All the characters seem so well developed – I can tell they have a lot of sides we haven’t seen yet, and I really want to know them better.
The art is gorgeous! The plot is engaging! The WORLD BUILDING! It’s good to get excited about something.
It IS all romance – this is a love story, and other characters are mostly just to further that romance, but the relationships are all so well developed that there’s enough to engage the aromantic and/or asexual reader. Or at least this particular one.
I didn’t expect to get so sucked in. I went for the cute art and I didn’t know how to use webtoon, but every chapter I was wishing I knew how to comment and gush at the authour.
Thing #1 that frustrates me about ADHD/Executive Dysfunction advice:
“Oh, you have a mental/neurological issue that makes it difficult for you to be organized, follow routines, stick with systems, maintain a schedule, do your work, etc.? Well, what you need to do is GET ORGANIZED! Schedule everything! Find a system and stick with it! Maintain a schedule! Do your work as it comes in!”
It’s like that Allie Brosh comic where her fish are dead, and everyone’s offering to help find them, or advice like “feed them!” Or “make puppets out of them!” And she says, “No, see, that solution is for a different problem than the one I have.”
Yes, I would love to do those things! I have tried to do those things! I am still trying to do those things! But it’s like that post about how you’re going through an invisible obstacle course, and what looks like a block to everyone else seems like a wall to you. Instead of saying, “it’s a block! Go around!” It would be much more useful to hand me a bag of flour so I can see the obstacles for myself and how to get around them.
I keep looking for something I can do. I can’t maintain an agenda- closest I can do is lot appointments into Google Calendar. I can’t use to-do lists- they overwhelm and freak me out and I end up doing less than before. Breaking down a task into a bunch of tiny pieces should work in theory, but again, freaks me out, and I usually end up spending an hour planning and then I never actually do. I can’t set deadlines for myself. Whatever part of the brain allows other people to say, “yes, it’s due on the 29th, but I want to be done on the 25th” just doesn’t work. I can’t make my brain think something needs to be done until the last minute. This is especially bad in classes where everything is due at the end of the semester. I end up doing what I just did, and having to do two whole classes worth of work in two days. Oddly, once that level of desperation kicks in, I’m capable of sitting down and pounding through the material- but for some reason, I can’t tap into that level of focus without a short, urgent, important deadline. Maybe one day I’ll figure it out.
Thing #2 that bugs me about all self help: Don’t wait for motivation! Just do it!
I think my definition of “motivation” is different from the usual. Most people see “motivation” as meaning something like “wanting to do something, looking forward to doing something, doing the thing with energy and happiness because it is the thing you want to do.”
My definition is closer to “having enough willpower to make myself do the thing despite everything in my brain begging me to go watch Netflix instead.” So when people say, “you don’t need motivation!” What I hear is “everyone else seems to have this source of willpower they can eventually learn to tap into that just doesn’t exist for me.” My best technique for doing stuff is having other people make me do it. Which freaks out my social anxiety because then I feel like I’m intruding on their time to make them help me with mine.
The thing is, I’m not lazy. If I were just lazy this would all be easier to cope with. I WANT to be doing things, I WANT to be successful, I WANT to be productive. I even try, really hard, and the effort that exhausts me seems to be so much lower than the typical threshold. But every time I try to be as productive as I want to be, I burn out in a couple days.
I am on the verge of tears because this is everything that frustrates me about my own ADHD. Every word of this reflects my experience.
i’m so bad today i can only read every fifth sentence and it STILL hits me in the gut. well expressed.
my executive dysfunction lately has been so bad i can’t even work on my hobbies. i can’t even stim right. one of my favorite stims is to lay out a textile work in progress and play with the pieces, rearranging them and finishing their edges and doing all the fiddlybits. lately, even though i have a nice clean worktable and my quilt pieces all laid out by color, i have managed to iron a grand total of like… 6 of them. in three days. i like ironing quilt pieces. it’s satisfying to me. but it just… doesn’t seem to be happening.
people who’ve never experienced executive dysfunction seem to think our disability only applies to things that are hard or unfun, and therefore suspect we’re just making excuses not to do stuff we don’t want to do. but it’s not like that. i have trouble doing stuff i enjoy doing. i have trouble doing stuff i have to do to live, like eating. sometimes the stuff i get distracted into doing is less fun than the thing i was trying to do – plenty of times i go to get food and get distracted and fold laundry instead. because folding laundry is a routine, it’s an organizing task, which takes less executive function than making food, which requires making a lot of little decisions and judgement calls based on what’s in the fridge, what dishes are clean, etc.
if you had something wrong with your brain that forced you to fold laundry when you wanted a sandwich, wouldn’t you call that a real disability?
Had to read this three times in order to read all of it because my brain is in skim mode, but yeah. THIS.
I wrote the second part of my comment while functioning. Wanted to add how much I agree and similar experiences I’ve had, but brain stopped working. Anyways, this is what I wrote 5 minutes ago, when I had hope.
Read recently that us ADD folks are interest-motivated. Traditional motivators just DON’T WORK. We have to be excited, scared, intrigued, etc.
I’ve been trying to take advantage of this, with mixed success.
Current tests:
Using bullet journaling to keep an agenda – motivator is that designing each page is fun, and I also organize fun research projects in it so it must be a GOOD book
Getting myself to do something I like/find easy close to the thing I can’t motivate myself to do – start making tea and then put some dishes away while the water boils; or go pee and then tell myself that while I’m in the bathroom the bath is right there and being clean feels nice
Neither method has been a major success, but both are working better than previous motivation methods! And they leave me less self-hating.
A/N: Sorry, you had to wait but lately I had problem writing. Hope that one will make you laugh! (And I didn’t forget about other prompts)
“Damn
it!”
Tim
ignored Bart’s outburst and continued to silently work on his laptop.
“Damn!
No! -huff- I’ll get it! -huff- Damn it!”
“Is
he always like this?” Someone asked, pointing to – currently former – speedster,
as he tried to play ping-pong by himself. Bart was currently loosing.
Or winning. In
any case, he wasn’t fast enough to run to the other side and receive
the ball he threw himself.
Tim
shrugged, not looking up. “He just can’t admit to what happened.
You can’t disagree that
it’s kind of unusual situation.”
“No
shit, Sherlock. Speaking of unusual situations –
why am I here?”
Red
Robin looked disinterested at
his interlocutor
– Klarion, The Witch Teenager.
“If
you want, I can still leave you. Alone. Powerless. I’m pretty
sure, Gotham’s sewers
would be up to your taste. Who knows? You
may even meet Killer Croc if
you are lucky.” he replied.
Tim wasn’t bothered by
Klarion presence in the Titans’ Tower – in
his
opinion, dealing with Klarion
who lost his powers was much easier
than dealing with Damian at all.
Besides, right know
like this, he was more bark than bite.
Klarion
shut his mouth, fully aware how defenseless he was without his magic.
He crossed his arms in front of him and grimaced, putting one of his
legs on couch’s end – his other leg being immobilized by Tim’s legs
(one being in cast).
“Teenagers.”
Tim commented, going back to work.
“Aghh!”
“Done playing with yourself, KF?” asked Tim, not looking from his
case files.
Bart,
sitting besides the ping-pong table, glared at his friend. “You are
spending too much
time with Nightwing,
Red. Besides,
when is Supes and WG coming? Shouldn’t they came
back here long time
ago?”
“You
forgot that they can’t
fly. I don’t know – they are probably in the traffic jam or
something.”
“Ugghh! Going for food really takes that long?” Tim
shrugged, not bothering to answer. It was only 40-or-so minutes since
Kon and Cassie left.
“Maybe they decided to ditch us and go for that bitch
themselves?” Klarion commented.
Tim turned to him. “Language. Besides, it’s your fault
that we’re in this mess.”
“She threw that spell!”
“And who baited her? When we clearly said not to?”
Klarion grumbled, turning away. But kid had good point. Tim mulled
over the question in his head. Would they really…? He looked
at Bart, who – again – tried to do anything in his former
speed.
They
would.
“Hey, Gar?” Tim asked as soon as he put on his comm. “Have you
seen SB and WG? …Yeah. We guess so. …No, the rest of us
are in Tower. …Ok, I’ll let you know if I find anything on the
sorceress. Red out.”
“Traitors.” Muttered Bart, catching his breath.
“Yup.” agreed Tim.
“You don’t count, Red. You can still help.”
Tim looked at Bart in question. With flourish movement he pointed at
his leg – currently in cast.
“Yeah, but…” Bart repeated Tim’s motion and pointed at the
laptop on Red Robin’s lap.
“…Because that will help. She doesn’t have tracker on and
all video footage seemed to disappear as soon as she saw video crew.
I checked. Still checking. What do you want me to do? To find
her twitter?”
Bart tried not to laugh at the idea. He failed.
“But she might mention how she depowered Supes mid-air. Admit –
it looked crash. Meme worth.”
“Bart. I’m not going through whole ‘its raining men’
hashtag. Or any hashtag for that matter.” Tim replied.
“…you should check her blog.”
Tim and Bart turned to Klarion, surprised. They gestured to him,
prompting him to finish. Klarion didn’t look any of them in the eye –
too embarrassed to admit to his knowledge.
“She is… quite popular blogger in the Magical Community…?
I-I guess she might have… mentioned somewhere about today.”
There was no comment. After the silence stretched for far too long in
Klarion’s opinion, the teenager turned to both heroes – wanting to
know what they thought about his idea.
Tim and Bart were looking at Klarion, confused. Unfortunately for Witch Teenager, both heroes’ gazes started to make him…
nervous.
“…do you think what I think?” Asked former speedster, moment
before Klarion snapped from embarrassment.
“…That as ridiculous as it sounds, it might be worth a shot?”
Red Robin replied.
“That too – but…” Bart hanged his arm on Red’s
shoulder “I was thinking that someone. Is. In. Lo~ve~!!”
“Just ignore him.” Red Robin advised Klarion. “Show me
her blog.”
He did as Red advised him and ignored that and next comments from the
speedster. He motioned for Red Robin’s laptop but before he had it in
his arms, it was taken by newly arrived Superboy.
“You had to tell Garth and Raven, didn’t you.” Superboy
said annoyed to Red Robin. Besides him stood Wonder Girl, with arms
crossed in front of her chest – she didn’t looked annoyed. She
looked murderous.
“It’s only fair.” Replied Tim, motioning for his laptop.
“Yeah! You probably didn’t ever bring food, you lying liars.”
added Bart.
“Oh, you meant this?” Cassie lifted up bags full with
take-out. She hid those away when Bart tried to take bags from her.
“Gimmie!”
“No.”
Tim ignored Bart and Cassie. “But seriously. We just got the idea
how to find the sorceress, so? My laptop?”
Kon rolled his eyes, annoyed, but relented. He gave back Tim his
laptop and – after taking a moment to change sitting arrangements –
Klarion, Red Robin and Superboy got to work. With Tim typing on the
computer and Klarion telling how to get to magical side of the
Internet.
Not so long later, theory became fact.
“I told you it was meme-worth” Bart whispered to Tim as
they all looked at the gif of Superboy suddenly falling down
mid-flight. Fresh from sorceress blog.
“And I never told you it isn’t.” Tim replied not
whispering.
“That’s it – you both are on my shit-list.”
“Red? Send me that one gif.”
“Wonder Girl?!”
Cassie ignored Kon’s outburst. “Ok, we can clearly see she is very
active on her social media. Does she mention something about where
she currently is?”
“Well… that last post is from few hours ago…” Tim refreshed
the page. “Oh. Something new.”
There was a short post about how she enjoys her book and coffee in
certain cafe. Link to cafe’s website was added at the end.
“Great. Who’s in favor to send Raven to her to buy us time?”
Cassie asked. Immediately Kon, Tim and Bart raised their hands and
Klarion’s protest was ignored.
“Now, as we have sorceress’ location secured, it’s time for part 2
of the plan.” Cassie went around the couch and sat on Klarion’s
other side. Bart stood behind the couch, directly behind the
teenager. Kon stood up from his place besides Tim and went to stand
in front of Klarion.
“Part 2?” Asked Klarion, boxed between four Titans.
“Part 2.” Cassie nodded. “And before we start, let me tell you
that if anyone would told me before that whole fiasco, that it would
came to this – I would laugh in their face and personally
escort them to Arkham Asylum.
Klarion raised eyebrow at this, refusing to be intimidated by those
cheap tricks.
“And what does part 2 entail?” he asked.
“Simple. We are not letting you out until you learn how to
apologize and talk to people you fancy.” Tim explained.
“Wait. You think that I-?! Her?! That’s fucking
bullshit!”
“Well, your previous bullshit is what got us in that
situation, soo…” Kon commented
“It was the least crash flirting technique I ever saw.”
“Trust us, Klarion.” Said Cassie “What is about to happen will
traumatize usmore than you.”
Oh, this is awesome.
The fact that Tim is continually rolling his eyes at Klarion’s teenage-ness makes my brain kinda go, “Oh! Somebody finally let the core four grow up!” So now I’m picturing them all as young adults trying to be very blasé as they mentor a teen Klarion in the ways of courting like a decent person.
Kinda feeling some of that ol’ 90′s Young Justice magic from this one. Yay!
Paige Brosca & Leliana. Dragon Age [Hero of Ferelden Paige]. 774 words. More under the cut. AO3. | @dapromptexchange
Prompt:
The Warden has spent months on the road, sleeping rough, and generally living covered in dirt and darkspawn blood. Leliana helps her primp for the Landsmeet with nice clothes and a new hairstyle. It’s quite the shock to her companions. [x]
I love my asexual/aromantic dwarf commoner. (´ ▽｀).。ｏ♡
There was an odd sensation this gave her, watching herself in the mirror as Leliana ran a brush through her hair. She’d barely recognized herself in the gown her friend had picked out for her – a brilliant royal blue with sleeves that fell off her shoulders and silver jewelry. A necklace hung from her neck with a gold jewel. Earrings dangled, brushing the sides of her jaw when she moved her head. She wondered if this was how the Orzammar royal family felt.
It didn’t make her feel like she was above anyone else. There was still some semblance of herself in that mirror.
Leliana was humming as she brushed and clipped the dwarf’s hair up. This part… This was genuinely nice. Paige found herself closing her eyes, imagining she was back in Orzammar, Rica was braiding her hair and they were fantasizing about the life they would one day lead, the casts they would one day belong to. They had always been just that, fantasies. But now Bhelen owed her for keeping his ass on the throne, and she’d made him swear to give her sister a proper cast. And she was a warden now. She and Rica were no longer castless. They had gone their separate ways, but they were both freer than they ever had been before.
Now she had a new sister of sorts. Leliana had been a dear friend since they’d met in Lothering. They shared different religious views, that much was obvious, but it wasn’t hard to respect each others’ faith. She didn’t have to like the Chantry in order to respect Leliana’s faith.
When she opened her eyes, Paige still found a sister styling her hair, smiling fondly at her. Except it was Leliana, not Rica. But still, wherever she went, her ancestors had given her a sister to have by her side. She didn’t think she could have done this without Leliana and Morrigan. Yes, the men were important to her too, but there was something about a sisterhood. Leliana and Morrigan made her feel stronger than the others did. There was something special about women supporting other women.
Next came the makeup. She’d always done her own makeup, but no one had ever said she did a good job at that. Like everything else, it was odd, sitting still as Leliana applied her lipstick. Her friend’s face squished in concentration, making it very hard for Paige to resist laughing. When she was done, Leliana stood beside her, beaming with pride as she watched her friend look into the mirror.
ARGH! @heartslogos! Now I’m reading OTHER PEOPLE’S Dragon Age fic! What have you done to me?
(This is really enjoyable. I still know nothing about DA, and enchanted over and over when I find out it doesn’t MATTER. Good writing is good writing, no matter the fandom.)
I’m doomed, you guys.
The internet knows I live in Winnipeg, and the Jets are in the playoffs.
As you probably know, Canada is kinda crazy about hockey. Winnipeg hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1987. We lost the team in 96, got a new team to give the name to in 2011, and have been pretty … enthusiastic, ever since.
I’m glad my fellow Winnipeggers are so happy, but I just got a hockey themed ad on a phone app and this is unacceptable.
Replace all the city flags with team flags. Dress the teacher and half the kids in my son’s class in jerseys. Reroute busses so the fans can fill the streets to watch screens outside the stadium. All of this is fine.
But the internet isn’t supposed to reference my out of the way part of the world. NO HOCKEY ON MY PHONE.
we were just having evening prayers and while we were halfway through the lord’s prayer i slipped into old english do you have any idea how confusing that is
‘give us this day our daily bread, and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum–’
hang on what
this is not how it’s supposed to go
i someone managed to one-up myself the other day by saying ‘delete us from evil’ instead of ‘deliver us from evil’ what is my life
update: i was reading a psalm at prayers this morning and at some point there was a verse that said something along the lines of “give unto the Lord oxen and goats” but i managed to misread oxen as oxygen and then spent a solid ten seconds trying to figure out how one could sacrifice oxygen to God before i realized what was going on
kiragecko 