#[two million years later

[traumapyre-moved]

💗

Send in 💗 for me to use a love meter to check the compatibility of our muses:accepting

(WHY DID NONE TELL ME I POSTED THE WRONG PIC)

[affcgato-archived]

Kylo. ( @greyturned, moved from here.)

                  𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩  𝙤𝙛  𝙝𝙞𝙢  𝙞𝙨𝙣’𝙩  𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙙  𝙩𝙤  𝙖𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙚  𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝  𝙝𝙞𝙢  .    or  perhaps  it  was  the  universe  that  didn’t  agree  with  him  .    he’d  spent  so  long  being  second  to  others  ambitions  and  his  own  usefulness  ,    his  power  .    what  he  could  do  for  others  .    even  now  ,    after  answering  the  call  of  the  light  and  his  father’s  plea  to  come  home  ,    he  knew  that  the  only  thing  keeping  him  out  of  a  cage  to  rot  and  be  forgotten  was  what  he  could  offer  ,    the  information  he  possessed  about  the  First  Order  .    once  the  war  was  over  ,    or  his  well  run  dry  or  obsolete  ,    they  wouldn’t  need  him  anymore  .                   𝙞𝙩  𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙  𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙢  𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩  𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩  𝙬𝙖𝙨  𝙖𝙡𝙡  𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩  𝙝𝙚  𝙬𝙖𝙨  𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙙  𝙛𝙤𝙧  .    being  second  to  what  he  could  do  or  offer  ,    the  stories  attached  to  his  bloodline  and  name  .    though  ,    he  was  beginning  to  remember  how  much  he  hated  it  the  longer  he  spent  in  Poe’s  presence  .    or  rather  ,    he  was  coming  to  hate  it  more  .    coming  to  want  what  the  other  proposed  .      ❝    i  heard  what  you  said  .    ❞      he  murmured  ,    watching  the  way  he  spun  the  repair  torch  in  hand  .      ❝    i  don’t  think  that  that  is  what  life  has  in  store  for  me  .    ❞

' everyone deserves that, you just happen to probably need it more than most, ' the pilot points out as he finds the exact spot he needs to focus on to finish this repair & promptly ignores it in favor of dragging this conversation a bit longer. ' no one here's some sort of saint. we've all done shit we've walked away from. ' he distinctly remembers what it was like to be under his hands, & that kind of power coupled with focus towards a direction that benefitted the Resistance would change the tide of the war as a whole. ' you walked away from a lot. I'd say that finding something to walk toward isn't the worst idea in the world. the other's specific skillset are probably what's going to help them win this war. like it or not, they needed his expertise & his intel.

he flips the torch one last time & finally moves to work on the last little bit of work he can really justify spending time on for the moment. ' you don't exactly strike me as the type to sit back & just let something happen anyways. so, forget what life wants to tell you it has in store, let's give it a run for its money and see what happens. '

[stevenrogered]

OLIVER STARK & RYAN GUZMAN | Celebrity Family Feud

[deoidesign]

Doing master studies the only way I know how: Stealing them and making them my guys.

(Barberini Faun)

(The Fallen Angel - Alexandre Cabanel)

(Covent Garden - William Bruce Ellis Rankin)

[coollyinterferes]

The unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching begins to fill the air. Whoever is coming seems to have brought some company along…

They are getting closer… and closer… and closer…

…and closer…

……until..................

"Goooooood evenin'!!" Comes the loud greeting from a certain blond man. A big smile on his face and all.

"We beg your pardon for our prolonged absence. It was completely beyond our control..." Then adds the gentleman standing by his side, apologizing on behalf of both, offering a genuine smile along with the apology.

"...BUT! We're back!" And hopefully for good this time…

[cozylittleartblog]

"woah i can't believe you've read blue sky!"

hoho. my dear followers. i have done more than read it. do you have any idea what you are dealing with.

[bitofthisandthat]

@runningracingdancingchasing [ From Here! ]

He was genuinely taken aback by her excitement over the gift. He knew she was a bookworm (like he was) but he still somehow didn't believe she would be this thrilled.

"Really?" His voice went up an octave in surprise--but he disguised the tone with a small cough, voice lowering again. "I mean, really? Hm. Well, we should go over it. I'd like to hear your opinion on some of the notes." He straightened his tunic and stood straight, giving her a semi-formal bow, as a slight jest. "We can raid the kitchen and handle our own refreshments, if you want?"

[batsplat]

i really want to hear your opinion on this. I feel like some people underestimate pecco a lot. most of the people I’ve seen on here are talking like it’s certain that marc will do better than pecco next year, but I’ll be surprised if it’ll be actually like this. pecco has way more experience on the ducati and nobody understands the ducati like pecco does. see race weekends like assen or mugello, he’s literally unstoppable and I feel like he’s even holding back. plus pecco is 26yo and he’s in his prime and probably will be for at least two more years before the decline inevitably begins, and he’s injury free! but the real advantage he has over marc, in my opinion, is that he literally lives under pressure and he already knows that marc will try to hit him on the track and above all mentally. he knows what he is getting into. when he talks about wanting to maintain harmony in ducati it’s because he’s already aware that marc will ruin it. like yeah ppl r saying a lot that marc is going to destroy pecco and all that, but right now the facts state that pecco is a 2 times wdc back to back (probably 3 by the end of this year) and right now on the ducati he’s the best rider of the grid. marc won his last wdc in 2019, it’s been years since he won, and he got his arm fucked up in the process. so yeah marc will try everything to destroy pecco but he needs to be careful to not destroy himself in the process. (this is not marc hate, I’m just tired of seeing people understanding pecco)

first of all, I'm broadly with you on a lot of this, anon, though I wouldn't quite as far as to say I'm predicting pecco to beat marc. second of all, I do think I have a bit of a problem where I have my rational sports brain - but I also have the other less rational bits of my brain. and some of those irrational bits are currently stuck in this mode where I have two different fundamentally contradictory mindsets that are kinda... mental blocks in terms of me predicting what will actually happen next year

mental block #1 is 'you've been following sports all your life and you know how this goes'. like, I've kinda been conditioned to think if you aren't a wunderkind, one of the talents of the century, already a megastar when you were in your nappies bla bla, you're basically fucked? certainly fucked when you are going up against one of those prodigies. you may get close and trick everyone into thinking it's actually possible, but... idk. this is a mindset that broadly stood me in good stead when I started watching motogp, like you just don't bet against fuck you talent. something like 2017, I never really thought marc was going to lose that title. so when I look at marc and pecco, however much I rate pecco there's a bit of my brain that automatically goes 'yeah but marc will win anyway'. it's that kind of... sometimes things that look slim differences in sports, margins that should be small aren't actually small at all, and in a way the end outcome feels like it was always kinda inevitable. I get that same sense when I'm watching 2005 last lap duels between sete and valentino - these are situations where you both parties should have a decent shot, but somehow you know that if you ran the simulation one hundred times, it'd basically always go one way. it's the illusion of competitiveness. one guy's always got something a little bit extra in the back pocket

mental block #2 is that it's actually been really fucking long since I've seen marc win and there's been a lot of false dawns on this front. I thought he'd win the title in 2020. I kinda thought he'd win the title in 2021. I was at least open to the possibility he'd win it in 2022. okay, in 2023... but you could still go 'yeah but he's finally physically fit now' (or, well, you could until the first race weekend was done). and honestly? gut feeling, I was feeling pretty bullish about 2024, partly because I didn't think the gap between the bike specs would be this noticeable. so by now it's a bit? you know, I kinda need to see him win again to believe it? which he probably does too, just a touch, and that makes it a completely different proposition from all those other titles... within this sport in particular, it's really not that easy to recover from years in the wilderness. you never really know if he can get close to handling the field like he did in his prime until he does it again. and... however impressive I've found him this season, which I really, absolutely have, I still haven't seen that from him. I also feel like currently... the magic is still there but his pace is so fragile, and that used to be the really scary thing about him - the relentlessness of his pace. this year, it's one lap pace, it's weekend to weekend, it's how sometimes he's slower in races than you thought he'd be - and yes, there are all these other explanations, but... well, again, if the bike is holding him back, if it's the ducati adaptation period, then that's all well and good. but I'm not really going to feel that's true until I actually see the next step

now obviously both of those things can't be true - and the fun thing about next year is that I don't actually feel it's a done deal. because, yes, people do underestimate pecco. and also because, yes, there's still some real question marks about the version of marc we're getting. just look at this sachsenring situation... obviously 'someone could get injured' is quite a depressing way to look at future title fight permutations, but you can't really treat it as a certainty that it won't happen, no? I feel like one element of last year that doesn't quite get the attention it deserves is that pecco was winning that title a whole lot more comfortably before a bike ran over his leg. the race right after that was misano, where pecco had won the two previous years and there's zero reason to believe he couldn't have done so again rather than take two laboured p3's. that's not a title fight anyone's primarily remembering as an injury arc (cf too the le mans crash) - but it clearly did play a big role and could easily have been decisive, without actually taking out one of those two contenders of competition. marc used to win his titles with a whole lot of throwing himself down the road to find the limit of his bike, but he can't afford to do that any more (if he ever could). we still need to see what version of marc we're getting, if we're getting a version who can just be fast anywhere come sunday - or a very good version of marc who isn't quite that. who knows exactly how much worse the gp23 is than the gp24! who knows how much more there still is to come in terms of ducati potential from marc! we have rough indications, but it's far from definitive. maybe one of them doesn't click at all with next year's bike! we'll only know when we see it play out!

and yet I still expect deep down that marc wins that. it's just kinda supreme belief in his fuck you levels of talent, the belief that he'll figure it out somehow because I've seen him do it so many times. and of course, the other big problem is we don't know what version of pecco we're getting! I have talked before about how historically unusual pecco is as a champion in many ways, which for me always makes it quite tricky to figure out what he'll do in basically any situation. like, where is his ceiling? is he still going to get better? is he going to get his act together? my problem is that I feel like I enter every single season going 'yeah I reckon this year pecco will get his act together, ugh he's going to dominate the field' and then it's just a bit? is this just who you are as a rider, or is this something you can still change?

the thing is, with my fullest respect to pecco's titles, however much I enjoyed those train wrecks, obviously you cannot do this against a version of marc marquez that is remotely up to scratch. like, you just cannot. pecco cannot do a 2022 and expect to win the title. against an even slightly serious version of marc marquez. on the same bike. pecco can't really do a 2023 either. I'll give him a pass for some of those late season results, but if you're chucking it down the road that often early on then, yeah, no

that being said... low key if you ignore all the little numbers, this year is actually a serious title fight...?

like I am always aware that acknowledging this could make them both dnf five times in a row but...? there's one sunday race one of them haven't won, and cota is its own thing. everything else...? whisper it softly but this is a good title fight? 2022-23 were sort of accidentally good because everyone's errors and runs of good forms and performance trajectories just kinda coalesced so you got late season drama, but this? consistent high level of performance from both blokes, decent wheel-to-wheel action between both title rivals at several different races (definitely more than in 2015 and everyone remembers that as a classic, also on course to be more than in 2013 and most years 2007-12). idk, at what point do we just have to acknowledge these guys are pretty good at what they do? sure they're on the strongest bike, as are the vast majorities of blokes who win titles historically. but bastianini's reasonably highly rated and he's not even gotten particularly close to winning a sunday race this year on the exact same bike - one p2 on merit snagged on the last lap and another one less on merit when vinales was highsided to the moon for mechanical reasons right ahead of him. yes, the title contenders have had some howlers... pecco's portimao and catalunya sprints were... well, y'know, and martin's jerez race and mugello sprint were also... y'know. but apart from that?

idk man... we can cry over photos of casey on his gp7 all we like, but at the end of the day these twits have come out with some class performances these last two years. and at a certain point you've just gotta hand it to them. they've become more experienced at how to manage a title fight, which is how you get a version of martin this year who is still fast but is less likely to phillip island it. some of those performances late last season were great! for every martin qatar and pecco india, you also get a martin thailand and a pecco indonesia. maybe they'll stop chucking it down the road so often, or maybe they'll keep chucking it but so will marc, because these days they have ridiculously many opportunities to do so! I also think it's worth pointing out that minus some questionable early season form from pecco, those two are basically always on the pace! they're always there or thereabouts! that's how marc used to kill his title rivals, not necessarily by winning a bunch of races but by making sure he was always picking up points - because he didn't have any truly slow weekends. these guys don't either at the minute! we are seeing them actually get better in front of our eyes, it's great

the other stuff... oof, I don't know what pecco's prime will end up being - remember, actually he's low key already edging out of title-winning age. he's now 27. this century, only two riders have won titles when they were older than 26 - valentino twice and jorge once. obviously, that's partly happenstance, and you don't suddenly get struck down by 'being washed' lightning when you turn 27... plus on the flip side, I also think the fact that pecco has only reached his prime relatively recently means he could have quite a few more years to go. who knows! who knows if marc being increasingly more breakable becomes a big factor! recovering from injuries gets tougher the older you get and the more knocks you've taken! on the other point, the ducati is a bike pecco knows very very well and has a lot of time riding... but broadly speaking I do trust marc with a year's worth of experience get as much out of that bike as he ever will. just the fuck you talent again. we don't know what that performance level looks like, but I don't think it'll be a question of familiarity any more at that stage

so where does that all leave us? do I really want to be making motogp predictions this far in advance? yeah, sure. if I had to put money on it, I'd still back marc, I think? but I really do hope we get a proper fight, and I really do think we might! I'm far from convinced in writing off pecco. basically *grabs the crystal ball, aka checks the races we've literally just watched* let's say pecco absolutely dogwalks the field at a few circuits. like maybe a mugello, an assen, a cute qatar, even a catalunya now he's faced down his demons (though maybe jorge on that aprilia goes bye bye at montmelo). then give marc his races where he laps the field twice in cota and sachsenring. and we're going to get a few classic duels, for the fans. if those duels happen at the mugello's and catalunya's of this world, pecco's might be in deep shit. if they happen at the misano's and aragon's and maybe even jerez's, we can get something going. they both have at least one silly early season crash (also kinda tradition for marc outside of his peak peak seasons lbr) and everyone gets to call pecco a bottler and crank out the good ol' crashquez. and then hopefully we can massage those numbers enough that pecco isn't crashing three times to marc's one and we actually get a proper title fight. and hopefully they don't get injured too badly. I've said this before, but I could easily see a title fight where pecco wins most of the big duels but his inconsistencies let him down. if his bad days are p3's, however, or if marc himself is a bit flaky at times, then we're suddenly having a very different conversation (also don't feel that comfortable in writing off aprilia/ktm and their respective star riders, especially in year two of the factory ducati partnership)

one thing about pecco (that you do also bring up anon)... if there's one trait in his competitive makeup that most reminds me of marc, it's his resilience. he's very good at bouncing back, he's very good at dealing with adversity, a lot of the times he's at his best when he's under ridiculous amounts of pressure... if anything, he's worse when he has reason to feel confident. it comes through both in what a class defensive rider he is and how good he is at dealing with title fight pressure. if there is ever a time where he mentally gets his act together at the very start of the season, surely it's going to be when he has the famous marc marquez in his garage. if that doesn't do it, literally nothing ever will. and listen, knowing marc will try to mess with you isn't quite the same as being able to stop him from messing with you. wanting to maintain harmony doesn't mean your chances of maintaining harmony are necessarily great. but... you know, pecco got his first ever win by defending against marc lap after lap, facing essentially the most stressful situation imaginable with the 93 on his tail. marc made him a better rider that day. marc might make him a better rider next year too... you never know

[swan2swan]

Watching the Beast Wars finale right now and remembering a question I had while watching the first four eps of G1 in the theater yesterday:

How did four million years pass on Cybertron without anything happening?

Did Beast Wars explain it by pointing out that the Ark and Nemesis both went through time, as well? Meaning that they crashed not just on Earth, but in the past, and fell asleep, then woke up, and as far as Cybertron was concerned, it was just a few years or so?

Were Elita-1 and company leading resistance for four million years and just never able to get an edge?

Was the situation on Cybertron so apocalyptic that they were stuck that way for millennia, with no progress, and just survived because they're robots?

Was there a Great Shutdown that happened?

[pepprs]

acnl is a superior game to acnh in almost every way except the graphics. it’s actually making me mad

[ayyponine]

not to be a milennial but harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban really is that bitch....

[elysiumxii]

[ arms ] Honey x Kiho

[ arms ] sender hooks their arm with receiver’s as they walk

Feeling Kiho slip an arm below his, soon the limbs entwining as the taller man guides him gently to his side, Honey turns his head to glance over at the beaming man by his side as he flashes one of those bright, carefree smiles of his. Honey is sure that Kiho has problems, doesn't everyone, he just never let any of them show, not when he was with a client, anyway. It was always his dazzling smiles that has Honey's eyes linger on him for a moment longer, his silence extended, as he just takes it all in, so struck by the sight of him every time they meet. Someone so handsome, so cool and so multifaceted. It was impossible not to stare.

"Are you hungry?" He asks for something to say, because they were heading to dinner, so it was a bit of a redundant question anyway. The only time Honey wasn't awkward, was when the clothes were off and his primal needs took over - and given how much he liked his time with Kiho, he always found himself more than a little awkward in his company. At the beginning, anyway. Another of Kiho's skills, after all, was always getting him to relax... or getting him naked... either seemed to work.

[reddevil-xiv]

5

Characters: Talia Redwing & an unnamed caller. Song: The Neighbourhood - W.D.Y.W.F.M

Talia had been in the middle of reading a book, something mundane. This was what her life had become, after all. Mundanity and normalcy. Idristan had won his championship, she’d set all of the work in Seraphim’s to automation and put it in the hands of her workshop crew. 

She wanted more time to devote to personal pursuits; her spouses, her kids, her trade work. And so she hadn’t expected a linkpearl that she hadn’t used in nearly a year to suddenly chime on its chain where it hung near the door.

With reluctance, she put the book down and stood, crossing the floor on quick strides. It was in her ear a moment later.

“Speak.” Her tone was quick and clipped.

“Devil.” Came the acknowledgement from the other side. “Have a job for you.”

Talia stared at the wall. That was a familiar voice. She’d taken several jobs from this figure over the years. Killed a number of people at his behest, taken his money every time and walked away without guilt. Her morality stamped on her common sense as she answered.

“Said I’m out.” Another clipped reply, hoping that would give the caller a hint. She wasn’t interested in her same line of work anymore. Her head told her it wasn’t a good idea. She was more than just a sniper, more than the executioner of someone else’s jury. She was Twilight, not the Devil. Not anymore. Or she wasn’t supposed to be.

“You answered.” He said simply. Shit. He was right. If she was really that out, she should have trashed this line. But sometimes the work had been cathartic in a way that nothing else had. She was trained to this. It was a purpose. It was a goal. It was simple. Put someone in her sights, squeeze the trigger, take a life. 

“.... I’m listening.” She shouldn’t, she thought as her hands clenched down at her sides. She should hang up. Stomp the pearl under heel. There was a silence and the shuffle of papers before the voice on the other end started again.

“The target is Ul’dahn. Male, salt and pepper hair, hyur, mid-brown skin, early fifties, wealthy. Runs a trade route that goes through Thanalan, imports high value goods from Ala Mhigo for sale.” It was a code. High value goods were usually things like prisoners of war, but more frequently were people who simply ‘went missing’ and never turned back up again. A slaver.

“He’ll be in Limsa Lominsa on business in the next three days and..” A crackle in the line as she queue’d up her pearl again.

“Blades? Flames?” Why couldn’t the local groups handle this kind of thing? It was a question in two words. There was a tsk from the other end of the line. 

“Blades are paid and in pocket. Flames need more evidence.”

Of course they did. She exhaled. 

“Understood. Continue.” She hated how easy this shortened cadence came to her. How cold her voice sounded to her own ears. Hated even more that she knew she was going to take this job. Fuck.

“He’ll be in Limsa Lominsa on business in the next three days,” the voice continued as if they'd never been interrupted, “and they want him made a message of. One shot, laid out in public. Can you do it?” 

She could do it. With the skills she had under her belt now, she could do it so much more easily. So much better than she could in her youth. Youth, as if a few years ago constituted that. But it had been a lifetime since then, hadn’t it? 

“I can.” She could, and she was going to. She’d told Idristan she’d stopped taking on these kinds of jobs. But this was a slaver. They were selling people off against their free will. That made it okay, didn’t it? Made it allowable? She was okay for this, right? 

“Send me the full details by the usual line.” A tomephone she had buried and now needed to unbury. “I’ll get it done.” She cursed herself the whole while, a silent running dialogue in her head. 

“Look forward to talking to you again, Devil.” The linkpearl cut off and she jerked it out of her ear. 

“Fuck.” A soft utterance under her breath as she stared down at the pearl in her hand.

[cannibalmutual]

i love fresh cut grass

[iamthepulta]

I just finished reading the TB post in full, and its not WRONG but also sends the wrong message that TB wasn't cut down in the 50s by penicillin. Hart did quite a bit, but there is no real "cure" for TB except actually killing the TB bacterium.

You can send the TB bacterium into stasis through rest and strengthening the immune system, but that's not an actual cure because the bacterium can reawaken at any time when the immune system is no longer able to keep it in check.

I'm also violently against "it's just because rich countries won't help". NO. England!! has a TB problem!!!! Identifying TB is tricky because the symptoms are like a cold until you reach late-stage and it's become chronic. Would you go to the doctor if you had a mild cough? Would the doctor guess you had Bronchitis or TUBERCULOSIS. TB generally only 'shows' itself with compounding lung conditions too. Like the flu. Or HIV. Or COVID. And only 10% of infected people show TB symptoms.

It's even more difficult to treat TB now because people MOVE and the cocktail of antibiotics that MAY NOT WORK take two years to complete. If they work; otherwise it's longer.

TB has been around since humans evolved. It's evolved with us and it's SO much more than 'people don't want to put the money into it'. Money would help, but TB is a nasty little bitch with a whole host of complicated reasons why we can't just stab it to death like smallpox.

[potatoesandsunshine]

so maybe they got me. maybe they did.