#even at the cost of what it takes to get rid of that big problem

[reasonsforhope]

"Clothing tags, travel cards, hotel room key cards, parcel labels … a whole host of components in supply chains of everything from cars to clothes. What do they have in common? RFID tags.  

Every RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag contains a microchip and a tiny metal strip of an antenna. A cool 18bn of these are made – and disposed of – each year. And with demands for product traceability increasing, ironically in part because of concerns for the social and environmental health of the supply chain, that’s set to soar. 

And guess where most of these tags end up? Yup, landfill – adding to the burgeoning volumes of e-waste polluting our soils, rivers and skies. It’s a sorry tale, but it’s one in which two young graduates of Imperial College London and Royal College of Art are putting a great big green twist. Under the name of PulpaTronics, Chloe So and Barna Soma Biro reckon they’ve hit on a beguilingly simple sounding solution: make the tags out of paper. No plastic, no chips, no metal strips. Just paper, pure and … simple … ? Well, not quite, as we shall see. 

The apparent simplicity is achieved by some pretty cutting-edge technical innovation, aimed at stripping away both the metal antennae and the chips. If you can get rid of those, as Biro explains, you solve the e-waste problem at a stroke. But getting rid of things isn’t the typical approach to technical solutions, he adds. “I read a paper in Nature that set out how humans have a bias for solving problems through addition – by adding something new, rather than removing complexity, even if that’s the best approach.”   

And adding stuff to a world already stuffed, as it were, can create more problems than it solves. “So that became one of the guiding principles of PulpaTronics”, he says: stripping things down “to the bare minimum, where they are still functional, but have as low an environmental impact as possible”.  

...how did they achieve this magical simplification? The answer lies in lasers: these turn the paper into a conductive material, Biro explains, printing a pattern on the surface that can be ‘read’ by a scanner, rather like a QR code. It sounds like frontier technology, but it works, and PulpaTronics have patents pending to protect it. 

The resulting tag comes in two forms: in one, there is still a microchip, so that it can be read by existing scanners of the sort common within retailers, for example. The more advanced version does away with the chip altogether. This will need a different kind of scanner, currently in development, which PulpaTronics envisages issuing licences for others to manufacture. 

Crucially, the cost of both versions is significantly cheaper than existing RFID kit – making this a highly viable proposition. Then there are the carbon savings: up to 70% for the chipless version – so a no-brainer from a sustainability viewpoint too. All the same, industry interest was slow to start with but when PulpaTronics won a coveted Dezeen magazine award in late 2023, it snowballed, says So. Big brands such as UPS, DHL, Marks & Spencer and Decathlon came calling. “We were just bombarded.” Brands were fascinated by the innovation, she says, but even more by the price point, “because, like any business, they knew that green products can’t come with a premium”."

-via Positive.News, April 29, 2024

--

Note: I know it's still in the very early stages, but this is such a relief to see in the context of the environmental and human rights catastrophes associated with lithium mining and mining for rare earth metals, and the way that EVs and other green infrastructure are massively increasing the demand for those materials.

I'll take a future with paper-based, more humane alternatives for sure! Fingers crossed this keeps developing and develops well (and quickly).

[dryonsenpai]

If u do headcanons can I please ask for headcanons for the kings + Zagan and Belial (or only the kings if is easier) going to the pool with the mc?

If you don't take headcanons I understand. Thank you. <3

First time someone's ever asked me for headcannons hahaha. Thank you, I'll do my best 😊

Headcannons for the kings, Zagan and Belial on the pool with MC (you)

Warning: NSFW, like, almost too NSFW for a headcannon/gender neutral MC

Satan

Pools in Gehenna aren't a big thing due to the country's poverty, but that doesn't mean that you won't have a good time with Satan

You know how pale this guy is? You're gonna enjoy applying sunscreen on him, feeling even the slightest details on his muscled body

He's gonna do the same thing to you later on, even though he doesn't really need the excuse of the sunscreen to touch you

Inside the water, his white wet hair shines under the sun, you just can't help but touch it and caress it as if it was a treasure

Then Satan would hug you tight and start touching you on an even more lewd way

Now is the time when you can leave scars and marks all over Satan's body, so he follows your orders and let you do whatever you want to him

There's only one issue, water doesn't let him spank you properly. Problem solved! He's strong enough to lift you up and keep spanking you

Mammon

Pools in Tartaros are just like palaces, full of gold and oriental decorations. If you sunburn easily, Mammon would demand to build a special indoor pool just for you

No matter if you're indoors or outdoors, Mammon wants to protect his master at all costs. That's why he would demand servants (even the nobles if you want to) to apply sunscreen to you

If you want the very own king to do it, he'll gladly oblige. He'll be very careful to not hurt you with his strong, beautiful and veiny hands

Then, he would just grab you with one arm without difficulty to the pool and get you inside

He won't swim, he would just cuddle with you while touching your butt. But if you do want to swim for a bit, he would be happily looking at you (and your butt) waiting for your return to his arms

Even if he's a golden (no pun intended) retriever, he still wants to do... Things to you, the swimsuit perfectly captures your curves and body shape (again, butt)

And so does his. Sir, where are you going with that? That should be illegal. Still you want to touch it, so both of you succumb to your desires

Mammon's huge cock normally would have a hard time (again no pun intended) fitting inside you, but water made the job much easier

Drying up time! You're tired after the passionate time on the pool, he wouldn't let you move an inch so that you can rest, he is the one drying you up and then probably let you to sleep

Leviathan

"Pool? Are you a child or what?... Ok, but ONLY I will be with you". No matter if you try to say that you want to be alone, he just won't let you, he wants to be with you but won't say it

The only pool you're going to on his watch is a pool inside the Hades palace. Servants are there watching and doing maintenance, Levi just kicks them out cuz only him can see you in a swimsuit

Have you seen Diabolik lovers? The scene where Ayato throws Yui on the pool?... Yup, that's Levi

Water is perfect for his breath control fetish. You don't even have time to reach out to the surface before he gets your head back under the water, seeing you grasp for air turns him on

He wasn't thinking on getting into the water on the first place, but that sight of you? He doesn't have a swimsuit so he just got naked and got in with you

Now Levi makes you give him a blowjob under the water. The water is so crystal clear that he can perfectly see you. Then you would proceed to have sex until both of you are tired

Beelzebub

He would take you to a club at night time. You can either get in with swimsuit or naked. Most likely naked, Beelzebub would just tear the swimsuit out of you so that he enjoys aaall your views

The water of the pool cannot get rid of your body odor. Beel then starts to smell you, your neck, your armpits... And his favourite, your private parts

He can't do what he wants to do under water, so he sits you on the border of the pool and gets your legs open. Surprise! You're not exactly sitting on the floor, you're sitting on the lap of a copy of Beel

Beelzebub 1 burries his face on your private parts, then starts licking it. Beel 2 takes care of your nipples by pinching and pulling at them

People in the club are watching, their king having sex with the new fella? Turns all of them on, if you let Beel know that makes you uncomfortable then he would take you to a private pool, which is better cuz now you're only his

This guy is literally a sex machine, you have sex on almost every position in the Kamasutra and outside of it

When he dries you up, he's still touching you on your "pleasure areas". What? You thought he'd be done? He's Beelzebub!

Unluckily, the water finally removed your natural odor from you, but now there's an almost even better smell... Sex smell

How can you stop Beelzebub? Good luck

Lucifer

Before going, he's going to give you a safety lecture. He doesn't know your name but he does care about you

He won't take you to a pool. Instead, he would take you to a river/lake in Paradise lost full of beautiful flowers and animals, comparable to the very same Eden. Don't worry, nobody really goes there

If there happens to be any dangerous animals in there, he would command them to go somewhere else until you leave the place

He doesn't like that either of you wear swimsuits. After all, he wants to be with you just as God brought both of you to the world

Bro burns fast af so you offer to apply sunscreen on him. At first he declines, but then he accepts on one condition: don't touch his scar or wings

Congratulations! Your touch turned him on, but he can hide it for now... FOR NOW

Lucifer's a doctor, so he would be anatomically studying your perfect body while applying you sunscreen. He can still hide that he's hot

Water time! When you submerged your head and then came out, he can't control himself anymore. Those water drops on your face look like the tears he loves

If you happen to have long black hair & light color eyes, you'll inevitably remind him of Michael. Does that stop him? Oh Hell no!

Remember his bite? You ain't escaping that, it hurt for a little but then it felt like incredible pleasure that let down real tears. Water would carry your blood away, which also happens to turn Lucifer on

Let's remember that the slightest penetration of an angel causes an orgasm, imagine what would happen to you being on Lucifer's hands

Zagan

The thought of both of you being together makes Zagan happy, but he's really shy to ask you out. So he tells you to go together to the pool because it's summer and it's really hot, you obviously accept

When he sees you in a swimsuit he can't help but blush, you're the most beautiful creature he's ever seen

You suggest playing volley, you had to explain to him what that is cuz they don't call it that way in Hell

You soon find out that he's an excellent player, but he's letting you win cuz he wants you to be happy

After a while, you're both sweaty. You notice he's blushing, but it's not because of the heat, remember he has kinesophilia

Still you decide to go to the pool to cool down. When you swim, it triggers back his kinesophilia

Zagan wants it, but he's not going to ask you. You notice and tell him that you want it too

When you're done & it's time to get out, he'll carry you on his arms because he can't let you slip and get hurt

Belial

Pool day? Okay! But Jjyuu stays at home playing videogames and watching anime, a habit he took from Belial

You suggest playing music on your phone, but he declines because he wants to listen to you singing, if you can't sing or you're too shy then humming is okay too

He lays down on your lap & listens to your beautiful voice, you know he's staring at you with shiny eyes even if you can't see them

"I love your voice", he writes with his finger on your tummy. You may sound like a donkey with diarrhea, he's still gonna love your voice and truly mean it

When you get in the water & keep singing, you remind him of a mermaid

Suddenly, those words on your tummy get marked red (like in his h-scene), it turns you on and you just can't control your heat. Don't worry, he can't control it either

When you're done, he's gonna ask you to sing for him again

[octuscle]

Hey, so I ran into a bit of a problem with my stupid car. I drove a pretty old model since I didn't have the money to afford a new one (I'm still training to be a doctor). But it finally broke down and now I need to get it fixed. The guy at the auto repair place told me I could borrow one of their models for the next few days for an "extra cost". I need a car to get to work so I was happy to accept and they gave me one of their old lifted trucks. But now I'm starting to wonder what exactly this extra cost is and why I'm suddenly so interested in cars and auto repair. I have a few days left with this truck before I need to return it so any advice would help.

Well, the first extra cost is the scorn and ridicule you get in college. This truck is really embarrassing. A gas guzzling behemoth that you need three parking spaces for. And you literally have to climb into the car. For someone for whom the walk from the parking lot to the lecture hall is already sport, this is of course a horror. You park at the end of the parking lot so that nobody can see you. But on the second day, pictures of you getting out of your car go viral on campus. It was a shitty idea to take the car.

Sitting alone in the canteen, you watch the video of yourself again… Yeah, it looks really silly, you'd be making fun of the lanky guy in that huge car yourself. Even though you'll be rid of this beast in a few days, thank God, and when you can finally drive your Prius again, you should do something for your body. It's not by chance that they say "Mens sana in corpore sano"… You're looking for a gym where no one from your faculty is guaranteed to be studying. A little outside. For men only. No courses, only iron. I'm sure none of your Crossfit or Pilates friends go there. All you need is for someone to post pictures of you using dumbbells online. You join online and arrange a trial session for tonight. You don't know yet whether this is a good idea.

You roll into the parking lot. A parking lot full of pickup trucks. A few lifted trucks too. But yours stands out. Yours is really huge. Somehow you're proud of it. You jump out of the cab and grab your gym bag from the passenger footwell. You've never been here before. But somehow you feel at home. The guy at reception greets you with a fist bump. "Hey, welcome to the dudes-only gym! I'm Chuck. You gotta be Lance, right? Sweet wheels you're rockin' there.". You reply that your name is actually "Lanny", but Chuck just grins and says that a guy like you with a car like that is hardly called Lanny.

Chuck shows you the gym, the changing rooms, the showers and, after you have changed into your workout clothes, takes you to the training area. A bunch of musclemen are sweating on the weights, grunting. The air is thick with sweat and testosterone. Chuck scrutinizes you. "Well, you're no newbie to pumping iron, bro. But a few more pounds of mass would really beef you up. Let me walk you through some of my top moves." This is actually the first time you've ever pumped iron… But you don't contradict me. And follow Chuck's instructions. You train together with Chuck for the first hour. After that, he has to go back to reception. It's only 8:00 pm. The gym is just starting to fill up. The guys here are not men of big words. A nod of the head. That's usually the whole conversation. Apart from the grunt you let out when you finish the last repetition of a sentence with your last ounce of strength, you don't say a word for the next few hours.

Chuck comes onto the training area at 00:30. You are about to get your biceps on fire. "Big boy, it's time, I want to call it a day." He stares at the tent in your pants. The thing is, if you give it your all on the dumbbells, you'll get a hard-on. The two of you are alone on the training area. You finish your last set. You check the result with a double bicep pose in front of the mirror. You pull down your pants. And you and Chuck call it a day.

The next day you park your baby right in front of the university entrance. It's still early, but you want to be back at the gym early. The early bird catches the worm, as they say at home with mom and dad on the farm.

Dann all this medicine shit is terribly tiring and boring. You almost fall asleep in the first lecture. In the cafeteria, you try to talk to a sane person about chiseling iron or tuning engines. But all the idiots here can talk about is medicine and patients and stuff like that. By 4 p.m. you can't take it anymore. You need some normal people around you now. You swap your doctor's coat for a sleeveless checked flannel shirt. You meet one of your professors in the hallway. He asks you if you are one of the janitors. He has a problem with his car. Finally, a sensible task. You were hoping he had a problem with his engine. You would have liked to have had a look at it. He drives a BMW 540, a cool car. But unfortunately, he just changed the language in his on-board computer from English to German. A little something for you. He thanks you and slips you five dollars. Pathetic nerds!

Chuck greets you with a fist bump. Rituals are rituals. He thinks his ass is still sore from yesterday. You should take it easy on him today. You grin, inspect his tight ass and say it's a disgrace. But then he’d probably have a sore throat tomorrow. You laugh. And you head off to the training area. Too bad about Chuck. But there'll be another ass to fill today. There are lots of tight asses here. But first you work on your own. Leg day!

The next day, park your baby right outside the entrance. It's still early, but you want to be back at the gym early. The early bird catches the worm, as they say at home with mom and dad on the farm. In the workshop, they call you the truck doc. Because you can fix any problem. And because you once studied medicine. That was a long time ago. It was an idea you had in your youth. But you're not a guy who works with his head. You work with your calloused hands. And with your heart. And your heart beats for mighty engines and mighty wheels!

[tanadrin]

i fired up civ 5 recently bc i wanted to see how it compared to my memory of it, and if anything it's actually much, much worse.

one unit per tile just... does not work with the idiom of the civilization series! units are not like armies in a GSG, they're like units in an RTS game: grist for the meatgrinder. you build them and throw them at your enemy and if they lose combat, they die. they don't retreat and recover morale, you don't get a chance to reposition and try again, they just go poof. but now in addition to that, you can only fit one unit of a type on a given tile, which means combat is forcibly spread out over a huge space. it's slow, slowed down further by the fact that it now takes a couple turns to fully resolve a fight--i guess the idea is that you can have your injured units fall back, except because of the way units get blocked in now, no you can't!--but you still need tons of units to take cities.

which means they didn't get rid of doomstacks. doomstacks are still logistically necessary to win wars! they just made them really fucking annoying to move around the map.

and on top of that, because OUPT applies to all units, it means you are also constantly having your scouts and workers and other civilian units being blocked in by your own units of the same type, or other players' units of the same type, meaning if you sign an open borders treaty with the AI you are frequently signing up to having your own units' movement being jammed up in the worst way by computer players. and on top of all THAT the units cancel their movement orders if the destination tile is blocked, even if the destination tile is on the other side of the map and you can't see it--which means, basically, any long-distance movement order is liable to be randomly canceled if an AI unit ends its turn on your destination tile.

it feels janky at every single level. the worst possible fix to something that wasn't even really a problem--and if they really wanted to they could have implemented some kind of very basic attrition mechanic. or some other kind of soft cap.

and and and on top of all that, it makes roads and railroads substantially less useful, bc frequently you cannot actually fit all your guys on one road or railroad--but you can't just carpet your territory in roads now like you used to do, because roads cost maintenance per turn. just. ugh. fractally bad decisionmaking! like different people were working at different ends of the design doc and not communicating at all!

the global happiness system means expansion is soft capped early in the game, which makes it feel less like an empire management game than a game of managing four to five cities. since very many units are now hard capped by resource availability now, and expansion is limited, AFAICT in most normal games this means you get like.. two swordsmen? ever? mainly it's strong attack units that are capped in this way, but their defensive counters are uncapped, which means actually playing strategically with your army composition is more annoyance than it's worth. in practice, what this incentives is just building the best trash unit you can afford en masse and throwing them at the enemy, but, of course, see the problems with OUPT.

they took out civics and replaced them with Social Policy trees. but everybody has the same set of social policy trees. and there's a bit of a tradeoff here in which trees you choose to fill out first, but you never then switch those old trees out for new ones like civics. they're just permanent bonuses. so there's no sense of, like, choosing your government type.

and then in BNW i guess they realized people missed that, and created Ideologies, which are just a bonus extra-big social policy tree where you get to pick between liberal democracy, communism, and fascism. but of course there's only three. and this isn't unlocked until the late game.

what they really should have done is added more civics and rather than just having you progress from early game civics to late game civics made all civics contextually useful. and maybe given you some extra civics that were unlocked early in the game so you could strategize around them.

as a part of this change culture is now more load-bearing, but cultural victory is just... weird and stupidly complicated. you have to build tourism, and do archeology, and build wonders that provide slots for great works that your three different kinds of great artist create, and all this other crap. versus domination, where you just conquer the other guys. or science, where you just build your spaceship. it's dumb and bad and awkward.

there's no conquest victory now. only domination. but because of the way domination works, it's now not possible to move your capital manually. this is awful and i hate it! let me move my capital, damn it!

buildings no longer go obsolete, which means that if i am founding a city in the year 1973, i still need to build a City Walls in it before i can build a Military Base. this feels ridiculous. and the series already kinda has this problem where it feels like late game it takes forever to get a city really up and running--don't make it even worse by making me build shit from classical antiquity before i can build modern facilities!

the AI is not very bright. they don't expand very much. on big maps, most of the map will remain empty most of the game, at least up through mid-level difficulties i usually play at (that are supposed to be "standard", so I assume the game is balanced around them)

diplomacy is irritatingly primitive. there are few ongoing agreements. declarations of friendship all last a fixed amount of time. the AI is constantly interrupting you to tell you it doesn't like you or it does like you or you and another AI player all like each other. just expose an opinion modifier and be done with it! harun al-rashid and i don't need to pass notes like it's grade school!

they nerfed the range of air units and especially nukes. which feels really weird. the 20th century saw the invention of strategic bombers that had a range of thousands of miles. why can mine only reach cities right next to my own? why do my nuclear missiles have a pathetic range? sure, sub-launched nukes are a thing, but they're only one part of a proper nuclear triad. there's no MAD anymore!

especially because the world congress can order you to stop building nukes and there's nothing you can do about it. you can't defy world congress bans and suffer a penalty. international law has some kind of magical force that even if you are the undisputed hegemon you cannot help but obey. this is very stupid! especially because they could not think of anything interesting for the world congress to do, so it's all shit like banning random luxury goods.

all the stuff i do like--the city-states, the hex grid, the core idea of the trade route system--is swallowed by annoying bullshit. to take the trade route example: you can make money by setting up trade routes. it can be quite lucrative! and you have to protect your trade routes from bandits and shit. but the menu for issuing trade route orders is a mess--way too much scrolling, you can't sort by lucrativeness of destinations, you have to constantly re-issue trade route orders, and the last trade route a unit was on isn't highlighted, or sorted to the top or anything like that. so it's lots of scrolling around, it's very annoying, and it's repetitive as hell.

the real stick in the eye is that this game was not only reviewed well, it was reviewed glowingly when it came out. which is bizarre to me! yes, it looks nice. the art is good and the music is pretty. but it feels awful to play! it is on almost every single metric less fun than civ 4! civ 3 is more fun, and civ 3 was terrible. i hope to god firaxis was bribing people left and right for good reviews because the only alternative explanation i can think of is that everybody who was reviewing strategy games in 2010 was also in the grip of a brutal glue-sniffing habit.

[marcynomercy]

Fate written in blood

I have a doubt, do you think the narrative is running? Something very shallow? Please tell me that I will improve the writing.

Thank you @tragedybunny for beta-reading.

Summary: The blood has always been her way until the day that fate changed, After being kidnapped by mind flayers and the fall of the Nautiloid Calamity had a new opportunity for freedom and strangely her fate crossed with that of Astarion when the elf put that dagger around her neck. 

 Their fate until now was written by others, but now they would write with their own hands in blood. 

Warnings: Violence, blood, game events, mentions of trauma, distress/comfort, mention of abuse, flashback of torture. (That’s it for now)

Ship: Astarion and Calamity (Tav), Shadowheart and Carniex (Tav), mentions of other characters.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3.

Chapter 2 - Pleasant cold

They got up early and left the camp to continue their search, Calamity had previously planned their actions and done it in a way that they could readjust quickly if something during the day changed the plans. It was  something she learned in her work. Never rely on a single plan, always have options and anticipate possible setbacks.

 So first she decided to go behind the place that had the letter she found in that hidden Kagha chest. The Grove didn’t seem to be a bad place to have as a "resource" and it was a safe place, so it would be very bad if it was closed because of that ritual of thorns. Doing so earned them a fight with some guardians, but that was no big deal as the answers were worth it.

"Oh, apparently Kagha was really getting involved with who shouldn’t be." Calamity hummed with a satisfied smile on her lips.

"So... what are you planning?" Astarion asked, annoyed. 

"Something that benefits us in the long term until we find this Halsin." She replies holding onto the letter. "Now let’s continue and take a look at the temple that was infested by goblins. It would be good to take a look to make sure what we will face when the time comes."

 They were relatively close to the site so it wasn’t a problem, just before entering the ruined village they found the group of adventurers who were in the Grove before whose leader was the same guy that Calamity had punched. After a little dialogue with him and getting the information about a reward for a treasure called "Night Song" they made their way to that temple. The first time she used the tadpole’s powers was in the entryway  with the goblins by reading one of their minds and using that to get in smoothly.Then in a few steps before crossing a bridge they fell to the ground being crushed by a terrible power and a voice that oppressed them demanding obedience. They managed to get rid of it thanks to the artifact that Shadowheart carried. 

 Shadowheart was revealed to be a follower of Shar at this point Being honest, Calamity didn’t really care much for it, only worried about the artifact. What was he? Why did Shar want him? Because he could protect them? Who were those people in the vision they had? What did it all mean? Without these answers she could only rely on the cleric oath to keep this artifact safe even if it cost her life.

 They passed through the party and the guards, the temple desecrated with the goddess statues broken and destroyed, that yielded depressive and sarcastic comments from Shadowheart now that she felt more free to express her beliefs. A goblin was branding the followers with hot iron and turned to them with a certain enthusiasm. She called them "True Soul" and offered the brand - something that was immediately denied. Then a familiar sensation, darkness seems to swallow the temple, leaving them with a vision of the goblin priestess, receiving instruction from a handsome young man. One of the Chosen… The vision dissolves away. They stand before the goblin priestess in the temple once again, Calamity severed the connection abruptly, now she knew that this goblin also carried the parasite.

 She said something about shadows in her mind and offered to help.

"That’s a bit particular..."  Calamity replied.

"Of course we go to my chapel, where it is private, we don’t let others interfere in the dealings between us True Souls."

 They followed her to the place, the door was closed and the priestess called them closer.

"Ready to clear your mind?"

 Until that moment everyone thought that Calamity would make the stupid decision to trust this goblin, Astarion himself was rolling his eyes at the situation.

"Actually, I changed my mind..." Calamity smiled sweetly saying these words calmly and in the blink of an eye her hand moved and the goblin’s throat was cut. "I’m gonna kill you now."

 The priestess fell to the ground,blood gushed, and everyone was staring at the atrocious scene. And when she pulled that blade? The most disturbing was the smile she kept on her lips, a sweet and innocent smile that became disturbing in this situation. Astarion was perplexed by the way she hid her murderous intent, none of them realized, HE did not notice. 

 "True Souls, they’re infected like us but think they’re thinking talking to a god." she commented, rifling through the goblin’s body.

"Was this the intended destination for us? Blessed in ignorance to think we could talk to a God? What joke of bad taste..." He mocked angry in the end.

 When the priestess tadpole abandoned her body everyone was disgusted, but this power... her body moved on its own from the influence of the tadpole. Calamity just accepted it and kept the tadpole for now. She knew she should not trust this, should not accept, but at the same time, something within her wanted this power and desired more. Unfortunately they could not go very far after finding the secret passage, they began to feel some symptoms and preferred to take a rest at the camp. The heavy air, the sweat and the sore fingertips.

That was not good. 

 Lae'zel attacked Calamity by putting a dagger around her neck saying they were transforming. Everyone told her to put down the blade and stop it. Tempers began to flare, mixed with pain, fear, despair and distrust. Calamity’s head hurt again... she hated this atmosphere, this feeling. She was drowned in the same for many years and now everything could end up that way. No, she wouldn’t let me.

  She used the tadpole to spy on Lae'zel’s mind and felt the uncertainty and disgust. She used it to convince her that it was just a fever and that it would pass with a rest. 

"Gah, I don’t trust my own mind. So I think I should trust yours. I will wait. But know this I will be watching. If the sickness does not pass, come dawn... I will end us all." 

That threat was a beautiful knot in the stomach for everyone and that night was difficult. But then a figure appeared in her dreams... with the face of her brother.

 The dream visitor was wearing his face and said he was protecting her, this was a very low blow to her as she only trusted him briefly because of the face he was wearing. He promised that when she woke up she would be better and... really he did not lie. More questions hit her mind and when talking to all her companions the stories hit, same dream same message. 

 Unmasking Kagha was easy and quick, getting rid of the shadow druids was simple and with that they ensured the Grove as a safe point. Calamity talked to the druids about Halsin who had not yet found him, but did not believe he was dead . Her suspicions were that he would  be stuck somewhere in that lair since if they had killed a druid who could turn into a bear the least they could do was have his head was stuck on  a spear and displayed as a trophy. 

 Astarion remembered the scene from the previous day, the way she kept that same pleasant and calm expression while slicing the goblin’s throat. The slight smile drawn on her lips, the smile she was now using to be friendly to the druids and the tieflings... he was impressed how vile she could be and still maintain the appearance of "good girl". 

"We chose a wolf in sheep’s clothing as leader." He commented.

"I don’t think it’s bad, I even like this side of her is practical and makes people lower their guard easily." Shadowheart argued, watching her too. "And she doesn’t really seem like a bad person."

"No?" Astarion questioned.

"Look at her well." Gale said watching her talking to the children. "She saved that girl from Kagha, that boy from the harpies  and was being kind to the others Look into her eyes, see the compassion reflected in her and that’s something you can’t fake Astarion."

  Astarion said nothing more, really she had this compassionate look at that moment while interacting with the children and he became even more confused. How could a killer like her have such a side? Be so ruthless and at the same time so kind.

 The village seemed to have good resources and while exploring ordinary conversations became natural.

"So Calamity, do you have  some love waiting for you in the city?" Shadowheart asked humorously.

"I don’t have time for romance." It was an anticlimactic response for the group.

"Really? So who were you looking for?" Astarion asked curious. "It was impossible not to notice you scouring the rubble of the fall."

"I was looking for my twin brother, we separated before I was kidnapped, and maybe he was taken too, but after not finding him I think he was lucky not to have been taken."

"Or in the worst case, he is one of those ignorant people we meet." Astarion replied, hardly interested.

"Hope that’s not the case." Calamity warned. " My brother is as skilled as I am and much more brutal. Even I would have trouble facing him in a fight... and I would hate that." Her voice became a weaker tone and had a lot of regret, her feelings were clear. 

"It’s understandable, twin ties are often very strong I can only imagine how painful it must be for you to be in that position." Gale laid his hand on her shoulder and even though it was barely noticeable, Astarion saw the way she trembled even for a second in aversion to touch.

"Thank you, Gale, well let’s hope he’s had better luck."

Unfortunately not everything was quiet after all. A devil appeared, playing his game with rhymes of a poem and dragging them to a banquet hall.

"Great now I have a devil in my pocket? Continue with your rhymes and offerings, I will never accept." Calamity was firm in her words. 

"Still, I’ve a feeling you’ll change your mind before it’s changed for you. Try to cure yourself. Shop around - beg, borrow, and steal. Exhaust every possibility util none are left. And when hope has been whittled down to the very marrow of despair - that’s when you’ll come knocking on my door. Hope. Hahaha! Such a tease."

"Keep dreaming about it, no matter how much despair I’m in, even if it’s death before me, I’ll NEVER make a pact with you." The certainty she had in her words and in her eyes made everyone be impressed, even Raphael.

"Hahahaha, I’ve heard those words before and only one was true to them... hum."  He approached her and held her chin to better see her face. 

 The way Raphael looked at her, that he looked in the back of his eyes as if he were spying on his soul. Calamity pushed him in disgust.

"What an interesting twist."

"Are you done with your silly little game?" she mocked.

"I believe your words, but what if it was to save someone else? Your brother perhaps?" Calamity was losing patience to the point of moving her  hand to pull her sword.

 Astarion was faster and held her wrist.

"Are you crazy?! Think well before you act." He warned as he received an angry look from her.

" What a sad situation perhaps I should do a little favor."

"Leave him out of this devil! You made your offer and I denied it!"

"For now." Raphael, with a gesture, teleported them back to the village and the group looked in.

 Calamity was very upset, that devil quoted her brother and he was right... If it were for him, she would make a pact without hesitation.

"Now there’s a bloody devil trailing after us? This gets better and better." Astarion commented angrily.

 I think he wants something from us. Badly. " Gale commented thoughtfully and worried.

"Sure he does, but apparently he’s devoted special attention to our dear Calamity."

"No matter. We’ve dealt with every other oddity thrown at us lately - we can handle this one too. Now, as for this “Raphael”... He knows our secret, he claims he can help… what do you make of him?" Shadowheart asked.

"We don’t trust him, simple!" Calamity responded adamantly. 

"No doubts at all? Good. That’s what I wanted to hear. He’s clever, my order uses the same tactic when dealing with enemies of Shar. You don’t need a scourge or a rack to break people. Fear and self-doubt are sufficient. When actual pain comes, the victim’s already done the heavy lifting for their torturer. There were no right answers with that devil. He was toying with his food - us."

"I didn’t realise you were so… well-versed in mental and emotional torment. It’s a good thing to know."

"And it seems that you are very familiar with this, did not doubt and did not hesitate even though you lost the line by having your brother cited."

"What can I say, part of the trade. I just... Never mind, we need to focus on the current goal and prepare to kick a devil’s ass if we have to." 

 Back at the camp after an exhausting day, Raphael returned to Calamity’s mind. Her concern was turned to her brother but maybe Raphael is the least of the problems, two days... she had been missing for two days. What would they be doing with him now?

 Were they torturing him? Or worse? 

 The best chance is he’s chained up in his room... Shadowheart is right, fear and doubt is sufficient. She was too thoughtful even now in front of the fire listening to the conversation of her companions, her attention was not really there.

"So we’ve all talked a little bit about ourselves at least enough for this group to work." Astarion said looking at Calamity. "But our leader hasn’t said much yet Sorry darling, but I think it won’t hurt to say a little bit."

She stared at him but without any hostility and sighed.

"Well, what can I say? I’m an assassin in Baldur’s Gate... I’m part of the Assassin’s Guild, being more specific."

Astarion raised a puzzled eyebrow.

"Are you referring to the Assassin’s Guild of underworld city? The one that clashes with the Thieves Guild over business?" 

She agreed with a nod.

"Me and my brother... well they called us Black Dogs."

 Silence. 

 Astarion stared at her in shock, even he had heard of them. A pair of terrible assassins who accept any job, the nickname came on account of their unwavering loyalty to the Guild Masters. Without question, without hesitation, they did the work, and it was always so bloody that even the cultists of Bhaal were impressed.   

"You are very different than I imagined." Astarion broke the silence.

"I don’t appear to be someone with blind loyalty? Of course not, I was bound to be so. They recruited us when we were very young, we had no other option to survive and they took advantage of that. They trained us, tortured us, they no longer wanted subordinates with ambitions and opinions of their own." She laughed. "No... They wanted dogs that would obey any order without complaining or hesitating. And that would be happy with it, well that last part we learned to pretend very well. Funny, it was thanks to all this confusion I finally managed to think more clearly for myself after years... I ruined the night apparently, I’m going back to my tent." She got up and left.

 It was dark, she was back in that place, chained to the wall. She was facing the floor... what are they going to do with her?

"Hello little girl." A dark-haired elf entered the room and stood in front of her. " Look at me!" He ordered and she obeyed. "Much better, you know you’re going to be punished for letting that child escape, right?"

 Right, they were ordered to kill a noble family of the city... all of them without exception, but when she saw that crying child cowering in a corner felt pity and guilt, she helped that child escape.

"Can we get started?" A Drow entered the room dragging her twin brother with her.

"B-Brother? Wait! I WAS THE ONE WHO MADE THE MISTAKE! I SHOULD BE PUNISHED! PLEASE LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!" She pleaded, begged in tears.

"Oh my dear doll..." the elf bent down and held her face. "It wouldn’t be an effective punishment if I just beat you or tortured you, no...  it hurts you much more if he suffers." She was trembling in despair.

 The Drow chained the half-elf boy facing Calamity so that she would be able to see his face perfectly while he was tortured in her place.

"Caly, don’t worry, it’s okay." Her brother tried to comfort her, but then he screamed in pain as he felt  the flesh of his back being torn by Drow’s blade.

 The first cut was made slow and very precise.

"NO!" She fought, pulling the chains that bound her arms. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

 It did not help, the Drow continued cutting him slowly and agonizing. He screamed at every cut scratching his back while his sister was forced to watch and see his face in pain. 

"See? Your brother is suffering because YOU made a mistake! You are to blame for his suffering, every cut of his back is your fault!" The elf grabbed and pulled her hair, forcing her to keep her eyes on the scene.

"Brother... Carnifex... Carn... forgive me..." She cried his name as she watched the torture. "FORGIVE ME PLEASE!" 

 

Calamity woke up with a suffocating a scream. It was just a nightmare... a nightmare and a memory. 

 She wiped the sweat from her face and sighed heavily... hell. He may be suffering again that same way alone now, and it’s her fault... it’s always gonna be her fault. 

 "Carnifex my brother... You forgive me, don’t you?"

 She got up and left the tent. Looking around, it seemed that everyone was still sleeping. She walked quietly to the river near the camp and felt that near the shore, the water reflecting the night sky was a calm sight for a disturbed mind. 

 After that day that she watched her brother being tortured she never dared to have mercy on anyone... even if it was a child. 

 She was tired, but  didn’t feel like sleeping anymore, so she just took off her boots and put her feet in the water, it was cold but pleasant. Calamity hugged her knees and took advantage of the calm and cold sensation of the water against her skin. 

"Oh... I didn’t expect you to be awake." It was Astarion’s voice, but she didn’t move. 

 Astarion had gone hunting and decided to come down to the river to wipe his face that could be stained with blood. But he did not expect to find Calamity huddled by the river.

   Honestly, he didn’t know what to think about her, but he had thought a little about what she said. She was shaped to be someone without opinions or ambitions of her own, practically an object so to speak... it irritated him. Now seeing her shrunk there without saying anything, out of curiosity he approached her and saw her eyes full of tears.

"Are you crying...?" he asked, surprised.

"Me? Crying?" She hadn’t even noticed the tears running from her eyes. "Oh... It’s been years since I’ve cried."

 Shit... she looked so helpless. 

 The expression so sweet and sad, but her eyes were empty and cold as a doll... it could drive someone crazy. 

"Astarion... Are you a vampire?" He froze.

"Why the question, dear?" He was sweating cold.

"Well... I don’t see your reflection." She replied tone innocent, as she pointed to the water.

 Unbelievable, he was caught by such an oversight because he lowered his guard to this vulnerable face?! He had to agree with Shadowheart, Calamity had a knack for keeping people off guard.

"Don’t worry, I won’t kill you." She declared at last.

"Excuse me?" he continued, perplexed.

"I have no intention of killing you, Astarion." She stated again with the same empty look and innocent expression.

 He just laughed it off.

"Hahahaha, gods... you really are a figure, dear Calamity." He sat next to her. "What will you have in return?"

"Pardon?" she tilted her confused head.

"Well, you’ll lie secret in exchange for what?"

"Nothing."  She answered automatically.

 Shock again, impossible! She wanted something, everyone always wanted something!

"Don’t be shy, darling, I know you want something." He insisted.

"I don’t want anything." She replied again.

 He looked into her eyes and saw nothing, ulterior motives, malice, lies... nothing but emptiness.

"You..." He held her face and kept looking into her eyes.

 Was that it? She was broken?

"Do you really not want anything? Even after being free?" 

"I want to remain free, and I want my brother to be free too, I want nothing more than that." This could not even be seen as ambition. 

"Gods below... I really thought you’d have some ambition, apparently I’ll have to teach you to be a little more ambitious." Her eyes lit up with these words.

 She looked like an innocent puppy.

 Calamity leaned back a little from his touch and wet her hands in the water and then wiped his face.

"Your face was a little bloody." She explained quickly, and then she held his face gently. "I like the touch of your skin, it’s cold and pleasant like river water."

 Was she serious? Few would say that the skin of an undead is something pleasant, but her words were so genuine and innocent. What was that feeling? For some reason he wanted to take care of her, why?

Well that’s it! Thank you for reading the second chapter.

@spacebarbarianweird @spacesquidlings@thechaoticdruid @vixstarria

Who wants to be tagged in the next chapters please tell me in the comments.

[seat-safety-switch]

Dump trucks have a lot going for them. They’re trucks, for one thing, so they’re inherently practical, even when they’re the size of Scotland and have tires big enough to park another truck inside. There’s proletarian charm for days; remember how your uncle once told you that “blue collars make ‘em holler.” They have lots of little gadgets, like power-take-offs to lift the dump bed, and levers to tell it what to do. And of course, dump trucks are slow, which infuriates people into making risky passes, at which point you run them the fuck over.

Now, you may ask yourself: why are enormous construction vehicles that can’t reach the speed limit allowed to coexist with regular commuter traffic? And to that I say, that’s a very good question. That dump truck driver’s boss expects to make good on his investment, so he puts pressure on the local authorities to not apply restrictive road-use laws that would force his employees to take slower, but less dangerous routes while on the job. He may also do some shitbag union-busting, we don’t know for sure, but what we do know is that eventually that dump truck is sent to auction, at which point it can become my dump truck, free of its previous connotations of labour abuse.

Sure, you need a more advanced drivers’ license to operate a truck such as this, but let me let you in on a little secret. Plane tickets are real cheap right now, and you can fly to a country that doesn’t even have dump trucks, pass their dump truck exam with the help of twenty dollars cash, and trade in your new dump truck driver’s license for a legitimate one when you get back to this country. That’s where they get new brain surgeons from, after all: just costs too much to raise ‘em here, and they don’t do anything nearly as cool as driving a seven-ton industrial vehicle to work at an office.

And speaking of that office, that brings me to the only real problem I’ve had with the truck so far. Parking it is a pain in the ass. All the spots are way too small for my gargantuan steed. When the other idiots from your department want you to take them to Wendy’s because it’s your turn on the lunch rotation, it takes an hour just to get out of the spot and another hour to explain to the cops why you had to destroy half the drive-thru in order to pick up your order. At least you can easily get rid of the evidence.

[masterjedilenawrites]

Clones: Love Languages (Part 2!)

I've been incorporating a lot of other clones into my writing recently. Some from requests, some from my own curiosity. It can be a challenge to tap into a character that maybe only got a few brief moments of screen time, but I end up having so much fun with it, and I'd love to explore more of their personalities!

So, let's start with some good ol' fashioned love languages shall we? 😇

Keeli: Quality Time. Likes to schedule time with his loved ones, like date nights or weekend getaways. It helps him get rid of distractions and be more purposeful in giving them attention. Gets annoyed when his company texts someone else or otherwise gives attention to their holo-pad and not him.

Neyo: Acts of Service. Would rather do things himself so they get done right, and that urge becomes stronger when he's around his partner. Doesn't want them to lift a finger. Also likes to cover the cost of things, like a meal, a piece of jewelry, or even the utility bill. Says "it's on me" and never accepts reimbursement.

Blackout: Physical Touch. Is quiet and standoffish at first, and doesn't seem to be the touchy-feely type. He reserves all his touches for the few people he truly, deeply cares for, including his romantic partner. He thinks it's weird to get physically close to someone who is only an acquaintance or casual friend.

Gregor: Acts of Service. The first one to show up at a friend's house in a time of need, looking for things to do to help lighten the load. Continually checks in on everyone so they're taken care of. Romantically, he's the king of understated acts like pulling his partner's feet into his lap for a massage.

Howzer: Quality Time. Can create special moments of out seemingly nothing. Steals them away from a social gathering to admire the view, finds a way to make them laugh during a stressful time, takes a few extra minutes to hold them close and wish them a good morning. Sharing time even in small ways is enough for him.

Thorn: Acts of Service. Runs all the errands. He honestly would love nothing more than to get a text on his way home asking him to pick up some random item. He can always roll with the punches and find a creative solution to an unexpected problem, soothing his partner's worries with his swift attention.

Hound: Physical Touch. Always has a hand on his chosen person. On their lower back, across their shoulders, in their hair.... Finds it comforting if they do they same in return. He needs to explore the physical side of things with someone first, as much as they are comfortable with, before he can make more long-term commitments.

Mayday: Words of Affirmation. Recognizes and acknowledges effort. Even if it isn't perfect, or a big deal, he'll still say thank you or good job. He constantly texts his friends and loved ones throughout the day, just random little thoughts he has to share. He'll be incredibly grumpy if he doesn't have such an outlet.

Gree: Gift Giving. Really big on holidays, anniversaries, etc. He'll buy things year round that remind him of people, or that he thinks would generally make great gifts, and he'll keep them on standby for whatever occasion comes up. Also big on thank-you gifts as well, as they express more gratitude than what he can say with words.

Waxer: Physical Touch. Physical boundaries seemingly don't exist for him. He's always standing or sitting close to someone, clapping them on the back or socking them in the arm. And he's never shy in giving hugs. With a partner he somehow gets even closer, drawn to them like a clingy magnet.

Boil: Words of Affirmation. May be quiet at times, or even come across a bit grumpy, but he actually does love hearing people talk. The best active listener; makes his loved ones feel heard and usually remembers what they share so he can follow up on the topic later. Asks questions because he's genuinely curious what others think. 

Wooley: Gift Giving. He's like a crow, finding shiny objects to take back to the nest. He can't go anywhere without bringing something back for other people. It's usually small gifts, little trinkets and tokens picked up along the path of life. Or it'll be additions to a collection he knows his loved one's been searching for.

Everything Tag: @damerondala, @dangerousstrawberrypie, @fallingforthem, @harleyevanstan, @imabeautifulbutterfly, @justanothersadperson93, @misogirl828, @itsagrimm, @error6gendernotfound, @theroguesully, @clonesimp, @techie-bear

+Clones Tag: @marvel-starwars-nerd, @pandora-the-halfling, @darkangel4121, @sobstea, @rintheemolion, @dionysuskid21, @jesseeka, @hanbetired, @thatmultifandomdumbass, @sarahtanmarvel, @call-me-a-fool, @lackofhonor, @theclonesdeservebetter, @hannahhearttcw, @salaminus, @arctrooper69, @katzs-current-obsession, @501st-rexster, @rebel-finn, @not-a-big-slay, @writing-positivelyexisting, @nekotaetae, @the-mom-friend-dot-com, @pickle-rick-y, @flowered-bicycles, @lucyysthings, @severalseashellsbytheseashore

(Join my tag list here)

[knight-of-heart-and-art]

dude.

(plaintext under read more)

main post:

AITA for asking my girlfriend to cut back on her messy hobby?

My girlfriend collects rocks and bones. Not crystals or anything. She doesn't think they have any magic powers, they're just normal rocks. She's not into astrology or any witch stuff. She sometimes tells me about the rocks and what type of rock they are and it's usually chert, which seems to just be a type of normal rock.

She's really outdoorsy and she travels a lot for work and when she gets back from a project she has a pocketful of new rocks. The bones are usually deer bones that she finds out in the woods and she doesn't have as many of them. The skulls are cool but also kind of creepy and most of them don't even have antlers or anything impressive like that. Her favorite bones are shoulder blades and those spine bones.

If we go on a hike, she'll sometimes stop randomly because she's found a cool rock (that looks like a normal rock you could find anywhere) and put it in her backpack or pocket. Sometimes she asks me to carry them and I have to put dirty rocks in my pockets.

She keeps them all over the house on tables, but mostly in our bedroom on the dresser and on her desk. She used to keep the skulls and bones on the dresser but put most of them in the closet when I said I was creeped out when I would wake up and see a bunch of dead animal skulls staring at me. But she takes some of them out when she's working at home.

The problem with the rocks is that there are so many of them and it's starting to make the apartment seem cluttered and kind of messy. If anyone came into our room they would just see a bunch of random rocks all over the place. The other day when I was cleaning I put all of them in a nice box so that they were all in one place and she got really mad when she got home. She says she likes looking at them and seeing some remind her of the different trips she's taken (even though they all look the same) and she said that they're beautiful and make her happy. She also likes to pick some of them up and carry them around during the day.

I calmly explained that we were running out of space for her rocks and maybe she could take photos of pretty views she saw to remind her of her trip, and she got really really mad and said that it wasn't the same and I couldn't tell her what to do with her apartment (even though we both live here so it's my apartment too) I tried to get my friend to commiserate, but he said I was being an ass for trying to stop my girlfriend from doing something that makes her happy and that I should be thankful that her hobby doesn't cost any money.

AITA for wanting a clean apartment? I'm not even telling her to get rid of her random rocks and bones, I just want them put away to make the place look nicer.

Edit: You don't all need to keep yelling at me that I'm an asshole. Someone sent me a link to a nice organizing case specifically for rocks that she can keep on her desk. I'm going to get her one of those as an apology gift and see if she wants to put some in a shadowbox.

Comment #1 from OP:

She’s an archaeologist

Comment #2 from OP, in answer to how many rocks and what size:

Maybe like 50 total? All different sizes but mostly only an inch or two across. She’s got about four big ones the size of my fist and those are the ones she puts in the living room by the lamp to “decorate”

It feels silly to spend money on a display case for normal rocks, but I’ll ask her.

They’re mostly on her own personal desk which is her space, but I still have to see them all the time and it’s a mess.

[carmmaart]

Spoilers for Inside Job season 2 but ….

The parallel of how Reagan was left at the end of season 1 angry that someone close to her was erased from her memories without her consent, with the justification of it being for the greater good, because it will be what will make her happiest in the long run, to then ending season 2 with her erasing herself from someone else’s memory, outside of how they agreed they’d go about it, without even giving Staedtler the chance to discuss it with her because it would be for the greater good and be what will make him happiest in the long run.

The fact that throughout the whole season we’ve been shown that even when we think it will be for the betterment of the person, that erasing or altering someone’s identity to lead to a “better” life doesn’t actually work, and that it’s better to make peace and work with the current reality because for better or worse it is the best outcome we could hope for. Myc joined the hive mind, the Pope was brainwashed, Brett faked his death, and they had to undo the mind wipe each time because the solution was worse than the problem. When the whole team left to an alternate timeline with better lives, and Reagan sent Brett off for the same reason, only to find Rand changing the fabric of time so he could have both Tamako and her, they ended up undoing the mind wipe and taking back their memories because the gains weren’t worth the cost. The one time we see memory erasing as a solution to a problem was when they needed to get rid of the virus at the party, and that was the catalyst for Ron needing to take time off to collect himself. But the issue was that the INFECTED cognito employees were posing a threat to them, not the employees themselves. If the virus hadn’t been made and spread, they would never have had to resort to memory wiping.

Reagan saying her next big project should be her happiness. Rand saying that you don’t know what matters most until you lose it.

The whole season you see the build up of the detriment of memory erasing and the importance of vulnerability. But then you remember Ron’s overall disdain of having to erase memories because of the guilt he carries with it, how he belittled Reagan’s complaints of having her memories taken away from her at the beginning of the season in comparison to that weight. And it all just comes echoing back with Reagan’s decision.

I want to believe Staedtler will come back somehow. He conspiracy theoried himself into the Illuminati ffs, no way that part of him is completely gone. But it’s also so hard to say, because damn did they bring all of it back full circle.

[bengiyo]

Be My Favorite Ep 5 Stray Thoughts

Last week, Kawi went on the class trip that he missed in the past and encountered incredibly frustrating hazing rituals. His affection for Pear was used against him, and he ended up mildly embarrassed when Pear turned him down as gently as she could. Pisaeng, after being chided by Kawi, also directly turned Pear down. Max was glorious and unbothered. Not and the seniors suck. Pear is absolutely someone worth admiring, and I get why people like her. I’m currently impressed by how well this show is enabling everyone to grow by having one person start down a path of becoming more emotionally honest and forthright.

Curious that the show went out of the way to make sure we know that Not gets no bitches.

I like that Pisaeng is tippy-toeing to confessing to Kawi. He told him he made things clear with Pear because he cares how Kawi sees him and he needed to know if he was still going to pursue Pear on his own. He doesn’t want Kawi to know that he and others heard him being rejected.

Oh, it’s cool that Kawi is having a hard time taking advantage of the lottery.

Kawi building an interactive friendship with Pear is also a huge relief.

Big fan of the way the time travel rules have been established, because we have a reason to stick around here.

Kawi, please don’t knock yourself for being a subtitler. They are the most important people for the international audience.

I feel like Pisaeng is properly dealing with his own queerness for the first time, and I really hope he goes back to the gay club later.

Not is really making himself appealing to the girls by being condescending and an asshole.

Big fan of Max. Don’t be moody about your problems if you don’t want to tell me the tea. Also, it’s your issue not your potential suitor.

He went back to the club! This is definitely his first time being in a queer space.

Nooo! Don’t run away from Max!

I feel sad for Kawi that Not and co. took his joy for songwriting.

Oh, yes, Max. READ HIS ASS.

I need to learn the name of Pear’s friend because she just delivered a WORD. Being kind and offering encouragement costs so little! Stop being so mean!

I am in love with Max. He was a bit harsh with Pisaeng, but baby gays need to get over themselves a little bit sometimes.

Look at that. Just a little bit of encouragement and Kawi’s already doing better.

This show just said we have a duty to be kind to each other and ourselves, because the world is just a place. Oh my goodness.

This the third time we’ve seen someone get rejected kindly on this show. In each case, it has seemingly made things better between the pair. I feel like we will be writing about this more later.

This show just said “changes are more important than miracles.” What the absolute fuck? I am kinda losing my mind over a Jittirain show once again.

Gawin is so fucking good at playing a gay man learning to love himself. This is the third time!

I love that someone else saw potential in Kawi after he put himself out there. It wasn’t the chance he wanted, but it’s the one he found. This is actually really nice.

Curious whose perspective they want us to read this final montage from. Both? Neither?

Gawin played freshman Pisaeng differently. That was so well done. He’s talented.

Wow. I think I actually really like this show. It feels like it’s trying to gently deprogram the audience. It’s like it knew a lot of us were bringing a lot of hostile energy to the viewing and said, “Would you mind being just a little bit kinder?” and you know what, maybe I will be. This has been really lovely so far, and I think I need to soften my stance with it. There are some incredible ideas here about the important of community and treated each other with just a little bit more kindness and respect. I also like that the show said plainly that it hurts us all to withhold our feelings from each other, because even if we can’t reciprocate them we can still build something good for everyone out of it. I will be seated for the rest of this ride.

[stephensmithuk]

"Army-crammer"

You may be wondering what one of these was, so I'll give a quick explanation.

An idea imported from Imperial China, where it had been going since the end of the 6th Century CE, the British at this time had a series of competitive exams you would do if you wanted to join the civil service (either UK or Indian) or become an officer in the British Army. These has been introduced to improve the quality of the men in the organisations and get rid of the problems caused by patronage by selecting on merit.

You would take this exam, covering a wide range of topics from the classics (of course) to modern languages to geography. If you passed, you were eligble for a role, although still needed to undergo the other sorts of checks you still do for employment today - background checks, health checks and also oral testing to make sure you knew your stuff.

Some more stuff here:

I think the "Modern Major-General Song" was influenced by this - officers who had a lot of broad knowledge, but not that much of use in a military context. Although the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes would make a great password.

You would have various organisations, either tutors or full-time schools, to help young men prepare for these exams.

The exams are largely a thing of the past in the UK, but are still very much around in India, where the UPSC to join their civil service is considered possibly the toughest exam in the world:

Those who got into the Army officer training programme would either go to the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich (for the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers) or the Royal Military College in Sandhurst (infantry and cavalry).

However, while these exams were designed to make the Army more merit-based, it still tended to be the richer guys who ended up as "Ruperts". You had to buy a lot of your own kit and maintain it too. You still do have to pay for full ceremonial dress (generally red or black), No. 1 Dress (blue, for ceremonial events) and "mess dress", which is basically the military equivalent of evening wear.

This uniform could be bought from various places, including the Army & Navy Stores, a chain of department stores run by officers from both as a co-operative. Their stores covered a whole range of stuff for soldiers and their families, ranging from groceries to guns. They even expanded to India, although those branches went with independence. In 1973, they were bought out by House of Fraser; a chain that has had a bad last few years, with a large number of its stores closed or closing.

You can get allowances and tax relief on uniform costs today. There is also a big second-hand market.

Also, living the lifestyle associated with being an officer and a gentlemen wasn't cheap. You had to pay your mess bills, ensure that your sword was in good condition, keep up a decent social life etc.

Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes also was an army coach in his past, by the way.

[missnight0wl]

Probably too late, but I just had a theory. What if it wasn’t Rakepick who killed Rowan? I remember that time we used a polyjuice potion to become Rakepick - someone from R who didn’t like her probably could have done the same. What better way to ruin her life than cost her her job and taint the young wizards who love her, by framing her for murder?

I don’t know lol. I just feel like suddenly killing her favourite students’ best friend for seemingly no reason makes no sense in her plot line. At all. JC could at least elaborate on why if it were the case.

Also, I lobe her and refuse to believe she’s guilty and evil lol

The problem is that when we meet Rakepick in Azkaban, she basically admits that she killed Rowan. For your idea to work, we'd have to assume that we saw Rakepick's imposter during the night of Rowan's death, in the Sunken Vault, and therefore later in Azkaban. On top of that, for some reason, the imposter decided to keep their cover and not to reveal they're not truly Rakepick - which technically is possible, but if you ask me, it doesn't really sound like a great story.

That being said, you're right that Rakepick killing Rowan makes no sense. In fact, in the sane route in Azkaban, she implies that it wasn't Rowan whom she wanted to kill - which actually does make sense because we're supposed to believe nobody knew Rowan was even there before they jumped in front of Ben. But who did Rakepick want to kill then? Ben? MC? And why? As you said, none of it was ever explained, and it's not like it's obvious without explanation.

I said it in the past, and I'll say it again: my problem is not that JC made Rakepick evil. My problem is that they claim it makes sense when it doesn't. In Y4 and Y5, Rakepick is an intriguing, super intelligent, always-two-steps-ahead-of-everyone character. In the Portrait Vault, she turns into a parody of herself, and NOTHING in her plotline makes sense anymore.

If all she ever cared about was returning to Hogwarts to get her hand on the treasure in the Cursed Vault, why she waited until Y4 to return, when we know for a fact that Dumbledore was actively searching for her since at least Y2?

Why she betrayed us in the Portrait Vault instead of waiting until the Sunken Vault? I know we're supposed to believe it's because she thought Jacob would tell us about her betrayal after being freed, but it makes no sense. She just had to knock MC and the gang down, kill Jacob, get rid of his body, modify the kids' memory, and claim that Jacob was simply not there. Also, it's stupid that she even agreed to take so many witnesses to the vault, to begin with. She'd be fine with just MC and Bill. Why take Merula, Ben, and Charlie/Penny?

Why kill anyone in the Forest in Y6? Like, her main problem at that point was to get to the Sunken Vault before MC. Killing anyone didn't make achieving it any easier. In fact, it only made her a more wanted criminal (as the authorities were already looking for her), so... what exactly did she want to achieve here?

If anyone wants to make Rakepick a villain in their story, you do you. But for JC's version, it just doesn't work. You'd have to rewrite a big part of the first five years, and that's actually when the story was good.

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3049: Kingdra (Neo Revelation)

Kingdra had an interesting gimmick. It was able to copy attacks from any Pokemon it evolved from for just a Colorless Energy, which meant relying on whatever Horsea and Seadra cards were around. Evolving Pokemon sometimes had good moves down there, but usually didn't. Kingdra had Neo Genesis Seadra to work with, and while that wasn't spectacular for standards of big evolved Pokemon with expensive attacks, it sure looked real nice when paying almost no Energy.

90 HP was pretty typical, for a Stage 2, or at least on the lower end of that range. Kingdra could take hits, especially considering its lack of a Weakness and Resistance. The combination of a low Energy cost and the HP meant that Kingdra got better once a card came back in Promo form as well, at least against the weaker attackers out there like Dark Gengar. The Retreat Cost was 2, and it was potentially a good idea to have Warp Point or Switch to help pivot.

Genetic Memory needed just a Colorless Energy. It let Kingdra use any attack from any Pokemon it evolved from without worrying about the attack's cost. Neo Genesis Seadra was what you wanted to copy, as it had an attack that did 30 damage with a flip for 10 hitting a Benched Pokemon. While nowhere near the output of Magcargo or Feraligatr, or even something less seen like Donphan, it added up and trying to stop a swarm of Pokemon that didn't need to work for Energy could actually be a problem. This was especially good in Base-Neo as the 60 HP Sneasel was all over the place, and anything at 70 like Scyther or Muk was just a heads flip at any point in the game away from falling in 2 hits. The low Energy cost worked well with Focus Band+Gold Berry and Pokemon Center to work as something of a tank against any deck that didn't have really impressive damage output, with the downside that your own damage output was low enough that healing and Metal Energy gave the same problems back.

Kingdra decks still wanted to run Water Energy, however. Twister needed 2 Water and 2 Colorless Energy, making it expensive. 50 damage was the reward, along with 2 coin flips. For each heads, you discarded an Energy card attached to the Defending Pokemon. If both were tails, the attack didn't even do damage. This was unreliable, and in most games you'd avoid it. If the opponent was running Metal Energy to make Genetic Memory too weak, such as against Steelix, Zapdos, or Mewtwo, you were going to need to power this up. Getting rid of extra Metal Energy could make a game at least possible to win, especially in Rocket-On (or Neo-On, if you were using this there) where Super Energy Removal and Energy Removal were unavailable.

Kingdra was a dangerous threat, mostly in the Base-Neo format where its cheap damage output worked well when considering the typical HP numbers of some top decks. Loading up on healing cards and Focus Band could make Kingdra last for far longer than you might expect. There were issues with Metal Energy and things that could reach really high amounts of damage, which showed up more in later formats. It was still a mid-tier pick even after cards rotated, and some decks struggled to have an answer for a 90 HP Pokemon that didn't have to work too hard to do some damage. It was certainly worth keeping in mind when deck building in the Neo era.

[decolonize-the-everything]

What can I do? Be an active ally

How can I help? Be an active ally

Be an active ally

Being an active ally:

Men, the patriarchy affects you too. Yeah and negatively. Toxic masculinity, having to do things you don't want to cuz "you're a man," not being able to do the things you Do want to for the same reason, having to be tough and be the socially chosen one to die checking something out at night, repressing 99% of your emotions, also the misogynistic mommy issues that a patriarchy develops is fucking wild, constantly forcing you to dehumanize yourself & feelings for the idea of what a man should be.

All that is WACK. Things shouldnt be like that. I agree. Just understand some of us are struggling just for our right to exist right now, literally. We'd love to help you, we're just...preoccupied. Imagine how much faster this would all be over with if you regularly came to support our protests and voted in solidarity with the rest of us, though. How much more we could do all together with less divided, more united focus.

Also after some lengthy discussion myself and others found white people too suffer from white supremacy. White supremacy isn't just a Black People Problem™. You know that hole where you feel like culture should be? Like everyone else has dances and community and beliefs and culture but you have what you can buy at the store or sign up for at the Y? Assimilation into whiteness. Your ancestors' culture was left behind to blend into American Society. Which is... Capitalism. That's what it feels like as a native too. Except my ancestors didn't have a choice. Be a more active ally in dismantling whiteness and white supremacy. Support the movements, goals, and voices of BIPOC. It'd benefit all of us, like on an emotional-psychological level to be rid of it. Which yeah, helps deconstruct racism as a whole.

Remember you're an ally or becoming an ally today but marginalized communities as a whole have fought against systematic injustice since Columbus started it. Big picture: allowing this to continue has cost lives, culture, and history for everyone across generations and borders. Yeah, some people are gonna be more upset than others but it's Nobody's place to regulate how ppl to react to 500+ years of systematic abuse

Be critical in your allyship & think big picture; are you really going to stop supporting people trying to save Black and queer lives, challenging the patriarchy and white supremacy, trying get get rights and protections codified...over some property damage? Property damages are victimless and easily reparable, but conditional allyship has irreparable and deadly costs.

Look into the activist and leftist groups in your area

Listen when people tell you something is not okay or divisive (like justifying cultural appropriation or useless discourse)

Look into community/mutual orgs in your area (ex: Food Not Bombs, queer groups, and food kitchens)

Join or support them if you can. Create one in some cases if you're able. Go to protests, spend a few days helping, help organize, offer what you can (usually a really loud speaker tbh)

Join a union, pleeease.

I can't stress enough to listen to marginalized communities. The marginalized of the marginalized, even. When you vote, when a bill gets passed, when we discuss protests, and talk about actions to take. ALWAYS consider the voices that will MOST and directly be impacted by it. --- Ex: increased policing/police budgets, slashed LGBT resources, no access to abortion... Listen to the people it will hurt Not just the people it will benefit.

Ignoring these voices is a privilege and one afforded to you by a white supremacist society that inherently seeks to silent and suppress marginalized voices. White supremacists are the ones who decided we shouldn't get a voice in the first place. Your comfort is bought. Be an ally by finding comfort elsewhere, uplift us instead of white comfort supremacy.

Discard your reliance on whiteness and it's privileges all together. If absolutely any of us are to get anywhere we all need to be equal and treated equal, which means you need to be okay with being treated like us.

Be there. Show up.

[elendsessor]

no fusion run mini update

the demifiend’s ex girlfriend gets beaten up by a trans archangel, woman with nails so long it’s scary, and monke, more details at 7.

had to put some skill points into vitality because i was kinda getting nearly murdered in the sea of random encounters before getting to baal.

now with chiaki dead, i’m actually doing a bit of a revision to my team because of how luci’s fight works. going to have to use raidou as my second damage dealer no matter what because the only demons of mine that have focus aren’t going to do well, he’s the only one with pierce, pierce can’t be mutated into, the only way i can get pierce on everyone else even through fusion is via metatron, etc. luci is one big dps check because he can, at any given point, bust out diarahan, something the people who got dante from the devil may cry series never get to worry about. whatever sadist at atlus decided to give the hardest boss in the game a full heal better have gotten a raise because they’ve probably crushed many dreams.

but i also need a better healer. i love titania but i can’t get her to null ailments and she’s very squishy. the only demon i can recruit that can null ailments, has no weakness to the elemental attacks luci has, and have set up in the compendium to mutate a couple skills to get better ones… is suparna.

yeah the bird with the stupidly annoying death cry? actually op if you put in the time and effort.

there’s a couple problems though.

first, they’re insanely underleveled right now. no real issue because merciful’s exp wield can cut down grinding time but it’s still grinding time. i have a ton of unused incenses sitting in my inventory so i can boost some of the stats quicker, plus the chance for incenses to be gifts are amazing.

second, the unchangeable stuff. stone hunt is a garbage skill outside of low level runs and garuda gets generally better skills. wind cutter is the best wind element skill that isn’t tornado, plus he gets endure at level 67—a skill my team is lacking. there’s also an unused skill slot they have just sitting there. taunting me.

the goal is to have bufula change to dekaja and diarahan to mutate into megidola before chaining into prayer. the dekaja is so i can set up provoke without luci getting the attack buff and just in case of emergencies to begin with, and prayer because luci loves status ailments.

not sure about keeping zandyne or what i would even aim for. suparna is going to be a fully support-based demon, so i technically don’t need an attacking move, and i can’t get rid of mazandyne which is a good alternative. i’m considering debilitate but i already have debuffing moves across the entire team that cover the bases so having fog breath + debilitate feels repetitive. then again, i haven’t used any of those skills outside of provoke in ages, mainly because provoke recovers mp, and i could be out-dekunda’d. mana surge is the other option since prayer costs a ton of mp, with each time used to recover it being one less bit of damage. it definitely could be remedied with a maxed out magic stat though. still torn, but i’m likely going to go the debilitate route if i decide i absolutely have to.

of course i’m gonna be training up the rest of the team too. need some emergency switch-ins and a good group to knock out kagutsuchi first and foremost since luci is a back to back fight. gay snake and uber pixie are the primary revivers and are tanks at heart. don’t know how that’ll work for everyone else. lilith has life drain so if i have to go the stall route she can take some hits.

because of the lack of pierce, i do need to max out strength and vitality on the boyfriends asap.

decided in the meantime to go for a personal goal in the upcoming grinding session: try and fully master as many magatama as possible. yippee.

at least this is the final push before i’m free from playing megaten games until smt 5 vengeance where i’ll probably get beaten to death by something.

[cristalbeesnow]

reading Eric's words better I saw more positive things (they are cryptic words and I see that I was not the only one who had difficulty with the interpretation) in the meantime there are very positive points: in the meantime Eric is still interested in them, he answered us, not it's a closed chapter so maybe it's been discussed in the higher ups I think. then Netflix is ​​more than willing to sell the rights to the entire Grishaverse to another service (it can't wait to get rid of us) so it doesn't want to let everything remain dead paper. I mean, apparently they have no intention of proceeding with the show (exactly as I always thought. When they cancel they do so permanently, it's their policy, they can't set a precedent or their cancellation system collapses) which is a good thing. What, there was no hesitation in Eric's words he said it's possible. so Netflix is ​​ready to sell, it shouldn't create problems (as I feared). then another point is that the crows' show (and let's remember that chronologically it would come before Sat 3 so in any case we would have started from there) has the possibility of attracting more fans. it is more dynamic. data in hand is the most loved dilogy. I'm not saying it. the data says so. they are the characters that it hurt the most to lose (at least for me), the robbery theme is in fashion, the script is already written, it is a product that would have potential... some other service could take it into consideration... but there is a curse though and this is apparently the only negative note. and it's the damn money. in a period of crisis like the one we are experiencing now it would be a very expensive show, at least as Eric is seeing it in his mind... the ice court in theory should be done entirely through special effects as well as ketterdam... but c 'It's a cop-out if Eric and a possible production company come to an agreement (the kids depend on them.. we insist) if a smaller budget is offered the show can still be made. sure, the ice court won't be perfect...but honestly, who cares if it's perfect? I'm interested in seeing my beloved characters, their past. I don't care if they take the interiors of the palace of Caserta (example) and a garden in Austria. I do not care. they can also shoot it with their cell phone for all I care. I want the story. not the special effects... so I hope they find a compromise and that you don't give up everything for the money. in my opinion we need to focus on this now. expect the show but with less budget. Netflix is ​​ready to drop the ball. maybe other platforms want the product. now we have to fight against the budget and push for compromise in my opinion... let's insist on having the show with fewer special effects. I beg you. I would hate to lose everything at this point just for a question of money... let's remember that we want the story, not the effects... at least I'm speaking for myself... shows with fewer special effects turned out just as good... let's insist on this. now he is not big nor the enemy. it's the money... let's focus on this and push for compromise. let's make it clear that we want it at all costs...a kiss to everyone.... . #fewer special effects #we want the ice court even in plasticine it's enough to have it #there's always a solution #give me the crows! even if you were to shoot the show in the medieval castle above my town # please.