#but I think it will add an important new dimension to their closeness

[disillusioneddanny]

Spread the Love Fic Recs <3

There's been a bunch of negativity lately and I think that means we as a fandom need to spread some love around. If you get tagged please add some fics that you think deserve more love, only request is that they aren't insanely popular fics (think like fics with less than 50k hits) this way we can get some other fics out there for others to read and enjoy!!

1.) Premeditation by Chromatographic (Lia)

The problem is that so few people are even able to see what the problem really is. The problem is that things that manage to find the balance on the knife’s edge of life are so, so hard to kill. The problem, Jasmine Fenton realizes, two weeks after she moves into Gotham, is one that almost no one, in any dimension or realm, is able to solve. The problem is simply put, though, even if it’s almost impossible. The problem is this: The Joker is a Halfa.

this fic has the hardcover ship (Jazz/Jason) and everlasting trio (danny/sam/tucker) it's beautifully written and keeps you on the edge of your seat as you watch the story progress. Absolutely amazing. The writing is just amazing, Chroma sucks you in with beautiful storyline that just blows my mind. And the ending is just absolutely perfect!

2.) Halves by TourettesDog

Jason wasn't sure why Dick thought it was a good idea to drag him along with Tim to Amity Park. His brother seemed to think the strange case would offer a decent opportunity to bond-- without Gotham (and Bruce) close at hand, perhaps it wasn't the worst idea he'd ever had. Unfortunately, Amity Park is far stranger than Dick anticipated, and Jason hasn't quite been himself since they arrived. Going to FentonWorks for answers was their first big mistake.

honestly one of my favorite fics atm, I just love Gothamites going to Amity Park, i'm just such a sucker for the idea and we just don't see it enough so this fic is just my dream come true!

3.) Pitch-Dark Shades by SummersSixEcho

Danny Fenton is trying to build a new life in Gotham after closing up the connections to the Ghost Zone. Not that all connections are entirely broken, still being able to perceive shades and give them strength when he connects to one of their prized objects. Tim Drake is trying to find his own place in the world, focusing on becoming a better detective by solving cold cases in his spare time. When Tim and Danny meet, a new (begrudging) partnership starts to bloom to solve even the hardest of cases. Or it would if only they told each other the truth.

I truly just love Danny and Tim together in literally any kind of capacity. They just cause so much chaos together and it's amazing. This fic is just absolutely lovely and the prose is amazing. Summers fics are truly enrapturing and just pull you in so easily.

4.) Beneath A Different Light by AKelaNakamura, SummersSixEcho, TourettesDog

When a convergent event hits unexpectedly, Damian and Danny find themselves in the last place they’d expected: In the body of the twin they’d thought long dead. With the after effects still coursing through them and danger lurking in both cities, the brothers must figure out who they can trust—all while slowly learning about the life their twin has led without them. Or, none of these bastards can catch a break.

Demon twins. Just--just Demon Twins my beloved. This fic is two chapters in and i'm just so utterly in love with it. Summers, Akela, and Dog are just a match made in heaven when it comes to cowriting a fic. The fic just yanks you in so easily and you find yourself thinking about it even after reading the fic. Just a wonderful fic!

5.) Come Little Children by Die_Erlkonigin6083

American Chestnuts were once one of the most important trees along the East Coast. The blight destroyed most of them, but not all of them. There was one chestnut tree, one that entranced a child, and then, what it wrought, enchanted an entire city or two

YALL when i tell you that the storytelling in this is absolutely breathtaking I'm serious. This fic has brought a tear to my eye because of just how beautifully it's written. It's got cool fantasy aspects to it, it's based off of an old fairy tale, it's just so amazing and it's one of my favorite fics to reread if i'm having a bad day. Just truly a lovely fic.

Now, I would like to see @halfagone @spite-sapphic-starlight @noir-renard and @midnightenigma recommend some of their favorite fics if they're willing <3333 let's spread some more love in this fandom!

also even if you aren't tagged--please feel free to recommend any fics you enjoy!!

[intercal]

here's your computer post ya freakin nerd

tl;dr hash algorithm art

left: sha512 empty string, using the nibbles (4 bytes) choosing a color from a 16-bit color palette right: sha384 empty string, using the openssh "randomart" algorithm choosing a color from a 16-bit color palette

technical stuff below the cut

problem

one of the common issues in computer science and systems administration is comparing hashes. but the problem arises when you, the human being, have to compare two hashes. hashes come in the form of a very long hexadecimal string. It might look something like this:

da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 (sha1)

e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855 (sha256)

cf83e1357eefb8bdf1542850d66d8007d620e4050b5715dc83f4a921d36ce9ce47d0d13c5d85f2b0ff8318d2877eec2f63b931bd47417a81a538327af927da3e (sha512)

these strings of text can be very long, and expecting a human being to check the exact match of 128 characters in a row (in the worst case) is unreasonable. it is unlikely to happen, but you can also get very very very close hashes. I remember seeing a twitter post (can't find it for the life of me) that showed two hashes that were different, but a cursory glance at them made them look extremely similar, eg:

e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae9800998b934ca495991b7852b855

versus

e3b0c44298fc1c14d41d8cd89961b204e9800998ecf8427ea495991b7852b855

it's pretty hard to tell at a glance that these are different. they have the same start and end prefixes, and there are some parts in the middle that are the same. but they're different! that's important! that means you've hashed different data, but it looks the same!

proposed solution

generate some art.

openssh does this. when you generate an SSH key, they give you a "randomart" (which is one of the algorithms I used above) of the key. From the comments:

If you see the picture is different, the key is different. If the picture looks the same, you still know nothing.

(source)

which I would say imparts some wisdom already. all you can use this for is determining if a hash is different. you cannot use it to determine if they're the same. what I've done is added a new dimension for what determines something being "different": a color palette. if you take the two extremely similar hashes from the example and generate a piece of hash art using the nibble method, they look like these:

first on the left, second on the right. they look pretty similar, but then you add the element of a color palette and you get visibly different images.

this is not a perfect solution by any means. I completely made up the two example hashes, and actually ran into an issue where my program chose the same color palette for both of them - I had to tweak them. but I think it adds some more value to it.

methodology

this is just an explanation of how this all works. I'm going to avoid posting source code for now because it has my real name attached and I don't like that. maybe I'll strip my name and post it later.

image generation algorithms

there are two image generation algorithms that I have chosen: direct representation using each nibble of the hash, and the openssh "randomart" algorithm (linked at the bottom).

nibble algorithm

the "nibble" method takes each nibble (hex digit) of the hash, laying them out on a grid, and choosing the color that it should use on the selected palette. since all palettes are 16 colors, each value 0x0..0xf is represented. for example, taking the sha1 hash da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709, the first row of the image would start with palette indexes 0xd, 0xa, 0x3, 0x9, etc. if we are using the red palette, the first row would start with blocks of these colors: #dd0000, #aa0000, #330000, #990000, etc. it's a direct representation of the hash, and completely lossless. the main downside is explained above - if you have two extremely similar hashes, it will yield two extremely similar images.

randomart algorithm

this has been derived using the openssh randomart algorithm. when you generate an SSH key, you will get some kind of "randomart" that looks like this:

the algorithm is as follows:

start a pointer (called a "worm") in the center cell of a 0-valued matrix (in our case, the matrix is 9 rows by 17 columns).

look at the bottom two bits of the first byte of the hash.

if the bottom bit is 1, then move the worm right - otherwise, move it left. if it cannot move in this direction without exiting the matrix, then don't move left or right.

if the top bit is 1, the move the worm down - otherwise, move it up. if it cannot move in this direction without exiting the matrix, then don't move up or down.

wherever the worm lands, increment the value of that cell.

continue this through the value of the hash, two bits at a time.

this is your output matrix. assign colors (or ascii characters) as you see fit.

I think this is a neat way of doing it, provides a simple piece of art, and two different hashes will, usually, look different.

the main weaknesses that stand out to me: this is a lossy algorithm that could create ambiguities - there are sequences of bytes that could hypothetically produce the same image twice (I am too lazy to come up with these, so that is an exercise left to the reader). additionally, I have noticed that this algorithm tends to drive the worm into a corner, and creates lots of diagonal streaks on its journey. unless the worm hits a wall, it can only ever move diagonally, for better or worse. it looks okay, but I think we can do better.

overall, I think this is a good basis for a new image drawing algorithm, and I might play around with that in the future.

sizing the output image

the images are just a matrix, each cell treated as a pixel, and then I size it up to 32x32 pixel blocks. the number of rows and columns are determined by the art algorithm used, and maybe the hash type (depending on which algorithm is chosen).

for the randomart algorithm, I just use 9 rows by 17 columns - this is what they use in openssh, but I want to play with this because you get pretty boring/dark randomart for hashes with fewer bytes. md5 hashes usually just look like black rectangles with a few lighter blocks, not very useful.

for the nibble algorithm, I tried to make the art as square as possible. for example, sha1 hashes are 160 bits long, or 20 bytes, or 40 nibbles (each nibble = 1 block in the art). 40 nibbles can be sized as a 40x1, 20x2, 10x4, or 8x5 matrix. I opted for the 8x5 matrix, but I want to make this customizable in the future. here are the image sizes I choose for all the hashes I support:

md5 - 128 bits, 16 bytes, 32 nibbles - 8x4

sha1 - 160 bits, 20 bytes, 40 nibbles - 8x5

sha224 - 224 bits, 28 bytes, 56 nibbles - 8x7

sha256 - 256 bits, 32 bytes, 64 nibbles, 8x8

sha384 - 384 bits, 48 bytes, 96 nibbles, 12x8

sha512 - 512 bits, 64 bytes, 128 nibbles, 16x8

choosing the color palette

each palette is 16 colors. there are 8 base color palettes: red, green, blue, black, cyan, yellow, magenta, and white. red palette is #000000, #110000, #220000, ... #ee0000, #ff0000. blue is #000000, #001100, etc. Black and white are the only ones that I think may introduce some ambiguity - black goes from #000000, #111111, etc to #ffffff. white goes in the reverse order, #ffffff, #eeeeee, etc to #000000.

the color palette is chosen by taking the sum of all the bytes in the hash, mod 8. for example, the sha1 hash da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 is broken into the parts 0xda, 0x39, 0xa3, ... 0x07, 0x09. These are added together to get 0x92e, or 2350 in decimal. 2350 % 8 = 6, so we choose the 6th color palette (zero indexed) of RGBBCYMW, magenta.

more ideas

rotating or reflecting the image based on the input hash might yield useful results

adding more color palettes may ensure fewer "similar" images

doing something using a noise algorithm (perlin noise, simplex noise) to generate image matrices using the hash as the seed.

further reading and sources

Hash Visualization: a New Technique to Improve Real World Security (Perrig, Song, 1999)

openSSH randomart algorithm (fetched 2024-05-23, commit hash fc5dc092830de23767c6ef67baa18310a64ee533)

thanks for reading!

[byrhop]

The Upside Down is what once used to be “Hellscape”

It isn’t a new concept that the Upside Down could be sort of a doorway between two dimensions: our dimension and Dimension X. We know that Hawkins replicated to the Upside Down on November 6th when El opened the gate.

But, where did Hawkins replicate exactly?

A while ago, I was playing with circles; trying to draw what this dimensional relation between the worlds could look like (it looked stupid and made no sense). I was very adamant to make something that could maybe feel right. Well, nothing did… until I looked at one of the samples – very frustrated – and realized I was looking at things too figuratively. All it took was a small giving up and one last look at those stupid circles, just as they are and BOOM CLICK (maybe).

The drawing looked very familiar.

They already showed us “The Upside Down” in a 1979 flashback, except it was called "Hellscape".

Let me tell you why I believe this could be true.

I went back to look through Michael Maher’s (concept illustrator for st) storyboards and concept art. It’s very interesting to me that he distinguished the realm Henry was falling through as “Hellscape” instead of calling it “Dimension X” as his other concept arts.

I looked at some of his storyboards, and noticed a very small detail there that I managed to miss before.

Remember, this was the final storyboard for 4x07.

Now what do we have here? To me, it looks like Henry was just about to fall through a gate, but instead, they slowed time and zoomed into him to make a transition back to 1986 Vecna. One of the reasons for that may be that they didn’t want to reveal this just yet.

That gate was an opening to the Dimension X.

Yes, sounds a bit far-fetched, but bear with me.

I mean, we never saw Henry fall down, nor does Hellscape resemble the Dimension X shown to us in episode 9. It would make a cool s5 revelation that wouldn’t be hard to pull off.

Let’s go back a bit.

El sent Henry straight through the gate in 1979. She didn’t make a connection with the Dimension X, just a physical crack in our dimension. This sends Henry flying through an inter-dimensional space, as described by Maher once again.

And by this concept design that was ditched because of, I believe, either filming complications or time/budget consumption, the gate opened from one of those cloud planes.

The future Upside Down is that inter-dimensional space.

I think that’s why the gates always opened weirdly; there are no rules for up and down because this place has no sense of direction.

Here is my take on how the Upside Down formed. I’ll talk about how the Philadelphia experiment plays into all of this after, because there is still one little catch here.

I didn’t add 1984 and 1985 to save space, but you get the gist.

When Henry landed in the Dimension X, he went through one more gate, and that gate never closed. My theory here is that the Mind Flayer and Henry very soon after started spreading into and shaping the Hellscape (no hawkins yet, just vines and stuff).

So, this started happening in 1979 and would be a pretty good explanation for, I believe the Duffer brothers’ comment, that there is somewhere “where the creatures are coming from”. Once he settled in the Hellscape and started “building” this new realm, he just waited for the moment for another gate to open and for that barrier between Hawkins to officially weaken.

When El made a psychic connection with Demogorgon, the creature was already out of the Dimension X.

All of this would mean that there is already a gate somewhere in the Upside Down that leads to the Dimension X.

I think there is one more very important detail here – electricity.

We all know that electricity plays a big part in Stranger Things; hell, Joyce’s lights are practically what made this show this famous in the first place.

I want to talk about the role electricity has in connecting these dimensions and what those light particles in the Upside Down could be.

I made a theory back in July where I talked about the possible importance of The Storm and how it could be much more than just for the "aesthetic." You can check out the theory here. Keep in mind this was written before we found out Henry is controlled by the Mind Flayer and not the other way around, but everything else still stands.

As I said, the electricity connects and flows. I see it almost as a current between dimensions. Now, if my theory is correct and the Upside Down is this inter-dimensional space in between, when someone plays with lights in the Upside Down that disrupts this current, and causes things to light up in Hawkins. Those light particles we saw are, I believe, just photons.

Eddie said, “It tickles”, so that would make sense.

What does all of this have to do with the Philadelphia Experiment? (The First Shadow spoilers)

Brenner’s dad took part in the experiment, trying to make a ship invisible, but what happened instead was that they transported the ship directly into the Dimension X. This incident wasn’t a result of someone’s supernatural powers, but rather just scientific testing. Wouldn’t it be interesting if, by channeling enough energy, you could actually connect to those currents and, with that, create a direct pathway from one dimension to the other?

This could also possibly explain how the Russians got a hang of the demo creatures; they also opened a gate scientifically – the same way Brenner’s father did – creating that same pathway directly into the Dimension X and not the Upside Down.

Again, the duffers implied already that demogorgons, demodogs, demobats… don’t originate from the Upside Down and that there is a reason why the characters don’t run into all of them constantly.

I can't find that specific interview, so if anyone has it, please share with the class. For now, you’ll have to be satisfied with this

Anyways, this is my little theory that had a bit of reaching (understatement), but I think it’s a fun one. I’m very curious about all the Upside Down lore that is in front of us and how they’ll explain stuff.

[grayintogreen]

Pinned Post II: Electric Boogaloo

Hi, I'm Chris! I'm updating my pinned post to be more streamlined so here we go.

I liveblog Critical Role every week and tag with "cr spoilers" up until Monday. This tag also gets used for Candela Obscura and any one-shots. Dimension 20 spoilers are labeled “d20 spoilers.”

This is primarily a Critical Role and Dimension 20 blog, but I contain multitudes. You will see a lot of random shit depending on my mood. I’m really into Hazbin Hotel right now, for example, so my blog is kinda inundated in that. Honestly I might as well admit I am also a Hazbin blog at this point. Sorry, women.

I write a lot of fic, which can be found on my AO3 here. I primarily write fic centered on minor/supporting characters. I'm also the author of the life in the margins of redemption and red roses and dead things series- more about these below.

I have a ko-fi if you'd like to give me a tip for any reason.

My two big series are as follows:

red roses and dead things (or Roseverse), a canon divergent Hazbin Hotel (goes AU after 1x06) series that deals with working on continuing the story while I wait for new material. It is lore-heavy, Team as Family, and redemption-focused with focus on Huskerdust, Alastor and his deal, Lucifer and his relationship to Heaven and Hell and his family, and Charlie continuing to pursue her dreams. Also contains significant amounts of Helluva Boss because we’re not beholden to copyright here.

life in the margins of redemption (or LitMoR), a For Want of a Nail CR2 Canon Divergent series, is a duology (with additional side stories) that takes the alternate path outlined in the Harvest's Close session notes- Cree rescuing the Nein from the Gentleman's wrath should they betray him- and takes it a step further with Cree reviving Molly on the Glory Run Road and traveling with the Nein in the hopes of finding a way to bring Lucien back. It is extremely Canon Divergent, but does feature CR2 plots under radically different circumstances and with additional characters. It's worldbuilding heavy, character-driven, often dark, but has a guaranteed happy ending. You may heard of it as "that 1.5 million word fanfic series."

It is not canon compliant with TNEOL as I had finished OUADYA before TNEOL came out. While I use some elements from the novel, the backstory presented for Lucien and the Tombtakers in the series is entirely different.

More details, including links to the fics, beneath the cut.

THE MAIN STORIES.

Note that while the series features Fjorester, Beauyasha, and Widomauk as primary ships, it is above all a gen fic that focuses on the platonic relationships even more than the romantic ones. I cannot in good faith rec this fic to you if you HATE any of those ships, but I can say if you're indifferent/just want a plot and platonic relationship focus, this fic will appeal to you.

once upon a damn-you-all. Cree saves Molly on the Glory Run Road, sending the Nein's trajectory off the rails in a story about redemption, change, fate, and team-building. Also Molly having to contend with the Somnovem.

you can't deny high noon. The Nein continue their journey with an additional member- a reluctant, captive Lucien- as they continue to face numerous challenges while enemies lurk in the background. While OUADYA is mostly original plotlines, this fic follows the majority of the major plot beats of canon albeit a bit twisted around and out of order.

THE SIDE STORIES

While not necessary to read in order to understand the main duology, I feel like not reading them causes a loss of impact, as often events/characters from them are referenced in the main narrative and having more perspective on the events adds more oomph. This is an extremely detail-oriented series and barely anything goes in without some thought put into it. For the sake of not overwhelming my audience, I'm only listing the side stories I think are actually important to the overall narrative, but please do read the others if you have the time.

there's something divine in the way screams can sound. The events of OUADYA as seen through the eyes of someone trapped in the Astral Sea- or Lucien's utter breakdown, now with context. Introduces several backstory elements that become super relevant in YCDHN.

as in the painted parlor, ophelia dreams. The story of how Ophelia came to the Run, became a Mardoon, and gave up her son.

all of the dreamers defying convention. A fic that takes place in the two month gap between the two duology stories and bridges the two narratives.

OTHER LINKS

original character guide. A guide to the many original characters featured in the series.

[ca-8]

Hi hi I hope your doing well after all that and I'm glad your back! And thanks to you I'm sorta obsessed with fusionfall!!

Would it be okay if I could get Dexter with a s/o who's from another dimension? Like they love to dimension hop and time hop.

They have this special pocket watch that allows them to take them and a number of people to different dimensions and timelines.

Another cool thing is they can use that pocket watch as a weapon ÙwÚ

Thanks in advance!

Aww, thank you so much! This means so much more than you think <3 And of course!~

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶

✫☼ 𝝙𝝚𝝬𝝩𝝚Ɍ 𝝬 𝝞𝝢𝝩𝝚Ɍ𝝙𝝞𝝡𝝚𝝢S𝝞𝝤𝝢𝝖Ⳑ 𝝩Ɍ𝝖ꓴ𝝚Ⳑ𝝚Ɍ!Ɍ𝝚𝝖𝝙𝝚Ɍ (𝝜𝝚𝝖𝝙𝗖𝝖𝝢𝝤𝝢S) ☼✫ (Part 1(?))

If there's one thing to say, it's that Dexter was fascinated by (Y/n) when they first met. He was practically glued to their side once they heard of their power: all the non-stop questions, then the non-stop follow-up questions, and the close up study of their interdimensional bracelet passed down by the Gods of Space and Time--it's safe to say that they grew close very quickly.

But soon, it became more than a fascination. Dexter didn't know how or even the second it had happened, it just did! It went from wanting to hear stories about worlds outside his own to needing to hear that beautiful voice as it weaves through (Y/n)'s poetic words. Taking a glimpse of them as they walked through the hallways with the most adorable curious look on their face suddenly turned into him showing them their latest invention the second their eyes would meet.

And yes, it's that curiosity, it's akin to his own. The way their eyes lit up at the sight of his outstanding craft makes him feel as though heaven rained down miracles upon him. So much so that it made it to the very top of his priority list whenever he gets his hands on his wrench. Now that the war with Fuse is over, he has all the time in the world to build to his heart's content--especially if it's for someone as spectacular as (Y/n).

Now, (Y/n) never stays in one place for a long period of time. In fact, it felt like they left as soon as they came. But the second their hypnotic gaze locked eyes with his as they said they will come back, hope sparked inside him, igniting an everlasting beating heart. That's why as soon as they left, he went right back in his lab to get to work.

Sometimes, he spends hours upon hours just to get something done just right. Not a screw loose or an exterior discolored, not too loud, not too dull--if there's more he could add or fix, by Genndy, he will do it!

Of course, Dexter has a tendency to overdo his passion projects. It's too long before his assistants have noticed he's been stumbling over more than usual and have passed out in exhaustion during important meetings (even the robots comment on the bags under his eyes when he has his back turned). Despite Computress' efforts on getting him to rest, he still keeps going. No matter who tries to persuade him--Ben, Blossom, Bubbles, DeeDee (although, admittedly, she wasn't much help to begin with), Frankie, Kevin, Gwen--he would not stop so long as he had the chance to be the one who sees that gorgeous smile. Not even when Buttercup chained him onto his own bed! (He foresaw the event and built an emergency escape slide)

Ironically, he was working so hard that he didn't even notice that (Y/n) had come back. And the news didn't take long to hit them either. They were furious! He just went through a war and he's working himself to death for no reason?? (Nobody told them that they were the reason why he was putting his health at risk...they didn't want to ruin the surprise <3)

So, in a fit of rage, (Y/n) marched right down to his lab and pulled him right from his desk. First, he was stunned; he thought he was hallucinating and seeing an angel dancing around him, when it was just his now long-time crush flaying their arms around as they scold him like an angry parent. Once reality had settled in, Dexter tries to tell them that he wanted to surprise them, before completely passing out from exhaustion: "Because who wouldn't want to see th-that...cute...smile...a-again-"

He passes out in their arms

A few hours later, Dexter wakes up to see (Y/n) holding him in his room, and ac the cool, composed man of science he is, he freaks out until he tumbles off the bed and collapses onto the floor. He stutters out questions, face completely covered in blush while his glasses fog up

But (Y/n), on the other hand, only giggles and walks toward him. Before he knows it, she plants a kiss on his lips. "Computress kinda...told me everything, after you passed out.

"So...I presume you...feel the same?"

"...I always have." They stand up, putting their hands on their hips. "BUT! If we're going to be together in A-NY sort of way, you have to promise to take care of yourself. No more pulling all-nighters, Mister...whatever-your-last-name-is!!"

Dexter stays still, stunned. Then, he smiles. "Deal. ...Thank you, (Y/n)."

They sit back now and let him lean into their shoulder. "Of course, you dummy." They admire the sight as he slowly falls back to sleep.

That's how the two officially came to be, and they've been almost inseparable ever since. (Y/n) decided that they wanted him to come along with them as they explore every dimension imaginable. Dexter couldn't contain his excitement and practically packed his entire lab. He even made their own "DimenShip" (A space ship designed for interdimensional travel; built to withstand every environment, atmosphere, and ecosystem that may or may not exist. It even comes with an old-school VHS player! He loves those, and (Y/n) thinks it's adorable)

(Y/n) always loves to see him wake up filled with excitement. He has new requests on where to go to every day, whether it's the past or another dimension made up entirely of computers and technology! (There was, and it's safe to say that they've lived there for a while...)

Occasionally, they'd stop to sniff the roses. If Dexter spotted a place that's perfect for a romantic moment, he'd practically lock them in the DimenShip as he sets up a nice little dinner between the two. Once (Y/n) gets mad enough to break the door down with their magical pocket watch (which not only lets them travel through space and time and glow a cool (f/c) color, but can also turn into a giant spiked ball whenever they want it to), they see nothing but a date from a cheesy romantic movie... A picnic with a display of their favorite food and sweets on top of a picnic blanket with two suns setting in the background of a black and white sky... two candles side-by-side of the picnic basket underneath the pink and lavender curling tree...and Dexter, with his hands folded behind his back as he has that stupid, lovable snarky smile on his face.

The first thing they'd do is pout at him, then run at him and tackle him onto the ground. They cover his stupid laughing face with kisses as they complain about him locking them in the DimenShip when he could just tell them to cover their eyes or look the other way.

"Then I wouldn't get this special treatment, mon amour~"

"Oh will you SHUT UP YOU FREAKIN'- ROMANTIC BASTARD-"

They'd laugh as they roll across the glowing grass, and he'd finally stop them as he presses his lips onto theirs. They'd press their foreheads together as their fingers intertwine, and when he finally leans back... "I love you, bunny."

And (Y/n) would smile, taking one of his hands and taking off the glove. As they caress the scars, they whisper, "I love you too, dummy."

(He'd call you bunny because of the whole "dimension hop" thing, hAH-!)

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶

I had a lot of fun making this, actually... It was a little intimidating to do because of what just happened recently, but I actually really liked making this. So.. thank you for requesting this. I can't say that a part two is guaranteed but MAYBE!! if I have an idea, I will definitely post a part 2!! And if there are any questions/requests ;3

........This man is my weakness I want a Dex so bad-

[s0urfangs]

Dralsin lore dump alert wweewweoowwewoo (WALL)

My lil goth boy is from a different tree, although he’s not aware of this until mid icebrood saga at the earliest. 

HOW IS THERE MORE TREE?

So, think different timeline/dimension. Random unnamed sylvari found out about the mordremoth stuff earlier, and was really struggling with it. They don’t wanna follow anything. Existential crisis ensues. The solution to existential crises? Giving yourself purpose. This sylvari devotes themselves to preserving memories of the sylvari, not trusting that they’ll survive the ordeal. 

How? Good question! No idea. Add a load of magic bullshit, a lot of travelling, trial and error, and I like to think it's along the lines of propagating part of the pale tree - at least to hold onto those memories, not expecting it to ever produce. Definitely ends up delving into the mists during this research. 

So, they end up being right, their timeline is going to shit. They’ve already been hopping around the mists a bit so it's a frantic moment of OH HELL BETTER HURL THIS PLANT SOMEWHERE. They probably had a destination in mind, but wherever that was, it did not reach it, and ended up somewhere in the mists, probably pretty damn close to the rift. On the border, if not in it.

There is so much magic in there for a little plant already of a magical nature to feed off that it settles itself there, so eventually - mists tree :) 

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM. WHAT R THEY DOING.

It’s a fair bit messed up for obvious reasons, but it functions. I think that due to their creator and such, the sylvari from it almost always end up feeling out of place, like there’s just something missing. It’s in part due to that, and holding onto those memories of a failed timeline, that they too end up forcing a purpose upon themselves. They are frequent timeline hoppers and information gatherers, of knowledge they deem important that would otherwise be lost as those worlds burn out. Why? Just in case. They see themselves as keeping watch without interfering unless necessary. It’s kinda like the sylvari library of alexandria. They tend to travel in pairs, and as well as the generic mists-traversing and time stuff, have spent a long time becoming proficient in magic regarding memory. Learned their lesson very fast early on when one of them saw too much and had a bad time with it all. They routinely wipe/transfer memories to protect themselves, and I’m debating if this is such a huge thing that they consider themselves to have multiple ‘lives’ because of it. 

I alsoo think the reason they don't look super creaturey is because the tree already contained memories of what they should look like, so it's reflected more in their abilities. Thinking stuff along the lines of randomly phasing parts of their body in and out of shadow. Sticks m hand through a wall.

No CLUE how Dralsin ended up where he did and not remembering anything. Also no clue how, ‘coincidentally’, Valeran ended up in the same world too. Given that Valeran remembers, and was outcast for yet unidentified crimes, they’re likely related events.

I've not developed more because the new dlc looks veeery promising for mists tomfoolery >:3

[thefirstknife]

new raid description: "haunting" huh... this is how Nezarec can stil-*shot by Bungie sniper*

I'm the sniper. HJFKJSHFKJSHF

On a more serious note, it's really interesting that they updated the raid description. Like, it's driving me insane, especially since other raids didn't get that. Vow stayed the same the entire time for example, and told us quite a lot about the location being the Pyramid. Original for Lightfall:

New description:

That seems like a lot of information, but also it tells us nothing conclusive. The "haunting presence" stayed the same. The rest is super vague and could mean a number of different things.

"Unknown time and place" seems to indicate something to do with the Vex. But it could also mean something related to the Nine or whatever Elsie is doing to go through timelines or whatever is the power of the Witness or something entirely new. We don't know enough about Neomuna and what they've been dealing with. Also "ferried" is interesting. It implies that something is being brought in, not that it shows up on its own.

The original description says that this threat is "within" something redacted. I think that indicates a new location, or at least something they didn't want to detail during the initial reveal. But the new description doesn't add to it much outside of saying "growing at our doorstep."

"Growing" is an interesting word given the recent flood of egregore infested spaceships. "At our doorstep" could mean near Earth or near Neptune or even just a general near our entire solar system or near our dimension/timeline. The later seems to be closest so far, given the "unknown time and place."

I would love to see Nezarec in full glory, but also I genuinely don't want us to rethread old stuff. Nezarec is dead. He can whisper to people through his relics and that's about it. I want to know more about his actions and ultimate fate in the Collapse as that's important for us to know how to fight against the Pyramid ships, but I don't think we have to fight him again personally. More so because he failed as a disciple and died. From what we know right now, there is no reason for the Witness to entertain him again or for him to be described as coming from "unknown time and place." Obviously, super wild plot twists notwithstanding. This would obviously be super cool. I'll be the first in line to scream from joy if that happens.

I'd definitely prefer something new for the raid though. Vow really spoiled me tbh. But also, if we're bringing back something known, I would like something we haven't explored before, but that's relevant for the future. Like the Nine! The Nine are known to be coming from weird dimensions and trying to grow life out of nothing, for example, which I would much rather see explored as it's something we've been in the dark about for the entire duration of the game.

Another issue is that while I think the "unknown time and place" could signify Vex, we already have 2 Vex raids. So is it likely to get another? It could also be that the new raid has multiple enemy types so it's not all Vex. We currently don't have an active raid with the Uluran and Calus is known to like to dig around dangerous stuff.

I think guessing what the raid will be about is pretty much impossible. Outside of Crota's End and King's Fall (it's in the name for them), we've never really known what any of the raids would be about and who would be the final boss. I think that makes is more exciting! And speculation is super interesting as well. I remember speculation around Vow and how incredible it was to see that it has nothing to do with anything we've seen before.

But I also know that speculation can sometimes lead to disappointment. Some people are still salty to this day that Deep Stone Crypt didn't have "giant Exo Clovis" as a raid boss as if there was anything indicating that it would be the case. People just kinda wanted that to happen, despite Clovis' story not being nearly close to ending so killing him in a raid wouldn't have made sense. So definitely keep on speculating (and feel free to comment what you'd want to see from the raid!), but also keep in mind that we're most likely entirely in the dark and don't bet your enjoyment on any specific theory. There's so much we don't know and we could get another super cool surprise with something totally unknown!

[astriiformes]

54, but I'm especially interested in your point of view on 96!

54 - What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

I actually don't know if it's a common tip or not, but one piece of writing advice I got as a kid that has lived in my head ever since and absolutely contributes to my writing being better was from my 6th grade teacher. He had us do a lot of creative writing in his class, which was not only fun, but really foundational for me.

He also encouraged us to do some more experimental things, including writing a story where we started as few sentences with pronouns or proper nouns (aka names, mostly) as possible. So you know, instead of writing:

"She looked at him. He seemed sad. She wondered why"

....writing something like:

"Setting her own cup down, she looked at him. Oddly, he seemed sad. Considering she'd just delivered what she thought was good news, she wondered why."

Doing it with literally every sentence is obviously overkill (even my own example above gets a little clunky in the middle) but it absolutely blew my mind as an 11 year-old and I think about it every time I write. Thanks Mr. Poland, you rocked for so many reasons, but this is maybe the most enduring one for me.

96 - Romantic/social sideplots: interesting or irritating?

Man I feel like romantic and social are pretty different in my head, for deeply aromantic reasons. On the whole I think social sideplots are absolutely critical -- you want there to be dimension to your character's relationships to each other, and for there to be more than just one or two relationships that get some attention, even if there are just one or two primary ones. Plus, they're often fun, funny, or deeply emotionally resonant in ways that add a lot to the story.

That can of course include romantic plots, and sometimes even absolutely should, but I guess I just wish more people asked themselves why they felt like making a relationship a romantic one specifically. It's okay to leave certain relationships ambiguously important to each other, and I'd love to see it more in media. And it's critical for there to be important relationships that aren't romantic in fiction as well. It's really the proportion that gets to me. I feel like people think it's the best way to show two characters have grown close, and sometimes, they just make it romantic because the societal "ranking" of relationships under amatonormativity suggests it's the only option. If people interrogated that more often, I think we'd have a lot of better and more inclusive fiction. That's all.

[herrlindemann]

KERRANG! - April 14, 2001

Rammstein have promised to bring a truly spectacular live show to the UK for a one-off show at London’s Astoria on June 10. Previous shows have featured vast amount of fire, explosive pyrotechnics, an extravagant light show and, most controversially, huge dildos and simulated ejaculation. During their last US tour, the band were threatened with arrest for indecent exposure following a simulated sex act on stage. Rammstein have recently speculated about the possibility of bringing a huge tank of formaldehyde on tour with them. However, plans to use water and neon during the show have been scrapped.

“We came to the conclusion that water was much too hazardous to use,” states guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe-Bernstein. “The danger of being electrocuted was just too real. People have called us irresponsible when it comes to the stage-show. Should something happen to the band members, well, that’s okay, but we would never jeopardize our fans.”

Rammstein’s last live extravaganza was captured on the band’s 1999 DVD/VHS release “Live Aus Berlin”. The latest stage-show is being designed by the band with Roy Bennett a New York-based stage designer who has previously worked with Marilyn Manson, Kiss, Nine Inch Nails and Prince. Although Rammstein have yet to finalise the details of what the new show will involve, they have stated in recent interviews that popular elements from the old show will remain, including frontman Till Lindemann ritual of setting himself on fire.

“The songs of ‘Herzeleid’ (Rammstein’s 1995 debut album) were too static,” says Lindemann, about the band’s first forays into using fire onstage.

“I held onto the microphone stand while others were dancing or flinging things through the air. But that didn’t suit our music, and it really didn’t suit me. So one day I had these two Roman candles in my hand, and that is how the whole thing exploded into life.” Lindemann has become a qualified pyrotechnician in order that no-one outside the band be required to take risks while executing their pyrotechnic effects. He is apparently now only one level away from being qualified to blow up condemned buildings.

“We will try to bring the crowd, the band and the stage as close together as possible,” Kruspe-Bernstein told Rammstein fan site Herzeleid.com recently. “One of our highest wishes is to use video projection throughout important parts of the show. We think it would add yet another dimension.”

Tickets for Rammstein’s London gig are priced at £11 and are available now from all the usual outlets. The band’s new four K-rated album, ‘Mutter’, will be released on April 16 through Motor/Universal.

You can read our exclusive interview with Rammstein in next week’s issue.

[radical-revolution]

“Mindfulness meditation brings us face-to-face with reality. Many people tell me that they find meditation very, very boring, which is a deterrent to their practise. You know, when you are beginning to get bored, that means your meditation is working. Because your meditation is not lost in entertaining distractions and samsaric emotions, you are bored, which is a good sign. We have to make friends with this boredom. This boredom is our good friend. It is a much better friend than the chaos of insecurity that erupts whenever we try to escape from this boredom. It’s so important for us to get used to this idea that insecurity and confusion are not innate features of human life; they are a function of ego’s conflicts; and ego or self is like a dream from which it is possible to awaken. We can do so with ease, and when we awaken, the samsara of confused insecurity recedes to the vanishing point. Take this point to heart.

Train yourself not to think of enlightenment in terms of haloes and omniscience and miracles. Train your understanding of the meaning of enlightenment to be the simple act of waking up. Waking up to the truth spares you from needless suffering in the same way that a child is spared from burning her hand on the stove by a timely warning. And we could even say that this waking up is a small example of enlightenment, to the extent that we wake up to a greater awareness. The enlightened view is simply a matter of viewing apparent phenomena from the perspective or view of non-attachment. All we need to do is switch our point of view as though we’re entering a new dimension, and this is very possible. We know that our view is always subject to change, so changing our view is not new. This is fortunate, since enlightenment means a fundamental shift in our perception and values.

Enlightenment is totally possible. It is as close as the air we breathe. But our habitual dualistic view that divides self from phenomena, and divides emptiness from clarity, and divides samsara from nirvana, is deeply established. Our main meditative task is to dis-establish that habit of impure perception and quit our habitual thought process of grasping, in favour of the non-dual pure perception of the enlightened view. The path of dharma presents many challenges. One challenge is that Buddha’s view and meditation and teachings on emptiness are so hard to understand. Buddha’s view is so difficult because our samsaric view is a strong and stubborn habit. Also, we have a resistance to understanding and appreciating the logic of dependent arising, which adds to the difficulty. Even those who glimpse the truth of the logic of emptiness often soon forget what they have glimpsed, because their usual habit of defiled perception always comes flooding back…

In the sutras, there’s a story about an old illiterate monk who was the target of some younger monks’ ridicule. In order to humiliate him in public, they instituted a new rule that all the monks would have to take turns giving the regular sermon to the sponsors. But this old monk didn’t know anything, and one day it was his turn to teach. The story goes that the distressed monk was talking to himself up at the front of the hall, saying over and over again wringing his hands, “I don’t know anything about the dharma, and this not knowing is suffering.” Now, hearing the old monk’s words turned out to be an epiphany for one old lady who instantly knew that it was true that not knowing is the cause that really does create suffering as a result. She heard his speech as the truth, because she had the merit to understand even the anxious words of the worried monk as a beneficial teaching. In this way, merit can expand and increase our understanding of dharma. To a certain extent, we can say that one’s merit is simply a reflection of cause, condition and effect; but at the same time, merit also goes beyond cause, condition and effect. For example, once a yogi was making tea and a hot ember landed on his hand. And thanks to his store of merit, the pain at that moment sparked in him an experience of awakening from the illusion of duality. And that marked a major turning point in his life.

Once on a pilgrimage, Nyoshul Lungtok and his attendant were confronted by bandits. But even though they surrendered all their worldly goods, one bandit started to beat up Nyoshul Lungtok for no reason. This enraged his Khampa attendant who started to fight the bandit and was winning the fight. The lama was very displeased by his attendant’s outburst of violence, and he jumped on the disciple’s back saying “You have to stop!” But the disciple in a blind rage kept fighting, even mistaking his lama for the bandit in the heat of the moment. Needless to say, the bandits were quite bewildered by this turn of events. After that, for three days the disciple’s anger never cooled down. But thanks to his merit, his extreme anger became the catalyst for a breakthrough experience. The extreme emotion of anger somehow short-circuited most of his usual samsaric confusion, and his life underwent a major change. What used to be such a big deal was no longer such a big deal. What used to be so precious no longer was so precious. This again I think was largely due to his great store of merit.

Merit is an essential element to make the leap from purely intellectual to more instinctual understanding of the dharma. Such merit can be accomplished by practising shamatha vipashyana, and especially by taking refuge in the Triple Gem of Buddha, dharma and sangha, and by arousing the bodhichitta wish to liberate all beings; and, of course, by practising the four partings from attachment. And devotion is, of course, the most efficient and most powerful way of accumulating merit. If we learn to gradually accept and integrate these activities into our lives, even if only in brief sessions but repeatedly every day, we will really be freed from all manner of confusion and obsession. There will be a noticeable change in our conduct and outlook. Be patient and appreciate the signs of your modest and steady progress on the path.

I can speak from experience. I haven’t practised that much but I have practised some, and even in my limited experience which is far from enlightened, many of my minor quirks and tics quiet down after a month or two of practise, which feels like progress one can take pride in. But my practise is erratic and inconstant. In between periods of steady practise, my quirky nervous habits return. But when I practise regularly, many of my small obsessions loosen up…

Sachen Kunga Nyingpo’s notation of Manjushri’s concise lesson, the text of Lojong Shenpa Shidrel begins with this admonition to those who wish to follow the Mahayana path: if you have attachment to this life, you are not a dharma practitioner. Within this first benchmark, Trakpa Gyaltsen prescribes hearing, contemplating and meditating in general, with a particular focus on precious human birth and impermanence. Within the second benchmark, which admonishes that if you have attachment to samsaric existence, you have no renunciation mind, the faults of samsara in general are addressed, with a particular focus on cause and effect. Within the third benchmark, which admonishes that if you have attachment to selfishness, you are not a bodhisattva, love and compassion are emphasised in general, with a particular focus on the importance of generating bodhichitta in two ways: first, by thinking that others and oneself are equal; and second, by exchanging others and oneself. Within the fourth and last benchmark, which admonishes that if you have grasping, you do not have the view, the ultimate truth is covered in general, with a particular focus on the path of relative truth. And that concludes the commentary written by Jetsün Rinpoche Trakpa Gyaltsen on Sachen Kunga Nyingpo and Manjushri’s Lojong Shenpa Shidrel, the Mind-training of Parting from the Four Attachments. I hope that I haven’t skipped anything.

I would like to re-iterate: Mahayana is very important. When I go to places like Taiwan, I meet two kinds of people. I meet people who have followed the Mahayana path and training, and were later drawn to practise Vajrayana. And I meet people who have entered straight into Vajrayana with no foundation in Mahayana. The difference between these two kinds of people is as plain as the difference between a firefly and the sun, I must say. Those who skip the Mahayana path and go straight to the Vajrayana path are obvious from a distance by the gleam of their oily hair. They have at least four malas around their neck, and they love to talk about power and magnetizing wealth. Their view often seems to be founded on a rather superstitious cast of mind. Whereas those who have first practised Mahayana seriously have a very mature and refined approach to practising the Vajrayana. Even within the Tibetan tradition, the practise of Mahayana Buddhism sometimes is overshadowed by the mystical allure of Tantra. And so often, Tantric Buddhism is overshadowed by the performing of rituals and the chanting of mantras. For some, Mahayana doesn’t sound as sexy and attractive as so-called dzogchen or mahamudra, which is unfortunate.

I encourage you to pursue your interest in the Mahayana path, and explore all of Buddha’s teaching. And I hope you will find that buddhadharma is like finding the missing link that makes sense of and solves many of life’s seeming dilemmas. I’m said to be the reincarnation of a teacher who was venerated as a great Rime master, so it would be remiss of me not to say at least a few words in support of the non-sectarian movement. Frankly, I have little hope that the view of nonsectarianism will ever rise to prominence, especially among the native Tibetan Buddhist lineages. Having said that, I think non-native Tibetan Buddhists might be more open to considering that grand attitude, free of grandiose school spirit and team loyalty. That would be so beneficial, but as I said, I’m not optimistic. You can see grey haired lamas who look so much like Kashyapa, and yet they are chauvinistic about their tradition, and if not with overt acts of protest, then covertly through passive resistance, they impede the spread of non-sectarian harmony. To follow Buddha’s path, it is critical that we have an open mind. Sakya Pandita says that even if we are certain we will die tomorrow, we must still be open to new learning today. And he was referring to learning and knowledge in general; and needless to say, that dictum is all the more true with respect to learning about the dharma. We need to always be open. So this is my obligatory pitch but also heartfelt pep talk on behalf of the nonsectarian movement and view. I am not bashing the traditional cultures of Tibet, or of Taiwan, by the way. Culture is very important as the medium that hosts civilized society.

Like language, cultural norms also provide a platform for the dharma. Our access to dharma depends on our fluency in a language. And that language is like the voice of the culture. So to complete the syllogism, we could say that therefore the dharma does depend indirectly to that degree on the culture. But no criticism of culture as a social structure is intended. I do wish, however, to distinguish between culture and dharma as two different frames of reference. In the final analysis, if you want to practise the dharma, you have to seek the dharma, as distinct from the culture. Use culture as the source of practical information about the dharma, but don’t mistake cultural information about dharma for a thorough understanding and experience of dharma. We have to see for ourselves how the dharma is."

~ From Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche's commentary on Sachen Kunga Nyingpo’s Lojong Shenpa Shidrel: The Mind-training of Parting from the Four Attachments.

"From Calvin Klein to Coca-Cola, our whole culture teaches us to grasp and fixate. This message is the exact opposite message we get from the fourth benchmark which warns that if we grasp, the view is lost. But in the modern world, if you do not have grasping, you could end up poor and jobless; you could end up an outcast of society. Given this seeming conflict of interests, we need to come to terms with why it matters that grasping is antithetical to the view."

The commentary was given at the International Buddhist Academy, Nepal in 2009."

Photo: Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

[alt-writes-stuff]

So, Look alike brothers!au facts! (Yes, I’ll keep that name):

Kenshi (Big!Izuku’s new name) and Izuku have 6 years of difference, with Kenshi being the oldest, obviously.

The fic will have like, “two” plots: plot A is the present, the events of UA where Izuku is 14-15 and Ken 20-21; plot B are flashbacks talking about Izuku’s and Kenshi’s past, their kidnapping, escape and what happened in the 1 1/2 years since they were taken away. Izuku is 4-5 and Ken 10-11.

After coming back “home”, being Izuku’s universe, Ken stays with him because 1. He wants to be sure Izuku is safe, 2. He distrust adults, specially Izu’s parents due to Ken’s abandoning and forgetting him (you know, ✨Trauma✨), 3. He doesn’t want to go back to his universe and 4. He got attached to his younger self, so he doesn’t want to leave. Sadly, a few months later after they’re back, something bad happens and Kenshi runs away, both in fear, regret and self-blame, no longer being able to be around. (I’ll left it here bc, spoilers)

Church and Ken banter and fight a lot, so much that they look like siblings. Ironically bc he doesn’t fight a lot with his actual sibling.

Their fights go from important stuff, like decisions, to stupid and petty stuff like “is spaghetti with penne actual spaghetti or not?”. This kind of stupid fights became pure entertainment both in the Midoriya household and the UA staff room. The only way that can be stopped is that A. They come to an understanding or B. Mama Midoriya gets in with a slipper. Otherwise they can go for hours.

Oh yes, I almost forget this, Kenshi gets a job at UA. He’s not a hero, in fact, he’s a freelancer. So he gets hired as UA’s new security.

Nezu, after adding All Might to the teacher’s roaster, had the feeling that having the no1 hero in your school will bring a lot of attention, so he wants to hire someone new who can keep a close eye on anything bad that could happen. So Ken takes the job for two reasons: 1, being able to spent more time with Izuku and 2, now that he’s back at home he needs a more “stable” job, instead of you know… travel between dimensions and get hired for a lot of things.

Izuku doesn’t get One for all. In fact, is Mirio who gets it. Izuku instead is helped by Aizawa (who he mets before UA) and by other heroes in becoming the first, quirkless hero.

Kenshi is OP, no joke. I’ll get into more details about his powers in another day, but the two most important are Breach and Alchemy.

Breach allows him to travel between dimensions and universes, possibly predict the future due to probabilities and constants and variants from other timelines/universes, teleport, make things come out of nowhere (like weapons, food or vehicles)* and have a pocket dimension where he stores stuff. (*kinda like Elizabeth’s powers from Bioshock Infinite).

Alchemy… think like FMA. At first it has the same range of abilities from Edward, but then it mutates to the point that it can add more electrons and protons to an already existing atom (example: adding 66 electrons/protons to Aluminium to make Gold). Yes, it breaks logic and the whole “matter cannot be created nor destroyed” but like, Breach took that power and amped it up to 80.

Apparently, Alchemy was supposed to be his birth quirk but something in his dna block it from appearing.

Izuku’s hair was originally green, but he dyed up the roots black. Same has Kenshi, but his hair originally was black, he dyes the tips green, making his hair mostly black, dark green.

Ken is insomniac, due to many nightmares related to Alpha’s torture and fragmentation by The Director, so he doesn’t sleep very often. Resulting in eye bags that will give Aizawa a run for his money.

This fic is mostly inspired by “Deku? I think is some pro” from @/myheadinthecloudsnotcomingdown and one called “Atrapado en el abismo” on wattpad.

[a-student-out-of-time]

Regarding the prosopagnosia, it could have been brought up because Veronika likes to randomly talk about interesting topics, there isn’t actually any visible evidence that Teruko suffers from it herself. And the lack of presence of Arei and J could be linked to Teruko being so detached from the group so of course we wouldn’t see much of them, if we are sticking with the protagonist who trying is to be a loner then you aren’t gonna see them unless they go out of their way to do so.

//"There isn't any visible evidence that Teruko suffers from it herself"

//Yes. There is. That was foreshadowed right from the start.

//She had no clue who Charles was until Hu brought up his hair and what he was wearing. This was not her being distrustful, as she was more willing to trust and listen to people in Chapter 1. This was her genuinely not knowing what Hu was talking about.

//You might just think of that as a funny one-off moment, but no, this comes back in her discussion with Veronika.

//Veronika asking about prosopagnosia doesn't just come out of nowhere. This was a question based on these exact sorts of responses. Teruko does not have the ability to differentiate between faces; at no point in the story has she actually made any comments about anyone's face or what they look like beyond hair color, eye color and clothes.

//Which, yes, that's a real thing that people with the condition cite as their means of recognizing others, along with things like voices and physical attributes like scars or tattoos.

//This is not Teruko being mistrustful, we know that's when she pulls the knife on people. The fact that they draw attention to it like this, and specifically name drop prosopagnosia right afterward is why I harp on it so much. That's a deliberate creative choice.

//I have to lean into the idea that, yes, she actually does have the condition. And yes, it's going to be relevant to this entire game and her character arc.

//Furthermore, having this dropped on us right before the BDA? I mean, does that not seem like it's going to be relevant? How many other seemingly innocuous things get dropped on us as the audience that turn out to be very important?

//As for J and Arei, yeah, I get that. My point is, if we as the audience are stuck to Teruko's POV for everything, then that naturally means we only see as much as she can see. But you also have to take into account that means things can happen off-screen that we are not aware of.

//Does it seem like too much of a stretch to assume that those two, who already look fairly similar and have fairly comparable body types, could switch places and our POV character would ever notice? Or that her condition would mean any close examination wouldn't tell us anything about whose face it is?

//I mean that genuinely. Do people see this as too unbelievable? We've had other fangans where people found ways to disguise themselves as others, yet this is going too far?

//And before anyone brings it up, no, that does not mean everyone else would automatically know. Teruko was one of the only ones to examine Arei's body, the other being Arturo, who we know has every reason to half-ass his investigation. Not to mention nobody in-story would think to consider a disguise.

//Why does all of this seem too far for some people? We've had more elaborate and nonsensical killings before, and Teruko having this condition adds a whole new dimension to investigations in the future.

[the-archlich]

Hello since I saw you were rating wish list for DW hope its oke for me to share mine and ask for your thoughts thanks a lot and feel free to ask me my reasoning for them.

Wei: Cao Hong, Cao Zhen (two very important commanders for cao cao), Zhang Xiu (another top cao commander would also help flesh out Jia xu as they were very close historically), Zhong Yao (Zhong Huis dad a very early supporter of cao cao eventually became a top minister extremely interesting guy)

For Wu:

Zhuge Jin, Zhuge Ke ( I don’t think I need to justify it lol), He Qi (very important and skilled general who really helped Sun Quan hold his southern territories also his dw blast design makes him look like wu’s version of Zhang He which i like), Zhang Zhao (was pretty much Sun Quans father figure and closest minister)

Shu (my favorite):

Honestly many, I would even consider removing some of the fictional characters because out of those the only one i like and feel contributes anything to the story is Guan Suo. Anyways

Liao Hua (do I even need to say why lol), Wang Ping (Top general was able to overcome a learning disability and rise to the top), Fei Yi (would really help add an interesting dynamic to Jiang Wei), Zhang Yi or Ma Zhong (either would help fill out with another disciplined warrior) maybe Zhuge Zhan but he comes in quite late.

My least favorite sorry Jin:

Another Sima (so many talented Sima’s lol) my personal choice would be Sima Yi’s brother, Sima Fu (very important minister I think he became imperial chancellor but more loyal to Wei than jin could provide some nice tension with his relatives)

Yang Hu (very important Jin figure although most of his achievements came late in the period, really this is my major beef with Jin) or maybe Hu Lie for similar reasons.

Other:

One of the Yuan Brothers either Shang or Tan would add a nice bit of drama and excitement to Cao Cao’s northern conquest

Liu Biao (super important figure of the period involved with nearly every important faction and character)

Han Sui (really interesting warlord and had a long life) if they decide to go the novel route a one handed moveset would be interesting as well

One of the bandit factions leaders; i like what total war did with the bandit Zhang yan and the bandit queen. It be cool if koei could try something similar good suggestions imo would be Zhang Yan, Yang Feng, or Zang Ba

Cao Hong was very important and might be a good foil for some of the established members of the family, presenting a new dimension to their interactions. Cao Zhen is also hugely important and could be a great foil for Cao Pi and Cao Xiu; showing how important he was also makes it easier for people to understand why his son was given so much authority after Cao Rui's death. Zhong Yao is one of the most important people of the era and while the Wei faction is pretty heavy with tacticians at this point, there's always room for someone of his accomplishments. Zhang Xiu is certainly one of the people I'd love to see. Great for Jia Xu as a character and he can add some muscle to some battles that are otherwise pretty lacking in significant enemies.

Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Ke don't need to be justified, you're absolutely right. That's all pretty obvious. He Qi is pretty significant (arguably one of the most significant people of the era since his efforts to settle the Han population in southern China and bring the region under Han control had long-lasting effects) and pretty unique. I wouldn't be upset about that. Zhang Zhao also goes without saying. He has every quality I'd look for in a new character; long career, close personal relationships to characters who need them, many historical accomplishments, unique personality, etc.

Liao Hua is a pretty common choice. He has longevity on his side (always good but especially for that faction since so many major people all died around the same time) and enough accomplishments to his credit to justify it. Yi is, of course, one of my favorites. It'd be great to have him to represent the leadership between Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei and their different styles, and his assassination is a huge narrative beat that can really set up Shu's final act. Wang Ping and Ma Zhong were commanders whose accomplishments alone justify their inclusion, in addition to their unique personality traits and history. Zhuge Zhan has potential to be a very intersting character, although I doubt they'd have the guts to go all out with it and have him be part of the court's corruption. Zhang Yi (Junsi) would be an unexpected choice but not totally useless. For Zhang Yi (Bogong), I'd say the same things I said about Liao Hua. And for Zhang Yi (Boqi; often called Zhang Ni), the same as Wang Ping and Ma Zhong.

There are alot of Sima family members who would be decend additions. I think Sima Fu is one of the best, since he was perhaps the most important and had such a lengthy career; he could also really bring out some aspects of his relatives we don't currently see. I think Yang Hu is highly overrated; Hu Lie is pretty great though. He and his brother Hu Fen, along with their father Hu Zun, are all good choices IMO.

The Yuan family could always use a bit more meat to it; I think which members are most useful to have depends on how you choose to expand their tale. I do think Yuan Tan is particularly important, though, given his achievements under his father.

Liu Biao needs no justification. Han Sui is an interesting choice but one that I like.

I can see the merit in including someone to represent one of the major bandit factions of the time, though I'm not sure exactly who I'd cuse. Of the ones you listed, probably Zang Ba since he has much more going on than the others.

[camelliagwerm]

hey harper!! sorry if this is a little random but i was wondering if you could share what kind of settings you import your gifs from photoshop with (if you use it?). :-) i'm getting into gif making myself but i'm kind of a newbie and since your edits always look rly good, i figured i'd ask. tysm. <3

Sorry this took a little bit to get to - I was really Going Through It yesterday. So I'm really bad at explaining things properly, but I'll try to explain it the best I can. I've pretty much been using the exact same method since 2017 so it might very well be outdated for most people but it works for me. I'm using a cracked version of Adobe 2020.

For the purpose of this, I'm making a gif of a Hawke I might potentially play with if I find myself wanting to play DA2 (usually pretty unlikely - a lot of my attempts at DA2 these days die in the prologue or act 1) and finally see Carver content + do the Merrill romance. I'm going to put this under a cut because it includes screenshots.

After importing the video, first thing I do is work on cropping it down to both the dimension I want and what parts of the footage I want to do (that little middle bit in this case on the TL in this case.)

Then once I've done that, I right-click on the bit I want and chop the duration down to 2 seconds (or occasionally 2.25) and slow down the speed of which that part of the video plays to 60% - my ideal speed but I sometimes will go 55% if it ends weirdly at 60% or has a hard cut to another angle. Do this as many times as needed for however many gifs there are going to be in the set.

Delete the bits of the footage from the timeline that you aren't going to use, trim it down to the dimension you want (in my case, I like it to be 540px in width.)

Now I think this might be where I differ from others, because I think this is where people export it - but I prefer to colour it here rather than do each layer individually. I tend to use the same few actions which have turned into my bread and butter: colour balance, selective colour, brightness/contrast, vibrance and curves. Sometimes exposure if it's needed. Colour balance is the real MVP, especially for games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect where lighting is all over the place or very predominantly one colour (e.g. Orzammar being very Yellow). (Don't ask me how to sharpen - I don't know how to do it and at this point I'm too set in my ways to learn how.) Generally speaking with colouring I prefer to keep it as close to the original as possible but Nicer. Just play around with it and see what you think looks nice.

After that, I go to File -> Export -> Save for Web (Legacy). Make sure the looping option is set to forever. Let it run through a few times to make sure it isn't wonky (also, see all those colours you see on the side? I tend to colour pick from those for gradient text so matches the gifset - I use this HTML text colouriser to generate the gradient.)

If you're happy with it, hit the save and send it to the appropriate folder.

Generally speaking, I try to keep it under 5MB a gif but certain games really dislike that, especially since I tend to prefer 540px ones as it allows me to use bigger font sizes - I can't do small font any more on gifsets - especially on text heavy ones like my Pathfinder gifs; I'm so prone to missing typos.

Speaking of subtitles, actually - I then open the gif into Photoshop so I can access each frame individually and then make sure I have the top layer selected on the sidebar, not on the timeline. Then add a new layer with the font option with the dialogue for the gif. My subtitles now tend to be around the 16-20pt, Calibri + bold and italic with outer stroke in black for the outline to make it more visible (to access Stroke: right click on the subtitle itself -> blending options)

Once I'm done with that (including proofread for typos, making sure it's aligned properly), same thing: File -> Export -> Save for Web (legacy). I'm fairly sure this isn't how others do it, but it worked for me and this is how I taught myself back in 2017.

Also - this is Florence (Flora), I guess.

[nils-bcm-111]

Blog #1

Answering the question "What pop culture do you consume?" sounds very easy at first but while thinking about it in more detail, it challenges one to think about it more than what meets the eye. In this blog post, I use a combination of two of the six definitions introduced in Storey’s (2015) article, which describe pop culture as “culture that is widely favored or well-liked by many people” (Storey 2015, p. 5) on one hand and on the other as “[…] the culture that is left over after we have decided what is high culture” (Storey 2015, p. 5). In the same vein, Storey (2015) evaluates claims that state that pop culture is a mass-produced commercial culture instead of a product made by an individual. With this definition in mind, I think that pretty much all the media I consume falls under the term popular culture. The three media channels that I use the most are Netflix, YouTube and Spotify, which are all specialized in media output and therefore fall into the category of mass-produced commercial media. What adds even more oil to the fire is the fact, that I am not following certain genres in the different media products I consume. When it comes to movies on Netflix, I’m just looking for new stuff or movies that friends or the media are talking about. The same thing happens on YouTube, where I don’t have preferences other than sports and the algorithm takes care of rest. When it comes to Spotify/music, my field of interest is a little bit less broad because there are certain genres that I don’t follow at all. What I’m most interested in at the moment are podcasts, which have had a huge “boom” in the last couple of years and also have been promoted by a huge variety of people to become this popular. The preference for new stuff is possibly closely connected to the globalism we are experiencing all over the world in different areas and especially in media. Music-wise, I’m always checking out newly dropped songs and albums by artists that I like, which are mostly American or English-speaking in general. Nevertheless, my go-to favorite music, as well as artists, are German, which probably nobody in this course knows. Thinking about the original question, German music was also what popped into my head right away when I heard the term ‘cultural proximity’ for the first time. Ksiazek and Webster (2008, p. 5) describe the term as "[…] a dimension of individual media preference”. In other words, this means that people gravitate towards media from their own culture and since language is very deeply connected to culture, it’s probably a very important factor for my music preference. Even though I like English or French music, German or Swiss-German songs of well-known artists trigger emotions and feelings that can’t be compared to the other languages. The reason for that is surely the fact that it is much easier to understand and therefore also to put oneself in the position of the artist.

References:

Storey, J 2015, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction, Routledge, London.

Ksiazek, T & Webster, JG 2008, 'Cultural Proximity and Audience Behaviour: The Role of Language in Patterns of Polarization and Multicultural Fluency', Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 485-503.

[thelonesgroup]

Parking Matters

As urban and suburban areas across the country struggle to add more density to their city centers, the issue of parking is going to become a weightier topic and one that you as a real estate professional need to be aware of.

Some cities have done a great job of developing with walkability in mind. Cities like New York and San Francisco have robust transit systems that get people moving around the city. So, what if your city doesn't have that system in place? What if they have only recently had that system in place and people haven't yet adopted the mindset that a car really isn't required to get around? What if the transit system isn't as robust as it needs to be yet to give people that security?

There are a number of areas that are facing growing pains which may get worse instead of better in the coming years, where density will increase before the number of cars decrease.

Washington State: An Evolving Example of Density

For example, Washington State has a lofty goal of adding 1.1 million homes over the next 20 years. Very important House Bills were passed this year (1110 and 1337) to help spur on construction by way of multi-family housing and ADUs (accessory dwelling units). Both of these bills include some version of minimizing or eliminating on-site parking requirements for properties that are close in proximity to transit.

Bill 1337, for example, generally says that two accessory dwelling units will be permitted on single family residential lots in addition to the primary residence. If that lot is within half a mile of a rapid-transit line, including bus lines, then there are no additional on-site parking requirements. The logic here is that if there is easy proximity to a bus, then someone would be more-comfortable either getting rid of their vehicle or not buying one in the first place.

The challenge is that anyone who has been driving their own vehicles for a while, has the habit of jumping into their car and to go wherever they want. It will be tough to convince these folks to get rid of their cars unless they have a dramatic lifestyle shift – like moving from the suburbs to downtown Seattle. However, as transit improves, it will be easier for people to opt into a system of transportation by transit only. Eventually, cars in denser areas will become less necessary and there will be fewer of them.

This is not going to happen overnight. Neighborhoods will have more cars to park as their density increases. However, this may also be a necessary evil to get people to rethink their dependence on cars.

Multi-Family Developments

Let's talk about another aspect of parking – new multi-family developments. Did you know that, according to Statista, an asphalt-on-ground parking spot costs approximately $122.50 per square foot in Seattle? Although there are no hard-and-fast dimension rules, according to AsphaltIndustrial.com a very standard parking spot size is 18 feet long by 8.5 feet in width. Here is the math on that – a standard parking spot takes up 153 square feet and costs $18,742.50 on average to build in Seattle. If a developer is building a 50 unit building and requires one parking spot per unit, that parking is going to cost a builder almost a million dollars just in parking, and that is 7,650 square feet that is going to house cars, not people.

I know what you are thinking – a parking garage is a more-efficient use of space, so why not just build up? Great point, but the cost of a “basement” garage spot in Seattle is $205 a square foot – almost double. In fact, some put the cost to build a spot in an underground structure closer to $80,000 per space. I would highly recommend you read this white paper on parking produced by the Whatcom Housing Alliance that dives in deeper on these numbers.

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Home Builder Impact

At a time when our builders need to be focused on the best and most-efficient way to add housing that is affordable, the requirement to include parking creates an undue burden on our builders and developers. Not every development is the same, and builders and developers should be able to assess the market need for parking and build accordingly also taking into account off-site parking opportunities.

For example, let's say a developer was building a new residential building in a busy downtown area with a limited footprint. The developer is planning on putting 36 units in the building. And let's say the current requirement is 70 parking spots (1 spot per bedroom with a mix of 1-3 bedroom units being built). However, in this example case, the development is within a mile of the local college, on a rapid-transit bus line, and most of the target demographic doesn't own a vehicle. Should the builder be required to devote 10,710 square feet of building space (the equivalent of 10 additional units on average in the building) for parking? Remember, that would also add approximately $2 million to the project (using the Statista Seattle dollars) – a cost that would then be passed down to the consumer and drive housing prices up.

What if instead, the developer could determine that only 20% of those spots were really needed which could be reserved for a monthly fee so the costs only pass to the people who need the spots, not everyone? Further, let's imagine there is a parking garage nearby that can take the overflow or people can choose to not have a vehicle readily-accessible. Further, what if this developer invests in a rentable bike or scooter solution as an alternative to the bus? There are plenty of solutions that can help mobilize residents without the cost and space requirements of parking.

Home Buyer Impact and You

As real estate professionals, if you have a buyer with one of more cars and they are considering buying in an urban or suburban area, this is an important conversation to have. How essential is on-site parking to them? How close to transit do they want to be? What kind of transit do they need to be close to? Do they need a secure place to park a bike or a scooter?

Parking and transit are just two of the aspects of what is needed to create more walkable neighborhoods. Easy-access rentable bikes and scooters, bike lanes, small grocery stores, and restaurants are also important. Parks and trails are also components of walkable cities as are other pedestrian-centric improvements such as crosswalks, wide sidewalks, traffic quieting mechanisms, and trees.

The conversation around parking and transit will continues to evolve. As you discuss these issues with your clients you may also want to brush up on what a dedicated parking spot may cost or the value this adds to a property that includes it. Value depends on a number of factors:

Are the parking facilities covered or uncovered?

If covered, is it a garage or a carport?

Is the spot in a shared garage (such as a space in a condo building's garage)?

Does the property simply have a parking strip or driveway along the side of the house?

Is an EV charger included?

The values of these facilities and amenities vary widely from area to area with the value beginning at around $10,000 for an established urban neighborhood. According to the New York Times, a single parking spot in that city can be valued at over $250,000! In fact, some property owners without cars who own a parking spot in New York City can realize rent of $500 per month or more when they rent their spaces out to car-burdened residents.

Change is Here to Stay

If you are selling real estate in the middle of Nebraska or the wilds of Alaska, this article probably isn't doing anything for you. However, much of the United States is entering or already deep into a period of shifting urban and suburban design. For those of us practicing in an area that is making a concerted effort to provide more housing for its population, parking is going to be a part of that conversation.

This means you need to be part of that conversation in terms of understanding what your city and county is discussing for parking requirements for new construction, how that impacts surrounding neighborhoods, what additional density is planned for different neighborhoods and how parking plays into that, and finally having discussions with your clients about their parking needs and the value of their on-site parking assets.

I encourage you to do your reading and understand the relationship between parking and housing costs in new developments. Learn what your local building association is saying about parking requirements and help them get their voices heard by your city and county councils.

SOURCES FOR FURTHER READING

[Statista] Construction Costs of Parking Space in U.S. Cities

[Asphalt Industrial] Parking Space Dimension Guide

[Whatcom Housing Alliance] Parking Policy & Housing Affordability: How minimum parking requirements impact housing costs and what cities can do about it.

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By Denise Lones CSP, M.I.R.M., CDEI - The founding partner of The Lones Group, Denise Lones, brings nearly three decades of experience in the real estate industry. With agent/broker coaching, expertise in branding, lead generation, strategic marketing, business analysis, new home project planning, product development, Denise is nationally recognized as the source for all things real estate. With a passion for improvement, Denise has helped thousands of real estate agents, brokers, and managers build their business to unprecedented levels of success, while helping them maintain balance and quality of life.