#Hire Asterisk Developer

[inextrixtechnologies]

It is an open source framework in the VoIP industry that is used for Asterisk solution development. It provides you with the building blocks to develop any custom VoIP based communication tool.

[katrani]

2025 Books: Arcanum Unbounded

Another anthology! This one was.... much worse to get through, unfortunately. Started strong with Emperor's Soul, but after that....

So I love strong world-building. I love Mistborn's characters, I'll rotate half of the Stormlight characters in my mind so often. With the asterisk of it being a first book from someone of Sanderson's background, I find Elantris fairly charming; that is I see the problems, but I can roll with them based on latent strengths on display. I should have liked this book as a whole!

I really found most of it a chore.

Emperor's Soul is fucking great, I adore stories about how people are affected by those around them, and what determines personhood, it's just. Free buy-in from me. On top of that, Shai is super compelling, love her dilemma over her personal stamps. And the whole thing is based around theft/conning? Fuck yeah fuck yeah.

Hope of Elantris left me feeling that I should've revisited Elantris before picking this up, I'll chalk any weirdness about that one to my lack of memory.

The first two Mistborn stories are fine, I did laugh at the gimmick of Allomancer Jak.

And then there's Secret History. Fucking hell, Secret History. I should have liked this! More context for what was happening in the background of Mistborn's second and third books, some time with Kelsier again, both great. Except. Except!!!!!!! Kelsier's a con man. He can fight sure, but most of his oomph comes from being able to manipulate people and be a leader. So Sanderson writes a like 100+ page story where 90% of the time Kelsier's on his own??? what the fuck I was so bored. SO BORED. The characters he does get to interact with feel like a lot of the "visitor" interludes in Stormlight, where it's just. The author going "here's stuff I know that you don't, hope you keep with me for the next 20 years" (I like when Stormlight has the interludes with other characters for the setting, it really does make it feel properly apocalyptic, I like seeing some cameos doing silly stuff like hiring some dudes to yoink artifacts. I do not like the sense of cameos being built up to be a major piece in the ongoing story, either make room for them to be proper PoVs or cut them)

I really hope White Sand works better as a full graphic novel cause I could not get into either the except for the written portion/"script". Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell was fine, a little too edgy of a setting for my liking but Silence is amazing, love her, loved her PoV, loved the reveal at the end and how it tied into both the rumors around her place and the grief she's got. However.... Both Shadows... and Sixth of Dusk feel very appropriative to me. LIke, you're gonna run into some in diverse settings by majority/prominent/hegemonic demographic writers, just by incident and because appropriation vs diverse influences can be slightly grey. But Shadows..., with the author's note saying where he got the rules from, and Sixth are just... you didn't even try to work these into being influences, you're just grabbing stuff and using it whole and using it with other details that make it feel stereotyped and it felt kinda gross to people named Kat who are me.

Which already had me in a bad mood about the whole thing and then we get to Edgedancer and W O W do I want to like Lift but she feels like she's written to be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl type, and that did not get better with the note of "she'll have had some development by the time she's in the main series, so I wanted to show where she started". Like. Why. She's absolutely gonna show up and be the weird quirky one that someone latches onto because she's just so weird you guys and I am not here for it. At all. Did like Stump and the guard captain and the scribes tho, give me their perspectives on all this world shattering. Also like the city itself, this sense that there are a few places that could weather the nonsense, it'll just be a question of logistics for the people there.

Overall just. A rough set of stuff, made less enjoyable by the fact that it's a few longer pieces instead of shorter snippets so I had to stick with the things I didn't like, it seemed. Also made it clear that there's a sweet spot for Sanderson's writing for me, where we've got time with both the story and the character. Dropping into a middle (Secret History) or needing to get it done in 50-75 pages (Sixth of Dusk) just don't work.

[kaipassedgo]

a little rant about ai "art"

Many creatives are being actively steered away from creative fields for the purpose of living for a wage instead of living for the art. Just within my friend group leaving high-school (where all of them were creatives, artists, and musicians) of 15, only 5 pursued the arts as a post secondary, the others pushing art aside to be just a hobby, or forgetting and losing it entirely. The unsteady job market has always been a universal truth for artists, however it was always a thing we could keep going at, because while it may not pay much or be harder to “break in” so to speak, there would always be art that needed to be made (graphic design, visual art, photography, video editing, animation, etc.).

Meanwhile developing artists have been fed AI “tools” in their art programs and softwares, and are never learning the true facet of art: that everything has a process, and you have to learn the rules before breaking them. The continuing prospects of AI taking over/replacing artists will discourage new artists to start, thus leading to the loss of a talent so entwined with human history. 

Generative AI – while created at a time that it was a gimmick and a novelty – with the way it has developed and grown, has been taken by many members of this capitalist society as a shortcut to cutting costs, as they can “ethically” cut labour costs. However, their ethics of these cost cuts are simply swapping one bad thing for another: underpaid labour vs intellectual property theft and the ecological concerns brought on by data centers. With the intrigue and allure of making “free” art, the rate at which artists are being hired, commissioned, and even considered is declining at a concerning pace, posing the question: Why do we value needless, and harmful technological "advancements" over the wellbeing of humanity?

Because of generative ai, and ai “art”, in the scope of human history, from this moment on, books, literature, and art, will have an asterisk beside their title reading: *could have been made by a computer.

This creates the problem seen already in human history, with burning of the Library of Alexandria; jealousy and hatred – of the containment of great knowledge, individualism and world perspectives, and the need to seek art out from those trained and talented in the craft – leading to the desecration of works of immense artistic quality and historical value. And while the art (that was unwillingly) used to feed these machines still exists, the artists who created the works no longer have true private ownership of their work, and their contribution to history gets lost in some database that generates more “art” than humanity has the emotional capability to care for.

Even though the blame for the burning of the books, is unplaced and unknown definitively, the loss of the knowledge – contained within the books or of the creation of art – can only be attested to by the ones who committed themselves to the process of learning, and intern cannot be known by the ones who decided the knowledge should be theirs without cost. 

Meaning of art is tied directly to the humanity and nature by which the artist expressed emotion through a piece. Art is made in the nuance, it is made by the mistakes, by the hand, and by the thought process it took to get there. 

When all is said and done, “AI “artists”” will have no personal hand in the creation of the work, and are liars and thieves with no legal claim over a computer’s take on the prompt it took them less than a minute to enter.  

also all excuses and justifications made to defend AI “art” are flimsy at best and stupid 😘✌️ 

Sincerely,

a tired artist who is so fucking done with this shit

[waffliesinyoface]

This Yahtzee Croshaw video got posted on youtube today, and I want to talk about Video Game Crafting Systems!

I don't imagine that any of you remember this, but I actually ranted about this before.

Minecraft is mentioned in the video already, so I won't go over that in too much detail. I appreciate that the game has a recipe book nowadays, simply because it has essentially replaced the need to have the wiki open in another window. More games should incorporate something like this!

It's fine to be a bit obtuse and make the player figure things out, but developers really need to come to terms with the fact that every game ever will have a dedicated fan wiki crop up before the game even launches.

Ideally, most games would also come with a little notepad feature that lets the player write shit down themselves, but that would only really be useful for people playing on PC. It would be convenient, though.

So, aside from minecraft, what are other crafting systems I like?

Final Fantasy 14 - I like that going out of your way to make sure you have the best materials at the start makes the final recipe start with higher base quality. I like that you have to do a bunch of mental calculations to juggle both the item's durability and your CP bar. I like that once you're high enough level, the game lets you just go "nah im good thanks" and instantly craft something if it's far enough below your level.

However, I don't like that gear from dungeons and raids automatically outclasses anything you can make, and that materia is limited to bumping up one or two stats. (IE: max crit and then whatever else is good for your class).

Recettear - I'm putting a big asterisk on this one because while I like it in theory, it is way too much of a pain in the ass for 90% of what you can make, and the drop rate on some of the items needed is unforgiveably bad.

Making the best sword in the game should require some effort and drops from bosses. This part is good. I am praising this part specifically.

However... some items require you to get 10 semi-rare drops from an enemy that spawns randomly on 5 floors out of a 50 floor dungeon, and a boss drop from a different dungeon, AND a random item sold by an NPC who only comes to your shop under specific conditions and tries to hawk random, mostly useless goods, for five times what they're worth. Out of a selection of dozens of possible items.

And then, after you can finally, FINALLY craft that sword, you have to put it on display, hope that the adventurer who can equip it tries to buy it, dissuade anyone ELSE who wants to buy it, and then sell it to them for pennies on the dollar because these fuckers are all broke even though I pay them thousands of gold every time I hire them to go into a dungeon. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SPENDING ALL YOUR MONEY ON, LOUIE. WHAT DOES YOUR BUDGET LOOK LIKE.

*ahem*

Atelier Ryza - every triple A game that makes you gather random sticks in a field fucking wishes it was this. Let's go over a couple reasons why it's good.

You have multiple tools for gathering ingredients, which allows for more diverse ingredients from each source. Smacking a tree with your staff causes uni (spiky acorns) to fall off. Cutting it with a scythe grants you bark or vines. Hitting it with an axe gives you wood. Blowing it up with a magical bomb staff (please play ryza) gives you charcoal. All of these ingredients come from the same source in a way that makes sense intuitively, and encourages you to experiment hitting things with new tools to see what you get this time. .

Gathering is both quick and meaningful. While picking up items off the ground only grants you one resource, the things you actually hit with tools give you several at a time. Charge up that axe swing and you'll knock the tree over in one go, giving you like 10 logs at once. However, you also have limited storage space out in the field - which can be upgraded WITH crafting - so you aren't obligated to pick up everything. You aren't just mindlessly hoovering up everything. You have to pick and choose that which you actually need, which makes that which you DO take home more valuable to you. .

The crafting system is fluid and materials stay relevant. Some slots in the alchemy grid will ask for a specific item - you can't make the material needed for the second tier of weapons without an ore locked behind strong enemies in the first proper dungeon - but some slots will just ask for [metal] or [plant], which gives you more freedom. The element value of each item also plays into it. IE: sometimes a slot will need one element to fill it up and unlock that attribute, but the NEXT slot will only unlock if you put in materials with another attribute. You either have to choose one to max out, OR, try and find another material that satisfies BOTH conditions. .

There's a great deal of customization and depth to the system, which means you can create items that actually feel unique or tailored to your needs. This ranges from what stat an item can boost, its innate qualities (medicine that heals vs medicine that cures ailments), and what traits it has (higher quality multipliers, or stronger skills, or better at status affliction, etc). Later on, you get the ability to sacrifice items to give other items even more customization. One of the best weapons for Ryza is made by maxing out a trait on her starting weapon, and progressively building it up into the later versions while deliberately making sure that you don't unlock their respective traits. .

The game is based around crafting, not something just tacked on as an afterthought. Crafting is the primary gameplay loop, and everything revolves around it. Exploring means more resources to craft stuff from. Combat is done primarily because monsters drop items to craft stuff. Quests unlock new recipes to craft. The entire plot revolves around Ryza wanting to become better at crafting things. .

Crafting lets you become absolutely fucking cracked and break the game over your knee. So many games will have crafting systems, but limit how far you can go with them. You might be able to make the best weapon in the game, but realistically, it's only about 20% stronger than some vendor trash you pick up. Atelier Ryza says no. Atelier Ryza says "if you really want, you can exploit the hell out of this." Atelier Ryza says "I will let you cram 30 ingots made of alchemical gold from hell into your staff, seal a philosopher's stone inside it, and create a weapon which can oneshot gods." And that's beautiful.

[sheerbittech]

Sheerbit: The Top VoIP Development Company for Custom, Scalable Solutions

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, clear and reliable communication is no longer a luxury—it’s a business imperative. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology has revolutionized how organizations connect, collaborate, and serve their customers. However, not all VoIP development companies are created equal. Selecting the right partner can mean the difference between a smooth deployment and ongoing technical headaches. This is where Sheerbit shines. As a leading VoIP development company, Sheerbit combines deep technical expertise, bespoke solutions, and unwavering customer support to deliver communication platforms that scale with your business.

Understanding VoIP and Its Business Impact

VoIP enables voice calls, video conferences, and multimedia data to traverse IP networks rather than traditional telephone lines. This shift reduces costs, boosts flexibility, and integrates seamlessly with cloud-based and on-premise systems. Organizations that adopt VoIP enjoy features such as advanced call routing, click-to-dial, call analytics, and integration with CRM or helpdesk platforms—empowering teams to work smarter and respond faster to customer needs.

Common Challenges in VoIP Deployments

Even with compelling benefits, VoIP projects can falter if not handled by seasoned professionals. Organizations often face:

Quality of Service (QoS) issues that lead to dropped calls or latency

Security vulnerabilities exposing voice traffic to eavesdropping or fraud

Complex integrations with legacy PBX systems or third-party applications

Scalability hurdles when call volume spikes or new offices come online

Ongoing maintenance and lackluster support after go-live

Addressing these challenges demands a partner who understands both the networking fundamentals and the unique needs of your business.

Why Sheerbit Stands Out

Sheerbit has built its reputation as the best VoIP development company by focusing on three core pillars: technical excellence, client-centric customization, and comprehensive support.

1. Technical Excellence

Every Sheerbit engineer brings extensive experience with leading VoIP platforms—Asterisk, FreeSWITCH, OpenSIPS, Kamailio, and WebRTC frameworks. Whether you need a robust SIP trunking solution or a cutting-edge WebRTC application, Sheerbit’s team writes clean, scalable code and adheres to industry best practices for network performance and reliability.

2. Custom VoIP Solutions

Off-the-shelf VoIP packages rarely fit every business scenario. Sheerbit specializes in tailor-made development services, from crafting custom dial plans and interactive voice response (IVR) systems to integrating advanced call-center features like predictive routing and real-time analytics. With Sheerbit, you can hire VoIP developers dedicated to understanding your workflows and delivering solutions that align perfectly with your objectives.

3. End-to-End Support

The deployment of a VoIP system is just the beginning. Sheerbit offers full-lifecycle services: consulting and needs assessment, architecture design, development, testing, deployment, and post-launch maintenance. Their DevOps-driven processes ensure seamless updates, continuous monitoring, and rapid resolution of any issues—minimizing downtime and safeguarding call quality.

Key Service Offerings

VoIP Development Services: Sheerbit engineers build feature-rich VoIP applications, including softphones, mobile VoIP apps, and web-based conferencing tools. They ensure interoperability across devices and browsers, delivering user experiences that mirror or exceed traditional phone systems.

Custom Integrations: Leverage your existing investments by integrating VoIP with CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot, helpdesk platforms such as Zendesk, or bespoke databases. Sheerbit’s APIs and middleware ensure call data syncs accurately with your business systems.

SIP Trunking & PBX Migration: Whether you’re migrating from a legacy PBX to a modern SIP-based infrastructure or establishing new SIP trunks for international call routing, Sheerbit’s proven migration framework guarantees minimal service interruption.

Security & Compliance: Voice services must be secure. Sheerbit implements TLS/SRTP encryption, robust firewall configurations, and fraud-detection modules. They also assist with regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) to protect sensitive communications.

Success Stories

Global Retail Chain Enhances Customer Support A multinational retailer struggling with call center overload engaged Sheerbit to deploy a scalable Asterisk-based IVR with predictive call routing. Post-launch, average wait times dropped by 40%, and customer satisfaction scores rose significantly.

Healthcare Provider Integrates VoIP with EHR Sheerbit developed a HIPAA-compliant FreeSWITCH solution for a healthcare network, integrating audible call prompts directly into the electronic health record system. Clinicians saved an average of 10 minutes per patient, boosting operational efficiency.

How to Hire Sheerbit’s VoIP Developers

Engaging with Sheerbit is straightforward. After an initial consultation to assess your needs, you’ll receive a detailed proposal outlining scope, timelines, and pricing. You can choose to hire VoIP developers on a project basis or onboard them as part of your extended team. Flexible engagement models include fixed-price projects, time-and-materials contracts, or dedicated-team arrangements.

Pricing & Engagement Models

Sheerbit offers transparent, competitive pricing tailored to project complexity and resource requirements. Typical engagement tiers include:

Standard Package: Core VoIP deployment with essential features

Advanced Package: Custom development, integrations, and analytics

Enterprise Package: Full-scale solutions with ongoing support and SLAs

The Implementation Process

Discovery & Planning: Define objectives, technical requirements, and success metrics.

Design & Architecture: Create network diagrams, call-flow maps, and infrastructure plans.

Development & Testing: Build features in agile sprints, perform comprehensive QA, and conduct pilot testing.

Deployment & Training: Roll out the solution, configure networks, and train your IT staff and end users.

Support & Optimization: Provide 24/7 monitoring, periodic performance reviews, and iterative enhancements.

Conclusion & Call to Action

Selecting the best VoIP development company can transform your organization’s communications, delivering cost savings, operational agility, and superior customer experiences. With Sheerbit’s proven expertise in custom VoIP solutions, end-to-end support, and dedication to quality, your business is poised for seamless, future-ready communications.

Ready to elevate your voice infrastructure? Contact Sheerbit today to schedule a free consultation and discover how you can harness the power of a tailored VoIP solution built by industry experts.

[iamjackmorris]

VoIP Staff Augmentation: How Hiring VoIP Developers Transforms Business Growth

VoIP is the main current backbone of modern business communication today within the rapidly evolving communication landscape, but it also calls for rising complexity that requires specialists, and here comes the revolution within VoIP staff augmentation when businesses can hire specialized, skilled VoIP developers to bring about operational efficiency as well as significant business growth.

In this blog, we’ll explore how VoIP staff augmentation transforms businesses by providing access to top-tier VoIP talent, improving scalability, and streamlining communication processes.

VoIP Staff Augmentation: What Is It?

VoIP staff augmentation is the bringing of VoIP professionals outside of your in-house team to fulfill specific needs on a project. Using staff augmentation, businesses can access developers worldwide for work like system integration, VoIP software development, and network optimization. Unlike an outsourcing method, this style of staff augmentation gives a business more control since the developers are closely working with the in-house team for seamless integration and alignment with the business objectives.

Key Benefits of Hiring VoIP Developers via Staff Augmentation

1. Access to sophisticated specialist knowledge

By means of staff augmentation, hiring VoIP developers could bring on board the most modern VoIP technologies to engage experienced high-level professionals as soon as possible. This would provide help in SIP trunking as well as in developments using FreeSWITCH or Asterisk.

2. Cost-Effectiveness

Traditional hiring is recruitment, onboarding, training, and even long-term salary commitments. Business requires the expertise to supplement their needs, again giving almost immediate savings on overheads — flexibility in resource allocation, core business, and minimizing expense incurred by hiring.

3. Scalability and Flexibility:

Scalability for VoIP staff augmentation is unmatched. It scales easily as your business scales; you can add extra developers on VoIP without necessarily going through the same full-time hiring process that brings with it delays in deployment.

4. Faster Project Deployment

The project timelines reduce in the presence of skilled VoIP developers. Augmented staff is well aware of VoIP technologies; hence, they get moving right away. This accelerates the deployment of VoIP solutions and enhances operational efficiency.

5. Emotional customer experience

An effective VoIP system is crucial to ensure that excellent customer service delivery is provided. Features that can be implemented include the IVR functionality, call routing, and other features which will assure customers of a high quality interaction through expert VoIP developers.

Troubleshooting VoIP Staff Augmentation and Moving Past Such Challenges

Though VoIP staff augmentation has various benefits, business faces the following challenges:

Integration Issues: Seamless collaboration between augmented staff and internal teams is a challenging task. Communication can bridge the gap by providing clear project goals.

Security Issues: Most data will be very sensitive, so security needs to be strong. Partner with an established VoIP staff augmentation provider that will ensure data protection and industry compliance.

Dependency on External Talent: The reliance on external talent would not be able to internalize skills. Try to internalize knowledge-sharing and upskilling amongst the in-house team members.

VoIP Staff Augmentation in the Future

In that scenario of the emergence of remotely and hybrid working businesses, an augmentation of staff in hiring VoIP developers should take place.

Future trends include:

AI-Driven Communication Solutions: Augmented VoIP developers would be required to develop AI-powered communication solutions, enhancing automation and efficiency.

Global Collaboration: With VoIP enabling seamless global communication, businesses can recruit VoIP talent from divergent regions to bring freshness in innovative ideas and cultural diversity.

Advanced Security Implementations: VoIP staff augmentation is going to be more about developing secure communication networks to protect businesses from cyber threats while ensuring data privacy.

Conclusion:

VoIP staff augmentation is much more than an acquisition strategy. It acts as a powerful business growth transform tool. It ensures that the company improves on its communication systems, becomes easier to operate, and takes care of customer experience while doing so. This has proven to be an approach for both small start-up businesses and large corporations with long-term success in any competitive landscape.

If you’re ready to elevate your VoIP infrastructure, Hire VoIP Developer offers expert VoIP staff augmentation services tailored to your unique business needs.

[vindaloo-softtech]

The Future of Asterisk: Upcoming Features and Trends

Asterisk, the renowned open-source communications platform, is all set to shape the future with upcoming features and emerging trends. It continues offering high-tech functionalities and integration to enhance connectivity. With a focus on improving scalability, security, and user experience, the latest developments in Asterisk promise to empower organizations with more robust and flexible communication solutions.

Let’s explore the key innovations and trends of an asterisk in the coming years and how they will help to build VoIP software advanced.

Before that know……

What is Asterisk?

Asterisk is an open-source platform for developing telecommunication applications, which was developed by Digium. Users can easily access and modify the source code based on its features and components. It is based on the Private Branch Exchange (PBX) that enables voice and video communication via (IP) Internet protocols. Asterisk seamlessly turns a PC into a VoIP server and manages various business requirements through its compatibility with multiple operating systems and communication technologies.

An Asterisk, well-known for its robust telephony stack in the VoIP sector. It acts as a comprehensive toolkit for creating advanced telephony solutions. With Asterisk solutions, there is no requirement for any additional hardware, making it a cost-effective choice.

There is another Asterisk IVR Solution, whereby the callers can interact with your phone systems through the menu by using voice commands. This way, it can win customer satisfaction. Hire an asterisk developer to get a personalized IVR system as per your preferences.

Interesting Facts about Asterisk:

2,000,000 downloads annually

Implemented on 1,000,000 servers globally

1,300,000 new endpoints are added each year

Used in over 170 countries

A community of 86,000 contributors Source: https://www.asterisk.org/

How does Asterisk help to Build a VoIP System?

Asterisk gives power to various communication solutions such as IP PBX systems, VoIP gateways, conference servers through Asterisk Video Conference, and many more tailored applications.

In VoIP, Asterisk enables setting up and customising the VoIP system including call routing, voice mail, video conferencing etc. It supports various VoIP protocols such as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and IAX (Inter-Asterisk Exchange), to provide a seamless communication experience. Asterisk integrates and connects with different hardware and software such as IP phones, gateways and CRM systems.

Asterisk call centres configure extensions and call queues and customize IVR systems for efficient call routing. It also provides tools for managing calls, including call forwarding, call recording and conference calling. This enhances scalability by accommodating growing user numbers and increased call volume.

Get the best asterisk development services from Vindaloo Softtech.

The Future Trends of Asterisk

Asterisk is a fit for all types of organizations from small enterprises, large corporations, and call centres to government agencies. Asterisk is all set to go with its future trends and advancements. With continuous technological advancements, it will introduce upgraded features and improve all performance including advancements in security, cloud-based solutions, and robust analytics.

Moreover, it will integrate with artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things to revolutionize communication. With these features, it will transform the way businesses manage and utilise their communication system more smartly. Asterisk Development is at its peak to serve the business beyond the best.

How does Asterisk help to enhance business communications?

Robust Connectivity:

Asterisk rules out communication barriers and lets businesses connect with clients and employees across the globe without any interruptions.

Streamlined Operations:

It centralizes communication by integrating all communication channels so that employees can collaborate efficiently. Businesses utilize it to boost productivity and create more efficient workflows.

Cost Cutting:

Traditional phone systems can cost a chunk, especially to manage high call volumes. However, asterisk significantly reduces communication costs. It is a cost-effective option for companies seeking affordable solutions.

Scale up:

Asterisk accommodates changing communication needs without needing additional investment. As businesses scale up, asterisk permits businesses to effectively add or remove extensions and lines.

Flexibility:

Asterisk has a versatile application in various businesses and their different models. It can be implemented in any sector regardless of its scale. It adapts to the specific requirements of each organisation.

Global Reach and Convenience:

Now that Asterisk provides global access to businesses through its virtual presence, there is no need for physical offices in multiple locations. The best part is that it supports virtual phone numbers and international calls to remove geographical barriers.

Asterisk Vs FreeSwitch: Which VoIP Technology is Right for You?

It is often a matter of confusion in deciding the best from Freeswitch Vs Asterisk. Each has its own bright side depending on your business needs. However, Asterisk is easier to develop on several levels while FreeSwtich offers better modularity and manages more concurrent calls. To dig deeper, scroll your eyes through a write-up on Asterisk Vs FreeSwtich Development.

[bloededhoine]

world building cause twn doesn't part 11: witchers

we all love witchers, they're dramatic, they're sexy, and they're very important. some might say they are the namesake of the entire series. also, fair warning that it gets very geeky and into the bits of polish media that are hardly relevant for twn at all, so feel free to skip after the cut.

an asterisk means the bullet point is not from the saga, but has the same canon deal as the games��� it could happen and would not affect the original canon, so do with that what you will

colour code cause i fucking love colour codes - already happened/introduced, probably s2, important background info, stuff that might be in the prequel, extras

series masterpost

history

witchers, also known as vatt'ghern in elder speech, have been around in some form for a really long time

when humans started populating on the continent in the late 700s, they encountered a lot of scary shit that they had no idea how to deal with

for around 200 years people just got eaten, until around 950 when the kings hired some slightly mad mages to create a magical knightly class to kick monster ass. they called this class the order of witchers, beginning the first age of witchers

the main mages and leaders of the order, cosimo malaspina and his student alzur, started with creating witchers from adults. this didn't work, so alzur kidnapped 38 children and brought them to rissberg castle in western temeria. yeah. these were not good dudes

alzur developed the first witcher trials, putting the children through first physical training and then alchemical processes designed to mutate them into witchers.

the physical training had a lot of climbing cliffs, running obstacle courses of death, and hitting each other with sticks. before alzur could even start mutating the kids, 4 had died

the alchemical processes started with giving the children shrooms and toxic tea, which this ended up killing a large amount of them. however, after a month, the first witcher was created. a week later, erland of larvik (hes important for later) finished the process. by the end, there were only 5 alive.

these 5 were continuously trained by the best hunters, trackers, mages, alchemists, and warriors on the continent. however, the whole point of making witchers was to have magically enhanced knights, and none of these five had exceptional magic powers, so the whole process was officially declared a failure

cosimo and alzur didn't agree, so they took the 5 witchers to the abandoned morgraig castle in the remote kaedweni kestrel mountains to continue training the existing witchers and create some new ones*

after the originals set out on the path, the mages kept creating more witchers. in the winter, they would all go back to morgraig castle to spend time together and mourn those who had died

after a while, the original leaders of the order had left and the witchers started in-fighting, tricking each other, and even threatening to kill each other just for a contract

this escalated until a witcher named arnaghad nearly killed another witcher named rhys. when the order told arnaghad that this was super against the rules, he summoned his crew and they battled the order. arnaghad's group lost, so they left the order and travelled south to the amell mountains in nazair and formed a new witcher school - the school of the bear*

the drama didn't end here, however. a group of bear school witchers decided they didn't like arnaghad and tried to kill him. these witchers then travelled to the far southeastern tir tochair mountains and founded the school of the viper*

these two schools became especially famous for their chronic backstabbing, and public opinion began to turn on witchers. the other witchers were obviously not pleased with this, so twenty of the others left the order and decided to try and help witchers regain respect.

these 20 took tons of alchemical and mutagenic knowledge and equipment with them, planning to improve the recipe used to make witchers. they travelled south to ebbing, where they eventually settled in stygga castle and formed the school of the cat

however, the cat school was all the way across the continent from morgraig castle, so the advancements they made didn't really help the order. the remaining original witchers were feeling a little bummed and useless, but they didn't want to cause some huge problems by leaving to form their own school.

fortunately, our friend erland of larvik was the diplomatic leader of this group. he explained to the remaining order members why he wanted to leave, and then peacefully took 13 of his bros to the far northern kingdom of kovir. they settled at the kaer seren fortress and called themselves the school of the griffin*

the last witchers of the order figured there was no reason to stay in the practically-abandoned morgraig castle, so they travelled to eastern kaedwen and formed the school of the wolf, headquartered at the kaer morhen fortress

these schools turned out to be a pretty good idea, since they were so spread out their respective witchers rarely encountered one another and were cold but civil when they did.

the establishment of these five schools ended the first age of witchers, but began the period where the schools flourished, known as the golden age

here are the general locations of the 5 schools

training and the trials

"the trials" is the collective term for the processes that young boys go through with the goal of becoming witchers. it was initially developed by alzur and contained physical/combat training followed by mutations, but was later expanded to include monster knowledge, use of potions, and magic

the trials begin with the choice, which is kinda what it sounds like; a voluntary decision to commit to a witcher's diet and training, both incredibly gruelling and frequently led to heart or liver failure, insanity, and/or death

a witcher's training can be divided into physical and mental. physical training includes swordplay, hand to hand combat, use of magic, obstacle courses, tracking, and hunting. mental training is about studying alchemy, monsters, and herbalism

the diet is really just a lot of shrooms. like, a lot of shrooms

the first big trial is the incredibly painful trial of the grasses. it gets its name from an alchemical mix known as the grasses: corn lily, nightshade, speargrass, wildrye and wolfsbane

the entire trial takes about a week, beginning with drinking a tea made from the grasses. the adepts would then be tied down and intravenously given herbs and elixirs, the most deadly step of the trial. those who survived would fall into a disturbed sleep characterized by glassy eyes, ragged breathing, and coughing, which would progress to vomiting and seizures after the elixirs were administered again. they would fight the herbs, elixirs, and viruses in their bodies until the seventh day, when they woke up with cat eyes. only 3 out of 10 survived, gaining heightened senses, slowed aging, faster reflexes and metabolism, and superior strength

the gwent card for the trial of the grasses paints a lovely picture

how slow is this aging? very. vesemir, the oldest witcher alive, is around 290 and looks like a middle aged man. unfortunately, this isn't a profession that allows for death from old age, but i'd assume witchers have the life spans of aen seidhe elves: 350 ish years

the fast metabolism is responsible for a lot of cool things that come with being a witcher, their bodies naturally run warmer and are therefore less susceptible to infections and better equipped for freezing cold winters, they heal incredibly quickly, toxic potions aren't really a big deal, and they're horny all the time. yeah, it's canon. you can hear geralt explain it to some school children here.

the next trial is the trial of the dreams, in which the witchers in training basically trip balls under the supervision of druids or mages. it enhances the abilities from the trial of the grasses and grants night vision, but also makes witchers sterile.

the last trial is the trial of the mountains, which is a test of physical strength, survival, and combat skills. there's no real standard process here since different schools have different environments, but it's usually a specific and dangerous course the adepts need to run.

after this trial, the adepts receive their medallions and officially become witchers

the trials are meant to not only train witchers but to prepare them for the dangers of life on the path, so by nature survival is rare and indicates high skill.

however, on the rare occasion that a master witcher does not believe that a student is ready, they can have the student go through an additional trial known as the trial of the sword. this is really just a kill or be killed combat where the adept must prove their skill.

the path

the path is really just the outside world where a witcher will do their witchering. most witchers go on the path for the first time in the spring after they finish the trials, and then return to their schools in the winter

it's obviously quite a dangerous life, witchers often don't know that their brothers have died until they just don't come back for the winter

especially since humans don't really like them, and it's hugely common that witchers get cheated out of their money or even tricked and killed by villagers

why don't humans like these wonderful monster killers? it really varies. witchers are quite secretive about their lives, so people tend to fill in the gaps. negatively, i might add

that's where we get the myth that witchers have no emotions, which is completely untrue. witchers do tend to be fairly low-affect, like they wouldn't really react to death or sickness or war in general, but it's probably more because they've seen it all before than that they don't care

many witchers have incredibly strong bonds with their brothers, horses, and mentors. of course, geralt and his family are a lot closer than most witchers would be to theirs, but the basic capacity for emotion stands

people also think that witchers will steal their children, which is sort of partly true? the vast majority of children who become witchers are child surprises of other witchers, but it's important to note that there just aren't that many witchers out there

more accurate is the belief that witchers will steal your girl. now many of our lads can and will be monogamous, but countless more just... won't.

a lot of human hatred for witchers is just plain racism. witchers aren't really considered nonhuman, witchering is more of a profession than a separate race, but they are called nonhuman as an insult both to them and actual nonhumans. it's complicated.

you may have heard geralt grumble something about the witcher's code, which, as cool as it sounds, isn't real. the order had a set of moral objectives they wanted to serve, but that died with them. geralt heard about this and knew that no one knows what the witcher's code is, so he would make it up whenever he didn't want to do something. i love that energy

the closest thing most witchers have to a code is their commitment to neutrality, which is basically just what it sounds like but a lot more complicated.

it doesn't mean that witchers can't play a force in politics, since there's a lot of perfectly normal witchering things that can be argued to change the political climate, especially in a time of war.

it does mean that witchers cannot commit to a political cause, like enlisting in the army or assassinating a king. geralt is famous for not giving a shit about this rule. literally. that's a big part of where his fame comes from. he was knighted while his poet gigolo boyfriend sat there and reported on it.

it's also important to note that neutrality is more of a school's commitment than an individual witcher's. for example, when nilfgaard tried to buy out the viper school, they straight up said no because that would be committing their entire school to a cause. however, when nilfgaard went to hire a few viper witchers as assassins, they agreed. yeah, this was frowned upon since it is certainly not neutral, but it's a lot more common than entire schools breaking the rule.

magic, alchemy, and equipment

witcher potions are very useful, but also highly toxic, and would definitely kill a normal person. even with mutations that make potions much safer, witchers have limits and can't use too many potions at once

signs are simple spells that don't take the years of training and genetic predisposition required for most magic. they can be cast easily with one hand and in the middle of combat, or just when you need a bit of spice in your day. we know of 8 signs, but it's entirely possible there are more

aard - a simple but powerful telekenetic super punch

axii - jedi mind tricks

hate reflecting sign - used almost exclusively by the wolf school to reflect a monster's bloodlust back on itself. especially helpful for a particularly angry monster like adda the white when she was in striga form.

heliotrope - a shield that absorbs a singular impact, needs to be timed well as it disappears in a few seconds. best for blocking single massive attacks, like when you wake up a hung over sorceress and she tries to turn you into kentucky friend witcher

igni - turn your hand into a magical flame thrower

quen - a shield that is active until broken, best for buying time under fire or waiting for an sneak attack

somne - puts someone to sleep

yrden - creates an area that monsters can't enter, if they do they are slowed down and forced into their corporeal form (if they don't already have one)

witchers are proficient with practically any weapon, but of course they're are known for their two swords, steel for humans and silver for monsters

they're both for monsters OoOooOoOO

some carry crossbows as well, but that's definitely rarer

all witchers also have a medallion in the shape of the animal of the school where they were trained, these medallions don't only distinguish different schools of witchers but can sense magic in the world

keep reading if you honestly have nothing better to do

the school of the bear*

the bear school was founded by the rebel arnaghad after he left the order with 13 other witchers. they knew they wouldn't exactly be popular, so they travelled south and built the haern caduch fortress in the amell mountains

the mountains are freezing cold and inaccessible, before the witchers they were only populated by gnomes and dwarves. the bears did establish decent relations with these two, but still mostly kept to themselves.

they're definitely the most solitary school, some would sail to skellige to avoid other witchers

there's no real sense of brotherhood between bear school witchers, they've been known to fight each other if they have a chance encounter on the path

the bears needed to adjust to their new much much colder environment, so they began using heavy armour and prioritizing defense over agile attacks. bears are also the only school other than the cat to widely use crossbows

this is reflected in their trial of the mountains, in which students had to run to the peak of mount gorgon and bring back a special runestone. most froze to death on the way and their bodies became trail markers for future generations

because they're so reclusive, we don't really know many bear school witchers or if there are even any left

the school declined after a chunk of them broke off to form the school of the viper, but the official breaking point was when some angry and war-weary villagers climbed all the way up to haern caduch and started rioting after the bears failed to deal with some vampires

the school itself didn't have a dramatic end, it was already rare that witchers would spend winters together and they just didn't care enough to defend their keep. the remaining bears took still contracts in surrounding areas and haern caduch still stands, although covered in snow, if any wished to visit again

the school of the viper*

why did a group of witchers led by a man called ivar evil-eye chose to leave the infamous kinslaying bears? because they weren't dramatic enough. this should tell you a lot about the viper's vibe

their main gripe was that the bear school frowned upon taking contracts on people. also known as being a hitman.

clearly they didn't want intruders, so they found an even more remote location than haern caduch, the tir tochair mountains.

these mountains have the last large settlement of gnomes, and are located between the nilfgaardian province of geso and the korath desert (aka the frying pan aka if you end up here you will be stuck here and die).

they built their keep literally into the mountains and named it gorthur gvaed, but it was sometimes called the blood gate keep. intimidating.

the founders also really wanted to take on the wild hunt, so they created a school to train witchers to help out. the libraries of gorthur gvaed arguably contain the most complete collection of information about the wild hunt on the continent

unfortunately for those of us who want to fight the wild hunt but fortunately for the hunt itself, the vipers were super super secretive about their knowledge and never shared it

viper teachers were notoriously cold and cruel to their students, but in different ways than other witcher teachers. the viper version of the trial of the mountain doesn't include a mountain at all, instead the adepts had to kill the pet they had been given at their arrival at gorthur gvaed.

the viper fighting style was the direct opposite of that of the bears, they would wield two weapons and use unpredictable and rapid attacks to overwhelm their opponent. armour was light and flexible, allowing for as much movement as possible. vipers also loved using their alchemical knowledge to coat their blades in poison

when the usurper was collecting power in nilfgaard, he heard of some super killers with shady morals and wanted to recruit them. the vipers refused due to their neutrality and the usurper destroyed gorthur gvaed and the school with it. oops?

apparently, the refusal to work for the nilfgaardians was not a sentiment shared by future generations of vipers. in the 1270s a small group of vipers were hired by emperor emhyr var emreis to kill the northern kings and create chaos in the north. he called them the kingslayers, which isn't very creative but quite accurate and intimidating.

this did break the vow of neutrality, but only on behalf of the kingslayers and not the whole school. however, it definitely gave all vipers a reputation as assassins

the most prolific kingslayer, letho of gulet, enjoyed this line of work so much that he started looking for employers outside of nilfgaard.

philippa eilhart and sheala de tancarville hired him to kill king demavend of aedirn, which gave letho enough of a reputation to be hired by the scoia'tael to kill king foltest of temeria

two other kingslayers, serrit and auckes, were tasked to kill king henselt of kaedwen but failed and died in the process.

we don't meet any vipers other than the kingslayers, but letho mentions that there are at least two still alive

the school of the cat

the cat school is my personal favourite because they are so fucking interesting. they're absolutely awesome.

the school started with around 20 witchers in the order who were getting a bit irritated with the order's lack of well, order. they really wanted to improve the witcher recipe, so they took a huge amount of alchemical and mutagenic ingredients, tools, and formulas when they left

they travelled south to the famous stygga castle, which has been occupied by numerous politically shady organizations over the years due to its seclusion. it's very rare that anyone not associated with the current owners know where the castle even is, and if they did they would probably be hunted down

cat witchers broke the vow of neutrality that previous schools took, like... a lot. as in they encouraged their students to work as spies and assassins for the local rulers to help make the school more popular.

luckily for them, it worked! the cat witchers didn't just deal with monsters, but bandits and warlords too, and were very well liked by the locals

unfortunately, the success was pretty short lived. remember those formulas the cats took with them to improve the witcher recipe? yeah, they worked. really well. as in the first batches had almost no emotions at all, they didn't even seem human.

but in the spirit of progress, the cats wanted to make their witchers even better. but, they didn't have any test subjects that weren't monster killing zombies. the solution? make some witchers with extremely enhanced and unpredictable emotions, throw them in cages, and run tests on them! yikes

one of these literal lab rats, a young witcher named gezras, managed to free the other survivors and escape stygga. they ended up with a group of aen seidhe guerrillas, who helped hide them in exchange for their fighting skills. this definitely saved gezras and his friends' lives, but was yet another hit to the school's reputation*

as a reaction, some of the local nobility (who didn't even know the school had split), began to plan an attack on stygga castle. right before the forces arrived, however, gezras and his allies snuck into the castle, killed the mages and witchers who had tortured them, and snuck out without warning the other witchers about the incoming attack. everyone still inside when the soldiers arrived ended up dead in three days*

without any leaders or home base, gezras took the surviving witchers north. along the way, they picked up mercenaries, other disillusioned witchers, and nonhumans, forming the dyn marv caravan, the new nomadic headquarters of the cat school*

a big part of the caravan was that they rejected mages, but were also big into trying to improve the witcher recipe. this led to some seriously terrible variations on the trials (ie human experimentation) that earned them a solidly awful reputation that was made worse when the caravan supported aelireen in her rebellion against humans*

eventually, the caravan settled like right next to kaer morhen, the headquarters of the school of the wolf. most of the witchers actually got on quite well, but a small group of cats led by this idiot named treyse wanted to be special. they made a deal with the kaedweni king radowit's mage astrogarus that in exchange for killing the wolves, they would be the leaders of a new special kaedweni witcher order*

the older members of the school, like the then-leader guxart, knew this was a terrible idea, but were arrested by the kaedwenis so they couldn't interfere*

surprise surprise, this was indeed a terrible idea. after the cats attacked the wolves, radowit told his men to kill all the surviving witchers from both schools, including treyse. turns out the king didn't like all the witchers in the area and wanted them dealt with. the few cats who survived were permanently banned from taking shelter in any other schools*

eventually, guxart got out of prison on the condition that he would keep his witchers far away from king radowit*

the school declined significantly after this, but officially ended when soldiers took control of the caravan, killing most of the witchers. all hopes of revival were dashed when one of the few survivors killed the others to obtain some armour diagrams*

yeah, the story of the cat school is very dramatic. i wouldn't expect much less from them.

the school had a reputation for being extremely emotional and unpredictable, they had no issue with taking contracts on humans or even other witchers. the cat school is also the only one to train women and nonhumans, and they were publicly sympathetic towards elves, even fighting on their side against the northern realms.

their fighting style is similar to that of the vipers, relying on speed, agility, and accuracy. cat weapons aren't very powerful, but lightweight and precise and designed for deadly hits, like a crossbow. armour is also incredibly flexible and lightweight, made to be easily repaired on the road.

one of the cat trials is walking a tightrope blindfolded, they would practice this throughout their training on increasing heights that eventually became deadly if failed.

some cat witchers we meet are brehen of iello, aiden, jad karadin, kiyan, and gaetan.

the school of the griffin

they're literally the opposite of the cats. erland of larvik and 13 of his friends left the order amicably and travelled west to one of alzur's old fortresses, kaer seren in kovir. apparently it was haunted, but they're witchers so it wasn't a problem

the school was strictly neutral and placed high value on knightly virtues, training was focused on magic, preparedness, and etiquette. the older griffins were mentors and parents, not just teachers, for the younger ones. erland made his school sort of like a family, kaer seren even had a graveyard to bury griffins who had died.

griffins were definitely the most respected by the north, their masters would even be summoned to give advice to kings, especially on matters related to magic.

their fighting style emphasized powerful signs and taking on multiple opponents at once, cause that's just awesome. griffin armour was medium weight, light enough to offer good movement but heavy enough for the freezing temperatures at kaer seren.

griffins were expected to be polite and kind to everyone, and had no issue killing dragons. those are unrelated though. you can be an ass who lets dragons live.

the library at kaer seren had a huge collection of magical information, but it was all destroyed when some local angry villagers caused an avalanche that killed multiple witchers and made the fortress pretty much unusable

fortunately, the surviving witchers were well liked enough that other schools offered them shelter in the winter. that's why coën got to hang out with the wolf witchers, and the griffin attitude is definitely why he was the most comfortable with ciri

other than coën and erland, the only moderately important griffin witcher is keldar, an expert on monsters and mentor to coën, who still guards the ruined kaer seren*

the school of the wolf

definitely the one you are most familiar with, the school of the wolf was the last school founded when the few remaining witchers in the order decided to join the new age of witchers

they chose the recently abandoned kaer morhen fortress in kaedwen as their headquarters, and quickly earned a reputation as a professional and reliable institution. they even helped hide count esteril thyssen and his wife agnes from the angry king videmont.

unfortunately, in around 1170 some angry mages and priests led a mob that attacked kaer morhen and killed every witcher inside. the school recovered somewhat, but a few years later the massacre from the school of the cat happened and nearly all witchers from before the attacks had died

the last children trained in kaer morhen were trained in the 1230s, but by then the only pre-pogrom witcher alive was vesemir, a fencing teacher with little knowledge of how to carry out the trials, so the school couldn't make any new witchers.

however, vesemir kept spending winters in the keep with a few of his younger witchers, geralt, eskel, lambert, and later, the griffin witcher coën. kaer morhen also housed geralt's child surprise, ciri, and eskel's, deidre, for a while, and was open to witchers from all schools except the cat and viper.

wolf fighting was similar to that of the griffin, they used mixed attacks and medium-weight armour and valued relationships with each other, but did not place as high a value on magic

other than vesemir, eskel, geralt, and lambert, the witchers leo and berengar were also from the school of the wolf

future

by the 1250s, all the schools were functionally extinct, although a few witchers still travelled the continent doing the same work as always

alzur never shared his process for creating witchers except to his students, who then shared it to their students and so on. however, enough massacres and pogroms happened that gaps in knowledge grew and it's impossible and impractical even to try to make more witchers

[st-louis]

I know you and all of us want Ducharme gone asap but both Hughes and Gorton have said hes here until the end of the season. And honestly the reason imo is money. Claude Julien is still being paid 5m + Ducharme 1.5m + another coach in a season where revenue is down cuz of Covid. I really think that why cuz otherwise how can they still keep going like this right? At least Julien's contact is up this year and next year they can hopefully hire someone else. But we gotta suffer and be patient still

all right. i’m gonna be “rude” so anyone who doesn’t like opinions either put on your big boy pants or look away.

look. i am aware the reason is money. i’m aware that they said he’s going to be here until the end of the season. i’ve watched the press conferences. i’ve read the articles. you either haven’t been following my tumblr along very long or you haven’t been reading very well.

the point, which i have made repeatedly on this blog on tumblr dot com, and which actual credentialed journalists have also been making in their real life papers and websites, for example arpon basu who i am going to quote and who maybe you would like to contact to explain to him about the coaching contracts:

at a certain point the people who are in charge of the future of this team have to look at the way ducharme is coaching, the way the team is playing, and the way the players are acting, and determine whether or not the money (contracts, to one of the richest and most valuable franchises in the league, even in a down year) is worth the lasting damage they are doing to the assets (young players they are expecting to rely on for seasons to come, during valuable development years). this is the calculus of team management and i am, right now, concerned with the way the equation is being balanced.

chuck fletcher also said he was keeping alain vigneault until he wasn’t. because at a certain point something has to break and you are doing more damage to the players by keeping a toxic situation in place.

yes, the contacts are being paid. yes, revenue is down. but the fact remains that it’s one of the most valuable franchises in the league at 1.6 billion dollars. yes, not all of that money is immediately available. but the pockets are deep, they COULD afford to do it if they wanted to, and at some point someone is gonna have to do the math again. sorry if i don’t include an asterisk and caveat indicating that i am aware of what jeff gorton and kent hughes said every time i make a post (that mentions my concerns with the damage to player development lmao) for ease of your own reading comprehension.

the other thing about this ask is like… they don’t even need to hire a new permanent head coach with a big contract this season. stick luke richardson in as an interim the way the flyers did with yeo and suffer the rest of the season that way. at least the worst toxicity would be gone. bam. no new contracts. (the flyers, by the way, are paying alain vigneault $5 million for the next two seasons anyway and they fired him. the flyers as a franchise, comparatively, are worth $800 million.)

like if you don’t agree with that view that’s your own prerogative, but please don’t come in here lecturing me and assuming i’m unaware of extremely basic facts about a topic i’m extremely interested in.

so no, i’m not going to be patient when i’m worried about some of my favorite and specifically young players who i was hoping would take steps forward this year. also lmao “be patient” like i’m doing anything except complaining on the internet as is entirely within my right. are we not allowed to complain about management decisions anymore at all, is it a case by case basis, or should i run them all by you for your approval first?

[satoshi-mochida]

Square Enix will release Bravely Default II for PC via Steam on September 2 for $59.99, the company announced. Users who pre-order or purchase the game before September 13 will be able to buy it at a 10 percent-off discount price of $53.99.

Bravely Default II first launched for Switch on February 26.

The PC version includes controller support and various resolution options, as well as support for English and Japanese audio, and English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese text.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

Introduction

Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, nature’s masters. The Crystals’ power exceeds the hand of man, and if unleashed, would bring down death, disaster, calamity and blight upon the land—ancient quatrain of Kingdom Musa.

Guided by fate, it’s up to you to stop the forces that threaten these heroes and all of Excillant.

A new entry in the Bravely series. A new world, a new story, and all-new Heroes of Light. “Four new Heroes of Light emerge.”

Characters

Seth – A young sailor who drifts to the continent of Excillant and is the main character of this story. Meet Gloria, an exiled princess whose kingdom was robbed of its Crystals, and set out on a journey to recover them with her.

Gloria – The princess of Musa, a kingdom that once watched over the harmony of the world – but the loss of the kingdom’s Crystals led Musa to destruction. Having fallen into despair and gone into hiding, she decides to embark on a journey to retrieve the Crystals.

Adelle – A mercenary for hire. She travels with Elvis as his bodyguard in his search for an asterisk.

Elvis – A scholar who travels the world. Embark on a journey in search of a particular asterisk needed to unravel the last spellbook left by his master.

Systems

In addition to a traditional, turn-based battle system that combines jobs and abilities, you can enjoy innovative and strategic battles unique to the Bravely series by taking control of your turns via the Brave and Default system.

Brave and Default – Brave Points (BP) dictate how many actions a character can use in a single turn. Players can have characters ‘Default’ to stock up to three additional BP to use in a turn, or characters can ‘Brave’, to use more than one BP to perform multiple actions. Balancing stockpiling and using BP is a key component in battle strategy.

Jobs and Abilities – Each character can exhibit both a primary and secondary job class, with each job specializing in different abilities. Combining jobs allow you to handle two abilities simultaneously. You can create an all-rounder balanced in offense and defense, or perhaps a character that specializes in magic. Your tactics and how you develop each character are up to you.

Acquire New Jobs – “Asterisk bearers” will often block your path forward. By defeating them, you will obtain an Asterisk that enables you to change jobs.

Watch the PC announcement trailer below.

[demifiendrsa]

BRAVELY DEFAULT II | Steam Trailer

The Steam version of Bravely Default Ii will launch on September 2 for $59.99. Users who pre-order or purchase the game before September 13 will be able to buy it at a 10 percent-off discount price of $53.99.

The PC version includes controller support and various resolution options, as well as support for English and Japanese audio, and English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese text.

Overview

Introduction

Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, nature’s masters. The Crystals’ power exceeds the hand of man, and if unleashed, would bring down death, disaster, calamity and blight upon the land—ancient quatrain of Kingdom Musa.

Guided by fate, it’s up to you to stop the forces that threaten these heroes and all of Excillant.

A new entry in the Bravely series. A new world, a new story, and all-new Heroes of Light. “Four new Heroes of Light emerge.”

Characters

Seth – A young sailor who drifts to the continent of Excillant and is the main character of this story. Meet Gloria, an exiled princess whose kingdom was robbed of its Crystals, and set out on a journey to recover them with her.

Gloria – The princess of Musa, a kingdom that once watched over the harmony of the world – but the loss of the kingdom’s Crystals led Musa to destruction. Having fallen into despair and gone into hiding, she decides to embark on a journey to retrieve the Crystals.

Adelle – A mercenary for hire. She travels with Elvis as his bodyguard in his search for an asterisk.

Elvis – A scholar who travels the world. Embark on a journey in search of a particular asterisk needed to unravel the last spellbook left by his master.

Systems

In addition to a traditional, turn-based battle system that combines jobs and abilities, you can enjoy innovative and strategic battles unique to the Bravely series by taking control of your turns via the Brave and Default system.

Brave and Default – Brave Points (BP) dictate how many actions a character can use in a single turn. Players can have characters ‘Default’ to stock up to three additional BP to use in a turn, or characters can ‘Brave’, to use more than one BP to perform multiple actions. Balancing stockpiling and using BP is a key component in battle strategy.

Jobs and Abilities – Each character can exhibit both a primary and secondary job class, with each job specializing in different abilities. Combining jobs allow you to handle two abilities simultaneously. You can create an all-rounder balanced in offense and defense, or perhaps a character that specializes in magic. Your tactics and how you develop each character are up to you.

Acquire New Jobs – “Asterisk bearers” will often block your path forward. By defeating them, you will obtain an Asterisk that enables you to change jobs.

[brasskier]

First chapter of my six-part fluffy geraskefer modern AU holiday series spanning five years of holiday celebrations is up! 

Christmas 2016, or The One Where Flights are Cancelled. After a string of delayed flights and closed rail lines, Geralt, his new music teacher friend Jaskier, and his on-again/off-again girlfriend Yennefer find themselves trapped on Christmas Eve. Thank god for duty-free stores.

Read it below the cut or on my ao3

When Geralt first met Jaskier, checking an ID he was almost certain had to be fake (it wasn't; Jaskier was twenty-four), he slid off his coat to reveal an incredibly garish reindeer-emblazoned tie. At Geralt's judgemental stare, he shrugged and said, "work party."

"Pre-gaming or post-gaming?" Geralt gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Post." He settled onto the barstool, called for a Blue Moon - "and don't forget the orange slice!" - and let out an exhausted sigh before returning his gaze to Geralt. "It's just - it's my first year teaching, and I'm not really used to the political fraternizing, which is hard enough. But they nearly cut the music program before they ended up hiring me, so not everyone's exactly happy to see me there." He scrubbed a hand against his face, noting silently that he needed to shave. "Sorry, didn't mean to chew your ear off." Geralt shrugged again from the doorway. It was a slow, dull night, the usually thriving college-town bar nearly dead over winter break. 

"Not like I don't get paid for it." This elicited a chuckle out of Jaskier, who seemed to relax some. "You teach music?" 

"Yeah." He smiled fondly. "High school. Had every intention of making it big and touring the world, or maybe becoming principal trombone at the Phil. Just wasn't in the cards." 

"I'm not exactly familiar with classroom politics, but I know someone who might have some pointers." He was referring to, as he'd later reveal to Jaskier, his on-again/off-again, city councilwoman girlfriend. 

"I do like Christmas, you know," Jaskier's voice came again from the bar, between sips at his beer. "Just not the parties." 

"Humbug." Jaskier giggled again, swiping the foam mustache off his lip with the back of his hand. "Geralt, by the way."

"Jaskier." He sat in contemplative silence for a moment. "What time do you get off?" Geralt's brow furrowed, startled by the question. "It's just - I just - sorry if that was a little forward." He heaved a sigh. "My apartment's decorated. Thought you might like to see it." 

"Hmm." He glanced down at his watch, then up at the bar, empty save for Jaskier and a handful of other patrons. "Ten." Jaskier's face lit up. 

Decorated, as it turns out, was an understatement, and Geralt couldn't help but gawk as Jaskier led him through the threshold of his tiny apartment. A beautiful, grand tree stood in the corner of the living room and stretched so tall it nearly scraped the ceiling. Tinsel and garlands adorned the doorways and the arch leading to the kitchen, a buffalo plaid throw was carefully folded on the back of the couch, and a single stocking hung just below the television. Lights snaked around the perimeter of the room, warm white and snowflake-shaped. 

"Do you like it?" Jaskier asked pleadingly, shattering the protracted silence.

"It's cozy," Geralt remarked. It really was. He flopped unceremoniously onto the couch while Jaskier disappeared into his kitchen.

"Jack or moscato?" He called from the archway, holding up a bottle of whiskey in one hand and white wine in the other. "Sorry, I don't have much right now." 

"Jack is fine." He gazed around the room absentmindedly. "On the rocks." Jaskier returned before long, pressing a glass of whiskey into his hand before sipping at his own glass of wine. 

"Wanna watch something? I have Netflix." Geralt, against his better judgement, shrugged and agreed.

Jaskier was back at the bar not even a week later, excitement flashing across his face when he laid eyes on Geralt. To his credit, Geralt was keenly aware that the man had never visited the bar in his life prior to last week, let alone frequented the establishment. He just decided some things were best left unsaid.

Speaking of unsaid, Jaskier was in love - it was obvious from the way he’d follow Geralt around like a lost puppy. Started lingering around the bar every evening, choosing the seat nearest the door every time, inviting Geralt back to his apartment just as frequently. And Geralt would usually accept, watch stupid movies through all hours of the night until his new music teacher friend inevitably passed out, and then silently creep out of the apartment.

It was three days before Christmas, and the chatter of choice for the evening was holiday plans. Jaskier, as it turned out, had a flight to catch back to Jersey. 

"The worst part's taking NJ Transit down to Lettenhove," he groaned, nursing a bay breeze complete with the little paper umbrella. "It's always delayed coming out of Newark." Geralt himself had plans back in the mountains of Vermont, mainly dinner and then watching his younger brothers play football with nothing but shorts on in the freezing cold over a few cigars with his old man. 

"I have a layover in Newark," he remarked idly. Yennefer - who had hit it off interestingly with Jaskier, to say the least - was heading to New York, and he'd arranged his first flight so they'd be on it together. Which meant it was way earlier than he liked.

"What time? Maybe we'll run into each other." Jaskier looked way too excited by that possibility, leaning back on the bar with all the composure of a middle-schooler. Geralt, despite his best efforts, couldn't help but find it endearing.

"8:15," he grumbled, exasperated just thinking about having to be at the airport at 6am. Jaskier's head perked up.

"Delta?" He asked, grin growing impossibly bigger by the minute. Geralt nodded, and Jaskier was already tearing through his phone to pull up the app. "What gate?" 

"Hold on." He fished his own phone from his pocket with a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure his boss wasn't nearby, and pulled up the screenshot of the boarding pass Yen had sent him. "B4?" Jaskier nearly fell off the barstool.

"Geralt," he squeaked, struggling to right himself. "We're on the same flight." Just as soon as he'd regained his composure he lost it again, doubling over with laughter. 

"So's Yennefer," he added, and Jaskier shrugged.

"Well, then I'll be sure to pack my trombone." Geralt couldn't stop the snicker that escaped him at the sight of Jaskier's shit-eating grin.

For as much as he might wax poetic about the prospect, Jaskier absolutely despised a white Christmas. Which, just as well, is exactly what they got. He was shivering in just the time it took to flee his Uber and shuffle into the waiting warmth of the airport. Security went blessedly quickly, as it tended to at six in the morning - precisely why he settled on such an early flight. (Nevermind the fact his parents practically demanded it of him.) 

He was nursing a venti peppermint mocha latte - light and sweet, with an extra shot of espresso - when Geralt appeared at the edge of the terminal, and he patted his instrument fondly when Yennefer waltzed up behind him. 

"Geralt!" He exclaimed, rising from his seat and wrapping his free arm around him. "Yennefer!" She held a hand up as he moved towards her.

"Not so fast. I'm not sure if I like you yet." His face fell briefly, but he laughed anyway. 

"Can take the girl out of New York but not the New York–" he began to joke, but Yennefer cut him off with a roll of her eyes.

"Save it. I'm from Connecticut." That finally, properly, seemed to shut him up, and he nestled back into his seat with his coffee. She softened a little. "Where are you going?" 

"Me? Just south Jersey," he perked up. Geralt looked like he had something to add, but before he could the gate attendant started boarding calls.

The flight was thankfully brief, if a little turbulent. Geralt spent the journey playing peacekeeper in the middle seat, while Yennefer idly read some news articles she'd saved on her phone, and Jaskier slept soundly against the window, curled around his trombone. 

It was midday when they arrived in Newark. Yennefer was teasing Jaskier for managing to pass out despite the massive cup of caffeine and sugar he'd consumed, Jaskier was trying his best to put together a groggy retort, and Geralt decidedly just wanted them to shut up. At least they were all about to part ways, and he could enjoy his next flight in – shit.

"Flights to Vermont are cancelled," Jaskier's words, urgent and harried, snapped him out of his thoughts. 

"Fuck," he growled under his breath, eyeing the departure board. Sure enough, in bright red letters, his flight was delayed until further notice, with a little asterisk telling him to download the app to keep up-to-date with any developments. 

"I'd offer to let you join me," Yennefer began with a deep sigh. "But you know how my parents feel about you." Geralt ran a hand down his face. Just his luck, wasn't it. So much for cigars with his old man.

"You can come with me." Jaskier's voice was so uncertain, so small, he almost didn't hear it. "My parents haven't had a chance to hate you yet." Geralt groaned.

"Sure. Why not?" He forced a smile across his gruff features, and Jaskier met him with a toothy grin in return.

"Beats this shithole." He glanced around, trying to find his bearings in the busy airport. "Let's grab some lunch before we head out, yeah?" Geralt nodded before turning to Yennefer.

"Joining us?" She shrugged.

"As a wise man once said, 'sure. Why not?'" The wait at McDonald's wasn't terrible, so they shifted eagerly into line, and all but devoured their food the moment it was in their hands. 

"Right, so," Jaskier began between mouthfuls of Big Mac. "Northeastern Corridor down to Trenton, and my parents will pick us up there." He peered over his burger at Yennefer.

"Northeastern Corridor to NY Penn," she replied flatly, the straw of her drink stained with deep burgundy lipstick. They tossed their trash and headed off towards the train terminal, and, at the very least, Geralt would only now have to deal with one of them at a time. Except god, it seemed, was laughing at him that Christmas Eve. 

"Are you kidding me!" He'd never seen Jaskier so worked up - though, granted, he'd only known him for a month. "NJ Transit's down!?" He flung his arms about dramatically before squatting right in the middle of the station, head in his hands. Yennefer quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Is he… Okay?" Geralt shrugged, fitted a palm on Jaskier's shoulder. He gazed up at him, wide-eyed and pink-cheeked. 

"Fine, fine." He pressed his hands against his knees and shifted to his feet. "Now what?"

"We're stuck here," Geralt groaned and heaved a breathy chuckle. "Merry Christmas, huh?"

"Wait…" Yennefer held a finger up, face drawn in thought. "Won't they put you up in a hotel?" Geralt hummed, and ran a finger along the massive, glowing map kiosk, searching for the nearest Delta help center.

They did, in fact, put him up in a hotel, and he did, in fact, agree to let Yennefer and Jaskier tag along. Not before stopping at one of the duty-free shops and snagging as much overpriced liquor as his wallet would allow, of course. Jaskier cast an appraising eye at his haul, shook his head, and wordlessly extracted his trombone from its case. Thank god for all those solos he'd memorized in college.

"What the hell are you–" Yennefer began, but cut herself off when the first dollar bills landed at his feet. "Oh." A few more followed, and then some more, and within a few minutes a crowd had gathered, phones out and pointed at him. He ate up the attention, playing to the crowd for another twenty or so minutes before excusing himself and collecting the cash that had collected at his feet. He bought yet more alcohol, and they departed for the hotel.

It was small and held only the bare essentials - queen bed, TV, bathroom, and the world's smallest fridge. He popped open a bottle of whiskey before he even bothered to kick his shoes off, tilting his head back and taking a deep swig before grabbing the bottle of wine still in the bag and holding it at arm's length for whoever wanted it next. 

"Thank god," Yennefer sighed, yanking it from his hand. It was a deep red that matched her lips. Jaskier dumped his bags in the corner and fished out one of his bottles of vodka. 

"Cheers," he called, raising the bottle to the air, and Geralt and Yennefer held theirs up as well, clinking the three together. "To Christmas!" They dissolved into laughter, shoes discarded randomly across the floor, limbs splayed across the bed, and alcohol sploshing precariously. 

When Geralt cracked his eyes open the next morning, early light was slipping through the blinds, a series of texts from Delta informed him his new flight was set to leave in four hours, and, well. Yennefer was naked in his arms, which he supposed wasn't entirely surprising. He shifted up against the headboard, rubbing sleep from his eyes and gently extricating himself from her unconscious grasp, jarred by the rattling of liquor bottles. His feet were about to finally hit the floor when his heart nearly stopped, and he paused urgently. Yennefer wasn't the only one he'd shared the room with…

"G'morning?" Came a breathy yawn, and soft brown hair poked up from the blankets. Fuck. He planted his feet firmly below him and scanned the room for his scattered clothing. "G'ralt?" Brown hair was followed by scrunched eyes, a half-ajar mouth, and a splotch of pink on his cheek where his hand has been pressed against it in his sleep. Geralt cursed under his breath and plucked up his underwear.

"Did we…?" He half-asked, not daring to finish the question. Jaskier - naked, for the love of god, stalked around the bed to Geralt's side and pressed a kiss on his cheek.

"Yes," he said warmly.

"All of us?" Jaskier nodded and hummed, following suit in tracking the remains of the previous day's outfit. "And… did we… did we like it?" Jaskier laughed, soft and breathy.

"We had a great time, Geralt. Relax." He slid his sweater over his head.

"Right." Finally he spotted his pants, and stepped into them unsteadily. "Suppose we should wake her?" Jaskier shrugged.

"Probably." They roused Yennefer, who also seemed to have a better recollection of the night before than Geralt, and was none too surprised. Breakfast was a brief affair in the hotel lobby, all of them downing cup after cup of shitty black coffee and basking in afterglow. Finally, at long last, they bid their goodbyes and parted ways. Geralt could finally get some peace, quiet, and alone time. On the flight to Vermont, he found himself missing the two anyway.

[madscientistutm]

As a challenge, and a little fun, I’ve ranked the best versions of the TMNT characters upon request. This is technically a Top 4 although it can also be a Top 5 if an Honorable Mention qualifies. The rankings depend on how the character was portrayed from a creative standpoint as well as the performance of the voice actors. For each character/topic, there have to be at least six versions of a character available so Karai (1987 series’ Lotus Blossom doesn’t count), Baxter Stockman (���Rise...”’s Stockboy doesn’t count), Krang, and B&R don’t qualify. Now it’s time to lawyer up and present my cases for each character beginning with Part 1:

Donatello: (5*)I like Corey Feldman as an actor and a person, I really do but the best I can do for him is an Honorable Mention. It has less to do with being in the 1993 live action movie which, let’s be honest is one of the worst movies of all time, and more to do with not only does he provide a voice similar to that of a chain smoker (although you could say the same about 2003′s Raph) but he was also basically just a Mikey clone. (4)Then you have Rob Paulsen who fits Don better than he does Raph and started out excellent in the first season with all the responsibility he shoulders, his reserved feelings about his existence as a mutant, and his balance of being a bit charming at times and snapping during his more vulnerable moments. He’d be higher though if “Apriltello” was handled a lot better and he wasn’t featured in such bad episodes down the 2012 series’ stretch: “A Chinatown Ghost Story”, “The Fourfold Trap”, “Revenge of the Triceratons”, “The Power Inside Her”, and “Heart of Evil” most notably. (3)To me, Adam Carl did a better job as the voice of the live action Don in TMNT II as he had a better voice (very close to the 2003 series’) and an interesting existential crisis about the meaning of his existence with regards to the mystery surrounding the ooze plot device. (2) It is a bit surprising Sam’s this high when you consider he doesn’t have much range as 2003′s Don but, like Mike and Greg who share that same issue, he fits the character like a glove. Some say his voice is sexy but I think it’s the perfect voice for a pacifist like him. He doesn’t feature much in the series but he is so well portrayed as a character that I have to give him the second spot. (1) However, I have to give the top spot to 1987′s Barry Gordon. He had good lines as Don, provided a nasally but very genius-like voice, and was involved in some of the series’ best and even most fun episodes. He also flexed his voice range a bit in episodes like “Donatello’s Duplicate” and “Night of the Dark Turtle”. And despite him not being Don in every episode (hence the asterisk), he stuck around to the end and he deserves some (more) credit for that.

Leonardo: (5)It was so close between Eric Bauza and James Arnold Taylor it was as though a pinch of salt separated them from the HM. For each positive, there was a negative. When no way to distinguish them individually came about, the tiebreaker had to come down to who was in a better movie and although “Batman vs. the TMNT” wasn’t as good a Batman movie, it certainly was from a TMNT perspective and was overall a better movie than the 2007 one. Eric has built a reputation for being one of the best VAs of this generation, as well as one of the friendliest even in this day of big egos in the entertainment world. He does have his shortcomings such as the Scarecrow scene which showed us nothing we didn’t already know about him (nor did it answer the question of why Leo takes his brothers into battle so much if he worries about their safety) and, compared to JAT, it really is splitting hairs between them but ultimately Eric gets the nod. (4)I knew Cam was going to make this list even if JAT or Eric didn’t which is why he’s #4. Cam’s take on Leo is a lot lighter than any of these others, but he does get better as the series goes along and that’s why I have no problem giving him this spot. (3)I used to think Brian Tochi was the best Leo even though he was less prominent as the original trilogy rolled along. His voice fit Leo perfectly and he was around for the whole thing but there’s a lot more character to the next two. (2)Some are going to say I’m crazy for not putting the 2012 Leo at #1 due to his development and growth in the series and they have a point. I however thought Jason was miscast as Leo, in large part due to his real world behavioral problems. Then he leaves to commit full time to “Orange is the New Black” and Dominic, as far as I’m concerned did a better job. He should’ve stayed full time and not Seth. He does have some compelling moments such as his relationship with Splinter and Karai, as well as being her knight in shining armor in “Vengeance is Mine”--unfortunately it takes until “Requiem” for him to get it back. He also suffers a lot of physical and emotional torment from Shredder until he gets to (temporarily, unfortunately) defeat him in “Owari.” He ultimately becomes his enemy in the true finale “Carmageddon!”, which was a nice poetic touch, until he snaps out of it and finds paradise both figuratively and literally with his family. (1)Ultimately though, I’m giving it to Mike. He didn’t have a lot of range and we could’ve done without his PTSD storyline (at least for how long it lasted) in Season 4, but he fit the character like a glove. He exemplified everything the character is supposed to be and it also helps that he and Sam also weren’t affected as much by the spinoff seasons!

Michelangelo: (4)The closest to an HM is Greg Cipes but I can’t do that. Despite some great stuff such as him reaching and befriending Leatherhead, he was so over the top starting from the beginning and he mostly relied on his Beast Boy schtick. No, I have to start with the big surprise of “Batman vs. the TMNT” and that is Kyle Mooney’s take on the character. He had a really good delivery and some pretty good comedic lines while still not coming off as too OTT and getting in the way like Noel Fisher did in the recent live action movies (yuck!) (3)It’s hard not putting Wayne Grayson any higher. He had this Bugs Bunny vibe with his imitations, voice range, disguises that were mostly cross dressing, energy, and lines that really weren’t bad at all. However, it was the spinoff seasons, mainly FF, that did him in as he became far too one dimensional. And in a competition this thick, that’s all it can take sometimes. (2)It’s splitting hairs between Townsend Coleman and Robbie Rist for the top spot but I ultimately have to give it to TC here. He does deserve credit though for sticking around to the end and never missing an episode (like Cam). (1)Robbie may not live down being the often despised Cousin Oliver, but hopefully he can take solace knowing that he’s #1 as Mikey in the hearts of many (most likely) including this guy. Like Townsend, he stuck around for the whole series when most of the cast didn’t. He was also quite energetic without getting in the way. Ultimately, live action movies also have to be given a bit more of a nod than animated TV shows, and with the 1990 live action movie perhaps being the best TMNT screen adaptation out there, Robbie gets the benefit of the doubt in this situation.

Raphael: (5)Rob’s 1987 series version of Raph may not be the true version of the character, but he had a lot of very good lines and had such a charm behind his voice that you can’t help but like him. He faced some stiff competition from the likes of Alan Ritchison, Omar Miller, and Sean Astin but there’s a saying of mine which is totally fair: “When in doubt go with the original”. And, with the 1987 series being the first TMNT screen adaptation out there, Rob gets the nod. (4)It’s funny that they brought back Josh Pais in the suit for TMNT II, yet they hired Laurie Faso to voice him anyway. I don’t understand it myself but Laurie did a heck of a job filling in for Josh’s voice. He still had that tough, New York sounding attitude who would act on his emotions just as much as he acted on what he thought was the right thing to do. (3)Nolan North is a heck of a voice actor. He was a good pick to portray Raphael in the 2007 animated film and it’d be a shame if he never portrays the character again. The reason he’s not higher is both the competition and the fact that he (and to an extend JAT’s Leonardo) hogged the spotlight from the rest of the characters. (2)Usually I’d think Greg’s version of Raph in 2003 would be #1, at least I did for a time. Anyone who would, I have no problem with. Some would say that him not getting the spotlight so much in the series would keep him out of that spot. That’s not me though. What keeps him out is his lack of range (even though that wasn’t much of a problem for Mike as Leo) and his more one-dimensional nature in the spinoff seasons (mainly FF). I don’t mean that as a knock though since he’s still clearly the best animated version of the character. (1)Ultimately, Josh is #1 here. He can over act at times which would make you cringe a bit, and while his and Greg’s versions of Raph are about the same character-wise, I thought Josh had more range, depth, and story to work with and that’s why he’s ultimately #1.

Part 2 coming soon...

[haberdashing]

Tomorrow

What happens after Jack Malik’s last concert in the movie Yesterday, explored on a global scale. (Ending spoilers abound.)

on AO3

There was a lot for the world to unpack after Jack Malik’s last concert as a musical superstar.

There was the love story, of course. The tabloids were all over the love story--how could they not be? Minor details like the main parties of said love story refusing to have any contact with the press, let alone being up for an interview about their love life, didn’t get in the way as much as one might assume. For weeks, cheap magazines and sketchy websites were filled with articles that combined surreptitiously-taken photographs with comments from those who knew Jack and/or Ellie in any capacity to paint a picture of what had lead up to Jack’s grand proclamation of love as his final concert ended, and to imagine what might be in store for them in the future.

There was the astonishing amount of music that Jack Malik released for free that night, albums upon albums of material given to the public free of charge. Music reviewers had a field day, analyzing his songs both individually and as an entire musical collection; bloggers wrote thinkpieces about the value of music in the modern day and how the occasional freebie might serve to stem the tide of Internet music piracy; a few bands followed Malik’s lead and released songs or even entire albums for free on the Internet, though none of them could match the sheer quantity of material Malik had given out all at once.

Then there was the lawsuit connected to said release of albums of material for free on the Internet. As it turns out, you can’t just hire a manager, have her get a small army of marketers to figure out how to best promote and release your two upcoming albums, and then throw all the songs that would have been on those two albums onto the Internet for free without consulting anyone else before doing so, unless you’re looking to get sued for breach of contract. The lawsuit’s initial filing, a few weeks after Malik’s final concert and release of materials, garnered a fair bit of public interest, and there was some spirited discussion regarding whether the lawsuit had any chance of succeeding, as well as whether legality and morality were at odds in this particularcase. The later developments in the lawsuit, on the other hand, didn’t catch the public’s attention in quite the same way.

As time went by and Malik still hid from the spotlight and refused to speak to the press, interest in his work and his story slowly faded away, until he was little more than an asterisk in the history books.

In fact, the most lasting part of Malik’s final concert turned out to be the bit that the vast majority of listeners had dismissed without much thought.

Malik’s claims that the songs he had introduced to the world weren’t originally his own were investigated, but most of the media was more focused on other aspects of Malik’s last performance, and initial investigations into the names Malik had given led to nothing but a series of dead ends.

Eventually, one intrepid reporter made the connection between a road trip Malik had made not long before his last concert and the seaside home of one John Lennon, one of the men Malik had named as the true creators of his songs, but interviewing Lennon didn’t give much insight into the meaning of Malik’s reference to him. Lennon had indeed met with Malik shortly before that concert, but Lennon hadn’t written any of Malik’s songs, though he had briefly dabbled in music in his youth, and he had no idea why the singer had sought him out in the first place, or why his name had been one of the four Malik had mentioned on-stage.

A few educated guesses were made by the press as to who the “Paul McCartney” and “George Harrison” Malik had referenced were, but the most likely possibilities seemed to have no greater connection to Malik and his music than Lennon had, and “Ringo Starr” remained a mystery entirely, as nobody by that name could be found. (Possibly it had been a stage name, but no record of its use in that capacity could be found, either.)

But while most of the world shrugged and moved on, a small minority found in Malik’s words confirmation that they weren’t delusional, and they weren’t alone, either.

Thousands of people, as it turned out, had memories of the Beatles existing, remembered the songs and the musicians Malik had mentioned; it was a small amount of people on a global scale, miniscule enough that only a handful could be found in any one geographical area, but the Internet has a way of connecting like-minded people despite geography, and it wasn’t long before forums dedicated to those who remembered the Beatles came about.

As those with memories conflicting with the world around them came together on these forums, a few details became clear:

One: everybody who remembered the Beatles remembered a number of other things that had ceased to exist in this new universe, and their memories of what had once been were identical (or almost identical; there were a few outliers, but it was hard to know if they were true deviations from the norm or just trolls messing with their data). A list of what no longer existed in this world was established, and as forum-goers went through their everyday lives and noticed more things amiss, that list grew slowly but surely as months went by.

Two: everybody who remembered the Beatles, who had this shared set of memories that deviated from that of all other people and from all physical evidence, had in some way been directly affected by the twelve-second worldwide blackout, which also appeared to be the point during which the universe had shifted in some way. It wasn’t long before a forum member learned that Jack Malik, the man who had mobilized the movement, had been involved in an accident during the blackout. Once that news spread, it became clear that the entire forum was filled with people who had undergone problems due to the blackout as well, whether they were simple accidents caused by lack of light like Malik’s or plane crashes due to even twelve seconds without electricity proving to be too long.

Three: while it was easy to characterize the difference in memories by what they remembered and others didn’t, there were also things that had changed rather than entirely disappeared, or things that the whole world seemed to know about except them. For instance, everybody who remembers the Beatles had no knowledge of the Greengills, who were, apparently, an American band that had initially seemed to be a one-hit wonder in the 50s with the saccharine hit “Love and More Than Love” before rising to fame once more in the 60s with a series of chart-toppers that were really just thinly-veiled political missives about pacifism and equality set to one catchy tune after another.

There was some difficulty found in naming this discrepancy in memories. The initial names used were the Beatles Effect or the Malik Effect, after the one who had brought the phenomenon to light, but as Malik’s fame faded away, those who shared his memories of the world before the blackout looked elsewhere. One name that grew in popularity as years went by was the Mandela Effect. See, in this world, Nelson Mandela had died in prison decades ago, but those affected by the Mandela Effect remembered it differently...

[serabiet]

Heyyyy; i'm so interested in strange county and what you've made with the premades, it's so amazing, love the whole ambiance / background. If you were to develop a serie on it, like with episodes and stuffs (i love to see simstories as series) what would the 1st season be about ? like plot line and stuffs ? characters ?! I hope one day you'll develop this story !!

HElloo :D You people are the best thing, being like this in my asks ❤️ Thank you! I’m at a place where in a week or two I should be able to actually sit down and write SC clean enough for other people’s eyes (been waiting for that for what, two or three years now, wow) so there’s that! Here’s hoping.

It’s definitely suffering a little from SO MUCH GOING ON WITH TOO MANY PEOPLE OH MY GOD I FORGET HALF for an easy-to-follow story, so I’ll be chopping it down to more cohesive wholes in separate story arcs tbh. If just to keep my own sanity and trim down the bloat on the side. Structuring the world and story like that, it looks like it’ll be three consecutive big arcs? Each consisting of hopefully less than ten episodes/chapters. Any more at the current pace and we’d be at this 50 years from now.

First season of Strange County: the Series would (and does) mainly center on Komei’s cult of badness: it’s a bit of red herring – but not entirely – while the supernatural bad vibes are building up in the background*. Essentially it allows introducing an initially limited gallery of characters, and have them make less than well-informed decisions that accelerate actual shit to fan hitting.

Premise: Strangetown is a whole town’s worth of liminal space. Locals have been disappearing into the desert for years, often enough that it’s almost normalized. There’s a weird sludgy atmosphere even to the mundane everyday. Allegra and Lilith are outsiders, hired by another, Jane Stacks-Curious, to solve the Beakers’ disappearance and doing so clear her husband Lazlo, and his brothers from any suspicions of involvement. All signs point to the old Muenda farm currently run by Komei and his followers, and boy there sure is something dodgy** going on there. While Allegra focuses on the job and makes friends with the reluctant local deputy Tank “Grumpy” Grunt, Lilith starts on her own dissociation adventure leading towards 13 Dead End Lane. She finally feels at home somewhere and sick to her stomach because of it.

Dunt dunn. The following arcs introduce Olive’s Magic as the Shit Catalyst, and Soil Alien*** bloodlines, and more of the characters so far left in the background. I know the vibe I want for the story but don’t know for sure yet if I’m good enough to make it come across. I’ll try to gather my courage to try though, now that I have a chance to!

* Saying that doesn’t really spoil anything heh.

** DODGY

*** I forget why I asterisked this

[iamjackmorris]

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Scalability: Kamailio is known for managing large numbers of calls and messages without breaking a sweat. Experienced developers can configure Kamailio to scale with your organization, eliminating bottlenecks and downtime.

Security: With cyber threats continually developing, securing your VoIP infrastructure is critical. Developers who specialize in Kamailio can implement tough security procedures like as encryption and complex access controls to protect your communications from unauthorized access.

Customization: Since no two companies are the same, your communication requirements may be different from those of your rivals. Whether you need special handling of traffic rules, interaction with other systems, or customized routing policies, Kamailio experts may modify and configure the server to meet your exact needs.

Cost-Effectiveness: Leveraging Kamailio’s open-source framework reduces the need for expensive licenses and cuts overall costs. Skilled developers can efficiently deploy and maintain the server, ensuring you get maximum performance without the hefty price tag.

Key Advantages of Hiring Kamailio Experts

Enhanced VoIP Performance: A properly configured Kamailio server guarantees the best possible call quality and lowers latency, providing internal and external stakeholders with an outstanding communication experience.

Increased Reliability: Kamailio can be configured by developers for load balancing, which allows your VoIP network to divide traffic among servers equally. This ensures continuous operation even during busy times by preventing any single point of failure.

Smooth Integration: Kamailio is very compatible with various technologies, like Asterisk and FreeSWITCH. Developers can establish seamless connections across various systems, allowing you to develop an all-in-one communication configuration.

Future-Proof Your System: Kamailio's modular environment allows you to simply upgrade and improve your VoIP configuration as new technologies emerge. This agility keeps your network up to date and prepared to meet future communication needs.

Why Partner with Us?

At Hire VoIP Developer, we are committed to providing Kamailio solutions that match your specific requirements. We have a track record of successfully delivering VoIP solutions that improve performance, security, and scalability.

Expert Developers: Our team specializes in Kamailio and brings years of hands-on knowledge to each project.

Tailored Solutions: We recognize that each organization has distinct requirements. Our strategy is always tailored to your specific goals and infrastructure.

Reliable Support: Beyond development, we offer ongoing support to ensure your Kamailio setup remains robust and effective.

Conclusion

Hiring Kamailio developers can be a strategic decision for any company trying to upgrade its VoIP infrastructure. With the proper personnel, your communication network may be more secure, scalable, and customized to meet your specific requirements. Partner with us at Hire VoIP Developer to realize Kamailio's full potential and improve your VoIP skills.