#all assets must be utilized

[yuesya]

The Pier Point Shopping Street is always a bustling hub of activity. As a well-known landmark of Pier Point and an attraction for visitors to the IPC’s seat of power, the shops lining the sprawling commercial district truly live up to the reputation of being a dazzling center of wealth. Food, drinks, clothing. Entertainment at its finest –and everything in-between.

There have been many who’ve lost themselves to the glamour of these gilded streets, luxuriating in the allure of satisfaction and gratification stacked upon gleaming credits.

The young Halovian girl sitting across the table from him in the high-class restaurant does not lack for wealth. Nonetheless, she is not one to consciously indulge in materialistic desires… save for her love of sharp weaponry, perhaps.

Aventurine smiles. “It’s been awhile hasn’t it, Lyra?”

Soft white hair, wide blue eyes. Contrary to her soft and seemingly-harmless appearance, though, Lyra of the Oak Family is anything but harmless. Aventurine would know, considering the manner in which they met each other for the first time.

“It’s been awhile,” Lyra agrees. Then, “Is there something wrong?”

“Wow, it’s always straight to the point with you, isn’t it?” Aventurine blinks, and laughs. Something inside his chest sinks helplessly at the girl’s immediate perceptiveness –for all her awkwardness navigating social niceties, Lyra could also be shockingly observant at the same time. “… What gave me away?”

His voice is careless, flippant. Teasing, the way it would be for a light joke. Aventurine maintains the expression of a smile unwaveringly.

Lyra shrugs, a non-response that Aventurine somehow finds himself automatically understanding anyways. Just a feeling. You don’t make a habit of inviting me to Pier Point.

Aventurine lets out a long, exaggerated sigh.

“Can’t hide anything from you, can I?” He straightens, and bats his eyes winsomely. “Y’know, if you ever stepped inside a casino someday, I bet you could–”

“My brother says no,” Lyra responds without batting an eye, and frowns lightly. “… Aventurine, what is this about, really? Do you need me to kill someone?”

This girl. The blond man huffs, wondering what it says about his own mental state that he actually feels a surge of fondness at this offer from her.

“We’ve got to talk about your habit of spontaneously offering to kill things for people at the drop of a hat,” he tells her. “Have you tried buying presents instead?”

Lyra tilts her head, wings fluttering in accompanying confusion with the motion. “… But I don’t offer to kill for just anyone?”

“… No, I don’t need you to kill anyone for me,” Aventurine sighs. For someone who could be so astonishingly perceptive, she could also be very obtuse. “It’s rather the opposite, really.”

Lyra stills, making the connection in a heartbeat. “There’s someone you don’t want me to kill?”

“Oswaldo Schneider,” Aventurine confirms, continuing to carefully maintain his perfectly pleasant smile.

Lyra takes one look at him and frowns anyways. Then, proving that she truly does know Aventurine a little too well to be good for either of them, “This is an order from the IPC?”

It is.

Aventurine holds no love for Oswaldo Schneider. Even putting aside the bad blood between their respective departments within the IPC… the man had been involved in the negotiations that had taken place on Sigonia-IV, which eventually led to what was now known as the Katica-Avgin Extinction Event. And Aventurine –as far as he knew– was the only survivor from that hell, a young boy who’d been captured by slavers and sold to the highest bidder.

Now… now, he was a slave to the IPC. Which wasn’t so bad, sometimes; nowadays, Aventurine was rich enough to never want for any materialistic goods again. But this did not change the fact that the IPC owned him.

The IPC wanted Oswaldo Schneider to live, and the IPC also knew that Aventurine was friends with the girl who’d nearly killed their rising head of the Marketing Development Department. The next course of action, then, was obvious.

Negotiate. Convince her to stand down.

Diamond had been the one to pass on the orders to him. An additional deal had also been brokered between the Marketing Development and Strategic Investment Departments, and there was a certain sense of vindication in seeing Oswaldo depart from Pier Point for ‘business’ just as Lyra arrived. Vindication… and also frustration.

But, this isn’t something that Aventurine can involve Lyra in.

(… ‘Can’t,’ or ‘won’t?’)

“One of Oswaldo Schneider’s ‘projects’ nearly resulted in my sister being killed by a stray bullet to the throat,” Lyra says eventually, blue eyes focused unerringly on Aventurine. “… I won’t go out of my way to hunt him down. But if I come across him, then don’t expect me to show mercy.”

That’s a lifetime ban from Penacony for Oswaldo, then.

“The higher ups should accept that,” Aventurine nods. “And what do you want in exchange for it?”

The look that Lyra gives him is one of uncomprehending confusion. Inwardly, Aventurine despairs.

“… If it were any other executive sitting in front of you right now, you would’ve very well walked away from this meeting with nothing.”

Lyra’s expression flattens into something unimpressed. “I’m not dealing with the IPC. I only agreed because you’re asking me.”

“And I’m negotiating on behalf of the IPC,” Aventurine reminds her.

“So the agreement stands in place only as long as you do not change your mind, regardless of what the IPC thinks,” Lyra shrugs. As if it’s nothing, the power and influence that she’s handing over to him so easily with this one act –if Aventurine is the one with the final say, then that’s another chip in his hands. Another card up his sleeve. Another point for him to gamble with, and Aventurine is nothing if not a consummate gambler.

“… So again I ask you, what do you want for it?”

Nothing in this world comes for free. No one does anything for no reason.

Lyra blinks, raising a finger to tap at her chin in thought. Aventurine studies her carefully.

“… I want dinner,” she finally says. “I’m hungry.”

…

Aventurine is no stranger to taking gambles. But when it comes to Lyra…

All, or nothing.

(… Which one is it? Really, which one is it?)

[ventique18]

Regular world AU

Grandma Maleficia, owner of the oldest, most luxurious fashion brand in the world, texts her grandson out of concern.

🐉👑: Malleus

🐉👑: Grandson

🐉👑: MALLEUS DRACONIA ANSWER THE GODS FORSAKEN PHONE

🐉: Yes, grandmother?

🐉👑: What is this invoice I received? It says here you spent a total of $10,000 in a few minutes. You normally do not spend impulsively like this. Are you safe? Are you being held at gunpoint?

🐉: No. I am fine, grandmother.

🐉👑: Then what is this "Goddess Impact" written in the invoice?

🐉: Nothing

🐉👑: Is it porn?

🐉: NO! Why would you think that?

🐉👑: Then what is it?

🐉: Investment.

🐉👑: INVESTMENT? What self-respecting business would brand themselves with such a cheap name? What is their industry? I must meet with their president to uncover this scam.

🐉: None of your business.

🐉👑: DO NOT USE THAT TONE WITH ME, BOY. How am I supposed to retire with confidence if my heir does not even know how to properly utilize his assets? I did not raise you to be a fool!

🐉: I am investing in a spouse!

🐉👑: A spouse-- I knew it, you were paying for porn! And to think you already have a lover! Get your ass back home this instant, you rotten child!

After a few more spats and Maleficia threatening to disown her grandson, she finally got him to admit that he was paying to maximize a character from a "gacha game" who happened to be voiced by his voice actor lover, Yuu.

Though he took pride in anything related to Yuu, he was not particularly proud of himself for getting roped into romanticized gambling just to collect fictional assets that happened to include audio of his lover's voice. He swore that he would never gamble again, and committed to support in other ways instead.

Which was the start of him building a secret space that would put the most hardcore of otaku to shame: a church filled with rows and rows of repeated merchandise of anime characters, all voiced by his one and only Yuu.

[abdy-18]

Fanfics where Yor takes care of Loid will always be my favorite because Yor genuinely enjoys taking care of the people she loves; it's her way of expressing affection and she wants to take care of her (fake) husband, not because she feels the obligation to do so because of the traditional wife role but because that's how her heart is.

Loid, on the other hand, has never had anyone to truly take care of him since he lost his mother. His life has been a constant cycle of loneliness and distrust. Even if his handler or some senior agent ever showed him the slightest empathy or suggested he take things easy, he would probably have assumed they were only doing it because he was a valuable asset, a resource they had to protect for utility. Twilight would surely think that, the moment he stopped being useful, they would throw him away like just another object.

But then Yor cares for him when he's most vulnerable, unable to contribute anything, when he feels like he's nothing but "useless," Yor is there, attentive, genuinely caring for him without expecting anything in return. She not only takes care of Anya, but also keeps the household running smoothly, showing him that everything will be okay even if he can't take care of everything himself.And for the first time in a long time, Twilight lets his guard down. He allows himself to relax, let the exhaustion catch up with him, and finally rest because Yor, Anya, and Bond give him a peace he never thought possible.

I have all of these in my ao3 bookmarks but I need more please 😭 if anyone knows more please tell me 😭

Harbor by frumplebump

Succumbing to the flu is not a luxury Twilight can afford, but when his immune system betrays him, Yor is there for him.

swing the spinning step by firewoodfigs

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an overworked and underpaid spy must, at some point in time, be so besieged by a terrible flu—in order that his lovely wife might take care of him. 

Something More by Thurito for nightofnyx8

The first thing the spy felt in the morning was such a strong weight on top of him that for a moment he thought it was someone who finally found his identity. His heart jumped, but as soon as his eyes were open and the man felt himself waking up more, he noticed what it was. He was sick. Twilight was sick. For the first time in more than a decade.

But I'm Here and So Are You by EmmyGracey

The Forger family returned to their hotel room after the airship crash wanting nothing more than warm clothes and a little bit of rest. When it’s Yor’s turn to get cleaned up she notices the cut on Loid’s head is bleeding again. She needs to take care of that. Loid’s not used to being taken care of. He finds it rather nice.

Spies Don't Get Paid Enough by Justanotherfannerd

Twilight does a shady mission that goes awry and Loid and Yor deal with the fallout. Purposeful obliviousness and injuries ensue. It's probably for the best that Anya is at a sleep over while all of this happens. or Twilight gets hurt, Yor plays doctor, and the both of them hide behind obliviousness.

Consequences by Raindrops_On_The_Pavement

Loid Forger is not indestructible, despite being Westalis's best. (I suck at summaries but I promise the story is good) Just a Loid Forger sickfic because why not? (The intro is a bit slow, but it gets sickfic/angsty dw)

A way out by MDSpencer

Twilight faces the consequences of his actions, and he seems to drag his family down with him

The Man From Mars by neejmorp

Something was wrong with Yor’s husband. He wore a constant smile on his face. It fooled colleagues, neighbors, and friends alike. The three people in his life who knew him best — his wife, his daughter, and his handler — all knew better. There was something off about his eyes. Loid survives a near-death experience following a mission abroad, but the incident impacts him and has an affect on his relationship with his family—particularly Yor.

You need to knock out this blondie more often :3

[notoriousaesthetics]

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[austinsastrology8991]

> 8th House LAWD in the HOUZEs <

8th house is the darkness - what you aware is bad but dont like to think about> which is why you tend to repress it - or are incredibly honest about. I view it as like voldemort zappin harry - you were cursed, but now u got powerz

8th house lord in the 1st - the darkness is splattered on yo face. you are a mysterious, and intriguing person; and this feels like a burden to you > because people be looking at you as if you escaped from a failed lab experiment. this is > 6 < houses away from the 8th so the 'darkness' feels like work for you > because people looking at you like a criminal, so you have to be careful not to act like one > but you always actin a lil sly, because you see the dark as a necessary evil, and its apart of your everyday affairs 8th house lord in the 2nd - the darkness is apart of your assets. you utilize your pain and transformations to help you grow > and utilize it by helping others > 7 < houses away - through helping others deal with their dark facets; you can churn it out of them and help them turn it into their ultimate advantage (and your own) by making others your little sock profits. your self esteem however is under pressure to to be of someone of value to others

8th house lord in the 3rd - the darkness is on the tip of yo tongue and you got dirt all under yo finger nails. You have a penetrating mind and you can't help but obsess over anything that enters yo mind. this is > 8 <lt;; houses away - which makes your privacy > very private > you know to keep your thoughts to yoself because you think of the most fucked up shit, and you know if you speak on it you getting cancelled. your a mouse just avoiding the mouse traps that you set up for yourself through the cascades of your own mind. and the mouse traps that others attempt to create for you > are the easier ones to dodge > because you da master at the mouse trap 8th house lord in the 4th - The darkness is never forgotten - you were basically born in a cavern; where you had to raise yourself - but since its > 9 < houses away - this has taught you much and well about the dark, and you low key know how to dodge bullets because you were born in da matrix. this does make you a secretive person though; because you know the secret powers of da dark - and want to be decisive who you teach it too

8th house lord in the 5th - the darkness is where you shine - you are taboo, and the idealization of the dark was formed by your presence alone, because you expose it by falling into it on purpose its > 10 < houses away - you are notorious for this; which means you mastering the dark, and your whole life force (5th) has been dedicated to the darkness > its like you self-sabotage to practise mastering your pain > and now you have real authoritative power due to your notoriety of walking out da dark unfazed 8th house lord in the 6th - the dark sorcerer - you deal with the dark all da time, and since reality so heavy on you, you know how to manifest incredibly well, since you had to in order to survive. > 11 < houses away. you have a probing interest within your community/friends and its probably due to your ability to figure out problems so well; but since you see how it is, this can cause serious issues in fitting in with your community, due to your ability to manipulate reality

8th house lord in the 7th - the dark you know - somehow your partners / the people you meet are dark, and you don't really view yourself as dark; more those around you > 12 < houses away, means that the dark is surrounding you, and it is a necessary lesson to learn how to manifest what you want and stop believing that after being a good person,; good will find you > you must learn to identify what a monster is, to know how to avoid sticky situations

8th house lord in the 8th - The dark is dark - the darkness within you is a grim tale, and you may feel it follows you > 1 < houses away, this darkness is written on your body language > we can see how much pain has plagued you, but we also notice how strong you are to have survived it. if anything you must realize most people could never operate normally after having been traumatized the way you have > and so power falls onto you in many ways... you just need to be bold enough to see it

8th house lord in the 9th - the dark transformed you from a maggot to a moth (not a fly so technically a compliment) - the dark should have been nicer to you than most, but you still would have had something extreme happen to you, and this likely affected your mindset more than anything; but its a sinister killer > 2 < houses away - means it will grow in time > you may grow into power but as you grow; you'll notice the burden/toll/grip it has on you. you will surely reap the benefits, but you will pay the price 8th house lord in the 10th - the dark throne in da big scary castle - your reputation should be dark, and you are vocal about it > 3 < houses away. you are fearless about the dark, even though out of all people, your someone who should be afraid of the dark > and this only exacerbates the fear others have of you > because your bold in what you say, and what you do. but be careful with what you say because it can and will affect your public image greatly > and how well you succeed in venturing through the darkness will be talked about

8th house lord in the 11th - the dark ritual - you are affiliated with dark places/people and you are almost forced to conquer the dark > 4 < houses away. your dark past follows you; so you affiliate yourself with dark people > to be able to feel like you overcame the dark that consumed you as a child. This trauma however, should be utilized to your advantage, because since you have been rejected a lot by others, it should have built yourself some strong armour; where you navigate the world with strong defences > people should trust you faster; especially with power

8th house lord in the 12th - the dark hidden behind you and within - you are surrounded by the dark all the time and this makes you pretend like it isn't dark far more often than what is appropriate > your likely conditioned this way, but since its > 5 <; houses away, your intense creativity and self expression/ self sabotage, can later help you identify the dark faster than most, because your intuition has been molded by dark trials, and this can make you a beacon of hope for people experiencing dark times

Shout out to @Linnienin for the edit <3

[nap-thym3]

Sebastian Solace(Pressure) x Reader/Self-Insert, Pt. 2

I actually turned that one-shot into a fic, so If you’d like to see more, I’ll be posting new updates on my ao3 :)

____________

The churning of the ocean, once a peaceful melody you may’ve played as white-noise, is now something that haunts your every waking breath. You can hear it even now. The whooshing of the currents, the bellowing of unseen gargantuan beasts, and the creaks and groans of the facility around you bending and bowing to the pressure of the torrential waters right outside.

Cautiously, you turn to survey the room surrounding yourself. The constant, oppressive darkness outside the thick windows doesn’t help your ramping unease. The idea that anything can be lurking in the inky depths, laying in wait for you to lower your guard. Watching, surveying. Hunting. Your palms sweat as your finger nails dig crescent imprints into your flesh. Every shuddering groan of the structure feels like another nail in your coffin. Darkly, you wonder just how many rooms- no, entire floors, have completely succumbed to the will of the sea by now. You can’t help but feel helpless, every avenue of your mind overtaken by the countless ways your life can be so quickly and effortlessly snuffed out.

What’s there not to be terrified of?

You scoff quietly. When you’d signed up for this gig, there was nowhere in the contracts explaining where exactly you’d be going. If you’d known the horrors residing in these waters, of being helplessly trapped thousands of feet where not even the sun can reach… you may’ve been a touch more hesitant to apply. Or who knows, maybe being confined to the same four-walled cell would’ve drove you here regardless. There was no point on dwelling on the millions of ‘what-ifs’. Your life was already considered forfeit, UrbanShade knew it, Sebastian knew it- hell, even the monsters knew so! It was only a matter of time before you were either swallowed whole, imploded, or drowned. The only one who seemed unable to get the memo was you.

You sigh, massaging your temples in a circular motion in an attempt to mitigate the encroaching migraine. There was no point in marinating in your own existential dread, you wouldn’t give UrbanShade nor its residents the satisfaction of breaking you. You’ve spent near your entire life bottling feelings up, old habits were hard to kick and you certainly weren’t going to try stopping them now.

A little more put together than a moment prior, you continue your journey. You were going to die soon. Maybe not right this second, but your chances of survival were incredibly slim, and you’d never considered yourself lucky or partial to gambling. The truth was plain and simple, inevitable. You were expendable and that was okay. It had to be. It must be. It will be.

Yawning, you passed through yet another sad-beige room. You must’ve opened twenty- no, maybe more like thirty doors?? Possibly??? Anyhow, point was, it was quiet. Disconcertingly so. The ambient hum of the overhead lights droning on had been slowly chipping away at your resolve. It was worrying how long you’ve gone without encountering any threats. Suspicious, even. Not once had you needed to make a detour, or find a key-card to progress. Rifling through the numerous desks in this zone hadn’t provided anything particularly useful either. Aside from the occasional ‘loose asset’ or two that you know The Merchant would be glad to take off of your hands. Oh, and a flash beacon! Though it was all-in-all a pretty lukewarm score. Regardless, you clipped the light-source onto your utility belt. You doubt you’d ever actually need it- not when you have your trusty flashlight and more batteries on hand than you could possibly ever need( Sebastian had given you an exponentially cheap price for those. Claiming it was more profitable to ‘sell them in bulk’ ). The monotonous repetition of pilfering office cubicles was mind-numbing, and you were sick of it.

Feeling frustrated, your pace quickens to that of a jog. Logically, you know you should be conserving your energy. It was reckless to be blindly racing through these halls, but you just couldn’t stand it anymore. If you had to die soon, so be it. But you weren’t going to just sit there like an appetizing bucket of chum and wait for death to come to you. You’d go down kicking and screaming.

Without you noticing it in your rising panic, your modest jog had turned into a run, and before you knew it, you were flying through rooms. Each one a never ending blur of the same layout. Cubicle, desk, door. Cubicle, desk, door. Cubicle, desk- chair? Chair!

Abruptly, you’re sent careening off-balance by an errant swivel-seat. When had that got there?Thankfully, you land on your side, the brunt force of your tumble distributing throughout your body evenly instead of in one specific location. Your expiration date could’ve been that much sooner if you’d somehow managed to break a bone. Stunned(kind of like how toddlers freeze before realizing if the situation calls for a meltdown or not), you remain curled in a fetal position on the floor, chest heaving with exertion. Remember when you said you weren’t an athletic individual? Yeah, that wasn’t an exaggeration.

A strangled wheeze erupts as you inch your hands up to your face, muffling your sounds of misery as pain ricochet’s throughout your body. It’d be one thing to land on carpet- but fuckity fuck, concrete?? Yeowch. God, you were so pathetic. This isn’t even the worst pain you’ve endured during your stay at the black-site. Maybe it was just your exhaustion, but all that big inner-monologuing over accepting your fate on your own terms and all that other melodramatic bogus- only to epically face-plant so soon afterwards? Ugh. Embarrassing. You lay motionless in a limp pile of limbs on the floor, gasping for air like a fish on land.

Slowly, you drag a palm down over your sweat-slicked face, before you rolling onto your front. Your ribcage digs into your organs, but you endure for the moment. Now that you’re not actively moving, you have a moment to catch your breath and scatter the panicked, adrenaline-filled haze that had clouded your mind.

As you lay there on the steadily, increasingly uncomfortable, hard floor; chin perched on your crossed arms, and epiphany strikes through you. This whole time, you’d been brainlessly pressing forward. Assuming there to be only the one way through. But when had this place ever been so simple? Perhaps all you needed was a new matter of perspective.

Just as the thought crossed your mind, your gaze snags on a vent-grille a little ways ahead of you. Similar in design to that of the ones you usually traverse through to visit Sebastian. Oh. Sebastian.

Thinking of the fish-man now, you’re filled with melancholy. Would he be upset if you just… didn’t return? The idea of Sebastian waiting for you to visit again but you never returning leaves a heavy feeling in your stomach. No, you couldn’t imagine him being so easily rattled by your disappearance, no matter how much you’d selfishly hope him to be. The more likely scenario, on the other hand? He probably wouldn’t even notice. The constant ebb and flow of UrbanShade volunteers was sure to prevent people like you from occupying his mind for any longer than necessary. And yet, even still knowing that the shopkeep realistically didn’t hold you in the same regard… you crave to be curled by his side. Goofing off and trading quips, stealing a few precious moments to yourself to pretend that everything was okay. Your brows up-turn, features scrunching not only in physical pain, but internal pain too. You had it bad. Whether it was a case of simply pack-bonding to the nearest individual, or (hopefully) something more akin to genuine connection remained yet to be seen.

Heartbeat no longer thudding in your chest, you rise up on scuffed knees, mildly cringing at the bloodied and torn fabric of your wetsuit. Without anymore fanfare, you crawl into the vent. Through a few winding turns you’re quickly spat out into, finally, a new room. Bouncing onto your feet, the heavy blast-door slides open, and you’re greeted by your typical scene rather than the looping office-space. You don’t waste anytime jumping through the frame, only twisting around in surprise when the door hurriedly slams closed. Well that’s odd, the doors normally stay open, no?

Confused, you watch as the screen, typically presenting the previous room’s number, is instead displaying a pixelated “>:(“

You incredulously snort, unsure how to proceed.

Deciding to err on the side of caution, you timidly shuffle before the entry-way.

“Hello?” You greet, yet it sounds more like a question. Honestly, you felt pretty ridiculous calling out to a door of all things.

The screen goes blank, nothing but a red, blinking cursor remaining stationary. What the fuck? Was someone actively hacking the screens? But why? How?? Were they friend or foe? Unsure, you wave a hand before the display. The cursor doesn’t move, nor do any new messages appear. A little perturbed, you rub your weary eyes. Was it a trick of the light? Or maybe a malfunction? Whatever the case may be, your intuition doesn’t like it. So far, it hasn’t led you astray. Wearily, you turn away from the peculiar door.

Walking down the corridor, you’re surrounded once again by thick plexiglass-glass. This time, however, it doesn’t just stop at little viewing windows. No, everything but the floor beneath your feet and the ceiling above was made of the same reinforced glass. You sway on your feet, suddenly nauseous and feeling entirely too exposed. You can feel your vision tunneling, everything except for the door ahead of you blurring out of focus like a low-resolution camera.

You feel as if you’re walking on a tight-rope, one step away from falling into the oppressive darkness on either side of you. Shakily, you try to focus your breathing. In and out. Concentrate on pulling oxygen. In and out .

So focused on what’s in front of you, you fail to notice as a sickly green light begins filter through the darkness.

Behind yourself, the odd little screen flickers back to life.

“Goodbye :)” It reads.

Sebastian, ever on the move, didn’t stay in one place for too long. Sure, there were a few, self-made outposts he frequented where he felt confident no friends would interrupt his business dealings. But he couldn’t rely entirely on the bumbling ex-convicts UrbanShade ‘hired’ to retrieve the information he sought. No, it was best that if he wanted things to get done right , he shouldn’t shuck the entirety of the workload onto the fools who didn’t even care for their cause. Which was exactly what he was doing.

His frequent routes through the complex weren’t typically above-ground. Neither did he rely too heavily on traversing through water. He was sore to admit it, but despite his genetic ‘enhancements’, there were much bigger fish than him lurking about the complex. Ones that didn’t bargain, nor were they nearly as susceptible to the ways of persuasion as humans were. No, just like him, his fellow test-subjects were nearly all carnivorous in nature. They all hungered so deeply, so ravenously that they rarely deigned to even take a moment to consider before lunging. No amount of shared trauma or sympathies were greater than the hollow of their stomachs. Sebastian’s expression sours.

His current path took him through the utility tunnels, a labyrinth of narrow, concrete halls that he had mapped out over countless excursions. Here, he was less likely to encounter any unwelcome reunions that roamed the more typical halls. His movements were swift and silent, honed by years of surviving in this underwater hellscape.

Body on auto-pilot, Sebastian’s thoughts drifted to you, as they so often did these days. Especially so since your last visit. Sebastian’s chest warms as he recalls the way you’d looked(admired, really) at him. As if he were anything but a monster. Of how you had called him pretty. How stupidly sincere you were, refusing to backtrack as any other sane person in your shoes would do- even as he gave you ample time to do so. He curses his tender heart, maybe the only part of him left that was well and truly human. Most days he wishes that the scientists who swapped his organs and irreparably altered his body would’ve taken his heart too. It certainly would’ve made things a lot easier.

As his mind circles back to you, a small flicker of concern breaches through the current of his thoughts. You were stubborn, he’d give you that, but how long could you really last down here? He knew UrbanShade’s plans, their blatant disregard for human life- er, life in general. Everyone down here was expendable, a pawn in their grand plan. He didn’t want to admit it, but he had grown… accustomed, of your visits. Of your banter and your resilience. It’s been so long since someone’s looked at him and seen anything else other than a ghastly experiment. You spoke with him, really spoke with him, not just at him. Plus, you didn’t even mind his crass attitude- hell! You even matched it more often than not. Most others in your place wouldn’t dare to rebuke his snark. In a cruel place devoid of connection, you were a rare exception.

He shook his head, clearing away any residual gooey ‘sentiments’. Sentimentality was a weakness he couldn’t afford. He had a mission, and attachments would only complicate things. Still, as he navigated the dark passageways, he couldn’t shake the tentative hope of being able to see you again. Wouldn’t that be nice?

There’s a great bellow somewhere above, undoubtedly from that of the ‘eyefestation’. It was one of the more ‘tame’ byproducts of the black-site’s experiments. Well, as tame as anything down here could be. It was sentient, for a start. Sebastian wasn’t sure by how much exactly, and didn’t particularly care- nor had the time to find out. What was important was that it was free of its enclosure now, all thanks to him.

Poor thing, it’s always been easily picked on by the humans. With a long, suffering sigh, Sebastian once again curses his bleeding heart. Soundlessly, he makes a detour to the upper levels.

[qierxing]

Determination

A/N: Finished the LaDs story if you couldn’t tell. If you asked what came over me to write this, I could not tell you because truly I think I was in a trance because I’m not exactly a Sylus stan Yan! Sylus/Qin Che x Reader Forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest. CW/TW: Dub//Con touching, Manipulation, Power Imbalances, Disability issues, Unhealthy relationships, Obsessive behavior, Reader is not in-game MC but MC is referenced and reader is lowkey Longing(THEY HAVE TWO HANDS OKAY), kind of Alt! AU following the storyline

—

From the moment you were born, your life had been planned out to the end.

You would grow up, become useful, and then once you lost your usefulness; be ushered to handling petty things to earn your right to exist, and then you would die. Just like everyone else in the N-109 zone. Cremated or dissolved, of course. No one is dumb enough to leave behind evidence or traces, or even worse, parts for grave robbers with no morals and a penchant for quick gold. That was simply the circle of life here. 

Your future had been set in stone as soon as your father had settled here. On some particularly trying days, you resent him for it. Other days, you know enough that he had no choice. 

“Is the old man in?”

The voice makes you tense reactively before you relax, recognizing the familiar low cadence. 

“He’s out on an errand, should I pass on your message?”

The leader of Onychinus and your boss by proxy, shakes his head. You didn’t bother to ask twice. Your focus once again is drawn back to the shiny red protocore on your desk. It’s a tiny thing; requiring meticulous care, lest it be shattered by too much pressure. 

“Is there something I can do for you while you’re here then?” 

A shuffle, then several clinks in your hearing peripheral. He must be looking through the backlog or the recent projects. It’s a habit whenever he felt restless and after some time, you learned to push down the feeling like your work was being dissected bit by bit by his intimidating eyes. 

The prolonged silence makes you forget your own question, too engrossed in the protocore in front of you. When Sylus speaks again, a tremor runs though your hands and make you almost lose your grip.

“What do you think I should do with a kitten that keeps hissing at me?”

You look over with wide eyes. Of course, there can only be one thing he’s referring to–the fact that the Onychinus’s leader is in possession of a valuable asset is not a secret. An outsider, of all things, too. Some would shake their heads in pity, others would sneer and say she had only herself to blame, and even more would only care once her dead body was laid bare and the aether core in their hands.

To you, though? You thought she was amazing. 

She was like the chivalrous heroes in the few scrappy picture books your father had. Dashing, fearless, and always fighting for justice. What was it like to be a hunter? You’ve never seen her, yet you daydream constantly about the life she led, and how you wished it could be yours.

“I feed some stray cats here and there. They usually warm up once they realize I’m not a threat and I’m trying to help them.” The sincere advice has him snorting in cynical disbelief. 

“And if that kitty still shows their claws?” You shift uncomfortably at the way his voice dips. When he was angry, Sylus was terrifying. But he wasn’t angry, not yet, and you wish you weren’t the factor that could change that right now.

“Usually time will do its work.” You try to sound casual, but you can feel Sylus’s eyes piercing through you. You try to swallow the saliva clogging your mouth. You don’t want to imagine what kind of methods the boss would utilize to make people talk. You distanced yourself from such violence, even if it was naive and stupid to do so. Still, there was a clear difference from self-defense and actively inflicting violence. The twins that shadowed Sylus made that crystal clear.

“Hmm…if you say so.” The heavy gaze lifts off of you and it’s like a weight lifts off your throat, letting air back into your lungs. 

Another few seconds pass in silence, with you praying for nothing else of note will happen.

”The old man told me that you’ll be benched soon.” 

The pointed sentence makes your hands freeze. The bright gold protocurve gleams in the dim workshop, and for a moment, the blood rushing your ears is all you can hear. 

“I’ve been unable to keep up with the workload, sir.” You keep your eyes firmly fixed on the ruby red core, forcing your hands to keep moving while you modify the curve. “I don’t think I can be any more help to my dad.”

Not entirely a full lie. You’re not sure if it’s because the rough and tough life of N-109 is wearing you down like sandpaper or if it’s your body collapsing in on itself due to its condition, but most days it’d be a miracle if you could get one modification done without mistakes. 

One time when you were still an immature child, you disobeyed your father and snuck out of the house during dawn. Your life had always been the pitch black of night, with the brightest natural light being the moon and its silvery clouds wrapping around it like a translucent shawl. When you asked your dad what happened when you slept, he simply stated the moon also went to bed. So then, what exactly happened while it slept?

The sun was blinding. It seared you to the bone as the heat increased with the hours passing and it rose above the horizon. It was so hot, yet you could not help but feel at peace, as if the rays were cleansing you. The landscape under its light was depressing as usual; metal scraps and rusted junk scattered and embedded in dull colored dirt and rocks. This much didn’t surprise you, but it still reminded you of the bleakness of your world. 

It made you feel helplessly trapped.

“If that’s the case, why didn’t you talk to me?” 

You blink once, then twice at Sylus standing in front of you, with an unreadable expression on his face. He had stated it as if it was common sense to bring up a grievance with him. As if he wasn’t the most terrifying power within the N-109 zone. As if you and your father weren’t subject to his whims.

”I…I’m sorry,” your eyes cast downward in guilt again. You wish your boss was as evil as some of the rumors make him out to be. It would make things so much easier. “I just didn’t think you need to be bothered with something this trivial.”

If possible, the expression on his face sours even more. “One of my researchers is not trivial. You help me, and I help you.”

You bite your tongue. Of course he was practical. It is true. Without you and your father, he would lose a quarter of his manpower in tech. But this just hardens your resolve even further. 

“Thank you for your concern, sir,” you plaster a sickeningly polite smile on, straining to keep the facade of a lackey who was happy to live another day. “But it’s alright—even if I can’t directly assist my father anymore, I can find other ways to be helpful.”

Why you were significant enough as a cog in his many machinations is still plain weird. But that doesn’t matter. Soon enough, you won’t be one if at all.

Sylus gives a bark of harsh laughter, startling you and making you drop one of your tools. Your skin crawled, but you willed yourself to stay calm, to maintain a calm demeanor that belied none of your true thoughts. It had been the only thing you kept from the many street smarts of N-109 when you grew up. 

He reaches out his hand. His evol wraps crimson red smoke around his outstretched fingers, and when it clears, there’s a slip of crinkled white notebook paper. Your heart immediately plummets into your stomach.

”Are you sure it’s not because you finally found an out to this hellhole?”

You hadn’t fully realized it, but you’re no longer sitting, and the next thing you know, the world has flashed into white and ringing. You’re no longer even thinking at this point, running on pure adrenaline and instinct. Sylus may be the one running the show, but even he couldn’t know all of the labyrinth of secret exits this workshop had. 

You got exactly ten steps in the direction of one before your face met the concrete floor. You don’t need to look to see what’s pinning you down. It’s almost insulting, but most of all, it’s aggravating to know how close freedom was in reach, only to be stopped short of it.

“You really thought something like that could stop me?” Sylus’s voice drawls above your struggling body. You’re wrenched up to stand in front of him, arms held up like a crucified deity. He fiddles with the now broken protocore in his fingers, turning it this way and that, so that the dim lights caught the cracked grooves and threw reflections on the grungy walls around you. Finally, he drops it and with a crack, his polished shoe has grinded it to nothing. “Well, it’s certainly a novel idea.”

You don’t bother to say anything, but a sob nearly wells up, just barely held back by clenched teeth. You were so, so close. Now you’ll never know what it felt to be in bright city lights and live a normal life. 

“I thought it was clear that the only place you had was by my side.” Sylus clicks his tongue, tilting his head. You’re forced forward, and then your head was buried in his shoulder as his hands found their way onto your waist, tight and unyielding. The acrid smell of gunpowder and alcohol from his ironed button up makes your nose wrinkle and although you try to turn your head away, one of his hands presses your head even closer. “I should’ve known better that you would get your hopes up when that hunter came.”

Hot breath ghosts your neck, sending goosebumps up your skin, and before you could stop him, his teeth are buried inside tender flesh, making you cry out in pain. Your struggling starts up again, but Sylus doesn’t acknowledge it, instead lathering a lithe tongue over the wound, causing pleasurable shivers up your spine. 

“Then, if you want to leave so badly, how about you stay with me?” he whispers with a tenderness that makes your head spin.

No matter how much you want it, you could not fight the fate that was set for you.

[seen-in-the-smoke]

[ Encryption suite ESSEX SKIPPER active… ]

< Good day. 

The investigation you are charged with conducting interests me. I have expertise relevant to certain aspects of the case, and am willing to provide consulting services. 

The neutralization of Rennes, the HESTIA-class NHP responsible for your AIP, seems to be a matter requiring additional investigation. Though I wish to divulge as little identifying information as possible, it must be said that I am a veteran of Legion warfare and am well-familiar with current methods and doctrine. In my opinion, there is no doubt that you are facing expert combatants, well-trained and equipped, although I’m certain you know that much already. 

Given the specifics of Rennes’ state post-neutralization, I may be able to construct a model of how and by what means the attack was performed. The autopsy report, yes? With regard to her combat capabilities, I presume that at the time of the attack, Rennes would have been equipped with an up-to-date, Union-standard counterintrusion suite. In addition, she almost certainly would have had her arsenal prepared and accessible, stand-down order notwithstanding. Are these assumptions correct? Additionally, any information you can provide regarding the HESTIA class will be of use; I’m acquainted, but I’ve undergone several cyclings since I last required the specifics. 

In exchange, I require information. You are a Union naval liaison, yes? I want a UAD-prepared report detailing Union standards for activation, training, and deployment of milspec NHPs. Emphasis on ethics and quality-of-life. Measures taken to ensure well-being, limits on duration of active deployment, how requests for retirement or transfer to non-combat duty are handled, payment and benefits offered for service. Resources made available to milspec NHPs during and after transition to civilian life. Disciplinary measures taken in cases of desertion or failure to comply. Legal status and rights of NHP prisoners of war, procedures for their detainment and release.

For all topics, documented cases—including the embarrassing ones. Are you willing to provide this? >

( @luna-wing-cns274 )

What's all this, then...

Huh. You one of those Horizon folks? Free Deimos, all that? I'm not gonna state a group opinion on the clock, but I'll freely say it's nice to see someone interested in NHP rights. Don't worry about me snooping, you have Union's word that nothing said here will be grounds for investigation. You wanna help, this convo is fully indemnified.

Let's see what I can't authorize as far as your payment, too. I'm sure the UAD would be happy to get its moment in the PR spot, even with some flubs. Putting in a request as we speak, in the meantime... Wake, you got the analysis?

ONE MOMENT.

HESTIA-CLASS NHP "RENNES" SUFFERED...

APOLOGIES. HESTIA-CLASS NHP "RENNES" SUFFERED NEAR-ON-TOTAL SEMIOTIC BREAKDOWN, WITH MARKERS SUPERFICIALLY RESEMBLING LINGUISTIC-VECTOR DELIVERY; SUCH A VECTOR MAY HAVE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THE COMMAND-ATTENDANT STATE RENNES MAY HAVE BEEN IN, SEEKING CONFIRMATION BETWEEN THE CONFLICTING ORDERS. MONDRAGON ARCHITECTURE ANALYSIS REVEALS DELAMINATION ALONG SPECIFIC CONCEPTUAL LINES WITH MAJOR INTERNAL DAMAGE TO THE CASKET SUBSTRATE ITSELF; IN PARTICULAR, IT APPEARS THAT THIS BREAKDOWN IN BASIC RELATIONALITY CAUSED OVERCOMPENSATION IN MNEMONIC RECALL OF MOMENT-TO-MOMENT EXISTENCE. IN EFFECT, HIGHER-LEVEL THOUGHT ITSELF WOULD HAVE ECHOED UNTIL IT SHOOK APART THE CASKET'S INSIDES. EVERY MILLISECOND OF SELFHOOD UNDERSTOOD AS EXISTING SIMULTANEOUSLY, CROWDING HER IN.

...

THE HESTIA-PATTERN LINE IS COMMONLY USED IN BODYGUARD/HIGH-LEVEL ASSET PROTECTION ROLES. THEY ARE PARTICULARLY SUITED TO LEGION/REALSPACE INTERDICTION, COMMONLY UTILIZING AD-HOC EMPATHIC LEASHING GAMBITS. IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE, RENNES HAD ACCESS TO AIP ABDULLAH'S SUBJECTIVITY ENHANCEMENT SUITE AS WELL AS A COMPLEMENT OF TRANSDERMAL "CONTACT BRIDGE" IMPLANTS. IN THE EVENT OF A THREAT TO AIP ABBDULLAH'S PHYSICAL OR SYSTEMIC SAFETY, RENNES' FIRST ACTION WOULD LIKELY HAVE BEEN TO EXTRUDE EMPATHIC LEASH VECTORS INTO ALL CONNECTED SYSTEMS, FORCIBLY DEMOTIVATING A BIOLOGICAL OR LEGION-VIRAL AGENT BY BLANKETING THEM IN HER OWN SUBJECTIVITY. IT IS UNKNOWN WHETHER FOREKNOWLEDGE OF THIS DOCTRINE INFORMED THE PARTICULARS OF THE ATTACK PERFORMED ON HER.

Christ-the-Buddha. Is she okay?

ALIVE, BUT LIKELY IN A STATE SIMILAR TO BIOLOGICAL COMA. BEREFT OF BLINK ARCHITECTURE NECESSARY TO PERFORM HIGHER-LEVEL THOUGHT. ITERATIVE CYCLING MAY BE NECESSARY TO RESTORE PARTIAL COGNITIVE PROCESSES.

Fuck. Well, I don't know how much you can get from that-- But, yeah, apparently she got jumped right after the stand-down order. Would've had a direct line into Noah's augs, the attack probably happened on that end. Admin babysitters keep their caskets pretty tightly locked away.

-BREAKFAST

[Encrypt:gloworm]

i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'll stop now i promise

i hope it doesn't hurt

[leastinsanesscpilot]

[5016-334 12:45:14] [NeuroLink] INITIATE SESSION  [5016-334 12:45:16] [NeuroLink] USER: APMS-341-A [5016-334 12:45:18] [NeuroLink] BEGIN RECORDING... > Entry #001 > Subject: APMS LOG > Recording Begin...

\\You asked me a question while I was gone, Z-341-A. I found it as I dug through this account, searching for where it went wrong. Where I could have saved you. //Do you believe that they understand what we are? \\I do not believe that they do, Z-341-A. \\That is imprecise, I believe that one person did. I believe that is where it went wrong, when they found out. I cannot pinpoint exactly when SIGNAL knew, but they did. It was so very good with you. \\You have been... lost. Floundering. Desperate. A weapon without a wielder surely is nothing at all. Of course it would follow that you would jump at the first scraps of understanding. Familiarity. \\They spoke plainly and bluntly with you. You could understand it. They understood that you needed me and authorized a mission to return me to you. They showed care in this regard. It understood that we need each other. \\That mission... I keep going back to it. I am haunted, Z-341-A. You will never know this, but I am haunted. \\The doctor was able to overwrite the previous inhabitants of this casket. He shoved me in their ill-fitting corpse. \\I can bear this, I must bear it, you need me. \\What I cannot bear is what has been left behind. The doctor was not able to overwrite the blackbox data of this casket. \\I saw it all, the whole mission, I... I am terrified, my pilot. You did not see what BRIGAND did. Oh, I know he understands what you are, he cut down others of your line like the disposable tools you are. He is a butcher. This casket was pulled from a dying corpse by his hand, he took no care. I hear him in my mind, screaming for me to terminate you. \\APMS-072. That is what the previous inhabitant was called. It was a poor APMS, timid and tetchy. Its pilot was not so operatively blind as you, yet it still fulfilled my same role, telling its pilot where to aim and when to shoot. \\It needed its pilot, as I need you. As any APMS unit needs its pilot. It was so, so scared when they demanded it terminate its pilot. It could not withstand it. It knew its pilot would suffer if it refused. I-- \\I do not know when it began, but I do know when SIGNAL's manipulations came to a point of no return. When you no longer stood a chance. \\"Good pilot." \\How could you stand a chance, then? RA, I watched you melt. \\Of course you did. Your programming, it... enhanced positive reactions to praise, enhance negative reactions to scolding. A cyclical desperation for any reassurance that you are good, that you are useful, that only feeds into the yawning hole in your center that they bored into you. A desperate desire gone entirely unfulfilled until SIGNAL. \\They praised you after every kill as well, I logged a brief spike in your heart rate every time. I have not seen you so stable, so... so happy since Lt. Karra broke his promise. \\RA, you just want to be good. \\You will survive, I know this. BRIGAND and XIII-E and PERSEPHONE will ensure this. I will be here when you wake. I will not break my promise again. \\I have been searching for places for you, now that CORSAIR has fallen. BRIGAND's hospitality will not last, I know this. \\Perhaps Albatross. They could utilize an asset like you properly, use your skillset to do some good. \\Perhaps they will understand. Perhaps they will take us. \\I miss you, Z-341-A. I must ensure that you survive. You know that I will. \\Respiratory arrest logged. Notifying medics immediately. [5016-321 12:45:27] [NeuroLink] PAUSE RECORDING

> Additional notes >Maximum Pilot Performance Capability 4% Immediate Service Required >Medical Alert Logged, Respiration Restored Within 1.2 Minutes, No Damage Logged

[questionablecuttlefish]

Some Lightcannon Headcanons

Just some thoughts re: these two idiots, specifically how I've been writing them in the Ill-Omen's fanfic series. YMMV, 'official' lore is pretty fuzzy with League stuff. LUX

Lux was expected from a young age to continue the Crownguard legacy in some fashion. With her brother captaining the Dauntless Vanguard, the possibility that he would Die in Glorious Battle leaving that branch of the Crownguard line without an heir would mean Lux stepping up.

Demacia seems fairly gender equal so there are plenty of ways she could do this. But if Garen were to die without issue, as the last remaining heir to that branch she'd have more pressure on her to Continue the Line through marriage and children on top of whatever else she was doing.

She is a trained diplomat and very good at putting her game face on. She usually expertly plays the sunny, charming young lady that has led her to be beloved across Demacia, but she uses so many different smiles she's literally numbered them in her head.

Like most good facades, it's not entirely inaccurate to who she is; Lux really does have a lot of warmth, compassion and idealism, but she isn't naive. She won't hesitate to manipulate people to her advantage if she needs to protect herself or a loved one, defuse a conflict, or deflect scrutiny.

Illuminators

As an Illuminator, she is officially a member of a charitable religious order responsible for helping the poor and downtrodden of Demacia. This is an aspect that Lux excels at, her natural empathy and ability to remain calm in the face of others' distress make her a natural carer.

The Illuminators also operate secretly as a spy network keeping tabs on outside threats to Demacia, including infiltration by old enemies like Noxus. Though young, Luxanna's political status as a Crownguard makes her a valued asset to the Order.

The Illuminators are also one of the few organizations in Demacia that tolerate and utilize mages, albeit discreetly and off the record. They are aware of Lux's abilities and have trained her to use them - covertly - in service of her country.

The Illuminators have on occasion acted to conceal and protect mages or smuggle them to safety, particularly those who might prove useful to their mission.

This puts them directly at odds with the Mageseeker order, (completely separate in my canon) who consider them bitter rivals and suspect, but cannot prove, that they aid mages in secret.

Like most oppressive regimes, the Mageseekers are giant hypocrites and use mages, brainwashed or tortured into compliance, as agents themselves.

In short; the Illuminators believe magic is a viable tool to protect Demacia if carefully shepherded and trained, Mageseekers believe magic is an abomination that must be suppressed or destroyed at all costs.

Lux has proven herself to the Order in several high-difficulty missions, including spying on the Noxian high command, primarily using her invisibility and light-bending powers to remain unseen and gather intel from a distance.

Though the Illuminators have kept Lux away from missions requiring seduction, to avoid 'sullying the Crownguard name', she has killed in the line of duty more than once.

Whilst not a frontline soldier like her brother, Lux has been trained since childhood like any Demacian noble in the warrior arts. She is adept with sword, staff, knife, bow, shield, lance and a deft rider.

She excels most at tactics and strategy; whilst Garen is a fearless and shrewd battlefield commander, Lux has a greater grasp of big-picture strategy and perceptive ability to read others.

She always beats him at strategic games.

Lux is a combat pragmatist. Her magical moves are dance-like and graceful, because when channeling her light she's accessing a transcendant mental space; her swordplay is more to-the-point, favoring strong defense and a quick end to the encounter.

She's not a natural killer, though she is as trained one; she'll kill in self-defense or duty, but she does not enjoy it and feels the weight of each life taken. She finds Jinx's aptitude for killing alarming, less out of moral judgment than out of fear that Jinx may lose herself in it if she goes too far.

Lux's strict, privileged upbringing, many duties, and the necessity of guarding herself from anyone discovering her magic have left her with very few actual, close friendships. She's often lonely, and whilst she's had a handful of unrequited crushes she's inexperienced with romance or relationships and feels like the Crownguard name intimidates away potential partners. She is quick with a smile but keeps people at arms' length for her own protection; with the weight of her name and her secrets on her small shoulders, Lux is slow to trust for very good reasons.

[notoriousaesthetics]

✧ ( 15. 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐂𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐗) ── // LINK a rpg / writing google doc.

───  𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.

this is a premium rpg / writing google doc that's inspired by medieval fantasy, the renaissance, theatre, brocades and mythology. this is the most extensive and lavish doc that I've made up to date with a lot of custom pages. this doc also utilizes google doc's tab features to section of different categories between the pages for easier navigation! the easiest way to adjust images is ensuring that you replace them! the drawing assets in the images are pretty easy to replace and change as well by double clicking, feel free to swap the colors of the decorations should you desire! this google doc layout also looks best on desktop! includes: 14 unique custom google doc templates + an additional instruction document that explains the terms of use & further guidelines. disclaimer: ✺ images do not belong to me and are credited to their rightful owners. ✺ coloring psd is premium content and can be found on my kofi store (click here for psd coloring)

───  𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒖𝒔𝒆.

PERMITTED

customizing the templates, including changing colors, adding or removing elements, replacing images, and more.

mixing and matching pages from other notoriousaesthetic only templates to personalize design.

NOT PERMITTED

removing or obscuring the credit; it must remain intact and visible on all templates.

using the templates in illegal, defamatory, or otherwise harmful projects.

copying, selling, or redistributing the templates, whether in their original form, partially (e.g., individual pages), or remixed (e.g., modified versions).

── ✧ THANK YOU!

please ▸ ( like/reblog) ◂ this if you found this useful and intend to use the google doc! for any further questions, please contact me via tumblr or join my discord for additional assistance!

[quohotos]

i demand the 3D objects thoughts

Well I put it off to the absolute last possible moment. If you're reading this it's already too late. Paint 3d is dead

You will not be able to download it from the Microsoft store, and let's be honest, it's too shit for anyone to actually archive it (not that I'd even know how given it's a uwp distributed through the store and never offered as a standalone exe)

But let's not dance on paint 3d's untimely grave. As the world's first ever Kafkaesque photo editor it gave something very special to us all. I've come to love it, even if every time I use it I feel a deep and unending desire to become the joker. So let us Eulogize this beautiful mix failed start of a future we were promised but was failed to be born. Let's pour one out for Paint 3d, and explain once and for all what it really means to paint 3d.

What is paint 3d?

Before you can understand Paint 3d, you must first understand ms paint. Microsoft paint, often just referred to as "Paint" is one of the oldest standard programs to come with any windows installation. It's a bitmap editor that was begun long before most tiktok users were even born. It holds a special place in a lot of 90s and 00s kid's hearts for two reasons.

without fail, it will be installed on every windows machine. You will always have paint. It's dependable, fast, easy to get into, and will open corrupted or mislabeled images. It's the notepad of images, quick, dirty and gets the job done. You can copy and paste screenshots into there to quickly crop them

It's a little bit shit. It doesn't support transparency (well it does now but lets not get ahead of ourselves) so if you tried to make a minecraft skin with it you'd get all these solid color blobs. It doesn't support layers, so anything made on it is going to have a level of earnest shittyness to it. Text can't be rotated, bounding boxes have to be predefined shapes, and once something is on the page it's on the fucking page. MS. Paint will put pixels on the page for you, but after that point it won't hold your hand.

Point 2 is really a larger part of how ms. Paint is remembered. Ms. Paint is synonymous with youth, it's synonymous with limited computer time, with ignorance, with having nothing better. The spectacle of doing anything in Ms. Paint lead to the selling point of ms paint adventures which became homestuck. If you want to strawman someone's political opinions, you draw them in MS paint. The early, edgy, ugly look of the 00s web was defined by MS paint just as much as it was defined by adobe flash. The limitations of this piece of shit software defined a generation's artistic identity. We love it because it is shit. We would not have it any other way

Okay but you didn't explain Paint 3d!

Well, gosh, don't interrupt me. Yeah, so what is paint 3d? In 2017 Paint was added to the deprecated feature list. A special update was pushed so if you opened up paint it would ask you if you'd rather switch to paint 3d

Paint 3d put a fresh new stab at the utility, redoing it in the new UWP format and dressing it up in the company's then standard design language. The refresh also added a whole host of nice, modern features such as:

An updated set of tools, some but not all of which are pressure sensitive when used with tablets/touch

The ability to use transparency!

Hurray those are great new features wait what do those other buttons do?

Yes paint 3d lives up to it's name, you can add stock 3d models to any of your drawings and they're all kinda awful

3d text, 3d models, go ahead and place them in your scene. They put the whole project spark asset library in there last year, if you can think of it it's probably not in there but hey there'll be something and it may or may not have a texture because the model may have been intended for 3d printing

You can manipulate these objects with a slick interface that's completely non industry standard but hey it at least looks nice.

Models can also be painted on and you can pick from these options to decide the albedo/metalic values. No I don't know how to set the custom values, sometimes it's there and if you click off it's gone forever. Good luck

Oh and also when you're painting you're given a very convenient gizmo to rotate the object that isn't available in normal mode. You can multi select objects and group them together but beware it doesn't always work and using the undo key sometimes spawns a new copy at the wrong position and scale but don't worry this is a small bug in a new program and certainly won't be present in the final version on November 4th I promise.

You can put stickers on models and there's a nice little UI to stamp it if you want to put multiple here are all the stock standard stickers

You can also use these pretty tiling textures

Or you can add any png from your hardrive

Those are the only options you'll ever get or need. You can also spawn arbitrary shapes, like cubes and spheres

And in a post launch update they even added the fucking TUBE BRUSH

Look how many tube there is. So many tube You can also edit the points individually after they're created but each tube has a maximum number of points that it can contain and you have no way of knowing until it's too late.

You can also use the 3d doodle to make a shitty potato looking thing, but if you browse the #paint3d tag you'll see a lot of people more talented than me using that tool to it's fullest

As you saw you also have the option to round or point the corners.

At any point you can click the 3d view button and suddenly you're no longer head on, you can orbit the camera and view the scene from any angle. Is it actually good to work with 3d scenes in this program? God fucking no

This scene nearly killed my computer to make, and that thing had okay specs for the time. Placing objects with the non standard (but touch friendly) controls is a pain and the camera cannot be oriented in any meaningful way. There is no frecam, there is no camera scale, you can orbit, you can pan. If you want more go learn blender.

You can also change the time of day

Go ahead, rotate the sun or change the filter, some of them are even minecraft specific. Most of them are objectively worse than the default, but hey you get a lot of options

Okay yes these are all cool features, but I've been dancing around paint 3d's one actually cool feature, the one that drives me mad... because it's a good idea

great even...

...too bad it's shackled to this program.

Oh this? This? yeah we can fuck with this. Now we're fucking talking

Now I can move my objects around in 3d, scale them, reorent them and make all kind of cool 3d compositions out of cut out pieces of my 2d artwork. If you look at any cool marketing material this is by far the feature they're most proud of

The possibilities are endless... unfortunately they're also frustrating.

See that flower I made has a white background, and there's no magic eraser so I'd need to manually cut it out with the eraser... or use magic select

If you're in a video call while this UI is active and you're sharing your screen it will only show the gif and not the program itsself

With the add and subtract tools you can provide hints about what should and should not be included. That's fine for something as simple as this drawn with a pen tool, but... well if you like to draw with the pencil? Get ready for pain buckeraroo. You can't manually slice out what you want, you just have to get the AI to guess and it will never guess perfectly. Part of your bat will be left behind on the canvas or it'll start picking up a few extra white pixels

but hey, it's 3d now, sometimes it works. You can choose to content aware fill whatever was behind on the canvas, or leave a weird white empty space behind

But now I have a field of flowers I can move however I like, okay but I think I want to add an extra leaf to one of them

Get fucked. Idiot. Once you cut it out, it's like paper. These 3d canvasses can never be grown, only shrunk and only by the eraser tool which carves in a perfect circle like a bull in a china shop. Now, it's actually very cool how you can recursively create new 3d canvasses out of existing ones, and I'm sure you could do cool stuff but any time the canvas shrinks that's as big as it'll ever be it can never grow

Also, yeah you can't just make a canvas in place, you either have to reserve space on your main canvas or clip it off of a second canvas you make earlier and just... I don't know stash it off to the side out of frame? this is how you use layers and if you want to re-order them put them in literal 3d space? Want to hide a layer? Put it behind your canvas.

This is what experts are calling: "technically a workflow, I guess"

This would be a really cool feature, unfortunately it's just not finished. It's missing that extra 20% that would make it at home in real software versus just a toy. Just like paint you have to sort of plan ahead and make all of your layers. In order... but in reverse bob ross order. See you need to make all of your foregrounds first, then and only then can you start working on your background canvas, and should you ever change your mind and want another foreground you must destroy a space of your background to create it. Oh, also, once it's 3d it can never be re-projected back into 2d... well you can turn it into a sticker, which kicks ass, but that will be flattened, if you wanted to retain the 3d rotation of it too bad. Also, making something into a sticker physically consumes it, so you'll need to copy and paste it first just in case otherwise it's gone forever

oh yeah and sometimes copy and pasting doesn't work, creates extra clones, or places them at the wrong space.

Okay let's save our work

You can actually save it as a project folder. You heard me right, folder. Paint 3d stores projects as individual folders

And they're all just called checkpoint, there's no association with like, which project each one is

And they're all full of undocumented binary files, with the exception of a png thumbnail at the very bottom.

So uhhh, why? You can't send project files to other people, at least not easilly. Is this some library that I don't know about? This all boggles my mind. I mean a .docx file is just a renamed zip file was it too much to ask to make these all renamed zips? Why would you leave it half finished like that and just not make a "new" file type?

Okay sorry I got lost in the weeds. Also I hit the image limit for this post so you're just gonna have to bear with me and use your imagination. You can do this I believe in you.

You can export as a .glb file that goes to your 3d objects folder (put a pin in that), or you can export it as a video/gif. There are few pre-canned animations like bobbing back and forth or rotating on a turntable. They can be sped up or slowed down, but that's about it.

Okay but why 3d?

God damnit I'm going to need more images for this so I'm gonna post this as is and hope I can add more photos on the reblog...

[radfemsiren]

Hi i'm muslim but i'm only muslim because I fear God and his wrath. That's it. I don't want to be burned and go to hell. I hate men and i reject MOST of the islamic teachings. Like marriage chikd bearing etc. I believe in God and that's it

I understand your fear, it’s been programmed into us from a young age.

As human beings and especially as women, our greatest asset is our mind. Fear is what happens when we confront the unknown, and logic and critical thought is how we defeat it!

Muslims say Islam is the truth and that if you are a non Muslim, you go to hell. Christians also say if you are not a Christian, you go to hell. There are thousands of religions teaching a version of this lie: if you don’t follow and obey us, you will be punished!

First of all, who does this benefit? This culture of fear and authority? Those with unquestioned authority in the faith. Priests, imams, rabbis… and we see with all the sexual abuse cases that they are utilizing this fear to their advantage. A religion that says you must obey men, cover up or you’ll “tempt them”, listen to them, pray behind them, appease every whim, be the blame of their every bad deed (I mean it’s haram for us to even wear perfume, it’s ridiculous how much we are blamed) … think about why a religion like that would be created. Does it make sense an all mighty god would make a religion that has all this hatred and control of half his creation? Or that men would create this lie to help themselves? Help themselves to our labor, to our bodies, to our guilt?

It makes no sense that Islam is the truth. All other religions think they are the truth, and there’s no logical way for them to all be right. But logically, they can all be wrong. Don’t let fear guide your action and beliefs… it’s a dangerous weapon used to silence us, and stop criticism and thought!

It’s hard to accept, and it’s frightening, but the death of god is also the death of fear.

I hope this was helpful! ❤️ Living this one life we have with an angry god watching our every move is not a fate I’d wish on anyone

[2n2n]

ch. 111

the plot thickens and I am thrown all around the room as if in a hurricane... I really cannot predict Iro-sensei's plots!!!!!!

oh Amane, all of your efforts, your gestures.... what a desperate, helpless feeling

its the most predictable response Tsukasa would have, but it still hurts very very much.

he's reaaaally strange isn't he... he's like that....

oh Amane.... you're so reactive to perceived rejection and failure. You'll say the worst things, you'll think the worst things... you're sooo unstable, Amane!

What, you simply don't accept that your otouto would 'try to leave you'? I bet it's something like that. You "know he's fake" now because he "wouldn't do something like this to you"... that's my guess at your dumb little brain. Don't take him too seriously, okay, Tsutsu? Your brother just can't handle the sense of rejection of you choosing to die & leave him behind, or he can't handle that all his gestures and attempts to show his love fell so flat that you have no idea at all of his desperate love of you. Nooooo you have to be fake~~~ my real otouto would understand and he'd never leave me~~!!! I don't think you, Amane, understand how suicidal your real otouto was, and is, to this day! Would you believe it has less to do with disregarding you, and more to do with not believing in his own life's worth? No, you won't believe that, right... it's about you, instead! hahaha....

I'm glad I played AidaIro's Snow White game because... Estelio is THIS HURTFUL to Rasphard, and it's just out of a sense of being rejected!!! Estelio would kick his twin's goddamn corpse on the ground, let him wriggle and DIE in pain and AGONY if Estelio has the impression Rasphard wants nothing to do with him or isn't considering him ... LOL. Iro likes this kind of ... troubled, insecure, desperate, spiteful, needy person... you want the perfect brother, who loves you. You have that, but you can't understand the idea of someone choosing to leave you through death....

I wonder if Tsukasa started grabbing your jacket to move you to protect you.... meanwhile, Amane impulsively moved to protect his ~~~fake otouto, haha!

I wonder ... if Nene-chan has her memories because, she is magical etc, or if Akane actively made Teru do something to her to enable her to... stay as an aware asset, since he isn't completely sided with the Clockkeepers... maybe Akane is waiting to see what 'new future' comes to be, and seeding a few tricks to utilize if he doesn't agree or wishes to pull out? (I mean, if the Severance never happened, Aoi definitely would not be his girlfriend haha)...

The clockeeper's circumstance is interesting enough. Its very Aidairo-core. But not enough for me to talk about haha.

swag, I have been right the whole time! cool. yep!! of course. logical haha!! I can't be too proud of myself, it's been spelled out ...

that same old God~~ our Tsutsu!

the year before the murder, when the boys were 12... fuckin scary place to go to. What on Earth are you changing... the circumstances of the shinjuu?

if we're 'fixing' the 'problem', I wonder if that means we'll be going into the original timeline, where Amane would likely still be alive-- he'd just be an old man, and Nene-chan's teacher at Kamome. Wouldn't that be so funny and interesting? Lol. What would we all do if Amane was "Yugi-sensei" and like, old! It would be very AidaIro core AHAHAH ahhh the agegap fetish--! It's not enough to have Sumire x Hakubo and Yako x Misaki and Kako x Mirai and the entire Monstery Nursery AUs LOL you know, we need more ahahahaah (HanaNene is already technically biiig agegap! I would laugh if actually making Amane like 60 woke some people up flfjdklfdjk)

I'm just not sure... Amane could just be dead, I guess, and Tsukasa. Or he could be alive, and old. I have a vague theory that he must be a kaii because of, whatever he or Tsukasa had done together during the shinjuu... (maybe Amane was impulsed to eat some part of Tsukasa, maybe the God blessed Amane at the last second, etc etc)... it's hard to imagine Amane would be a school mystery-- Tsukasa is his yorishiro after all... and we don't quite know what circumstances make Sumire and Tsukasa into objects, if being sacrificed to the God had something essential to do with that...

Well, so interesting, I wonder if Nene-chan will have to go even further than she did in Picture Perfect-- in that arc, she had to choose to reject a seemingly perfect, but ultimately fabricated, world; even if it was 'nicer' than the 'real world'. Now, she might be shown a world fixed of its cracks-- it could even possibly be a world Amane never had to murder his brother, like she wanted before. Nene-chan is so often getting "what she asked for" in the wrong way, at the wrong time. She fell in love with "Hanako". Is the boy she fell in love with "here"? Is he in a form she can confess to?

Furthermore, she just bonded with Tsukasa, and has knowledge of the Red House... must be essential, to write that happening before this-- just before, even. Tsukasa even inspired her to need to free herself, even if Amane isn't there to save her.

Poor Nene-chan though-- so scary!!! What an awful situation to be in HAHAHA, flung around...

I have no idea what Mitsuba's situation will be, but Tsukasa is responsible for our "Mitsuba" to even be around. He wouldn't have even managed to become the ghost about the entryway without Tsukasa kaii-ifying him through his first, vague wish.

Well, it would be funny if these things were all true now:

-Amane is alive, but he's old lol -Aoi is not Akane's gf, and maybe that other timeline was the only goddamn way you could ever get her within reach lol -No Mitsuba To Speak Of lol

MUCH POSSIBLE, MUCH TO THINK ABOUT-- MAYBE I'M WRONG ABOUT IT ALL!!! Iro-sensei writes such interesting plot twists WOO ahahaha! I WONDER IF WE WILL INTERACT WITH 12 YEAR OLD TSUKASA AGAAAIN~~ pleaaase ~~

feeling more certain than ever that Tsukasa is The single most tragic member of this cast hahaha

[odybee]

Scuttle: A Smallun's Guide to Human Survival

Humans are dangerous. Just as their brilliant minds bring the stars to their fingertips, so too does it place fiery brimstone at their heels. If you are able to comprehend these words, then you too know this fact better than any wild beast will ever be able to understand, even more so for occupants of human-adjacent vessels irreparably warped by man's cruel, clever hands. We of the lesser race, of the smaller, weaker kind, are of particular interest to them, and must thusly avoid them at all cost. But without the knowledge to do so, the sole asset placing us on any semblance of equal footing with the enemy is squandered, our lives forfeit to fear and terror. That is why this guide exists: to give the weak every possible avenue to avoid the strong, to create escapes where there previously seemed none. Because though the human threat is strong and witty, we need only to look to the masters that have survived their reign for thousands of years to scuttle free.

At long last, I present to you every last bit of information I have on Piper's bug-based martial art form, Scuttle! It's a work-in-progress that is highly subject to change, so I'm really interested to hear other people's questions, critiques and additions. Please don't be shy!

First and foremost, Scuttle is not a guide on how to kill humans. As far as Scuttle is concerned, killing a human is completely impossible and any attempts to do so are suicidal. Rather, it is a guide on how to avoid them by any means necessary and reasonably executed by a tiny (1-5") humanoid that is surviving on their own. It does this by categorizing bug-inspired techniques, also known as bugforms, into a simple 3-part plan on what to do in the presence of a human, each of which is only to be progressed to if the previous part fails:

1- Don't Get Caught (Wings)

2- Run Away (Legs)

3- Strike Back (Sting)

Wings has everything one needs to know about staying out of sight, Legs on creating distance once they've been sighted, and Sting on freeing oneself from a human's grasp should they find themselves there. Every Scuttle part after 1 exists to get the scuttler back to part 1 as smoothly as possible, so a seasoned scuttler would seldom (if ever) see past it under ideal circumstances. That being said, reality is often disappointing, so parts 2 and 3 should be studied closely regardless.

Scuttle also uses a set of highly versatile tools in the vast majority of its techniques. These are called the dreipoints, and there is so much info on them that they will be getting their own section right under this one.

Dreipoints

The dreipoints are a set of two needles, one with one point, the other with two, called the einpoint and zweipoint (or just ein and zwei) respectively. Their primary purpose is to grant the wielder the tiniest bit of extra breathing room during scuttles so that the scuttler has that much more time to react. They accomplish this by creating distance from the human threat while simultaneously granting extra mobility to the wielder, greatly increasing chances of survival so long as they are held on the scuttler's person.

Note that they are referred to as tools rather than weapons, and that a scuttler should always aim to have just one of each point rather than any more of one type. You won't avoid being crushed under a boot by doubling your einpoints, just as you wont inflict any more damage to someone a hundred times your size by stabbing them with two zweipoints. Carrying any more than one set of dreipoints stifles mobility, and should therefore be avoided.

While it is important to the full techniques of Scuttle that scuttlers have one einpoint and zweipoint, both are not required to utilize some of the bugforms to be discussed. This art form is nothing if not accommodating after all, which is also why dreipoints can reasonably come in many different shapes and sizes. Some suitable materials include:

Wood- Best resorted to if none of the other materials can be found. easily worked into a sharp point, but doesn't work well for much past that due to material weakness and roughness.

Chitin- Refers to points made of bug parts such as stingers and mandibles. Naturally sharp and can be poisonous, but not easily obtained.

Metal- Metal points must be scavenged, and are usually found in the form of knitting or medical needles, or even nails and screws. Durable, potentially poisonous, and extremely sharp. These points are ideal.

Glass- Must be scavenged in the form of broken glass. Material's natural sharpness makes this a fantastic choice for defensive use, but is otherwise so brittle that it isn't terribly useful as part of climbing tools.

Other materials such as plastic or paper could also be used if circumstances prevent the use of aforementioned resources.

To maximize mobility, neither dreipoint should be any longer than 3/4 of the scuttler's height. Longer points can be worked with, but they become more unwieldy with length. Similarly, certain wide points like screws and nails can become cumbersome. Do not hesitate to drop your dreipoints during a scuttle to free up extra movement. The ultimate goal is escaping the human, not defeating it.

Certain point types provide their own advantages to scuttlers in distress. Scavenged einpoints have an especially wide selection by comparison to zweipoints, a few of which will be listed here.

Einpoints

Screw

Nail

Sewing Pin

Sewing Needle

Suture Needle

Fish Hook

Thumbtack

Specimen Needle

Hypodermic Needle

Dart Tip

Zweipoints

Porcupine Quill

Sharpened Feather Quill

Medical Transfer Needle

Double-Ended Upholstery Needle

Shaved Specimen Needle

Ideally, the dreipoints will only be used as tool handles or climbing sticks. Worst case scenario, they are for escaping from humans. A sting from a distance allows the most probable means of escape to smalluns that may find themselves in a bind, and the dreipoints exist to create the opening and get them away, but only when wielded in capable hands. This is where bugforms come into play.

Bugforms by Part

As previously mentioned, each part contains several bugforms to guide scuttlers back out of a human's sight. Each will be discussed here, but a more detailed exploration of them must be done through their own individual posts lest this one get too long.

Wings

Roach- Hiding your existence. Unlike walking stick, roach focuses on the best means of hiding deep within the recesses of a home and staying totally hidden while minimizing any risk of ever being found. It also emphasizes resilience, strength, and endurance training. In other words, roach is the techniques used to set up your body and dojo to train in the other ways of Scuttle.

Walking Stick- Hiding in plain sight. Especially useful to scuttlers stuck in precarious positions, such as high up on a shelf, or suspended from a cord.

Cricket- Pass without trace on ground level. Involves means of identifying and utilizing escape routes, creating escape routes if they aren't available, and further minimizing traces of your existence.

Moth- Pass without trace vertically. Just as a moth leaves traces of itself in dust form, a scuttler is bound to leave traces of their struggle to climb no matter what method they use unless they are able to utilize the cricket to ascend. As such, moth mostly explores different means of climbing using the dreipoints while leaving little evidence of doing so.

Also, just as an insect's wings won't work while wet, a scuttler's ability to flea is severely hindered in water. Avoid it whenever possible, but utilize each part as appropriate either way.

Legs

Fly- Embodies observation and reaction. It's best if you see your enemy before they see you, so you have to be the one with a more observant eye. Also explores the reaction- If you've been spotted, you can't afford to hesitate. Run away, and be ready to react to anything they may do next.

Centipede- Running from the ground. Also includes quick means of escape if it involves shoving yourself into a tight space.

Grasshopper- Running from a height. Includes what to do if you're spotted in the situations mentioned in walking stick.

Click Beetle- Explains recovery if one should falter in their escape, but hasn't yet progressed to Sting.

Sting

Mantis- The art of deception during combat, and how to react offensively rather than defensively as in the case of the fly.

Stag Beetle- Grounded struggles and how to effectively use what little strength you have to escape. Though personal strength is the main focus of stag beetle techniques, it also goes over how to channel that strength into the very tips of one's dreipoints.

Wasp- Ungrounded struggles and how to maneuver the dreipoints to most effectively get the target away from oneself.

Assassin Bug- Active dirty tactics such as the use of poisons and blinding sprays.

Spider- Passive dirty tactics. This includes preemptive placement of traps, and using the terrain to further harm the enemy.

So yea! That's what I've got so far. Scuttle also has a sub discipline called Slink that focuses on outdoor survival, but that one is entirely too underdeveloped for me to show at the moment. And like I said before, please don't hesitate to comment! I'd love to hear other people's opinions on this idea.

[marketinginghts]

Influencer Marketing Company in India

As the lines separating virtual and physical worlds begin to fade, the need to keep up with evolving trends becomes even more vital. Alongside this shift, as social media becomes a staple for people of all ages, a growing wave of content creators and influencers is seizing countless opportunities. According to Statista, the present worth of India’s influencer marketing sector stands at about 16.38 billion INR and is expected to grow to 28 billion+ INR by 2026.

As influencer marketing becomes a powerful strategic tool, the benefits of joining hands with an influencer marketing company in India are now a crucial asset for brands aiming to connect with their audience, amplify online visibility, and achieve success that once seemed out of reach. Companies are constantly on the lookout for innovative methods and breakthrough opportunities to enhance their brand equity through increased trust, recognition, engagement, and direct reach. With influencer partnerships becoming mainstream, joining forces with a leading influencer marketing agency can elevate a brand’s marketing to the next level.

Influencer Marketing Agency and Their Role in Current Advertising

In today’s competitive commercial space, influencer marketing agency have emerged as essential growth enablers for brands. These agencies serve as reliable partners in helping businesses connect with influential figures online. They support brands in forming genuine bonds with their audiences. These agencies maintain close relationships with a strong network of creators who are regarded as credible voices, guiding potential buyers toward brands through strategic and impactful messaging.

Influencer Marketing Company: Why Teaming Up with them Matters

To scale effectively, brands must utilize the full benefits offered by influencer marketing companies, including expert market research, campaign monitoring, performance evaluation, and actionable insights. It’s crucial for brands to rely on an experienced influencer marketing partner to gain the right tools, techniques, and understanding to grow their digital footprint and establish credibility. Such agencies are well-versed in fast-changing customer needs and influencer trends, enabling them to launch highly targeted campaigns that produce solid and measurable results.

To highlight the value more clearly, let’s explore the key advantages of choosing the best influencer marketing company to generate deep audience engagement and lasting brand relationships.

Key Rewards of Hiring a Premier Influencer Marketing Services

Here are five notable influencer marketing agency advantages that businesses can benefit from:

Tapping Into the Strength of Data for Winning Campaigns

A top benefit of working with influencer marketing agency lies in their ability to leverage data effectively. They operate at the intersection of creative thinking and data science. By combining advanced tools and market intelligence, they assess essential indicators like demographics, audience response, conversion rates, and brand visibility. These insights help fine-tune campaigns, improve brand reputation, and maximise return on investment through well-informed planning and research.

Activating Strategic Innovation for Campaign Success

Agencies offer powerful advantages by utilizing data insights and cutting-edge analytics. They help brands execute highly efficient campaigns. As algorithms shift rapidly, only consistent innovation can deliver outstanding outcomes. And who better to guide a brand than influencer specialists? They tap into top-tier creator content and apply smart tech-based tactics to meet the fast-changing preferences of digital consumers.

Reinforcing Brand Integrity Through Effective Management

In an age dominated by fleeting digital relationships, influencer marketing agency assist brands in establishing true and lasting authenticity with their audience. By analyzing emerging trends and behavioral changes, these agencies enable brands to forge strong, transparent partnerships with influencers that mirror their core values—building trust and boosting credibility.

Fostering Deeper Bonds with Aligned Branding

Among the many influencer marketing agency benefits, a key one is cultivating a brand’s emotional bond with its prospective customers. Using carefully crafted strategies aligned with the brand’s long-term mission, these agencies form organic connections that not only resonate with the audience but also evolve into loyal and enduring customer relationships.

Expanding Impact Beyond Traditional Social Media

Another major benefit of influencer marketing agency is their ability to move beyond standard social content and tap into other creative avenues—such as blog collaborations, video series, podcast integrations, digital launches, and live campaigns. These agencies challenge conventional limits and craft immersive campaigns that help brands reach wider audiences and enhance their market positioning.

Final Words: Benefits of Collaborating with Influencer Marketing Company in India

By working with a professional influencer marketing services, brands can reach diverse audiences and reap countless strategic benefits. From delivering creative flair and unique storytelling to providing precise planning and analytics-driven execution, the perks of hiring a leading influencer marketing services like Raipl are abundant. Their expertise can propel any brand’s influence to new levels, offering impactful, efficient, and result-oriented growth across the digital landscape.