit, might have at least considered what they’d do if that happened.

So. You’re in a retail store when the World As We Know It changes forever. What do you do?

In the first few moments of this situation you need to do something counterintuitive: ignore that this is an apocalypse.

Survival comes first and foremost. You have to deal with the immediate life-threatening danger. The zombie trying to eat your face ranks higher on the “must deal with” list than a dragon rampaging in the street outside. Treat it like any other natural disaster, and evaluate what you absolutely must do to make it through alive. What course of action gives you the best chance? Fort up where you are? (See, dragon outside.) Or flee the scene? (Trapped inside with zombies.) In prepper’s parlance - are you bugging in, or bugging out?

If you’re running for it, then exactly what kind of retail store you’re in may be less relevant. Remember that any reputable store has to comply with fire safety rules. That means fire extinguishers you can grab as makeshift weapons, yes - but more important, the main doors should be unlocked. If you’re closer to the back of the store and there are Things between you and the usual way out, head for the employee doors. You’ll set off an alarm going out, but that’s the least of your problems.

...Well, aside from the noise drawing more zombies. Plan accordingly.

But what if the major threat is outside, and you plan to bug in? To stay put, whether that be for hours or days or just a few minutes to catch your breath?

Consider the kind of store you’re in. If you’re in a strip mall or square, also consider other nearby stores; they may be better options, and can give you a wider variety of improvised weapons and supplies. Let’s take one particular short comparison: hardware store that Shall Not Be Named, vs. Books-a-Million. (Note, drawing off various stores I’ve personally been in, your local shops may vary.)

I’m looking at these in particular because they both have an advantage for siege/monster situations: you can get up onto an above-head-height level. In Hardware that generally means climbing the shelves or using the lifting machines, but you’ve got it. BAM has a slight advantage for those of us less athletically inclined in that the second level is, in fact, a formal second level, with stairs and all. OTOH that means you have a set place you have to barricade to keep anything else from getting up there. Both places do have breakrooms and bathrooms, so as long as the plumbing holds out and there’s some way to do electricity, sanitation and cooking are going to be easier. That said, there are some differences - here are a few!

Hardware. Pros: Tools, tools, tools; improvised weapons galore. Building materials to fortify the place. Maybe some comfy cushions and other homey stuff, depends. Also if you’re working with other people trapped in the same apocalypse, many customers and employees are likely to have useful making-stuff-work skills.

Cons: The stuff in this place was never meant to be lived-in long-term, the fertilizers and concrete dust and other assorted insults may eat your body alive by way of immune system arrrgh. Recruit a doctor. No, more than one. And look into getting a lot of fresh air.

BAM. Pros: Books. So much to read. How-to manuals will be Really Important if the internet goes down! Also when the fit hits the shan, “bookstore” is likely to be low on anyone’s “to be looted” list. You may pass unnoticed long enough to get the place set up and defensible.

Cons: You’re going to have to get most of your fortifying stuff somewhere else. And the people you’re likely to team up with here will have... a varying skillset.

Of course, the most awesome option would be having access to both of these. But that likely means laying claim to, and holding, a moderately large chunk of town. In the middle of an apocalypse. With everyone else going crazy trying to survive.

...Now that would be a story!

#creative writing #worldbuilding #writing prompt #zombie apocalypse #monster apocalypse #apocalypses in general #System Apocalypse

[twopoppies]

Hi Gina ! This is a weird question, maybe more of an opinion haha… but I know twitter has always had kinda of a bad reputation on here. People on here usually say twitter is a messy hell hole that they don’t want to get into and I totally get that. But I was just wondering if you knew why ? Like why is Twitter like that, but also why tumblr users always think twitter is so much worse while tumblr can also have some pretty crude and chaotic comments/takes.

I started on twitter and I’m a lot less on it now because it’s became a lot worse in the last months, but this idea of twitter has always been there. Like even I first joined, the idea that tumblr was the superior platform, that the real ones were only on there, the core of the fandom etc,

Well, I think everyone is going to have their own opinions—probably based on where they feel most comfortable. But, in a very general sense, I think the Tumblr fandom may tend to skew a little older, so perhaps it’s a tiny bit less volatile and blogs tended to stick around a long time (vs Twitter). But I think it has more to do with Tumblr being a platform that makes long discussion simpler, as well as being compatible with linking large quantities of information for backup of those discussions. So years ago Tumblr became a place with tons of masterposts and stored “proof”.

This idea of it being where “real fans” are probably just started during the pandemic because there was an enormous influx of new fans—most of whom went to twitter because it was a much more popular platform to use (especially among younger people). The bulk of these new fans were new Harry fans because of Watermelon Sugar/Fine Line and therefore were coming into the fandom without the benefit of having almost a decade of information. Their behavior ruffled a lot of feathers because it drastically changed the energy of the fandom as it had existed. That’s not always a bad thing, I think it was just a lot of what they were saying was not only factually incorrect (making statements about the meaning of things without any knowledge of the history behind it, claiming things to be “proof” when it had been debunked years earlier etc) but also seemed entirely unnecessary and confusing (ie: this whole idea of no-stunts larries and buzzing larries etc etc) and many of them behaved as though nothing that had happened before them was of any importance. When there was suddenly a huge exodus from Twitter to Tumblr it became worse because we were flooded with fans who seemed incapable of doing their own research and just bombarded our ask boxes with demands to clarify even the smallest things that had gained years prior. This also meant many things that were just accepted as fact because people had lived through the events in real time were being constantly questioned and ignored if the “proof” wasn’t considered sufficient.

Beyond that, yes, Tumblr definitely can be messy and people are sometimes nasty and send idiotic anonymous hate mail. However, it’s much easier here to block that stuff out and curate a space where you see what you want to see, than it is on Twitter. And, for the most part, people here don’t publicly talk in a nasty way about other people/people’s fics/people’s art etc. whereas that seems to be a common occurrence on Twitter.

The Tumblr fandom is far from perfect. As I said at the start, most people just have a preference and make a home where they feel comfortable.

This is just a very basic summary and I’m sure everyone who was here at the time would have additional/different things to add. But I hope it answers your questions.

#fandom dynamics