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amyintherapy · 4 months

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Things I've Learned in 18 months of therapy

When people repeat the same patterns of behavior that are more negative than positive, it's usually trauma related. Examples: Your sister who has dated 15 different men who all are emotionally unavailable, short-fused guys who don't respect her. Or your aunt who has gotten into severe debt several times in her life, always buying items she doesn't need. Or your friend who has always befriended people who are not disabled but don't work and chronically need 'favors' so they end up allowing people to mooch off them to the point of it harming their own financial security. Basically anytime you find yourself frustrated and wondering 'why do they always DO that?" or "why don't they just do X instead? They always do Y which just makes things worse..." the answer likely is, they have trauma related to this issue, and/or their behavior is related to their trauma response that they are stuck in. Of course, this is true for you also! If you keep reacting to certain situations in a way you dislike, or going back to a coping method that you see as harmful and can't figure out why you can't stop...it's probably trauma related in some way.

Part of being traumatized involves your brain trying to hide the trauma from you..at least most of it, if not all of it. My therapist has used the example of a piece of paper that is standing upright. You might see the fine edge of the paper, so you sometimes know a piece of paper is in front of you, but you can only see the edge, so when that paper finally gets turned so that it's facing you and you can read everything written on it, it kinda knocks you over and you feel like you should have known all of that all along...after all, the paper was right there. But you couldn't read it before, and you didn't even know there was all that writing on it anyway so you didn't realize such a big piece of your puzzle was missing. In other cases, the paper may be more like...trapped in a book, so it was always there, but you had no idea it was as you thought it was just part of the book, not this hand-written note hidden inside. So anyway, it's very normal to feel shocked at how lacking in awareness you were about the full impact or detail of your trauma once you get on a roll with therapy. I always knew I had trauma, and I've always been a self-reflective person...so I thought I was self aware of my trauma. But I've been surprised at how much I was failing to see fully.

ADHD is stupidly named. Having ADHD doesn't mean you have a deficit of attention. It means you can't control (aka regulate) your attention the way most people can. Tons of people with ADHD would tell you that they feel like they have too much attention. They are interested in ALL the things which is why they struggle to keep their focus on one thing while blocking out everything else going on around them. The things you do that cause you problems, were things you originally did to protect yourself. For example, maybe your addiction started because you were reaching for emotional relief and had no other (healthier) way to make yourself feel better. Or maybe you shut down and isolate when you're hurt, because when you tried reaching out for support as a child it just made things worse because your caregiver was reactive instead of supportive. Endless examples, but people do things for a reason. Your coping methods have a logical cause of some kind or another, even if they do more harm than good now, that wasn't always the case. At one time, they helped you cope with or avoid some bigger pain or problem. Depression and anxiety are both forms of avoiding other feelings. Much of general society knows the concept that "anger is a secondary emotion" (which is only sometimes true, it's also a core emotion) but I didn't know this was true of anxiety and depression. They're always secondary emotions. However, it's important to differentiate between sadness and depression, and fear and depression. Fear and sadness/grief are core emotions, but anxiety and depression are secondary. The fact that I am detail-focused and couldn't be concise if my life depended on it, are both ADHD related for me. Social anxiety is usually attachment trauma aka an insecure attachment. Anxiety and depression are often caused by trauma. I wish I knew this earlier. I spent a lot of time thinking of my anxiety was simply genetic or sort of temperament based and therefore unlikely to be healed or fixed. I don't mean to suggest that genetics or temperment isn't some element but...I can't help but wonder how many people are like me and don't realize they could heal a lot of their anxiety or depression by doing trauma work. I'm definitely still an anxious person, but I've seen a really big improvement in my anxiety. More than I thought was possible two years ago. Most kids and teenagers are avoidant in therapy, so they don't usually see as much progress from the experience, at least compared to adults. It's often a rather slow process to see improvement. However, it's still really helpful in the longrun if they have a positive experience with therapy as a teen, they're likely to try again as an adult when they're really ready to face their issues. Online, I've seen child therapists outright say that their #1 goal with kids in therapy is to make them think of therapy positively so they'll come back to therapy when they're older! I saw some progress in therapy as a teen for sure, but the 4+ years of it resulted in roughly as much (if not less?) progress than I've seen in 18 months of therapy as an adult. Apparently that's quite common. Talking about trauma feels awful, and it often makes me leave trauma-related therapy appointments wondering if there is any point or if i'm just making myself sad. A "okay, I understand this issue I have now was caused by XYZ experience from my past...but wtf do I DO about it? I understand it now, but I still have no clue how to fix it?" type of feeling. This is the result of being too close to the current day to see the full picture. Over the course of time, the benefits and healing always become apparent to me.

People who get angry often are sort of the opposite of me. I default to feeling anxious when I "should" feel angry (like when someone is rude to me), and sometimes also when I 'should' be sad. Most people who experience chronic anger are simply people who are converting their fear and/or sadness into anger. It's sometimes the difference between being an internalize and an externalize. Anger is an external emotion, fear/anxiety is an internal one. So if you struggle to externalize, you'll convert anger to sadness or fear, and if you struggle to internalize you'll convert sadness and fear to anger.

My "small t" traumas - like emotional neglect, are at least as impactful as my "big T" trauma (sexual abuse) was.

Sensory issues are common in ADHD, not just autism even though the content online often makes it seem exclusive to ASD.

I am probably forgetting a lot, but if I don't publish this now I never will. So if I think of more later, I'll just add on. :)

#my posts #trauma #adhd #therapy #mental health #cptsd #ptsd #anxiety #depression #generalized anxiety #social anxiety

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canyourfavesurvivecastledracula · 1 month

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Grifter

@would-we-be-friends-if-i asked:

Sophie Devereux (highly capable grifter/pick pocket, is the Dutchess of Hanover)

@pomrania writes:

I've no doubt that the OG Leverage crew (no diss to the new stuff, I'm just not as familiar with it) all together would not only survive, but they'd come out of the whole thing somehow the rightful owners of the castle, and kick the vampires out. Individually... Sophie's skill at social manipulation borders on the supernatural, so I think she'd be fine because nobody would register her as someone they could and/or should act against; she'd be given a ride back to civilization when she wanted it.

@r0sequarks writes:

Sophie is here to steal art, probably. She would not take the crucifix but also probably wouldn’t be shaving, so less of an issue. She is primed to keep Dracula’s attention, and isn’t going to be writing any letters, but is also good enough at reading people to tell something is wrong and go snooping. I’m really torn on how Dracula would react to her trying to con him - bemused, annoyed? - and could see him deliberately turning her, or letting her leave, or killing her, or her escaping.

@darthlordcommie writes:

Sophie: Charms people for survival. Her entire thing would be to be as good of a guest for Dracula as possible, trying to convince him that she'd actually be really useful as a guide in England. Even odds, made better by the fact that she'd take the crucifix.

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

I decided to do these in title sequence order, which was a mistake because that means starting with Sophie, and she's a tricky one...

I think...her amazing prowess at social engineering will work against Dracula defensively but not offensively. She's very very good at what she does but I can't see her getting Dracula to give her a ride back to the station, for instance. And while I do think she could convince him that she would be really useful as a guide in England, I don't think she could successfully convince him that she'd need to be alive to fulfill that role. (As an aside, check out a fic called A Tale of Two Counts wherein Jonathan Harker makes a similar mistake). Dracula already knows their relationship is prima facie adversarial - I don't think that even the remarkable Sophie Devereaux can convince a vampire that she's friend not food (Dracula has no compunctions about eating his friends).

For the rest though, she's golden. She is absolutely primed to keep Dracula's attention. I agree that Dracula will not react well to discovering that he's being conned, and they say you can't play a player, but I don't think there's any danger of that. Sophie is just better than he is at this. Dracula's fatal flaw is arrogance, and underestimating his opponents. It won't occur to him that anyone would try such a deception, or try it skillfully - Sophie unarguably can figure him out faster than he can figure her out. And once she does - Scheherezade is the roll she was born to play. She can charm him indefinitely, and more importantly, she can pivot faster than he can.

You seem sure Sophie wouldn't take the crucifix - I am less so. It depends, I suppose, on the type of character she has built going in. And since she's a charmer, I think she's more likely to be playing a character who graciously accepts gifts than one who doesn't. There's the secondary question of whether she keeps it - Jonathan forgets about it entirely, but I doubt Sophie would. She's very concerned about the appearance she's putting forth. If it's not in her character to be wearing such a decoration then yeah she'll take it right off again as soon as she's around the corner. In many ways her fatal flaw is arrogance as well - she's unlikely to be unsettled or deterred by the warnings she receives once she has a goal in mind. But yeah, she's not going to cut her chin shaving so it's a bit moot. If she keeps it, she won't take it off to protect her dreams either I think, so she'd still be wearing it while snooping. But again that may be moot because she's too careful a snooper to pass out on the couch of a room she's been explicitly forbidden to enter. She's going to want to stay close to Dracula. She can't work her charms by avoiding the Mark.

Art theft is a nonstarter here in the Castle, and she is very disappointed about it. She tries to draw Dracula into a conversation about his family history to figure out why tf there are no portraits here and it's very fruitful and I'm sure will be very useful information to have if she ever gets out.

If there were even one other human in the Castle serving Dracula she could turn them. But there aren't, which leaves her kind of stuck in an indefinite holding pattern.

Sophie I would believe speaks Romanian, so she may well enter the Castle with some idea of what she's up against - if she believes what she hears. It will be very important for her not to reveal that she does though. If Dracula figures out that she can communicate with other people, he might clock her as a threat and kill her.

Actually... she may also be able to speak or understand Romani or Slovak, which means there are other humans she might be able to get help from: Dracula's movers. Jonathan was unable to win their allegiance, but Jonathan isn't Sophie Devereaux. If she can get access to them ever. I don't think shouting down at them from her window is going to work, and I don't think she's foolish enough to try and risk getting made. Though possibly some degree of nonverbal flirting might lay the groundwork. If she can establish a rapport with one of them she can probably get him to come upstairs to meet with her on Moving Day (June 30th) and that's her exit strategy. It could work - so long as Dracula doesn't catch her at it.

So yes, Sophie Devereaux can surive Castle Dracula. But I don't think she ever gets a glimpse at the Hoard, which is a great disappointment to her.

#leverage #leverage: redemption #sophie devereaux #crooks #actors #leverage week #aristocrats

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jmdbjk · 6 months

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Golden

Kookie had a runny nose. He said when he's just hanging out with nothing to do he's fine but as soon as things start ramping up and getting hectic, the cold that won't go away comes back. Jimin was on to something when he said he was concerned about Jungkook staying healthy with such a busy schedule.

As usual he has stayed true to himself and I admire that a person of his age can be so honest about himself.

He was trying to keep it real and said things to lower everyone's expectations: About writing songs, he said he can't really write songs. He said he just doesn't have it in him. He said when he tries it always ends up being about Army.

He wondered if it was because he was so simple. This is what makes me love him as just a human being: he says things about himself that WE might not agree with but that he feels about himself. He's just so honest and unpretentious, and he doesn't even try to be that, he just is himself.

He said he thinks he doesn't have the intellect and that he doesn't have anything to write about, and if he HAD things to write about, he couldn't say them prettily and that there are so many other talented creators that he would just fall short. He mentioned RM, Yoongi, Hobi... they are so talented.

It is understandable that Kookie, being last, he saw what the other members did, and truly, it had to be intimidating. He may never feel confident enough but I bet if he gives it a try he’ll do great.

All of what he said adds another nuance as to why he said “something amazing" is coming when he did that live back in March and Set Me Free Pt 2 was about to drop. He saw how hard Jimin worked through that process and the end result WAS amazing. Intimidating indeed.

Perhaps he still needs to live some life before he can have enough emotional baggage to pour out some lyrics (lol). Give it time, Kookie, life will throw some shit at you. Or maybe expressing whatever is inside of him will never come out in words to a song. And its ok. Not everyone is a songwriter or poet.

I can accept this album as "this is where he is in his life right now". He said they worked fast. That's a lot to accomplish in the amount of time from start to finish.

My thoughts on the songs...

The lyrics to several of these songs are a little ... meh..., sort of disconnected. THAT BEING SAID... I can see some lyrics that probably did resonate with him.

But I am not going to focus so much on the lyrics but more on JK's vocal work and think about how he was trying to sing and pronounce well. THAT is what he was trying to do. He said lyrics are lyrics and images are images... they are not meant to be autobiographical so the lyrics will be secondary to the vocal production for me.

Jungkook explained that the pronunciation was a challenge. The producers each had their own idea of how the lyrics should be delivered to achieve the color of the song. English not being JK's first language, he was coached on what to do in the studio. He said especially pronouncing the "EEE" sound was a challenge.

I recognize some sounds that seem trendy. Some of the songs remind me of other songs I've heard in the past by other artists.

Closer has that flute and Afro beat that reminds me of another song but I just can't remember it right now.

Standing Next to You is giving me Michael Jackson Rock With You from his Off the Wall album or Remember the Time off his Dangerous album. A rockin' groove... "... when it's deep like DNA..." and "leave your body golden like the sun and the moon..." yes, those lyrics definitely resonate.

Yes or No, I can definitely hear the Ed Sheeran throughout that song. A nice song about that first thrill of love. Ed Sheeran is a great song writer. I've always liked his work.

Please Don't Change would probably be the song that comes closest to expressing how Jungkook feels about his fans. Though his life has been spent on camera, things might change and if he's no longer on camera, he'll still be the same but he hopes we please don't change. This song also has the same little flute sound as Closer.

Hate You. This is the Shawn Mendes song. It is one of those angsty relationship songs that are popular now like what Olivia Rodrigo and her ilk does. If Jungkook had not gotten this song, I could see it easily going to a female artist. It's quite painful. Kookie does a great job expressing the tragic drama of it all with his vocals.

Somebody is where he really lets loose with his range. Its a sad song. Like many, his opening lines had me doing a double take. I don't think we've ever heard Jungkook sing in this tone before? Very nice.

Too Sad To Dance. This is the kind of song I think Jungkook could write. It is simple and straightforward. The song is cute and poignant at the same time. He was able to keep his tone simple to match the vibe, he didn’t try to make it over the top… I love this song especially the very last line: "...you don't need no one to dance..." Stand on your own and be yourself, just like Kookie is doing.

Shot Glass Full of Tears is the best song on the album. There, I said it. He really reached down and brought JUST enough edge into his voice to pull it off. I could actually get emotional over this song. I will repeat, this is the best song on the album.

Well done, Jungkook.

Overall, Kookie is relieved the pressure is off. Now he can get out there and do what he’s knows he can do and that’s performing

And then he said it again: BTS is the most important thing to him.

Kookie knew he had to do this album. And now he's done it and ready to move forward.

When he finally realized Tae had commented:

The panic over his house not being clean hahahahahah!

Because he wasn't sure what kind of chaos they were going to bring to his house, Kookie ended the live in a stress-clean panic.

My, what a turn of events... not long ago he was laying in bed naked causing mayhem trying to convince Jimin to let him come over and take a shower and now here they come to his house bringing trouble LMAO!

I hope they had a great evening together. I loved seeing Tae and Jimin out and about, it really hits a spot in my heart.

A little while ago, I picked up a copy of Golden at Target, I don't know which photo card is the Target exclusive but this is what I got:

It's a nice package with a hard cover photo book and a case it slides into. The stickers are nice. Jungkook was wearing an earring with the that motif so I suppose it will show up as merch on the Weverse shop soon.

Anyway, that's my review of Golden.

#jungkook golden #vmin #vminkook #jimin #taehyung

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dramarising-replacement · 5 days

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I know, it's the "in thing" to hate on dusthides in general right now, but I really just cannot get behind this breed at all. so here I am, salt blog, to tear into them and let off some of my frustrations.

I've tried. I've looked at people who have made interesting dusties, I've tried to mess around with making one of my own, but I just cannot get into their weird heads and the strange shape of them. you can argue from dragonhome and back that it makes sense for a digging dragon to not have any horns or antlers, but it doesn't change the fact that the shape looks really strange, and all too smooth, especially for a dragon that is meant to be at least somewhat armored. the encyclopedia says that they look "rigid," but they don't! they actually look highly flexible! nothing about them screams "rigid!" they look so soft in fact, that they don't look like they have any scales at all. like if I were to touch them it'd be smooth, albeit very dry, soft skin.

everyone argues against their wings and I do, too. if they supported the ball rolling thing, it'd be different--but the backs aren't armored, they're actually meant for FLIGHT even if it's short, and would rip too easy, given their lifestyle. they would also get in the way of the ball mechanic. if they could work in tandem with the tail, it'd be fine, but they have to be tucked IN, under the tail. why even have them, then? especially if they'd be a hassle for squeezing into tight spaces? gosh! "they brace tunnels for cave-ins" HEY BUCKO... WHY DO YOU THINK WE BUILD TUNNEL SUPPORTS.... also I don't care. we were promised the option of very varied body types, and this is the most bog standard "dragon" you can get, even if it's peeled. it would have been SO COOL if the hide on the back was how the secondary gene was expressed, and the primary was on the belly/flank/arms, but... alas.

just... even aethers. I love aethers lol. but their second pair of arms should have been bigger. they should have had more eyes. like. ancients come out too fast, and could probably use at least a little more workshopping.

I also hate their giant singular claw, especially when you consider the fact that most animals with claws like that have multiple toes, instead of one big toe and a tiny thumb. sure. it's meant for digging, but it looks almost painful to have such utter lack of maneuverability, for digging, and ESPECIALLY walking. it like, helps to have toes that flex, not giant shovels for hands! with claws like that, it'd be more suitable for them to lay on their bellies and push themselves forward. the feet also just look strange. I can't get over it. I absolutely despise how, especially on the hatchling, they try to make the feet look "cute" by giving them pseudo paw pads. it looks gross and tacky! I can't stand to look at them!!

at least with breeds like banescales it's just a matter of personal taste, and not really feeling excited about them. it's so sad to me that I actually hate dusthides. man. I know not every breed can be a hit, some things will be a flop, but yikes. didn't expect to actually hate an entire breed. oh well. don't gotta own them.

#Rant #Flight Rising #Art #Long post #Updates #Confessions #Petty

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flamebringer0 · 7 months

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More About Nightwing Powers

I decided I had more to say about this post, so I reblogged it and wrote some more. It seems like when you do that Tumblr doesn't put the post into tag searches, so nobody can actually find it. I'm just going to copy the full text into a new post. I'm sorry if this spams anyone's feed, I just don't understand how this site works yet. I've never actually had a blog before.

-----

Ohhhh damn I just had another thought about this. This is my problem, I think about this stuff all the time and I keep coming up with new things I think are cool, but now that I've written all this out and published it for the whole world to see I can't change it so easily.

It's actually fine though. These thoughts are kind of a mix of things I think are canon but sufficiently non-obvious to be worth stating (All Nightwings have powers at hatching and then lose them), things that are definitely not canon but I feel like it doesn't mess with the story too much to change them (Prophets have a silver scale on their foreheads), and things that are ambiguous and I'm just filling in the blanks (fake Nightwing magic is based on their sense of smell). But there's a fourth category, which is things that I don't like about canon but changing them would basically entail writing a whole new story. I'm pretty sure this new idea falls into the latter category, so I wouldn't really have put it in that post anyway.

But let's explore the hypothesis that Tui T Sutherland and Scholastic collectively lose their minds and give me the rights to Wings of Fire, and also I have infinite time, resources and motivation to make my own adaptation of the story. Then what happens? Well, the first thing is obviously to change animus magic to be something other than total omnipotence, because omnipotent characters are the kind of albatross (tee hee) you don't want around your neck when you're trying to write a coherent story. And the second thing is to make it so the terrible Rainwing queens in book 3 are hereditary royalty and Glory is not, because I've never liked the valorisation of hereditary royalty in WOF (or in general), and that would be an easy way to subvert that. And THEN I would turn scavengers into lizard people, because I am a furry and I think that's cuter than making them humans. Lol.

But somewhere down the list would be the fact that I don't actually vibe with the idea that normal Nightwing seers/mind readers apparently have a built-in power limiter that varies randomly according to the specific individual, and the special gift you get for hatching under three moons is just to have that limiter set to 0. I don't like this because, first of all, the fact that it works like that just doesn't fit into my brain in a satisfactory way. Hatching under zero, one, or two full moons each results in a qualitatively different outcome, so in my mind, the third full moon should also do something qualitatively different. But it doesn't, it's just the same as two full moons but better. And then I'm left to assume that there are probably very rare cases of twice-moonborn Nightwings who have all the power, just because whatever secondary factors there are happened to line up in their favor? Weird.

But the more important reason is, I don't really like the idea of Clearsight as someone who has extraordinary power because she just hatched that way. Nor do I like the fact that the reasons for this are, on the one talon, unexplained (maybe inexplicable?), and on the other, not a function of who she is as a character. I think it would make for a much stronger motif if run-of-the-mill seer Clearsight were able to take down once-in-a-generation chosen one Darkstalker because she's diligent and doesn't believe in destiny while he's entitled and sure of his glorious future. At its core this feeling is actually the same thing as what I said about the Rainwing queens above: I just don't find it satisfying when the hero has some kind of special trait that makes them naturally better than everyone else. A villain can have that, but a hero I want to prove themselves through their own efforts. But that's explicitly not what happened in canon: Clearsight IS naturally more powerful than all the other seers, that's an essential part of her story, and changing it requires basically rewriting the books. I don't love it!

So anyway in the universe where I'm rewriting the books, here's a thought about how Nightwing powers might work. This partially contradicts what I wrote above, but I've decided I'm cool with that. I love contradicting myself actually, and maybe next week I'll contradict all of this again. There are no laws.

Some Nightwings are seers, some are mind readers, a few are both, and most are neither. But aside from the fact that an individual might or might not have these powers, they don't vary in strength from dragon to dragon. All seers have equally strong abilities, and all mind readers have equally strong abilities. But the strength of the abilities does vary: not per individual, but over time. Specifically, the current state of the moons affects the abilities of empowered Nightwings. On a hypothetical "darkest night" with three new moons, all Nightwings are effectively powerless. On the brightest night, empowered Nightwings experience the full strength of their abilities. Seers can easily look down many different paths into the distant future, and mind readers can easily examine any information in the mind of another dragon. Of course, the phases of the three moons are not synchronous. Most of the time, the moons are all in different states, and empowered Nightwings experience abilities somewhere in between those extremes.

Above, I said that the "strength" of Nightwing abilities doesn't really vary per dragon. Strength, as I use the term here, only refers to the raw potential to look into the future or into another dragon's mind. But different individuals do have different levels of adeptness when it comes to applying their abilities. On the brightest night, any seer can look with relative ease into the far future, down multiple timelines, examining subtle ripples of possibility. The rest of the time, most seers can't use their abilities on that level, but a particularly adept one can get closer. What makes one seer more adept than another? Well, it's really just training. If you're someone who, for whatever reason, keeps looking into the future, over time you'll get better at it, just like anything you keep doing. This is what sets Clearsight apart from her peers. She isn't more blessed by the moons than them, because no seer is more blessed by the moons than any other. Clearsight just looks into the future all the time, to a degree nobody else does. She works harder on her visions than any other seer, so her abilities are more advanced than those of any other seer.

There is one exception to the maxim "no seer is more blessed by the moons than any other". The special gift of the thrice-moonborn is that they are exempt from the cyclical waning and waxing of power with the phases of the moons. They hatch on the brightest night, and its power soaks into them and becomes permanently part of them. And so, they live as if every night is a brightest night. They always have the potential to see the ripples that spread into many distant futures, and they can always pluck any information they want out of another dragon's mind. What other Nightwings may train and train for, these dragons do as easily as they breathe.

There are few Nightwings who never dreamed as dragonets about what it would be like to have hatched under three full moons. How different their lives could have been from those of the common powerless Nightwing, or even ordinary seers and mind readers! And not just directly because of what they could see: the thrice-moonborn are almost inevitably beloved by their tribe, showered with attention, and elevated to the highest strata of society. Wouldn't that be nice, think the dragons who could have walked that path but for something as meaningless as the sky under which they hatched.

It's unsurprising that many covet that life, but it's not entirely as pleasant as they imagine. The adulation that surrounds the most powerful Nightwings is instrumental. As laid out in excruciating detail just behind the eyes of smiling dragons, few love them for who they are; many more love them for what they are. They will never have any interaction with friends or family that isn't fundamentally shaped by the asymmetrical power dynamic implied by their abilities. It's easy for a dragon in that situation to become profoundly isolated, especially without support. But the brightest night comes so rarely that most Nightwings who receive its gift will grow up with neither peers, nor mentors who can relate to these experiences. That many ultimately respond in unhealthy, self-destructive ways is a given; that the self-destruction of such powerful dragons often also destroys those around them is a recurring tragedy in the history of the tribe.

But it's not inevitable. No dragon's fate is actually written in the stars or sealed by the moons. It's always possible to choose a different future.

#the nice thing about making a blog is that now i can record the infinite cascade of thoughts im always having about night dragon moon magic #without feeling like im compelling any particular person to listen #next time ill talk about a different topic though #probably #wings of fire #wof #wof headcanon #headcanon #wof nightwing #nightwing #wof clearsight #clearsight #wof darkstalker #darkstalker

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burning-academia-if · 1 month

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Hello!! Are there any tips you'd give new writers as to how flesh out a character?? Have a nice rest of your day/night!

I think my advice is a collection of things I've read from other people that stuck in my brain well/worked with my writing style. I should also warn that my creation process is messy and non linear lol. With that said, here's a random assortment of how I go about making/writing characters:

1. Writing is personal which means what works for other people might not work for you. Follow what works and throw out the rest!

2. When making a character, you don't need to know everything about them actually. What you do need to know is usually dependent on the story, but in general I usually start with a general idea of backstory, ideals/morals, goals, fixed personality traits, and maybe a collection of likes/interests. The more I work on the story the more the character gets fleshed out, mostly because I develop the story and characters together.

2. Flaws and strengths aren't always opposites. A character's kindness can also be the reason they're a pushover. A character who's smart and analytical can over analyze everything to the point of anxiety, etc

3. If a character serves no purpose or is redundant throw them out or shove them into a secondary role!

4. Why are your main characters the main characters? How do they affect the plot and how does the plot affect them?

5. A weird one that's more specific to how I write but, my characters are the biggest point of symbolism in my story. They're the main characters because they carry those symbols and themes. I likely won't know what that is when I first start outlining/writing, but they do. If they aren't one of the main anchors of symbolism, that's usually another sign to me they're meant to be a secondary/tertiary character (not that those positions can't tie in to the story symbolically either) because they're probably more there to move plot then anything else

6. Finally, sometimes the concept of a character changes from concept/outline to the actual story. That's fine and I think it's worse to fight it then it is to just go alone with it. A lot of writing is just figuring things out as you go, no matter if you outline or not.

7. Honestly if you're a new writer I'd also argue: don't worry about it lol I think when people try to get into writing when they're older they overthink all the "rules" and how to make something "good" that they intimidate themselves out of trying to write in the first place. Have fun, write tropes and cliches, do whatever you enjoy as long as it makes you fall in love with writing.

#em answers #long post #writing advice #I don't think I'll ever be able to properly articulate how I work/write honestly because I'm so chaotic about it #anyway I'd also argue the way to get good at something is to just do it #things usually don't click until you're in the midst of creating

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regina-bithyniae · 5 months

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What's your take on inheritance taxes as an economist? Good, bad, mixed bag? What behaviour do they incentivise/disincentivise exactly?

It's not a topic I have a super strong take on, or am familiar with the empirical literature, which is always your #1 thing for economics, but I can give some generalized opinions:

Inheritance comes when someone dies and passes on money to relatives. So we'd expect to get less of that. Apart from meme cases of people trying not to die, this means they'll get less value from passing money on at death. This will drive

saving less in life

spending more money in retirement age

passing on money earlier as "gifts"

For the latter, this is part of estate planning. Governments aren't stupid enough not to know, so you get secondary rules of maximum legal gifts to heirs per year while you're alive. So we're already seeing effort going into dodging the tax.

More importantly, or at least less talked about, is that this is earned income which has already been taxed likely multiple times! So someone earns money at their job (income tax), saves it (capital gains taxes), dies and passes it on (estate tax), and then the heir gets it and spends it (sales tax). These have different efficiency levels and distributional effects. Estate probably leans towards "equitable but inefficient" but wide confidence intervals on efficiency. But it's not as if this money hasn't already been taxed, and will be taxed later regardless of estate tax.

My general principles on taxes are that you should hit externalities first (e.g. carbon tax), then highly efficient sources (land/property tax, VAT/sales tax), and try to stay away from things that incentivize savings (capital gains, corporate) or with stupid distortions (tariffs, implicit taxes through fees and fines). Spending can redistribute efficient but flatter taxes through welfare. So I'd feel lukewarm on estate taxes, though at reasonable levels they don't seem like the end of the world.

This is the Numbers Fuckstein viewpoint, though. I expect views on fairness and inequality drive normal peoples' views on estate taxes. I care a lot more about GDP/capita growth, which does trickle down and make things better for working-class people, and savings and productivity growth is the main driver in that.

And if anything in the empirical public finance literature contradicts what I say here, go with that. Tagging @powermonger for input from someone who's better-read.

#econposting

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noodyl-blasstal · 11 months

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Blupjeans Week Day 1

It's @blupjeansweek! Blupjeans week last year was the thing that encouraged me to start writing fics, so it's been fun to play with it again! Like last year, it's loosely connected (so far anyway!). So, now I'll stop blethering and here's some words. Day 1 - refuge

16 hours to go.

16 hours until he tanked his viva, fucked up everything he’d been working for, and his supervisor says he hadn’t ever believed Barry was capable, he just wanted his fees... Well, John would definitely say that if Barry could get hold of him but it had become abundently clear over the course of his postgrad research that John wasn’t the easiest guy to reach. Which might not be a problem if it wasn't his literal job to support Barry through his PhD.

At this point Barry hadn’t heard from him in two weeks despite a variety of progressively more panicked emails. The last conversation they had was John's particularly un-comforting statement that Barry should “...expect majors" because "it’s not the worst thesis I’ve ever read, but it certainly isn’t the best.” Barry's secondary supervisor hadn’t even bothered to show up for that meeting, so it was anyone’s guess what his take was. Barry assumed it wasn’t great.

He grabbed the pot from the coffee machine he’d abducted from the kitchen a few days ago and perched on his desk instead. He debated swigging straight from it, that seemed more efficient than using a mug, plus, his hand seemed to be shaking a bit and he didn't want to risk trying to pour it into a mug then into himself - he needed every drop to keep him awake long enough to work out how to fix this disaster.

“Knock knock! This is your 16 hour anxiety check in.” Barry’s door creaked open, but Lup didn’t appear. “Barrrrooollllld?” She sing songed, then added hopefully “...have you finally decided to sleep?”

“Come in Lup.”

“Damn, you’re still up.” Oh, of course she was disappointed. She was probably sick of having to baby him through his anxiety. “...Not that I don’t want to see you, I was just hoping you were getting some rest.”

Barry held up the coffee pot in a cheers motion then took a swig from it. He was fine, this was fine, but if Lup left in disgust he could get back to scribbling increasingly unhinged and hard to read annotations on his sticky notes and trying to work out how to pull this disaster over the finish line.

"Doing totally fine, huh?” Lup eyed him disapprovingly. “Barry, you have to take a break. You're going to crash in the middle of it if you keep this up. You've got what, like 15 and a bit hours?" She waited for him to nod in affirmation. "Cool, then you've got time to sleep."

He didn't have time to sleep, he had to try and plug the holes in the sinking ship that represented four years of his life. Suddenly Lup was in front of him, he hadn't noticed her moving, but she had appeared and was gently prying the sticky note monstrosity he hadn’t realised he’d picked up out of his hand. "No, I need to…"

"Sleep." Lup said. "You need to rest. There isn't a single thing in here you don't know. It's fucking brilliant, no, don't argue with me, I've read it." Barry snapped his mouth closed, he wanted to protest, but he wasn't entirely sure he could remember what he was arguing with, there was no fight left in him. "Now give me the coffee pot, Barold." He gripped it more firmly. No, not even for Lup. He couldn't relinquish this, it was the only thing keeping him awake. Lup raised and eyebrow. “Barold, don’t make me full name you. I'll do it! Hand over the pot.” Lup held her hand out expectantly.

"I'll fall asleep."

"That's the idea my guy. C'mon, gimme the sweet sweet bean juice. You don't need that where you're going."

"Where I'm…? Where am I? I'm here." Barry looked down to check.

Lup used his moment of confusion to swipe the coffee pot. Usually it wouldn’t have worked… probably, okay, it would have, but slower and he would have protested more. Right now his hands felt too heavy to even think about taking evasive action. "Yoink!" Lup said triumphantly, holding it aloft. Then he blinked and she didn't have the coffee pot any more. Maybe she magicked it somewhere? Barry turned his head to try and find it, and then she was tugging at his hand. "Not here, Bear, somewhere comfy."

"The chair's comfy, it's ergonomic." He paid a lot of money because the guy in the shop was really confident about that.

Lup snorted and tugged harder. "Barold Jorts Bluejeans, you're coming with me."

"My name isn't…"

"...Ssssh." Lup might have been laughing. Barry wasn’t entirely sure, maybe it was him actually? Should stand? Oh, actually, he was up and moving and Lup still had hold of his hand and maybe she didn't have to let it go and she could just keep holding his hand and he could hold hers and maybe she’d have a nap with him. They stopped.

"This is your room." Barry wasn't entirely sure how they'd got there, time was doing strange things.

"Yup, cha'girl decided you couldn't be left unattended in yours, it's too full of anxiety, even if I get you to sleep you'll marinade in it. So, we're here." Lup pushed the door wide.

Her bed had developed some kind of blanket canopy, there were string lights strewn around, and he could hear the soft patter of rain even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. "It's… this is… magic. You made it all magic."

"Uh huh, now get in." Lup lifted a corner of blanket, it revealed a whole mess of pillows and blankets waiting inside. The bed looked so cosy, so inviting, so much better than his boring bed. He shouldn't, he really shouldn’t, he should study more, he couldn't afford to get off track. "That’s it, Bear." Oh. He was in the process of crawling in, and he was comfy. He flopped bodily into the bed and everything smelled of Lup’s orange body wash. Maybe he could just live here.

"I should do more prep." He mumbled, and sank into the pillow nest, rubbing his face on a soft fleece blanket.

"Uh huh." Said Lup.

"There's… I need to… you see, I have..."

"I'll wake you up in a few hours, sleep tight, Bear."

“Sleep tight Lup.” Barry mumbled from the depths of his blanket cocoon.

Part 2 here.

#BlupjeansWeek2023 #Sometimes friends make friends step away from their horrifying anxeity rooms and sleep in a magical blanket bed fort #Thank you so much for organising!#Noodyl Writes #TAZ Fic #Blupjeans #The Adventure Zone #Barry Bluejeans #Lup #Lup Tacco

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lazbotronence · 1 month

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5 minutes with... TEDxBrighton's Laurence Rickard [x]

8 Oct 2015

TEDxBrighton caught up with this year's host Laurence Rickard. Larry (as he would prefer you all to call him) is a BAFTA-winning comedy writer and actor, probably best known for his work on the hit BBC sketch show Horrible Histories and the Sky 1 fantasy comedy Yonderland.

What are you doing right now?

I'm on a train, which is where I spend a fair proportion of my life. I find I get huge amounts of work done on trains, because I can't procrastinate by making a sandwich or going for a walk... Well, not for a very long walk anyway. Though answering these questions means I'm not doing the re-write that I've promised my producer. If she shouts at me, I'm going to give her your number.

What was your first thought when invited to host this year’s event?

Honestly? I was worried that I'd taken on something I wouldn't have time to do. But then I feel that when I agree to do most things. It'll be fine. I just like to worry.

You’re undoubtedly extremely busy this year with your writing and acting, and also with the release of your first film, Bill. With this in mind, what persuaded you to add this role to your already crammed to do list?

I went to school with Sam, one of the organisers, so he probably has quite a lot of dirt on me. I thought it best not to cross him, in case he had a copy of that demo my band did when I was 15. I wouldn't want that getting out. Also, it's TED, isn't it. It's an institution. I felt very privileged to have been asked.

This year’s conference is about losing control. When was the last time you lost control and why?

Well, I'm five days away from the release of a film right now (it's called Bill and it's in cinemas on September 18th – you should definitely go and see it), so I'm probably running on slightly heightened levels of anxiety and reduced levels of sleep. I'm not sure I'd say I've 'lost control' at any point, but there's been a few moments where I've raised my voice a bit, which is very rare for me. That's a very British answer isn't it? You ask when I lost control and I tell you the last time I raised my voice. Hardly a thundering maelstrom – I don't think it'll make the papers.

TEDx is all about sharing inspiring concepts and ideas. Who has been your biggest inspiration and why?

Probably my drama and English teacher at secondary school. He was always so supportive and encouraging. On reflection he was quite anti-establishment – he would give you a thousand merit points for a piece of writing, which both bolstered your self-confidence and made a complete mockery of the 'merit point' system. That was him all over. I was quite shruggy-shoulders about most of my school life, but I looked forward to his lessons so much. He encouraged me to write and act, and now I write and act – if that's not an inspiration, I don't know what is.

If you were asked to deliver a TED talk, what would you like to talk about and who would you most like to deliver your talk to?

I'd probably talk to young people about the celebration of celebrity. I worry that there's a generation who are, in many ways, being robbed of inspiration, and I don't think that's fair on them. People who, in a world of Geordie Shore and vlogs about making a nice breakfast, think that 'being a celebrity' is a goal to strive towards. Not trying to learn a skill or an art or hone a talent, but wanting to get 'rich and famous' by doing something that, in essence, pretty much anyone could do. You just want them to find that thing – whether it's bricklaying or mastering the violin – that enthuses and inspires them beyond the desire to one day have 2 million Twitter followers. Making sure that the world's best UN Secretary General doesn't end up never existing because they became the next Joey Essex instead.

As a born and bred resident of Brighton and Hove, what do you love most about this city?

I like its size. It's a walkable city. I lived in that London for a bit, and people travel for two hours just to meet up for a beer. That seems mad to me. And I like that Brighton is, on the whole, tolerant, liberal and diverse. I don't like that big spike they've put by the West Pier though. I just don't get it – we are a city of vibrant streets, not striking skylines. The view in one direction will just be roofs, and the other will just be just water. I never really got the thrill of looking at stuff from a bit higher up.

If you could take just one book, film and album on holiday this year, which would you take?

The film please.

What do you think events like TEDx offer to audiences?

Tickets I'd imagine. That would be the model I'd adopt. It's simplest in terms of seating etc. Plus the revenue would help to cover production costs. It's certainly worth looking into.

If you could pick a theme for next year's conference what theme would you most like to explore and why?

Special Effects Techniques in the Original Star Wars Trilogy. It's the only thing I can speak about with any authority.

#laurence rickard #larry rickard #ted x #brighton

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sharingfandoms · 5 months

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So like in your tags under the bb vs msp poll I saw you mentioning that msp was bad written and tingun aren't as healthy as people claim they are.....and I was like YEAH!! EXACTLY!! But I wasn't able to pinpoint it. Would you mind elaborating on those tags??

ohhh wowwwww my first ask!!!!! of course i will. i am also really happy that someone agrees since i kind of always found myself pretty alone in this lmaooo. thank you for your question!!! much appreciated! ♥

First claim: MSP is bad written

Yes, it is. For many reasons. I will elaborate on the main two.

It kind of presents itself as some sort of heir of Bad Buddy, but the comparison is pale to say the least. The main characters don't really have any reasons not to date. They could date in secret from the very start, as soon as they realize they both have feelings for each other, and then come out as an actual couple as soon as the whole music contest is over, or something like that (even waiting for another year until they graduate could be a valid choice tbh). No particular drama needed. They could still go to each other's houses and make out all day in bed while Gun's mom is working, or go out somewhere public without their classmates present and have a real date.

The actual conflict that makes them star-crossed lovers is ridiculous at best. The mere idea that a school club in high school (well, Mattayom actually, but whatever) would have a rule like that is genuinely stupid - like, it's not even 'club members can't date', but 'those who are in this club and going for Hot Wave can't have a faen'. Like, hello? What if I've had a faen before joining this damn club? I'm supposed to break up with them because some idiot thinks that'll make me more focused on singing and playing music? Are you fucking kidding me? I'm only accepting this as something not entirely crazy and fucked up if there's some cultural reference I'm missing behind it (if things really work like that anywhere in Thailand, then apologies, pretend you never read this last complain; but I did look it up on the internet and didn't find anything about it). It'd still sound stupid, but at least it'd make sense. It was something so out of the blue that just felt like the opposite of plot armor: something made entirely just to create an obstacle to the love story of the main guys once their path was clear and they were both sure about their feelings (if that's such an important rule, why didn't it come up sooner? It felt like watching a kids show, where threats gradually become scarier the more our protagonist becomes stronger). Regardless, like I said, it was not that bad for them.

Pat and Pran are star-crossed lovers because the parents they love and admire - and are economically dependent on - hate each other and actively tried to keep them apart, causing trauma and pain on both ends. They can't get rid of them. It's not highschool, it's not a damn music club you'll eventually get out of (soon enough!!!). It's their whole life. It's the people they love the most who are trying to oppose their relationship (not to mention their friends as well, while Tinn and Gun have full support on that regard). They feel guilty, they feel sad, they don't want to have to say goodbye to their fucking families in order to keep their relationship going. This is serious, and complicated - and practical, as money does buy happiness after all. This will last, probably forever, until their parents will finally come around and accept things are the way they are - we see a glint of it happening in the last episode, at least. Compared to this, Gun and Tinn are fine, really. Even a teenager should be able to see that. The writers didn't have to go out of their ways to make comparisons that martyr PatPran's symbols, like having them use the word 'friend' instead of 'boyfriend' as an 'inside joke', or their colors, or anything at all really, only for them to be related to a fucking school club rule.

The secondary couples are bad handled, which is a shame because I was genuinely interested in Sound and Win at first. I even dared to hope - fully aware I was fooling myself, but at least hoping it was going to be a fun road to something interesting and original! - that they would have actually written an aromantic/demiromantic character in this drama, based on what Win says to Sound in episode 10. But then everything that episode was supposed to be a build-up for in terms of their bond just suddenly disappears in the next, when they're somehow in an established relationship already. Great? Would have been nice to see that happening on screen, I guess. I suppose that's what happens when you WASTE so many episodes around only two characters (TinnGun), relegating focus on your secondary couple (I won't even mention the third couple, since there isn't much to say about them tbh) in the last ones, making it rushed and kind of pointless (this also happened with the feud between Tinn and Sound, which never got explained to the viewers for some reason; okay). And they even get an explicit PatPran reference at some point towards the end of the drama, which makes me cry and not in a good way - poor babies, don't worry, we'll all just collectively forget your outfits and cans were even brought up in MPS in the first place.

Second claim: TinnGun are not as healthy as people say they are

I want to be brief with this one, because people are going to hate on me anyway, and I don't feel like writing a whole ass essay on those two. All I have to say is: if this couple had been heterosexual, people would have probably hated it. With how much double standards affect the way people perceive female characters and straight relationships, all those traits that make them state Tinn is a green-flag and a lovable simp would instead have them assert that he's a succubus, that he's not indipendent enough, that he's only obsessed with the guy and doesn't actually love him, and that he doesn't do much in the show other than being the love interest. Usually, when people say these things related to female characters, they're wrong - and just being mysogynistic, hating on any girl who dares to have a cute crush on a guy. Ironically enough, in Tinn's case, they wouldn't even be all that wrong.

Like I said, I don't feel like elaborating much on this issue, unless anon really wants me to - then I'll dive into it in detail in another post. But, like, genuinely, Gun really pissed me off at times, he often takes Tinn for granted (I'm thinking about that one moment where Tinn tells him he's not going to make it to one of their rehearsals and he gets mad about it, as if Tinn hasn't been at his disposal the entire fucking time; that scene really made me feel uncomfortable, because if I were the one who had been so helpful to anyone at all, just for them to treat me like that as soon as I have a problem of my own and can't attend to theirs, I'd be genuinely disappointed; and yes, I know that Gun will later change his attitude, but I feel like there was no weight placed on this matter, as if him finally acknowledging Tinn's struggles and effort wasn't a turning point in their story but more like something optional that just kind of happened), and I feel like their relationship is often unbalanced on many aspects.

I won't elaborate on all the other claims - "he's obsessed with the guy", "he doesn't do much in the show other than being the love interest" -, but I do genuinely believe there should be more dialogue about them in the fandom. I never once read anyone complain about these issues, and I know for a fact they'd have come up immediately had it been a female character in Tinn's place.

#i don't know how to tag this #because i don't want it showing up in t1nngun's tag #i don't mean to be an hater #i can certainly tag #bad buddy #bad buddy the series #patpran #my beloved #and then maybe my school president #hoping this won't be upsetting for anyone

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febrainrot · 6 months

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okay real talk has anyone used the bow knights in Fates and Awakening? They always felt so lackluster both stat wise and skill wise compared to the sniper or adventurers. Rally skill is fine, but generally not what I would go for for my archer unit, and only really interesting to grab before switching to a better class. The shurikenbreaker skill isn't necessarily bad but shuriken units either don't have the strength to really affect your unit beside pretty minor stat reductions for units that already should get hit, have such high hit rate that the skill is unreliable, or both. The trickster's lucky seven is good for strong starts, and pass offers a lot of strategies, and while the bow knight is stronger, they have good utility with staves, and their resistance is better, while the bow knight's strength is still very weak. The sniper is extremely powerful and with phenomenal skills (certain blow absolutely obliterates elusive opponents and bowfaire only highlights their strength). Of course the bowknight has the range of a mounted unit, but....you don't really want to have your archer go too far ahead. Sure their sword is useful in that scenario but then they can be replaced by a regular cavalier, who will have even more variety for close combat.

As if it wasn't enough, the people who can actually access that class directly tend to function better in other classes: Niles is a very magic and resistance oriented unit so adventurer is the most logical choice for him. Laslow just works better in nearly every way as a hero, Selena could technically work there but again, is better as a hero, and if you want her to use bows the fact she's the only conquest unit to be able to be a Kinshi Knight which is a relatively solid class gives you a relatively better option even for this (the only drawback being having to start at E rank for lances). Soleil is a better ninja most of the times, but also has access to a lot of different classes depending of the mother. Nina is as magic oriented as her father if not more depending of her mother, and Anna benefits from the higher luck classes she has access to. It doesn't fit Flora or Felicia, As stated before Silas is probably better off as a great knight or paladin (or even hero), and don't pretend you would use Gunter.

I did make a bow knight Sophie build that ended up being somewhat correct with farming: with Azura as a mother, she ends up being a high skill high speed okay strength unit with Luna which activates often thanks to her skill, replicate from Silas befriending Kaze and renewal from her mother, leading to an actually viable Luna reliant dodgetank that can cover two areas (I believe I also gave her Sol lower on the skill list so it wouldn't get in the way of Luna, which activates enough to have her heal). Along with her personal skill lowering enemy defence, she manages to be both capable of surviving a fair amount of attacks on enemy turn AND dealing either massive damage with a killer weapon and/or luna or only deal a limited amount but lowering the enemy defence to play chip damage.

another build I want to try (gotta get a computer that can run citra first...) is bow knight Takumi. However the only way to get Takumi that class is by marrying a Corrin with mercenary/thief secondary class. My reasoning is that Takumi's personal growth and fujin yumi are already strong enough to carry him even in a class less fit for him, and that the fujin yumi cancelling terrain movement limitations would go very well with a mounted unit (while they are kinda redundant with a flyer, and come with more weaknesses). Maybe grab Sol if you opted for mercenary, or lucky seven & pass, then the usual Takumi strats and you now have a Takumi that has more movement than a sniper, none of the weaknesses of a kinshi, and not affected by terrains unlike mounted units.

#fire emblem #fe14 #fe fates #fire emblem fates

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mdhwrites · 1 year

Note

I understand that you have spoken at length about Belos's stature as a villain in your post about backstories, but I do have to ask you to elaborate further on something.

What exactly is there about Belos that makes you find him boring? I'll be frank, I got the (probably wrong) impression that it's because he's not present much and not extravagantly emotional. Besides the numerous issues with his backstory that you've already discussed in depth, I feel like the latter is really subjective - there are plenty of villains who work well, even if their strength is purely one of narrative roles and not one of characterization, while remaining rather emotionally subdued. For all his faults, I personally think that the show delved into Belos's exact shade of black well (besides Elsewhere and Elsewhen, I guess) and that it works fine for the story and his interactions with characters such as Hunter and Luz.

This probably warrants a separate discussion on whether one-dimensional villains, main or secondary, can be considered "good" or "done well", but that's not the point of this ask.

(P.S. I really don't like the fact that the show reused the half-digested palisman amalgamate from Hollow Mind to make it just Belos's monster form. The scene in King's Tide where he briefly gets his human face back on to guilt-trip Hunter is pretty much the one time it actually clicks, so to speak)

So… I do feel bad that I've commonly acted like my stance on Belos being a boring/bad villain is a stance by default when it's reasonable to question it. Hell, his first is appearance is GREAT, with tons of menace, potential but also this push and pull with how the Isles is. Is he wrong in his commitment to his ideals if he truly is hearing the Titan and only desires unity?

The problem is that this doesn't amount to anything. One of the strengths to absentee villains like Belos is feeling their hand on things. Feeling the strength of their ideals or the cunning of their plans when it's revealed that they were behind what was going on. Belos' grand statements in the S1 finale very so much feel like this…

And then in S2, the literal only time before Hollow Mind where we feel his "GRAND MACHINATIONS!" is in the first episode with the fact that the boat is owned by the Emperor's Coven. It feels like Hunter sub-contracting his job admittedly but that's not the biggest issue in the world or anything. It gets the job done and he was watching things to make sure it happened.

But otherwise you don't feel Belos in the world or in the plot. Eda's Requiem theoretically but it's like the ONE time in S2 before Hollow Mind where people remember wild witches are, you know, illegal. Which isn't new and this still isn't as dramatic as the S1 finale. The focus is much more on Eda and Raine and Eda's personal drama than it actually is about the rebellion against Belos. It's technically an action against him but one with no lasting consequences except for Raeda angst.

It's also one of the only two times the cast actually confronts the coven heads who should be picking up the slack for Belos by showing who his generals are, that's one way to make up for an absentee villain, but they pretty much all fall into the categories of queer coded or at least entertainingly villainous or both. At least for the ones who can talk. Their lack of presence only reinforces Belos' lack of presence. Kikimora has more of a presence is almost never taken seriously in S2 which paradoxically makes Belos seem less imposing or impressive. This is right hand minion?

Same goes for Hunter honestly. If Hunter is his home grown prodigy, the fact that he constantly gets belittled or his ass kicked really doesn't make you fear Belos. In fact, the entirety of the EC has this problem because they appear to be so incompetent and unlikable but they don't reflect well on him.

It also makes his machinations feel… pointless and far too easily achieved. Which they mostly are. Darius literally takes Belos' place in motivation for Hunter in Sport in a Storm, he is so easy to replace manipulation wise. His manipulations of Luz require Lilith and Luz to abandon their character pasts (serious, head of the EC and Eda's apprentice and they still don't question a con artist for more than half a second) and Luz's personal guilt trip about helping Belos is arguably the worst creative choice in the entire series. It's presented really well, it's probably Belos' best scene but… It still isn't good narratively. His best manipulation is of Lilith and the series goes out of its way to mock Lilith for the fact that she's easily manipulated and bad at her job so I can't really give him credit for that.

And I think that's the core of why I say Belos is boring. He's functional, he does his job as a villain but he is also deeply frustrating because so much of what he does just flatly works. And what do we get in return for that? Hunter whining? Lilith and Eda losing their magic, which is never properly explored with Eda and only somewhat explored with Lilith, and Luz at her absolute most unlikable and the writers having no idea how to actually handle that without EXTREME unintended consequences. The worst offender is getting the Day of Unity in return for just having to believe the plan the CATS make fail because BELOS KNOWS ALL. Yeah that's… That's real interesting. Totally makes me want to see more of this brilliant mastermind.

It's like the fight scenes in the series. Because no one's power level is actually consistent, you end up recognizing it's more for the narrative and you disconnect. If they're losing, it's only because the writer needs them to lose. If they're winning, it's because the conflict is effectively over. Spectacle can at least make this enjoyable but…

There's no spectacle with Belos. Despite being religiously motivated and an extremely hateful man, we never get thunderous, preaching monologue from him. We never get him smiting someone in righteous fury. He never feels like he enjoys this or even really cares that deeply about it. It feels like he's just going through the motions most of the time.

But then you get rare moments like him killing Flapjack and saying he doesn't care about them… Contrasted by him leaving and going "I'm doing this for your souls" potentially as why he doesn't kill all of them right there and then when he's been winning. Not only that, but he shouldn't care about any of these sinners' souls and it's delivered incredibly flatly.

Yes, historically the people who have used religion for the sake of war are hardly actually pious but we never even get an exploration of that. We never have an exploration of anything to do with Belos besides him being flatly evil.

And if you're one note, your one note better be what sets off a chorus of noise. Joker is commonly one note in how evil he is but how people react to him and how insane and fun his plots are are why people remember him. How fun he is himself is why people remember him. Why people get excited once they know a story has the Joker in it.

And I'm just never excited by Belos. Bare minimum, not in hindsight. Much like the rest of the show, when he doesn't have to prove his statements, he can sound impressive and interesting. In execution though, he has no follow through. No presence. No joy. Little dread commonly even.

And admittedly a lot of me disliking his appearances before Elsewhere Elsewhen is hindsight. Even when what he is saying isn't explicitly a lie coming out of an asshole, they now feel disingenuous because we now know that his regime is a lie, his beliefs are a lie and that he just has a tendency to be an asshole. Betraying Lilith isn't keeping to grander schemes, it's just a dumb witch as a pawn in his game of genocide with none of the fun that say, Andrias has with when he's reveling in being evil.

Honestly, the more I think about it… The main reason Belos is ever good goes to having a strong design, animation and a good voice actor. If either of those dropped the ball at all, he'd be lacking a lot of the menace and dread he ever has. Menace and dread that can't beat out what my mind tells me he actually is once we've met Phillip. It's not like manipulations are any special after all. "Luz, I'm not trying to murder your entire world." "Child I've groomed to want my approval, here is how you gain my approval." "Woman who's sister is dying, here is what you must do for me to save your sister."

None of these are hard sells. None of these are impressive. His most impressive is tricking people who were already looking for him, and for what he was looking for, and telling them "Yep, I know where this is, come with me," and that's only impressive because it takes Luz and Lilith ignoring the fact that these two mercenaries are talking about Philip having done something awful to their friend and a palisman which neither bring up. Otherwise… Belos never convinces someone to do something when their goals don't align. He doesn't even succeed against Luz because Luz blows up the briefcase after he uses overwhelming power and leverage against her.

He is functional. Just like the magic of TOH. And like the magic, it can look nice, even impressive sometimes, but it's not something to look forward to be interested because it's just going to do the job required of it in the moment.

And that's a really shit place for your main villain to be in but I've spent like three blogs in the past week just talking about how much Belos' role in S3 is almost purely of genre structure. That. Sucks. (also, sorry for not getting to his monstrous form. I agree it's bad, and it's bad for a LOT of reasons, yours partially included, just that this blog is long and rambly enough as is). ==========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

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emersonfreepress · 1 year

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Sorry if you've already answered something like this but something had me wondering… since the stats for Gabe & Kile are split between platonic and romantic (& I'm gonna assume it'll be that way w all main ROs) will MC also be able to have a bestie? Like, if we have a lot of platonic points w, say, Jessie, will she (or the text) acknowledge that? No problem if you don't wanna spoil this, was just curious!

Yes!! And omg I'm so pumped to finally have an excuse to talk about this —

Yes, New Kid can have a best friend! That's why relationship stats are actually split three ways: Affection (platonic, 5 levels), Attraction (romantic, 4 levels), and Trust (varying number of levels depending on the character).

This requires actual fine-tuning from me and we'll see how implementation goes, but the idea is that maxing out both the Trust and Affection stats for a character makes them your best friend. One best friend is likely all that should be possible for one playthrough, but that remains to be seen! Why work on friendships? Well...

Characters will tell you Intel, Rumors, and Secrets. About themselves, about others, about the setting. You'll probably want to know some of that shit.

ROs on the same level of friendship with the MC befriend each other. That's how the friend group is built! (So if you're level 3 Affection with Kile and R, you get a little scene showing the progression of their own friendship 🥰 and it's reflected in relevant social scenes, ofc)

Reaching level 4 Affection unlocks special social skills that the MC can make use of for skill checks and social situations!! I'm so excited about this one. I'll probably mainly introduce this during the beta; it makes a bit more sense to me to backtrack and figure out where these RO perks can be applied. Easier to make sure they all get equal opportunities and fit the plots appropriately.

(Oh, but the Emersons function slightly differently 😅 As per usual lol)

Developing this silly system is the reason I've been hesitant about allowing the MC to make enemies out of the ROs. There are already secondary characters you can make allies or enemies out of (the student council president, Clair; the Avery twins; The Madisons; etc.).

I worry it would feel... cheap? Unbalanced? Asymmetrical? To have there be player perks for making friends, but none for making enemies. I'd have to brainstorm on how it could work real hard and I haven't done that yet (it's daunting lol); not to mention it's a significant amount of writing and additional character plot. For like... both books. So... idk.

#thanks for the question!#lovely anon #answered #ROs #mechanics

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melverie · 1 year

Text

- OBEY ME SHALL WE DATE? GUIDE -

Right away-this guide is resource-heavy. You'll need tons of glow sticks, Grimm and preferably Devil Points, but it'll be far faster than raising all your cards to level 150

I'll link this back to itself for those of you that would like to reblog can check for updates every once in a while (last updated: September 25th 2023)

-> guide for Nightbringer -> intimacy raising guide

Things discussed on here include:

card building

leveling vs Devil's Tree

glow sticks

dance battles

other

- CARD BUILDING -

try to get at least one UR(+) demon card of each sin to level 90 minimum. I’d recommend two tho you should first focus on building one strong card per sin;

getting them to 150 would be ideal but that’s insanely pricey + finishing the game with level 90 cards is still doable as long as you use glow sticks

if you don't have any UR(+)s yet, SSRs on level 80 can also help out a lot

SRs also work for early game, just make sure to swap them out for something better as soon as you get the chance to

check your cards' secondary and third sins. The following Satan card has pride as its secondary and lust as its third sin, meaning it'll act like a SSR card for stages that favor those sins

The above also goes for memory cards

get your memory cards to level 50 minimum and have at least one per sin

only build SSR or UR memory cards

again, SRs and even Rs are perfectly fine for early game as long as you swap them out as soon as possible

focus on demon cards first and memory cards second

max out your cards’ Devil's Tree

if you try to put the same character in your team twice, the message below will pop up, so make sure to level the cards of multiple characters (especially if you're only building once card per sin!)

if you have the following memory card, level it up. It’s a lot stronger than other memory cards on the same level with the favored attribute

if you need Grimm, only grind in hard lesson 14 and upwards. You'll get about 1k Grimm per sweep from a 3-star stage there; normal ones only give you up to 575 Grimm. Later lessons won't give you more Grimm than that

- LEVELING VS DEVIL'S TREE -

DISCLAIMER: I'm probably not 100% correct on this but from how I understand it, this is the main difference between the two:

Leveling raises a card's strenght for ALL sins, which is more helpful for using that card in stages boosting a different sin than its own and is generally more useful in the long-run

Maxing out a card's Devil's Tree does also help in raising the card's strenght for all sins, but since it focuses mainly on the main and secondary sins, it's more useful for stages that correspond with their sin

Whichever one you decide to focus on first is up to you. Personally, I alaways level my card up to the level cap, max out the entire Devil's Tree and then max out the level. However, especially for newer players, it's probably best to to raise all cards you're planning on using to level 10, then unlock the first level lock in the Devil's Tree, raise all levels to level 20 and so on

- GLOW STICKS -

if possible, have a card of each brother (or side-character that corresponds to their sin) so you can use all of your sin-specific glow sticks

Lucifer, Diavolo -> pride

Mammon, Barbatos -> greed

Levi, Luke -> envy

Satan, Simeon -> wrath

Asmo, Solomon -> lust

Beel -> gluttony

Belphie -> sloth

save your resources; don’t use two rainbow glow sticks if you can win with a rainbow and regular one

buy the defeat flash sales if you need more glow sticks! You'll be able to buy them almost daily if you do your daily missions + it’s the cheapest option for rainbow glow sticks

alternatively, you can exchange 8 ravens for a rainbow glow stick. Additionally to the surprise guest rewards, you have a chance to get 4 ravens after finishing a shift at Ristorante Six. Make sure to choose two preferred workers since that increases the item drop rate

- DANCE BATTLES -

you can still win battles if your team's strength is below your opponent's. It varies a bit from stage to stage but generally speaking winning with a 60k difference is doable, it just might take a few tries

if you want a (more or less) easy win, opt for 50k

if your opponent’s skill is either paralyze, curse of the zombie, curse of the frog, scarecrow, confusion, stun or sleep, go for a 50k difference, I’d recommend being 40k weaker at most tho

getting hit with berserker is actually a good thing bc it doesn't disable your skill and increases your charm; it's only mildly annoying when you try to time all your skills but other than that it plays into your hands

prioritize being able to use each one of your skills twice per battle (four times in boss battles) over countering your opponent

if you lost a battle but were close to winning, fully close the game during the battle and open it back up again. You’ll get the option to restart the battle and won’t lose used glow sticks. Just make sure to do so before the loading symbol shows up, otherwise the game saves your defeat. The ‘TIME’S UP’ is your very last chance to close the game before it saves. If you did it in time, you'll get this screen once you tap the start button:

you also can sometimes get fever time if you restart battles with the above method, so it's worth a few tries

- OTHER -

if you need help with surprise guest interactions, you can check here

send out friend requests! You can get up to 50 AP a day from friends, so always make sure that your friend list is full If you want to add me, my ID is 4238288113. Just as a fair warning though, if I get new requests while my friend list is full, I check who's still actively playing and delete anyone that hasn't been playing for the last 2+ weeks

Anyway, feel free to add more and ask aways if you have any questions!

Best of luck to all of you!

#in case anyone's curious I managed to finish seasons 3+4 in 3 weeks total with an average strenght of 270k #I also had 0 glow sticks or ravens or devil points by the end of it #but it's a lot faster than grinding every card to level 150 so imo worth it #obey me #obey me swd #obey me guide #mel's starry musings

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