one of the tropes that I've always rolled my eyes at was the "real world" in the sense used by people who sneer at millennials &c. and always means the world of the corporate workforce. almost all of the jobs I've had a nightmarish unreality about them, in fact

the "real world" to me was what was inside my head, and what I shared with family and friends. work wasn't "real", it was some sort of recurring nightmare that I was required to endure in order to subsist in a capitalist hellscape

until now

jobs in the past have confused me and left me feeling like there wasn't any way they could be possibly done, jobs have frustrated and baffled me, but never for real reasons. always I could say, "it's an artifact of the system, it's ok not to understand it and do the job half-assed, it's not like there's any reason for what you're doing other than "someone told you to do this"

not the case here. if this job baffles and confuses me, it's my fault. I'm face to face with the hard reality of what a messy, complicated, ever-changing process is required to try to turn horrible black goo into something you can burn in your spiffy German diesel sedan

this is not a job to be merely _endured_. if I try to do the job with that attitude I'll break in no time. I can't force myself through this job, gritting my teeth while trying to snatch what intervals time I can grab on the things that mean something to me--food, sleep, friendship, laughter, science, magic, anything

this is a job I'm going to have to figure out how to inhabit

and I think I may have a way, and it's going to sound very silly

I've made no secret of how I've turned Undertale into a kind of anchor for myself, an armature around which I've shaped spiritual meaning. I daresay that some people think I'm a bit loopy (or at least tiresome and boring) for doing it, and also @KaylinEvergreen has had some sound advice for me about anchoring oneself to archetypes that are older and more powerful than anything that can be constructed from relatively ephemeral popular media. I've felt bad, sometimes, about going back to the Undertale well again and again

but what can I say, the water's extremely refreshing

I bring that up because, by one of those coincidences that @kel loves, the Undertale fanfic that we've been working on most recently is leading towards the moment when Alphys and Undyne are, basically, going to have to set up their own factory

because while I'm writing _now_ about how Queen Toriel is gearing up to fire Alphys, I'm writing THAT because soon Toriel is going to be coming back to Alphys for help

because I figure that whatever arrangement Toriel makes to be permitted to settle on the Surface in my fictional world, she's going to want to have as few strings attached to human society as possible. she's going to want to make maximum use of whatever limited resources end up within her grasp.

she's going to need the help of someone who knows how to turn garbage into gold

and as I sat in the tub soaking in tepid water and listening to Undertale music and thinking trying to imagine how to write a scene in which Queen Toriel and Dr. Alphys soberly discuss the possibility of energy self-sufficiency, of course I also thought, "sounds a bit like your new job, Kara, turning garbage into fuel"

I don't know where I'm going with this exactly...like, I've had some wild thoughts about how to act on this. it's a wild association to make...pretty ambitious for me

basically I'm proposing that I use my emotional investment in Undertale to help me stick at a job that I'm honestly not sure I can do...I don't know if I'm strong enough

I am frightened

if I could borrow just the thousandth part of Undyne's determination to do _her_ job, then maybe I can do mine

@kara_dreamer Hey, I don't know this job and I don't know your life, but no matter how you do at your job (I bet you'll do great), I don't think losing a job makes you a fuck up. What matters is picking yourself up, recovering, and working towards your future afterwards. And I honestly think the fact you believe in this job's mission means you're less likely to fuck it up.

@ikea_femme I've felt so...overwhelmed, the last few days. I feel bad every time I find myself taking little breathers and refuges

@kara_dreamer same here, in my own ways. Things are going right for me, but it's a lot of change and some of its hard to digest. Like, I'm in the big city now and it's a lot easier for me to relax and have fun here without driving.

But I also know I don't pass as well as I did in the suburbs. Living and working in two different gayborhoods mean people expect to see queer people and read me as trans a lot more often, and while they're never mean, it's uncomfortable for me...

@ikea_femme oh, yeah, that's another thing...I'm entering this job under a pseudonym, you could say! one I'm gonna have to keep up, I think. it adds a bit of extra leaden weight to the burden. like, I'm probably gonna have to cut my hair short again just to make the heat of the job more bearable for me...just when I was starting to see the potential in growing it out :(

@kara_dreamer and all those little discomforts between the triumphs come out then. So it sucks, but I think it's just emotional roughage we have to sit down and digest to keep moving...

@ikea_femme yeah. like, this ain't a deal-breaker...I've been playing one role or another for forty-two years, I can handle a few more years of faking it, but it would have been easier if it was a job I didn't really, like, believe in

@kara_dreamer making connections between Undertale and your life fills you with determination!