#Using Volume Oscillator

[signode-blog]

Unlocking Trading Potential with Volume Oscillator: A Comprehensive Guide

In the vast ocean of financial markets, traders and investors are constantly seeking tools and indicators to aid their decision-making processes. One such powerful tool that has garnered attention over the years is the Volume Oscillator. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve into what a Volume Oscillator is, how it works, its applications, and strategies for maximizing its…

[literaryvein-reblogs]

hello hello! i love your blog and it has been a fantastic resource for me. if i may ask, how does one go about writing music? my character is put in a situation where listening to a song is a large part of a scene, and i want to describe the song and music itself. while i would describe a guitar or drum, the song i have in mind specifically is mostly digital (think similar to edm) so i'm not sure how to do it. do you have any idea how i could tackle this?

thank you in advance!

Writing Notes: Electronic Music

Electronic Music - any music involving electronic processing, such as recording and editing on tape, and whose reproduction involves the use of loudspeakers.

It is produced from a wide variety of sound resources—from sounds picked up by microphones to those produced by electronic oscillators (generating basic acoustical waveforms such as sine waves, square waves, and sawtooth waves), complex computer installations, and microprocessors—that are recorded on tape and then edited into a permanent form.

Generally, except for one type of performed music that has come to be called “live electronic music”, electronic music is played back through loudspeakers either alone or in combination with ordinary musical instruments.

Musicians are always quick to adopt and explore new technologies.

The fast-paced changes wrought by electrification, from the microphone via the analogue synthesizer to the laptop computer, have led to a wide range of new musical styles and techniques.

Electronic music has grown to a broad field of investigation, taking in historical movements such as musique concrète and elektronische Musik, and contemporary trends such as electronic dance music and electronica.

The Art of Noises (1913) by Luigi Russolo is an important text in the history of electronic music, because it is the first attempt seriously to categorise all sounds and, indeed, to treat them as potential music.

Russolo wrote:

Every manifestation of our life is accompanied by noise. The noise, therefore, is familiar to our ear, and has the power to conjure up life itself. Sound, alien to our life, always musical and a thing unto itself, an occasional but unnecessary element, has become to our ears what an overfamiliar face is to our eyes. Noise, however, reaching us in a confused and irregular way from the irregular confusion of our life, never entirely reveals itself to us, and keeps innumerable surprises in reserve. We are therefore certain that by selecting, coordinating and dominating all noises we will enrich men with a new and unexpected sensual pleasure. Although it is characteristic of noise to recall us brutally to real life, the art of noise must not limit itself to imitative reproduction. It will achieve its most emotive power in the acoustic enjoyment, in its own right, that the artist’s inspiration will extract from combined noises. Here are the 6 families of noises of the Futurist orchestra which we will soon set in motion mechanically:

Rumbles: Roars, explosions, crashes, splashes, booms

Whistles: Hisses, snorts

Whispers: Murmurs, mumbles, grumbles, gurgles

Screeches: Creaks, rustles, buzzes, crackles, scrapes

Noises obtained by percussion: Metal, wood, skin, stone, terracotta etc.

Voices of animals and men: Shouts, screams, groans, shrieks, howls, laughs, wheezes, sobs

In this inventory we have encapsulated the most characteristic of the fundamental noises; the others are merely the associations and combinations of these.

Some Electronic Music Vocabulary

ADSR – Stands for Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release – refers to the envelope [i.e., characteristic of a sound (e.g. volume or filter) as it changes over time; can be used as a tool to shape a sound over time] applied to a sound to shape it over time. Can be applied to the volume, filter, pitch or more. Can make things sound plucky, soft, or ambient etc.

Aliasing – Subtle distortion that occurs in the digital realm when the input frequency is higher than the sample rate. The sample cannot be measured accurately and thus introduces imperfections into the sound.

Ambience – Can refer to a sound in a track which creates a sense of space or atmosphere – typically achieved by the use of time-based audio effects such as delays and reverbs. Also can refer to the level of sound in a recording that contains background noise, separate to the intended recording. Typically this background noise is undesirable, but sometimes it is an aesthetic choice.

Arpeggiator – A MIDI Effect that turns a static chord into an arpeggio. If that doesn’t make sense, it makes things go bleep-bleep-bleep.

Atmosphere – A sonic effect created by reverb, long tails and quieter sounds. Referred to as the background of a track.

Beat Repeat – A type of effect that takes audio as an input and repeats the snippet back at timed intervals to create a glitch effect.

Chill – A loosely-defined term to describe the sound of more relaxed, deeper and melody-driven music in electronic music. Sometimes people refer to this as a genre in itself.

Distortion – The processing of audio such that extra harmonics and loudness are added, creating a more fuller or aggressive sound. Distortion types include tube, clipping, tape, diode, overdrive, fuzz and many more.

Doppler Effect – The sonic effect of frequencies sounding higher pitched when moving closer to an audio source, and lower pitched when moving away. Like when you drive past a police siren.

Formant – A vocal quality of a sound relating to vowels, and a filter type that achieves a vowel-like sound. If you’ve ever heard an ‘oooh’ or ‘aaah’, then you’ve heard what a formant sounds like.

Gate – An audio effect that reduces the volume of a sound once it passes below a certain threshold. It’s good for reducing background noise or unwanted sounds in a recording or sample. Just like your gate at home stops unwanted people coming into your house.

Glide – Portamento—when the pitch slides evenly from note to note

Lazer – A type of sound made by a synth that features fast-moving pitch envelopes to create a ‘pew pew’ type effect.

Masking – A phenomenon when two sounds with similar frequency content cause one to become ‘buried’ due to phase cancellation or differences is loudness. For example, two piano sounds playing at the same time might cause one of them to sound less powerful and thin in the mix.

Normalize – Increases a waveform’s level to its highest before it becomes distorted

Panning – The process of moving a sound either left or right in the stereo field. Panning is a great mix technique to achieve width and space.

Polar Pattern – The way a microphone picks up a sound. Some pickup sound in many directions, others only in one direction, and everything in between.

Reflections – Part of a reverb that creates echoes based off sounds hitting walls and bouncing around rapidly.

Transient – The initial start point of a drum sound, where the audio goes from near silence to sudden loudness. Sounds clicky.

Voice stealing – When a synthesizer is programmed to play more sounds than accessible voices shuts down some present voices so new tunes can be played

Tips for Writing About Music

The most important step when writing about music is to write, read, and listen to as much as possible. Writing hones your voice, while reading exposes you to various styles and information that will shape your writing. The wider the range of music you embrace and study, the better your perspective and critical ear.

Read about music: Understand as much as possible about music, from instrumentation to how artists create their song lyrics. Reading also helps teach the technical vocabulary specific to certain genres. To help you gain a better command of music, use music writing reference books, such as A Short Guide to Writing About Music by Jonathan Bellman and How to Write About Music, edited by Marc Woodworth and Ally-Jane Grossan. Both of these works discuss how to research and write about music effectively, and are great resources for new music writers.

Stay informed: Develop an understanding of news, events, and cultural conversations that inform songwriters. For example, understanding the politics behind Russian feminist collective/punk group Pussy Riot is necessary if you want to write an informed piece on their output.

Learn music theory: The more informed your technical language, the better your music writing will be. Elements such as BPM, timbre, crescendos, adagio, and other music sounds will help you more deeply understand a particular piece of music and its relationship to other songs on an album.

Listen to music: Don’t only listen to genres that you prefer, but expand your ear to different types of music. Artists are inspired by music across time and genre, and the best music critics recognize those references.

Put work out: Whether you join your school’s paper, do creative writing, or start your own blog, getting eyes on your work is imperative to improving your music writing. There are also online resources that aggregate opportunities and writing prompts for writers of all experience levels, providing a great opportunity for new writers to get their foot in the door.

Pitch to publications: Online and print publications are always looking for new pitches from writers. The more places you pitch, the more likely it is that you will sell a piece. Don’t be discouraged if you pitch one outlet and never hear back. Lean into your passion, keep writing, and pitch some more.

Also describe the effects of the song to your character/s. The effects of music can be described using various adjectives like relaxing, calm, refreshing, soothing, etc.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Thanks so much, really glad to hear this! Choose which of these notes would be most appropriate to incorporate in your story. Do go through the sources as there are more information I wasn't able to include here.

Another reference on music-related terms, plus some great additions. And more resources that could help with describing sounds and scenes related to music in your story:

Words to Describe Sounds

100 Sensory Words

Some Percussion Instruments

Some Pop Music Vocabulary

Writing Template: Singing Scene

Finding the right words that could accurately describe the specific song you have in mind to your readers is one way to tackle this, but it's definitely a challenge. Hope you find the right words/references here!

[pikahlua]

MHA Chapter 418 spoilers translations

This week’s initial tentative super rough/literal translations under the cut.

1-2 みんな嫌いだ みんなきらいだ minna kirai da "I hate everyone."

tagline 1 デクが見つけたものそれはーー… デクがみつけたものそれはーー… DEKU ga mitsuketa mono sore wa--... As for what Deku found--...

tagline 2 No.418　小さな心　堀越耕平 ナンバー418　ちいさなこころ　ほりこしこうへい NANBAA 418  chiisana kokoro  Horikoshi Kouhei No. 418 A Small Heart Kouhei Horikoshi

3 群訝で感じたのと同じーーーーー… ぐんがでかんじたのとおなじーーーーー… gunga de kanjita no to onaji-----... It's the same as what I felt at Gunga-----...

tagline 3 コミック40巻4月4日（木）発売‼︎GETしてね！ コミック40かん4がつ4か（木）はつばい‼︎ゲットしてね！ KOMIKKU 40kan 4gatsu 4ka (moku) hatsubai!! GETTO shite ne! Comic volume 40 release on Thursday, April 4th!! Get it!

4 しがっ Shiga "Shiga-"

1 モンちゃん？ MON-chan? "Mon-chan?"

2-3 ここで初めて「崩壊」が発現したんだ ここではじめて「ほうかい」がはつげんしたんだ koko de hajimete 「houkai」 ga hatsugen shitanda This is where the first Decay manifested.

4 転弧ー てんこー Tenko- "Tenko-"

5 あのね…… ano ne...... "You know what......"

6 あのね…… ano ne...... "You know what......"

7 そんな……そういう事か…！ そんな……そういうことか…！ sonna......sou iu koto ka...! No way......So it was something like that...!

8 この後起きる事… このあとおきること… kono ato okiru koto... What happens after this...

9 ハッ HA "Hah" (Note: This is the sound of Tenko hyperventilating, which repeats all through the rest of the page.)

10 ここが核心 ここがかくしん koko ga kakushin This place is the core [of it all].

11 やああ yaaa "YAAA!!"

1 ここで決着をつける！ ここでけっちゃくをつける！ koko de kecchaku wo tsukeru! I'll settle this here!

2 記憶が具象化する世界…！ きおくがぐしょうかするせかい…！ kioku ga gushouka suru sekai...! [In this] world materialized by memories...!

3 イメージしろ！ IMEEJI shiro! Visualize!

4 離すな‼︎ はなすな‼︎ hanasuna!! Don't let go!!

5 思い出し続けろ"手"を‼︎ おもいだしつづけろ"て"を‼︎ omoidashi tsudzukero "te" wo!! Keep recalling* [my] hands!! (Note: This word for "recall" also means "remember." I used "recall" because I thought it made for a good pun.)

6 & 8-9 OFAは全部ぶつけた！ ワン・フォー・オールはぜんぶぶつけた！ WAN FOO OORU wa zenbu butsuketa! I struck with all of One For All!

7 なんで…！ nande...! "Why...!"

1 僕自身をぶつけろ！ ぼくじしんをぶつけろ！ boku jishin wo butsukero! Strike with myself! (Note: I think Izuku is saying that he used all of the OFA vestiges to strike at Tenko, so now he's using himself to strike at Tenko too.)

2 だって datte "Because"

3 泣いてる ないてる naiteru "you're crying."

4 違うよ… ちがうよ… chigau yo... "You're wrong..."

5 僕は… ぼくは… boku wa... "I..."

6 僕が… ぼくが… boku ga... "[It was] I [who]..."

7 選んだんだ えらんだんだ erandanda "chose [this]."

8 転弧の感情が…なだれ込んでくる！ てんこのかんじょうが…なだれこんでくる！ Tenko no kanjou ga...nadarekonde kuru! Tenko's emotions...are surging [at me]!

9 僕の意志で…この家を…家族を壊したんだ… ぼくのいしで…このいえを…かぞくをこわしたんだ… boku no ishi de...kono ie wo...kazoku wo kowashitanda... "By my will...I destroyed this house...my family..."

10 じゃなきゃ ja nakya "Otherwise,"

11 この手はなんなんだ このてはなんなんだ kono te wa nannanda "what are these hands for?"

1 僕がこうして生まれた事を ぼくがこうしてうまれたことを boku ga koushite umareta koto wo "That I was born like this,"

2 誰が肯定できる⁉︎ だれがこうていできる⁉︎ dare ga koutei dekiru!? "who can confirm it!?"

3 最も繊細で柔らかいところ もっともせんさいでやわらかいところ motto mo sensai de yawarakai tokoro It is the most delicate, soft place.

4 弾かれる…‼︎だめだ離すなーーーー！ はじかれる…‼︎だめだはなすなーーーー！ hajikareru...!! dame da hansuna----! [He's] repelling [me]...!! No, don't let go----!

5 強い憎しみとカタルシス…… つよいにくしみとカタルシス…… tsuyoi nikushimi to KATARUSHISU...... Powerful hatred and catharsis......

6 そして同時に そしてどうじに soshite douji ni and at the same time,

7 悲しみと困惑…！ かなしみとこんわく…！ kanashimi to konwaku...! sadness and confusion...!

8 この時まだ転弧は揺れていた…！ このときまだてんこはゆれていた…！ kono toki mada Tenko wa yurete ita...! At this time, Tenko was still oscillating...!

1-2 手を離せ…！ てをはなせ…！ te wo hanase...! "Let go of my hands...!"

3 殺して止める以外方法がないかもしれない ころしてとめるいがいほうほうがないかもしれない koroshite tomeru igai houhou ga nai kamoshirenai There may be no other way than to kill and stop him.

4 具体的にどうすればいいのかもわからないけれどーーーー… ぐたいてきにどうすればいいのかもわからないけれどーーーー… gutaiteki ni dou sureba ii no kamo wakaranai keredo----... I don't know exactly what I should do, but----...

5 僕は手を ぼくはてを boku wa te wo "For me, [my] hand..."

6 流れ込んでくる ながれこんでくる nagarekonde kuru It's flowing [into me].

7 憎しみが……！ にくしみが……！ nikushimi ga......! His hatred......!

8 壊れる…！こんな…！ こわれる…！こんな…！ kowareru...! konna...! I'll break...! Like this...!

9 手を掴んでもらって てをつかんでもらって te wo tsukande moratte "when someone held my hand"

10 安心したから あんしんしたから anshin shita kara "I felt relieved, that's why."

1 だから……来たっ だから……きたっ dakara......kita "That's why......I am here*." (*Note: Literally this means "I came/arrived," but it's the same word All Might uses that always gets translated as "I am here.")

1 みっくん Mikkun Mikkun.

2 ともちゃん… Tomo-chan... Tomo-chan...

3 じゃあ転ちゃんがオールマイトね！ じゃあてんちゃんがオールマイトね！ jaa Ten-chan ga OORU MAITO ne! "So then, Ten-chan is All Might!"

4 ううん uun "No."

1 僕は敵だ ぼくはヴィランだ boku wa VIRAN da "I am a villain."

2 悪意を持って あくいをもって akui wo motte "I carry malice,"

3 壊す こわす kowasu "and I destroy."

4 たとえ憎しみを…打ち砕かれようと たとえにくしみを…うちくだかれようと tatoe nikushimi wo...uchikudakareyou to "Even if my hatred...is smashed,"

5 からっぽになろうと karappo ni narou to "even if I become empty,"

1-2 敵のヒーローにならなきゃ あいつらのヒーローにならなきゃ aitsura (kanji: VIRAN) no HIIROO ni naranakya "I have to become their (read as: the villains') hero."

3 …やっちまえ ...yacchimae "...Just do it."

4 こんな世の中 こんなよのなか konna yo no naka "A world like this,"

5 ブッ潰せ ブッつぶせ BUttsubuse "crush it."

6 壊してくれよ こわしてくれよ kowashite kure yo "Destroy it [for me]."

7 トムラシガラキ TOMURA SHIGARAKI "Tomura Shigaraki." (Note: This is spoken as though in a language like English where one's given name comes before their family name.)

8 指が崩れていくぞ…‼︎ ゆびがくずれていくぞ…‼︎ yubi ga kuzurete iku zo...!! "The fingers are going to collapse...!!"

9 中は…緑谷は一体ーー なかは…みどりやはいったいーー naka wa...Midoriya wa ittai-- "Inside...Midoriya, just what is--"

1 志村さん しむらさん Shimura-san "Mr. Shimura."

2 ああ！ aa! "Ah!"

3 甲賀建設の！ こうがけんせつの！ kouga kensetsu no! "[You're the one] from Kouga Construction!"

4 腰痛ですか ようつうですか youtsuu desu ka "Lower back pain, is it?"

5 なんだ？ nanda? What's this?

6 年々酷くなって参りますよ ねんねんひどくなってまいりますよ nennen hidoku natte mairimasu yo "Every year it's getting worse."

7 良い医者紹介しましょうか？ いいいしゃしょうかいしましょうか？ ii isha shoukai shimashou ka? "Shall I introduce you to a good doctor?"

8 いやあそこまでしてもらうXでは iyaa soko made shite morau X de wa "Oh no, for you to go that far for me..." (Note: The last kanji/furigana in this speech bubble is illegible, but I think the gist of this line is pretty clear.)

1 なんだこの記憶 なんだこのきおく nanda kono kioku What is this memory?

2 そうですね手は掛かりますが… そうですねてはかかりますが… sou desu ne te wa kakarimasu ga... "That's right, he's a bit of a handful, but..."

3 "個性"はもう？ "こせい"はもう？ "kosei" wa mou? "Still no quirk?"

4 それがまだ… sore ga mada... "Not yet..."

5 知らない しらない shiranai I don't know it.

6 …転弧のじゃない… …てんこのじゃない… ...Tenko no ja nai... ...This isn't Tenko's...

7 なんだ nanda Who

8 こいつは koitsu wa is this guy?

1 ああ…愚かな器…！ ああ…おろかなうつわ…！ aa...orokana utsuwa...! "Ahh...foolish vessel...!"

2 何者でも無い少年に心をねじ伏せられるとは なにものでもないしょうねんにこころをねじふせられるとは nanimono demo nai shounen ni kokoro wo nejifuserareru to wa "To have your heart made to yield by some nobody boy."

3 弱いまま強くあろうなどああ愚かな志村転弧 よわいままつよくあろうなどああおろかなしむらてんこ yowai mama tsuyoku arou nado aa orokana Shimura Tenko "Though you've become strong, you remain weak. Ahh, foolish Tenko Shimura."

4 おまえは今まで おまえはいままで omae wa ima made "Even though until now, you"

5 何一つ選んでなどいないのに なにひとつえらんでなどいないのに nani hitotsu erande nado inai noni "haven't chosen a single thing."

tagline 出づるAFO！死柄木、デクはーー… いづるオール・フォー・ワン！しがらき、デクはーー… idzuru OORU FOO WAN! Shigaraki, DEKU wa--... All For One emerges! As for Shigaraki and Deku--...

[darklightsworld]

So, about the new BeruBara movie in detail. I rushed to watch it, because the visitor present was the above genga copy <333 Pretty amazing, because even the exhibition last summer did not have genga copies in the goods corner (aside from the very expensive ones). In this sense I consider the price of the ticket well spent. It is shrunken to A4 (from B4), so I can even use it in class. Until now I only had a B4 original and several B5/A3 copies, and it isn't convenient to bring those to the uni. Anyway, I hope they will announce the week 3 present soon. I'm not so keen on the Fersen-Antoinette genga next week, but I would get that if the others aren't genga anymore.

This was the good, now onto the bad. It was bad, I was oscillating between cringing and secondhand embarrassment for a good part of the movie. One of the reasons in kind of subjective, but the bigger reasons are objective. First about the subjective: I don't like musicals. I already suspected from the trailer that they might go into that direction, because the theme song screams "musical song™️." That song is so bad too, and it also showcases the typical "let's throw English phrases into the lyrics, because they sound cool" attitude. But the thing is, Berubara takes place in France ^^; Anyway, I guess they might have gone into this direction, because Berubara has been a longstanding success with Takarazuka. Also something I'm not touching with a ten-foot pole. I'm not sure how Takarazuka fans liked the movie, but from an anime perspective, it was weird. This isn't Disney, anime rarely crosses over into musical, and even those instances aren't successful (I don't mean idol series, that's something else). Even this movie isn't actually a full-fledged musical, often it's like image/character songs sung by the cast added for certain reasons. This latter is also questionable, not all of the cast are nice to listen to... (see singer vs. seiyuu made to sing). The opening/theme song resurfaces more than once, and it becomes ridiculous when the uprising Parisians start to sing the same song used to welcome Antoinette in the beginning in a different arrangement. The song inserts are often used to rush through or gloss over things, but I will come back to this later. The symbolism used in some of these scenes is a mess too: art nouveau motifs for a rococo story... or the underwater imagery ^^;;;

Now, about the objective faults. This is not a well-made anime:

Visually, there are some/several money shots, but otherwise the sakuga is a lackluster. They clearly did not have enough money to make it movie quality. The visual style of the manga is old-fashioned, seen as kind of cheesy, and it has its fair share of parodies. It was a question whether the anime can honor this style without turning into its own parody. I don't think it always succeeded, hence my secondhand embarrassment. The musical parts also used a lot of bank shots in the name of "memories," so I guess those were also meant to save money.

The biggest issue is, however, the narrative. You could already see in the trailer that they would cover the whole story. Seeing that Berubara is a 10+ volume long series with 30+ years passing in the story, the movie was... ambitious, to say the least. Unfortunately the movie did not succeed to make it a coherent story. I blame the director too, because even though I think such a approach was bound to fail, it could have been better even among these circumstances.

The movie feels like a summary, or maybe a highlights reel, and I'm afraid it isn't understandable to those who don't know the story beforehand. Quite often the scenes are disjointed without any transition. Many subplots are only visually mentioned, and not even spoken about: the Dubarry issue appears during an image song, the gambling-Polignac-necklace affair during a narration (not mentioned by name), Jeanne does not appear. Rosalie appears in one scene, Bernard as well. Bernard gets named, but you may wonder why, because he does not become important for the plot. Robespierre is a single image too. I think they could have completely erased these, if they were reducing them to these mentions. They kind of feel like sending a message to fans that yeah, we know there's more to the story, but we don't have time to deal with them, so here, have some bullet points. I would have preferred a coherent plot instead... Btw, he noble thief plot is erased, André loses his vision in a different way. Girodelle asking for Oscar's hand seems so out of the blue, like, who were you again? ^^; Fersen is also dropped after they get together with Antoinette (except for a moment mentioned below). It is really bewildering.

As a fan you know what happens in-between, but if you don't know the story, it is difficult to understand the whys and hows. Btw, one of the worst gloss-overs is the Oscar in a dress scene (see above genga). Based on the movie it is already difficult to see where those feeling came from, but when she starts to dance with Fersen it turns into an image song of the four mains, and the unsuspecting viewer has no idea what happened there ^^;;; As mentioned, the musical parts had many repetitions, and with so little time to unfold any plot, they felt a waste of the little available time.

The characters feel very superficial because of rushing through the plot. If you don't know the story, you can only ask why this or that happened. Like, when did Oscar develop feeling for Fersen? And then for André? And so on. There is no show, only tell, and often not even that. Antoinette also loses later character development, and seems to be the selfish queen the French people paint her as. The plot starts to become more coherent after Oscar leaves the court, but even though there is character development for her, most of the political issues that influence her earn barely a mention. So yeah, superficial.

The story ends at the storm of the Bastille (iykyk), and the rest of the history is only narrated in etching style. I would have loved anime style illustrations.

These were the main issues I can remember off the top of my head. I think making a single movie out of this long story was an impossible undertaking to begin with, but it also could have been way better than this. More money for quality animation would have been necessary, also a coherent plot with more nuanced characters.

[mybeingthere]

Bob Bruch is a potter from Ohio who makes beautiful structured vessels.

Bob tells:

"When I started making coiled pots, I began to look at the ceramic art of various cultures including the work of the southwestern pueblos. What interested me most were the construction methods which I adapted to my own interests. What I discovered was that these techniques have been in use for thousands of years and have been used all over the globe. Flash forward 54 years and I am still making pieces using some of these very early techniques.

Eventually I became interested in creating containers and vessels that were asymmetrical in shape. I found that as I would shape a deliberate edge line to finish each piece, the tension and dialogue between the fluid rim lines and the asymmetrical volume conveyed the movement of dynamic energy.

This gave me an entree to explore ideas about energy in the natural world. Each piece in this series represents a moment in time in which the movement of each wave can be seen to have influenced the trajectory of the other elements moving fluidly in a similar, circular, or opposite direction. There is also the suggestion of the future direction as these waves create currents, surges, collisions, oscillations and whirlpools.

I find myself working to incorporate aspects of the ancient craft of making containers into ideas that belong in the world of 21st century sculpture."

[mysticstronomy]

CAN GRAVITY FORM WAVES??

Blog#456

Saturday, November 23rd, 2024

Welcome back,

Yes, gravity can form waves. Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime that travel through the universe. If you think of gravity as a force acting at a distance, it is difficult to visualize how gravitational waves could form. However, if you use the more accurate description of gravity that was developed by Einstein in his general theory of relativity, these concepts become more logical.

General relativity describes gravity as a warping or curvature of space and time. All objects warp spacetime. When other objects travel through this warped spacetime, they end up traveling along curved paths. These curved paths look like they result from a force being exerted on the objects, when in reality they result from spacetime itself being warped. For instance, when you throw a baseball to your friend, it follows a smooth parabolic trajectory under the influence of gravity. Isaac Newton's laws would say that earth's mass is creating a gravitational force which acts on the baseball, gradually pulling the baseball down from straight-line motion.

However, the more accurate description goes like this: The earth warps space and time. The baseball is actually traveling in a straight line relative to spacetime, but since spacetime itself is curved, this straight line becomes a curve when viewed by an external observer. In this way, there is not really any direct force acting on the baseball. It just looks that way because of the spacetime warpage. If all of this sounds too strange to be believed, you should know that Einstein's general relativity has been mainstream science for over a hundred years and has been verified by countless experiments.

In principle, all objects warp spacetime. However, low-mass objects such as houses and trees warp spacetime to such a small extent that it's hard to notice their effects. It takes high-mass objects such as planets, moons, or stars in order for the gravitational effects to be noticeable. The more mass an object has, the more it warps spacetime, and the stronger its gravitational effect on other objects. For instance, a black hole has such a high amount of mass in such a small volume that even light cannot escape. Inside the event horizon of a black hole, spacetime is so strongly warped that all possible paths that light can take eventually lead deeper into the black hole.

Since spacetime warpage is caused by mass, the warpage travels along with the mass. For instance, earth warps the surrounding spacetime into an inward-pinched shape (roughly speaking). As the earth travels around the sun in its year-long orbit, this pattern of spacetime curvature travels along with the earth. An observer that is stationary relative to the sun and is at a point close to earth's path would see the earth get closer and then farther away, closer and then farther away, in one-year cycles.

Therefore, this observer would see earth's pinched spacetime pattern come closer and then farther away, closer and then farther away, in one-year cycles. Because the observer himself sits in spacetime and experiences it, the observer therefore sees his own local spacetime as being pinched, and then not pinched, pinched and then not pinched, in one-year cycles. The observer is therefore experiencing an oscillation of spacetime curvature that is traveling outward from the earth, i.e. a gravitational wave.

This actually happens in the real world. However, in practice, gravitational waves are so incredibly weak that they have no significant effect on daily life. The oscillating spacetime warpage of a passing gravitational wave is far too weak for humans to notice or feel. Only very sensitive, expensive, modern equipment is able to detect gravitational waves. In fact, it took a hundred years after Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves for technology to improve enough to be able to detect them.

Originally published on https://www.wtamu.edu

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, November 27th, 2024)

"HOW NEGATIVE TIME WAS PROVEN??"

[phoenixyfriend]

Hi please consider: Vivi and Sanji are, ostensibly, of the same social class.

Vivi and Sanji are arranged into a marriage.

Vivi's assistant/secretary/handmaid is Nami. Sanji's bodyguard (which he doesn't need but it's a whole situation about being royal) is Zoro.

Technically, for Reasons, Zoro and Nami also get married. On paper.

Every night one of each duo hops the fence, high fives, and goes off to do ZoSan and NaVi shipping instead. (You know, like this post about Mercutio and Romeo.)

Arranged royal marriages but make it shenanigans instead of Sad.

Admittedly I'm not super into NaVi but I am a fan of Zoro and Nami as a duo and I think them bearding for each other would be hilarious.

It's not about military support like the Big Mom thing; Germa want to exchange their tech (desalination plants) to Alabasta for raw materials (beach-beaten sand, used for concrete).

God, this would work out so well for all of them.

Nami is so weird about girls that the flirty friendship just gets treated as Normal, especially since Vivi is fairly shy about romance.

Sanji is ludicrously over the top about girls and will dote on his wife, publicly, at volume, even if they're not in romo.

Vivi gets a marriage that her royal court will allow, to a friend who gets to leave a bad situation, and they can both live with it.

Sanji and Zoro will fight like the bitches they are.

Nami and Zoro will oscillate between saltmates and a dynamic that really has people making "Ah, the old ball and chain, huh?" jokes because of the whole debt thing.

BECAUSE SOMETIMES TOXIC HET MEMES MAKE IT SO YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO TRY TO BE IN LOVE

Sanji and Vivi are doing their best to sell it (it's easy, they aren't expected to be in love, they're already friends), while Nami and Zoro, despite actually being friends who would die for each other, are leaning into toxic heterosexuality for the gag.

They want people to suggest couples counseling.

They want to be so toxic that people get concerned.

Someone tries to hand Zoro a pamphlet about financial abuse and he just takes one look, stares them in the eye as he puts it in the trash or shredder, and then says "I can't read."

And leaves.

(Which is not a funny subject, but is a funny reaction.)

Nami: I have a great sense of direction and he has no sense of direction at all. Nami: I'm fun and he's no fun at all. Nami: I've got tons of money and he's got none at all. Nami: We can both drink the rest of the world under the table. Nami: We complete each other.

"That's not a basis for a relationship." "It isn't? Shame."

[mousoumanager]

The EMS Synthi AKS is a portable analog synthesizer made in the early 1970s by Electronic Music Studios (UK). It's famous for its matrix patchboard instead of patch cables, allowing users to connect oscillators, filters, envelopes, and other modules in a unique, compact format. It has a distinctively experimental, unpredictable sound, ideal for sound design, ambient textures, and electronic effects.

Usage:

Commonly used for spacey effects, glitches, drones, and modular-style sound exploration.

Known for creating robotic, alien, and cinematic textures.

Notable artists, songs, and albums:

Pink Floyd – “On the Run” from The Dark Side of the Moon (1973): the Synthi AKS was used to build the entire sequenced synth line.

Brian Eno – featured throughout Another Green World (1975) and Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978): used for ambient textures and sonic experimentation.

Jean-Michel Jarre – used in Oxygène (1976) and Équinoxe (1978): for spacey effects and sweeping synth patterns.

Aphex Twin – rumored use on Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1994): for eerie, modulated soundscapes (though not officially confirmed).

Daft Punk – used during the production of Random Access Memories (2013): particularly for layering effects and unusual timbres on tracks like Touch.

The Synthi AKS is a cult classic—unpredictable but powerful for those who embrace its quirks.

[my-own-walker]

Hi! I really like your fictions! Could you write one where Evan is getting a little tipsy (don't know, like he just came back from a party late at night but the reader is sleeping and he's just a noisy ass coming home but he's still horny af) thanks a million in advance xoxo

Heat Wave

note: i know the above pic is literally not him but it looks so close i gotta use it

warnings: drunk s3x (but it’s okay bc he wants it), sm*t, oral f receiving

+++

It was unbearably hot in the city. The apartment's air conditioning was simply not cutting it. The night was disgustingly stuffy. The fan in the corner of the room oscillated from side to side, but could not sufficiently move the stifling air.

I spent the night tossing and turning, sleeping in only panties and a tank top to try to keep myself cool. Nothing worked. The stickiness in the air was bothersome, and I plainly could not sleep. And what made it worse? The only person that could cure my insomnia was out at a cast party.

Evan's new project had just wrapped, which meant a large celebration for all involved. He spent the night texting me photos from the bar they ended up at, but after a while, they stopped coming in. I figured he was having too much fun to even regard his phone, so I settled into bed to try to get some sleep. I struggled to sleep every time he was out late, but this time was especially torturous given the temperature.

I looked at the clock on the bedside table. 2 am. I groaned externally and flipped onto my side. As a last-ditch effort, I threw the duvet off the bed and slipped under the thin sheet. It was cool enough for me to begin to doze off. Just as sleep began to take me, though, the apartment door opened loudly and shook me awake.

The door shut with a bang and the sound of jingly keys being thrown onto the counter rang through the apartment. I heard Evan’s voice. He was muttering something to himself.

‘I have to be quiet, Y/N is sleeping,’ he drawled, drunkenly, just outside the bedroom door. Not subtly at all, he opened the door and stepped into the room at quite a normal volume. ‘Shhhhhh,’ he directed at the sound of the door closing.

‘Hey baby, it’s okay, I’m awake,’ I murmured.

He gasped like a child. ‘You’re awake? Yayyyy,’ he exclaimed excitedly. ‘Y/N I missed you.’ He kicked his shoes off and rushed over to my side of the bed, wrapping me in a sloppy embrace.

‘I missed you too, lovely,’ I cooed. ‘How was it?’

He let go of me and took his shirt off. The sight of his muscly body made me quietly churn inside. He stood and removed his jeans, letting them pool on the floor.

‘It was good, we like, went to the bar and stuff,’ Evan said disconnectedly as he walked over to his side of the bed and flopped down. ‘I had so many drinks. So many.’ He sat up and rested his back on the headboard, folding his hands over his stomach.

‘I can tell,’ I giggled, grabbing his head and tilting it down so I could kiss it. He rested his forehead on my shoulder and slumped a bit.

‘You smell good,’ he slurred.

‘Thank you, I try,’ I laughed. He looked up, suddenly, his eyes appearing more sober than before.

‘You’re really hot,’ he breathed. He took a front-hanging strand of my hair in his fingers and tucked it behind my ear. ‘I like what you’re wearing.’

‘Oh, yeah? It’s way too hot in here, I needed something light,’ I smiled.

‘I think you should wear that every night,’ he hummed, ‘in fact, I think you should wear that all the time.’

‘That wouldn’t be appropriate now, would it?’ I laughed. He sobered even more, shifting so he could caress my bare shoulder.

‘I wouldn’t care.’ He pulled me in closer to him and began kissing me. In all honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to have him all over me, with the heat and all, but the way he touched me was so compelling. The way his sweaty bare skin felt against mine was intoxicating.

He hoisted me onto his lap, my legs straddling his hips. I ran my hands over his bare torso as we made out, its smoothness drawing me into a trance. It didn't matter how many times we'd done this. It always made my heart skip when he began to remove my clothes.

My top fell with a dull thud onto the bedroom floor. Evan regarded me in the state I was in, pausing for just a moment to appreciate me. Then, hungrily, he started kissing my skin, leaving love bites here and there as he went.

I moaned and bucked my hips at the contact. His kisses lingered on my neck and breasts. I felt his bulge grow beneath me.

'Lay down,' he instructed. I did as he pleased, shifting off his lap and into a laying position atop the sheets. I took my panties off myself to hasten the process. He situated himself in front of me, pushing my ankles gently, guiding my knees to bend. Then, softly, he parted my thighs.

Warmth spread through my core as I felt him pepper kisses along the insides of my thighs. They were tender kisses, full of passion and love. Slowly, his face made its way up my leg until he reached my wet pussy.

He ran his tongue along the folds, taking his time to savor every second. I inhaled sharply with each movement. His tongue circled my pussy before finding my clit. I cried out as he hit the bundle of nerves. It felt like fireworks were exploding deep within my core. I yelped and moaned raucously, unable to keep i together.

In no time, I was putty in his hands. I grabbed his hair and held him close to me, ensuring he would not pull away. I needed him badly. Our bodies moved in sync. It was magic. I orgasmed so loudly that I thought the neighbors might come knocking. Evan sat me up and hugged me closely after my fits of pleasure subsided.

'You okay?' he whispered in my ear, stroking my back delicately. I nodded, breathing heavily. 'Can I keep going?'

'Yes,' I panted, 'please.'

Evan laid me back down and spread my legs again, this time much hungrier. Too drunk to be cunning, or even a tease, he wasted no time removing his briefs and lining his cock up with my entrance.

He thrust into me with a grunt, feeling my cunt’s walls tighten around his length. He threw his head back and squeezed his eyes shut. I reached up, pulling him by his neck toward me so I could kiss him. Not for long, though. The deeper his cock went inside me, the less will I had to keep going.

There was nothing I could do besides grip the bedsheets as he had his way with me. It was so hot and heavy. His touch was all encompassing and heavenly. He came with a loud moan and a string of curse words. I felt his hot load spill into me.

‘Fuck,’ I spat, gasping for air. Evan pulled out and collapsed on top of me, nestling his head into the crook of my neck. I felt his chest rise and fall sharply and his heartbeat pound right next to my sternum. ‘You alright?’ I breathed.

‘Ye-yeah,’ he panted. ‘Fuck. You’re so hot.’

‘No you,’ I laughed. He rolled off of me and flopped onto his back. I sighed in relief. ‘Good. It’s too fucking hot in here to have you on me like that.’ He chuckled softly.

‘You’re right,’ he drawled. ‘I need a cold shower.’

‘I’ll join you,’ I suggested. ‘I think there’s no use in trying to sleep tonight. We gotta call maintenance about the AC tomorrow.’

‘I can’t lie, Y/N, ‘m kinda too drunk to remember that,’ he slurred. ‘You gotta remind me tomorrow.’

I stood and walked to the bathroom, chuckling quietly at him. His drunkenness made him all the more loveable. I turned on the shower and heard a thud in the bedroom.

‘Everything okay?’ I called.

‘Yeahhhhh,’ Evan drawled. ‘I tripped over the duvet.’

I shook my head and laughed aloud. Damn he was cute.

+++

Two posts in one day after days of radio silence?! Am I sick? No…just feeling spicy LMAO.

[oxford-garments]

Hatton Garden - Wikipedia

I AM TRAPPED IN LONDON DIAMOND DISTRICT!

START SUPPLYING!

Meturnomics: Periodic Table Element Manufacturing, Covalent Bonds Fertilizer with Soil Chemistry Ex. Carbon Compounds, Covalent Bonds Fertilizer with Soil Chemistry, Chandelier Tree for Bontonical Indicator; Diamond Vowels: A (Accessories Auctions), E (Exchange Probabilistic Model), I (Sensual Insurance), O (Open-pit Mines), U (Unanimous Laser Cutters and Laser Pressure); Metal Exchange Probabilistic Model for Derivatives CFDS;

AgCurrency: Economic Table, Barter Economics, NIRP Supply-side Fixed Rate Pegged De Facto; AgIndex: Commodities Portfolio Management; Agronomics CFDS//Option Exchange (Credit Spread Options, FX-CFD Interest Rates Beta-Arbitrage w/PPP and Supply-side Economics Currency Pair)

Authentic Movement STERRC (SMUGGLING, TRAFFICKING, EMBEZZLEMENT, RHIZOMES, AND RUGGED & REFINED CULTIVATOR)

Of Undisputed Origin.

Periodic Table Metallurgy Cultivator with Artisanal Primitive Anthropology, Nationalist, Art Intellect with Athletic Ability, Riverbanks Farmland, Real Estate Investment Trust and Real Estate Brokerage Trust Account, Pool-Live Monopoly Turf Accountant Board Game Tournament, Rugby and Kickboxing, Eagle Conservation, Painting and Polyrhythm Syncopated Progressive Drum Loops with Rhythm Flag (Anacrusis; Staccato and Legato; Barcarolle; Tonic and Dominant; Triple G Positions), and (Diamond; Decapods; Mollusk; Opium; Deliriants; Tobacco; Coffee; and Arms) Black Market

Kimberley Certificate

Open-pit Mines Economic Geography

Banking System and Probabilistic Model Exchange

Intermodal Cargo Countyline Trafficking Infrastructure

De facto SLL/SDM FX Counter Trading Party for Diamond CFD; SLL 5% AND SDM -0.5% Interest Rates Contract for Difference.

CURRENCY, OIL, & GOLD COMMODITIES CANDLESTICK CHARTS

Swing Trading: Use mt4/mt5 With Heiken Ashi Charts, Setting at 14 or 21 Momentum Indicator above 0 as Divergence Oscillator and Volume Spread Analysis as Reversal Oscillator and Trade when bullish candlesticks above 200 exponential moving average and/or 20 exponential moving average (EMA) on H1 (Hourly) Time Frame; use H4 (4 Hours) and D1 (1 Day) as reference.

(Artisanal Primitive King) Pedagogy: King Anthropology; Mixing a form of Royalty Title with Anthropology. CRAFT SOCIETY Sensory Processing Anthropology Artisan Primitive: Sensory Play of the Sensory Ethnography, Sensory Modulits CNS; Artisanal Plantation Metallurgy Cash Crops Spectrum; Evolution; Savagery, Emerging Markets, Civilianization, ECONOMICS OF FINANCIAL MARKETS; Economic Science (Supply-side Economics), Economic Geography (Artisanal Plantation), Economic Mathematics (CFD Probabilistic Model Exchange), Microeconomics (Contract Theory, Purchasing Theory, Portfolio Theory, Producer Price Index, Profit Sharing Plan, Lipstick Effect, Opportunity Cost, Private Limited Partnership, Public-Private Sectors, Pyramid Marketing, Minor Purchase Group) for Sensory Geography (5 Senses City); Prenatal Hormones with Fetus Alcohol Consumption for Sensory Overload Savant;

Athletic Spirit of Rugby: Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in England in the first half of the 19th century. Rugby is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is played between two teams of 15 players each, using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field called a pitch. The field has H-shaped goalposts at both ends. The SVNS,[1][2] known as the for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series,[3] the competition was formed to promote an elite-level of international rugby sevens and develop the game into a viable commercial product. A fly-half (number 10) is usually the first player to receive the ball from the scrum-half following a breakdown, line-out or scrum. Therefore, they must be decisive with what actions to take. They must possess leadership and communicate effectively with the back line.[58] Good fly-halves are calm, clear thinking and have the vision to direct effective attacking plays.[59] Fly-halves need good passing and kicking skills. Often the fly-half is the best kicker in the team and needs to be able to execute attacking kicks such as up-and-unders, grubbers and chip kicks as well as being able to kick for territory.[58] Many fly-halves are also the team's goal kickers.

Clive Myr. Obasi

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱

[fuzzkaizer]

AKAI - SB1 - Deep Impact

"... for a lengthy spell, bassists that used pedals were given a side-eye.

But as synth pedals continue to be made, it’s hard to believe that some of its earliest heavy-hitters were released in the ‘80s and ‘90s, such as the Korg X-911 and the DigiTech XP300 Space Station. But while those faffed about with a more general kitchen-sink approach to the subject, it was Akai in 200X that came out with the most potent offering to date. This is the Akai SB1 Deep Impact.

Although some places claim the Deep Impact came out in the late ‘90s, nobody that I know is entirely sure when the Deep Impact was released. As far as I can tell, it was 2002. Prior to that, Akai’s “professional” website came out with guns blazing about its silver boxed series that included the VariWah and Intelliphase. However, a short time later, Akai Pro’s website appeared to go dark, resurfacing with pictures of gleaming mixers and MPCs. It’s too bad; the Head Rush, Unibass and Deep Impact were arguably the best pedals Akai ever produced. 

When a pedal’s endorsee list contains players like Bootsy Collins, Chris Wolstenholme and Paul Turner of Jamiroquai, you pretty much know what to expect: throbbing, guttural filter sweeps with a funk chaser. And yeah, you get that. But you get a pretty bang-on stab at a host of synth patches, including fifths, warbling pads and much more. It’s not without its limitations, though.

The Unibass and Deep Impact were centered on the frequency range of the bass guitar; the Unibass generated a fat unison mode with an octave up and subtle thickening, which is easily adaptable to six strings. However,  the Deep Impact in particular made no bones about its applications. When played with a guitar, notes outside of the bass frequency range cut through at a very distinct threshold, and not in a “hardware limitation” kind of way; there is a literal cut-off point. One note in a scale gets enveloped in the circuit, and the very next rings through as if there was no effect at all.

The way it’s used is deceptively complex. Like the old analog synths it seeks to replicate, dialing in a patch takes a little effort, and in the same way as many of them. Two of the unit’s three knobs are for input and output levels—the Input control is accented with a metering system and lets you set the clipping threshold of the unit before setting the output volume. While two-thirds of the knobs are standard fare, the money is in the program system. 

On offer are nine programs with a blank parametric slate. The left footswitch cycles through these programs in ascending order, while an optional footswitch cycles in descending order, and the center control cycles through 10 different parameters (and one preset loading option), all of which are fully adjustable with the rotary encoder in the center of the unit. Most of them correspond to controls on real analog synths, such as (filter) Cutoff, Resonance, Attack and Decay. When you factor in this multi knob, the Deep Impact actually has 12 controls for your tweaking pleasure, far more than the competition. And the ends to which you can adjust the tone are relatively absurd.

While vintage synths of yore can oscillate and destroy your ears when the resonance is cranked, Akai thoughtfully keeps the extent of the parameters usable. With that being said, the Deep Impact will mercilessly punish any subwoofer placed before it. Akai promises a four-oscillator affair within the Deep Impact and while there’s no way to dial it in solely based on those merits, it certainly sounds gargantuan. It’s probably why they are worth so much.

The original designer of the Deep Impact, one Andras Szalay, revived the project well after Akai washed its hand of the line under the company name PandaMIDI and the product name Future Impact I. For a spell, it was tough even to get one of those, and prices encroached upon the original. Now on its third revision, readily available and with a new brand name, the Future Impact continues to carry the torch. There’s just something about that Akai unit, though..."

cred: catalinbread.com/blogs/kulas-cabinet/akai-db1-deep-impact

[fraugwinska]

Chapter 13 - Oscillation

Oscillation (noun) 1. movement back and forth in a regular rhythm. 2. egular variation in magnitude or position about a central point, especially of an electric current or voltage

Tags & Warnings: Explicit Sexual Content, Biting, Blood There's a reference to a vynil Alastor is playing. Although not mentioned, I'd recommend listening to "Somethings Gotta Give" by Bing Crosby

It has been almost a week and frankly: You were getting pissed . Six days. SIX. FUCKING. DAYS since the fateful night, when a lapse in good judgment and a moment of weakness caused a whole cascade of events. And for these past six days, the radio demon had been uncharacteristically elusive.

You hadn't seen him the morning after the incident, as was to be expected. But then the next day came and went and a third, fourth and fifth one passed without even so much as a glimpse of his crimson suit. First you had felt uneasy - Charlie and Vaggie had told you Alastor had urgent business in his own territory to attend, and he left you to the hotel to work on his behalf - as a good assistant should do.

And you did – you attended meetings with Charlie and Vaggie, took care of Niffty, sorted through hoards of order forms for alcohol, supplies and vendors for the upcoming event. But uneasy quickly shifted to annoyed. While everyone seemed to be more at ease since Alastor left the hotel, you got grumpier each passing day.

Maybe the outcome hadn't been as harmless and forgivable as you thought. Maybe he was just tired of your constant presence. Maybe you had become a burden. Maybe...

"Maybe he's just busy. Like I've said before, it's not like this train wreck of a hotel is the only place who needs him around, doll." Angel's voice interrupted your angry brooding as he helped himself to another batch of eggs and bacon you had prepared for breakfast at day six.

You sighed with a badly suppressed scoff and leaned back on the counter. You weren't sure what about the Karaoke night had kicked off Angel's interest in you, but as Alastor had decided to vanish with no notice, Angel had replaced his position in constantly being around you – at least when he was not working. On the third day alone he had knocked at your door and invited you to watch a movie together in his room, having a rare night off. You had agreed, only after him promising you that it wouldn't be a show-and-tell of the films he was starring in, and you were more than pleasantly surprised when he opened the case of 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'. Your mind flashed back to that memory.

Three days before

“Thought this would be a good mix of the two of us, Rocks. 'Ya get the show tunes, I get hot dudes in leather, lingerie and golden pants. Win-Win.” For most people, he would've been the worst companion to watch movies with – Angel commented on every- and anything, laughed loudly, hollered and screamed at the laptop screen. But you loved it. He kept you too busy to feel lonely, filling the room with too much noise to fill it with your concerns. He even coerced you into singing along, putting the volume on high during the time warp and pulling you from his bed to do the cheesy choreography, his pig jumping and weaving through the mess of legs and arms with happy squeaks..

“Man, they don't make movies like this down here.”, Angel said over the last notes of 'Science Fiction/Double Feature' and rolled over on his back, placing his head on your lap. “I'd make a killer Frank N. Furter.”

You scoffed playfully. “Sure thing, Magenta.”

"You know, I oughtta be offended, but 'ya know what: I'd rock that role too – she got killer looks and style, just like ma'self!” He posed with an arched back, a golden tooth glimmered in his confident grin. You shuffled away from his side of the bed and sat up, stretching yourself.

“If someone could pull off playing both of those simultaneously, it'd be you.”, you teased, one corner of your mouth twitching. Angel stared at you, before pointing at you in playful outrage.

“STAP. Don't you dare smile at me now, Rocky Mountain, we got a good thing goin' on here. 'Ya neva change a runnin' system!” He laughed at your wildly flicking ears and overly frowning face you made at that comment and pulled you into a hug. Your face was smushed in his chest fluff, it was soft and warm and tickled your nose. To your own surprise, you eased into his embrace.

“Thank you for this, Angel... I needed that.” Your voice was muffled by the feathery fluff, but Angel replied, his voice now softer and more real than before.

“I know. 'Ya were beginning to look like it, toots.” He gently pulled you away and looked at you, a crooked smile on his lips. “'I couldn't take another day of you mopin' around missing the creepy version of red ridin' hood.”

You stared at him. “Why would you think...”

Angel rolled his eyes. “Oh please, 'ya can maybe fool the others - the drunk, the crazy and the do-good-duo - but I'm not that stupid. I've seen how 'ya looked at him when we went out. 'Ya really didn't make it subtle." he chuckled. “Also, ma' little eye spied that...” He grabbed your hand, tapping on the red thread that you had (now neatly knotted) around your finger. “Call me Sherlock, but 'ya didn't have that before he was gone.”

You looked at the floor. What were you allowed to say now? Could you bend the truth so you wouldn't have to actually lie to him? Because... you really didn't want to lie to him. But the rules, we have to remember the rules! Angel noticed your inner struggle, and gently patted your head. "Look, 'ya don't gotta tell me. It's alright. But if 'ya ever want to, 'ya can talk to me 'bout it. I won't spill, I'll even throw in a pinky promise."

You wanted to talk. You did. You just had to be careful.

"I might.... have have developed some kind of... crush.. on him.”

Angel slapped his thighs with all four arms. “HA! I KNEW IT!” At the look you gave him he cleared his throat. “Sorry, sorry, that - ah, 'ya know, that just came out. I'll behave.” he said apologetically. “So, 'ya fancy 'ya boss, big whoop. You aren't the first, babycakes."

“It's not just that...”

Angel studied your flushed face. You looked at the red thread on your finger, trying to figure out how to stay vague while still tell Angel what happened. "He, um, may have caught me, in a moment of... private weakness, so to say."

"Whaddaya mean, moment of..." You glanced at him with a tortured expression, face now really hot, and could literally hear the bulb above his head flicking on. "Oh... OOOOOOH Satan..."

"Yeah. And now he hasn't been around since then."

A short silence fell. Angel dragged a hand over his face and a long drawn out "That stupid asshat..." could be heard through his slender fingers. "Okay, let me just get this clear, because I really need to make sure I don't hallucinate..." He took a deep breath, massaging his furrowed brows.

"Alastor, 'ya boss, came to ya and when 'ya were... uh.. rubbin' the nubbin so to say... and he caught 'ya?"

You nodded, avoiding his gaze.

"And then, he did... what, exactly?" His face was wild with confused curiosity. "I mean, 'ya still breathing, so he didn't kill 'ya."

"No. He didn't. In fact...“ you hesitated. Better to leave out the whole... ripping-hurting-monster-part... „he apologized, for what happened."

"He apolo... He apologized?! You're sure that was Smiley the murderclown?" Angel started to laugh nervously, but his face fell into something like pity when he saw your expression. The spider sighed and put one of his arms around your shoulders. "Sorry, bad habits die hard. Alright, so, now that he's gone MIA 'ya think it's because of... that?"

You pressed your palms on your face. This whole thing was a disaster.

„Hey, don't make that face, Rocks, it's gonna be fiiiine, don't worry. It's not the first time creepyface left the hotel for days. Could be totally unrelated.“ Angel squeezed you into his side, giving you a faint smile. “Please don't tell anyone...”

He held up four pinky fingers. “'Ya secret's safe with me, babes.”

Present day

"I know, I know... It's not like him, you know? I can't recall a time when he didn't check in with me for that long." At his suggestive eyebrow wiggle you added, “....as his employee.” “Uh-huh. Sure.” Angel laughed, stabbing into the scrambled eggs. You threw a hand towel at him and he snickered in return as he caught it. Angel had quickly become the closest thing to a friend to you, and even though you hadn't told him everything, it still felt good to share a bit of your inner turmoil with him. And you noticed you had a lot of that for the past days. More than before. You found it oddly hard sometimes, to keep yourself together, to harden yourself against the increasingly bothering emotions. Angel also held his promise of keeping his mouth shut in front of the others. Just in moments like this, when nobody else was around, he teased you in good fun. “Watch it, or I'll make spaghetti for dinner and break them in half before cooking them.”

Angel gasped, hands clutching his chest. “'Ya. Wouldn't. Dare.” “And I'll cook them in unsalted water.”, you said with an evil glare. “Monster!”, he shouted dramatically and you cockily swished your tail at him. “Instead of being a judgy pain in the ass, how about you finally decide what you want to do in the showcase? You and Husk are the only ones who haven't told me.” Angel groaned, pushing his now empty plate away from him. “I already told 'ya. Not my fault if it doesn't please 'ya highness.”

You shook your head as you took his empty plate to the sink. “I know, what an outrage that we think a live peepshow isn't the most fitting act for a gala.”

“Your words, Rocks, not mine.”

You sighed. “Angel.” He avoided your gaze, his lips pressed to a tense line. You've learned that behind all the projected self-confidence and theatrics, the spider demon was just... insecure. “You are more than just your body, more than the sex scenes you film. I've seen you dance, not on a pole, really dancing – and you looked fabulous! Why don't you give that a try? Choose a song, and we'll put together a choreography. Show hell that you are a star – no porn-prefix needed.”

Angel lifted his mismatched eyes and blinked at you. He suddenly sounded... young. “Do 'ya really think that, or are 'ya just sayin' that so 'ya can check my name off that stupid list?” As an answer, you put down the still dripping plate in your hands, walked over to him and hugged him. It must have looked awkward, your arms around his feathery head, his face wedged in between them and pressed against your own, cold cheeks. But you felt him smile and his hands snaking around your waist, returning the pressure.

“Alright, toots. For you.”

On the way to the bar, you were writing in the heavy, bulky planner Vaggie had given you. With Angel finally convinced, you only had one name without a contribution left open – Husk. You checked the list again, wondering how the hell you could put together a coherent and entertaining show out of all these acts. Charlie, of course, wanted to sing, but with Vaggie's insistant interjections she begrudgingly compromised on hosting through the program. In turn, you offered to have her and Vaggie perform an opener with you, and even though the latter wasn't too enthusiastic about that, both were fine with the arrangement. When asked what she wanted to do, Niffty had been... excited, to put it diplomatically. “I can train the bugs I catch to make them jump through hoops, or maybe do a magic trick and saw a rat in half, or maybe, maybe I could chain myself and do an escape trick, or maybe...” “You know what, Niff, I can work with that... just... maybe show it to me beforehand so we can, umm, tweak it a bit, to round the corners, okay?”

When you walked up to the bar, Husk was just finishing his second breakfast burrito. You eyed the glass of blood orange juice with suspicion. "You didn't put vodka in it I hope. We have a deal." The cat huffed at you, wiping his greasy fingers on his pants. "'Yo lose one time at UNO, and that's whatcha get." You internally grinned. On day 4 w.A.p (without Alastor present), Charlie had invited everyone for a game night. Husk, gambler that he was, was intrigued when you proposed to rise the stakes by having the loser of the night make a 'redeemable' change, voted by the others. To your great satisfaction, Husk was awful at UNO (he lost by a freaking landslide, with you and Angel showering him in take-fours) and when you proposed that he should have at least two meals a day with non-alcoholic drinks, everyone gleefully agreed. While the cat was openly annoyed with you for it, you found the hidden glimmer of gratefulness in his gaze in that moment was more rewarding than you thought it would be. You could play the part of a conscienful adult, especially when it was for others, even when your mind was ever so often preoccupied with thoughts of him .

"You know why I'm here, Husk." you lean over the bartop, raising a brow. "You're not getting out of this show without a contribution."

"I can't contribute shit to this stupid party, and 'yo know it."

"Come on. You do your cheesy card tricks every night, even if the only crowd's Angel, I'm sure you have other talents, too." He frowned and you tried again. "I'm literally taking anything. You could juggle cocktail shakers, or swallow fire while unicycling, it'll fit perfectly in this... eclectic roster!" Husk rolled his eyes, a sarcastic smile spreading on his lips.

"Sure. Everyone would love to see an old, washed-up drunkard perform for shits and giggles." His sarcastic grin disappeared instantly and he looked away, ears sinking to the side.

Your gaze softened and you grabbed his arm. "Don't give me that bullshit, Husk. What, just tell me what I work with here. Honestly."

The cat demon shifted uncomfortably under your expectant eyes, opening and closing his mouth as if debating with himself. Then his voice came in a grumpy grumble. "I used to play the trumpet."

You blinked. Then blinked again. That was.. cool, actually, the image fitted him perfectly.

"...The trumpet? You did?"

Husk nodded, refusing to meet your eyes and shoved his little hat deeper down his brow. "Used to be sumthin' I was really good at. Played in my... well, in bars and casinos. Even wrote my own pieces sometimes...", his face shifted, first to something sentimental, then into... resignation. "Haven't played in years, though." He scratched his neck awkwardly.

"Then play a duet with me, Husk.", you declared confidently. "Choose something that isn't too demanding, maybe even write something, I'll play the piano, you the trumpet - so you won't have to do it alone. We still have about a month and a half!"

Husk stared at you, searching for the hidden agenda behind that generous offer. Finding none, he laughed quietly. "Are 'yo serious? 'Yo know how hard that'll be, right?"

"Like I said, it's you and me both, old man." you replied softly. “Cling together, swing together.”

Husk ran his paws over his eyes, shaking his head in disbelieve – but he couldn't hide the slight grin that flickered over his face. "Aw fuck, fine. Just don't complain when it sounds like a damn disaster."

"YES!" You flipped open the planner and checked his name with dramatic flourish on the paper. "And that's a wrap, thank satan!"

Husk chuckled, emptying his juice and refilling the glass with his usual cheap booze. You shut the thick binder and sighed. Now the timer was reset: You had to rehearse, and organize. But not today. The only thing you'd do today is tell Charlie of your progress, as soon as she and Vaggie would return from their shopping spree they had planned for this morning.

You were almost at the top of the stairs leading to your floor when Angel came down from it, polished and dressed in a flashy, baby-pink coat and big, star-shaped sunglasses. “Off to work I see?”, you said, a mixture of compassionate pity and cheeky teasing in your voice. Behind the yellow glass, Angels eyes widened. “Um... what the fuck, Rocks? Why are you here?”

You paused, cocking a brow in confusion. “...I'm working here?” Angel looked just as puzzled as you. “No shit, that's not what I mean. Why are you here here and not at Al's Radio tower?”

You shook your head, still trying to make sense of him. What the hell was with him? “Why would I be there?” “Because...”, Angel whipped his head from you to the staircase, then back to you, eyes narrowing and a scowl forming around his lips. “... bootleg bambi came back. I've met him on my way to my room, after breakfast. I thought he went straight to tell 'ya. Don't tell me he didn't fucking show his face?”

He... what?!”, you stuttered, your face instantly hot. Alastor was back? Was he back for good now? Or was he still busy? And why didn't he come to see you?

"Woah, hold 'on, doll... are 'ya blushin'? No, no, no. Focus, girl. Aren't 'ya gonna rip him a new one, or at least ream him a good talkin'-to?", Angel raised one eyebrow in question and watched you. "Or aren't 'ya ticked at the asshole anymore?"

The more time passed, the harder it got not to let your thoughts spiral down again, so you started to wiggle on the thread around your finger nervously, turning it absent mindedly.

Yeah. Why weren't you pissed? You should be pissed. You were pissed.

A sheen of red covered your sight. You turned on your heels and stormed up the stairs, leaving a smug looking Angel behind. With each step of the stairs, your rising anger doubled in intensity. What the hell? He was here since MORNING and didn't even care to tell you? You stared at the hatch to his broadcasting room, contemplating to just bulldoze your way in. He'd deserve it, that fucking... You took a deep breath, inhale to cool your anger, exhale to relieve the energy of your fury. Get a grip. Inhale, exhale. The red sheen lifted, the voice in your head got more tame, and quieted down. You knocked, three times, your fingers tense in the fist. The hatch door opened and there he was, right as rain, smiling nonchalantly down to you.

"Ah, hello, kitten! You look absolutely dashing this morning." His voice was as smooth as a crooned ballad. You simply stared at him, ears tense and tail high on alert. Alastor bent down now, not quite a grin, not quite a smile on his lips. "Come in, come in, you've never been to my humble abode, have you?" He reached out his hand to you, and you unwillingly took it as he lifted you up.

The broadcasting room was spacious and surprisingly bright, the predominantly glassed top overlooking Pentagram City. The walls that weren't occupied with technical equipment were lined with heavy wooden shelves filled with vintage radios, vinyls and other paraphernalia, meticulously organized and extravagantly decorated, as you had assumed from him. It was eerily clean. Only the microphone at the recording booth had some wear and tear. Well, not only that.

Alastor looked slightly different than usual, rougher, you'd even say more... unkempt. He eyed you, his thin-lipped smile threatening to slip. "My dear, you appear rather upset... what's the matter? Oh-ho, don' tell me... Have you missed me?" He laughed mockingly, as if in jest. You gritted your teeth, and resisted to give him a piece of your mind, forcing your trembling fists behind your back.

"Maybe." The word slipped through your fangs as you tightened the corners of your mouth. You didn't give him time to form an answer. "Just came to tell you, sir, that all contributions to the Blue Moon showcase are decided."

"Ah... yes, marvelous." Alastor cleared his throat. There it was again. A flicker in his grin.

So he has decided not to address the fact that he has left for almost a whole damn week and wanted to act like nothing had happened?

Oh, no. Not on our watch, Overlord or not.

He moved past you to a fancy shelf on the wall. "Now that this tiresome subject is done and I've been properly informed, my darling little helper, why don't you choose a vinyl? Pick anything you'd like, it has been a while since I've had someone I deemed worthy enough to enjoy it in here..."

"If you deem someone worthy, sir, shouldn't you treat them with equal respect and consideration in return?", you cut off, voice quiet.

Alastor stood completely still, fingers wrapped around an elegant black and red decorated cover, not saying a word. His ears were drawn back slightly, you saw the tips twitch. After a moment, he chuckled faintly and took the vinyl out, a slow rhythm starting to play from an adjacent record player. "Alastor, dear. And I know it hasn't been long, but you really did grow into a sharp tongue in my absence, haven't you, little gem? Is that a complaint?" His voice was strangely soothing and almost... despondent.

"Yes, it is. You've left me for almost a whole week without any instructions, or explanation. Especially after...", you hesitated, bringing your hands from your back to your front, tugging on the red, traitorous thread. Alastor stared at it, but his head quickly turned to the side, a far-away gaze on his crimson eyes.

"Right, of course." He stood a while, the vinyl cover still in his hand. You kept your breathing even and quiet while you waited. The anger was gone, vanished to make room for... sadness? You were sad. And insecure. And confused. That night, even after everything that happened, you had told him that you wanted him to stay with you, and he did - in that moment. It felt like a kind of confession to you, and him staying like acceptance. Maybe you had hoped that these blooming feelings of yours were... approbated at least, as outrageous as they were. But then he was gone without so much as a word, a message, a fucking carrier pigeon. As if this evening just simply became something so embarrassing that he had lost all respect for you. Something shameful to not even want to acknowledge it happened. A rejection you should've know was coming, yet you felt unprepared for.

No. We won't give up without at least trying.

"Yes." You said it into the silence, feeling the roughness of the yarn on your fingertips. We need to at least try. "I've missed you." We've missed you.

His body twitched unnaturally, his hands balling, and his eyes went from empty and faraway to ablaze and in focus in the matter of a split second. His fist closed tight around the vinyl cover, cracking the foiled case to pieces in an instant, ripping the paper inlay to shreds. With his shoulders pushed back and chin raised, he rounded you, gliding behind you and pinned you in your position like an insect to a piece of cardboard, his voice cracking with static feedback.

"Dangerous words, my dear. I seem to have.... miscalculated the circumstances, when it comes to you." His claws tore across your clothes, grazing along and quickly undoing your belt, lifting the hem of your blouse slightly as he did. His hands slithered under the silken fabric, grazing over the sensitive flesh of your breasts. Two buttons popped, but you couldn't care less. The delicious shivers that ran down your spine made you tremble in his grasp, and he chuckled at the feeling.

You closed your eyes with a quiet hiss when his clawed fingertips circled your nipples, the sharp tip of his red nails brushing over their apex. The heat of his body radiated against your back, your clothes suddenly felt like a burden. Please, if this was a dream, don't let us wake up.

"It seems you represented me worthily in my absence, my jewel girl." Oh god, that voice. His jewel girl. His. How you had missed that dark, twisted voice. His hand gave a soft squeeze to the curve he was fondling. "I think that calls for a reward. Do you agree?"

Even in the rush of the moment, you felt like this wasn't just a rhetorical question. It felt like a question of consent – Do you want this? Maybe you were just delusional. Maybe you were finally becoming insane. But you nodded nonetheless. “ɨ ռɛɛɖ ȶօ ɦɛǟʀ ɨȶ,” (I need to hear it.) His voice was laced with muffled white noise, loud and on the brink of breaking. “Yes.” was all you could breathe. He finally pushed the cursed fabric off your shoulders, letting the cloth slip down your form as it exposed every inch of your sensitive skin to the chill air of the room and the burning heat of his hands. It landed in a pool around your ankles, your naked chest bare for him to explore. Thank fuck we didn't wear a bra today.

His hands roamed freely over your shivering form, nails scraping and fingers digging into soft, supple curves. A soft tug in the curls of your hair made you gasp in surprise and he seized the opportunity to pull your head back and draw your lips onto his. Your mind short-circuited. Oh sweet hell...

Alastor was kissing you.

The kiss was hot and possessive. Suffocating almost, his tongue explored your mouth hungrily, leaving you unable to breathe, let alone think straight. His grip tightened as his tongue pressed deeper into you, earning him an uncontrollable, desperate whine from you that vibrated into his mouth. He laughed coarsely in response, pulling you away from him with his claws in your hair just enough for his wicked tongue to trace the contour of your lip, licking and biting and kissing his way down to your neck, sharp teeth nipping your tender skin. You felt dizzy, closing your eyes and struggling to keep yourself from touching him, as if he'd disappear if you did. His enlarged antlers became entangled in the charcoal mess of hair that cascaded over your shoulders the further he went down.

You felt Alastor's forehead pressing against the valley of your shoulderblades, his hand moved from your breast down your side to claw into your hips and he breathed almost as heavily as you. His presence was so commanding, simply overpowering, it made you weak in the knees. You desperately wanted to see him, to confirm that he was as lost as you. Please, look at us. But of course, you weren't courageous enough to pull yourself away from him and possibly break the spell you both were under.

“Oh..”

Your eyes snapped open as a firm grip settled itself between your legs, the skin under his palm almost unbearably hot. When did he slip past your waistband? The pressure he placed between your thighs had you desperately mewling, your senses all screaming for him. His fingertips parted the hot folds, searching the slick entrance and settling on rubbing the little button that gave you so much pleasure. Alastor practically radiated static electricity, humming in approval, and continued to stroke the fleshy button between your thighs. His free hand moved to your throat, wrapping his long digits carefully around it and pushed your head to the side. He leaned forward, teeth dangerously pricking your thin, delicate skin, ready to draw blood. You didn't care. His moist, raspy breath filled you with nothing but lust and urgency. He can take it all, we don't care.

You felt how he started pushing himself against you, his lean hips pressing his erection against the cleft of your ass and it made you want to scream in bliss that you were the one who ignited this atypical kind of physical reaction from him. We want him, and he wants us. Through your surpressed moans and muffled sobs he practically purred a sly demand:

"Don't hold back, my darling girl. ֆɦօա ʏօʊʀ ʍǟֆȶɛʀ ɦօա ʏօʊ ʟօռɢɛɖ ʄօʀ ɦɨʍ ɨռ ɦɨֆ ǟɮֆɛռƈɛ...” (Show your master how you longed for him in his absence...)

The rhythm of his finger around your clit became faster, and with two added fingers pushing in and out of you in an agonizing speed uncontrolled moans were bubbling up in your throat which, with his encouragement, you let spill from your lips freely. We are burning. We can't take this. We want more.

As if he could hear the cacophony of voices inside you he pulled his hand away from your heated core. The loss of touch made you cry out in frustrated tears. That was until you felt yourself lifted and carried. On instinct you wrapped your arms around his neck, resulting in a low, almost feral growl from him. Alastor sat you down hastily on the main broadcasting console, slicing your pants into ribbons in the process and ripping them from your legs without care. He finally looked you in the eyes – dark burgundy pits with spinning red dials. His predatory, hungry gaze knocked all air out of your lungs. You quickly started to pull your hands back, but he caught your wrists and returned them to back at his neck, his eyes never leaving yours.

“ɖօ ռօȶ ʟօօӄ ǟաǟʏ.” (Do not look away.)

You couldn't even if you tried. The sound of a clicking belt buckle and quickly ruffled fabrics widened your eyes. Your surroundings, even Alastor's face, shimmered in technicolor, phasing through blues and pinks and yellows and reds like you were looking through a kaleidoscope that refracts light into every imaginable spectrum. And then his length slowly sank into the warmth and wetness of your center. A hot rush spread inside of you, it felt exhilarating as the base of his throbbing cock pressed against your needy entrance. You felt his girth fill and stretch the sensitive area inside, rubbing and slamming the sensitive spot he was working so diligently on just a moment ago, your body exploding and quivering with every movement. Your mind went blank, dizzied with pure, primal desire. The voices in your head an echo of the past, muted. Blissful silence except for the symphony of his body against yours. His ragged breath was the most beautiful music you've ever heard. You never wanted him to stop.

In unison with another powerful thrust, he sank his sharp teeth into your shoulder, tearing through skin and drawing blood that seeped past his lips. It was a stinging pain, but you welcomed it, and combined with his lecherous stroking it set off fireworks inside you as you sang his name loud and unabashed, squirming against his feverishly moving hips. His mouth sucked in the dripping liquid with hungry fervor, teeth like daggers digging in further, locking in and threatening to penetrate through to the other side as his member buried into the pulsing heat. You felt your climax approaching, too soon, too soon, and it crashed down on you like a storm wave. With a low growl that could've as well been a lusty sigh, he pushed in one last time before he, too, came to his release. The weight of his warm body against your chest and his sticky seed dripping from you made you want to fully melt into him, to fuse with him and never let yourself be separated.

As your afterglow settled in, his jaw released you and as soon as the tip of his hard shaft left, your whole composure crumpled, you fell on your back, buttons and switches and dials pressing into your back. You barely felt the impact as your vision faded in and out of focus, lids heavy like lead.

Two firm yet gentle hands slowly turned your head from it's side upright again. When you opened your eyes to a blur, his face swam into view, now crimson eyes boring into yours as you laid limply beneath him. A heavy tear dripped out the corners of your tired eyes, the over stimulation of your orgasm and the returning voices (and with them – conflicting emotions) too intense to keep it in. Alastor's face softened with a chuckle, and with the back of his clawed hand he brushed your cheek. He leaned forward, cupping your face and a pair of smooth lips hovered near yours, brushing them softly in a barely there kiss. It was all you needed to ignore any other feeling than that of fulfillment.

Let us be delusional then. Let us be mad. Insane. Crazy, Delirious.

Your lips pulled into a blissful smile.

<< Previous Chapter - Next Chapter >>

[beevean]

The best comparison I could think of for NFCV in terms of quality is RWBY. The writing in both just ping-pongs between being decent at its best and atrocious at its worst. In both cases, fans just disregard the baffling creative decisions on display when their favorite ships/characters are being somewhat acknowledged on screen.

And yes, the only thing that was flawlessly executed were the fight scenes (except that in RWBY, the choreography dipped in quality post-volume 4). The other thing that RWBY does better is its music and how each track perfectly fits a fight scene or a certain character, something that NFCV lacked tremendously.

As someone who watched RWBY and liked it until Volume 8... I want to disagree, but I can't.

I mean, sure, RWBY lacks the torture porn and the general mean-spiritedness of NFCV. I would absolutely rather 100% rewatch RWBY from beginning to end because it never made me feel sick like NFCV did. But, uh, we got them all, don't we?

Heroes sitting around in one place waiting for the action to start. Terrible pacing in general, with plenty of wasted time

Complete lack of focus on the protagonists, instead given to all sorts of secondary characters (is Ruby even a character a this point). Seriously, the girls do nearly nothing in most of the finales, just like the Belmonts when Alucard or Isaac are on the case.

World building gone off the shits (to the point that RWBY has to rely on a secondary series to get the gist of it, and even then good luck understanding how Aura works). NFCV can't even keep its vampires straight.

Political themes treated with superficiality that borders on the accidental racism

#girlpower used as a selling point, but the feminism is highly questionable (NFCV is much worse with this, just look at Carmilla and to a lesser extent Lenore, but RWBY has its moments, like killing off women to motivate the male Jaune)

Certain characters going through the ringer for no good reason (poor Oscar and Penny, or Ruby in V9 - again nothing like what Hector goes through, but it gets to a point where it just feels mean)

Characters overcoming trauma with little effort (Yang essentially being told to get over her PTSD after Adam cut off her arm, Alucard and Hector and Richter's traumas oscillating from a season to the next)

Forced ships that conveniently ignore the strife between the characters, molding them into being one the other half of the other (personally I would rather compare Bumblebee to Whispangle from IDW Sonic, but sure, now I can say it's kind of like Richternette too)

JESUS CHRIST WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU (Ruby's suicide treated as a good thing she needed to do because she gets to ✨accept herself✨ ye <3 not quite as bad as "being raped and enslaved is okay if your abuser is a cute woman", but what the hell was that crwby)

That being said, I do have a soft spot for RWBY. Maybe it's because the characters are actually likeable, and the cast isn't made by a bunch of assholes who look down on each other. Or because it has a much more optimistic energy, both in themes and in general aesthetic. Or because it's one of the very few series I've seen where the cynical drunkard's alcoholism is taken very seriously and he has an arc where he heals - hi Qrow, you are what N!Trevor wants to be :)

Anyway. RWBY was ruined by mismanagement and incompetence, as the writers took a direction they weren't good enough to pursue. NFCV is a byproduct of arrogance and spite on top of the mismanagement and incompetence. You can feel the difference, and it's unpleasant.

[eccentric-nucleus]

i've always been kinda interested in making my own music for w/e game thing i make, & between listening to some king gizzard & the lizard wizard music b/c of that come see him video that everybody reblogs all the time and rewatching an old youtube video about the tuning of gamelan music AND finding an old talk about functional music construction AND discovering that there's now a builtin javascript synthesizer library (the 'web audio api') i was like, hey, i could actually try out synthing up some music.

like, i'm not gonna try putting anything real together yet but i could at least read up on the api since it seems incredibly complicated. it really is a conceptual modular synthesizer where components are linked together with signals. wires everywhere

anyway i was like, let's look at how to make a sine wave. "sine" is a preset but beyond that it gets into arbitrary waveforms

Here, we create a PeriodicWave with two values. The first value is the DC offset, which is the value at which the oscillator starts. A value of 0 is good here because it starts the curve at the middle of the [-1.0; 1.0] range. The second and subsequent values are sine and cosine components, similar to the result of a Fourier transform, which converts time domain values to frequency domain values. Here, with createPeriodicWave(), you specify the frequencies, and the browser performs an inverse Fourier transform to get a time domain buffer for the frequency of the oscillator. In this example, we set only one component at full volume (1.0) on the fundamental tone, so we get a sine wave. Bear in mind that the fundamental tone corresponds to the oscillator's frequency (which, by default, is 440 Hz). Therefore, altering the oscillator's frequency effectively shifts the frequency of this periodic wave along with it.

The coefficients of the Fourier transform should be given in ascending order (i.e. (a+bi)ei,(c+di)e2i,(f+gi)e3i etc.) and can be positive or negative. A simple way of manually obtaining such coefficients (though not the best) is to use a graphing calculator.

music from first principles, everybody!!

[chuckeroo777]

Dungeon Meshi Volume 6 Part 1

Welcome back to my liveblog! As a reminder, this is a re-read, so expect plenty of spoilers!

Don't intentionally spoil people or get thwacked in the face.

Huh. So they have been here for about a week. Makes Rin's exasperation even more understandable.

Wow, rude. I feel like if you actually knew her, that's kinda the last thing she would do. She hates eating weird stuff.

Batting 0 for 3 Maizuru. Honestly, I originally thought she was kind of a jerk, but between this and "Ninja Art: Babysitter", I think her observational skills are just really bad.

See? She doesn't have a clue why this is an atrocious idea.

I mean, it was an elf who was around during Delgal's day, and was using exceptionally potent ancient magic. Who the heck else would it be? Plus the orcs confirmed his identity. And of course Laios thinks Thistle is mad about the food.

Asebi is not amused.

Hmm... another depiction of the winged lion with horns. Also, there was no need to bring up the black magic. Marcille used a regular resurrection spell, just using ancient magic to boost the power level. If the dragon hadn't been soul-bound by Thistle, it would have gone without a hitch. People like to joke Marcille did nothing wrong, but in this one case, I think she was totally in the right. There is plenty of time for her to commit war crimes later.

Chilchuck: Gasp! You were drugging him!

Kabru is here for ALL the hot goss. From a distance.

I love how the canon explanation for why Faligon has feathers is that Dragons = Dinosaurs. It's like an atavism or something. Idk, it looks cool. Stop asking questions.

God. Marcille may be my favorite, but I relate so much to Laios. This chapter and the next are painful. (And I'm not talking about the part where everyone dies)

If only Chilchuck won the coin toss, we could've avoided this drama. (At least until Shuro saw Falin)

Now that's a trustworthy face if I ever saw one.

Well well well. If it isn't the consequences of my actions.

I know I just got done explaining that her actions were fine. Just let me be funny.

Eh, it's worth a try. It works in at least one alternate universe.

She's beauty, she's grace. She's gonna eat your face.

What's all the more heartbreaking is you get little moments where Falin shines through. She wants to pet the doggie! But then the dragon reasserts itself.

Even freakier, I think this is actually Falin too. You can see her pupils oscillate throughout this scene between normal, and elongated.

Like, I don't think it did that on purpose, but the dragon is more than happy to exploit the opening it creates.

Holm? Holm, are those golem cores? Have you been holding out on us?

Man, no wonder she freaks out. Imagine you've been a dragon for who knows how long, covered in scales of iron, and suddenly this dude manages to stab you five times like it's nothing. Heck, Laios just stabbed her in the foot with a normal sword. This dragon must be fearing for it's life like crazy.

Obligatory Whoa Hey!

An important image.

No you dummy. This is standard dungeon procedure. There's a reason healers like Holm and Falin wear those silly robes. So that they get priority resurrections.

Hold up a sec. My drama senses are tingling.

I am genuinely curious what this insult was in the original Japenese, if only because I can't see that coming from either of them.

You know, when I first read Dungeon Meshi, I kinda glossed over the secondary cast a lot. Hard not to when you have my attention span, and like two dozen characters. I didn't even notice the Asebi stuff.

I know people dunk on Toshiro a lot, but I really have to question his relationship with his retainers if a simple thank you and sorry elicits this sort of reaction. Honestly, I mostly get the impression that his dad isn't great, and Maizuru is too loyal to do anything about it.

I also have to wonder why he left Asebi behind. Did he just not want to bother? Or is he rethinking his whole relationship with his retainers, and is offhandedly giving her her freedom?

Like brother like sister.

Image limit reached! I'll be back in a bit. Need to get some meshi!

[the-scientist-blog]

Wave energy is here.

Most often referred to as wave energy, or wave power, of all the choices available for generating renewable energy, I’m most intrigued about what the natural rhythm of sea waves can do. It will take a combination of all the clean energy alternatives, currently led by solar and wind, to one day displace fossil fuel as the world’s dominant form for powering up civilization. And, if the wave energy scientists and technicians can discover the correct formula for financial and environmental acceptance, ocean motion just might ride to the top of our destined sustainable energy platform and be the most viable choice in the expanding sustainable energy landscape.

Given that onshore wave power is currently one of the lesser-known renewable energy options, don’t be surprised if it emerges as a legitimate contender to displace dirty polluting energy.

Here’s why.

Not only is it a source for the generation of electricity it’s useful for other kinds of beneficial work such as desalination, and also the pumping of water.

Simply put, wave energy is defined as the capture then transition of energy created by the up and down motion of the powerful ocean wave volumes. Therefore, it is truly sustainable energy. 

Interestingly, before being considered as such, the waves were used as far back as the early 1800s when they powered up nearby mills, saws, and pumps. Even a house. During the last century, salt water had a featured role in energizing navigational lights; and as recently as the 1970s, converting wave power to electricity was introduced on a very small scale.

Since then, different technical approaches to wave energy have been introduced that can be narrowed down to five suitable methods. Designs implementing absorbers, attenuators, oscillating water columns, overtopping, and the inverted-pendulum type each present a different technique to use ocean motion as a source of power. Still, in the infancy stages, very few of these types of wave power concepts have been installed in wave farms that operate with a history of success.

On the bright side, climate scientists are optimistic given the obvious availability of oceans around the world, no harmful gasses are emitted, and never-ending reliability - regardless of the weather. 

Certainly in the early “prove ‘em wrong” phase, but when considering the magnitude of wave surge surrounding every continent, the potential of this clean energy sheer volume is breathtaking. 

130 million additional homes could very well be powered up by this latest effort to further diversify humanity’s clean power mix and alleviate greenhouse gas from multiple directions.  

Of course, like all inexhaustible energy options, there are drawbacks. The unknown impact on surrounding marine life; the eye-sore image conflicting ocean appearance, thus tourism; and the ongoing cost of maintenance. Most concerning is the very high cost of development and installation.

In my humble opinion, there is one wave energy company that is leading the ocean motion industry with some proven success. Known as Eco Wave Power (EWP), it recently received permission to introduce its unique patented technology to the United States. I believe this to be the most newsworthy clean energy upstart in some time because the natural motion of the ocean waves can be transformed into electricity close to shore while controlled by EWP automated technology on shore.

Last decade, this company operated its wave energy concept for six years in Gibraltar in conjunction with the nation’s National Electric Company. The objective was to prove the concept could safely connect to the grid under the stress of the surrounding storm surges. From this success, the findings were used to design a pioneering wave power installation at the Jaffa port in Israel. That operation has been successfully connected to the country’s energy grid and was officially switched on. EWP is truly exporting electricity into Israel’s economy! 

And finally, the best news in this regard: the first commercial-scale wave energy project is committed for the city of Porta, Portugal, where an EWP wave energy relationship began in 2020, which will last 25-30 years…

Read more at www.thescientistblog.com/blog