#I got a mid-year promotion and increase

[thefollows]

After our yearly earnings call, they announced a 15% reduction in force in our home office with severance packages , no pay raises, earned bonuses paid out, with notices served the next two days.

Won’t be doing much work tomorrow or the next day.

[ciaossu-imagines]

miura haru fashion designer au? ☆

Of course! I love this idea, it's a really fun one, and I hope you'll enjoy the headcanons I came up with! Thanks, as always, for sending this in!

Okay, but I really do love this question because, with the skills and interests she's presented with in canon, Haru being really into fashion and even becoming a designer herself makes a lot of sense.

I do see, even in canon, Haru being really into different types of fashion herself. I think, instead of Tsuna and the mafia really being a thing at all, Haru grew up and she got really into cosplay. She got really internet famous for it in her teen years, especially as she hand-made every cosplay piece she wore, except for the wigs. I'll admit, in the beginning, her pieces weren't always the best but her skills increased drastically throughout practice and time.

Because of the level of internet fame she did achieve, she started to make connections in the fashion field and she was able to monetize her skills to some extent. With both of those things combined, she was able to travel and I think her actual career in fashion started not as an actual designer but in her finding a position in the wardrobe and costuming department for a small studio.

I think her skills in that department not only caught the attention of studio higher ups but those in the field. She got promoted rather quickly and moved to more known studios. She works really hard and is insanely picky. If she can't find something already made that she feels fits a character, she makes it herself.

She really hit the big time on a couple of shows she worked on, one a historical drama where her hand-sewn and elaborate traditional garb had so many online posts about it and was featured in a couple magazines, but also her work on a teen drama, where her quirky outfits for one of the supporting characters had people online clamoring to know where they could buy the clothes the character was wearing. That ended up with her work being featured in a number of blogs and trending on social media.

Haru got approached by several celebrities with the request to become their personal stylist and she did do that for a couple of years, where her outfits got even more public attention.

Along the way, her quirky sense of style and avant-garde fashion caught the eye of many in the field and she also noticed just how many 'normal' people mentioned wishing they could have those sort of clothes in their closets.

It's because of the success she's had and all the hard work she's put in over the years that I do see her, mid-thirties, opening her own design house. She really is a hit during Fashion Week and again, has many celebrity fans who wear her work on the red carpet or at events. She's always one of the designers worn during the Met Gala and I think that's the area she really allows herself to go high-fashion and quirky and over the top.

However, I do see her running a design line, less pricey and more mainstream, though still colourful and fun and quirky. It's carried in a couple of chain department stores, sells really well, and is what's accessible to people off the street and while still a little expensive, she has a lot of hardcore fans because her clothes are well-made, wash and wear well, and have a very unique style.

She also pairs with a couple companies, including Irregular Choice because I feel that's a brand she loves personally, to do her own limited run of shoes and jewelry, maybe even making a few perfumes with a perfumery line.

I could even see her dabbling in creating make-up with a company, high shine glosses, quirky colour palettes, etc. The packaging itself would also be really colourful, almost Lisa Frank-esque, but all the products themselves are cruelty free, safe for all skin types, and she really does insist that they be the best quality they can be while still remaining affordable for most people, even if they are a little bit of a luxury splurge.

I think she would, if given the opportunity, also love to expand her design skills into home decor, things that are very much maximilistic in style.

[vro0m]

vro0m’s rewatch - 130/310

2014 Australian GP

OKAY! Finally! Here we go!

First off, let’s set some context, and brace yourselves because there’s a LOT to go through (I’m not gonna mention everything but even then, it’s a lot).

Engine supplier changes :

Cosworth decided to not produce a 2014 regs engine so Marussia, the only team they supplied, now has a Ferrari engine 

On the other hand, Toro Rosso got a Renault engine, ending a 7-year deal with Ferrari 

On the other other hand, Williams went from a Renault engine to a Mercedes engine 

On the drivers' side of things, a recap :

Massa left Ferrari for Williams, with Bottas as a team-mate.

Maldonado thus left Williams for Lotus. 

That's because Raikkonen left Lotus for Ferrari (that Alonso-Raikkonen pairing is gonna be interesting…) 

Webber having retired, Daniel joined RedBull. 

Kvyat got Daniel's seat at Toro Rosso

Perez left McLaren after only one season? Didn't see that coming tbh. He joined Force India instead?! I mean. I know McLaren isn't doing great but erm… lol. 

He was replaced by Magnussen at McLaren. 

Hulkenberg also went back to Force India. 

This means Di Resta and Sutil lost their seat at Force India. 

Sutil got Hulkenberg's seat at Sauber. 

Di Resta left F1. 

Kobayashi joined Caterham back, alongside Ericsson. 

That means van der Garde and Pic both lost their seats. They both became reserve drivers for other teams. 

Susie Wolff became Williams test and reserve driver. It made her the first woman to drive in a GP weekend, through participation in FP sessions.

On the technical side of things, some very important changes : new engines.

The turbocharge is back for the first time since '88. I'm not gonna describe the technical specs in detail because I have no idea what it means anyway. But! Because we often hear about them, let me say they're now called power units (PUs) and they're made of 6 components :

The Internal Combustion Engine ICE

The TurboCharger TC

The Motor Generator Unit-Kinetic MGU-K (which reuses the energy created by braking) 

The Motor Generator Unit-Heat MGU-H (which reuses the energy created by the heat of the exhaust)

The Energy Store ES (which are basically batteries fed by the MGUs) 

The Control Electronics (which manages the entire PU) 

There's a complicated system that replaced the engine development freeze which allocated the teams a point budget they could use to develop the different components, each component costing a different number of points based on a tier classification. 

Other technical things :

The KERS was renamed the ERS-K (great change, we could pronounce it and now we can't). I don't quite understand the difference between that and the MGUs tbh but Wikipedia says "its usage increased" and it became way more efficient it seems. Ah so yeah. The ERS is actually the part that captures the waste heat to feed it into the MGU. 

Because the ERS-K additional power made regulating the braking much more difficult, the teams were allowed to use electronic braking devices to manage the rear wheels better. 

The teams couldn't change the gear ratios from race to race anymore, having to choose eight gear ratios for the whole season before the first GP, with only one opportunity to change them during the season. Mmmokay… 

There was a fuel flow limit set to promote fuel efficiency and limit horsepower levels. 

The minimum weight was increased from 624kg to 691kg because of the weight of the new engines and tyres

"The use of false camera mountings was banned"?! So apparently there was a loophole in the regs that allowed the teams to put aerodynamic pieces of bodywork in the place of camera mountings. 

Sporting regs changes :

Mid-season testing is back : 3 European circuits held a 2-day test after their respective GPs + the teams had to give one day of testing to help Pirelli develop their tyres. The rules were later changed to allow the teams to choose where they tested. The cars were also classified as either current, previous, and historic, with rules regarding what cars could be used under what testing conditions. The young driver test was cancelled.

The penalty system was changed : enters the penalty points thing, they're all added over a season and the drivers who get over 12 points get a race ban and would still have 5 points when they came back to discourage them from getting further penalties. (damn that's severe lol) as you probably know the penalty points stay on a driver's licence for 12 months. 

They also introduced the five-second penalty for offences that didn't warrant such a severe penalty as a drive through or stop and go, or when such a severe penalty would "radically alter the outcome of the race if applied retroactively, with penalised drivers facing the loss of championship points for otherwise minor violations". Mmmhkay? I mean I agree that they needed a lower penalty but imo either the drivers deserve a penalty and they face the consequence including possible loss of points or they don't, you know? That's a shady reason for a rule change imo. Also they can serve such a penalty before a regular pitstop, or the 5 seconds can be added at the end of the race if there's no further pitstop happening. 

The rules for unsafe releases were changed (there were a lot of them in 2013) : the driver released would get a grid penalty for the next race. Radical.

They now can only use 5 engines throughout the season. The penalty for a 6th one is starting from the pit lane. Going over the quota for one component instead is a 10-place grid penalty, with an additional 5-place grid penalty if they go over the 5-unit allocation for each element, as a way to discourage teams from changing multiple elements after receiving a grid penalty. AND (and that's actually hilarious imo) if the penalty relegated the driver further than the back of the grid, the remaining penalty was carried to the next race! That is sooo funny. And ridiculous. Penalties couldn't not be carried from season to season so the stewards were allowed to issue time penalties for that during the last race. 

There were minor changes to yellow flags penalties with the circuits being divided in intervals of 200m and the drivers having to show that they slowed down in the interval immediately before and after the yellow flag. Then after Jules' accident, they introduce the Virtual Safety Car, which first was supposed to limit the cars' speed to 100km/h but then rather used the delta system and thus relying on sector times rather than speed. 

After the 2013 debacle, the FIA adopted a resolution allowing them to change the tyres specs immediately if needed 

It's also the introduction of actual driver numbers rather than car numbers! I've been very confused during this rewatch by Lewis' numbers but they were actually tied to the teams and cars and WCC rather than the drivers themselves, up until that point. 

The rules don't allow the drivers to stop on the track after the end of the race anymore to save fuel. They have to be able to return to the pits on their own. 

The final race of the season gave twice the points to teams and drivers to try to keep the championship fight going for longer (wtf honestly) 

And, starting from Singapore, the FIA restricted the communications between pit wall and cars, stating that under rule 20.1 the driver is supposed to drive the car unaided and thus the teams shouldn't give them info about their performance like sector times relative to other drivers' (ridiculous, like are we really gonna pretend they race unaided? in 2013 the engineers were telling their drivers where to use KERS to overtake lol) 

Alright last important thing about this season : as you may know and as I've touched on in the rules changes already, 2014 is the year of Jules Bianchi's ultimately fatal accident. At the time I'm writing this I haven't yet decided if I am going to watch that GP or not but in any case, I will warn you beforehand. It happened during the Japanese GP. If I do write a review for it I will post a TW.

Alright, now that we have the 2014 overview, let’s go!

Apparently Lewis is absolutely fucking ecstatic about the new cars. Their power is unparalleled. I'm not surprised he's enjoying it. They're difficult to handle though. He gave an interview after the yearly photo and he clearly did not feel like it so his answers are basically just one word. The track condition seems to have been an issue during quali but I guess we'll know more after the report. The engine is all new for them so they're just learning as much as they can. Also there's sirens going in the background so I don't hear shit. The journalist says the fuel economy thing will be an issue for everybody going into the race, does he have to change his driving style?

"No."

"No?" He shakes his head. "Just keep pushing?"

"Flat out." That's all lol. 

Quali report. It was overcast, so everybody went out immediately in Q1. (Aaaahhh the cars are looking pretty again.) Daniel went quickest. But then it started raining. Daniel and the Mercedes were stealing the pole from each other but Seb was having issues with his car. Then Raikkonen spun and crashed, interrupting the session… and Seb couldn't make it into Q3! Jenson also couldn't make it in the top 10. That's 3 world champion's eliminated in Q2. Rookie Magnussen did better than him and starts 4th on the grid. In Q3, Rosberg crossed the line first, but Ricciardo went 0.05 quicker and then Lewis 0.3 quicker than him, for pole!

Oh… Jenson unexpectedly lost his father during the break. He was almost always there. It's very emotional for him to be back racing without him. It makes me sad.

In pre-season testing, it was immediately clear that the Mercedes was doing good. Good good. The skysports journalists are already saying there's potential for Lewis' second title, all the while saying the development curve is gonna be steep. 

They also send a message out to Michael. Damn. That's right. His accident happened in December 2013. Wow. I hadn't realised he had so little time to enjoy his second retirement before it happened. It's so tragic. The Mercedes cars are sporting a #keepfightingMichael on the side pod. At that time he's still in a medically induced coma. 

You know actually… there's a parallel there between RedBull's situation with the new regs and Mercedes' situation in 2022, it seems. RBR have fucked up their PU. They know it. It's gonna be bad. 

Ted explains the new engines in detail. Here are some stuff I hadn't picked up on when I read the Wikipedia article. They're all worried about how many cars will still be going at the end of the race because they only have 100 kg of fuel at their disposal, that's 135L, which is 30% less than in 2013.

Toto says he's not nervous but the next 90 minutes sure will be a challenge. He reiterates that he will indeed let Lewis and Nico race each other for the whole race. They've discussed it and they agreed on it. Ted says they know that they're unlikely to be threatened from behind as they seem to have an advantage but they still seem to have reliability issues and surely they have to make sure both cars see the chequered flag. Toto says of course, and sure the reliability is the main issue but you don't make a car more reliable by going slower anyway. Ted says "but by racing each other they might break the cars." Toto answers "yes but there is a no-no against breaking the car" bro that’s not how it works lol. 

Oh thank god Lewis' hair looks better. Also he has a white helmet now so I won't confuse him for Rosberg all the time I think? We get his pole lap analysis.

He seems very happy and confident, it's good to see. He says the cars are really tough to drive.

Braking is very different. Less downforce at full throttle.

I don't understand shit about cars still so I don't get the explanations but he says it's difficult. But he thinks they look cool! Then he shows his driving in wet conditions. He had to brake very early.

But he explains it with a giddy smile, just like that time they had a wet Monaco GP and he was talking about how dangerous it would be. It just makes him so excited. He shows every understeer and oversteer moments, all the times he almost lost it. He smiles all the while. He lists the challenges, going around (in FP1 the car broke down before he could finish his first lap), fuel saving, where to lift and where to brake, this in the dry and this in the wet.

His eyes are wide and you can tell he's enjoying it. He always gets so excited when it's challenging. It makes it so much more interesting to him.

Huh? Nico is eating potatoes on the grid? Like. Boiled. Full boiled potatoes with the skin and everything? Weird ass German boy. 

Formation lap

Chilton can't leave the grid. Seb says he still has power problems. This is going to be absolutely chaotic, I can't wait.

And they're racing for the first time of the season! 

Nope they're not racing lol there's another problem. The light blinks yellow and green. They have to do another formation lap… 

It's the other Marussia! Bianchi is joining Chilton in the garage. Wait there's actually also a Lotus in the pitlane? Who? Why? Ah it's Grosjean. But I don't know why. I'll look it up later. (Spoiler : I did not look it up later.) 

Seb asks "okay is it normal that I have no power?" and apparently the answer is yes? 

Anyway, this time, they're racing! 

Oh it's a bad start for Lewis, Rosberg immediately jumps ahead of him. Magnussen tries to get across the track but struggles with grip and damn near collides with Alonso. In the first corner, Seb is also ahead of Lewis. And two cars miss the corner! OH MY GOD WAIT FUCKING HELL

wait like

This is so chaotic I can't keep up. Let me go back and rewatch it. It looks like none of these cars were ready to be set free on a track, istg. It's not pretty to watch but so so funny. They are all over the track, they're all sliding around with very little grip, Seb still has no power… there's contact and debris EVERYWHERE what the hell someone is facing the wrong way, Lewis is now defending against whoever is behind him, I do not know because we don't have graphics… it's Magnussen. And he's ahead?! Lewis, come on. And behind him Hulkenberg overtakes Alonso. 

Seb is yelling on the radio. It's still not working. "The engine is not running smoothly" you hear him say with a shaky voice like he's porpoising. These cars are going around like they're driving on ice, the grip looks absolutely catastrophic. 

And that's it. 

That's lap 1, lol. 

So we have Rosberg in the lead, followed by Ricciardo, then Magnussen, Lewis, Hulkenberg, Alonso, JEV, Raikkonen, Kvyat and Bottas. Unfortunately Seb is down in 15th now. 

NO WHAT. NO. COME ON. Lewis is told they need to retire to save the engine. For fuck's sake. Meeeeeh. He does not come in though? Bono says "okay stay out stay out, just keep rolling". I'm so confused. 

They really don't understand shit about their own engines do they? 

But the next lap, he does come in. Ted says he reported that he indeed feels it and doesn't have any power and there's a problem with the gearbox. Fuck. They jinxed him pre-race. Seb reports a slight improvement on his side, but retires anyway. So that's 5 cars out already. Kobayashi, Massa, Bianchi?, Lewis and Seb. 

Bottas just overtook Raikkonen for P6, but Raikkonen overtakes him back. We still don't have any graphics, it's very annoying. Bottas is ahead again? 

We're 10 laps in. Bottas is indeed ahead, he's attacking Alonso for P5! Oh, but he made contact with a wall and his wheel broke? What a shame… He just lost his tyre. He's in the pits and he's able to make it out, surprisingly… the tyre is still on the track but not on the racing line, but there's another piece of the car right in the middle further away and yeah, that's a Safety Car. 

Pit stops, pit stops, pit stops? Jenson comes in, Rosberg from the lead, loads of midfielders, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Raikkonen, yeah everybody comes in basically. 

According to Ted, Lewis' issue was a misfiring of one of the 6th cylinders of the engine. So indeed reliability issues but not even something we'd heard of before. 

Rosberg almost overtook the safety car lol. Redbull tells Ricciardo there might be very light rain in turn 3… Safety car in at the end of lap 15.

Here we go again. 

Lewis sighs and says it indeed seems he was driving off 5 cylinders, it's unfortunate but it's racing. Pinkham asks what positives he can take from this weekend. He says they have great pace. He sees Nico is doing a great job out there and he hopes at least one of their cars makes it. And in any case there's a long way to go. She asks if he's not worried that this kind of mishap is gonna characterise the whole season. He says at the moment he's not concerned about anything. She's not being kind to him. "But pretty fed up," she says. "Nope," he answers. She insists : "You're not fed up?" (Fed up with your questions, maybe.) "I'm looking forward to some good food tonight." (?) 

It's lap 20. Hulkenberg complains of graining. Bottas' engineer tells him to be safe when he uses the DRS they don't wanna get in trouble. There is a problem with the hardware. And now Ericsson DNFs. Nothing much has changed at the front : Rosberg, Daniel, Magnussen, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Jenson, JEV, Raikkonen, Bottas and Kvyat for the top 10. I am officially bored. 

It's lap 30. Maldonado pulls over. It's a MGU-H failure it seems. Some pit stops, including Jenson who loses the very end of his nose. Hulkenberg pits from 4th. JEV pits. Raikkonen locks up twice, allowing Bottas to get ahead. Alonso pits from P4. He gets out wheel to wheel with Hulkenberg who ultimately has to fall back. Rosberg is told there might be some rain around but they don't expect it to get wet. Ricciardo pits from P2. Bottas, Raikkonen, Kvyat as well. Magnussen is called in from P2. Ricciardo is ahead. Rosberg is called in from the lead. And he's out in the lead. Woah, a bit of carbon fibre from Rosberg's wheel got ripped off when they put the tyre on… 

It's lap 40. Grosjean pulls over. JEV almost completely loses control of his car which allows Bottas again to get ahead. Brundle reminds us of Lewis earlier explaining that they cannot go full throttle between these two corners anymore because of how much additional power they have. That's what almost got JEV. 

There's 10 laps to go now. Bottas is fighting Hulkenberg for P6. He's really doing a good job. 5 laps to go. 

And it's the end of the race! 

Rosberg wins, ahead of Ricciardo and Magnussen! Didn't really see that podium coming tbh. Also 8 DNFs. 

We don't see Lewis anymore after that.

[bringmoresorrows]

Life Update

It's been a long time since I posted a life update. Lots of new things has happened in my life especially since i haven't updated in a year. Last year, I got myself into a situationship with this guy I became really close to really quickly and broke up with my ex of 4 years. We were dating from 2018-2022. Wow. A lot of things happened between my ex and I thankfully nothing traumatizing between us but we were falling out of love a year before the break up. As it got closer and closer to the end, I felt nothing to my ex. I was sick of how my ex constantly made me feel guilty for being myself. Plus my ex was transphobic and homophobic. Theres reasons for it as she came out as trans after we broke up. She never wanted to go out on dates with me, we stayed in the house and she didn't want to get to know my friend until like the week before we broke up. We had an apartment for a week and a half last April because the landlord said it was okay that we had the ferret then last minute they pulled back saying "nah get rid of the ferret" so we left. But it took a lot of me arguing with her for her to stand up to the landlord as my name wasn't on the lease, her name was. After that, anything i felt towards her was gone. I moved in with my parents in July and that was when my situationship with my friend started.

My heart was broken around September/October and I quickly moved onto someone new. But in between, I had no place to live aside form my parents couch and all my stuff was in storage. I even lost my ferret. My ex kept her. I got promoted to manager at my workplace and got a 2% pay increase which landed me at $20/hr where I was working 34-36 hrs a week and towards the holiday season after working 40-42 hrs a week. So I was bringing home a lot of money and had zero bills. I started building up my savings and come October, I moved in with two of my friends.

October was an interesting month last year, we had no furniture and we couldn't afford anything as we just dumped our savings into this place. It's a three bedroom apartment with 1.5 bathrooms. We have an in house washer and dryer and a dishwasher. It was awesome! We have so much space. The friend group kept making plans at my place and a few things led to another and that situationship friend and I broke things off. Mid october, I started talking to this guy over instagram. And we started hitting it off a lot. Turns out, my guy roommate and him are *best friends* so for our halloween party, he came on over! He lives a few boroughs away so its a 3 hour travel to his place and a 3 hour travel to mine. So 6 hrs total. So he came over the 30th and left November 1st. I got so drunk on the 31st and stuff happened between us before we were dating which is kinda another first for me as we just met in person for the first time. But the first time I did stuff with someone I wasn't dating was the situationship.

Come november, we start dating. Our relationship has been a bit rocky as we jumped into a new relationship and I was very much still hurt over the situationship and didn't want to admit it til a few months back. Plus living on my own has only amped up my mental health issues. I started my ed habits back up hard and lost 20 lbs in 2 months. I gained half of that back but its been hard.

January comes around and my ex tells me she cant house our ferret anymore so I was given the ferret <3. Bless.

February comes and my ferret gets very sick, throwing up for three days straight so we take her to the emergency vet and it helped her out a bunch <3

March comes and my mental health takes a worse turn.

April I have zero memories, In may my birthday happens. It was awesome! The friend group and I plus my bf + my sister go mini golfing! June nothing isolated. July: my internet friend from norway comes to visit and wow did it hit the roof. One thing led to another and they guilt trip me hard and gaslight me into thinking *i'm the crazy one* and I wind up having a severe mental break down where I attempted suicide. I also left the friend group. A day later my boyfriend calls me and gives me an ultimatum and tells me really harsh things to me which led me to crying for days and crying through a whole work shift (8 hours)

August comes and my depression is so severe, I wind up reaching out to a therapist and my pcp to start medication. Ella, my ferret, also has some more health issues showing up. Her tail has been losing fur for some time and her ears are getting backed up with ear wax. She wound up getting diagnosed with Adrenal Gland Disease. ;-;.

September; this month; comes around and therapy has been working and so has the meds. My relationship with my partner is getting a lot better and Ella is doing good too. She got her implant for Adrenal Disease this month. I've just been really tired ngl. Like very tired. But my house is getting decorated for halloween and its great!

Things are going really well for me and the people I used to miss I dont miss anymore. They didn't want me in their life then so be it. That's their problems. There was someone I named dropped a long time ago but I dont miss you anymore. You left my life and made it clear you never gave a fuck about me and only yourself. Goodbye to you. And to the other friends that bridges were burned, fuck it. I let go of it. I need to focus on myself and grow.

Next year around this time I will be moving in with my boyfriend and away from this borough where everyone knows each other. It will be rough to be in a more city based area. Its still a bit suburban but its very much on top of each other. I'm excited for it. I'm excited for the future that I'm going to have. I'm excited for the future with out the things that are holding me back.

[thisisadecisionimayregret]

mid-year book podcast freak out 2023

Got tagged by @allcountersarehipheight, which thank you so much for tagging me, I love to be tagged in things lol, but uh

I kinda realized that I haven't read enough books to actually do this lmfao. I did start reading Ancillary Justice this past week, and I read the book How to Keep House While Drowning (definitely recommend), and I've read a decent amount of fanfic.

But (as you know) I've had some Big Life Changes this year. Who knew, looking for apartments, packing, moving across the country, and starting a new job seriously eats up time and makes reading books difficult lol.

So anyway. The only media I've actually really consumed this year are podcasts, cause the move if anything only increased the time available for listening to podcasts. And this looked fun. So I'm gonna just. freak out about podcasts for a minute

Best book podcast you’ve read heard so far this year

The White Vault. Hooooly shit y'all. This show. I'm feeling so insane about it rn, and I am really looking forward to their next season whenever it releases and listening to their patreon-only miniseries in this world. I am just in awe of their entire production, the writing, the creeping dread and terror (my roommate laughed at me for my reactions), the fucking sound design!!!! lemme say, having Done sound design work myself, shit is hard and they really made this show next level real. And god it is impossible not to fall in love with the characters and sucked into the plot. If you hear it, it hears you too....

Best sequel you’ve read heard so far this year

The PALISADE season of Friends at the Table!! Another installment in their Divine Cycle stories and it continues to be my favorite podcast on the planet. It makes me feel so much I have trouble putting any of it into words. I can only scream incoherently and reblog the gorgeous wonderful fanart for this show. Everyone needs to listen to fatt right now immediately. This is not news to anyone who follows me lmfao

New release you haven’t read heard yet

The new season of Life with LEO(h)! I loved the first season, and I am really excited to listen to the second one that's releasing now. I haven't quite gotten around to it though, it's one of the shows where having both earbuds in helps me keep track of everything, and since I'm usually listening to stuff at work where I can't have both earbuds in, it's just been. Sitting in my playlist, waiting to be played.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Within the Wires season 8, definitely. I've been listening to the show since the first episode released in 2016 and it has remained one of my all time favorite podcasts for that entire time. I have no idea what the next season's focus will be, it's always something different, and it always always wrecks me, and it is always rearranges my brain. October can't come soon enough.

Biggest disappointment

The Two Princes. I had listened to the first season whenever that came out, but didn't follow it when it went exclusive on spotify, cause fuck spotify, but this year they quietly gave up on making it spotify exclusive. And maybe the fact I had enjoyed but felt pretty meh about season one should've been a hint for my reaction, but hey, they autodownloaded, so I decided to listen to seasons 2 and 3. And y'know. It was fine. It just wasn't particularly good. Idk, maybe I'm not the target audience for that show.

Biggest surprise

Lost Hills: The Dark Prince. It's a surprise cause it's not something I would've sought or picked out to listen to on my own. But you know the thing some shows do, where they go "hey, we're promoting another podcast, so we're dropping their first episode in our feed, enjoy" and you just go along with it instead of skipping, and afterwards you go "hm well I haven't cared about malibu or surfing At All my whole life, but now i just Gotta know the fucked up history of this One Dickhead who had a huge influence on the surfing culture that extends into the present day." Well. Here we are.

Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

Fool & Scholar Productions! Not debut, but new to me. They're the team responsible for The White Vault (among other shows I am looking forward to listening to). Seriously, their writing and their audio production are so so so excellent and I really admire their dedication to Getting things Right, particularly in regards to how they write international characters and go to great lengths to cast people from those cultures and who speak those languages to act. And although I haven't had a chance to listen to their TWV patreon-miniseries Imperial, the whole thing about using an endangered language in it and working with speakers and scholars of that language to get things right is just. Wow. It's incredible and I am (again) so excited to listen to it and their other shows, this team really just makes the language nerd and audio nerd in me vibrate

Newest fictional crush/newest favorite character

This was so difficult but I gotta say, Vivian Exler from the Upstairs and Downstairs game of fatt Road to Palisade. Gardner/groundskeeper who gets the revolutionary zines and is constantly bickering with the mechanic. I am predictable and quickly become a fan of any Jack de Quidt character and Vivian was no exception.

Book Podcast that made you cry

Yet another win for The White Vault here. It made me cry multiple times, for sad reasons, and I mean this another glowing recommendation for this show. Love to be made to feel emotions

Book Podcast that made you happy

Ologies with Alie Ward!! Literally this podcast is just a constant source of joy and makes me so happy to be on this planet. Every single ologist Alie interviews is so genuinely excited about their subject and it is endlessly fascinating to learn more about the world around us. There's episodes that definitely can be bummers, but even the bummer episodes ultimately instill in me optimism and hope and appreciation. And also I get to leave every episode with a handful of fun facts I can bring out at parties when I'm anxious.

Alright, there we are! I'm gonna tag @housetalis (eternal thanks for introducing me to TWV) and @grand-magnificent. Feel free to do the original book freakout or do a podcast freakout or to not do it at all — no pressure either way!

[jamesv-t]

Football Survey 2022

For the last decade, if not longer, I’ve done an end of year gig survey, giving a bit of an overview of the gigs I’ve attended this year. For the first time since I had a half season-ticket for Gillingham’s glorious promotion winning season of 1999-2000, I’ve attended more football matches than gigs in a calendar year - so I thought, why not rejig the survey for football? 

Top 5 games of the year?

England 2 Germany 1 aet, Wembley, 31st July

BSG Chemie Leipzig 1 Berliner Dynamo 1, Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark, 13th March

Arsenal  7 Aston Villa 0, Meadow Park, 1st May

Germany 4 Denmark 0, Brentford Community Stadium, 8th July

Arsenal 2 Ajax Amsterdam 2, Meadow Park, 20th September

Total number of matches?

Eleven, first year in ages I’ve hit double digits!

First match of the year?

Chemie Leipzig 1 Berliner Dynamo 1, 13th March

Last match of the year?

Arsenal 1 Everton 0, 3rd December

Most surprising game?

I honestly didn’t expect England to come out on top in the Euro 2022 final!

Most disappointing?

England 0 Czech Republic 0, 11th October. I’ve had hangovers more fun than that.

Farthest travelled?

Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark in Leipzig, 600 miles/1,000 km from my front door.

States attended games in?

Cheerful, grateful, euphoric, drunk, bored, knackered and achy.

Stadium most visited?

Amex/Falmer Community stadium in Brighton and Meadow Park in London, both three times.

Worst injury?

I had a horrible attack of hay-fever during the second half of the Germany vs Denmark game that sent me scrambling for antihistamines in a nearby Sainsburys afterwards. This was mid July, in the middle of a hot spell that I thought had burnt up all plant life in the country, and after not being affected by hay-fever all year prior to that I thought I was safe - evidently not!

Most expensive ticket?

The Euro 2022 final ticket was £25, that was my highest. The perks of watching women’s football! (Or 4th tier German men’s football)

Player seen the most?

I saw Lena Oberdorf play four times for club and country - the first two, in club colours, I didn’t really appreciate her style, but I came around quickly after she tucked Pernille Harder in her pocket for Germany! I think Leah Williamson and Beth Mead top her with six appearances apiece. Shoutout to Karen Holmgaard who was the only player I saw play twice for two different clubs - Turbine Potsdam in May, and Everton in December. She didn’t make it off the bench for Germany’s massacre of Denmark, otherwise I would’ve seen her play three times for three different teams, with a combined scoreline of 0-9 in those games! 

Best new discovery?

Definitely Lena Oberdorf! Her tough-tackling style, complete with Wob buying up two of my other favourite German players (Merle Frohms and Jule Brand), plus my partner being in awe of Wassmuth’s cheekbones and Jonsdottir’s...general awesomness, means that I’ve been streaming more Wolfsburg games than I expected this autumn.

Bands seen this year that also broke up this year?

I’m not sure how to make this football related, but I’m open to suggestions.

Friends made at games?

I don’t know if they count, as I knew Joel online before the matches, but in May I flew to Cologne all alone for the German cup final (Wolfsburg vs Turbine Potsdam). A 50,000 seater stadium, and I knew only one other person there. Walking out of the toilets before the match, guess who I bump into? We sat together and had a great time, even if the result didn’t go our way. Two months later, having sat with Jamie, Mary, Adam and friends before the match, I made my way around the Wembley concourse to find my gate for the Euros final when I hear my name shouted from a queue. Guess who it was?!

Footballers met?

Tricky, in this post-COVID era, and with the general increase in popularity of the women’s game this will become rarer. But after the Arsenal vs Villa game at the end of last season I met and got a photo with then-England keeper Hannah Hampton - a player I’ve both enjoyed and been frustrated by watching whenever she’s played against a team I like. 

Best souvenir from a game?

My Chemie Leipzig scarf is soft, comfortable, and confuses the heck out of people as it’s green and white. (”Who’s that? Celtic? Plymouth? Yeovil? St Etienne?”) 

Longest time in line?

Aside from Wembley, I’ve had very little queuing.

Games seen from the front row?

Arsenal’s games at Meadow Park I’ve seen from my favoured spot on the front row of the northern terraces. I was pretty far forward for the Wolfsburg vs Turbine game and as a consequence couldn’t see much action in the opposite goalmouth. 

Most games in one month?

July had four, a result of my country hosting an international tournament.

Most games in one week?

Two! Austria vs Norway and England vs Spain within five days of each other.

Biggest crowd?

Wembley, for the Euros final! 87,192 in attendance, the largest crowd for a European Championship game ever, of any gender. 

Any drunk encounters?

I took advantage of being able to drink beer in the stands at the two games in Germany. The England vs Czech Republic game was so dull I made good use of Harvey’s being on tap in the lounge nearby, too. I also had a fun encounter with a drunk Portsmouth fan at the England vs Spain game.

Top 5 best 2022 footballing moments:

1. There were three iconic goals that did the advancement of the women’s game in England no end of good this summer, and I witness two of them in person! Chloe Kelly’s winner against Germany in the goalmouth at my end in the final is an obvious one, as well as Russo’s cheeky backheel in the semi. But Ella Toone’s equaliser in the quarter final against Spain was just as important. This was the first of four quarter final matches, and after a rampaging group stage the Lionesses had really captured the attention of the country. Had they gone out the first time they played a decent team it would’ve deflated the mood; attendances probably would’ve dropped, the usual sexist bores would’ve trumpeted the usual remarks, and it would not have come home. With Toone’s header - and Stanway’s winner - they really got the country behind them!

2. For sheer luck, bumping into the same person in crowds of 50,000 and 87,000 on separate occasions was great!

3. Chatting to a drunk Portsmouth fan next to me at the England vs Spain game. I was wearing an old Germany away shirt, for fun.

"So, <cod 'allo 'allo style accent>, ver you 'oping vor Germany tonight?" 

Me: "No, my friends thought it would be funny if I wore a Germany shirt to the game."

After discussing the tournament so far: "What was the last club match you went to?" "Wolfsburg vs Turbine Potsdam in the German cup final" "Is that your team then, Wolfsburg?" "Nah, I'm a Gillingham fan!" I genuinely think I broke him. 

Me: "Weird seeing a match from this angle, it's like a Football Manager game!" Him: "Dare I ask which team you're managing?" "Pisa, in Italy" "You fascinate me, man"

4. On the subject of Football Manager - in March 2020, Red Bull Leipzig were getting a lot of puff pieces in the English press, as they were due to play Spurs in the Champions League, and so the media were fawning all over how they had bought out a village team, renamed them after a soft drink and shovelled millions into the club built a team up from nothing to be title contenders. When lockdown hit, and I was bored, rather than spend my time improving myself as a person I decided to prove that it could be done properly - I took over an actual Leipzig side, then languishing in the 5th tier, and with only my skills and no influx of cash beyond what I could earn from promotions and player sales, tried to make them bigger than Red Bull. In that save my Chemie Leipzig side have won ten times more league titles and four more Champions League than RB. In real life, they’re in the German 4th tier, but while nearby on holiday in March I took advantage of the fixtures and went to see them grind out a 1-1 draw against the league leaders. It was cold, I missed both goals queuing for beer, but the atmosphere was amazing and I was so glad I got to see my beautiful football boys in the flesh! 

5. Steve Evans and Gillingham parted ways. I had been boycotting my childhood club while that odious crook was in charge, so I was glad to call myself a Gills fan again. 

6. BONUS! While on a run in a tiny Czech industrial town I found the football stadium. And broke in (went through an open gate) to take a picture of me in the main stand! 

Top 3 worst 2022 footballing moments:

1. Prasnikar’s goal for Frankfurt against Potsdam in the league at the end of May. A point for Potsdam would’ve probably seen them qualify for the Champions League - the influx of cash certainly would’ve helped keep the team together. Instead, following a 4-0 hammering in the cup final, a large number of players left, to be replaced by recruits from the 3rd division; they were followed by the manager and president. Turbine are now bottom of the league, and this once great club who play in blue and white are now odds-on for relegation. Remove the “once great” part and it could describe Gillingham’s season too - clearly I have a type!

2. I regret wearing my Germany shirt to the Wembley final.

3. I regret going out into the cold to watch England 0 Czech Republic 0.

[starbonnie76]

(3/4) I have not gained an audience or a degree of popularity after nearly 12 years of making videos and music. It's time to admit it has become frustrating.

In July 2017, I would get another shot at the internet, starting uploads to a sequel channel to The Kirbyster known as Kirbyster Plays, which is the channel I am still using to this day. This was the biggest attempt to break out into the social media scene for a number of years. Uploading the three years of content I'd pre-recorded after the original The Kirbyster channel was deactivated, I would return to making new videos - video reviews, video essays and largely Nintendo-related posts. The editing quality increased drastically. With The Kirbyster, there was Windows Live Movie Maker, but now, there was Sony Vegas Pro 13. I would upload videos consistently, with at least one a week from mid-2017 to mid-2019. Again, despite tapping into current topics and game releases, I found no consistent stream of views, and reaching over 20 views a video was a success. At the same time, I was uploading videos to a personal channel, called Steven Whitear, where I would post continuity adverts and idents from now-offline British Children's TV channel CITV. Uploading content that I wasn't creating was getting more attention. Not only was that demotivating, but I was also getting a little frustrated because at this time, creators like Logan Paul were appearing on YouTube and making videos for a year or so and getting tens of millions of subscribers. More and more creators were putting less thought in their videos, putting out mindless and shallow content to the masses and getting it monetized. What was I doing wrong?? 2019 would see the end of Kirbyster Plays, for now. There are two more massively noteworthy ventures on YouTube I would like to mention at this time. I would begin making content on Kirbyster Plays again in August 2022, on the turn of my 18th birthday. The editing on these videos were massively more presentable than videos I'd even been making two years previously. I got a certain degree of attention after that, but it was miniscule. I'm making videos on Five Nights at Freddy's 4, Kirby and Bayonetta, and they're getting a few hundred views, generally tipping over one thousand views after a nudge. I've bought into almost every YouTube promotion program there is, and this is only as far as it's pushed me. Although The Kirbyster is now over 10, and Kirbyster Plays is turning 7 this year, I want more. The content I'm making is taking 100s of man-hours every month, and it's intended for a larger audience than I'm getting.

[cheapcourses]

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[devoirat]

Devoir de Contrôle 2 Anglais Bac Sciences

            I. Language (12marks) 1)    Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words from the box below . there are two extra words (4marks) :   I have always believed it is important to not only talk the talk, but to walk the walk when it came to teaching my children. I have tried to accomplish this throughout the past 23 years of         It is not always what we did but often what we did not do , that our children pay attention to. My daughter was very proud of me when I graduated with my ……………………….college degree last year. It got her thinking of going back to school herself. The very same week my promotion at work was announced , my 23-year-old daughter ……………………….as a full-time student at a local New Hampshire state college. As soon as my daughter realized the opportunity offered to me as a direct result of my …………………………….accomplishments , she realized there was no reason she had to wait until her mid-life for the same opportunities. No matter.. your age is, a degree will open doors, present opportunities and offer new and exciting…......................... I will not be surprised to find myself working for my daughter in 5-10 years ! To my daughter Brittany ; I am grateful you have made different life decisions than I. You will.... in your academic pursuits and enjoy the benefits of your education for a ……………………………… 2)          Circle the correct alternative (4 marks) : Like many other definitions , lifelong learning is also defined as the process of keeping one’s body and mind ( confined/ assessed / engaged ) at any age by actively pursuing knowledge and experience . Many East Africans need this aspect in ensuring that their skills are up-to-date with the ( ever / every/never) changing needs of the society. ( Unless /if /when ) they are to catch up with the digital ( time/ place /pace ) , then life long learning goes along way into improving their ( adept/ inspiration / memory ) , increasing self-confidence , offering an (innovative/inexpensive/conventional) way to try something ,and helping them to meet people ( whom / whose/who) share their interests . In that sense , life can be more rewarding experience and most especially the   avenues ( for/to/by) attaining knowledge are clearer and open with the advent of information and communication technology. 3-   Put the words in brackets in the right tense or form (4 marks) : In school, bullying occurs in all areas. It can occur in nearly any part in or around the school building, though it more often (occur).. in hallways; bathrooms, on school buses, classes that require group work and after school activities. Bullying in school sometimes consists of a group of students taking advantage of or (isolate).................................................................................................................................................... one student in particular and gaining the (loyal)…………………………of   bystanders who want (become)………………………..the next victim. These (bully)………………………… and tease their target before ( physical)…                                            bullying it. Targets of bullying, l are often pupils who (consider)............................... strange or different by their peers.Making the situation (hard) ……………………………for them to deal with.   II. Listening Comprehension (12marks) 1- Listen and co       Read the full article

[energyscent2]

Graves, Nickelberry Carry Buffalo Last W. Michigan 86-54

In fact, you can watch the game live on the Internet and use headphones if you would like get some good privacy. Whether you need to become an expert soccer player, or simply just wish to be able to hold your in the recreation you love, improving your skills at soccer is no simple task. An issue that can affect football exercise strength that simply cannot be managed by the coach is the standard for the players. People can build Hunter Strike, Ice Hunter’s Warriro Boots, War Axe, Brute Force Breastplate, Endless Battle, and Malefic Roar. Cooper may not be the athletic force that dominates contested situations like Kevin White can, but he could be a pro-ready receiver that compares really positively to a man like Reggie Wayne. B. Artis White had 18 things for the Broncos (4-12, 3-8 Mid-American meeting). After much conjecture, Messi announced at a tearful development summit he is leaving FC Barcelona. Within 먹튀폴리스 without Lionel Messi for 16 years, Barcelona struggled and something associated with leaders of European football fell to the group phase, but there weren't way too many bumps somewhere else because the likes of Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City marched on in their quest for fame. Los Blancos had been at sixes and sevens for parts of final period, and that was certainly the actual situation in the Champions League team phases after two defeats to Shakhtar Donestsk had Zinedine Zidane under serious force. I still think he's likely to want to enhance that position, if not in 2010 then next season, certainly. For little kids who can’t swim yet but still love being in the water, you might want to think about this splash pad. He's got scored 12 targets across all tournaments in this promotion thus far, and it has reacted angrily after being dropped. After his process, Pele said in September he would have to sporadically undergo chemotherapy sessions after becoming discharged. So far, the forward has been benched against Chelsea and Everton, and had been left out of this squad entirely when it comes to Carabao Cup defeat by-west Ham in September. Publishing a photo of himself clenching his fist and grinning inside the medical center bed, Pele published on Instagram: 'Friends, since September 30th, whenever I left the hospital, you realize that i've been having little chemotherapy sessions as part of my therapy. In certain, email address details are factored in to the ongoing assessment of banks’ risks, governance, capital and liquidity included in the Supervisory Assessment and Evaluation Process (SREP). Of course, there are other things to consider also. In reality, there were victories all over European countries as a complete of nine tips found their particular mark, using the solid statistical data offered to the Soccerway staff guaranteeing these are generally constantly in a privileged place to cast their particular eye on the climatic end towards the season. If an individual evening, let's say, they go 20-42 on 3's in a set, they're beating any group when you look at the league. Seven goals when it comes to Egyptian, neglecting to score in just one single online game and securing back into right back braces against Atletico Madrid and Porto. Their England rival Reece James also impressed, but Alexander-Arnold been able to grab two assists in two less games - both coming in the 2-0 win against Atletico Madrid as he establish both Sadio Mane and Diogo Jota. The 23-year-old already features 12 helps when it comes to period for club and nation and it is going to be essential for Klopp along with his hopes of winning Europe's grand reward again. Teams may take an essential remainder until February now but there is some severe talent on screen as European countries's elite shone in the team stages, while many increasing stars also made an effect. Sportsmail assesses the most notable performers regarding the team stage to generate an ultimate line-up of stars. After neglecting to win the Ballon d'Or in 2010 and thus agonisingly at a disadvantage last year, Robert Lewandowski is eager to show why he's among the top forwards in world soccer, and has gone some way to performing that this term. Through the festive duration, United will look to break back in the very best four under Rangnick, plus they continue to be unbeaten in 2 games under their particular interim supervisor. Sane showed he makes things happen when it matters - he only created five opportunities, but four of them resulted in a target. He had currently made a superb begin to the domestic period with six objectives and four helps - even though he will be strutting their material into the Europa League now after their side completed third when you look at the group, anticipate him to produce a large proceed to at the very top side next period. That contrasts in just three helps into the Premier League, with Fernandes scoring five times domestically but failing to hit the back for the net in Europe.

[finelinevogue]

Hi! Hope you’re well. Do you think you’d ever write a high-school love story between Harry and reader? I think you’d write it so well💞

so i got an anon for this request and it ended up very quickly turning into a hefty blurb rather than a short blurb! also i’m british so harry’s just gonna be a really popular guy in school - since we don’t have frats! so enjoy!!

Mondays were just the worst.

Having to get up after a busy weekend and then go to school, I mean who invented such a stupid idea? Who invented Mondays?

This weekend you’d been extra busy moving houses and that was no easy job. One of your dads had recently got a new promotion in the area and his salary was going to increase by 25% if he decided to take the job. So he did. Garry was his name and his partner Bob. Both were humble men who simply had hearts so big they’d have enough love for everyone on the planet twice over. You were only 4 when you’d entered the adoption system, your parents abandoning you at such a young age. Luckily Garry and Bob were there to adopt you only two years later, although two years too long in care for you. You love your dads so much and you couldn’t ask for better parents.

Being in care has skewed your people skills quite a bit though. Those two years, even though you were still little and underdeveloped, were awful and you still have nightmares just thinking back on them. Now, you were shy and introverted. You kept books rather than friends and you hadn’t been sad to leave your old town, because there was no one there to leave behind - no doubt this town would be exactly the same. Your dads tried to coax you out of your shell from time to time, by inviting you out to a social event or festival, but you’d end up finding a last minute excuse. You liked your own company, but sometimes it did get quite lonely. Maybe you’d find a friend this year?

Well, you were about to find out.

You walked up the pathway to the front doors of the school, holding on for dear life to the straps of your backpack. Your parents were following you in tow, silently communicating with each other about their fears for you starting a new school mid-way through high-school. People stared as you walked past, beady eyes staring straight through you as if they’d quickly learn who you were and whether you were anyone important - that would be a hard no, in your opinion. You kept your head down and followed a sign that pointed the reception to be this way. You held the doors open for your parents and walked over to the office, an old woman sat behind the desk.

“Hello!” She spoke cheerily, smiling at you as if you’d just brought the sunshine. You smiled back, because she deserved one.

“Hi. I’m new here. My name’s Y/N L/N.” You told her, hoping that was enough conversation from you for her to do her job. You were too socially awkward and anxious to do anything more than that. Your hands were clammy as you spoke, your dads close behind you being the only thing making you feel somewhat safe.

“Y/N L/N?” You nodded when she asked, followed by her clicking away on her keyboard, “Lovely name!”

“Thanks.” You smiled again, no one ever having told you that before and quickly fell silent as she went back to the admin work on her computer.

“Okay, Y/N, and these men are…” She hesitated, not knowing who they actually were in relation to you.

“My dads.” You answered proudly, feeling Garry’s hand come to rest on your shoulder comfortingly.

“O-oh.” The lady made a sort of noise.

It was the normal reaction and it was one that you really wished people wouldn’t be so ignorant about. Yeah, two dads isn’t stereotypically “normal”, but then what even is “normal”? And fuck stereotypes anyways. You wished for once someone would be kind and accepting over the fact you had two dads instead of one, as at your last school you were made fun of because of such a thing. You loved your parents so much and wouldn’t change them for the world, not even for a mum or your old family.

“Any paperwork we need to sign or are we good to go?” Bob asked the lady, pulling her away from her fumbled expression.

“It seems it’s already done, so you’re good to leave whenever.” The lady smiles at them, but you can tell she’s too old and set in her ways to accept the idea of same-sex parenting. Great start to the new school and year. “And then Y/N, this is your timetable and a map of the school. Classes start at 9am. Registration is at 8:30am, so that’s in 15 minutes. You’ll be with Mrs George in room M3, which is just down the hallway. Any questions come back and see me okay?” She gave you a pack of information, before smiling and getting back to other work.

You turned and walked back outside with your dads, the rest of the student body now filing inside to go to their registrations. You didn’t want to miss that, so you had to make your goodbyes from your parents quick.

“We’ll pick you up after school okay? We might be slightly late, ‘cause we have an appointment at the bank but we shouldn’t be too late.” Garry explained, leaning forwards to give you a kiss on the forehead.

“You’ll be great kiddo. Go kick some ass.” Bob laughed, giving you your second kiss to the forehead. You laughed with him, but Garry made sure you understood not to take him so literally.

“I love you guys, see you later.” You blew them kisses goodbye and then walked back inside, keeping your head down as you studied the timetable you’d been given and tried to understand where the best routes were to get to your classes on time. Also, where was the library because that place was about to become your second home.

You walked down the corridor and stopped when you saw M3 signed on the door, taking a deep breathe before walking inside. The classroom was already full of students, 15 maybe? They were sat on desks and standing around each other in little groups, probably chatting about their summers to one another.

You noticed the cliques already. The goths sat in the middle of the room, dressed in blacks and also black with tattoos lathering some of their skins. They were playing cards and it looked like they were playing for a packet of chewing gum. The nerds sat right at the front of the room, basically dressed in smart suits and skirts, quizzing each other on various facts they learnt over the summer to complete as to who had the biggest brain. The there were the popular kids, known as jocks in other countries, who sat at the back of the classroom. They were the type of people you wanted to avoid, because they were the type of people who’d bring you down. You didn’t know where to fit in to all this.

You weren’t a nerd, that’s for sure, as you barely passed your summer exams last year. You weren’t a goth, because honestly blood, gore and horror movies genuinely terrify you. You definitely weren’t a popular kid and you had no intention of being on either. You were just the student who wore baggy dungarees and high-top converse, carried two fictional books in your bag at all times and hated the word moist. Where did that kind of person slot into high-school society?

“Oi, you,” you heard a voice shout from the back and you looked to see if they potentially had been calling to you, unfortunately, “yes, yeah you - girl with double dads.” Some of his friends around him snickered at the mere mention of you having two dads.

Great start.

You weren’t going to have this all over again this year, so you sat down in a chair sort of close to the front and ignored them.

“How were you even made, like? Are you a test-tube baby? Or is one of your dads like one of those woman-men?” You wanted to go over to them and punch them in the face for what they were saying, but you just had to keep you head down if you wanted to survive the year. You wanted to protect the respect for your parents though, they deserved that.

“Dude you can’t say that.” Another guy spoke out, shutting up the previous one.

“Maybe she was adopted?” A girls voice broke through the white-noise and you twitched in your seat at the memories of your time in care. These people were somewhat the same as the bullies all those years ago.

“Ohh, like no one wanted her kind of thing?” Another voice spoke up and you had to close your eyes to blink back the tears.

“Jonah, shut the fuck up man.” A different guy spoke. He had quite a nice, deep and calming voice.

“What? Don’t you think having two dads is kind of gay?” This Jonah asked and it made your fists curl into tight balls. God, you wanted to punch something so bad right now.

“Being gay isn’t a bad thing.” Someone else spoke, starting a whole other argument within the group and you were long forgotten.

Just as you wanted to be.

•••••

Lunch time and you were in your happy place; the library.

You had met the librarian and he seemed so lovely and kind, offering to help you find any book your wanted. You thanked him and went off in search of your favourite books. You collected a few and sat in the corner of a room, on a pile of beanbags. You got yourself comfortable as you opened the first page and got to reading the first page of your favourite book; “A Thousand Boy Kisses, by Tille Cole”.

Without giving anything away, the whole book is based on having 1000 kisses with boys - or just a boy - which you have no experience of. Unfortunately you have never been kissed in your life and were teased for it a lot. The problem is you’re too shy to actually make the first move, yet also too closed off when someone actually approaches you - not that anyone has ever approached you.

“Y’know, that’s exactly the kind of book I thought i’d find you reading.” A guy said, breaking you from your first page already.

Looking up at him though you didn’t regret him interrupting you, because he was the most beautiful man you’d ever seen. He was tall, handsome, curly chocolate locks and green eyes that made you melt in the middle. He was so pretty…

“You okay babe?” A blonde girl walks up beside him and linked their arm in his.

… and taken.

“Just wanted to introduce myself to the new girl.” He pushed the girls arm off of him and held out his hand for you, leaning down slightly to try and make it easier for you to reach.

“Hi, i’m Harry.” You started to reach your hand out, but as soon as you did a couple of Harry’s friends came up behind him and pulled him back and taking his hand with him. You quickly put your hand back down as they started talking.

“Woah, bud! Don’t wanna go touching someone who’s got two dads now, just think of all the STD’s.” One of the guys laughed and you recognised his voice from this morning. What a prick. How dare he talk about people this way when he doesn’t even know them.

“Piss off James.” Harry shouted, causing more of a scene than he probably intended to do.

“No he’s right Harry. Don’t know what kinda of diseases they’re carrying around.” The blonde girl added, curling their arm back around Harry’s.

You’d heard enough.

Packing up your things quickly, you walked out of the library with just your rucksack and yourself. You hated that you let those kinds of people to get to you, but their words genuinely hurt and you didn’t have to stick around to let them wound you. You walked down the corridor with you held hung low, out the door and across the courtyard. There was still 20 minutes left of the lunch break, so you sat on a bench outside and away from anyone.

You just sat there and played with your fingers, thinking about how rubbish this first day already was and you’d barely even begun. A few tears dropped down your cheeks, the words of the morning stinging your heart like a needle into the skin, but you caught them quickly with your sweater paws you made and dried them before anyone would notice - not that anyone would notice. Interrupting your sad thoughts, a book was placed onto the bench and slid across to you.

‘A Thousand Boy Kisses.’

You looked across the bench to see Harry standing there looking sheepish. You sniffled as you tried to pull all your tears back inside of you, not wanting him to see the impact a few harsh words could do to you.

“Thought you might’ve wanted to carry on reading it.” He shrugged his shoulders, clearly seeing this as a way to earn forgiveness over his douchebag friends.

Harry technically hadn’t done anything wrong himself, apart from maybe be good friends with horrible people. You looked from him and back to the book, looking to see if there was some huge prank that was about to be pulled on you.

“Y’don’t talk much do you?”

“Would you like me to say thank you?” You asked, a slight bite to your tone that both you and Harry weren’t expecting.

“O-oh well—” Harry stuttered, clearly not expecting you to be so rude with your first words to him. It made you feel like a complete turd, because you were acting the exact way in which Harry’s friends had treated you before. Hypocrite.

“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.” You shook your head and blushed in embarrassment.

You hated confrontation and the thought that you’d just made Harry feel so uncomfortable. This was why you’d never had friends, because you were the most awkward and unsociable person ever. Standing up, you grabbed your bag again as if ready to leave. You didn’t want to spend longer in the presence of someone you’d just upset than you needed to.

“Hey, y’don’t need to leave.” Harry stopped you, stepping closer to the bench and reaching out his arm as if to touch you before dragging it back down to his side.

“I thought—”

“What?”

“Nevermind.”

You shook your head and sat back down, pulling out your lunchbox and setting it out in front of you. It was a box compiled of separate compartments so everything had its own home. There was your jam sandwiches with the crusts cut off, your carrot sticks with hummus and a yogurt that was supposed to help with digestion. You dipped one of your carrots into the hummus and took your first bite, a loud crunch breaking the silence only for you to remember that Harry was still there. You looked up at him to see him smiling at you.

“What?”

“Jam sandwiches?” He questioned, a clear tease in his voice.

“Yes?” You asked back, confused as to how that was a problem and if it was then why he was making it his problem?

“With the crusts cut off?”

“Harry, if you’re going to be mean about my sandwich then you can find somewhere else to sit for lunch instead of here.” You sighed, eating the rest of your carrot and swallowing it down with your water.

“See, what I just heard was an invitation for me to sit with you?” He replied cheekily, catching you off guard and being forced to look at his face to see the tease written all over it. Oh, he was good at this.

“Depends.”

“On what?” He asked eagerly. Almost too eagerly.

“What your sandwich is filled with.” You smiled as you watched him stroke the back of his head in panic, stressed over the fact that his sandwich was now the only thing standing in between having lunch with you or going back to his douchebag friends instead. Luckily for him, you were just more intrigued and making fun of him rather than actually being that picky as to whether he could sit down or not.

“Um, pretty sure it’s a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel. It’s like the only thing m’mum knows how to make.” He laughed a bit at the end, but looked towards you in hope that it was enough for a free pass at the table bench.

You nodded your head for him to sit down and you’d never seen someone look so giddy because of it. He dropped his bag next to him and pulled out his sandwich, which was just wrapped in tin foil compared to your plastic lunchbox contraption. He also took out a packet of crisps, a bag of chocolates and a can of lemonade.

“It’s looking a little fruit-bare over there.” You said, noticing how there was nothing healthy packed in his lunch and wondering how he was built so well - not that you’d been gawking at how defined his muscles were or anything.

“It’s looking a little fun-deprived over there.” Harry replied, with a mouthful of food as boys do.

“Criticise my lunch one more time and you’ll be removed from the table.” You threatened, obviously with no intent of following through with your plans.

“Y’know I preferred it when y’didn’t talk as much actually.” Harry responded and your heart dropped, thinking that you’d just screwed up potentially the one shot that you’d had at a potential friendship.

“Oh i’m s-sor—” You became flustered, putting down your sandwich to wave your hands in hate for yourself for being so dismissive already.

“Hey, stop, you’re all good!” Harry chuckled lightly, watching as you blushed when you realised you’d just been overreacting.

“I was just messing.”

“Sorry, i’m just really nervous.” You admitted, stroking a hand through your hair nervously. Harry put his bagel down so he could give you his undivided attention.

“Why?”

“Never had a friend before and I don’t want to screw this up before we even get there.” The smile you gave was small. Small enough for Harry to detect a heap load of insecurities and sadness behind it, something he already wanted to protect you from and hug away from you.

“Can assure you you’re already my friend.” Harry warmly smiled at you, lighting a small matchstick in your heart that heated your insides just the little bit that it needed.

“Y’don’t even know my name, Harry.” You gave him a condescending look, but he remained the same cheery self.

“Doesn’t matter. Still m’friend.” He shrugged, taking a sip from his drink before continuing, “besides, i’ll just call you ‘love’ or ‘tbk’ instead.”

“Tbk?” You asked, clearly missing something.

“Thousand boy kisses.”

“You’re going to name me after the title of a book?”

“Well it was the book that is even the reason we’re having lunch together right now.”

“Don’t think it is.” You replied, laughing when Harry gave you an offended look.

“Right, well, just shut up.” He scoffed and then shut up himself. Harry went back to eating his bagel and you back to eating your perfect jam sandwich.

The silence wasn’t awkward. In fact, it was quite to just sit in someones presence and not feel obliged to talk to them. You enjoyed his company and it helped that he made you feel all warm inside. You thought over your conversation this lunch and loved every moment of it, never having felt so happy in a long time. You were thankful for Harry for that, forgiving him for being with such douchey friends.

“Y/N.” You spoke, after finishing your sandwiches and making Harry look up at you as he too finished his bagel.

“Sorry?”

“Y/N, my name. Apparently my mum chose it because it sounded cool to say. That’s what i’ve been told anyways.” You shrugged your shoulders and then going quiet as you thought on your past.

You hated when you’re mine travelled into the past, because it made you feel so lonely and even worse - alone. Harry’s hand came into your vision, from where you were looking down at the table, and he was holding the packet of chocolates out for you.

“Take them. M’mum always tells me that chocolate can cure a girls broken heart.” He smiled warmly and you understood that he knew you were upset, but wasn’t going to press in what was wrong until you were ready. For that, for him, you were very grateful.

“But what about m’carrots?” You asked, making Harry belly laugh and hand the chocolates into your hand.

“Screw y’carrots!” That might’ve been the first time you’d belly laughed in a very long time.

[this is just the start… send requests for anything high-school y/n and harry related]

[27dragons]

What’s Been Going on with Dragons

Longtime followers may have noticed I’ve been a lot less active over the last year, and even less active than that in the last 4-6 months. You may even have wondered WTF, dragons?

Well… This TF:

Obviously, the pandemic heaped stress on literally everyone; that’s probably got to go first on the list, because it compounded and multiplied the effect of every single other thing on the list.

Tisfan’s stroke (Sept ’20) deprived me of my writing partner and most avid reader, which was a hell of a blow.

I got a promotion at work (Apr ’21) that involved quite a bit more responsibility and stress, and then it took eight months to backfill my previous position, which meant I was doing two full-time jobs.

Thing1 started college (Aug ’21) and more or less immediately hated it, which is obviously worse for them than me, but is still pretty stressful as a parent who wants to make sure their kids get everything they need to be successful and happy adults.

Thing1 then landed in the hospital for a few days (Sept ’21); I spent the whole thing living in the hospital visitor’s chair.

I was more or less guilted into accepting a “temporary” promotion at work (Nov ’21) to be the project manager for my entire project — a project which is foundering due to factors I won’t discuss in a public forum but which are entirely outside of my control. This promotion did NOT come with a pay increase, because of its temporary nature. The only saving grace was that they finally backfilled my original position, but that meant I had to start training the new person. For those counting along at home, that’s two high-responsibility, full-time positions, plus training a third.

Tisfan’s death (Dec ’21) rocked me HARD, and I spent most of the next month laser focused on doing everything I could to help and support her family while trying to deal with my own grief.

The government office for which I’m a contractor put our contract up for bid (Dec ’21). The new contract was so bad that my company decided not to bid on it. Despite putting out the bid, the government hadn’t actually made a decision about whether to go with this new contract or renew our current contract.

An assortment of minor-but-annoying medical issues cropped up (Jan-Feb ’22). One of those (just as an indicator of my stress levels) is a stomach ulcer.

One of my two database admins, due to the uncertainty of our contract, left the company (Feb ’22), leaving me with only one DBA. This is, as you might imagine, not ideal.

My mom, while on vacation in Mexico with my dad, wound up in the hospital, in ICU (mid-March). Not only was the family extremely worried about her, we also had some additional moderate worry about my dad and various logistics (like the hospital demanding payment up front for over $50,000, and my dad’s hotel reservation running out, and trying to figure out how to get my mom back to the U.S. once she was stable enough to move.)

My remaining DBA left (mid-March) for a trip out of the country for 3 weeks, which means they have only limited access to our databases.

The government decided (mid-March) to go with the new contract and not renew our current contract; everyone currently on the contract (including me) now has to decide whether to leave our company and go to work for the company who won the new contract (which, if you recall, was so bad our company didn’t want it), or be laid off and look for new jobs.

Just as she was stabilizing, my mom suffered a heart attack and died (late March). I’ve spent most of the last 10 days or so coping with that grief and all the logistics of getting my dad and her remains back into the U.S. and then getting started on all the paperwork. Death involves a lot of paperwork. When that death happens in another country, the amount of paperwork is even more ridiculous.

So, uh, yeah. My stress levels are through the roof right now, and every time I try to write something, I look at the doc, read the last few paragraphs, and then close it again. I just can’t.

That said, my work situation is at least going to be resolving in a couple of weeks. I am not staying on with the slowly-dying project, but my company has promised to shift me into one of their other, more successful projects, so I won’t be unemployed. Two more weeks, and then I will hopefully be able to draw a deep breath again.

And I miss writing. So I’ve applied to  the Winteriron ‘zine. It’s time to get back on the horse. Wish me luck! Story ideas welcome! 😅

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Facebook algorithm boosts pro-Facebook news

Facebook is a rotten company, rotten from the top down, its founder, board and top execs are sociopaths and monsters, committers of non-hyperbolic, no-fooling crimes against humanity. They lie, they cheat, they steal. They are some of history’s greatest villains. Because Facebook is a terrible company run by terrible people, it periodically erupts in ghastly scandal. Sometimes whistleblowers or reporters reveal historic crimes, including (but not limited to) deliberately helping to foment genocide.

Sometimes, the scandals are contemporary: either Facebook blithely announces it’s going to do something terrible, or we learn of some terrible thing underway from leaks or investigations.

Thanks to a history of anticompetitive mergers — Whatsapp, Instagram, Onavo and more — based on fraudulent promises to antitrust regulators, Facebook has grown to nearly three billion users — except FB doesn’t have users, really — it has hostages.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/dont-believe-proven-liars-absolute-minimum-standard-prudence-merger-scrutiny

As Facebook’s own internal memos show, the company doesn’t just buy up competitors so users have nowhere to flee to, it also engineers in high “switching costs” to make it more painful to leave the system.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

For example, Facebook’s internal memos show that the manager for its photo products set out to seduce users into entrusting FB with their family photos, because that way quitting Facebook would mean abandoning your memories of your kids, departed grandparents, etc.

Everybody hates Facebook, especially FB users. The point of high switching costs, after all, is to increase the pain of leaving so that FB can dole out more abuse to its users without fearing that they’ll quit the whole enterprise.

FB’s mission is to increase the size of the shit-sandwich they can force you to eat before you walk away. But they’re not mere sadists: shit-sandwiches have a business model: the more hostages they take, the more they can extract from advertisers — their true customers.

The polite term for what FB has is a “two-sided market” (selling advertisers to users and users to advertisers). The technical term is “a monopoly and a monoposony” (a monopsony is a market with a single buyer).

The colloquial term?

“A racket.”

A scam. A bezzle. A blight.

Facebook gouges advertisers on rate cards, then lies about the reach of its ads (like when it lied about the popularity of video, evincing a media-wide “pivot to video” that bankrupted dozens of news- and entertainment-sites).

Facebook didn’t set out to destroy journalism by price-fixing ads, lying to advertisers and media outlets.

FB set out to acquire a monopoly and extract monopoly rents from advertisers and publishers, with a pathological indifference to how these frauds would harm others.

Having shown a willingness to destroy journalists and media outlets to extract a few more billions for its shareholders, Facebook has attracted a lot of enemies in the media.

If you’re a whistleblower with a story to tell, there’s a journalist whose editor will allocate the resources to report your story out in depth. The combination of a rotten company and a lot of pissed off journalists produces a lot of bad ink for the company.

But the fact remains that FB has a vast pool of hostages, billions of them, and it gets to decide what they see, when and how. I used to joke with my human rights activist friends that the best use for Facebook was showing people why and how to leave Facebook.

FB’s response was predictable. As Ryan Mac and Sheera Frenkel write in the New York Times, FB’s Project Amplify is a Zuckerberg-led initiative to systematically promote positive coverage of FB and its founder — including articles that originate with FB itself.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/technology/zuckerberg-facebook-project-amplify.html

That is, FB staffers are charged with writing puff pieces about how great the company is, and FB’s algorithm will push these ahead of reporting by actual journalists who present detailed, factual, multi-sourced accounts of the company’s fraudulent and depraved conduct.

Project Amplify marks a pivot from FB’s longstanding policy of issuing insincere apologies for its scandals. Company sources told the reporters that everyone figured out these don’t convince anyone, so the company turned to pushing happy-talk quackspeak instead.

One of the leaders of this project is Alex Schultz, “a 14-year company veteran who was named chief marketing officer last year,” but the major impetus comes from Zuck himself, one of the most hated men on the planet.

Amplify is just one of FB’s strategies for distorting the discourse about itself. In July, it neutered Crowdtangle, an widely used analytics tool that showed that FB’s top posts were unhinged far-right disinformation and conspiracies.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/15/three-wise-zucks-in-a-trenchcoat/#inconvenient-truth

And Facebook has declared all-out legal warfare (accompanied by a disinformation campaign) to kill Adobserver, an NYU project that tracks paid political disinformation on the platform.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/05/comprehensive-sex-ed/#quis-custodiet-ipsos-zuck

By shutting down Crowdtangle and Adobserver, FB hopes to control the academic findings about the company’s role in disinformation, hate, and harassment. The company runs its own research portal where academics are expected to access data about the platform.

But as with the journalists who report on it, FB has heaped abuse on the academics who research it.

Its portal data was bad, leaving PhD and masters’ theses are at risk of retraction. Mid-dissertation researchers have been set back to square one.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/2020-election-misinformation-distortions#facebook-sent-flawed-data-to-misinformation-researchers

In retrospect, Facebook’s decision to game its own algorithm to push pro-company quackspeak seems inevitable. It’s not just that no one believes the company’s apologies anymore (if they ever did) — it’s that the company seems incapable of hiring competent spin doctors.

Take the WSJ’s blockbuster “Facebook Files,” a series of reports detailing the company’s willingness to harm children, commit fraud, and allow millions of favored, powerful people to violate its rules with impunity.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-09-16/facebook-s-promised-to-gain-the-public-s-trust

FB’s response was genuinely pathetic. In a perfunctory blog post, its top flack — the widely despised British politician Nick Clegg, paid millions to front FB on the global stage — vilified the WSJ’s reporting without producing any factual rebuttals.

https://about.fb.com/news/2021/09/what-the-wall-street-journal-got-wrong/

It’s the kind of ham-fisted policy advocacy that Facebook is (in)famous for. Who can forget the absolute shitshow in India over its Internet Basics program, when it bribed telcos to exempt FB and the services it hand-picked from their data-caps?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/12/facebook-free-basics-india-zuckerberg

This Net-Neutracidal maneuver, falsely billed as a way to bring the internet to poor people (something is absolutely does not do), was the subject of a consultation by India’s telco regulators.

FB pushed deceptive alerts to millions of its Indian users, tricking them into sending a flood of form-letters to the regulator urging it to leave Internet Basics intact.

But whoever drafted the form letter didn’t bother to check whether it addressed any of the questions the regulator was consulting on. That made these millions of letters non-responsive to the consultation, so the regulator ignored them.

FB lost! It’s almost as though people who are good at fighting policy battles don’t want to work for Facebook, and the only talent they can attract are the kinds of opportunistic blunderers that no one takes seriously and everyone hates.

Weird, that.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Your idea of madam nie!jgy is really good could u wrt that ?

for those who don’t remember, the Madame Nie!JGY idea is here and here

- on ao3 -

Untamed verse

Paperwork.

The bane of Nie Huaisang’s life.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know he was moderately clever, sometimes scaling up to very clever if he was irritated, but somehow he’d never had the ability to keep facts and figures and exact sentences straight in his head. Any teaching done through rote memorization (in other words, most of it) was wasted on him, and the few things he could keep track of, usually in over-abundant and hyper-specific detail, weren’t the sorts of things that were especially helpful. 

Or, well, they were helpful in figuring out what clothing to wear or whether art was good or bad, and occasionally in being able to figure out where people should sit in a hall in order to either minimize or maximize the opportunity for incidents that would create gossip, but they really weren’t helpful if what you were trying to do was run a very large and very industrious sect.

His brother handled the majority of it, of course, as sect leader, and naturally he hadn’t stinted on hiring talented deputies – admittedly, the Nie sect threw around the word deputy the way an especially enthusiastic firefighter tossed around water and sand, but most sects had a more settled bureaucracy in place than the Nie sect did and it was an important position, even if it was usually just a gateway to being put somewhere you actually fit rather than a permanent spot for most people – but in the end there were some things that required the signature of a member of the Nie clan and Nie Mingjue, Nie Huaisang very reluctantly supposed (if he had to), couldn’t do everything.

He groaned and put his head down on the table.

This never happened when Meng Yao was here, he thought bitterly.

Meng Yao had been one of his brother’s finds, someone he’d promoted in a fit of temper as usual, but to just about everyone’s surprise he had turned out to be amazing at logistics and organization, able to quickly gain expertise in really everything and anything a sect needed to run. After a few months he knew most things, and the things he didn’t know he could either figure out or speculate on with relative accuracy. He’d been amazingly efficient, and it had made Nie Mingjue happy – happy not just to have such good help and to have his taste in subordinates confirmed, but also to see Meng Yao flourishing as his deputy, his real deputy, to see him pleased and respected the way his talents so obviously deserved…

Nie Huaisang sighed. If only his stupid brother had gone ahead and just sworn brotherhood with Meng Yao when the idea had been proposed!

If only he’d done that, Nie Huaisang could have been acting cute and calling Meng Yao – no, wait, it was Jin Guangyao now, he kept forgetting – he could have been calling him ‘san-ge’ right now and hanging off his arm and soon enough Jin Guangyao would yield and do all the work for him, leaving only the actual signing for Nie Huaisang to do. And the work would’ve gotten done better than he would have ever done it, in less time, and he could’ve been spending his precious time doing literally anything else.

Ugh.

Well, he supposed it wasn’t entirely his brother’s fault that the whole plan hadn’t gone through. He hadn’t been the one to back out of the brotherhood idea – that’d been Lan Xichen, for some reason, even though he’d been the one to originally propose the idea, and obviously Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao weren’t going to swear brotherhood without him. It was Venerated Triad, not Venerated Duo.

It was just so unfortunate that the absence of a sworn brother relationship meant that Nie Huaisang had no basis to ask Jin Guangyao to help him out. Or, while he was imagining things, why not just go all the way and imagine that Jin Guangyao could just come back to Qinghe already.

He could run things in a way that made sense and was efficient, which would reduce Nie Mingjue’s stress levels, and Nie Mingjue’s stress levels going down meant that Nie Huaisang’s stress would go down. Way down. And Jin Guangyao’s stress levels would also be way down as well by virtue of, well, being back at Qinghe, where things made sense and he didn’t have to deal with his awful family of his which he seemed to value for some reason that Nie Huaisang didn’t understand and honestly didn’t want to understand. It’d be a win all around!

Ugh.

Life was just better when Jin Guangyao was around.

But what could be done about it? He couldn’t exactly suggest being sworn brothers with Jin Guangyao himself – you needed to do something impressive together to justify that, usually – and for all that he had his brother wrapped around his little finger, he knew perfectly well that Nie Mingjue might hire an unknown man as a deputy in a fit of temper but he’d never hire someone he fired, even if Jin Guangyao were willing to take the role of deputy again. Which he probably wasn’t now that he was all legitimate and recognized and stuff; it was probably beneath him.

If only there were another position available, something not a deputy, not a sworn brother, something where he could just run the Nie sect for the good of everyone –

Wait.

There was.

And, thanks to his brother’s misanthropic ways, the position was available.

Perfect!

-

“Congratulations, da-ge!” Nie Huaisang announced grandly, sweeping into his brother’s study.

“Just tell the treasury to cover the cost of whatever it is you broke or bought,” Nie Mingjue said without looking up, which, first, rude, and second, really? Awesome. Nie Huaisang was going to get so much mileage out of that one.

“Oh, da-ge, really. I wasn’t talking about me –”

“A miracle.”

“– shut up. I was congratulating you! It’s what little brothers like me should do for big brothers like you on the event of their engagement!”

There was a silence of about five deep breaths.

(Or at least, that’s how long Nie Huaisang assumed it was, provided that his brother was listening to his doctor’s orders about managing his anger, which he had damn well better be.)

Nie Mingjue put down the piece of paper he was working on, and gently laid down his brush to avoid breaking it like so many of the others, and looked up at Nie Huaisang, fixing all of his attention on him.

“Huaisang,” he said, his voice only slightly above a growl. “My what now?”

“Your engagement!” Nie Huaisang beamed at him. “The Sunshot Campaign is over, our father is avenged, and you’re already in your mid-twenties – that means it’s time to get moving on finding the perfect Madame Nie, and I’ve got a great candidate in mind for you.”

His brother looked uncomfortable. “Huaisang,” he said, and his voice was almost delicate. “You are aware…”

“I’ve taken your preferences into account,” Nie Huaisang assured him, and he was only mostly lying. His brother had liked Meng Yao a great deal, once upon a time, and even if they’d never actually slept together – his stupid anti-social brother probably hadn’t even hinted that he might be interested, what with the power differential and Meng Yao’s unfortunate familial history – there was no reason he couldn’t like Jin Guangyao, too, if only he’d give him a chance. Just because he didn’t like him right now didn’t mean anything about his preferences generally. “It’s not like I missed the vast increase in the amount of cutsleeve pornography in our library, okay?”

“That was not me.”

“I know it wasn’t you, but you got the benefit of it, didn’t you? Like I said: don’t worry. It’s a man. You can stop worrying, relax, and let me handle it.”

His brother’s face was doing the skeptical look again, the one where he looked like he was seriously doubting Nie Huaisang’s ability to put on clothing in the morning. He wasn’t five anymore, da-ge! Okay, eight, but only because he kept putting stuff on backwards while he was rushing. Maybe ten for formal clothing... “No, Huaisang.”

“No, really, I can –”

“The answer is no, Huaisang.”

That sounded depressingly final.

“What if I do the puppy eyes at you?”

“The answer is still no,” his brother said, going back to his paperwork, although he was smiling a little. “No, you may not set up an engagement for me; no, I will not agree; no.”

Damnit.

Okay, maybe Nie Huaisang should be tackling this from a different angle.

-

“It’s so good to see you!” Nie Huaisang gushed. He wasn’t entirely sure what to call Jin Guangyao now – after all, the other man was a few years his senior, and now that he was recognized by his father there wasn’t a class difference that would make it permissible for Nie Huaisang to call him by name the way he’d used to call Meng Yao. But they’d known each other for years, so Jin-qianbei might come off as pretentious and too formal, Jin-gongzi was definitely too formal, and were they really at the stage where he could call him Jin-xiong?

(Plus he already called Jin Zixuan Jin-xiong, so he’d have to figure out where Meng Yao fell in the hierarchy – except no one had ever clarified one way or the other. He was pretty sure Meng Yao was older, but even if he was it probably wasn’t appropriate to go around calling him Jin-da-ge.)

Now, Nie Huaisang had more or less made it his life policy to adopt virtual strangers as brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles, the more the better, but he also didn’t want to offend Jin Guangyao by making it seem like he didn’t respect his new position.

Especially when he wanted Jin Guangyao to do something for him.

“It’s good to see you too, Nie-gongzi,” Jin Guangyao said, and no, that wouldn’t do at all.

Nie Huaisang poked at him with his fan. “How many times do I have to tell you? Just call me Huaisang, the way da-ge does. You were almost my san-ge, remember?”

“Nie-gongzi…”

“Huaisang!”

Jin Guangyao had an indulgent look on his face. “Very well, Huaisang.”

“Anyway, I know you’re busy with dealing with sect things – that hunt last month was great, sorry about da-ge being overenthusiastic but at least he had a really good time – and stuff like that, but I just wanted to swing by Lanling to congratulate you!” Nie Huaisang said, deciding to take the moment to barrel onwards. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to you last time, and so much has happened since you left Qinghe! You got accepted into the Jin sect! Recognized by your father! Given a name! A fancy title! A position! An engagement! A nice hat!”

“I’m sorry,” Jin Guangyao said. “I got a what?”

“A nice hat!”

“Nice try, Huaisang.”

“Oh, come on, you don’t even know who I’m setting you up with yet!” Nie Huaisang whined. “And it’s not like you don’t want to get married! Weren’t you  thinking of marrying the Qin sect’s girl? I mean, before they backed out on account of swearing vengeance against your father and the Jin sect and all…”

“I appreciate your thoughtfulness, Huaisang,” Jin Guangyao said, gentle and polite as always, but in his own way just as firm as Nie Mingjue. They really would be a good match, and not just because it’d make Nie Huaisang’s life so much easier. “But I’m really much too busy to think about anything like that. Matters in the Jin sect, you understand…”

“But –”

“Huaisang, please.”

Damnit.

-

Nie Huaisang was going to need to think about this.

He hated thinking.

-

“It’s just so unfair,” Nie Huaisang moaned. “Why do people insist on making things hard? When it could be so easy if only they’d listen…”

“It sounds like a real tragedy,” Lan Xichen said, pouring him a cup of tea.

He was just barely managing to resist smiling, which was good – he didn’t smile that much anymore, not since whatever it was that happened to him a month or two back around the time the sworn brother ceremony was supposed to happen. No one knew what it was that happened, not even Lan Wangji (Nie Huaisang had asked), but it was making everyone worried; Nie Mingjue had wanted to go over to demand answers practically ever since but things just kept happening.

Mostly due to Lan Xichen, actually, now that Nie Huaisang thought about it.

First there was that failed sworn brotherhood thing – he’d been the one pushing the idea in the first place, but only a week before they actually did the ceremony Lan Xichen had suddenly showed up at the Unclean Realm, bursting into Nie Mingjue’s bedroom while he was resting during his recovery from the events at the Nightless City, and insisted they call the whole thing off. He’d been pale, his eyes wide and scared, but he’d refused to explain anything no matter how many times Nie Mingjue asked; he’d only been sad and oddly clingy for the entire week, refusing to leave until the planned date of the sworn brotherhood ceremony had passed with it unfulfilled.

Then he’d gone home, and things had seemed to be fine, only after the hunt at Phoenix Mountain and Wei Wuxian’s impromptu theft of a bunch of Wen prisoners of war – neither of which appeared to be due to Lan Xichen, admittedly – and right when everyone had been gearing up to go make a big fuss over it, Lan Xichen had abruptly revealed that he’d been investigating the Jin sect and they were up to their necks in all sorts of unfortunate things.

Secret demonic cultivation experiments, which one might understand, and buying corpses, a subject on which the Nie sect had always been remarkably open-minded, but also stealing beloved corpses and tomb robbing, more-than-likely murder, possibly even massacres of entire small clans, all as part of their experiments, and to top it all off there were a whole big number of rapes attributed to Jin Guangshan personally.

Madame Qin among them, which was why Jin Guangyao’s original marriage plans had fallen through. It wasn’t even worth considering it, not when there was a risk that poor Qin Su, who’d had such a crush on the gallant Jin Guangyao, might be his sister…

Anyway, while the Jin were still too powerful, as a Great Sect, to fully suffer the consequences of their actions, the Jin sect had been disgraced at the very moment that they thought they were on the rise. Jin Guangshan had even been talking about taking up the post of Chief Cultivator following Wen Ruohan’s demise, which he might have been able to swing since Nie Mingjue thought the idea of having a Chief Cultivator at all was bullshit, but now obviously that was completely out of the question.

Plus the whole thing had retroactively cleared Wei Wuxian’s name, leaving him free and clear to return to the Jiang sect as a hero who stood up against Jin sect presumptuousness and overreach when no one else would, which was a pretty big change from his previous political position, which was being widely known as an arrogant and dangerous hothead on the verge of being cast out of the sect for the good of the cultivation world at large despite them very, very obviously not wanting to do it.

Wei Wuxian had even been able to bring the Wen sect members he’d rescued back to the Lotus Pier with him, and now there was even talk that Jiang Cheng might marry Wen Qing (as someone who went to the Cloud Recesses lectures with them both, Nie Huaisang wasn’t surprised by the suggestion at all) once his sister concluded her marriage with Jin Zixuan, which was going to be a far less sumptuous affair than originally planned. After all, the politics of the situation had reversed almost entirely, with the disgraced Jin sect needing the marriage to the reputable (and, thanks in large part to Wei Wuxian, powerful) Jiang sect to help keep what was left of their reputation and influence intact.

Perhaps the Jin sect’s crimes were the reason that Lan Xichen had been acting strangely distant from Jin Guangyao, even though no one had ever proven anything about his involvement – Jin Guangshan’s attempt to throw the blame entirely on his newly adopted son were dismissed as the fabrications they so obviously were – but Nie Huaisang wasn’t so sure.

Lan Xichen wasn’t the sort of person to worry about politics, after all. But then why…?

“Why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind?” Lan Xichen asked, settling in his own seat with his own cup of tea. He looked very serious, as if Nie Huaisang’s opinion on things mattered to him.

It was nice. Most people just looked really long-suffering when they talked with Nie Huaisang, and those were the people that actually liked him.

“Okay,” Nie Huaisang said. “So. Theoretically, if a person were trying to set up a marriage between, hypothetically, two people who would be perfect for each other, and I do mean disgustingly everything-would-be-wonderful-for-everyone sort of perfect, and they were just, you know, refusing for absolutely no valid reason other than their own stupid issues –”

“How in the world did you figure out that I was trying to get Wangji to confess his affections to Wei Wuxian?” Lan Xichen said, sounding stunned. “I didn’t tell anyone…You really are a genius, Huaisang.”

Nie Huaisang blinked, then lifted his head off the table, settling his chin on his hands.

“That actually wasn’t what I was talking about,” he admitted. “But now you have my full attention and I don’t care about my issue anymore. Tell me everything.”

-

“So, fun fact!” Nie Huaisang said, bouncing into his brother’s bedroom just in time to help him undo his braids before sleep. It was his favorite chore, no matter how much his brother protested that it wasn’t a chore and also that he’d been doing it for himself for years and seriously he could do it himself if Nie Huaisang wasn’t so stupidly possessive about being the only one allowed to do it any time they were both at home with violations punished of having Nie Mingjue’s fingers smacked with Nie Huaisang’s fan, all of which Nie Huaisang treated as the irrelevant and pointless statements they were. “I was just over at the Cloud Recesses visiting Xichen-xiong and he’s clearly super into me.”

“What,” his brother said.

Nie Huaisang cackled and dug his fingers into his brother’s thick hair – he was so jealous, his own was thin and stringy and brushing it definitely did not feel like petting a tiger the way it did when he did Nie Mingjue’s hair. He watched in the mirror with satisfaction as his brother’s shoulders immediately relaxed, all the anger and tension flowing out of them at once as a result of Nie Huaisang’s careful training over the years, although Nie Mingjue’s eyebrows still stayed sky high.

“I’m serious!” Nie Huaisang said, starting to release the braids. “He said that he respects me, and that he thinks I’m a genius. He has to have a thing for me. The only possible reason anyone would respect me is if all the blood had left their brain and they were blinded by my overwhelming prettiness!”

His brother seemed torn between denying Nie Huaisang’s statement that no one could respect him and telling him to stop being so full of himself about the overwhelming prettiness comment.

“Maybe Xichen just went insane,” he ended up saying instead. “That seems marginally more likely.”

“An excellent point,” Nie Huaisang acknowledged because, well, it was. “Now, totally unrelatedly, did you know that the Jin sect is treating poor Jin Guangyao just awful? Madame Jin throws things and Sect Leader Jin yells and blames him for stuff and it’s just so sad, we should do something about it.”

“Something like invite him here to live as my brand new bride, I’m guessing,” Nie Mingjue said, voice extremely dry. “You’re incredibly not subtle.”

Nie Huaisang freed a hand and held up a finger pointedly. “Ah, ah! Xichen-xiong says I’m a genius.”

His brother fell silent for a few moments. “You’re right,” he finally said. “He must have a crush on you. Not even insanity would explain this.”

Nie Huaisang sniggered.

“Also, really, Meng Yao?” Nie Mingjue asked. “That was who you were planning on setting me up with? You have to know that wouldn’t work.” He shifted in his chair. “…are they really beating him there?”

Huh, maybe Lan Xichen was right and Nie Huaisang really was a genius.

He wisely decided not to answer – it would work better if his brother investigated and found out the (admittedly fairly awful, according to the servants’ gossip) details for himself – and instead said, “Why’d you kick him out, anyway? I thought he got stabbed saving you. Whatever he did, how big of a deal could it have been, really?”

“He committed premeditated murder. In the middle of an attack on the sect, no less.”

Damnit, Meng Yao! Can’t you make things easy on me for once?!

“Okay,” Nie Huaisang said, tugging on one of the braids until Nie Mingjue, who’d tensed up, relaxed again. It was a nice that his brother was so easily trainable, or at least he was on everything other than saber practice. Surely that was a selling point that Jin Guangyao could appreciate in a man? “Uh. Have you considered that, uh – well, maybe it could have been justified?”

“I asked him for an explanation,” Nie Mingjue growled. “His reason boiled down to ‘that guy was a dick to me’.”

“Wow,” Nie Huaisang said. “I have such strong empathy for Meng Yao’s position, you have no idea.”

“Huaisang.”

“I’m just saying, if we could stab everyone who acted like a dick…”

“Huaisang. No.”

“You know you want to.”

“But I don’t,” Nie Mingjue insisted. “He used the cover of battle, a Wen sword…he even tried to blame Xue Yang for it when I literally saw him holding the sword in his hand! I should have executed him right then and there, and I would have, if he hadn’t saved my life.”

A tricky one, Nie Huaisang thought. But not a match for me, Nie Huaisang: Lan Xichen-certified genius.

“Okay,” he said. “But…you already punished him for that, right? You exiled him. He was exiled. It was all very sad, tears were shed, mostly by me but also a bit by you – we’re an emotional family – and just possibly by Meng Yao, though who even knows, maybe Jin Guangshan’s spawn are all born without tear ducts as a congenital deficiency. But any way you look at it, it’s done now, and that means he can come back!”

“Huaisang. That’s not how exile works.”

“Uh, I think you’ll find that it does,” Nie Huaisang said haughtily. “There are at least five incidents in the Nie sect’s history where something comparable has happened.”

“Really.” His brother’s voice was very, very dry.

“Really,” Nie Huaisang insisted.

“And you, with your amazing ability to retain facts, know this…how?”

“Okay fine, I made that up,” Nie Huaisang confessed. “But I will find some and prove to you that it’s a thing! And then you’ll have no choice but to agree with my plan!”

“That’s not how that works, either,” Nie Mingjue said. “But if you’re willing to knuckle down and do the historical research to justify your bullshit, I’ll – consider it.”

“I will! You’ll see!”

-

“Xichen-xiong!” Nie Huaisang wept, clinging onto Lan Xichen’s arm. “You have to help me! There are so many books! And they’re all so long! They’re doing it just to spite me personally!”

Lan Xichen managed, with a truly remarkable amount of skill, to detach Nie Huaisang from his arm and settle him down in a chair in record time. If Nie Huaisang didn’t know better, he would have guessed that he’d done it before dozens, maybe even hundreds, of times, but of course they didn’t know each other that well.

Pity, that. Nie Huaisang might not need him as urgently as he needed Jin Guangyao, but losing out on having Lan Xichen as his er-ge was also a big downside of the whole not-swearing-brotherhood thing.

“What’s the problem this time, Huaisang?” Lan Xichen asked. He did not seem all that concerned, which...yeah, fair.

“I need you to do some research for me,” Nie Huaisang said, batting his eyelashes at him to see if that would work. “Nie sect history. Please?”

Lan Xichen tensed a little. It was a minute gesture, barely even noticeable. “On…what subject? Does your brother know?”

“Free passage laws and border restrictions,” Nie Huaisang said, and Lan Xichen visibly relaxed. “And of course he knows, he assigned it! Do you think I would do boring old historical research for fun?”

Lan Xichen smiled again, and Nie Huaisang counted it as a victory.

“All right, I’ll help,” he said indulgently, then paused. “Just…this isn’t part of some scheme, right?”

“Of course not,” Nie Huaisang said, injured. “Why would you even ask that? I am the most scheme-less person you could ever meet in your life. There are newborn baby rabbits that are more scheming than me!”

This was because newborn baby rabbits were dicks. Lan Wangji made him hold one once and Nie Huaisang was pretty sure it deliberately pissed on his fingers.

Lan Xichen coughed into his sleeve, just barely managing not to laugh in face. “I’m sure you are. No reason for asking. Did you bring the records you wanted me to look through?”

“By total coincidence, in fact, I did! Not that I would assume that you’d agree, of course.”

“…of course, Huaisang.”

-

“Jin-xiong!” Yes, Nie Huaisang was going for it; Jin Zixuan was just going to have to deal. “Jin-xiong, I have been informed by reliable sources that you’re a big fan of power, am I right?”

Jin Guangyao actually reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose – he must be very tired, to react that way while Nie Huaisang was still present.

In fairness, he really had been having a hard time of it recently. Even putting aside how awful it must be to live with Sect Leader Jin and his wife – it was no surprise (to Nie Huaisang, anyway) that their own son and heir spent a disturbingly large portion of his time visiting the Lotus Pier with his wife, even accounting for having to deal with the world’s most over-protective brothers-in-law – there were all the problems the Jin sect was having, the way Sect Leader Jin’s nasty and arrogant reactions to being challenged only seemed to be making it all worse, and then of course there was also the fact that Nie Mingjue had literally punched Sect Leader Jin in the face after he’d come in unexpectedly and caught him throwing a cup of tea on Jin Guangyao.

(That particular disaster was still ongoing, actually, and at very high volume – Jin Guangyao had been waiting anxiously outside the door, which wasn’t going to do him a single bit of good, but luckily for him Nie Huaisang was here to distract him from all of his troubles. Wasn’t Nie Huaisang a wonderfully nice person?)

“Jin-xiong,” Nie Huaisang whined, tugging on Jin Guangyao’s sleeve until the other man had no choice but to follow him further down the hallway and further away from the receiving room where the current Nie-Jin shouting session was happening behind them. “Tell me. Am I right?”

“You’re really excitable today, Huaisang,” Jin Guangyao said instead of answering. “Are you feeling all right?”

“Actually, I really, really, really hate flying on my saber and I’ve had to do it so often recently, it’s been terrible, you have no idea how much I’ve suffered, but I’m at least marginally hopeful that it’ll all be worth it in the end. But enough about me. You, power…how would you really like to tell your father and his wife where to shove it?”

“Huaisang,” Jin Guangyao said helplessly. “We’re in the middle of Koi Tower. Can you at least keep your voice down?”

Pssh, like Nie Huaisang cared what some Jin sect retainers thought. His brother just punched their sect leader in the face, what in the world was he going to do that would top that?

“Really,” he insisted, deciding to ignore Jin Guangyao’s clearly misplaced objections. “Consider it for a moment. How would you like to obtain fame, power, wealth, legitimacy – of the public-recognition variety, not the familial sort, you got that already – the ability to rub your success into your father’s face and also possibly jump up and down on it a few times, and, just as a bonus, also maybe become Chief Cultivator?”

Technically, wife of the Chief Cultivator, but in reality there was no way he wouldn’t be the one doing all the work. People were being really insistent about there being one, and with Jin Guangshan out of the picture, Lan Xichen acting weirdly shifty, and Jiang Cheng being Jiang Cheng, the entire cultivation world were all currently forming a consensus that it was going to be Nie Mingjue regardless of whether he actually agreed to take the job. So if Nie Huaisang’s poor beleaguered big brother was going to get stuck with the title, why not give the work to someone who’d actually enjoy it?

“Huaisang,” Jin Guangyao said, and his voice was so overtly sorrowful and pathetic that Nie Huaisang actually stopped to goggle at him. “I have never once sought personal power nor pursued ambition on my own behalf, and I regret that you think of me in that way.”

He paused for a moment.

“You can keep talking, though.”

“Excellent,” Nie Huaisang said. “So the plan is –”

-

“Forgive my language,” Lan Xichen said, his voice a little strangled. “But what the fuck?”

Nie Huaisang giggled. “I didn’t know the Lan sect permitted swearing.”

“It doesn’t. I’ll punish myself later,” Lan Xichen said, still staring blankly into space. “I just…they’re getting married? All those changes, and they end up getting married?”

“Technically, they’re eloping,” Nie Huaisang said. “Since they’re not actually getting Jin-xiong’s father’s permission and all…oh, Madame Jin looks angry enough to eat glass. I love weddings!”

Lan Xichen turned to look at him with narrowed eyes.

“Huaisang,” he said warningly. “This was a scheme on your part, wasn’t it?”

“Uh, I mean, okay, maybe a little,” Nie Huaisang confessed. “But only a little. A mini-scheme. A micro-plot. A stratagem. Oooh, did I intrigue? I like that. I’m intriguing.”

“You certainly are that,” Lan Xichen said dryly. “But…why?”

“Because now Jin-xiong – we can still call him that, right? I don’t think his father has the right to take back the name once it’s given, even if he does go ahead and disown him the way he’s threatening to – now Jin-xiong can do all the paperwork and make things run efficiently back home, and also it’s now totally in his best interest to make sure my brother stays sect leader and Chief Cultivator forever because otherwise he loses the basis of his own power,” Nie Huaisang explained. “And thus far I haven’t seen anything that Jin-xiong – oh, I can call him sao-zi now, that’s much more straightforward! – anything that he can’t do if he puts his mind to it. Which means I am now guaranteed to have a nice long life full of sweet, blissful nothing! No responsibilities! Freedom!”

He paused.

“Oh, and obviously they’ll be great together, really happy and all that,” he added. “That’s important too.”

Lan Xichen put his hand up to his forehead, but he was smiling broadly now – not the tiny little smiles Nie Huaisang had managed to steal up out of him up until now, but a big old grin.

“Anyway, now that that’s over and done with, I promise, no more schemes,” Nie Huaisang added, putting his hand on his heart. “This is the last one, okay? If you don’t believe me, you can write it into our marriage vows.”

Lan Xichen huffed a little, clearly not believing him, but he sounded fond about it. “Whatever you say, Huaisang – wait. Hold on. Our what?”

“Our marriage vows,” Nie Huaisang explained. “At our marriage. On account of your total inexplicable crush on me, which upon reflection I have generously decided to accept and return your affections.”

Lan Xichen’s mouth was opening and closing like a fish.

“Of course, we’re not going to be so lucky as to just elope,” Nie Huaisang continued thoughtfully. “Da-ge can’t have a proper wedding ceremony because people will be too afraid of irritating Sect Leader Jin to attend, but if we have a nice big party to announce my engagement to you, well, that’s different, right? They can all come to that. It’ll be like a secret-not-secret wedding that everyone knows is a wedding but with the plausible deniability that it’s totally just an engagement party. But if we have the big announcement, there’s no getting out of doing all the steps and rituals and whatnot, and, oh, we’ll have to deal with your uncle and our elders…it’ll be a disaster, really. So much work!”

He sighed. “Oh, the things I do for you, Xichen-gege! You’re very lucky I like you so much!”

Lan Wangji cleared his throat behind them both, and they turned to look at him – he was standing there with his arm around Wei Wuxian’s waist, which was more or less the same posture he was always in these days. Now that was one marriage – arranged as it might have been originally, with Lan Xichen pressuring Jiang Cheng until he agreed – that had gone very well, even if Lan Wangji was still a little cold with his brother over the extremely aggressive tactics he had employed in getting them together.

“Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials, brother,” Lan Wangji said, somewhat stone faced. “It couldn’t have happened to someone more deserving.”

Wei Wuxian, by his side, smiled and nodded. “If you’d like any help planning the wedding –” he started to say.

“Oh, would you?” Nie Huaisang exclaimed, clapping his hands in excitement. “Wei-xiong, you’re the best. We’re going to need at least a thousand of those spirit summon flags of yours.”

“A – a thousand? Do you know how long it’ll take me to draw a thousand talismans?!”

“Well, how else will we guarantee that we have a hunt so impressive that no one will ever stop talking about it?” Nie Huaisang asked, because obviously that’s what his da-ge would have wanted for his own wedding and since Nie Huaisang messed that up for his own purposes, having it at his was the least he could do to make it up to him. 

Best of all, as the bride, he’d be all decked out in jewelry and fancy clothing and exactly nobody would expect him to participate. Win-win! 

“Chop-chop, Wei-xiong! The wedding’s happening sooner rather than later, so if you think you’re going to have problems keeping up with demand, I’ll send some Nie sect disciples with decent handwriting over to you to learn. I think some of the people sao-zi is bringing with him from the Jin sect have some background in demonic cultivation too, I don’t know, but I’ll find out and let you know as soon as possible. You need to train up some people anyway so that you can ramp up production – once you start selling your talismans, more people will use them, and people will be much less afraid of you. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were both gaping at him. Possibly he had used too many words at once for them – or maybe it was just the speed in which he’d said it?

Lan Xichen started laughing.

“This is fine,” he said, wiping his eyes. “It’s just so much better than – yes, this is fine.”

Nie Huaisang was glad he agreed.

It meant the epic getting-together scheme that he’d had half-planned in the back of his mind in the event Lan Xichen said no could be safely shelved for another day.

Victory!

[reading-writing-revolution]

Heather Cox Richardson

October 4, 2021 (Monday)

“hello literally everyone,” the official account of Twitter tweeted this afternoon, after Facebook and its affiliated platforms Instagram and WhatsApp went dark at about 11:40 this morning. The Facebook outage lasted for more than six hours and appears to have been caused by an internal error. But the void caused by the absence of the internet giant illustrated its power at a time when the use of that power has come under scrutiny.

In mid-September, the Wall Street Journal began to publish a series of investigative stories based on documents provided by a whistle-blower.

The “Facebook Files” explore how the company has “whitelisted” high-profile users, exempting them from the rules that put limits on ordinary users. Another article reveals that researchers showed Facebook executives evidence that Instagram damages teenage girls by pushing an ideal body image and that they flagged the increasing use of the site by drug smugglers, human traffickers, and other criminals; their discoveries went unaddressed.

Concerned about declining engagement with their material, Facebook allegedly privileged polarizing material that engaged people by preying on their emotions. It appeared to have encouraged the extremism that led to the January 6 insurrection, lowering restrictions against disinformation quickly after the 2020 election.

Last night, on CBS’s 60 Minutes, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen revealed herself to be the source of the documents. She is concerned, she says, that Facebook consistently looks to maximize profits even if it means ignoring disinformation. Her lawyers have filed at least eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees companies and financial markets. Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said it was “ludicrous” to blame Facebook for the events of January 6. Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg have not commented.

Lawmakers have repeatedly asked Facebook to produce documents for their scrutiny and to testify about the social media platform’s public safeguards. Tomorrow, Haugen will testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security about the effects of social media on teenagers. Her lawyer, Andrew Bakaj, told Cat Zakrzewski and Cristiano Lima of the Washington Post that Haugen’s information is important because “Big Tech is at an inflection point…. It touches every aspect of our lives—whether it’s individuals personally or democratic institutions globally. With such far-reaching consequences, transparency is critical to oversight, and lawful whistleblowing is a critical component of oversight and holding companies accountable.”

Amidst the outrage over the Facebook revelations, technology reporter Kevin Roose at the New York Times suggested that the company’s aggressive attempts to court engagement reveal weakness, rather than strength, as younger users have fled to TikTok and other sites and Facebook has become the domain of older Americans. He notes that Facebook’s researchers foresee a drop of 45% in daily use in the next two years, suggesting that the company is desperate either to retain users or to create new ones.

While the technology Facebook represents is new, the concerns it raises echo public discussion of late nineteenth century industrialization, which was also the product of new technologies. At stake then was whether the concentration of economic power in a few hands would destroy our democracy by giving some rich men far more power than the other men in the country. How could the nation both preserve the right of individuals to build industries and preserve the concept of the common good in the face of technology that permitted unprecedented accumulations of wealth?

While money is certainly at stake in the issue of Facebook’s power today, the more pressing issue for our country is whether social media giants will destroy our democracy through their ability to spread disinformation that sows division and turns us against one another.

When we began to grapple with the excesses of industrialism, lots of people thought the whole system needed to be taken apart—by violence if necessary—while others hoped to save the benefits the technology brought without letting it destroy the country. Americans eventually solved the problems that industrialization raised for democracy by reining in the Wild West mentality of the early industrialists, protecting the basic rights of workers, and regulating business practices.

The leaked Facebook documents suggest there are places where the disinformation at Facebook could be reined in as the overreaches of industrialization were. When Zuckerberg tried to promote coronavirus vaccines on the site, anti-vaxxers undermined his efforts. But one document showed that “out of nearly 150,000 posters in Facebook Groups disabled for Covid misinformation, 5% were producing half of all posts, and around 1,400 users were responsible for inviting half the groups’ new members.” Researchers concluded: “We found, like many problems at FB, this is a head-heavy problem with a relatively few number of actors creating a large percentage of the content and growth.”

“I don’t hate Facebook,” Haugen wrote in a final message to her colleagues at the company. “I love Facebook. I want to save it.”

While most Americans were busy watching Facebook crash—the falling stock took between $5 billion and $7 billion of Zuckerberg’s net worth—drama in Washington, D.C., was an even bigger deal.

Los Angeles Times reporter Sarah D. Wire noted that the rioters who broke into the Capitol on January 6 ran more than 100 feet past 15 reinforced windows, “making a beeline” to four windows that had been left unreinforced in a renovation of the building between 2017 and 2019. They found the four windows, located in a recessed part of the building, Wire wrote, “by sheer luck, real-time trial and error, or advance knowledge by rioters.”

The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol will likely look into this oddity.

The committee has begun to take testimony from cooperative witnesses. Observers expect fireworks on Thursday when former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, longtime Trump aide Dan Scavino, Trump adviser Steve Bannon, and Trump appointee Kash Patel must hand over documents. Trump has vowed to fight the release of any information to the committee. Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) says the committee will make criminal referrals for anyone ignoring a subpoena.

Finally, today, the debt ceiling fight got even hotter. While Congress passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through December 3, the issue of the debt ceiling, which stops the government from borrowing money Congress has already spent, remains unresolved. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the government will be unable to pay its obligations after October 18, and warns that a default, which has never before happened, would be catastrophic.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) insists the Democrats must raise the debt ceiling themselves, although the Republicans raised it three times under former president Trump and added $7.8 trillion to the debt, which now stands at $28 trillion. But when Democrats tried to pass a measure to raise the ceiling, Republicans filibustered it. As Greg Sargent points out in the Washington Post, McConnell is trying to force the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling through reconciliation, which cannot be filibustered. Since they get only one chance to pass such a bill this year, this would force them to dump their infrastructure bill.

McConnell is holding the nation hostage to keep the Democrats from passing a very popular bill, and today, Biden called him on it. McConnell complained that congressional Democrats were “sleepwalking toward significant and avoidable danger,” prompting Biden to demand that Republicans “stop playing Russian roulette with the U.S. economy.... Not only are Republicans refusing to do their job, but threatening to use their power to prevent us from doing our job—saving the economy from a catastrophic event—I think, quite frankly, is hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful. Their obstruction and irresponsibility knows absolutely no bounds.”

When asked if he could guarantee we would not default on our debts, Biden said, “No, I can’t…. That’s up to Mitch McConnell.” If McConnell doesn’t blink and the Republicans continue to filibuster Democrats’ attempts to save the economy, there will be enormous pressure on the Democrats to break the filibuster.

Meanwhile, every day this drags on, Congress does not pass the Freedom to Vote Act.

[omegatheunknown]

AEW ALL OUT 2021

In which, not to get ahead of myself here, AEW puts on one of the best major wrestling shows in several years*, following the simple yet effective principle of giving the people what they want and sending everyone home happy and hungry for more.

- The incredibly 'Nitro' ending of the go-home Dynamite, which ran a little long on the 'heels beat everyone up and strut around like assholes almost too in desperate need of comeuppance' bit, short of garbage raining into the ring, did actually increase the heat for both promoted matches. Again, not rocket science, but executed perfectly. Catharsis was on the card, and catharsis went over several times Sunday. - Again, it's time to move on from the Casino theme, shuffling the deck and drawing suits really only detracted from the Battle Royale and seemingly always throws the production crew a curve. If they haven't hammered it by now, it's not going to happen. - Bit unhappy about the PAC/Andrade situation, but still over the moon with Andrade's promo style and Chavito being unhelpful at best.

*Pre-Card

Best Friends and Jurassic Express v The Hardy Family Office and The Hybrid 2 (**) - Not usually much to say about a loaded-up multiteam boondoggle, particularly when the show has yet to begin, but there were some moments worth sitting up to take notice -- there's a lot of talent in the ring, even if Jack Evans/Angelico aren't going to be more than mid-level mooks, little matchups with guys like Luchasaurus and Chuck Taylor are opportunities for innovative/weird spots. - Really this match exists to show-off Jungle Boy, play his theme song twice, and work him in to the aforementioned spots. I don't rightly know what Jungle Jack's ceiling is, but it sort of feels like he's plateauing, at least this version of himself. - Dan Lambert thing is interesting in that it doesn't seem to easily lead to something obvious... I mean who are Scorp and Ethan Page feuding with by proxy here, the concept of contemporary professional wrestling? Orange Cassidy and Kenny Omega?

*Main Card

Miro (C) v Eddie Kingston for the TNT Championship (***1/2) - 'Redeem Deez Nuts' T-shirts now available -- and made immediately redundant now that Miro has graciously redeemed Eddie's nuts. - Imagine looking at Miro, listening to Miro talk, and not really being able to figure out this guy is money. Also imagine panicking when he took a little while to find his groove in AEW. 'The Redeemer' is both entertaining and terrifying, and this match delivered heavily on the promise of two big fellas smacking together repeatedly. - Not only does Eddie's arsenal of power moves target Miro's neck, he may also be quite difficult to put in the full reclined camel clutch. Or he'd quite literally snap in half. It didn't come to that. - Weird heel turn by Bryce's attention span and the overall weirdness of the finish is all that kept this from being an excellent match, otherwise this was a tremendous curtain jerker and started off a dangerously fun run of pure adrenaline.

Jon Moxley v Satoshi Kojima (****) - The stakes were nebulous, the build was abrupt, yet this was a fantastic match and tremendous showcase for an underappreciated great who has been more or less just toiling for a bunch of years as a NJPW Dad. Same deal for Nagata, and I assume Tenzan is the same, Taka Michinoku even -- let's see it. - I have to assume the Cozy Lariat might have put Mox down, but Kojima otherwise played the hits (Koji Cutter, Piledriver, Brainbustaaaa) in a big way and Moxley once again proved he's become a very well-rounded wrestler who can match the intensity of just about any former IWGP champion. - More to the point-- KAZE NI NARE -- out of nowhere, too. Or out of nowhere to those not paying attention to the whereabouts of Minoru Suzuki (Right, he's just over here to fight Daniel Garcia and not Mox?), which I guess is to my own peril. Wow, though. Surprise Number 1- a complete surprise, and a welcome one. Let's have it.

Dr Britt Baker, DMD (C) v Kris Statlander for the AEW Women's Championship (****) - I love Kris and her best friends but she didn't have a prayer of dethroning Britt. She got one promo, several weeks ago, and though she did make a meal of Hayter and Rebel, the chase has been abrupt and not given much discussion, other than Mark Henry and whomever else acknowledging what is extremely evident -- Statlander is stronger than she looks, and she looks really strong. They've got her doing Cesaro-level 'modify your grip while holding your opponent's entire weight' nonsense, and it's amazing and scary. - Even with the reign of the good doctor not being credibly threatened, this was an excellent match that demonstrated the continued growth of the competitors in the women's division, even as it underlined that their storylines remain undercooked and perfunctory: Orange Cassidy whipping off his shades to urge Stat to get up was a beautiful moment. Britt's Panama Sunrise, also, too sweet. Statlander eating shit on her 451 and her pendulum moonsault was properly brutal, as were Britt's curb stomps. Really great match between these two. - Again, if they had bothered to write anything into this story, such as Kris' alien physiology making her immune to the lockjaw or something... actually, maybe that's a terrible idea. it's an idea. Undefeated challenger is defeated, on to the next for Dr Britt. Statlander and OC should tag against some of the boys.

The Young Bucks (C) v The Lucha Bros for the AEW World Tag Team Championship(*****+) - Can't not mention the insane entrance lined up for Fenix and Penta. It was bewildering, it was enchanting, it was aggressive, it was hype. It also reminded everybody how very badly we all wanted the Lucha Bros to win. The crowd has been setting new peaks with their volume since Punk showed up, but things were absolutely thunderous and ecstatic at the end of this match. Absolutely valid response. I yelled on the couch. - Nick's facial hair was a bigger tell that it was time for the Bucks to lose than anything else about this build. There's literally nowhere to go from there -- they've done the hair, the bandanas, the kicks, the animal print, the dangly earrings -- peak visual heel for this time and place. - Sincerely thought this was going to be too much of a full sprint spot-fest (the PWG-esque circle of trading blows is not really 'my thing') but even so they kept finding gears, and ramping and ramping and adding blood and brutality along the way. Even a bit of levity, with the tacked up sneaker, followed by the sincerity of Penta throwing himself in harm's way to protect his brother. Immense match, I think you'd have to go back to the Bucks vs the Addiction and MCMGs Ladder War to find a more thrilling tag team gimmick match. - If there's a single flaw to be found it's in the production not really settling on wide angles for simultaneous action at the start of the match. They figured it out. - Rey Fenix is the best luchador in the world.

Women's Casino Battle Royale (**1/2) - If nothing else, this really shows off that they now have a surplus of women's wrestlers who deserve time to hang in the ring. Unsurprisingly, the match picked right up when Thunder Rosa and then Jamie Hayter got to the ring, with additional props to Tay Conti and Jade Cargill, who was dumped rather unceremoniously given her general booking... - Okay, there was something else. Welcome to the rechristened Ruby Soho, who I've not seen a lot of outside of her extremely limited showcase in WWE, but she has so many friends in the back and in the industry and that's never for nothing, not in wrestling, anyway. Intrigued to see where she fits, and if the women ever get more than a match per show. - Touched on this in the preamble but this was the roughest part of the night for the home viewer, just weird decisions on cutting away from various entrances to show... nothing in particular happening. Also while the commitment to not-kayfabing the countdown clock is... admirable? It makes the pacing hinky. - Almost everyone who got new gear for tonight was looking like the white ranger -- Nyla, Swole, Bunny, someone I'm missing. Except Anna Jay, whose stars and glitter gear looked great.

MJF v Chris Jericho for the fate of Jericho's in-ring career (***) - MJF's unauthorized homage to Y2J's entrance: good. Fozzy's guitarist going off tempo with the instrumental Judas: weak, and would've been sad if this were the end for Jericho. Especially as the build has felt... muted, somehow. - Props to the commentary for continuing to feed the red herring of 'in AEW,' as a caveat to stipulation, it did feel like... a remote possibility that MJF would win. - Credit to Aubrey for calling this one down the middle and not putting the fix in for her friend Jericho, and I guess the Dusty finish will give MJF plenty to gripe about. - MJF wrestles with a pure heel style, holds, chops, blocks, and Jericho is fifty years old, so the level of wrestling on exhibition in these matches is well beside the point. It was solid to good, and I was fighting burn out from the first half of the card's level of excitement.

CM Punk v Darby Allin (***1/2) - There are a couple benefits of Darby as a dance partner, and it's certainly better than having to watch Punk return against like, QT Marshall or Shawn Spears. Darby does make everyone look slow, but he can also be tossed around, and this raises his profile even in defeat, obviously. That said, the stakes here are... meta, at best, in that we want to see the man look good and justify the hype. It's a weird thing to root for. He certainly does look good. (Tights? Tights!) - It's fun to theorize about actually booking an angle where Punk is rusty and needs to regain his prowess, and maybe he'll stumble, but maybe the most we get out of that angle is hitting the GTS a little close to the ropes so Darby falls right out of the ring, in what was, for me, the spot that justified this whole match. - Sting's proud step-dad aura is still a hell of a thing, I really liked the end of the match kudos all around. - Match was good, hard to hang my emotions on. I wasn't watching WWE when Punk was in WWE. Definitely feeding off the excitement of others a bit here, and he sure can talk. I'd like to see him cultivate a stable, certainly.

Paul Wight v QT Marshall (n/r) - ...popcorn match? QT Marshall is like the anti-Daniel Garcia in that while his prominence and presence is just as inexplicable, I don't want it to continue, and he doesn't justify it in the process. - Match was two minutes longer than it needed to be.

Kenny Omega (c) v Christian Cage for the AEW World Championship (****1/2) - Crowd was both burnt out and more or less waiting for the post-match angle. Which I get. it's hard to cruise to the main event and having seen all the different things we've already seen on this card, even a singular performer like Kenny Omega and a legend with whom he (surprisingly? fittingly?) has superb chemistry with in Christian Cage were up against it to deliver something memorable. - Context dependent, I can definitely see rating this below their Rampage match, especially since... I mean Christian isn't winning the AEW title off Kenny at this or probably any other event. - But! It was really good! It was very good! They really do match-up well, and Kenny's v-trigger has rarely looked more devastating than when it knocks Christian flat. Christian got cut open in a novel and initially worrying way, and Kenny followed up a botched moonsault with a harder version of the same move off a rail, but it was a really great match and it deserved more energy than was available.

Post-Show - Calling back and inverting the end of Dynamite, The Elite strut about the ring, slightly less stoked than they were on Wednesday, but with the Bucks smiling through the pain, and Jungle Boy once again subjected to violence for his misguided heroism, Kenny 'not much a promo' Omega lays down a killer line about nobody being fit to challenge him who isn't unavailable, already tired or dead. - The Undertaker ADAM COLE, BAY BAY as Surprise #3 was a minor stroke of brilliance, and a fun swerve because while it's exciting to see him, his appearance at this point in the narrative does nothing to solve the problem of The Elite beating up Christian and Jungle Boy. Unless he's still sore about his unsolved murder, which he isn't. Storytime with Adam Cole is back and it's beautiful. Also Jungle Boy died for this. - Okay. But. Just. Okay. CM Punk and Bryan Danielson are All Elite. They will hopefully tag together. Bryan will head to NJPW, almost definitely. Minoru Suzuki just walked in and started slugging on Mox. The Forbidden Door is wide open. Will Kenny Omega one day return to Wrestle Kingdom? There are so many possibilities and they are all very exciting. This was a phenomenal show and it didn't have Hangman Page, Cody Rhodes, FTR, Santana and Ortiz, PAC, Andrade, Sammy Guevara, Team Taz, and the rest.

- Wrestling is good, actually. Imagine watching like five hours of wrestling and loving wrestling at the end of it.

*What competes- WK11, Dominion 2018, 2019, DoN 2019, 2021.. All-In, probably. Wrestlemania 30. A few Takeovers. Kris Wolf's retirement show...