neon-raven asked: Hi, I'm Katie, asking for a pair up. I'm a big girl at 6'2, and curvy. I wear a lot of dark clothes, so people tend to think I'm a bully at first, but I'm actually the shyest of all my few friends. I love animals, reading, video games, and theatre.
Hi Katie! That’s my bestie’s name! I absolutely adore your description of yourself, a tall, seemingly intimidating person who’s actually a shy, adorable nug who loves animals and theater ♡
Your match is:
Ardyn Izunia
And here, my darlin’, is why:
» You two would be such a freakin’ power couple! Ardyn’s only slightly shorter than Gladio (who’s a towering 6’5”), and let’s face it, intimidation is on your side (even if you’re actually super shy), not to mention your darker wardrobe styles, so the both of you would straight up slay.
» You’ll never lose one another in a crowd. All you gotta do is look for a mess of copper hair or Ardyn’s hat. Or just realize that you need him. Strangely enough, Ardyn always has a weird way of knowing when you need him and where you are. He’ll just appear out of thin air sometimes, usually purring an eloquent endearment or gently tucking a rose he’s brought you behind your ear (you’re still adjusting to him randomly showing up, the first time he did it you screamed and punched his hat clean off his head).
» Between the two of you, Insomnian black takes up at least 95% of your closet.
» Have you seen Ardyn’s style? Holy hell in a hand-basket he’s constantly pressing you to let him style your outfits. Like, every day.
» Not to mention!!!I hope you like shopping and gifts because hot damn does this man like to spoil you. I’m talking spontaneous shopping sprees (where he will literally hand you outfit after outfit that he’s put together for you based on your style), romantic dates where he spirits you away to the city’s fanciest restaurant (complete with rooftop bar), followed by champaign and dancing. He’s also the type of person to notice that one thing you’ve been eyeing and secretly buy it for you.
» One of your favorite pastimes is spending a day at the zoo. Whenever Ardyn sees an animal that you like or might find interesting— especially in the car— he casually points it out to you (but internally he’s super excited, like a mom pointing out a herd of deer or some horses on a farm to everyone in the car).
» HE SURPRISED YOU LIKE THIS ONE MORNING AND IT WAS HONESTLY THE BEST FUCKING DAY OF YOUR ENTIRE LIFE.
» You are Ardyn’s goddess. He’s constantly telling you that you’re the most beautiful creature he’s ever laid eyes on, and is head-over-heels for your curves. Sometimes you’ll just catch him staring at you with so much love and tenderness in his gaze that it knocks the wind out of your lungs.
» Your shyness balances out Ardyn’s forwardness well. In situations where his flamboyance is uncalled for, he’s slowly learning to take a more modest page out of your book. Likewise, his confidence socially (cause let’s be real, he slick AF) has also begun to rub off on you.
» Ardyn not only loves the theater, but literally memorizes the entire script before you two go and see a play. And then recites it on the way there.
» You two are pretty evenly matched where video games are concerned, but sometimes Ardyn likes to cheat by literally laying on top of you or getting up and standing right in front of you so you can’t see the screen.
» There are long stretches of the day where the two of you will go to the park or some quiet place— an out of the way coffee shop or a lovely meadow— and simply spend the afternoon reading together. With wine of course. Ardyn loves murder mysterious— anything that will make the cogs in one’s brain turn— and will always list out all the facts to you as he muses over the novel’s outcome.
Match!asks are closed for now guys! Stay tuned for another ask coming soon ☾
Ahhhhhhhh!! So cute!!!
Funny, smei-related story:
A guy kissed me by surprise once and it startled me so bad I accidentally broke his nose punching him in the face on instinct.
The whole compiled list of useful links. More is to come! Follow today!
Here’s more!
Here’s more!
lovelycharts.com – create flowcharts, network diagrams, sitemaps, etc. e.ggtimer.com – a simple online timer for your daily needs. coralcdn.org – if a site is down due to heavy traffic, try accessing it through coral CDN. random.org – pick random numbers, flip coins, and more. google.com/webfonts – a good collection of open source fonts. homestyler.com – design from scratch or re-model your home in 3d. join.me – share you screen with anyone over the web. wetransfer.com – for sharing really big files online. hundredzeros.com – the site lets you download free Kindle books. polishmywriting.com – check your writing for spelling or grammatical errors. marker.to – easily highlight the important parts of a web page for sharing. whichdateworks.com – planning an event? find a date that works for all. everytimezone.com – a less confusing view of the world time zones. gtmetrix.com – the perfect tool for measuring your site performance online. noteflight.com – print music sheets, write your own music online (review). imo.im – chat with your buddies on Skype, Facebook, Google Talk, etc. from one place. translate.google.com – translate web pages, PDFs and Office documents. kleki.com – create paintings and sketches with a wide variety of brushes. similarsites.com – discover new sites that are similar to what you like already. wordle.net – quick summarize long pieces of text with tag clouds. bubbl.us – create mind-maps, brainstorm ideas in the browser. kuler.adobe.com – get color ideas, also extract colors from photographs. ge.tt – qiuckly send a file to someone, they can even preview it before downloading. tinychat.com – setup a private chat room in micro-seconds. privnote.com – create text notes that will self-destruct after being read. draw.io – create diagrams and flowcharts in the browser, export your drawings to Google Drive and Dropbox. downforeveryoneorjustme.com – find if your favorite website is offline or not? urbandictionary.com – find definitions of slangs and informal words. scribblemaps.com – create custom Google Maps easily. formspring.me – you can ask or answer personal questions here. sumopaint.com – an excellent layer-based online image editor. snopes.com – find if that email offer you received is real or just another scam. typingweb.com – master touch-typing with these practice sessions. mailvu.com – send video emails to anyone using your web cam. timerime.com – create timelines with audio, video and images. stupeflix.com – make a movie out of your images, audio and video clips.safeweb.norton.com – check the trust level of any website.
A King and Queen ruled in a time of peace and abundance; the only mar upon their happiness was that they had no children, through their youth and even into their middle age, despite many fervent hopes and prayers. One day the Queen went walking on a forest path without her attendants. There, in the dark quiet of her despair, an old woman found her.
“My dear,” asked the woman, “why are you so sad?”
“It doesn’t matter,” answered the Queen, gently. “It wouldn’t make a difference if you knew.”
“You may be surprised.“
"The King and I have no children. He lacks an heir, and I have always wanted a child of my own to care for. But you see, that’s not something you can help.”
“Of course it is,” nodded the woman, for naturally she was a witch. “Listen and do as I say; take a drinking cup and place it upside-down in your garden tonight. In the morning, you will find two roses beneath it - one red, one white. If you eat the red rose you shall give birth to a son, and the white rose shall give you a girl. But remember that you must not eat both.”
“Not both?”
“No,” the woman said.
Astonished, and not a little suspicious, the Queen agreed. That night she did as the old woman had instructed, and in the morning she discovered two small roses under the cup’s brim.
“But which one should I choose?” thought the Queen. “If I have a son, he may grow into a man who marches off to war and dies. If I have a daughter, she may stay longer with me, but I will have to see her given away in marriage. In the end, I may have no child after all.”
At last she decided on the white rose, but it was so sweet to the taste - and the thought of losing a daughter to marriage was so bitter - that she ate the red rose as well, hardly remembering the old woman’s warning.
Shortly afterwards, as happens in such stories, the Queen was found to be with child. Her husband was traveling when the time came for her to give birth, and so he did not bear witness to what happened, which was this:
The Queen’s first child was no child at all, but instead there tumbled forth from her body the long, scaly one of a lindworm, a hideous dragon with a venomous bite. It scrabbled out the window on its two legs, even before the terrified midwives could move to do anything, and amidst the chaos the Queen delivered a second child as well. This one was a fine, handsome boy, healthy and perfectly formed, and the Queen made her midwives swear that they would tell no one what they had seen. And when the King arrived home, joyous at the news of his son’s birth, not a word was said.
Years passed, so that the Queen wondered if it had not been a terrible dream. Soon enough it came time for the prince to find a wife, and he set out with his guard to a neighboring kingdom to ask for its princess’s hand in marriage. But suddenly a great lindworm appeared, and laid itself before the prince’s horse, and from its jagged-tooth mouth came a voice:
“A bride for me before a bride for you!”
The prince and his company turned about to flee. The Lindworm blocked their passage and spoke again.
“A bride for me before a bride for you!”
The prince journeyed home to tell his parents. Distraught, the Queen confessed that it was true. The Lindworm was indeed the elder brother of the prince, and so by rights should marry first. The King wrote to the ruler of a distant land, asking that they send their princess to marry his son: but he did not say which one.
A lovely princess journeyed to the kingdom, and did not see her bridegroom until he appeared beside her in the Great Hall, and by then (naturally) it was too late. The next morning they found the Lindworm asleep alone in the bridal bedchamber, and it was quite clear he had devoured his new wife.
A second princess was sent, and a third. Both met the same fate, but each time the prince dared to embark on a journey, the Lindworm would appear again and speak:
“A bride for me before a bride for you!”
“Father,” the prince said, “ we must find a wife for my elder brother.”
“And where am I to find her?” asked the King. “We have already made enemies of the men who sent their daughters to us. Stories are spreading fast, and I am sure no princess would dare to come now.”
So instead the King went to the royal gardener’s cottage, where he knew the old man lived with his only daughter.
“Will you give me your daughter to marry my son, the Lindworm?” asked the King.
“No!” cried the gardener. “Please, she is everything I have in this world. Your monstrous son has eaten his way through three princesses, and he’ll gobble her up just the same. She’s too good for such a fate.”
"You must,” the King said, “You must.”
Distraught, the gardener told his daughter everything. She agreed to the King’s request and went into the forest so that her father would not see her weeping.
And there, in the dark quiet of her despair, an old woman found her.
“My dear,” asked the woman, “why are you so sad?”
“I’m sorry,” answered the girl, kindly. “It wouldn’t make a difference if I told you.”
“You may be surprised."
"How can that be? I’m to be married to the King’s son, the Lindworm. He’s eaten his first three brides, and I don’t know what will stop me from meeting the same end. That’s not something you can help me with.”
“Of course it is,” nodded the woman again. “Listen and do as I say. Before the marriage ceremony, dress yourself in ten snow-white shifts beneath your gown. Ask that a tub of lye, a tub of milk, and as many birch rods as a man can carry be brought to your bridal chamber. After you are wed, and your husband orders you to disrobe, bid him to shed a skin first. He will ask you this nine times, and when you are left wearing one shift you must whip him with the rods, wash him in the lye, bath him in the milk, wrap him in the discarded shifts, and hold him in your arms.”
“Do I truly have to hold him?” the girl asked, in disgust.
“You must. It may mean your life.”
The girl was suspicious, but she agreed to the woman’s plan however absurd it seemed. When the day came for the marriage, she dressed herself in ten white shifts before donning the heavy gown they offered her. When she looked upon her husband for the first time, waiting for her in the Great Hall, her steps did not falter. And when she asked for the rods, the lye, and the milk, she said it with such ease that the servant could do nothing but obey.
Finally, the girl and the Lindworm were left alone in the darkened bedchamber. For a moment she listened to the rasp and click of his scales on stone, and heard his soughing breath.
“Maiden,” said the Lindworm, “shed your shift for me.”
“Prince Lindworm,” answered the girl, “shed your skin first!”
“No one has ever asked me that before,” the answer came.
“I am asking it of you now."
So the Lindworm shed a skin, and the girl shed a shift, but she revealed the second shift underneath.
"Maiden,” said the Lindworm, a second time, “shed your shift for me.”
“Prince Lindworm,” answered the girl, again, “shed your skin first!”
They repeated this, nine times in all, and each time the Lindworm shed a skin the girl removed another white shift, until she was left wearing one.
The Lindworm, shivering and weak and bloodied, spoke his request a last time.
“Wife,” asked the Lindworm, “will you shed your shift for me?”
“Husband,"answered the girl, "will you shed your skin first?”
And the Lindworm did as she asked of him, tearing himself free of scales and armor even to the bare flesh beneath, and the girl whipped the writhing creature with her birch rods until they snapped; she carried the whole massive length of him to the tubs, lye and milk, washed him clean and bathed him and swathed him in the shifts like a great, terrible child, collapsed to the floor with her husband in her arms, and there she stayed until, exhausted, she fell asleep.
When she woke, it was to the timid knocking of a servant on the door.
“Princess?” asked the servant. “Princess? Are you alive?”
The girl looked about the bedchamber: there in the morning light were the dried skins, and the tubs, and the broken rods, and the blood, and in her arms slept a pale, weary, but very handsome man.
“Yes,” she answered. “Yes, I am.”
The King and Queen were astounded and thrilled to hear how the girl had saved their son from his curse, and she ruled together with her husband for many long years, and thus closes our tale of the most intense game of strip poker that you shall ever hear.
So, after ten long years of waiting, Final Fantasy XV is finally here!
As always, I am eternally grateful that this blog has received as much support as it has the year and a half we’ve been around! It’s been a great ride and I want to thank each and every one of you that have followed this blog. For that, I want to hold a giveaway to celebrate the release of Final Fantasy XV and for the 1.4k people that support us!
(this giveaway is not affiliated with tumblr in any way)
Prizes!
Final Fantasy XV Deluxe Edition Steelbook (includes the game + Kingsglaive movie)
For this prize, please specify if you want the PS4 or Xbox One edition.
Final Fantasy XV World Prologue book
Kingsglaive Blu-ray Steelbook (includes complete Brotherhood Anime)
Rules!
Must be followingffxv-headcanons. This is for our followers, after all!
You must be at least 18 years old or have parent permission to participate.
Reblog to enter. Reblog only once, please! You can like the post for reference but it will not be counted.
Giveaway will end December 12th, 11:59PM EST. Your reblog will not count after that time.
I will ship within the USA only, sorry! :(
There will be three (3) winners.
We will be choosing winners via random generator.
Once the winners have been chosen, we will send out asks, one at a time. Winner must respond with the prize they wish to receive and a mailing address! Once contacted, the winner will have 24 hours to respond. If there is no response, we will move on to the next winner.
Winners will receive one (1) item of their choice in a first come, first serve basis in order of response, meaning only one of each will be available (So if the first winner chooses the FFXV deluxe edition, it will no longer be available as a prize option).
And that’s it! Thank you again to everyone and good luck!
Official White House photographer Pete Souza captured an estimated 2 million photos over 8 years while Obama was in office… Here’s a selection of some of his favourite shots.
When I worked at a mental health crisis centre, I couldn’t believe how many people came to us, not because of their own problems, but because they were so lost in a friend’s pain that they couldn’t take it anymore. I saw a lot of people who were so worn down from helping someone else that they couldn’t sleep, eat, socialize or focus at work or school. They were consumed with guilt every time they put down their phones, went to sleep, or dared to enjoy themselves and have a good time. All because they had no idea how to set boundaries.
Helping your friends through a tough situation is a wonderful and noble thing to do, but it only works if you’re mentally in a place to do so. If you’re dealing with issues or mental illness of your own, you’re not always capable of being someone else’s shoulder to cry on 24/7. And that’s okay. Sometimes, you have to put yourself first. You can’t help someone else if you’re a mess yourself. You can’t save a drowning person with a sinking ship.
Telling a friend that you’re overwhelmed and you need a break is one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do. Honesty is the best policy - don’t go radio silent on them, or avoid answering their messages. Be honest about how you’re feeling, and what you need from them. If you’re stuck on what to say and how to start the conversation, here are a few suggestions. Feel free to copy them exactly:
It’s really hard for me to admit this, but I’ve been feeling like I’m on the verge of a breakdown lately. I love you and I care about you, but I need to take some time to take care of myself for a while.
I’m really concerned about you, but I honestly don’t know how to deal with this and I’m worried I’ll say the wrong thing. I really think that you should talk to a professional about this.
This is hard for me to admit, but I have a lot going on in my life right now, and it’s getting to be too much for me. Would it be okay if we talked about lighter stuff for the next little while?
You deserve more support than I can give you. I think you need to tell a close family member or professional about what’s going on.
It seems like every time we talk about this, things are worse for you. I’m worried that my advice isn’t helping you at all, and I think you should talk to someone more qualified than me.
I’m really worried for your safety, and it breaks my heart, but I can’t keep you safe all by myself. Would it be okay if we told someone else what was going on?
I’m sorry, but I can’t answer my text messages 24 hours per day. I really want to make sure that you always have someone to turn to if I’m not available. Are there some other people you would trust with this? I can help you tell them, if you’re not comfortable doing it by yourself.
I hope these suggestions are helpful - best of luck to all of you, and make sure to put your own mental health first when you have to.
If you’re like me, you use the AO3 Work Search form all the time to help zero in on the fics you want to read. But this form has some weird quirks. Take the “warnings” section for example:
What do I do if I want to search for fics that don’t include Major Character Death? If I just check the MCD tag like so:
Then my search brings up all fics that DO contain MCD!
I can instead choose “No Archive Warnings Apply” of course, but that will also rule out “Violence”, “Non-Con”, and “Underage” and maybe I’m OK with those. All I want to do is to avoid MCD, that’s all.
I can try adding -“major character death” to the search terms, but doing so will also rule out any fics tagged with benign variations like “temporary major character death”.
What I want to do is specifically avoid fics which use the MCD archive warning. So how do I do that?
You need to make use of the specialized search parameter terms that AO3 actually sends to its servers when you use the work search form. For the archive warnings, these are as follows:
Chose not to use = warning_ids:14
None Apply = warning_ids:16
Violence = warning_ids:17
MCD = warning_ids:18
Rape = warning_ids:19
Underage = warning_ids:20
So, if I want to rule out MCD and only MCD, I search for “-warning_ids:18″ (the hyphen before the search term means “not”) by entering that into the “Any Field” search bar:
And voila! All fics except those with MCD warnings!
If you want to avoid violence or non-con or underage instead, simply change the warning_ids number to the one you want to rule out. You can also rule out more than one at a time, like so:
Combine this with your other favorite search terms and happily find the fics you want and avoid those you don’t :)
You can use variations on this trick to more accurately search for specific categories and ratings too. If people are interested, I’ll make a separate post about those.
Imagine that Caspian sets up a democratic republic and sees that Narnia is politically stable, but then after peace is achieved he feels a bit like an outsider because he still grew up with the old Telmarine royalty. So he doesnt quite fit in with this new era. He asks Aslan to leave Narnia and go to the other world, the one Aslan sent the other Telmarines to.
And Susan is in America after her family has all died. She’s finished college and got a job in retail or maybe cosmetics and marketing. She swims laps every weekend and there’s a young American military officer who always frequents the same cafe she does and they’ve exchanged glances and she’s thinking of saying yes when he does ask her to get dinner with him.
And when she’s done with her customary lunch break one day she heads over to the newspaper stand close to her office because she hasn’t gotten the chance to read the paper yet. She’s in a hurry so she asks the newspaper vendor how much to buy today’s paper, and when he answers the accent and voice ring a bell. It’s a trace of a life from long ago or maybe a life she made up, but she looks up anyway and she sees the face she swears she only knew in a dream. There’s a dull ache inside bc its stirring up memories she misses but also bitter events as well.
(Lucy would have laughed her sweet laugh and called it Fate and Edmund would have elbowed her playfully in the ribs as if to say “snap out of it sis”).
The newspaper vendor hasn’t looked up yet because he’s a bit busy sorting the papers out on the stand, but when he realizes she’s still standing there and hasn’t bought the paper yet, he looks up. And now she knows its him because no one else has that gentle of a gaze and it tugs at her heartstrings.
And the newspaper vendor, he looks less astonished and more fulfilled, as if he’s remembered an old hope and is hoping again. He finds words have escaped him. Just as they did the day she left.
When he does regain his tongue, he says, “My Queen.”
my favorite out of context quotes from my archeology professor so far in no particular order
and floridians are just as human as you and me!
and the moral of the story is that there are no deadly snakes native to alaska
you might know this guy as one of the only archaeologists cool enough to be mentioned by indiana jones
it’s my dream to have my name said by harrison ford
i’m not going to apologize for having this class at 6am because you paid for it and it’s your fault.
we don’t all dress like lara croft. i tried to get it to be a thing on a dig and my colleagues yelled at me.
they were pretty good archaeologists except they were too racist to realize anything they found.
i take back what i said about us not dressing like lara croft because lewis binford here is wearing nothing but short shorts and a cowboy hat. take notes for an academic halloween costume!
archaeologists can be good artists! not me, though. or anyone i know. but if you can draw just know you have options.
sometimes you find dead bodies when you dont really expect it and you just have to deal with it
archaeologists are the only people allowed to get exited when they find corpses.
once i ruined thanksgiving dinner when i told my family i had gotten my degree in archaeology and my uncle commented he liked dinosaurs too
the closest i’ve ever been to a grizzly bear is when i left my glasses in my tent on a dig in alaska, saw a big rock in the distance, and almost screamed
additional quotes
ah yes. archaeologists. or, as i love to call us, pottery analysts
i mean he was kind of a good guy for helping us beat britain but he owned slaves so that really cancelled it out.
archaeology is like cultural anthropology, except after you interview the person you turn around and shoot them in the head.
do not use trees! trees are bad! don’t do it!
usually you find shards, but it’s super exciting when you find a really big shard
it’s basically like a waterpark, except you’re fully clothed and walking through a dark tunnel knee deep in muddy water. so, basically splish splash.
i dont believe in curses but my colleagues and i like to encourage the idea of them so people stop touching our stuff
usually, you would find a knife in a kitchen. or underneath your pillow to really freak out your roommate who is a history nerd and has no idea why you would sleep with a knife under your pillow and he’ll get really scared and freaked out and okay i’m getting off topic
no matter what the other scientists say, archaeology is a real science.
don’t worry, i promise you, and whatever government agency that’s spying on me right now, that i’m not a crazy communist trying to overthrow the government
by now you’ve noticed the big “POP QUIZ” written on the board. there isn’t one, but i wanted to see the looks on your face when you saw it. but you’re all dead inside so it’s not really funny.
everything was fine except the citizens of pompeii just woke up dead the next day
the number one question you should ask when you read old archaeology papers is “how the hell do you know?”
nothing pisses off old men more than young people asking “why” and “prove it” so do that as often as possible
this is incredible! all it takes is a computer the size of this room!
YOUR KISS IS COSMIC
