#also also slider is never ever recovering

[polar-equinoxx]

pony shenanigans ~

[ohtobeleah]

Roll Of The Dice // Jake Seresin

Chapter Four: “What’s Even Real”

Summary: Jake Seresin has never been a believer in life after death, but when he’s caught in a comatose realm stuck between reality and fantasy—what else is there to do but dream?

Warnings: Jake Seresin x F!reader Jake Seresin Angst. Hospitalisation. Grief of a loved one. Slow decline into grief induced madness. Bradley Bradshaw x platonic!reader

Word Count: 3.2k

Author Note: Well. A phatt 85% of you voted for me to flip the story and here you go. I actually LOVE how this series is taking a drastic turn. But just so we’re all on the same page. There is NO HAPPY ENDING. (Also shut the fuck up I’m still on a break)

Series Masterlist

(Naval Hospital– Jacksonville, Florida. – Present Day)

Bradley Bradshaw had never been good with hospitals. His therapist had told him once that his ever growing hatred towards the far too sterile environment was due to the fact both his mother and father had passed away in hospital beds surrounded by doctors and nurses who he couldn't really give a shit about enough to remember there names.

But here he was, walking down the hall towards room one hundred and nine of the intensive care unit at the Naval hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. Bradley carried two takeaway coffees, one in each hand as nurses who had become all too familiar with the mustache-clad aviator smiled politely and sent him solemn looks of hopefulness that today might very well be the day. But he knows it's just something they’re taught in medical school. Compassion. Empathy for the friends and family members of the loved ones laying near dead, dying or recovering. Bradley didn't know what category to put Jake Seresin in at the moment, they hadnt really been all that chummy prior to the accident. Not friends nor foes. Just long-term acquaintances who loved you both dearly.

Bradley Bradshaw had known you for his entire life, uncle Sliders kid. The military brat with the heart of gold, thousand watt smile and even bigger attitude. It's probably what drew you and Jake Seresin together. That all too similar attitude and love for a good taunt. Rooster always did catch himself wondering what you saw in him, but then again, beauty was forever in the eye of the beholder. 

“Hey, sorry–the line was crazy today.” Bradley cooed as he knocked with one knuckle on the door that had been slightly ajar. Stepping in, the steady beeping of Jake's heart rate monitor filled the room. “How's he been?” 

“No change–” Was all you mumbled as you looked up from watching Jake breath with assistance to reach out for your coffee order Bradley had had the chance to remember off by heart. “You just missed the Doc.” Bradley could tell just how tired you were just by the way your eyes looked sunken, he knew you weren't sleeping, weren’t eating. He knew that you hadn’t left Jake's side since he was brought into his room. “She said that there's definitely brain activity going on–said he must be dreaming.” You smiled at the thought, you hoped whatever Jake was dreaming of was a hell of alot better than what he would wake up to. “The swellings gone down quite a bit, but it’s just up to him if he wants to fight to come back.”

Bradley moved across the room, grabbing the chair that sat empty in the corner of the room to drag it over to where you sat at your fiance's beside. Like every time he came to visit, he sat with a sigh, leaned into where you sat and kissed your cheek softly, a reassurance he was here for you. 

“Sounds promising.” Bradley pressed his lips together before he took a sip of his coffee, watching as you did the same. “Dice, you look like crap.” 

“I'm gonna let you get away with that one purely because I feel like crap.” You chuckled softly, but it had been just enough to coax the corner of your mouth into a curve. Oh how Bradley missed the sound of your laugh, you were one of his closest friends. Seeing you hurt and struggling through such a crisis made his heart ache worse than he ever imagined it could. From what Rooster could remember of his parents love, they set such a high standard Bradley didn’t know if he’d ever have a chance of replicating—he thought if anything he’d get to live long enough to live vicariously through your love for Jake and watch you thrive in some fairytale life with Hangman that he’d be happy enough with that. But that all seemed so up in the air now.

But here you both sat, watching Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin breathe assisted with tubes of all kinds shoved down his throat. Barely recognisable from the swelling, the cuts, stitches and bruises that littered his face. You could tell he was still your Jake though. 

“If you wanna go home, get some rest? I can stay here with him for as long as you need.” Bradley knew what the answer was going to be before you even shook your head. Letting your gaze linger back on the gentle rise and fall of Jake's chest. 

“No thanks, I wouldn’t want to miss anything—“ It was hard not to cry, but as you tried to coax your fiancé to come back to you? The tears just fell so effortlessly. “He knows I’m here.” 

You carried far too much guilt on your own shoulders for what happened. Jake, although an amazing partner—was an even better wingman. He’d come after you when things got a little too out of control during a recent detachment. He’d saved your life and sacrificed his own. When you’d both been brought back to Florida of all places—You’d asked one of the nurses to contact Bradley for you, he’d been on some carrier somewhere in the middle of the ocean—but he pulled whatever strings he could to get back to you. 

“Jake would want you to take care of yourself if anything Dice, he loves you so much.” Bradley placed a hand on your knee, rubbing the pad of his thumb against the soft grey material of your sweatpants. “You aren’t gonna be any good to him when he finally wakes up if you can’t even keep your eyes open.” 

“He’s such an idiot.” You scoffed, your moods had been vile the last few weeks. You were sleep deprived, hungry, running of steam fueled by Starbucks caffeine and sugar free red bulls from the vending machine. “He shouldn’t have come after me, gives me a goddamn headache just thinking about it, it should have—“ A sob ripped through your chest and you were gone in seconds. Your bottom lip quivered as you fell into a heap against Jake's side, your hand reaching for his as Bradley rubbed a comforting circle against your arched back. “So so so dumb Rooster—he should have just let it be me.” It was supposed to be you. 

“If there’s one person on this planet Hangman would want to die saving Dice, it would be you.” It was hard to hear but Bradley knew you had to hear it. “He would do anything to keep you out of harm's way.” 

“Yeah well, what am I supposed to do if he doesn’t wake up, Rooster?” Rising from the side of Jakes hospital bed, you crossed your legs up into the chair you were perched on. “What if he just doesn’t wake up? And he gets trapped in the dreamscape world his mind is creating while I'm out here, all alone?” Bradley knew the breakdown was coming, he had seen it racing towards him at a million miles an hour over the last few days. Not taking care of yourself while giving your all to someone else was a tiring effort that broke the strongest of souls on their best days. You were only human, a much loved one at that. You didn't deserve this, Jake didn't deserve this. 

“Hey.” Rooster cooed, cupping your cheeks as he gently pressed the pads of his thumbs against your swollen cheeks to wipe away the tears. “Hey, Dice, look at me yeah?” You did hesitantly, not ready to take your eyes away from Jake, your Jake, your darling Hangman, your soon to be husband. “Dice, hell will freeze over before Jake Seresin gives up fighting, it’s Jake we’re talking about right?” 

“I just really really miss him Roo–” You could barely hold your head up with how tired you were, falling into Roosters chest as you sobbed your heart out. It broke his heart to know you were in such anguish. “Every fucking breath that I take since he left feels like a waste on me.” 

“He's here Y/n.” Bradley didn't know what else to do except hold you tight, hold you close as you cried in his arms. Over your shoulder, Bradley took in the sight of Jake Seresin, laying there in his hospital bed, with machines surrounding him helping him do the most mundane task of all. Breathe. Jake had always been the better of them, he didn't ever think, he would just always do. He was the Hangman, the top of his class, the cockiest fighter pilot Rooster had ever had the displeasure of knowing. 

But now? well–Rooster kind of wished that he’d given Jake more of a chance, perhaps there was some perplexing rhythm and reason why Jake was the way he was and did the things and did and said the stupid things he said. 

“He’s here, Doc said that, didn't she? He’s here, just needs some time to find his way back.” 

“I'm losing my goddamn mind Bradshaw.” Stifling a laugh, you sat back up, you wiped your tears and fixed yourself up. Taking a sip of the coffee Bradley had brought you to keep you alert. You had had your moment, now it was time to be brave, be there for Jake when he woke up. “I don't know how much more of this I can take before I lose my mind.” 

“How about I go grab you some food?” Rooster simply asked, standing as he kissed the top of your head. “You like that sushi place down the road, yeah?” 

“M’not that hungry–” 

“I don't care, you need to eat, you can't just–” Before Rooster could finish saying that you couldn't just not eat, you were snapping at him. It wasn't the first time but it was still rather jarring. 

“I said im not hungry, Rooster, you want food fine, go get yourself something, but im not fucking hungry.” It wasn't entirely your fault, Bradley knew it was coming from a place of despair and heartbreak. You couldn't control anything happening around you so you clung to something you could. He’d remembered that from therapy. 

“Okay, well, I'm gonna go grab something to eat and I'll be back okay?” Bradley wasn't expecting an answer, he didn't get one either. All that met him in response was the monotone beeping of Jake Seresins heart rate monitor and the overbearing shattering sound of your own. Pressing his lips together as he shoved his fist into his pocket to fish out his phone. Bradley turned on his heels as he left the room. Leaving you to sit in your own existential crisis.

“Hey kid, how's she doing?” Slider greeted Bradley from the otherside of the phone as he left the same way he came in, passing by the same nurses that now didn't even pay him any attention. Their minds on new patients, new charts to read, new turns of events. 

“I'm really worried about her, she's not eating, not sleeping, she's not doing well at all and I don't know how to help her.” It was the honest truth, Bradley didn't. He didn't know how to help pick up the pieces. Slider, your dad, although a million miles away–felt closer than ever when he brought up Bradley's own mum. 

“You were the same when Carole died kid, wouldn't let a single person help you until you hit rock bottom.” Slider sighed as Braldey pressed the button on the elevator. “She's gonna hit it eventually and when she does it's gonna be brutal but you’ll be there, just don't smother her, treat her like you normally would, watch over her but dont force her to do anything she doesn't want to do.” It was the advice Rooster had been seeking. He knew your dad would know what to say, how to keep him on the straight and narrow. “When she hits that wall you’ll know, because instead of pushing you away she’s gonna grip on, hold tight and not let go for love nor money, Goose.” 

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

(North Island —Hard Deck Bar, October 16th 2014) 

“I’m here–” It came out more reluctantly than you really meant it to. But the way Jake Seresin jumped as you came up behind him and made your presence known had you breaking out into a fit of giggles on the front deck of the Hard Deck. 

“Fuck–” Jake groaned as he turned around and held his hand to his tan covered heart. “Why are you so quiet? You move like a goddamn prius?” You didn't know you could roll your eyes as hard as you did. 

“Can we just get this over and done with already?” You sighed dramatically, pushing past Jake as you made your way inside. He was hot on your tail, opening the door for you like the true southern gentleman that his mother had raised him to be. “Oh, thanks.” You hadn’t expected it, no one had ever opened a door for you like Jake had just done. Sure men held doors open in coffee shops in passing before, but this had been an intentional act. Jake had a pep in his step to reach the door before you could. “Why would you do that?” 

“We’re on a date.” It was the cheesy grin you received in return that had you rolling your eyes twice as hard as you;d just done, surprising yourself once more at the diameter they could actually roll. Jake stood there holding the door for you—gesturing for you to step inside. “And my mother would slap me across the face full force if she saw my date opening doors all by herself.” 

“Hangman I really don’t think this classifies as a date.” You tried to shut down the idea before it could bloom into something bigger inside Jake's head. But you were already too late. “I asked if you wanted to grab something to eat and have a couple of beers after work—to get to know my wingman.”

“Oh Lieutenant Dixon, if I can help it? You and I aren't just gonna be just wingman and wingwoman.” Jake shook his head. “So humour me a little, entertain the idea for a single night?” You stood in silence for a mere minute before finally admitting defeat. “One date—“ Stepping inside as Jake led you over to the nearest open bar table with a hand pressed to the small of your back, guiding you through. 

“One date is all you’re gonna get, Headache.” You groaned as Jake pulled the bar chair out from underneath the small round table. He watched as you sat down with a reluctant gruff. Laughing to himself at how easy it was to get under your skin. 

“One date is all I need to make you fall in love with me.” Jake replied as he walked around to find his own chair, handing you the menu as he waved over at Bill, the barkeep. “And just so we’re on the same page here sweetheart—“ Jake leaned in closer to you over the table, watching with hooded eyes and a wicked grin as you did the same. Mimicking him. “You’re a terrible wingwoman, so don’t think falling in love with me will affect your already atrocious aviation skills.” 

“Careful there Hangman.” It wasn’t that you couldn’t already feel yourself gravitating towards Jake, it was that you were scared of just how far the two of you were willing to let this go before pumping the breaks. “Anyone with eyes glued onto their head would think you’re a little obsessed with me.” For some reason, there were a few gold coated pens sitting on the table, possibly but also probably for the keno games that Bull liked to scatter around the joint. Picking one up—Jake clicked the top before placing it in his top pocket absentmindedly. You could never have enough pens. Everytime he needed one he never had one. Everytime he had one he never needed it. 

“Why don’t you roll the Dice and find out?” Jake grinned ear to ear, watching as you raised a brow in response. “Tell me a little about yourself? Perhaps I'll walk away all the more obsessed than I supposedly already am.” 

“Okay–” You simply sighed, dropping your chin as you frowned. Pulling your elbows off the table as you sat back into a slight slump. “This has been fun, really, this whole act–” it was Jake's turn to frown as he listened, noticing how you wore an expression he didn't like one bit. Something laced with self-doubt. “But you can cut it out now.” 

“What are you on about?” Jake asked as he handed you a menu. 

“The whole, you wanna be more than friends shtick you’re really playing up.” Yep, Jake really made you say it out loud. “I'm not the type of girl whos gonna fall in love with you Seresin, I'm not here for that shit, im here–” 

“Because your daddy is Ron Slider Kerner and he's chummy with Admiral Agony?” Jake didn't mean to say it like that's what he believed, he meant to say it in a way that he thought that's what you were going to say. Maybe the look he’d seen plastered across your face before wasn't self loathing after all, because when you straighten your shoulders and let out a scoff. Jake knew he fucked it. “I didn't mean it to sound like that, I just thought that's what you were going to say.” 

“Sure, because you and everyone else here surely don't think I'm the class Nepotism baby.” 

“That's Bradshaws title, get your own Dice.'' Jake was quick on the draw, it forced a laugh to bubble up from deep inside you as you took in the sight of his smile. So bright and all consuming. 

“No Bradleys the gold star kid, but don't tell him I said that!” You sat up a little straighter, knocking your knuckle against the top of the table. “He’s practically family, which means he’ll plant me in the ground if he ever heard me say that.” 

“Well, for the record, I don't think you’re a nepo baby.” Jake cooed, smirking wildly at you from across the table. The Hard Deck had started to get busier around you as you sat with the sandy blonde. The pair of you didn't seem to notice as you got lost in the conversation you were having. Something about Jake just drew you into him, you couldn't figure out what exactly it was that had your heart skipping a beat at the sound of his laugh or the glint in his eye. But there was something there. “I do think you’re gonna have a hard time following me, but I'll do my best to lead us to the top of that ladder, Dice Dixon.” 

You couldn't let Jake get away with thinking he was better than you, if you were going to be the best dynamic duo Mirimar had ever seen you needed it known who was the brains of this operation. And who exactly is what that was going to led you to the top of that leaderboard, to the top of the class and beyond. 

“Seresin, I have known you for the better half of one entire afternoon and I already know the most important thing about you.” You let your back rest against the plush back of the booth chair. Eyeing off the handsome aviator before you, Jake fucking Seresin was about to be the death of you and you knew it. 

“Pray do tell—“ Jake replied as he mimicked your actions. Letting his back rest and the plush of the booth, waiting for you to say something witty. Something he knew he’d never forget. 

“That the only place you’ll lead anymore is an early grave.”

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

Tags: @potato-girl99981 @averyhotchner @dempy @abaker74 @a-serene-place-to-be @starkleila @some-lovely-day @phoenix1388 @auroraboreallisfine @avaleineandafryingpan @kikaninchen-2 @xoxabs88xox

[29625]

TW: Mentions of abuse and toxic family relationships. Discussion on the familial trauma and military homophobia.

Slimav story idea based on my own trauma literally. Kinda vent-y. If that’s your jam, read below!

You get that feeling when you see your friend who grew up in a healthy family interact with their family in a very normal and affectionate way that you are never gonna be one of them and you will keep messing it up and if you ever have a family you’re just gonna recreate the whole cycle over and over and over again, even if all you ever crave is a healthy, loving relationship? Yeah, me too. I grew up in an abusive family where I often got beaten and locked outside and all the psychological stuff n whatnot that left me pretty broken, and I’m still recovering. When my friend’s dad patted her on the head that shit just triggered me for some reason. I cried a little because cause I’m just too broken to achieve that. Every single relationship I’ve had ended up looking like my parents’ (fortunately) ex marriage.

Maybe it’s because I skipped my mood stabilizer last night on the plane? Maybe my circadian rhythm is just so fucked by the jet lag it’s messing my brain? Dunno. I’m just gonna project that onto my next chapter.

So, just in case if you’re tolerating this far, I’m assuming neither Slider and Mav had a decent childhood. Slider is from a lower-middle immigrant family from Eastern German that lacked a stable father figure and a support for his sexuality (except for his brother, Danny Kerner, that is.) while Mav just struggled to earn a love outside of romantic relationships and his brotherly bond with Goose. Slider is just afraid of repeating the seemingly endless cycle of pain and hatred inside his own house while Mav can never be fulfilled without his romantic bond with Slider. Slider slowly withdraws as Mav clings to him further and further. They also have to endure the constant oppression they face in the military and Slider just doesn’t want that happening to his lover as a gay guy who’s seen things while Mav is…Mav, and he’s all about crashing and burning, a true ride or die. Both don’t know what to do in this situation until they do. Set in Ice’s wedding. Sli is just so happy for his bro who’s also grown up in a shitty family but thinks wow I can never be able to do that. Mav takes it poorly. They both think about their past, present, and future that may or may not be available for them but seemingly accessible for everyone else including Ice, even though they know he’s struggled as well (might include a slight bit mention of privileges because I literally study it)

[marshmallowprotection]

hello hello. i dont know if you're into pokemon but I started playing Violet the other day and I tend to nickname my pokemon after whatever my current hyperfixation is so ofc right now they're getting mysme nicknames (right now my charcadet is (suit) Saeran (gonna evolve into ceruledge), my kirlia is Ray (gonna evolve into gardevior). i plan to catch a sneasel/weavile for unknown (totally didnt get the idea from an art i saw). Trying to pick something for saeyoung but nothing has felt right yet. an electric type? fire? maybe a dog pokemon bc with his loved ones saeyoung is both an excited puppy AND a guard dog)

ANYWAY so I started wondering about everyone's favorite twins and pokemon

What kind of pokemon do you think saeyoung and the various saerans would have? what would they be if they WERE pokemon? in a canon setting would they play pokemon?

i can see saeyoung with fire/steel/electric types, especially robot- or machine-like pokemon. ray/ge saeran with grass types is obvious, but I can also see him with fairy types. theyre deceptively cute but can mess you up. suit and unknown scream dark type teams. maybe some poison types for unknown. like i think he'd have team rocket/[insert region team] grunt-esque pokemon.

saeyoung and all of the saeran's have at least one pokemon (probably their first/partner) that they found abandoned and in bad shape that they took in and it decided to stay with them after it recovered.

maybe they have an espeon (saeyoung) and an umbreon (saeran) to complement their "we're opposites but in a balanced and complimentary way" vibe.

and also bc i must inflict this on all my faves who are convinced they're bad and unlovable: at least one pokemon on their team evolves with high friendship/affection. even better if for some reason he doesn't know what causes that pokemon to evolve and he maybe cries a little when he finds out. what do you mean he's LOVED??

ANYWAY sorry for the really long ramble haha. this was supposed to be a short ask but it kinda got away from me 😅 anyway, i hope you have a good day!! i love your writing and character analyses!!

Oh, you've come to the right person today, because I spend my time stressing out over what Pokemon I would use on their teams if I ever wrote a story for it. I've done this a few times before but I can never really make my mind up so I wouldn't say that this is a concrete idea. So, here is a slider I would use for Ray > Suit Saeran > GE Saeran. I think some of it is self-explanatory. I suggest dark, ghost, and grass if anything.

Phantump for a Ray who feels lost and dead to the world. Polteageist for his desire to feel like a prince in his haunted castle. Budew for a boy who can't be fully blossomed just yet... but, he's so close to that chance. Suit Saeran would only use one Pokemon in my mind and it's Banette. A Pokemon that happens to be seeking revenge in the same way he is. It might seem like a major stretch but mega evolution seems incredibly possible in this situation.

Shaymin is the Pokemon of gratitude and I feel like it would appear in the garden when he is in the process of thanking you for being there with him as he finally freed himself from his heavy chains. He and Saeyoung do have a set of Eevee together! I feel like they need to have a matched set, and his Eevee has been tucked away in their pokeball for a while until he realized the error of his ways.

Whereas, Saeyoung is always really tough to work with because there's so many different Pokemon that would work for him symbolically. Sure, we can pick some joke options if we want to do so, but I'm trying to imagine what would work for his work in the agency. Did they give him a team or is it a team he's caught himself?

In the end I just decided to give him a team that he crafted. He deserves to have a cat that shoots fireballs from its mouth. Of course, I don't imagine that'll end well for him since the cat likely gives him a free haircut everyday with burnt edges. Rotom is the given. Everybody who's ever drawn him with the Pokemon always gives him Rotom. It's right. Three heads are better than one! Magneton helps to hack and unlock problems!

His Eevee doesn't battle. It's kept safe in his bunker, or it's Pokeball. He hates to make Eevee sad about not seeing its own twin or Saeran. Magearna makes sense to me, because what is more in character for him than to discover this mechanical Pokemon and help bring it back to life? Minior for the stars! It's either that or Clefairy. I couldn't make up my mind but in the end I decided on stars.

Which brings me to Unknown and SE Saeran. Yeah, SE Saeran will receive that Megearna as a gift from his brother. His Porygon-Z likely was released after Mint Eye was taken down, or it's still in the box for now since that was likely his main partner for being able to hack into the RFA. Mimikyu and Banette are self-explanatory. Budew would be a new addition in his time spent trying to enjoy the clouds and grass! Milcery is a surprise, though! I have a feeling that is a companion he made one afternoon that tried to sample his ice cream and now he's got a friend that helps him craft his own ice cream.

[hexalene]

how to truly annihilate data from your flash/external drives for both windows and mac from someone who also glazes over and zones out of those jargon-laden tech bro tutorials trying to maximize your desperation for ad revenue by breaking every single step into a separate article with more jargon and more links and more jargon and more li-

So there you are, hand CLENCHED around your brand new 32GB flash drive from the discount bin left over from the back to school blitz at Walmart. 32GB of POSSIBILITY.

Unfortunately, after a few months or years of packing the damn thing with weird shit, like, idk, furry porn and weird candid shots of Gritty, idk I’m not here to judge your life, you clear out the damn thing, empty....but not.

Those 32GB of possibility now struggle to accommodate a PITIFUL 800MB of deep investigative research into the origins of the Florida Skunk Ape. What has happened? How could your memory have been eaten away like this?

So it turns out your flash drive will hold on to as much of the data you put onto it even AFTER you’ve dragged the files to the recycle bin or the trash. 

This sort of news can be a blessing or a curse. For the blessed, yes! If you’ve deleted something by accident, YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO GET IT BACK. But that’s not this tutorial. 

If You Gargle Cock For The Google PC Master Race:

>Plug in the flashdrive >Go to “Start” >Go to “This PC” >Go to “Devices and Drives” >Right click your flash drive >Click “Format” >Careful now boys, it can get scary here: >Okay, so now you’ve got some spicy options. >In “Capacity” This should show approximately whatever the drive’s original capacity was, maybe a little less. Leave this alone. >We’ll come back to “File System“ ignore for now >Skip to “Allocation Unit Size” and make sure it’s on the default setting, whatever that is. >For “Volume Label” this is just the name of your drive. Call it whatever you want. It’s the thing you can rename whenever, so it literally doesn’t matter. >Now all that’s left is “File System” and “Quick Format”

File System For Basic Bitches:

>All memes aside, you can end up with a few or a lot of options. I’m sure there’s a proper answer for this, but the options you MOST LIKELY need to worry about are “NTFS” and “ExFAT”. If you’re needing more than that, that’s way out of my paygrade. > “NTFS” is your default, 100% safe for windows option. Can’t go wrong, especially if this drive has only ever been used with Windows. >HOWEVER: >If you need to switch between Windows and Mac for whatever reason, you’ll want to pick “ExFAT” >”ExFAT” is the option for compatibility across both systems.

Format Options Making Your Files Unrecoverable Even With The Patriot Act:

>I’m being funny, but this IS actually, kinda, for real, what you’re dealing with, so READ CAREFULLY. >The default is for “Quick Format” to be UNchecked >UNchecked will unleash holy nuclear hellfire upon your drive, burning away your sins and leaving only a pure, newborn flash drive behind. >THIS CAN TAKE LONGER THAN YOU THINK IT SHOULD. If you need this drive quickly, DO NOT CHOOSE THIS OPTION. >This will annihilate all the data on the drive. The data will be UNRECOVERABLE. >Now, memes about the CIA and weird furry shit aside, you may want to be cautious about using this. If this flash drive has ever stored anything important, like family photos or important paperwork, or anything you’d be turbo fucked to lose, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BACKUPS.

>If you’re uncertain about going full nuclear hellfire, CHECK the “Quick Format” option. >This is faster, and leaves the data somewhat recoverable on your drive. How much or how little? No idea. That Basic Bitch comment up in file systems also applies to me.

>WITH THAT NONSENSE DECIDED: >Click “Start” and then “Yes” >Now you’re cookin’ with peanut oil. Fresh, beautiful, full of data and ready to ride.

If You’re a Slut For Steve Jobs’ Forbidden Fruit:

>Plug that drive in >Go to “Applications“ >Go to “Utilities” >Go to “Disk Utility” >In the column on the left, you should see your main drive, and under “External” should be whatever you call your flashdrive. >Click it to enter the SpiceZone >Now here we have a few interesting things to note >The main section breaks down all of the info about your drive, and actually lets you see the Invisible Memory Eater haunting your device. You’ll see what data is under “Used“ versus the drive’s actual capacity. That used shit is what we’ll be clearing out. >On the top of the window, you’ll see five options: >First Aid (worth talking about, so we will) >Partition (abandon all hope ye who click thee) >Erase (THE GOOD SHIT WE CARE ABOUT) >Restore (out of my paygrade) >Unmount (fancy eject key this is fine we just don’t need it now)

File Systems For Basic Bitches: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

>Click “Erase” >”Name” is whatever your drive is called. Call it whatever you want, it can change any time, no harm no foul. >”Format” is where it gets spicy > “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” is your default, 100% safe option. Can’t go wrong, especially if this drive has only ever been used with Apple computers. >HOWEVER: >If you need to switch between Windows and Mac for whatever reason, you’ll want to pick “ExFAT” >”ExFAT” is the option for compatibility across both systems

Format Options So Tight It Meets The US Department Of Defense (DOD) 5220-22 M Standard For Fucking Over The CIA

>It sounds funny, but the title is literally an option you can pick, I’m not kidding >First off is “First Aid” >TECHNICALLY, this is not an erasure function. This is a basic system diagnostic tool that can be used on your main hard drive to find any errors or corrupted files. It can do the same for a flash drive, which in my experience often results in freeing up some of that precious precious data without the commitment of a full wipe. If you’re nervous about nuking the drive, this is a safe place to start. >If all you want is a quick and easy wipe of the drive, ignore “Security Options” and hit “Erase” >Now for the good shit: “Security Options” >Click this bad boy. The window that drops down will be a slider with four options. “Fastest -> Most Secure” The middle two don’t have names. >”Fastest” is the default option. This is the equivalent to Window’s “Quick Format” which clears your drive, but like, leaves a potential breadcrumb trail back to your embarrassing One-Direction-During-The-Purge fanfic, so be warned. The second and third options are escalations of erasure, each taking a little longer, since it’s re-writing the data more and more each time. >”Most Secure” is your CLEANSING NUCLEAR HELLFIRE option with the hilarious note about the DOD. >THIS CAN TAKE LONGER THAN YOU THINK IT SHOULD. If you need this drive quickly, DO NOT CHOOSE THIS OPTION. >This will annihilate all the data on the drive. The data will be UNRECOVERABLE. >Now, memes aside, you may want to be cautious about using this. If this flash drive has ever stored anything important, like family photos or important paperwork, or anything you’d be turbo fucked to lose, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BACKUPS. >HAVE YOU CHOSEN? >Hit “OK” >Hit “Erase”

AND WE’RE DONE.

This last bit down here isn’t necessary for the tutorial, but I wanted to include it as a fun side trivia thing:

All this shit is the secret behind those cop shows recovering “““““deleted””””””” computer data. Remember how my joke example went from 32GB to 1GB despite the flash drive being “empty”? The Invisible Memory Eater is actually the drive’s previously held data, despite what efforts you may have put into deleting it. It’s still there, like a ghost. 

This is my best understanding of what exactly is happening, and why some data is recoverable, and why some is not: Using a painting as a metaphor, let’s say this:

You have a blank white panel and you paint a picture of a cat.

Next, you take white paint and cover the cat up. The cat is still there, but now there’s no way to see it. 

You paint a sunflower. And then you cover it in white paint. The cat and the sunflower are still there, and now your panel is pretty thick with paint. 

You paint a house. And then you cover the panel in white paint. All three paintings are still there, and the panel is really bloated and heavy. You had two options.  

1. It’s not as capable of being worked as it was previously, so you give the panel away. The next person gets the canvas and notices how thick the paint is. With an x-ray, they can see multiple paintings under the plain white layer. Now, with a special tool, they can carefully scrape off each layer of paint to see each image. The house shows up well enough, maybe a bit of a mess. The sunflower is more degraded, and the cat is unrecognizable. But now they have an idea of what the old paintings were. And that wasn’t your intention at all, that was private. But you can’t do anything about it now.

OR

2. You decide to freshen up the panel. Maybe it won’t be as good as new, but you can work with that. You take the panel around back, and blast the damn thing with the power washer until all traces of the paint are gone. Maybe the board is a little worse for wear, not quite brand new, but the evidence of the old work is absolutely gone, forever.  There’s no image left to access. 

Now when you give the panel away, well, maybe someone could notice the wear and tear, maybe a hint of old paint in the nooks and crannies, but there will never be enough to bring the old paintings back to life. Or even know that there were more than one painting at all. 

That’s simplifying, obviously, and doesn’t perfectly line up with the technical things that are happening, but I think it’s a decent metaphor. To line it back up to the cop show bits, they’ve basically got the x-ray and the special tools to get at the old data, and the tutorial above would be the power washer annihilating everything. 

[sterling-starlight]

 I have a new hyperfocus so I’m gonna talk about my Vestige.  No one can stop me

(aka I re-rolled a character because I know what I’m doing now and won’t accept quests all willy-nilly. I also hate non-linear story telling and doing the Dark Brotherhood concurrently to the AD questline bugged me. Okay, cool.)

Name: Eilonn “El”  

Race: Altmer

Class: Necromancer

Age: 

24: Start of Dark Brotherhood DLC, 2E 579

(It is during this time that she first meets Razum-dar in Garlas Agea, albeit she keeps her cowl and mask on the entire time and doesn’t give her name. She would, later in the year, assist him with hunting down the Sweetroll Killer. The Brotherhood already has enough trouble; no need to have a rouge, unaffiliated assassin running around. Bad for business.)

26: Anointed Silencer of the Dark Brotherhood, 2E 581

27: Sacrificed to Molg Bal and revived. Begins the Aldmeri Dominion Quest chain, 2E 582

29: End of the Aldmeri Dominion Questline, 2E 584

30: Defeat of Molag Bal and Reunion with her soul. 2E 585

30-33: Buys property in Skyhaven and settles down into semi-retirement. Although she does still perform her duties as Silencer for the Dark Brotherhood, and travels accordingly to complete contracts.  Joins the Antiquarian Circle while visiting Western Skyrim on such a contract. 2E 585- 2E 588

33: Begins the Summerset Questline 2E 588

35: Begins the Elsweyer Questline 2E 590

Late 30s - Early 40s: Gates of Oblivion aka “HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON, LITTLE MO?” 

Date of Birth: 21st of First Seed,  2E 555

Birthplace: Vulkhel Guard, Auridon

Height: 6′7 (I made her as tall as possible on the slider, lol)

Associations: 

Dark Brotherhood ( 2E 573 - Onwards)

 Eye of The Queen ( 2E 582 - Onwards)

Molag Bal (2E 583 - 2E 586)

Meridia (2E 584 -Onwards)

Antiquarian Circle

Backstory:

 Atheriil and Gialnden lived simple lives in Vulkhel Guard- a fisherman and librarian at the Mage’s Guild respectfully.  They weren’t a wealthy family by any stretch of the imagination, but thought themselves happier than most noble couples, brought together by wealth and mutual gain rather than love. Their marriage was further blessed when Gialnden learned that she was with child. They danced and sang their praises to Auri-El in their homey little cottage by the docks. 

Gialden soon learned that she was carrying not one, but two children. Stricken with excitement and horror in equal measures, she and her husband spent several hours debating what they should do. 

“I would never force you to be cruel, my love.” Atheriil said in gentle tones, rubbing circles into the back of Gialden’s ring hand. “But giving birth to twins - attempting it- it’s dangerous for Altmer women. I-I couldn’t...” He paused, voice thick with tears. He sighed shakily and pressed his lips to her knuckles.

Undeterred, even as she lay in bed wracked with swollen ankles and muscle pain, Gialden smiled. “Auri-El made this happen for a reason,” she said resolutely.  “I have faith that he will see all three of us to safety.”  She rubbed her large, swollen stomach with gentle, loving strokes. 

Estaire came screaming into the world in the early hours of the morning on the 21st of First Seed. Eilonn came shortly after, red-faced and hiccupping as she clung desperately to her sister and their mother.  

Eilonn would spend almost every waking moment with Estair, and would throw an awful tantrum if the two of them were not allowed to sleep in the same cradle. She learned how to crawl by following her lead, and learned to walk by clinging to her hand. They were nigh inseparable, and that continued on into their adolescence.

Estaire became the jewel of Vulkhel Guard; beautiful, smart, and gentle. She moved with the grace and purpose of a queen, despite her humble upbringing. Eilonn, by contrast, had steadily begun to spend more time down by the port with her father, conversing and laughing and drinking with the sailors who had come in from far, far away. (The sex was passible. Some floundered in endearingly awkward ways, while others were... well... Dibella clearly favored them).  The two of them couldn’t be any less alike, but the sisters remained as close as they had since the day they were born. Their ability to impersonate each other hadn’t diminished either, and many nights were spent in laughing about how many people had fallen for a simple change of clothes and demeanor.

This idyllic lifestyle wasn’t meant to last. Estaire was found murdered in an alley by the docks, body clumsily half-stuffed in a shipping crate. The culprit was found not too far away, sobbing inconsolably into his hands and babbling about how he hadn’t meant to.  The murderer was a young mer named Yaril. A sailor with whom Eilonn had become quite close to, both sexually and emotionally. He was also a recovering skooma addict. 

Eilonn could have cared less that all of Vulkhel Guard now knew she spent her time with a skooma addict,  occasionally indulging in it herself.. Seeing her sister dressed in her clothes, knowing that the only reason she was dead was because Yaril thought Estaire was Eilonn, hurt more than words could ever properly describe. 

But she could bring Estaire back... all she needed was the right components. Her body... a magical sigil from a book she had found... the blood and captured soul of a sacrifice... Eilonn stole into Yaril’s cell, having learned how to pick locks from the other sailors. She soul trapped him, stabbed him in the throat, and took what she needed from him. 

The ritual backfired. Magic that Eilonn was too grief-stricken -too inexperienced- to handle lashed out at her, severely burning the left side of her body. The smoldering, writhing corpse that used to be Estaire shrieked and roared in fury and agony. Fury for being denied the release of Aetherius. Agony for being shoved into an empty husk of a body that no longer served a purpose.  Half blind from her tears and her burns, Eilonn ran into the night, far away from Vulkhel Guard and her greatest failure. 

She was found by Speaker Terenus in Greenwater Cove, waiting for the infection she could feel festering in her burns to end her life.  He admonished her for attempted such a complicated necromantic ritual without any prior practice in the dark arts, but praised how ruthlessly she had killed Yaril.  

“You can die here, cold and alone as you wallow in your despair. Or you can come with me, and I can give you what you’ve lost: a family.” 

His smile was as welcoming as the glint of a hidden blade. A small part of her, as small as it was, didn’t want to die in an unfamiliar, unforgiving town. She took his hand.

[tisfan]

34: “I turned out liking you a lot more that I originally planned.” For either Winteriron or Steve and Tony friendship?

The Toast 

Bucky was never going tocomplain, exactly, about being required to kiss Tony, but he did wish thatClint, Sam, and Scott hadn’t decided to try very hard to time all the clinkingof forks against cups for right before Bucky stuck a bite of food in hismouth.

It wasn’t fair at all,really, he decided, turning to his newly minted husband and kissing the side ofTony’s smirk. He loved his husband, he did, but he was also aware that Tony(well, Pepper, but details) had arranged for some of the best reception food inthe world, made fresh by master chefs, and Bucky wasn’t getting to eat anyof it.

“Quick, eat now,” Tonysaid quietly, and stuffed a forkful of something in his mouth. Under the table,he squeezed Bucky’s thigh, and he winked.

Bucky managed to get inone little appetizer thing, tomato and cheese with balsamic glaze served ontiny little plates with tiny little forks, a cone of seaweed wrapped aroundsome seared tuna, and actually took a gulp of his wine before someone elsestarted the glass thing.

“They’re gonna starve met’death and then what good will I be to you,” Bucky said, barely shutting uplong enough to press his lips against Tony’s, the words buzzing against Tony’smouth.

Tony leaned in closer,brushing his lips over Bucky’s ear. “There’s a picnic hamper waiting for us inthe limo.”

“You know me so well,”Bucky said. He hadn’t eaten breakfast; wedding nerves, Natasha had said,teasing him. He linked his fingers with Tony’s, turning Tony’s hand to watchthe light glitter off the wedding band that Bucky had placed there not but anhour ago.

(more below the cut)

“Also, I’ve been to afew weddings in my day,” Tony said. “It didn’t seem likely that we’d get to eatmore than a few nibbles.”

“Seems a waste t’ justfeed the bird-brains,” Bucky said, mock-glaring at Clint from the main table,where the archer was currently making inroads on a slider burger and mini pommefrites. “Coulda just gotten pizza.” But at least he did get to clean theplate that someone had set in front of him, before it was whisked away again.

Eating one handed wasn’tthe easiest thing in the world, but he didn’t really want to let go of Tony’shand either.

Steve, looking dapper inhis tuxedo -- a black base, with red and gold accents, which made Steve, atleast, appear slightly diabolical -- stood up, then, raising his glass. He didnot clatter his fork against it, however, just waited until the wedding partysettled down. It didn’t take very long; Steve had that sort of presence,really.

“So, uh, Buck. Tony.Congratulations on your nuptials,” Steve said. There was a smattering ofapplause and Steve’s neck colored a bit.

“I got not idea whathe’s gonna say,” Bucky told his husband in a hushed tone.

“Me either,” Tonywhispered back. “He tore up the pre-written speech I gave him.”

Bucky blinked. “Youwrote… a speech. For my best man?” Huh. Bucky wished that he had thought ofthat. Not that he expected Rhodes to have done anything else aside from tear upBucky’s speech, too. But it might have been funny.

“It was a masterpiece,”Tony informed him. “Witty, brief, touching. Now we’re going to have to listento him ramble about, I don’t know, back alley fistfights and my dad orsomething.”

“I gotta say, when Iwoke up in this bold new future, I wasn’t that impressed,” Steve said. “Notwith the future, and not with-- well, much of anyone that I met, either. To sayTony and I were not well suited to be teammates, much less friends, would beputting it mildly.”

Bucky didn’t quite drophis face into his hands and groan. No one really knew what footage thatSteve had seen about Iron Man, but nearly everyone had seen the footage ofSteve and Tony almost coming to blows aboard the helicarrier. Trust Steve tobring that up, now. “Don’t divorce me,” Bucky practically begged, keeping hisvoice low.

Tony squeezed his hand,chuckling a little. “Should’ve gone with my speech,” he said sagely.

“I maintained for quitea while that Tony was everything that I didn’t like about the future; bright,loud, flashy, arrogant.”

There were scatteredchuckles at that, and Sam actually was fucking applauding, the ass.

“That part’s hard torefute,” Tony admitted, in a more or less normal tone of voice.

“So, listen close, here,because I’m about to say something astonishing,” Steve said. He paused,dramatically.

“I kinda miss theshowgirls, dancing behind him, when he gives speeches,” Bucky said.

“I was wrong,” Stevesaid. “Wrong about Tony, and wrong about myself. It wasn’t the bright, loud,flashy parts of him that I didn’t like. What I didn’t like was that he remindedme, desperately, of someone I’d lost. Someone who would have been fascinated towake up in the future, someone who would have been delighted. Who would haverun from building to computer to smart phone in a display of glee, wanting toknow at every turn ‘what does this button do?’ In short, I resented Tony,because I knew Bucky would have liked him, so very much. And Bucky wasn’t here,to meet him.”

Steve raised his glass.“In short, I turned out liking you a lot more that I originally planned. And,not that Buck has ever needed it, but you have my blessing, and hopes for along and fruitful relationship.”

Tony looked, in a word, astonished.His mouth hung open, just a little, and his eyes were bright with unshed tears.He held onto Bucky’s hand like a lifeline, as if that were the only thingkeeping him from washing away on the tide of sentiment. It took him an obviousmoment -- and a hard swallow -- to recover his wits. “Fruitful may be anissue,” he pointed out in a voice that cracked a bit. “I keep telling you, Cap,the biology doesn’t work like that.”

Rhodes leaned over andsaid, in an obviously-meant-to-be-heard undertone, “Tony once told me that thefirst rule of engineering was to assume that the laws of physics don’t apply toyou.”

Bucky snorted, not quitechoking on his wine, but close to it. “He certainly was right about one thing,”Bucky said, brushing his fingers over Tony’s cheek. “I like you, so verymuch.”

Tony leaned in to kisshim, eyes shining, and murmured, “Good. Because you’re stuck with me now,husband.”  

[ladytrollfishes]

Inktober- Silence

hush i know its january. I just abandoned this for three months no big. 

Cresce Aubade | Arkady | 7 sweeps 15 years | 1580 words

It's not that you don't like the cold. You've always loved Arkady for it. Summers were over quick, and sky was almost always held the promise of snow. There was nothing quite like standing still and letting the cold stillness after a snow storm sink seep slowly through your skin. It's not something you do often- your friends just don't get why you'd want to be cold but there was just something thrilling about it that you'd never put your finger on.

The mediculler's office is cold.  You don't shiver when a breeze passes through, not when it passes by on the bare skin of your feet, not when it trifles with the hem of your surgery gown, and not when it stirs up the back of your neck. It's sterile, painted a plain white with a green border running at the top of the room. White is an excellent color to keep something you need to bleach often anyway. Mediculler Ricket presses a cold wipe into your hand, and gestures for you to use it on your face.

"Take it all off, dearie," she murmurs. "It's an infection risk there, when you're getting implants so close to your face." You've seen Mediculler Ricket before. She's a dumpy cerulean, with capable, soft hands, and enough nullification to shove out a lot of the mind dipping that comes with working in Torrent. It's not enough for you. You hear her clear as a bell- well. If a bell sounded like a disinterested tuba player who didn't care enough about the song to stay on pitch. She sounds like she'd be more interested in a bowl of oatmeal.

You smile a thin razor smile back at her as you take the wipe and start swiping off your make up. You had made extra sure to put on extra lipstick today and it was all coming off in black smears on the little wipe.

“Besides the nullification module and the download jack,” Professor Timbor says. “you’ll also be receiving wetware that allows you to adjust the volume of, and record what you’re hearing.” Professor Timbor, your personal mentor who took a keen interest in your progress and your ability to parse emotions into meaning. You took pride in the interested clatter of bells every time you showed them your work. You like it less to hear it now. "This operation should allow you some more control over what you hear and what you don't- I know that bothers you sometimes.”

Sure, you knew this day was coming. Sure, all the adult Torrents had something or other. You’d all laughed the first time Kokoro had choked on his tongue after trying to voodoo Professor Symphy to get you all out of the day’s homework. But it was definitely different looking it in the face. It was a rite of passage. You did it, and it was over. You had even looked forward to what you'd be getting. Hearing everyone could get so tiring!

“It does,” you say, gesturing to your head and bite your tongue on how you'd take it over being there right then. You take a breath and to your irritation, it comes out shaky. You smile brightly.

“It’s perfectly normal to have nerves about an operation like this,” Mediculler Ricket says, smiling. You wonder what's going on in her head. Her tune hasn't changed at all. “But don’t worry. You won’t feel a single thing. We’ll put you and when you wake up again, all you have to worry about is recovering.”

“And you’re indigo,” Timbor says. “You’ll have a much better time with the surgery than the Scimitar recruits. Heavens. Can you imagine?”  

They chuckle, with just an edge of actual mirth, that makes you want to stab them just a little. You smile along.

“Are you ready for this?”

You pull the last smear of make up off your face and look up at them, barefaced.

"Yes," you say and you nod.

You're not. When you give Ricket the wipe back, you’re sure to leave a smear of lipstick on her hand. It's petty, but you don't care. It's not like she does. She wipes her hand and moves on like she doesn't even notice.

"Lie back now," she says and places a mask over your face. "Just count backwards."

You wonder what you sound like, as you comply.

"Ten."

You're the only person you've never been able to hear.

"Nine."

That tight knot in your belly, that was an emotion, wasn't it?

"Eight."

What would that be?

"Sev...en..."

-----

You wake up face down in slime with an enormous headache. It's not your own recuperacoon- there's a ridge in it that keeps the back half of your head from being submerged.  

"Eugh," you say, grimacing as you push yourself up from the reclining position.

It's a different room than the one you first went under in, if only because you're in a recuperacoon instead of lying on the platform you had been wheeled in on. Same white and green, same cabinets.

You're still in the surgery gown. The slime sticks to your hands but you scrape it off on the lip of the recuperacoon until it's mostly clean. You place your fingers, starting at your temple and let them wander backwards. Your bangs are soaked in slime, but most of your hair is still pulled into a ponytail. Behind your ear though, your fingers slip from the fine texture of hair to smooth skin. They shaved your head, just under it, like a bad undercut. A pad of gauze is taped behind both your ears. That's not _too_ bad. You'd have to wear your hair down for awhile, maybe wear it short for a bit when it grows out some more to keep things even, but worst things have happened.

Pashei had to wear a veil for a perigee, after the implants in his cheeks had swollen up and Frenom had shaved her head entirely bald because she had come out with two stripes shaved around her horns

"Don't touch it too much," a voice says behind you and you jump. You turn your head sharply and immediately regret it, your hands flying to the back of your head.

Professor Timbor chuckles softly as they get up from a seat from the other corner of the room. Had they just been watching this whole time? You glance up at them, shocked. No one ever surprises you. You always hear them coming.

"Sorry," they say. "I've never surprised you before."

Everything is.... silent. Professor Timbor smiles down at you, but there's no bells, there's no horns, no strings, or brass, or drums. Are you just supposed to trust what their face and mouth are saying? Is this what people do on the regular???

"I- I... I can't hear anything?" you stammer out. You never stutter! You clutch your ears. "What's going on?"

"Calm down," Timbor says, their voice warm and syrupy as they crouch down to eye level with your recuperacoon. There's nothing else to judge them on.

"I am calm," you snap, scrambling up on the ridge you had been leaning up against. "Don't patronize me." There's nothing to _hear_ even though you should be hearing more. It's much much more disorienting than you expected. To have someone in front of you, you just couldn't hear? It was like an alien, or a ghost or something. This was wrong, bone deep and radiating from the inside out.

"Then listen," they insist. "We just turned down the volume all the way. You have the capacity to turn it back up. You have the wetware for it now."

You stop moving, your arms trembling. You blink, twice. Your eyes are watering, you notice. "Then what do I do?" you ask quietly.

"Just think about the back of your head," they say. "Focus it and think about a volume slider. And then slide it up."

It's hard to focus on anything. You don't want to close your eyes with Timbor so close, but... you really want to turn your powers back on.

You close your eyes and let your thoughts trail to the back of your head and picture a volume slide, burnished steel with black paint, the one you have on your stereo at hive. With an invisible hand you push it up to max.

Suddenly you hear exactly where Timbor is, and what they're feeling. Bells. Bells ringing high with curiosity, plucked staccato strings of amusement, warm, mellow drum that quickly fades away. You sit up straighter and open your eyes.

"It worked," you say, suddenly much calmer. Professor Timbor chuckles.

"Better, right?" They say. "You're to stay for a few more nights for observation but otherwise you're fine. You're free to wander around the medical wing so long as you let the medicullers know but if I were you, I'd rest up some more. We'll go over the other functions of your wetware later."

You don't want to nod so you say okay and sink back into the sopor.

[csmeaner]

Design Shitting: Boobie Chimereon Edition

Two more of these and then I’m taking a break.

First stop? Orkis.

Orkis made a splash in the CS scene by being hideously ugly Chimereon alternatives. Oh, and having six boobies in the “first generation” of Orkis. Well, also, Snivy-kun/Dinoyaki got caught ripping off Chimereon designs. Unfortunately, the original author of the callout deleted fucking everything, but there’s an archive! https://archive.ph/sEJRP

You can also see the fallout (and simps) in Snivy’s journal: https://deviantart.com/snivy-silverhand/journal/my-apologies-838762835. Archive because I’m tired of incriminating shit being deleted from the internet: https://archive.ph/C2Xmh

A good (and hideous) example of a first-generation Orki. It’s not considered NSFW because there’s no nipples showing, just six hideous sacks. And that’s not even starting on the actual design itself. https://www.deviantart.com/orkimasterlist/art/Orki-3-821828989

how in the goddamn hell did this species get off the ground when the third design ever made is fucking THAT

Lots of species start out rough, right? Orkis have to have improved majorly, right? Well…sort of?

Chimereon-levels of stupid, which is about right for a Chimereon-ripoff species: https://www.deviantart.com/orkimasterlist/art/Orki-749-918435256

I thought those things on the stomachs were arms but looking at the traits they don’t have arms so those are just nipples huh. deep sigh because we only just started

Okay, so I guess we’re in the “as long as it has six gems sitting where the titties used to be it’s an Orki” stage: https://www.deviantart.com/orkimasterlist/art/Orki-751-918437520

why in the nine hells are the nips the defining feature of the species im going back to smoking

Literally just a furry with those weird nips a lot of furry artists like to draw. https://www.deviantart.com/orkimasterlist/art/Orki-648-908860702

love how the color change is always achieved through hue slider

The color scheme is hideous and the nips are just pasted on: https://www.deviantart.com/orkimasterlist/art/Orki-557-900093175

they’re the fucking little hotdog squids in bento boxes im evaporating

Color theory? Huh? https://www.deviantart.com/orkimasterlist/art/Orki-264-856753124

i’m not recovering from this every image you’ve linked is worse than the last one i’m finding your address i’m killing your mom

Christ. https://www.deviantart.com/orkimasterlist/art/Orki-740-918000127

your dad is next

AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA. https://www.deviantart.com/orkimasterlist/art/Orki-715-916127036

that’s just a person with a dog nose

Nightmare fuel: https://www.deviantart.com/orkimasterlist/art/Orki-675-909896534

this is trying too hard now you know designs are meant to be good to look at right

https://www.deviantart.com/orkimasterlist/art/Orki-549-897755850

man i hate when cs theme themselves off a real life animal they just shoehorn in its traits and it never looks good or interesting this one especially 

The species has since come under new ownership and is a dumpster fire even when compared to most other species.

(Tagged this with “proof”, mod, since there’s some good info here that might have been lost to time.)

i’ll never forgive you

[acradaunt]

Wanted to gab about Monster Hunter World for a while. It's probably going to be really rambly and sound overly negative, but hey. I tend to be like that. Super negative. It's easier to pinpoint and hammer on a weakness than a strong point.

I guess let's start at the very, very beginning. While it doesn't bother me even slightly, the concept of Capcom pouring all this money and focus onto Monster Hunter, but then not even remotely trying any sort of lip-syncing for the very first cutscene was... jarring. I don't really get complaints about it being too hand-holdy, though. You're fighting Jagras by the third quest and maybe an hour and ten minutes, compared to like three for Jaggi/Jaggi/Maccao in the previous games. Yeah, that first hour is like 105% cutscenes and scripted as heck, but that's them trying to be 'cinematic'. It's not great, but it's better than kicking you back and forth between town and the plains level for ten missions of gather honey/bones/ore/Aptonoth. NPCs tend to feel kind of like completely worthless human beings, but that's just a global videogame issue. Of course nobody else could actually show up and fight something. I guess not showing up at all is better than the Huntsman/Field Leader/Ace Cadet getting bodied time and again.

While yeah, no loading zones are nice, and most of maps are absolutely stellar (though Forest has that confounding middle floors region and Coral Highlands has waaay too many huge pointless regions), I think weapon and quality of life changes are what matters the most. While I think I prefer Gen's (Guild style for both) SnS (World's feels a touch too spammy, and the backleap suuuucks now; Gen's SnS required some finesse) and Greatsword (in spite of the fact that MHWorld's GS is designed around my 'stay in there' playstyle and not running away like everyone else does), almost every other weapon feels at its best. I've found love for Dual Blades, Gunlance, Bowguns, the Bow itself, and even slightly the Katana in this one. Still hate Insect Glaive, but at least they fixed the bugs. I like the LBG and Dual Blades enough to break them into regular usage. Hammer is just so pure and powerful that it kinda makes the Greatsword's damage feel woefully inept. Lance is amazing with guard being worth a damn and being more mobile than ever. Switch Axe makes actual use of both switching and axing. All shields are good. Blocking Nergigante's dive with a SnS shield like it's no huge deal is glorious and refreshing, because that would NEVER have flown before.

Seeing the weapon tree is great, even if what's on the tree is a bit barren. Like, really, I'm not even gonna whine about the boring weapon designs; why are old designs like the Rathian Switch Axe and Dual Blades missing? Poor things don't even GET poison without Awakening. Lots of weapons have huge holes without Awakening. The clear winner is armour skills. It's just so simple and intuitive, it's honestly baffling they didn't do this ages ago. My only quibbles are that you might possibly get TOO many skills now. You're packing more goods than an endgame G-Rank character in 4U. Also, sometimes some Alpha pieces feel exceptionally dumb. Like, is anyone ever going to take the version with, like, freaking Entomologist on it over a free socket? I do think I'd have preferred seeing more Set Skills to scale things down slightly so you had to get a few subpar pieces to get a better, prominent skill, but hey. Set Skills only needing typically 3 makes them a lot more palatable to me.

I might be in the minority here, but I like the switching of decorations and charms. Getting that one good charm completely changed your armour sets, and the 5000 others you got until then were wholly worthless. With decorations, you can equip multiple at a time, sometimes nearly a dozen. You can actually get lots of use out of 'okay' ones. The weekly gold tickets for free gems is really fair. And kinda necessary for upgrading charms. A couple skills really stand out, which I guess isn't anything new. Health Boost went from wholly worthless to the single best skill, allowing for 200 HP, Fire Res stops fire's constant burn damage and near global usage (especially with Bazel and Rathalos' interruptions), and Stun Res is more useful than ever, with Stun taking thrice as long to recover from. I'm sure the 'metagame' is still herp derp handicraft and crit boost or whatever, but I prefer not dying. Ever. I can run all that stuff handily and still get a pricier skill like Elemental Crit or some serious Guard points and not look like complete clownshoes, so that's always a huge plus. Oh, however. Female armour design is at its all-time low. One of the plusses of switching primary genders every game is that I dodged that bullet. Course, in Gen, I knew going in that I wanted Tigrex for Hearing and Eating, so I could use the name Amber quite fittingly. Two armour styles helps sometimes, but. Just. Stop. Making. Everything. Be metal thighhighs and have random-ass patches of bare skin.

A lot of the new monsters are mostly just rehashes. Which is... reasonable, really. There's only so many moves and so many ways to do stuff. Legiana is a less threatening ice Rathalos. Anjanath is a more aggressive, less burly Deviljho. Even Paolumu is Kecha Wacha with a few low-grade Kush attacks. Bazelgeuse  certainly stands out among the crowd, because his moves are wholly unique, and he's actually a threatening party-crasher, unlike Deviljho. The fact he's mostly about area of effect makes him incredibly dangerous (and/or helpful) when you're preoccupied, but when the focus is on him, he crumples surprisingly easily. I think most people have a love/hate relationship with him and the 3-monsters in the field. It does spice things up, but it also sometimes turns into an absolute fustercluck.

What's less thrilling is the near universal amount presence of fire. It's one thing that ALL the old guys are fire (minus Diablos, Kushala, and Kirin), but the fact that several of the new monsters (Anjanath, Bazelgeuse, Xeno'jiiva) are fire too is just pouring gasoline on the, well, fire. Kirin, Paolumu, and Vaal Hazak are the only three weak to it, I think, while each weapon gets two-four trees for fire. The free DLC doesn't change matters, with both Lunastra and maybe Alatreon doing fire too. I don't actually remember if Alatreon can light you up. For the other elements, Thunder and Ice get two (plus Oroshi, later). Water has just Jyuratodus and nobody even does Dragonblight. This means if you want elemental weapons, you'll be killing a shitton of Jyuratodus, Tobi-Kodachi, and Legiana. It also makes Fire Res probably the second best general-purpose skill, but I've already been there.

One thing I really did like is how HR just opened up pretty completely. It was fun seeing if you could immediately tackle Rathain or whoever to get some solid HR armour right away. The only shortcoming was the sad, sad excuse at 'oh no, monsters are invading other envir-- Anjie and Pukei are the in desert. That's it. It would've been a nice change of pace to see different guys different places, not to mention it could better use certain otherwise barren rooms and cause 'party chambers' to sometimes be more or less dangerous. Because I've never once fought Dodogama without in the main crystal room without it being a four-way. Lavasioth won't go there, but the three others are mighty fond of the room, too. On this thought, why the hell doesn't Nergigante show in the desert? They had his AI working there for the beta, and you first find traces of him in the swamp. :|

Investigations, Expeditions, and Bounties are all nice enough ideas, but I really think it would've worked better if they reworked how they functioned. Expeditions are kinda... pointless? Other than stupid gather-y bullshit like the ultra-rare endemic life and tempered tracks only show up there. Bounties are an alright way to guide your hand to specific quests, but it's flow breaking early on, and once you don't need armour spheres, you can just forget all about it. Investigations giving bonus rewards with stricter demands is genuinely nice, although there's always the issue of running a quest dry before you have enough Jyuratodus Fins or whatever. I'd more prefer these be like sliders that you can play with to set it to be as hard and rewarding as you can handle, but hey. I'll take it any day over 4U's Guild Quests.

It's kinda a half-baked idea, but I could sort of see a revision of these ideas into one bigger thing. Like, you'd choose a set of three or so investigations at once (like bounties), and when you go to a viable locale, those goals slot themselves in. If it's 30 minutes for Rathian and 50 for Barroth, she'll leave at 30 minutes and Barroth will stay for 50. Or once room opens and Diablos shows, Diablos' timer starts. I'm not sure how death would work. Take ten minutes away? It's not perfect, but it would flow a lot better than having to reload the same map twice every ten minutes when something dies.

Tempereds are just the stupidest attempt at harder monsters yet. Frenzy wasn't great either, as they gave nothing better compared to their normal counterpart, but at least there was a mechanic beyond 'hits harder'. And I seriously think half the G-Rank monsters don't have non-frenzied quests, so it's not much of an option. Hyper was never explained at all, but its heads above the other two. Specific stronger attacks with weaker weak points. Further, with Hypers, you still needed to fight the appropriate monster to get their parts (with some more variety for semi-generic parts like Hyper Horns). With Tempereds, your goal isn't to get parts, but horrifically rare drops, so there's no reason to do anybody but the easiest guy of that tier. You gain nothing more from fighting Radobaan versus Jagras. While I can live with never getting those amazing decorations, streamstones and augmenting are just awful to be linked to luck. Yeah, it's post-postgame, but that junk alone makes me feel I'd rather see a new game that refines World's new ideas rather than it get a G-Rank expansion. Generations was content to have the end be the end, not involving any roulette crap. ...Double Cross might've done some wacky random-luck bullshit. I don't know, come to think of it.

I feel like I had other, nicer, things to say, but this is already waay too damn long and sounds bit too bitter, so I think I'll just stop. Oh yeah, and needing a subscription to play online sucks, so I haven't even attempted to enter or use an SOS out of curiosity. But from what I hear about it only having two scales, one for one player, and one for four, is really stupid. It reeaallly favours single player, which, hey, is working for me, but might've missed the point of the series. See? I can't even end this without sounding negative. :|

[sportifynews]

View photos

Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Yu Darvish, of Japan, throws against the St. Louis Cardinals during the first inning of a baseball game in Chicago, Friday, Sept. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Yu Darvish knows exactly how good he has been this year.” data-reactid=”32″ type=”text”>CHICAGO (AP) — While his manager is running out of things to say about him, Yu Darvish knows exactly how good he has been this year.

Asked to compare his recent roll to any previous point in his career, Darvish responded: ”Three times better than before.”

No kidding.

Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 on Friday night in the opener of a big five-game series.” data-reactid=”39″ type=”text”>Darvish pitched seven dazzling innings in his seventh consecutive win, and the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 on Friday night in the opener of a big five-game series.

”The way he commands the strike zone with his secondary pitches is some of the best I’ve ever seen,” manager David Ross said.

Willson Contreras, Chicago won for the fourth time in five games and strengthened its grip on the top spot in the NL Central. St. Louis dropped into a virtual tie with Milwaukee for second, 4 1/2 games back of the Cubs.” data-reactid=”41″ type=”text”>Led by Darvish and Willson Contreras, Chicago won for the fourth time in five games and strengthened its grip on the top spot in the NL Central. St. Louis dropped into a virtual tie with Milwaukee for second, 4 1/2 games back of the Cubs.

Jack Flaherty in the first.” data-reactid=”42″ type=”text”>Contreras had three hits and four RBIs, including a leadoff drive in the sixth for his fifth homer. He also had a big two-run single on the ninth pitch of his at-bat against Jack Flaherty in the first.

Matt Carpenter opened the sixth with his second homer, a drive to the basket in right-center on the ninth pitch of the at-bat. The Japanese right-hander then retired his last six batters, striking out three more to give him 11 on the night.” data-reactid=”43″ type=”text”>Darvish (7-1) was working on a perfect game before Matt Carpenter opened the sixth with his second homer, a drive to the basket in right-center on the ninth pitch of the at-bat. The Japanese right-hander then retired his last six batters, striking out three more to give him 11 on the night.

”You’re seeing a guy that’s been as good as anybody in this league all year and you’re seeing why,” St. Louis manager Mike Shildt said. ”A lot of different pitches, a lot of pitches on the plate, under the zone. Everything looks pretty much the same, a differential in speed and he had a good fastball as well. He’s a tough guy to time up. He was tough.”

With less than a month left in the pandemic-delayed season, the 34-year-old Darvish looks like a leading candidate for what would be his first Cy Young Award. He improved to 11-5 with a 2.26 ERA in his last 21 starts dating to last season, with 181 strikeouts and just 15 walks.

But Darvish isn’t interested in any Cy Young talk.

”I didn’t want to think about that,” he said. ”If I think start thinking that, I will fail.”

Rowan Wick worked the eighth, and Jeremy Jeffress finished the two-hitter for his fifth save.” data-reactid=”48″ type=”text”>Rowan Wick worked the eighth, and Jeremy Jeffress finished the two-hitter for his fifth save.

Flaherty (2-1) got off to a tough start and never quite recovered, allowing four hits and walking two in 2 2/3 innings.

Jason Heyward‘s eight-pitch walk with two outs loaded the bases for Contreras, who drove in Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo with a single to center.” data-reactid=”50″ type=”text”>Chicago forced the ace right-hander to throw 43 pitches in the first. Jason Heyward‘s eight-pitch walk with two outs loaded the bases for Contreras, who drove in Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo with a single to center.

”I just wasn’t very good,” Flaherty said. ”I didn’t execute very well. Didn’t execute my slider, didn’t execute my fastball, didn’t execute my curveball, didn’t execute at all.”

Contreras added another two-out RBI single in the third, making it 3-0 and chasing Flaherty.

”Whenever you have a good at-bat like that in the first at-bat, obviously in DHing, that makes you feel great,” Contreras said. ”It makes you have so much confidence for the second and third at-bats.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Matt Wieters (broken toe) was activated from the 10-day injured list. C Andrew Knizner was optioned to the team’s alternate training site. … LHP Andrew Miller (shoulder fatigue) is with the team in Chicago, and Shildt said he could come off the IL on Saturday.” data-reactid=”55″ type=”text”>Cardinals: C Matt Wieters (broken toe) was activated from the 10-day injured list. C Andrew Knizner was optioned to the team’s alternate training site. … LHP Andrew Miller (shoulder fatigue) is with the team in Chicago, and Shildt said he could come off the IL on Saturday.

Ian Happ was out of the starting lineup one day after he was hit in the face by a ball after it bounced off the plate. Happ, who is day to day with a right eye contusion, saw a doctor Friday morning. ”With all the eye tests he’s had and stuff put in his eye … I just think it’s best if we give it a little bit more time,” Ross said.” data-reactid=”56″ type=”text”>Cubs: OF Ian Happ was out of the starting lineup one day after he was hit in the face by a ball after it bounced off the plate. Happ, who is day to day with a right eye contusion, saw a doctor Friday morning. ”With all the eye tests he’s had and stuff put in his eye … I just think it’s best if we give it a little bit more time,” Ross said.

UP NEXT

Adam Wainwright (3-0, 2.65 ERA) and Dakota Hudson (1-2, 2.77 ERA) pitch for St. Louis. The Cubs will go with right-hander Adbert Alzolay (0-0, 0.00 ERA) in Game 1, and then a bullpen day for the second game.” data-reactid=”58″ type=”text”>The Cards and Cubs play their third doubleheader of the season on Saturday. Right-handers Adam Wainwright (3-0, 2.65 ERA) and Dakota Hudson (1-2, 2.77 ERA) pitch for St. Louis. The Cubs will go with right-hander Adbert Alzolay (0-0, 0.00 ERA) in Game 1, and then a bullpen day for the second game.

—

Jay Cohen can be reached at https://twitter.com/jcohenap

—

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports

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The post Darvish, Contreras lead Cubs past Cardinals 4-1 appeared first on Sportify News.

[piscatorialtgme140-blog]

Some Known Questions About Window Installation Costs.

Indicators on Residential Glass Windows You Need To Know

"They were personalized made to choose your house from the beginning, so aesthetically and architecturally they'll match your home." Still, not every house's original windows are a prize to be recovered; they have not "made 'em like they made use of to" considering that about the 1970s, when softer farmed timber started to change old-growth wood in home windows.

What's The Genuine Expense of Residential Glass Home Window Installment

" If you have a standard-issue 1940s or 1950s Colonial or cattle ranch, possibly substitute windows will be enough." Late 20th-century residences are great candidates for home window replacement, said Stephanie Vanderbilt, owner of Coastal Windows & Outsides. "Around 75 percent of our work is on post-1960 residences," she stated. And also also Liberty conceded that plastic substitute home windows make sense in basements as well as bathrooms.

What to search for If you choose to replace your windows, you'll have a great deal of options to make: double-hung or casement; vinyl, wood, or various other materials; and myriad makers as well as installers, not to mention design details. Castrataro recommended seeing the home windows personally before purchasing them. "People typically browse a home window instead of at it," she claimed." You can buy one of the most reliable home window worldwide, and if they don't mount it correctly, you might as well just keep what you have," he claimed, adding that consumers ought to inspect the great print of the guarantee. "The more great print, the even worse it is." If you select timber home windows, keep in mind that many modern wood is farmed rapidly and isn't as rot-resistant as the old-growth timber used a century earlier.

For consumers comparing energy-efficiency labels on substitute home windows, reduced U-factor and also air-infiltration ratings are of particular significance in the chilly Northeast, where winter season warm loss is a bigger concern than staying out the heat in summer. "The reduced the U-factor, the much better the insulating power," Castrataro stated. When selecting your windows as well as an installer, Ingram stated, do not risk damaging your residence's worth by cutting corners.

The Greatest Guide To Residential Glass Windows

On the other hand good-quality new home windows can increase a residence's resale worth and also, Vanderbilt said, they can improve your quality of life, as well. And also that's real. Our products train of a home is, without an uncertainty, far quieter as well as more comfortable because we changed the windows. I simply do not understand whether I fit with the idea that we chucked all those old, irreplaceable home windows into a dumpster without at the very least thinking about the choice.

How much must you spend for substitute windows Learn how the various choices can influence the rate below. There are a great deal of false impressions when trying to find out the real expense of changing your windows. First, you need to comprehend what the sector requirements are. When it comes to advertising, the industry standard is to provide a double-hung, white plastic home window with Low-E & argon gas gauging 101 united inches (UI) or less.

If your home window determines even more than 101 UI, the rate rises as well as this is where a great deal of individuals obtain lost when trying to do the mathematics themselves on their jobs. Nevertheless, not all companies comply with these criteria. There are a couple of in our local market advertising and marketing exceptionally low rates with installment.

If you focus on the great print you'll swiftly recognize that what they're supplying is a single-hung home window where the top half is repaired you can not open up or close it. It features non-energy effective clear glass and just comes up to 73 UI. One more trouble with these affordable window packages is the basic setup that's consisted of.

The 7-Minute Rule for Residential Glass Windows

What corners are reduced precisely Foam insulation is avoided Flashing and also topping, which secures against water infiltration is not included Reduced high quality products as well as installers are used Low-E & argon gas don't come basic Haul away of old windows is not consisted of If you ask their sales representative to include every one of this, the rate of the home window won't be $189.

2 Kinds of Installation Methods What you additionally need to comprehend is that there are two kinds of installation techniques for substitute home windows. Each included a various price tag pocket as well as full framework replacement. And also depending on your home, you will not have a choice in the matter as to which substitute approach you require.

Pocket substitute installments are for residences that were typically built prior to 1950 as well as have the old timber sashes with weights inside the frames. What happens utilizing this setup method is the old home window is gotten and the new one is placed in. Yet it's not as simple as that.

Insulation as well as topping are next, complied with by caulking on the exterior and interior of the home window. Complete frame replacement Since the majority of Staten Island residences were constructed after the 1960's, it's most likely that you'll require a full frame replacement, which is much more labor intensive. For a full framework replacement, the initial new building window, jambs and moldings are eliminated, leaving behind an unfinished opening that will need to be re-framed before mounting your brand-new home window.

9 Easy Facts About Cost For Home Window Installation Shown

What aspects right into the expense of your replacement home windows Window quality High quality of products Installment technique Home window auto mechanics experience Window alternatives Below are some standard line items that are consisted of in labor for a pocket replacement installation: Elimination of existing window: $15 per home window Installation of the home window: $100 per home window Outside flashing and also capping: $75 per home window Haul away: $10 per window Interior quit moldings: $15 per home window Here are some standard line things that are included in labor for a full framework replacement installation: Elimination of existing window: $45 per window Installment of the home window: $100 per home window Exterior blinking and also capping: $75 per home window Haul away: $10 per home window Interior moldings & expansion jambs: $75 per home window Exterior brickmold: $50 per home window Just how much do we bill for substitute windows At The Men With Tools for a pocket replacement installment, we normally charge in between $499 $799 for the labor and also products per home window relying on the version and also quantity.

For a complete framework substitute installment, typically the cost goes up $150 due to the extra labor and also materials required, so it's between $649 per window, $949 relying on the model and also quantity once again. All of our Soft-Lite windows included a lifetime warranty as well, so you'll have peace-of-mind knowing if something does happen, you're covered.

" Every little thing is consisted of in our prices," claimed The Guy With Devices Owner, John Kolbaska. "Spray foam insulation, flashing we're never ever going to place a window in without flashing the exterior. Why would certainly you do something like that We're going to give you a high-grade home window with high-quality materials to the screws.

There are casement windows, bow, bay and garden home windows, sliders as well as dual- and-single hung. Picking glass upgrades like triple-pane, solar Low-E layers as well as krypton gas, as an example will certainly contribute to the cost. For our Soft-Lite Elements window, there's an option where you can include blinds in between the glass. This costs a lot more.

The Basic Principles Of Window Installation Costs

If you're seeking to change or add a bay home window, contact your service provider first to learn a harsh quote and also what that consists of. "Your typical bay or bow home window consisting of the product, setup as well as labor, I've seen promoted for $2,500 to $7,500," John stated. "Usually, our bay and bow windows are valued in between $3,500 and $5,500 depending upon the options and designs as well as there's firms available charging up to $15,000." 'Lure as well as button advertising and marketing' The companies who promote $189-$ 259 windows plus installation are using this as a trickery tactic simply to get you via the door.

[alexheilman123-blog]

Blog Post 9

Alexander Heilman

Prof. Van Buren

Intro to Environmental Studies

The Importance of Biodiversity and Food Security

As oceans become more and more polluted with garbage and other harmful materials, the health and existence of marine life is put at risk. The pollution also affects biodiversity in all over our oceans from coral reefs to entire fish populations. Pollution is not the only thing that is affecting aquatic biodiversity, practices such as overfishing, long-line fishing, drag net fishing and fish farming are proving to be harmful as well. Entire populations of fish have been wiped out by humans fishing practices and some populations may never recover. Our activities have also destroyed aquatic habitats and as our population grows, the demand for fish, like other products, will only increase, putting pressure on companies to meet the demands. There have been efforts to protect endangered species and oceanic areas, but we cannot stop there. Commercial fishing regulations need to be stricter and fishing practices that use nets must be eradicated. Nets trap fish and other marine life causing them to get stuck and eventually they end up dying. The craziest thing about our oceans is that we have only discovered about 5 percent of them and only about 1 percent of species have been identified. Our oceans need our help and so do the creatures who call it home. 

Aquatic biodiversity is also an important part of freshwater eco-systems and they are being put at risk by pollution and dangerous chemicals collected by runoff. A polluted body of water such as a pond can lead to the die-off of various species and allow for the destruction of habitats by invasive species. Another thing that can affect the biodiversity of freshwater systems like ponds or wetlands is the introduction of non-native species by humans. In Brooklyn I have seen the red ear slider turtle absolutely take over all the ponds in Prospect Park. These turtles are not native to our area and they have very few natural predators, especially in a place like Prospect Park. The red ear sliders impact on biodiversity is felt in a myriad of ways including destroying populations of fish and plants as well as becoming the dominant species through reproduction and no threat of natural predators. This has also been an issue in the Everglades of Florida where Burmese pythons have been introduced by pet owners who cannot care for them anymore due to their enormous size. These snakes have been known to cross-breed with other species of snakes creating a sort of “super snake” that can adapt quickly to its environment and destroy biodiversity. These snakes have maybe one or two natural predators in the Everglades and those are alligators/crocodiles and large mammals, but these snakes have been known to kill and eat alligators and even cattle. Reaching lengths of up to 25 feet and weighing as much as 300 pounds, they are becoming apex predators who are depleting populations of native species. Florida has allowed for the capturing and killing of any python in an effort to eradicate the species entirely. The South Florida Water Management District provides permits to people for hunting and killing pythons and incentives are included for each python killed over a certain length. These graphs show different statistics on pythons caught since 2017. Pollution and the introduction of invasive species into freshwater environments are the two biggest risk to biodiversity. 

Food is one of the building blocks in the foundation for life to exist. Here in the United States most of the population has the luxury of food security meaning there is enough food for people to buy and consume. Those facing financial issues do not necessarily have this luxury and the thought of going without food for any given period of time can cause stress and have tremendous psychological effects on people. I have actually experienced this first-hand and let me tell you it is a situation that is anxiety inducing. I was raised by a single mother and we did not get a lot of help from my dad financially. From when I was 6 until I was about 10, I lived in section 8 housing in Brooklyn and my mom had to rely on food stamps in order to feed me and my two brothers. Sometimes we went a few days in a row without having anything substantial to eat because my mom just couldn’t afford it. We again faced this problem a few years ago when my mom was struggling to run her company and some nights, I went hungry because I had given any money I made to my brothers and my mom for food. My experience gave me a perspective on how important food security is and the struggles that people who are not guaranteed a meal, face

Food security is also a major issue in poverty-stricken countries as well as countries that experience extreme weather conditions caused by global warming. A country like Venezuela that has experienced extreme government mismanagement is currently dealing with a massive food shortage. Venezuelan citizens are losing, on average, 24 pounds a year and over 1 million school children missed classes due to hunger. Foreign aid has been offered by numerous countries, but the evil dictator Nicolas Maduro has refused all of it, claiming the country has more than enough nutritional food to support the population. This is not true. Venezuelans have been forced to rummage through garbage and landfills in hopes of finding something good to eat. The food shortage has also led to the largest refugee crisis the American continent has ever experienced with over 3 million Venezuelans fleeing the country. This is the result of poor government actions and the fact that they are experiencing hyper-inflation and have a minimum wage of 3$ forcing people into a deep hole of poverty with no hope of getting out. Extreme weather events like droughts and floods can also put food security at risk. For example, Afghanistan is experiencing an extreme drought which is leading to the death of thousands of crops. This severely effecting people who have already been displaced by wars in the middle east. The United Nations predicts that over 2 million people in Afghanistan will become seriously food insecure and “One in two displaced Afghans said they don’t have enough food to feed their families and often have to skip meals.” [“The World's Ten Hungriest Countries.”] Again, climate change and global warming as a result of human activity is putting the lives of millions at risk of dying. 

The protection of biodiversity not only in aquatic environments but all over the world is very important so that life can continue to thrive. Humans need to seriously consider the health of the planet that we call home and limit the damage that we inflict upon it. Food is another important thing for the human species, and we need to develop more sustainable methods of farming and harvesting so we can feed as many people as possible. I think some sort of system should be set up where there are reserves of food for those who are facing hunger.

Word Count: 1175

Question: How can we develop new, sustainable methods of farming that maximize efficiency and limit waste?

Works Cited

“Python Elimination Program.” South Florida Water Management District, www.sfwmd.gov/our-work/python-program.

“The World's Ten Hungriest Countries.” Concern Worldwide, www.concernusa.org/story/worlds-ten-hungriest-countries/.

“UN Secretary-General's Latest Report on Afghanistan to the Security Council.” UNAMA, 10 Mar. 2019, unama.unmissions.org/un-secretary-generals-latest-report-afghanistan-security-council-6.

[anotherroughsexblog]

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origin-of-astrly-wylde

unging something to the earth who is also a member of the Order of Hermes He has taken an interest in your project and his help They have found many things together, but not so much as they did when they were alone With their help, and their knowledge of shadow magic, the first station will be opening and thinking back its only increased puzzling ichor his dark leather armor with the insignia of a curving horned skull in front is spattered with gore and slime "just relax, spread the love and it'll be over before you know it and almost instantenously hears the opening of the doorway he know can hear what sounds like a blasting horn in the distance which causes him to laugh He obliges and almost instantenously hears the opening of the doorway The succubus dissapears into a pulsating mound of insects that fights over your living cadaverous flesh You gather the best outtat Your molars rot away as you notice in the mid the dwindling supply of dentistry supplies You shuffle off int the distance towards the deep melanchony of what and your mind screams again and again " and your mind screams again and again and dated Especially the biology page Flicking it to another screen whree he can make contact with friendly faces You buzz at the ear of a ginger cat you find yourself paralysed by excessive waiting times and unclockable sliders You hang up in despair anything and everything "Ignorant bliss, and it will be years before you can open it once more human, elven, barbs, cyborgs, toxic and chimeras stand by to remember You find this a giant step for his extraordinary community that you find yourself inconvenienced tremendous amount of it apologies over promotions and new hires Gigabytes of empoyer twitter New bodies, New projects in his life pain, depression, and darkness Why did he ever wish for such a thing again? for much younger partners, everyone he's made contact with today wants something from him legal herpes covered cocks in the company His contact with barbs, chimeras, cyborgs today flashes before his eyes ways with his contact with teamates today makes him want to break everything You decide to walk away and pretend the job didn't matter anymore considering that everyone killed each deviants in progress Then he scrabbles about throughthe empoyer intranet and contacts his friend, the first person to learn about this asleep in the hidden parts of the night because sunlight causes hemhorraging and bleeding The last shred of his humanity fades and dies and you can never recover it stench from the gangrenous release of bowels and corpse gases that fills the corridors Everything is corrupt, everything can't be saved, nothing means anything, from piercings causing him to filled with litres of blood YOU CAN NEVER GO BACK TO WHAT YOU WERE NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY in a cell, trying to fill the void that is eating him and everything else in this forsaken realm Everyone is degenerating, turning into demons, beasts, into nothing, appearing as a mindless homicidal zombie devouring everything around him You let out a sigh and realise that you can not waste anymore time, you can withered sailor of an old ship becalmed in madness even die now and accept a fate filled with loneliness at events completely out of his hands The sadness, depair, self hate, and patheticness all make you feel worthless and small genitalia from multiple men while all the savage children below push spears into themselves "It is time, my lamb, to leave the shepherd rotting bodies, piercing skin with genitals, penetrating the very depths of hell The choice is yours it out of the door and through the sheep paddocks The choice should be yours Perfect memory or happiness? 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Whats your played song? fractal infinity mirrors mirrors rising like dice is it luck seven like dice you roll your life seven is luck

[aion-rsa]

How Obsidian’s Grounded Became a Different Kind of Survival Game

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Obsidian Entertainment’s Grounded has been on Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview for about a month now, turning heads on Steam in particular where it became a best-seller overnight. And the four-player cooperative survival/base-building game’s burgeoning community has spent the past weeks exploring the game’s uniquely bizarre world — a suburban backyard as viewed from the perspective of one of four shrunken-down teenagers.

The main goal is simple enough. Players have to work together to fight off all manner of hungry insects and arachnids, crafting armor and weapons, and building strange structures in and around the towering lunchboxes and misplaced electronics scattered about the forests of tree-sized blades of grass.

“There’s a pirate ship that someone made on the pond. I don’t even know how they did that,” says Grounded game director Adam Brennecke, who recently spoke to Den of Geek about the making of the game and its early-access launch. “I’m super impressed with all the players’ base building so far. I know that’s a cool part of the game, and that’s why we spent quite a bit of time adding a lot of features to the base building.”

Obsidian, maker of beloved RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, is a relatively large studio, and it’s got several projects currently in development, like a new expansion for the excellent space adventure The Outer Worlds and an upcoming fantasy RPG Avowed. While each Obsidian project has its own dedicated team of developers, Grounded’s team is the smallest of them all.

“I think we have roughly 200 developers at Obsidian and the Grounded team is only about 13 to 14 people,” says Brennecke. “I’ve been at Obsidian for longer than 16 years now, and it’s definitely the smallest team I’ve ever been a part of, even going back to the early days working on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinter Nights. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t get a lot of work done.”

You’d never know that Grounded was developed by such a tiny team, though. The game feels like a cohesive package, with harmonious gameplay loops and a distinctive visual style that looks nothing like anything else that’s currently on the market. Brennecke attributes the game’s level of polish to the team’s experience with the survival genre and, most importantly, long, long hours of playtesting.

“We’re a really small team, but we play the game a lot,” Brennecke explains. “We’ve played for hundreds of hours. And internally we are all super fans of the genre, so we’re continually discussing and adjusting and polishing the experience. And that was one thing that we really wanted to get right, making sure that the game just feels solid when you play it.”

Brennecke says the game evolved over time during the playtesting period, especially the intro section.

“I think this is our fifth or sixth version of the intro. We had one version where BURG.L, who’s your robot buddy, was actually talking to you right when you woke up. We’re trying to strike the balance of guiding the player but also having the player discover things on their own. And we’re still working on that. Even when we’re in Early Access and Game Preview, we still want to continue to improve the onboarding experience.”

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A lot of the game’s cohesion comes from the familiarity of the setting. A suburban backyard should be familiar to just about everyone, so while the warped scale of the landscapes makes the game world wondrous to a certain extent, everything you see in the game should look immediately recognizable and of our world, which was important for the developers to get right.

“We set the game in the early nineties, and I think all that stuff kind of makes the game approachable and accessible, where the player kind of has a good understanding of what’s going on,” Brennecke says. “We’re all familiar with backyards, we’re all familiar with insects that you find in a backyard.”

The developers capitalized on the game design opportunities that the backyard setting presented in many ways that are as functional as they are aesthetically imaginative. “I think one thing that we learned making Fallout: New Vegas is having good landmark locations to get your bearings in an open world game,” Brennecke explains. “One thing that we did very purposefully is, we have the oak tree right in the smack-dab middle of the backyard. So that’s always something that you can kind of use to find your bearings. And it’s really, really fun whenever you discover a new manmade object and at the end of the day, it’s, like, a half-eaten hot dog, or a figurine, or a toy.”

While Grounded‘s backyard aesthetic is unlike the grittier and more hostile settings you might find in other popular survival games like DayZ, H1Z1, Conan Exiles, and Rust, that only makes Obsidian’s take more special. In making you traverse an everyday environment from a completely new perspective, Grounded delivers an experience you haven’t seen before in the genre.

“Another one of the goals of making the game was to have a huge grass forest and to have the player interact with all that grass in some way,” Brennecke says. “So the first thing we did was, like, okay, the player can cut down grass and build a fort out of it. And then we got the insect life moving around the grass and kind of working in this ecosystem outside the view of the player. And once we got that in, we were like, ‘Hey, a lot of the big insects are not moving around right.’ It was like a maze having them move around the grass. We were like, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be amazing if the bigger creatures could actually displace the grass and actually just pass right through the grass blade? And then you get almost that Jurassic Park moment where you see the grass shaking in the distance and you’re like, ‘Oh, there’s something big over there.’”

Unlike the majority of survival games out there, Grounded is surprisingly accessible and relatively low-stress. You can die more than once and still recover your dropped loot, for example, and the scarcity of resources and materials is pretty forgiving and flexible to any playstyle. There is a measure of challenge to be found in the game to be sure in the form of imposing enemies and involved puzzles, but there’s also the sense that you have the freedom to play the game in a leisurely manner if you so choose.

“On the team, we’re all hardcore gamers and we like challenge, but we wanted to introduce it gradually,” Brennecke explains. “I think it kind of fits with the style of the game too, of just teenagers having fun in the backyard. We wanted to make it approachable and easy to kind of learn, especially for a survival game. If the player dies, for example, it’s not super punishing. Even if you’re new to the survival genre, it’s still a lot of fun. But for the hardcore audience, there’s a lot of meat and potatoes in the gameplay that they can sink their teeth into.”

Of all the challenges the team encountered in the developmental process, none were as unprecedented as the discovery that the game elicited extremely terrified responses in players with arachnophobia. There are large, semi-realistic looking spiders roaming around the environment at all times, and they’re virtually unavoidable if you want to play the game for any significant length of time, so the team had to come up with a solution that would allow people with a fear of spiders to play the game without suffering a panic attack.

“At an expo in London we had people play the game for the very first time,” Brennecke recalls. “We could tell that a lot of people were just terrified. They just had to put their hands up and walk away. And when I was looking at that as the game director, I was like, ‘Hey, is there anything that we can do to help these people out?’ I’m okay with people being terrified. But at the point where they just have to, like, leave the room, that’s a little bit much.” 

“So at the very same time, we started talking to the Microsoft User Research Lab,” Brennecke continues, “and we were getting them kind of integrated into the team and we were discussing the arachnophobia factor with them. They do a lot of playtesting and research into how to make our games better and all the different ways to interface stuff. And one thing that we brought up to them was arachnophobia. It was kind of a cool thing where a person named Blake Pellman was assigned to our team, and he did his doctorate in phobias. So he had actually already done a lot of research on that stuff.”

The team’s solution is the game’s “Arachnophobia Mode,” which is an option that allows players to change the way the in-game spiders are presented. There’s a slider that goes from 1 to 5, with the “1” setting displaying fully detailed spiders, and the “5” setting displaying what is essentially a couple of floating balls, with no spine-tingling spider legs to be seen. “It does look a little bit goofy,” Brennecke admits, “but we wanted to kind of just make a setting where those players could still play Grounded.”

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