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dragonbanexxi · 2 years

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Soul of Bronze; Blood of Fire

Not Canon Compliant!!!!

Helaena x OC Targaryen Royce

Chapter 4: Aemond

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The Heir of Runestone would often joke that he should be referred to as Rhaegar Stone. Seeing as his father (Prince Daemon Targaryen) had no want for him and his mother (Lady Rhea Royce) was long dead. All jokes end when he and Ser Gerold Royce are summoned to the capitol by none other than King Viserys the First of his Name. The King wanting nothing more than to bring his estranged nephew into the fold, Viserys offers Rhaegar his so called Targaryen Right. A betrothal to the Princess Helaena and the chance to claim a dragon. Will Rhaegar be able to claim such a beast? Even if his valyrian skills were lacking? Prince Aemond seems to think so. Though he’s mostly is just thrilled to finally have someone around who’s willing to be his friend. Also the court begins to notice that the Princess Helaena seems to have taken a liking to the new prince. Much to her mothers dismay, who’s fighting tooth and nail to have the girl be given to Aegon. Something neither sibling wanted. To Rhaegar everything was going smoothly until the news of Laena Velaryon death had dampen everything.

Unimpressive.

That was all Aemond could think about his cousin entering the courtyard.

The royal family stood outside. King Viserys in the center with the blacks to his right and the greens to the left.

Viserys sported a warm smile as his eyes landed to his nephew. Aemond glaring a bit to his father, his belly churning with envy. His father never looked at him or siblings that way. Well only to one Rhaenyra. His sister who was currently looking like a war was waging in her head.

The King’s second son could only wonder what was setting his elder sister amiss.

On instinct his eyes traveled to his mother. Aemond knew that expression his mother was sporting. The Queen didn’t want the Rogue Prince’s son here.

In private she had dubbed Rhaegar Targaryen “The Rogues Spawn.” Aemond knew it was mostly because Alicent was upset that his grace plans on betrothing Helaena to Rhaegar.

He turned his lilac eyes back on the newcomer, Aemond couldn’t help but scowl a bit. His coloring was similar to the Strong Boys. Though Rhaenyra’s sons had straight brown hair, their cousin had curly raven black hair.

The infamous Prince Rhaegar finally made it to court. As he stepped closer to the royal brood, Aemond got a look of his cousin’s eyes.

Purple eyes, a dragon indeed.

Aegon hadn’t been able to shut up about their new cousin. Questioning how he would be like, how’d he look. If he was good as sparing. By the sound of it his brother was determined to befriend their cousin.

Of course he would. Aegon preferred anyone else’s company who wasn’t Aemond. A twat was what Aegon used to describe. It had once stung deeply in the boys heart that his brother was so mean to him. Now he’s just accepted that it’ll probably always be that way between them.

A masculine voice broke his thoughts.

“Your grace.” Ser Gerold and his ward bent the knee.

King Viserys broke into a small laugh.

“Arise arise! Ser Gerold it is great to see you again my Lord.” They shook hands, both smiling kindly. Ser Gerold Stepped back nudging his ward forward. The Heir of Runestone tripping slightly. His cheeks turning pink.

Viserys’s gave a large grin. “My dear boy, how I’ve longed to see you!”

The boy couldn’t react having been engulfed into a big bear hug. He pat his king awkwardly on his back. The king lets go.

Aemond saw that his mother and Rhaenyra shared a look. Probably to see who can sink their claws into the boy the fastest.

“Your grace, thank you for inviting us to the capital.” His voice juvenile.

Aemond could tell his cousins voice is going through that transition of sounding like a boy to man.

“You’re always welcome here nephew!” He put his only hand on the boys shoulder. “And I am uncle to you! Not your grace.”

Rhaegar responding with a small nod and shy smile. Aemond narrowing his eyes slightly. This boy was the son of Daemon Targaryen. The Rogue Prince was said to be arrogant and have a snark to him. Rhaegar on the other hand had the demeanor of a scared calf. Always glancing towards Ser Gerold for reassurance.

The King began to introducing his family to his only nephew. Starting of with Rhaenyra, slighting the queen as always.

Rhaegar bowed stiffly “It is an honor to make your acquaintance princess.”

Aemond’s sister gave a tight smile. “Same to you cousin.” It felt cold.

Aemond knew the Heir of Runestone felt it too. The rest of blacks were introduced.

Now it was the greens turn. “My wife Queen Alicent.” Rhaegar bowed again though Aemond noticed it was just as stiff as the one he gave Rhaenyra.

“Welcome to King’s Landing dear. I hope you enjoy your time here.” Aemond knew his mother well. She didn’t mean a word she said.

“Thank you my Queen.” He replied simply.

It’s Aemond’s sister Helaena who really steals the show. Before he or Aegon could be introduced Helaena made her presence known.

“You have black hair” she blurted out in a dreamy voice.

Aemond and the rest of his family share a look shock.

“Yes I do.” Rhaegar said as he touched strand instinctively.

“It’s lovely. I’m Helaena.” The boy blushed turning as red as a cherry tomato.

“Ahh… thank you. That’s a lovely neckless princess.”

Helaena gave her signature dreamy smile.

“I made it myself. Do you really like it?”

Aemond scowled, since when did Helaena converse with people so easily?

He noticed the King looking at the pair as if he was content to hear them chatting.

”I like the spider bit.” He smiled while pointing at the crystal blue spider gem. The two seemingly lost in their own little world.

“Let’s head inside and we can break our fast together. Meanwhile the help can take your belongings to your quarters.” The king suggested.

They all agree. The King walks first calling upon Ser Gerold and Prince Rhaegar to walk with him.

“Seems like our cousin is weird one too. What a shame.” Aegon whispered into Aemond’s ear. The younger prince rolling his eyes at the statement.

“He was just being nice to Helaena.”

Aegon scrunching his nose says “He’ll figure out she’s a freak sooner or later.”

That earned him a smack upside the head by their mother. Who was glaring daggers at her firstborn.

“Mother!” Aegon squealed in an un-princely fashion.

“May I say you look more lovelier than ever.”

Their mother pinched his ear. Not strongly but just enough to make her point.

“Anymore comments about your sister and I will lock you in the Sept for your whole training session again!” She says with a small growl.

The horror in Aegon’s eyes is almost comical. It made Aemond laugh a bit. Surely if his brother stepped foot into their Sept he’d burst into flames.

“You won’t hear another word out me mother.” Aegon promised her.

The queen and second son share a knowing look. Aegon couldn’t keep his trap shut to save his life.

They made their way to the private dinning hall. Everyone taking their seat. Aemond waited until everyone was seated to find his spot. To his surprise the only seat available was one next to his new cousin. Aemond made his way to him, sitting down carefully.

“Prince Aemond” Rhaegar said with a kind smile.

Aemond gave a shy one back “Cousin” noticing a bracelet the black haired boy had. It had interesting inscriptions carved into them.

“You’re bracelet is interesting cousin. Say what are those marking for?” Aemond asked inquisitively.

Rhaegar ran his thumb over the carvings. “It’s an ancient rune used for protection.” He took it off and handed it to the younger boy. “It’s the written language of the Firstmen.”

Aemond thought the bracelet interesting. Though he had to admit his knowledge on the Firstmen is lacking.

“I’ll have read up on Firstmen history. To my disappointment I don’t know much about their history.”

Rhaegar hummed in thought. “There’s a book I brought from my library back home. It’s about different clans of the Firstmen. I could let you borrow it if you’d like?”

Aemond’s small smile grew into a full grin. “You like to read cousin?”

Rhaegar nodding enthusiastically. “Aye. Mostly history books. But I do enjoy a good epic from time to time.”

Aemond agreed.

The prince’s tender heart soaring. Maybe just maybe, he’s finally met someone who’s willing to be his friend.

That’s all Aemond has ever wanted. To have a friend.

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#helaena targaryen x oc #targaryen royce oc #daemon targaryen x rhea royce #original targaryen character

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nebris · 2 years

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HMS Dreadnought was a Royal Navy battleship whose design revolutionised naval power. The ship's entry into service in 1906 represented such an advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of ships named after her. Likewise, the generation of ships she made obsolete became known as "pre-dreadnoughts". Admiral Sir John "Jacky" Fisher, First Sea Lord of the Board of Admiralty, is credited as the father of Dreadnought. Shortly after he assumed office in 1904, he ordered design studies for a battleship armed solely with 12 in (305 mm) guns and a speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). He convened a "Committee on Designs" to evaluate the alternative designs and to assist in the detailed design work.

Dreadnought was the first battleship of her era to have a uniform main battery, rather than having a few large guns complemented by a heavy secondary armament of smaller guns. She was also the first capital ship to be powered by steam turbines, making her the fastest battleship in the world at the time of her completion.[1] Her launch helped spark a naval arms race as navies around the world, particularly the Imperial German Navy, rushed to match it in the build-up to the First World War.[2]

Ironically for a vessel designed to engage enemy battleships, her only significant action was the ramming and sinking of German submarine SM U-29; thus she became the only battleship confirmed to have sunk a submarine.[3] Dreadnought did not participate in the Battle of Jutland in 1916 as she was being refitted. Nor did Dreadnought participate in any of the other First World War naval battles. In May 1916 she was relegated to coastal defence duties in the English Channel, before rejoining the Grand Fleet in 1918. The ship was reduced to reserve in 1919 and sold for scrap two years later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_(1906)

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swldx · 1 month

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BBC 0407 17 Aug 2024

12095Khz 0358 17 AUG 2024 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from TALATA VOLONONDRY. SINPO = 55434. English, dead carrier s/on @0358z then ID@0359z pips and newsroom preview. @0401z World News anchored by Fiona Macdonald. Doctors in India have begun a national strike, escalating the protest against the rape and murder of a female colleague in the West Bengal city of Kolkata. The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the country's largest grouping of doctors, said all non-essential hospital services would be shut down across the country on Saturday. Kamala Harris has called for millions of new-build homes and first-time buyer help, tax breaks for families and a ban on grocery "price-gouging" in her first speech focused on economic policy. The Democratic presidential nominee's plans build on ideas from the Biden administration and aim at addressing voter concerns after a surge in prices since 2021. Argentina's Federal Police dismantled what it said was a terrorist cell planning attacks on the Jewish community in the city of Mendoza, the National Security Ministry said in a statement on Friday, describing the group as an "Islamist terrorist organization." Indonesia marked 79 years of independence on Saturday with a ceremony in the unfinished future capital of Nusantara, which was planned to relieve pressure on Jakarta but whose construction has lagged behind schedule. The reason for the move was because Jakarta has become known by some experts as the world’s fastest-sinking megacity. U.S. officials said efforts to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are nearing the final stages, as diplomats worked frenetically to bring the fighting to an end at last and also keep Iran from a retaliatory strike that might ignite a wider war. “We are closer than we’ve ever been” to an agreement, President Joe Biden said in Washington Friday, hours after Egyptian and Qatari mediators and U.S. envoys concluded two days of talks in Doha and vowed to convene another round by the end of next week in Cairo. Biden deployed Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel, with the top U.S. diplomat set to depart Saturday to press for the deal. The largest wildfire in a century in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, burned through 33,048 hectares (81,663 acres), according to the federal government. Residents were allowed to return on 16 August to their fire-ravaged town. Only two-thirds of the township remains standing after the late July blaze. @0406z "The Newsroom" begins. Backyard fence antenna w/MFJ-1020C active antenna (used as a preamplifier/preselector), JRC NRD-535D, 250kW, beamAz 315°, bearing 63°. Received at Plymouth, MN, United States, 15359KM from transmitter at Talata Volonondry. Local time: 2258.

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seeker372011 · 1 year

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Day 7- Winton, Dinosaur Capital of Australia

We are in Winton tonight just a couple of hours from Longreach. For some reason this feels like the real thing, the real outback, more so than Longreach. And I must say we like it a lot.

Maybe it’s the Outback Festival that has been held here for thirty odd years.. we caught bits of the last day. Maybe it’s the spectacular sunsets. Maybe it’s the quirky things you stumble across- like Arno’s Wall. ( Arno was an Opal Miner who among many other things served in the French Foreign Legion before migrating to Australia. He built this 70 metre long stone wall 2 metres - and built into it every conceivable you are likely to find in a junk yard- lawnmower parts, typewriters, boat propellers, pots, sewing machines and a complete early model Holden. Oh yes and a kitchen sink. Or two.)

The Outback Festival has a very high quirkiness coefficient too. Apart from nightly concerts, bush poetry and an iron man and iron woman competition, it features tons of other competitions the like of which I dare saw would be found nowhere else- children and adults wool bale rolling; the Quilton Dunny racing Darby ( for non Australians a dunny is an outdoor structure housing the potty) where the jockey sits on the toilet seat of a sunny mounted on wheels and a team pulls the contraption across the finish line; and men and women’s competitions to see which team can pull a truck across to a finish line( down Main Street of course) in the fastest time.

On the way to Winton we pulled into the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum which takes nearly four hours to experience; and a fine museum it is and deservedly Winton’s top draw card with 500 people a day going through during school holidays. ( That’s a big number given how remote Winton really is).

The odometer shows we have driven close to 2500 kms to get here. Worth it !

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kamreadsandrecs · 1 year

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By Laila Lalami

I remember my first glimpse into the future. In August 1992, when I arrived in California as a student, I discovered during orientation that the university required all incoming students to have something called an email account. To access it, I had to call up a text-based mail client on Unix, using a series of line commands. If I needed a file that sat on a university computer in New York, I could use file transfer protocol to download it in Los Angeles, the whole process taking no more than a few minutes. That’s brilliant, I remember thinking.

That fall, the incoming Clinton administration announced a plan to invest billions of dollars into civilian research and technology. The goal, according to The Times, was to “flood the economy with innovative goods and services, lifting the general level of prosperity and strengthening American industry.” Computers across the country needed to be able to communicate, transmitting data on a high-speed network that Al Gore liked to call the “information superhighway.”

Highways are a good metaphor for change; they take us from one place to the next, from the past to the future, from old selves to the new. My transformation into a Californian happened slowly. I learned to estimate with frightening accuracy how long it would take to get somewhere in traffic; to live with the threat of earthquakes, mudslides and wildfires; and to speak Spanish. I finally understood what Don Henley meant when he sang about the “warm smell of colitas.”

The computer I had in my dorm room was a Macintosh Classic II, with a nine-inch screen that heralded a future when machines would become ever more portable. I was supposed to use the Mac for my schoolwork in linguistics, though I spent many nights writing fiction; I had secret and not entirely formed ambitions of being a writer. Now I carry in my pocket a tiny device that, in addition to everything the Classic II did, can play movies, deliver the news, give directions, send money, book airline tickets and check my royalty statements. It also recognizes my face, listens to everything I say, stores my health records and tracks my location.

What I mean to say is that the future was both what I imagined and nothing like what I imagined. Here, too, highways are a good analogy. They don’t move in straight lines; they twist and turn; they have offramps that can lead in unexpected or perhaps dangerous directions. In 1999, while trying to write my first novel, I went to work for an internet start-up that competed with Google, Yahoo and AltaVista in the search-engine field. I remember spending hours each day running queries on our site and comparing them with results on competitors’ sites. The goal was to deliver the best, fastest and most relevant search results for customers.

But a couple of years later, a Google engineer noticed that data logs from users’ searches were more revealing than the search queries themselves, an insight that effectively transformed Google from a simple search engine into a data company. Google began to sell targeted advertising and turned privacy into a commodity, launching what the scholar Shoshana Zuboff calls “surveillance capitalism.”

California’s tech companies have since brought unprecedented connection and convenience to our lives, linking us with loved ones thousands of miles away and delivering information on everything from unclogging the kitchen sink to real-time election results. At the same time, they have collected so much user information that they’ve managed to confine us to ideological bubbles, calling free will into question and eroding democratic governance.

If you want to know the future, the saying goes, look to California. This is a place that tries out new ideas all the time, and on a scale rarely seen anywhere else. But while California has an exceptional purchase on the future, it’s also vulnerable to the same exclusionary tendencies that exist elsewhere in the nation. There’s a longstanding friction here between an idealistic push for progress and a nostalgic pull toward the past.

California was the first state to pass tailpipe-emissions standards, the first to legalize the medical use of marijuana, the first to adopt paid family leave, the first to experiment with guaranteed income on a municipal level, but also the first state to stage a tax revolt that hobbled public services, the first to ban affirmative action and, in 1994, the first to pass a ballot initiative — Proposition 187 — that would have barred undocumented immigrants from public social services, including education and health care. Prop 187 was a consequential episode in the state’s history, crystallizing the nativist backlash to changing demographics and foreshadowing similar movements in the rest of the country.

California’s character emerges out of the seesawing between two impulses, one restrictive, the other rebellious. Although a majority of voters cast a ballot in favor of Prop 187, resistance to the measure was steadfast, especially among young people, chipping away at its support. It was declared unconstitutional in federal court and was effectively ended by Gov. Gray Davis in 1999. The proposition’s passing strengthened Latino voter turnout and changed the electoral map for the next 25 years.

Now, as California takes on the threat of climate change, a housing crisis that is spilling out of state and a demographic exodus, we find ourselves again at a crossroads. Listening to the radio after a wildfire a couple of years ago, I heard a caller pin his hopes on technological innovation as a solution to this problem. But as we approach the future, it might be worthwhile to consider how we got here in the first place.

Three hundred years ago, the future arrived on foot, clad in the brown robe of a Franciscan friar. In 1769, charged by the Spanish crown with exploring and “civilizing” the area then known as Alta California, Father Junipero Serra and the padres set about building a chain of Catholic missions on a 600-mile route that ran through the territory on a vertical line. The road, which in parts followed already existing Indigenous trails, was called El Camino Real (“the Royal Highway”). The highway supported the farms and ranches that would eventually become the backbone of the territory’s economy, but the mission system presaged a long and brutal campaign of displacement, forced labor, acculturation and violence against the Indigenous peoples of the state — which the Spanish envisioned as a Christian territory filled with gente de razón (“reasonable people”).

In 1848, as California came under U.S. rule, flecks of gold were found in the American River. By some estimates, nearly 300,000 people moved to California during the Gold Rush, tripling the state’s population in roughly 10 years. In order to transport people and goods to and from the West, a new type of roadway was needed: the Transcontinental Railroad. The newcomers hoped that a combination of luck and hard work would make them rich, a belief that became known as the California dream, a precursor to the national mythology around the American dream.

But the Chinese workers who took on the difficult and dangerous work of building the railroad became the target of resentment, special taxes and a host of legal restrictions. Chinese Californians fought against discrimination in various ways. When a young cook named Wong Kim Ark was denied entry to the United States after visiting China, he sued, arguing that his birth in San Francisco made him a citizen under the 14th Amendment and therefore exempt from the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Supreme Court ruled in his favor in a landmark case that established the principle of birthright citizenship. But the exclusion of Chinese immigrants remained the law of the land until 1943, when American interests in World War II aligned the nation with China against Japan.

By this time, the trains and electric trolleys that had allowed speedy — and racially mixed — transit through the state’s biggest cities were falling out of favor. The future belonged to automobiles. The Arroyo Seco Parkway, now part of the 110 freeway, opened in 1940, connecting Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles. Other freeways and highways soon followed, linking rural areas to cities and California to the rest of the country. The junction in East Los Angeles where the 5, 10, 101 and 60 freeways connect is now one of the most traveled highway interchanges in the world. But as the urban historian Gilbert Estrada has shown, it was once home to Mexican American families, some of whom were displaced to make way for construction. Black and brown dispossession was integral to freeway construction and, along with explicitly racist housing policies, contributed to today’s low level of Black homeownership.

The history of the highways and byways of our state follows a pattern: Each future that previous generations imagined for California attracted newcomers, claimed land or resources and transformed a few people into millionaires, but it also trampled on the rights, livelihoods and properties of vulnerable communities. Yet Californians’ resistance to predations of all kinds is precisely what led to progress. In 1969, for example, Native American activists began to occupy Alcatraz Island in protest of the federal government’s policy of tribal termination. This was more than symbolic; it brought national attention to Indigenous autonomy and civil rights and helped nurture tribal solidarity across the country. Likewise, when hydraulic gold mining in the 1870s caused a small town near Sacramento to flood, the survivors rebelled, mounting a series of legal challenges that culminated in one of the country’s earliest environmental laws, which prohibited mining companies from dumping in waterways in 1884. Over the next century, California established itself as a national leader in protecting the environment.

California’s history of progress through resistance teaches us that the future doesn’t just happen; it is built day by day, a result of choices that we and our leaders continue to make. Consider the state’s recent efforts at acknowledging and making amends for its troubled history. Amid a rise of anti-Asian crimes, the City of San Francisco officially apologized for its role in persecuting Chinese immigrants and discriminating against them in housing and jobs. Last year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to return Bruce’s Beach — a beachfront property that was taken from a Black couple in 1924 using eminent domain — to their surviving descendants.

In 2020, the Legislature appointed a special task force to document the impact of slavery and racism, develop proposals for reparations and recommend policies to prevent continuing harm. After careful study, the task force recommended that Black Californians have two pathways for seeking redress, one for general community harm and one for those who experienced specific injustices like expropriation. The task force limited reparations eligibility to Californians who are descendants of a Black person, free or enslaved, who lived in the United States before the end of the 19th century.

While the task force hasn’t set an exact figure on how descendants of enslaved people might be compensated for overpolicing, mass incarceration and housing discrimination, the economists who advise it estimate that the losses suffered by the state’s Black residents could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars. Whether compensation will actually be approved is yet to be determined.

The reparations conversation shows that California has a unique ability to reckon with its troubled history. But that thinking doesn’t always extend to the future. Artificial-intelligence systems are being used to moderate content on social media, evaluate college applications, comb through employment résumés, generate fake photos and artworks, interpret movement data collected from the border zone and identify suspects in criminal investigations. Language models like ChatGPT, made by the San Francisco-based company OpenAI, have also attracted a lot of attention for their potential to disrupt fields like design, law and education.

But if the success of A.I. can be measured in billion-dollar valuations and lucrative I.P.O.s, its failures are borne by ordinary people. A.I. systems aren’t neutral; they are trained on large data sets that include, for example, sexually exploitative material or discriminatory policing data. As a result, they reproduce and magnify our society’s worst biases. For example, racial-recognition software used in police investigations routinely misidentifies Black and brown people. A.I.-based mortgage lenders are more likely to deny home loans to people of color, helping to perpetuate housing inequities.

This would seem to be a moment where we can apply historical thinking to the question of technology, so that we can prevent the injustices that have resulted from previous paradigm-altering changes from happening again. In April, two legislators introduced a bill in the State Assembly that tries to prohibit algorithmic bias. The Writers Guild of America, which is currently on strike, has included limits on the use of A.I. in its demands. Resistance to excess also comes from inside the tech industry. Three years ago, Timnit Gebru, a head of the Ethical A.I. Team at Google, was fired after she sounded the alarm about the dangers of language models like GPT-3. But now even tech executives have grown wary: In his testimony before the Senate, Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, conceded that A.I. systems need to be regulated.

The question we face with both reparations and A.I. is in the end not that different from the one that arose when a Franciscan friar set off on the Camino Real in 1769. It’s not so much “What will the future look like?” — although that’s an exciting question — but “Who will have a right to the future? Who might be served by social repair or new technology, and who might be harmed?” The answer might well be decided in California.

#history #technology #politics

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kammartinez · 1 year

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By Laila Lalami

#history #technology #politics

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tritonmarketresearch · 2 years

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Global Copper Busbar Market is expected to Advance at a CAGR of 7.21% by 2028

Triton Market Research presents the Global Copper Busbar Market report sectioned by Application (Switchboards, Heat Sinks, Motors & Generators, Transformers, Bus Ducts, Power Distribution Panel, Others), Vertical (Telecommunications, Electric Utilities, Automotive & Transportation, Data Centers, Other Verticals), Type (Oxygen-free Copper Busbars, ETP [Electrolytic Tough Pitch Copper Busbars], Other Types), Deployment (Industrial, Residential, Commercial), and by country outlook (Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Europe and North America). The report further discusses the Market Summary, Industry Outlook, Impact of COVID-19, Key Insights, Porter’s Five Forces Analysis, Key Buying Impact Analysis, Market Attractiveness Index, Vendor Scorecard, Industry Components, Key Market Strategies, Drivers, Challenges, Opportunities, Competitive Landscape, Research Methodology & Scope, Global Market Size, Forecasts & Analysis (2022-2028).

Triton’s report suggests that the global market for copper busbar is estimated to witness growth at a CAGR of 7.21% over the forecast period.

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Busbars can distribute power and are more easily adaptable than other installations. They are electrically conductive metallic strips made of copper, brass, or aluminum. Copper is a common conductive metal used in busbars due to its resilience to high temperatures, providing extra security during short-circuit situations.

The key drivers for the copper busbar market are rising construction activities worldwide, growing electricity utilization, industrialization & urbanization, and increasing investments in transmission & distribution infrastructure. The increase in construction activities is one of the main reasons for the increase in copper busbar demand. Besides, the growing sites lead to a huge demand for construction materials, leading to copper busbar demand.

However, the fluctuations in raw material prices impede the market’s growth. Following a 26.83% price increase in 2021, analysts predict copper prices will reach a record low in 2022. These price fluctuations are due to factors such as China’s economic recovery from the pandemic, sustainable green energy stimulates, and supply disruptions.

Globally, North America is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the copper busbar market. The region has witnessed considerable growth owing to its favorable policies. Industry players in the region are investing significantly in R&D activities to find new avenues for their products. The US is the leading country, accounting for a market share of 87.29% in 2021 due to a more developed venture capital market.

The established companies in the copper busbar market include Oriental Copper Ltd, Sofia Med SA, Kinto Electric Co Ltd, ElvalHalcor Hellenic SA, Aurubis AG, Luvata, Lafer Iberica Srl, ABB Ltd, Etablissements Gindre Duchavany SA, American Power Connection Systems Inc, Eaton Corporation plc, Schneider Electric SE, Promet AG, Wetown Electric Group, and Siemens Aktiengesellschaft.

There is intense competition among the existing players in the market. Many companies are adding differentiated features to their products to gain a competitive edge in the market. Therefore, the competition level among current market contenders is high.

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#Copper Busbar Market #building and construction #building industry #construction industry #market research report #market research reports #triton market research

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avaantares · 3 years

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I'm about to be controversial, y'all.

So... am I the only one who's extremely unexcited to see RTD put back in charge of Doctor Who? I know lots of people have fond nostalgia for his era of showrunning -- and that's fair; my favorite DW characters and storylines also hail from those seasons -- but I keep looking back at his Whoniverse and remembering

the poor handling of season arcs: e.g. shoehorning the words "Bad Wolf" into every episode to suggest there's a continuing story and then... not having it signify anything except the fact that the words "Bad Wolf" were in every episode. Ditto "the bees are disappearing," et al. There was no building story, no progressive reveal, no real sense of continuity -- but then the season finale would throw out some supposedly-shocking revelation that pretended it tied everything together. Only it didn't feel like a proper payoff, because all we'd gotten was a random line once per episode to tick the requisite 'season finale reference' box.

what he did to some characters in DW, and his "defense" for it, which he then recycled for Torchwood: His stated reason for stranding Rose in an alternate universe/wiping Donna's memory/killing half the cast of Torchwood is because (and I can't find the exact quote right now, sorry) he's not interested in telling satisfying stories, but wants to do things that will shock the audience so they remember it and talk about it 50 years from now. (Sorry, but shock value alone isn't good storytelling. If I want to be angry/horrified/surprised/confused by events, I would just watch the news instead of a scripted TV show.)

the (frankly insulting) things he said about the fans and their attachment to said characters after their disappointing endings in DW/Torchwood. (Dude, you know we can hear you, right?)

what he did with the Torchwood sequels: His exact quote, cited by (I think) Scott Handcock in an issue of Vortex, was "Let's drive it off a cliff!" And then he proceeded to trash almost all of the established character growth from the previous decade's worth of series material.

the bulk of Miracle Day, which he wrote, and which was... You know, I've already written thousands of words detailing all the ways that series fails to support the continuity of the previous three TV seasons of Torchwood and the greater Whoniverse, so I won't reiterate all that here, but the fact that he directly contradicts his own previous scripts, scenarios, worldbuilding and characterization multiple times in that series really doesn't reassure me that he won't do something incredibly jarring and out of line/continuity with a new DW season.

Now, all that said, did RTD also do some things well as DW showrunner? Yes, he did. He certainly deserves credit for successfully resurrecting a franchise that had previously failed (more than once -- *cough*American Doctor Who movie*cough*). He established the Time War mythos and set up the Doctor's subsequent recovery arcs, which became a touchpoint for the series as a whole. He introduced numerous great characters, cast members, and villains, including several of my personal favorites. He created Torchwood, a show I love despite its many, many flaws. Some of the most iconic episodes of the new series were produced during his tenure ("The Empty Child," "Blink," "Midnight," "Silence in the Library," et al.). And in total fairness, as much as I loathed the execution of Miracle Day, I do think it had a solid premise and raised fascinating questions, and could have been a really good stand-alone sci-fi series if it hadn't tried to be a Torchwood sequel/spinoff.

I'm also not going to argue that DW is perfect right now and should stay just as it is, because the series has definitely been treading water lately; there have been numerous story and long-term continuity issues during Chibnall's era. But what it really comes down to for me is that despite those good, lasting innovations he made in launching the reboot series, I don't really see a new RTD-helmed season fixing the troubled state of Doctor Who as it stands, because the things he did well aren't necessarily what the show needs to regain its sense of balance after the uneven scripting and continuity-flaunting turns it took over the last couple of seasons. At best, it will be a hard reset to an early-series atmosphere that largely ignores the questions raised by recent installments, rather than a recovery from the continuity-nuking bomb dropped during the last season finale. At worst, he'll continue the problems delineated by the bullet-pointed list above, and the series will sink deeper into a hole.

To me, the RTD re-appointment really feels like BBC/BBCA trying to cash in on the early-NuWho nostalgia train to regain the viewership it lost during Jodie Whitaker's tenure (not her fault at all, but some whiny little boys viewers ragequit at her introduction because *gasp* a female Doctor?! how dare! while others lost interest because of the weak scripts or other failings of the past couple of seasons). I think the decision is motivated less by "what is best for the development of Doctor Who as an ongoing series?" and more by "what's the fastest shot in the arm we can give our struggling ratings so we can capitalize on the upcoming 60th anniversary?"

I hope I'm just being paranoid, and RTD defies all my expectations and brings something new and delightful to the next series of DW. But I can't deny that when I read the announcement, my gut reaction was just, "Ugh." Maybe it's just the Torchwood fan in me, burned too often and in too many ways to trust RTD to stick the landing, but I'm honestly feeling more trepidation than anticipation right now.

#doctor who #torchwood #russell t. davies #rtd #this post is just my personal opinion #everyone is entitled to their own #long post

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gear-project · 3 years

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Annon-Guy: I know boss characters are supposed to be hard, but why did they make Nagoriyuki a cheap S.O.B.? I thought ASW moved past the SNK Boss Syndrome thing with Ramlethal and Zato. They're tough, but not cheap. Especially sense Nagoriyuki is SO in love with "Shizuruyuki!" because he will "Shizuruyuki!" to avoid every single "Shizuruyuki!" that he uses, he may as well be married to "Shizuruyuki!". Point is, unless you have an ally, he's a massive pain to fight. Good thing Axl Low can 🧀 him.

Okay, since you're probably NOT the only person who is frustrated with Boss Nagoriyuki, I'll give you some tips that will help improve your chances of winning against him:

1. At any given moment, if Nago is in "neutral state" (i.e. he hasn't DONE anything yet), he is always and FOREVER READING YOUR INPUTS.

This means that no matter what button you push... IT'S THE WRONG BUTTON.

Let that statement sink in for a few moments...

....

...Did it sink in?

...Okay, good.

Any input you do will either be Shizuriyuki'd or Fukyo'd or COUNTERED AT RANGE by the best possible counter from the best and fastest normal he can manage.

This is A.I. input reading at its peak.

The only exceptions are normals that have extended "safe" hitboxes (like 6P) or long range moves he absolutely cannot beat with the current resources (not) at his disposal.

This also includes projectiles, depending on their speed and point of startup.

Granted, he can DASH THROUGH THEM with Fukyo, but at full screen situations he is less likely to do so.

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2. Now that I've explained what "neutral" is to Nagoriyuki (i.e. a get away with anything moment).

Let's explain what neutral IS NOT:

Any time Nago takes an action, he is TAKING A RISK.

The question is this though...: are you capitalizing ON THAT RISK?

Moves like Nago's far Slash poke CAN BE PUNISHED, if you're forcing him to be in "RECOVERY FRAME STATE".

Basically you're WAITING FOR NAGORIYUKI TO MAKE A MISTAKE.

Be it spacing, timing, or both... you're going to have to find a way to read his movements, rather than taking movements of your own.

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3. Now, let's talk about FRAME STARTUP.

If you know exactly what Nagoriyuki is going to do BEFORE HE DOES IT... that mitigates a lot of pain and annoyance.

Here's a simple example:

So long as you are close enough to throw him... you are in a position to "interrupt" his attacks WITH A THROW.

Throws can also INTERRUPT HIS FUKYO DASH.

It's all a test of timing and your ability to read the situation.

This leads in to Topic 4: Resources.

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4. WHENEVER NAGORIYUKI HAS TENSION, HE WILL USE IT.

Nevermind that what he's doing serves no purpose other than to hurt you.

Nevermind that he's taking a MONSTER RISK throwing out a raw Overdrive.

What you have to interpret is that, whenever he has 50 or 100 Tension... he is going to try and cut you.

And if you (Faultlessly) block the first cut, he will try to Roman Cancel in to a mixup.

This is just the nature of the A.I.

If he thinks he's in a defensive situation he can't readily win, he WILL GOLD BURST.

This happens more often than you might think. It's annoying.

You just have to anticipate it before it can happen.

If he doesn't Gold Burst... HE WILL USE SHIZURIYUKI, FUKYO, OR OVERDRIVES.

Watch his gauges like a hawk. You will lose if you do not.

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5. Now then, let's talk about POSITIONING.

Nago's range might be scary, but usually that's only when he HAS THE RESOURCES FOR THAT RANGE.

In terms of speed, here's something you may not know:

Nagoriyuki CAN'T CROSS YOU UP WHEN YOU'RE IN THE CORNER.

That's RIGHT.... if you're CORNERED, he can't enter the CORNER.

This is also true in Guilty Gear Isuka... meaning that the CORNER is actually the safest place to block. It's also the safest place to wait for Nago TO MAKE A MISTAKE.

But, even if you're at mid screen, there's a number of things you can do:

Wait for Fukyo dash and then THROW IT AS A PUNISH.

Wait for Nago to get close enough so that you CAN safely interrupt what he's going to do BEFORE HE DOES IT.

Remember, you can't "take an action"... Neutral belongs to Nago. You can only wait for HIM TO TAKE AN ACTION and punish it.

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6. Nago's Blood Gauge works like A.B.A.s Blood Gauge, Eddie's old Eddie Gauge, and Sol's Dragon Install:

If he takes a knockdown, a chunk of the gauge will be reduced.

If you empty the Gauge, Nagoriyuki WILL GET DIZZIED, LEAVING HIM WIDE OPEN.

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So... TLDR WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED.

1. Don't DO ANYTHING unless Nago is already DOING SOMETHING.

2. DO NOT TAKE TOO LONG, OR NAGO'S GOD EYE OF INPUT READING WILL SEE YOU. (i.e. timing on punishes is important, and must ONLY be done WHILE Nago is DOING SOMETHING.)

3. Throws HELP a LOT when you are close or as an anti-Fukyo tactic.

4. Nago uses Overdrives and Burst way too much, so take advantage of steps 1 and 2, if not Step 3. Always watch his gauges.

5. The Corner (and properly blocking) is your friend. Learn to Faultless Defend, especially with Positive Bonus, it will save your life.

6. Knockdowns are good. Blood Gauge is BAD. Kill Blood Gauge. Beat Nago. The End.

And if that wasn't enough, go watch this video... it will teach you how to put some of this in to practice.

#GG Guides #Nagoriyuki #Superboss

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themonstrousarchives · 3 years

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Hunt: Party Pack

Description: A motley crew of fellow monster hunters, but with a twist about them. They're just a little too monstrous. A quartet of roadtripping werewolves* seized by the Hunt, given an insatiable desire to track down and destroy other avatars primarily. They hunger for the PC that has done the most collateral damage, ready for revenge.

Hook, Session goals: Time for the most dangerous game, as we risk NPCs that the players have come across, along with any other monsters in the world- Bigfoot, an avatar of the Stranger, others capitalizing on the fears

Monster Type: Executioner (motivation: to punish the guilty) Powers: All of them have supernatural speed and strength, and can shapeshift into humanoid lycanthrope-esque beings for more effective predation. One of them is adept at using “magic,” mostly in a supportive way like a bard- helping to direct the others and prime their attacks. They try to lure monsters out, one of them faking weakness or taking on some aspect that the target might find appealing, then the bait leads them into an ambush. When hunting a group, they try to split everyone up so that they can gang up on whoever gets left behind. Attacks: Detailed below Weaknesses: The Dark, The Stranger, and the Spiral can either blind or misdirect the wolves, though actually killing them will be difficult- they have to be made into quarry to make them “vulnerable.” It’s a farfetched pull, but calling upon the owner of Lobos Ltd. (See the Deer Man adventure) and acquiring some of his cages would be effective in removing them as threats.

The Wolves: (Attacks ordered by preference)

Greg (Armor: 1) [][][][][][][] (Shapeshifts quickly)

Bite- 3-harm intimate

Claw- 2-harm ignore armor hand

9mm- 2-harm close loud

Johnny Hobo (Armor: 2) [][][][][][][] (Bait)

Claw- 2-harm close ignore armor

Bite- 3-harm intimate

Baseball bat- 1-harm hand

Elsa (Armor: 0) [][][][][][][] (Stays hidden/protected)

Magic Snare- 0-harm close restraining

Enchant- adds 1-harm to damage dealt

Shotgun- 3-harm close messy

Bite- 3-harm intimate

Pat (Armor 1) [][][][][][][] (Fastest chaser)

Knife- 2-harm hand

Claw- 2-harm ignore armor hand

Bite- 3-harm intimate

Greg (Hotheaded and rash. Eager to feel powerful.)

Johnny Hobo (Patient. Durable. The methodical pursuit, often tempering Greg or supporting the others.)

Elsa (The brains of the operation. Puts on a cool air.)

Pat (Jumpy, a pure manifestation of id. The fastest, but also the easiest to fool.)

Countdown:

Burgers on the Coast gets accosted by a brash customer. After they finish eating, they will leave and the table can be investigated.

The Pack arrives in town, a PC sees Johnny outside their window (if they doubletake, or run to get equipment, he will be gone).

If the PCs have convinced any “monsters” to only hunt “bad guys” or otherwise change their ways, the reformed monster gets ambushed. Depending on the monster, the Pack might kill them.

Shiro violently cuts back a mass of vines, which fight back, whipping around his arm and leg. As he pulls to get away, thorns tear into him, and the vines start to dig into him.

The Pack tracks down Bigfoot, and kills her after she menaces some campers.

The Pack finds Shiro restrained, spider lilies growing out of his mouth and stomach. They kill him.

They will start the next hunt, if not found, or if not given the primary focus during the hunt. They are essentially competition for the PCs.

Bystanders:

Susan- (Gossip, Victim) Burgers on the Coast waitress. She’s worked at this same restaurant for 30 years and as a result knows all the regulars. Greg will accost her, then Johnny Hobo will smack him upside the head. Only these two are at the diner.

Anuset- (Victim, Gossip) The mask is out pursuing someone it has targeted in the past week. As it falls upon this person and begin to unpeel, Johnny Hobo will appear behind it with a baseball bat. The morning after, a hunter will see a destroyed clay mask left discarded. Further inspection will discern that a couple fragments were taken.

Shiro- (Helper, Victim) Shiro has been plagued by vines overgrowing his orange tree. While he cuts them back, the vines fight back and restrain him, as impossible amounts of blood issue from his person. Where blood spills, spider lilies start to grow... after a few days he is still restrained, but the Party Pack finds him, and will kill him.

Bigfoot (Victim) (Stranger Avatar)- aka Isadora Vila Quintana, a hiker who got too lost in the woods and now menaces other hikers. She doesn’t quite need to kill the hikers, but often puts them into precarious positions after she is finished with them.

Francesca Lopez (Victim) (Stranger Monster) sells secondhand items. She has ties to Charlotte and her trade market, wherein Frannie goes around flea markets and digital marketplaces. Having recently finished a transaction, or at least would have if she hadn’t gotten caught by the Pack.

Minnie Taylor (Witness, Innocent) a resident who had gotten lost trying to find her own home. The Pack has promised to help her once the danger is cleared, and if they don’t return for her she will try to free herself from the place they sealed her into, inevitably getting lost and becoming a spiral avatar. She trusts the Pack to help her, and if the Players come across her, will not trust them if they don’t seem to have a good reason to kill them.

Isadora, the Lonely avatar Bigfoot

Shiro Kamada, the Slaughter avatar

Minnie Taylor, a woman about 29 years of age, who recently moved into the Strange Suburb (before it was strange)

Locations:

Burgers on the Coast (and Parking Lot)- the diner that the PCs have taken a liking to, their repeated presence dooms it to become a hub of Interesting Persons.

The table that Greg and Johnny sat at will have some traces that can be discovered- some gum under the table, a deep cut into the particle board table, a dropped receipt (Ammo- 9mm and shells).

Camping Grounds

In the forest, far from the sounds of the city, a hiking trail opens up to a small clearing where hikers can put down tents and keep a campfire. This is Isadora’s favorite haunt, because of it’s isolation and the sheer ability to disorient people in these woods. She can be tracked, sometimes.

Parked by the beach, one of many RVs. Once the right one is sussed out, it can be broken into. It is likely that at least one of the Pack is there, keeping watch. As soon as the PCs head there, the other members of the Pack will be notified, and they will circle the party, trying to make sure that they don’t leave with anything important.

Inside the RV is a mess. Clothes in one or two piles strewn over one of the seats or in a receptacle. Projects lay unfinished- Someone’s trying to patch their jacket, someone else is growing seed starters. Plastic dishes lay in the mini sink. One bed looks like it’s been used as an operating table on more than one occasion, a big antique chest sits in the corner undisturbed, and some hefty power tools poke out of a footlocker pushed out of the way. Treat this as a Haven for the Pack, with an Infirmary, an Armory, and a Workshop.

They also have many “trophies” from previous kills in an upper cabinet- everything sealed with an eye sigil. Some Tallow. A mushroom. A long, preserved beak. A lock of inky black hair. These hunters have been traveling the US, fighting monsters and leaving a wake of supernatural power vacuum.

Shiro’s home

Vines stretch, having grown a strong base on the telephone pole near Shiro’s home. Runners stretch from the pole to the lines and then to the houses. They have sprouted purple flowers, and are now growing green fruit- not yet ripened, though that may change quickly.

The vines are attempting to peel under the shingles of Shiro’s home to anchor themselves, though he has managed to beat back the majority. It’s harder for him to keep up with the vines currently suffocating the orange tree, though.

Him using his ultraviolent powers to destroy the vines has attracted the attention of the Party Pack.

The Strange Suburb

An entire suburb has fallen into unreality and is distorting- building extensions without rime or reason, warping through various decades and shapes. Think McMansions but worse and more terrible and insufferably generic. Very easy to get lost in, very easy to separate people and confine them in terrible, bland, almost claustrophobic (make sure everyone is okay about this if you use it) spaces. There is no real branding on anything, and looking through the house will find very little personal effects if any.

One house is holding Minnie Taylor. Elsa had set up wards which will keep the spiralizing at bay (The door containing her room is unlocked, but there are multiple and they shift around. A golden seal distinguishes this door if the players look for it with supernatural means).

The largest, most cancerous McMansion house is wavering in the most volatile sense. The house goes through waves of eras- wallpapered walls, then painted, then cheap drywall, then wood paneling. The rooms are labyrinthine, measurements all feel wrong- hallways too narrow, rooms too big or small. Pat is the scout of the group, and will be ready for anyone entering the house conventionally, sprinting away as soon as they come in. As the Players follow him (if they do), the rooms stretch and expand, making pursuit difficult. At the top of the house is a large, undefinable room with elements of any kind of room in the house. A little bit of a kitchen, a showerhead, photo frames on the walls and ceiling. In the center of the room lies Francesca, with Johnny Hobo holding her down as Elsa prepares Greg to execute her. Behind them all hangs a painting on the wall, from which a malevolent energy exudes.

Artefact: A Francis Bacon painting which is the source of the reality warping in the first place. Disrupting Elsa’s preparations will make the manifestation worse. The Players are able to either try to finish the Ritual Elsa was performing (containment, some reversal of the manifestation, at the cost of Francesca’s life), or find their own solution to destroy it.

Cold Open: A beat up RV speeds up Highway 101 under the light of a waxing moon. A folkpunk song plays through the speakers as a rowdy quartet sings along. Street lights illuminate a messy dashboard with all sorts of little tchotchkes- batteries, flashlights, pocketknives, that kinda stuff. The song ends and the next one opens with a death growl, and as they roar along, their voices get loud, feral, deeper. The RV hits a bump and the knick knacks on the dashboard shift, the riders laughing with the chaos. The next time the streetlights flicker to the dash, a mugshot of [PC] has made it to the top.

#the magnus archives #tma motw #pbta #monster of the week #the monstrous archives #Hunt module Party Pack #my work #needless to say. theyre all gay #mcmansion

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alaturkanews · 3 years

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Deadly floods due to climate crisis surges in Jakarta

Indonesia's capital Jakarta is no stranger to natural disasters. Massive flooding has become an annual and even monthly occurrence. Global heating combined with bad local practices have turned it into the fastest sinking city in the world. Vandana Nanwani reports. Subscribe: http://trt.world/subscribe Livestream: http://trt.world/ytlive Facebook: http://trt.world/facebook Twitter:…

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#trtworld #Youtube

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amber-l-art · 3 years

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Designing for the Anthropocene

Anthropocene - a current geological age where recent human activity is the dominant influence on climate and ecological change. The word is split into two words. Anthropes which is greek for human and gene which is a suffix used in geological epochs.

This made up word became interweaved into academic articles and spread to the arts industry.

So are we in the Holocene or the Anthropocene? When did it begin? Was it the industrial revolution where excess amounts of carbon and methane were pumped into the atmosphere? Or was it in 1945 where we tested the first atomic bombs and the atomic bombs that came afterwards caused effects in the soil that we still see today. It was actually 1950 where the spike began (see graph below)

What is the creative’s responsibility in the climate crisis?

Deep time resources of the earth are what make technology today.

The way we communicate is wrong. We are thinking sustainable without using sustainable materials and there is an irony behind that. How about set design? How long are the materials used? What production goes into the materials?

We contribute to the machine of capitalism. As said by Katie Cadwell, ‘working with someone is endorsing them’. But would you turn down opportunities?

So how do we break this bond? This project launched is the global alternative to unwanted gifts. The design is re-useable itself with using a duck tape typeface from another project. The average London millennial spends £767 on Christmas presents and in Britain there is £2.4 billion worth of unwanted gifts every year. In America Christmas presents are worth a higher amount of GPD than in 181 countries.

The Extinction Rebellion are well known for their XR logo but they took a new approach this year with this spoof paper, communicating how the Sun contributed to climate change conspiracy theories. They blocked tabloid papers to show the misinformation that is spread through this printed material.

Greenwashing - The process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company’s products are environmentally sound. (Ticking a box in the age of accountability).

An example of this is Coco-Cola where the irony of them using marine plastic is their own plastic. With the help of coca-cola, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish and the company still continues to use palm oil in their products.

There are ways of working in an environmental way. Object take into account how 120 million tonnes of plastic are used a year in the beauty industry and only 9% of them are recycled. 80% of water is used in shampoo and conditioner so they launched a product which are compressed bars with 0.5% water to help the water crisis. As well as thinking in a sustainable manner, they also think in an inclusive manner with gay and non-binary models and an inclusive work-force to further the conversation. However, this call for action is only accessible to the privilege.

How can we visualise the climate crisis?

We need to see things in an emotional way and how we as humans can relate ti the issues. Not see things from above but rather what is right in front of us.

This project of photographing villages gives an emotional connection to how people have lost their homes. It displays how people have tried to build houses on stilts but it has become a losing game.

This project shows the fastest sinking city, Jakarta. To try and solve the issue they have tried to build a wall of 32km around the coast and build illegal wells to have access to water but many are leaving the city due to this flooding city issue.

Portraits to convey the bio-diversity are also effective in showing the ‘great decline’ from a personal perspective.

Set design also plays a big part in bringing awareness. This psychological thriller opera shows how a living creature living inside of the ice can explode into chaos.

Graphic design is also an effective tool. This interactive website shows in a playful manner data in an accessible way. People can click and read about what plastics are floating in the air and what we breathe in everyday and show the reality of if we do not stop this irreversible change.

Animation is also a powerful tool. This animation highlights a lot of issues such as the fault of capitalism, controlling and manipulating the helpless, how we do not want to listen out of fear or believability, the police’s power, plastics that survive forever and how the higher power can control us and yet take no responsibility for the destruction they are causing.

These new cover designs are created for an approachable and accessible way of reading about the environment. Etherington uses natural world materials such as paper to make ice-bergs to communicate the environment.

This worldwide project got people to write letters to their ancestors in 1000 years time. Using recycled plastic, they screen printed and bonded these letters to form a book to communicate that even in 1000 years, the plastic letters will still be here.

This typeface visualises the ice melting over a period of years using real data to communicate the harm we are doing via global warming.

These playful visuals make the design intriguing to look at but use that to communicate the harsh and disgusting reality that we live in.

How do images impact us?

We are constantly being overwhelmed by the message of ‘code red’ and that the world is burning.

Capitalism and social media impact that with 1/4 of the UK having a mental health issue and that continuing to increase and the most common of that is a diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder. We live in a world of eco-anxiety and capitalism profits of this with shopping which puts us in a loop of harming the environment once again.

This animation shows the data of what we buy on Instagram, the stuff that we do not need but we are told that we do, therefore proving that capitalism fuels the climate crisis with the pressure for us to consume.

So are we instead living in a world of capitalocrene?

How can creatives engage?

We can promote an economy where we work with local businesses and begin to work in a circular economy.

We can promote bio-design. Think about packaging that is sustainable for example and work with local businesses to help that.

We can work in a permaculture. Get kids involved and teach them at a young age how to think sustainable. Instead of showing them the negatives, promote positives of how we can think for the environment.

We need to think of the doughnut economics

What so we do to stay within the doughnut. We need to consider the 7 ways (see below)

#contextual #graphic design #climate change #environment

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Fire Season Comes Early To California (CNN) Fire weather is coming early to California this year. For the first time since 2014, parts of Northern California are seeing a May “red flag” fire warning due to dry and windy conditions. The warning coverage area extends from Redding in the north to Modesto in the south, and includes portions of the Central Valley and the state capital of Sacramento. The warning also extends to the eastern edges of the Bay Area. A brush fire that started Friday in Pacific Palisades flared up Saturday due to gusty winds, burning more than 1,300 acres and threatening homes in Topanga Canyon. Topanga State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains is about 20 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. The Palisades fire caused about 1,000 people to be evacuated from their homes early Sunday, with other residents on standby to leave.

Pandemic Refugees at the Border (NYT) The Biden administration continues to grapple with swelling numbers of migrants along the southwestern border. Most of them are from Central America, fleeing gang violence and natural disasters. But the past few months have also brought a much different wave of migration that the Biden administration was not prepared to address: pandemic refugees. They are people arriving in ever greater numbers from far-flung countries where the coronavirus has caused unimaginable levels of illness and death and decimated economies and livelihoods. If eking out an existence was challenging in such countries before, in many of them it has now become almost impossible. According to official data released this week, 30 percent of all families encountered along the border in April hailed from countries other than Mexico and the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, compared to just 7.5 percent in April 2019, during the last border surge. The coronavirus pandemic has had far-reaching consequences for the global economy, erasing hundreds of millions of jobs. And it has disproportionately affected developing countries, where it could set back decades of progress, according to economists. About 13,000 migrants have landed in Italy, the gateway to Europe, so far this year, three times as many as in the same period last year. At the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months, agents have stopped people from more than 160 countries, and the geography coincides with the path of the virus’s worst devastation.

The U.S. conversation on Israel is changing, no matter Biden’s stance (Washington Post) In Washington, support for the Palestinian plight is getting louder in Congress. On Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote a widely circulated New York Times op-ed pulling the spotlight away from Hamas’s provocations to the deeper reality of life for millions of Palestinians living under blockade and occupation. He pointed to the havoc unleashed in recent weeks by rampaging mobs of Jewish extremists in Jerusalem, as well as the questionable Israeli legal attempts to forcibly evict the Palestinian residents of a neighborhood in the contested holy city. “None of this excuses the attacks by Hamas, which were an attempt to exploit the unrest in Jerusalem, or the failures of the corrupt and ineffective Palestinian Authority, which recently postponed long-overdue elections,” Sanders wrote. “But the fact of the matter is that Israel remains the one sovereign authority in the land of Israel and Palestine, and rather than preparing for peace and justice, it has been entrenching its unequal and undemocratic control.” In another era, Sanders would have cut a lonely figure among his colleagues. But he is not alone. A number of Democratic lawmakers, including solidly pro-Israel politicians, issued statements indicating their displeasure with the casualties caused by Israel’s attacks in Gaza. Others were more vocal, accusing Israel of “apartheid.” Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) tweeted: “This is happening with the support of the United States....the US vetoed the UN call for a ceasefire. If the Biden admin can’t stand up to an ally, who can it stand up to? How can they credibly claim to stand for human rights?” Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a center-left pro-Israel advocacy organization that increasingly reflects the mainstream position of American liberals, said in a briefing with reporters last week that the “diplomatic blank check to the state of Israel” given out by successive U.S. administrations has meant that “Israel has no incentive to end occupation and find a solution to the conflict.”

Mexico City is sinking (Wired) When Darío Solano‐Rojas moved from his hometown of Cuernavaca to Mexico City to study at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the layout of the metropolis confused him. “What surprised me was that everything was kind of twisted and tilted,” says Solano‐Rojas. “At that time, I didn't know what it was about. I just thought, ‘Oh, well, the city is so much different than my hometown.’” Different, it turned out, in a bad way. Picking up the study of geology at the university, Solano‐Rojas met geophysicist Enrique Cabral-Cano, who was actually researching the surprising reason for that infrastructural chaos: The city was sinking—big time. It’s the result of a geological phenomenon called subsidence, which usually happens when too much water is drawn from underground, and the land above begins to compact. According to new modeling by the two researchers and their colleagues, parts of the city are sinking as much as 20 inches a year. In the next century and a half, they calculate, areas could drop by as much as 65 feet. Spots just outside Mexico City proper could sink 100 feet. That twisting and tilting Solano‐Rojas noticed was just the start of a slow-motion crisis for 9.2 million people in the fastest-sinking city on Earth. And because some parts are slumping dramatically and others aren’t, the infrastructure that spans the two zones is sinking in some areas but staying at the same elevation in others. And that threatens to break roads, metro networks, and sewer systems. “Subsistence by itself may not be a terrible issue,” says Cabral-Cano. “But it's the difference in this subsistence velocity that really puts all civil structures under different stresses.”

Today’s the day: British holidaymakers return to Portugal as travel ban ends (Reuters) Sun-hungry British visitors descended on Portuguese beaches once again on Monday as a four-month long ban on travel between the two countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic ended, in a much-needed boost for the struggling tourism sector. Twenty-two flights from Britain are due to land in Portugal on Monday, with most heading to the southern Algarve region, famous for its beaches and golf courses but nearly deserted as the pandemic kept tourists away. Visitors from Britain must present evidence of a negative coronavirus test taken 72 hours before boarding their flights to Portugal and there is no need to quarantine for COVID-19 when returning home. Back at home, most British people will be free once again to hug, albeit cautiously, drink a pint in their pub, sit down to an indoor meal or visit the cinema after the ending of a series of lockdowns that imposed the strictest ever restrictions in peacetime.

Afghans who helped the US now fear being left behind (AP) He served as an interpreter alongside U.S. soldiers on hundreds of patrols and dozens of firefights in eastern Afghanistan, earning a glowing letter of recommendation from an American platoon commander and a medal of commendation. Still, Ayazudin Hilal was turned down when he applied for one of the scarce special visas that would allow him to relocate to the U.S. with his family. Now, as American and NATO forces prepare to leave the country, he and thousands of others who aided the war effort fear they will be left stranded, facing the prospect of Taliban reprisals. “We are not safe,” the 41-year-old father of six said of Afghan civilians who worked for the U.S. or NATO. “The Taliban is calling us and telling us, ‘Your stepbrother is leaving the country soon, and we will kill all of you guys.’” At least 300 interpreters have been killed in Afghanistan since 2016, and the Taliban have made it clear they will continue to be targeted, said Matt Zeller, a co-founder of No One Left Behind, an organization that advocates on their behalf. He also served in the country as an Army officer. “The Taliban considers them to be literally enemies of Islam,” said Zeller, now a fellow at the Truman National Security Project. “There’s no mercy for them.”

A Desperate India Falls Prey to Covid Scammers (NYT) Within the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak, few treasures are more coveted than an empty oxygen canister. India’s hospitals desperately need the metal cylinders to store and transport the lifesaving gas as patients across the country gasp for breath. So a local charity reacted with outrage when one supplier more than doubled the price, to nearly $200 each. The charity called the police, who discovered what could be one of the most brazen, dangerous scams in a country awash with coronavirus-related fraud and black-market profiteering. The police say the supplier—a business called Varsha Engineering, essentially a scrapyard—had been repainting fire extinguishers and selling them as oxygen canisters. The consequences could be deadly: The less-sturdy fire extinguishers might explode if filled with high-pressure oxygen. A coronavirus second wave has devastated India’s medical system. Hospitals are full. Drugs, vaccines, oxygen and other supplies are running out. Pandemic profiteers are filling the gap. In many cases, the sellers prey on the desperation and grief of families.

Full-blown boycott pushed for Beijing Olympics (AP) Groups alleging human-rights abuses against minorities in China are calling for a full-blown boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a move likely to ratchet up pressure on the International Olympic Committee, athletes, sponsors and sports federations. A coalition representing Uyghurs, Tibetans, residents of Hong Kong and others issued a statement Monday calling for the boycott, eschewing lesser measures that had been floated like “diplomatic boycotts” and further negotiations with the IOC or China. “The time for talking with the IOC is over,” Lhadon Tethong of the Tibet Action Institute said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. “This cannot be games as usual or business as usual; not for the IOC and not for the international community.” The push for a boycott comes a day before a joint hearing in the U.S. Congress focusing on the Beijing Olympics and China’s human-rights record, and just days after the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee said boycotts are ineffective and only hurt athletes.

Grief Mounts as Efforts to Ease Israel-Hamas Fight Falter (NYT) Diplomats and international leaders were unable Sunday to mediate a cease-fire in the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowed to continue the fight and the United Nations Security Council failed to agree on a joint response to the worsening bloodshed. The diplomatic wrangling occurred after the fighting, the most intense seen in Gaza and Israel for seven years, entered its deadliest phase yet. At least 42 Palestinians were killed early Sunday morning in an airstrike on several apartments in Gaza City, Palestinian officials said, the conflict’s most lethal episode so far. The number of people in killed in Gaza rose to 197 over the seven days of the conflict, according to Palestinian officials, while the number of Israeli residents killed by Palestinian militants climbed to 11, including one soldier, the Israeli government said.

Israel, Hamas trade fire in Gaza as war rages on (AP) Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes on what it said were militant targets in Gaza, leveling a six-story building, and militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel on Tuesday. Palestinians across the region observed a general strike as the war, now in its second week, showed no signs of abating. The strikes toppled a building that housed libraries and educational centers belonging to the Islamic University. Residents sifted through the rubble, searching for their belongings.

Israel’s aftermath (Foreign Policy) In Israel, the aftermath of days of violence in mixed Arab-Israeli towns has led to a one-sided reaction from state prosecutors: Of the 116 indictments served so far against those arrested last week, all have been against Arab-Israeli citizens, Haaretz reports. Meanwhile, Yair Lapid, whose centrist Yesh Atid party’s chances of forming a coalition government has crumbled since the violence broke out, placed the blame on Netanyahu. If he was in charge, Lapid said on Sunday, no one would have to question “why the fire always breaks out precisely when it’s most convenient for the prime minister.”

Long working hours can be a killer, WHO study shows (Reuters) Working long hours is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year in a worsening trend that may accelerate further due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization said on Monday. In the first global study of the loss of life associated with longer working hours, the paper in the journal Environment International showed that 745,000 people died from stroke and heart disease associated with long working hours in 2016. That was an increase of nearly 30% from 2000. “Working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard,” said Maria Neira, director of the WHO’s Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health. The joint study, produced by the WHO and the International Labour Organization, showed that most victims (72%) were men and were middle-aged or older. Often, the deaths occurred much later in life, sometimes decades later, than the shifts worked. It also showed that people living in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific region were the most affected.

#headlines #news

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southeastasianists · 4 years

Link

Yayan is a factory worker from western Java who, like millions of Indonesians, came to the capital in search of employment and a better life. But now he worries his house could soon become fully submerged. “We probably have to move back to our village,” he says.

The government has invested in pumps, but “the water rises every year”, Yayan says. “Before, we used to have floods only during the rainy season, but now they come more frequently.”

Jakarta is sinking. Forty per cent of the city now lies below sea level and it is sinking at different rates in different places, from 1cm a year up to 25cm in the worst affected northern areas, near the coast. The problem is so severe that it is one of the reasons that Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced the capital would be relocated to a new site in East Kalimantan, on Borneo, last August, with construction possibly due to begin this year. Even so, many people believe Jakarta will remain Indonesia’s business and financial hub.

Jakarta is not the only coastal city in trouble. Also facing rising sea levels, more frequent rains and stronger storms are the likes of Bangkok, Dhaka, Houston, Lagos and Venice. But Jakarta is sinking fastest.

Sutanudjaja works with a number of organisations to implement sustainable urban solutions and has been the force behind moves to halt construction permits for the 17 artificial islands of the Great Garuda project, which also includes a 40km-long sea wall across Jakarta Bay. This project has been reduced in scale and the plan to build the islands – other than one that has already been constructed – has been abandoned.

Sutanudjaja explains Jakarta’s problems while strolling under new trees planted around Citra Lake, one of hundreds of freshwater reservoirs in the capital that will need to be saved to avert catastrophe.

“The city actually sinks under the weight of the concrete buildings constantly under construction,” she says. “The government needs to act now.”

#indonesia #jakarta #environmental issues #urban poverty

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poor-wifi-uwu · 5 years

Text

Veil ch4

Worlds apart. Days apart. Inches apart. They finally meet.

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22680382/chapters/54916576

The night was quiet, filled with only the gentle rustling of the trees and soothing sound of running water as he walked along a river in a mockery of a relaxing stroll.

3 hours.

It took 3 fucking hours to get out of Yunmeng’s capital. With a horse and properly cleared street it should have only taken him what, 20 minutes at full speed? He should’ve reached the next large town by now!

Instead, here he is, walking along a river next to the road hoping to catch a glimpse of even a small village in the distance.

It was common knowledge not to travel alone at night in the wilderness, but he has literally no other option. It won’t take long for his family to learn of his escape and they’ll send their fastest riders after him as soon as they realize. Running so close to the main road is not the best way to avoid notice, but no matter what, his highest priority was to put as much distance between himself and Lotus Pier as possible.

The fastest way to Gusu is using the main road built in the past for easy trade between their nations. The road had been built for speed with a smooth road to protect delicate cargo on along the journey, and being so profitable both nations had gone out of their way to construct through natural obstacles. Yunmeng is known for its many rivers and lakes, and as a pretty much straight line the road has many bridges built to avoid unnecessary detours. One of the lakes is so huge that it would require a boat or add days to a journey to get around. He’ll have to cross that bridge.

For ease of travel, the road was built along a major river running through Yunmeng, only breaking off to keep its straight trajectory when faced with a bend in the river. The river bank was fairly hidden and free of obstacles that stumble one’s footing, especially for a Lotus Pier child, so it was a good way for Wei Wuxian to avoid a lot of eyes.

Thankfully, with his speed and endurance Wei Wuxian was able to reach quite a distance by the time dawn broke. His body could keep going if it really had to, but after running all night it wouldn’t do him any good to strain himself now and leave him vulnerable later on. Although he’d finally passed a couple of villages along the way, they were either small and difficult to hide in or were trading posts littered with guards. It was best to just get as far as he could and find some hidden alcove to rest.

God, it’s like he’s a fugitive in his own country.

It wasn’t that difficult to find a spot to sleep in. The thing about using unconventional tactics when you are vastly outnumbered is you gain a very deep understanding of terrain. He’s had to hide entire battalions within shouting distance while close enough to see the enemy camp. This was a cake walk.

Wei Wuxian had a very fitful sleep. Despite his confidence in his camouflage skill, the best riders Yunmeng has to offer were all trained by him, so he knew their ability to hunt. Every snapping twig, gust of wind, footstep on the road snapped him to attention. He couldn’t count the time he actually spent asleep, and he didn’t want to. At least Wei Wuxian got to rest his body after that little marathon last night.

He continued to rest until evening when most sentries would begin returning to their posts with the dimming light. He would’ve gone earlier but with the declaration of winter coming so early many unaware people were still rushing to complete their business before the weather would no longer permit it, leaving the road packed with possible witnesses.

Wei Wuxian hadn’t seen any royal troops yet, likely thanks to his circle’s stalling. He doesn’t know how long they can keep it up, but he’s grateful for whatever buffer they can buy him. In a way, the Jiangs’ total lockdown of the city actually bought him time since Wen Qing has a pretty good justification for why there’s no way he left the palace. The compasses he left with Suibian must also be throwing his siblings off. One of the ways they would always check if he snuck out to goof off is by walking around the outer edge of Lotud Pier. If the red tip kept pointing at Lotus Pier, then he was home since he never went anywhere without his compass set. He suspected that Madam Yu would be the one to figure it out, and it’s not like his siblings would defend that he must be on Lotus Pier considering their reactions to his decision.

Wei Wuxian checked that the compasses faced the proper directions before setting off on another marathon run.

The marathon run was a bad idea.

While yes, he did need to make that distance, and yes, he is trained to get the most out of his legs, it doesn’t negate the fact that running for 8 hours straight two nights in a row without proper sleep would lead to a bone-deep exhaustion that had Wei Wuxian’s eyes slipping closed. He’ll have to take it easy from now on.

Finding a good hiding spot, Wei Wuxian flopped down with a stifled groan. God his legs were really starting to feel that burn. Wei Wuxian ruffled through his pack for his medicine bag, before remembering he didn’t pack one. There was no way Wen Qing would let him go anywhere without one, but Wei Wuxian also didn’t remember seeing anyone else place it in. He kept rummaging, his curiosity overpowering the searing pain running through his thighs. When he finally found it with a small cheer, Wei Wuxian froze before slumping against the tree trunk with a wobbly smile.

Wen Qing takes her medicine seriously. Very, very, very seriously. Although she was a special breed of hardass, her family took no less pride in their work. Each member of Wen Qing’s branch clan would receive a special embroidered sachet to carry their medicine within. It was unique to their family and each person only got one. Wei Wuxian held the bag against his heart.

This one had his name on it.

Wei Wuxian looked up at the rising sun. It’s golden radiance shined brilliantly over the forest, revealing the canopy of trees as if laying a blanket of light. The pouch seemed to radiate heat as it warmed his heart where they touched. Wei Wuxian took a deep breath as his shoulders relaxing, willing himself to stay awake through his newfound comfort.

A raindrop hit his nose.

Wei Wuxian looked up again and saw clouds quickly overrunning the sun, the once bright morning overcast beneath heavy clouds. He looked dully where the sun used to shine for a few more moments before calmly crawling inside the tree trunk.

He had medicine to put on.

Lan Wangji looked outside his window as a harsh gust of wind rocked the shutters of his hotel room. The white skies of a Gusu autumn have begun growing dark with the promise of a coming storm.

The emperor hoped the pavilion’s foundation would be finished in time.

It had been a new feeling, speeding through the nation with his face on full display with no one recognizing him. Although still dressed with the regal travel robes of the Cloud Recesses, his presence did not bring the populace to their knees in silent awe as his headdress would have. It felt strange to be somewhat invisible, like he was seeing a new side of the world that would normally be on its best behavior before him.

In some ways it was… liberating.

The emperor hoped he could lower Wei Ying’s guard the same way.

Lan Wangji had ridden almost nonstop from the moment he left the Cloud Recesses until it grew too dark to continue safely. He had reached quite a distance, though not far enough to be satisfied. Having calculated the quickest path to Gusu on horseback before he left, Lan Wangji’s fingers drummed a tune on the table as he drank his tea. Although Wei Ying must be a day ahead already, the main bridge connecting Gusu and Yunmeng across the natural river barrier was closer to the Cloud Recesses than it was Lotus Pier. At full speed, he should reach the bridge the same time as Wei Ying.

Lan Wangji wanted nothing more than to hold Wei Ying’s hand as he guided him to his new home.

Knowing his empress was still days away left the emperor restless, fidgeting with his luggage and checking on his horse frequently. In the end he could only practice a few songs on his guqin to calm down. With his hands over the sachet causing a warmth to grow in his chest, Lan Wangji finally got some rest.

He woke to the sound of droplets thundering against his window like a barrage of arrows. Lan Wangji cracked open the shutters only for a burst of hail to rain through into his bedroom, the wind attempting to force the shutters all the way open. He checked with the nightstaff only to learn the storm had started only recently and does not seem to be stopping anytime soon.

It would be foolish to travel in this weather.

Lan Wangji grit his teeth as he ignored the breakfast before him. Given the circumstances, Wei Ying would have to take the river bridge to cross over into Gusu. No matter how wide it was made to accommodate the trading caravans, it is still a narrow straight line with no blind spots. It is the only point at which he is guaranteed to meet Wei Ying without missing each other. But that is only if he gets there before Wei Ying does.

Lan Wangji rubbed the sachet in his sleeve in silence for several minutes. Biting his lip, Lan Wangji narrowed his eyes.

Wei Ying would keep riding.

Lan Wangji grabbed his bags.

The only thing worse than riding in the rain was running in the rain.

At least when Wei Wuxian rode his horse through the rain it wasn’t his legs that kept sinking into the mud. He could look past the splotches staining his robes and the dirty water seeping into his shoes, but to lose his already poor footing is asking too much.

Wei Wuxian had only rested for a few hours before setting off again. Although it was only the afternoon, no reasonable sentry would be out in this downpour and even the unreasonable ones wouldn’t be able to see anything. It’s a good chance to make some headway.

Qing-jie’s medicine worked wonders as always, Wei Wuxian toasted his water-logged bag to the doc. His legs had gone from a searing pain to an aching throb that is no less uncomfortable but much more manageable. Of course, she would kill him for straining his still-healing body, but in Wei Wuxian’s defense she would beat him up much harder if she saw his current state should he get caught.

When he thought about it that way, running through the mud in the middle of a storm didn’t seem so bad anymore. Well, his clothes are ruined but he can always say he was locked in a vicious battle with mud-slinging cobras. It’s technically true, though the bureaucrats of Lotus Pier might take offence.

Wei Wuxian just hoped the emperor wouldn’t be too put off should he not reach an inn in time to clean up.

Wei Wuxian slowed to a walk to catch his breath. It was pointless to keep running. With his footing so unstable and the rain weighing his clothes down, no matter how much Wei Wuxian pushed forward he wouldn’t make that much of a difference running than walking. It was fine in the beginning, but with the rain growing into one of the infamous pre-winter storms of Yunmeng it became a pointless endeavor.

Yunmeng’s storms can easily last over a week, so there’s no chance Wei Ying would try to wait it out even without the warrant that is surely out for his capture. He’ll just have to get used to it.

At least the tree canopy helped block some of the downpour.

The Nie were truly exceptional when it came to animals.

Lan Wangji gave his horse some carrots as he dried off its mane. Despite the uncomfortable and difficult weather conditions his steed had faithfully ran the full day at top speed without complaint.

A gift from the Nie king, this horse was specially bred to match Wei Wuxian’s infamous steed, but lacking the difficult temperament of that manic beast. It was the only horse able to match Wei Wuxian’s wild stallion on the battlefield. Although large and dressed with the most regal gear, without its armour it looks like any other Gusu white stallion.

Patting the horse’s side, Lan Wangji’s ears turned red.

In one of the famous love stories of the Gusu Empire, the first emperor Lan An had broken courtesy to ride his horse into the wedding hall with his bride in his arms. Despite the disapproval against their union, Lan An refused to wait even a second longer and rammed past all the defenses to do the three bows with his beloved.

Although his uncle had told the story as an example of the Lan clan’s susceptibility to irrational emotions, it had always been one of Lan Wangji’s favorite stories.

The horse shook its head, bumping into Lan Wangji. Blinking at it, the horse looked at his ears and snorted at him.

Ah, right, brother helped train this horse.

Lan Wangji quickly refilled the carrots and speed-walked back to his room, the horse’s whinny following after him.

Although Lan Wangji was soaked through, he put off changing his clothes until after he could assess any possible damage to his luggage. The emperor had carefully packed all of his betrothal gifts to account for different weather, even choosing fabric coated with wax to wrap the articles. Carefully laying each one on the ground, Lan Wangji was relieved to find no issues. Even the scroll he had packed was safe within its bamboo tube.

Lan Wangji gently stroked a platinum hair crown. With the phoenix's nine tail feathers forming a lotus in full bloom and studded with brilliant red and blue gemstones, the small headpiece was the picture of refined elegance that would inspire awe in the wearer’s status from whoever glanced at them. It had been difficult to make it worthy of Wei Ying while keeping it practical for his empress’s daily antics, but there would be no point in giving him something he can’t wear. Lan Wangji’s finger lingered on a red gem.

He hoped Wei Ying would like it.

You see, there’s a reason you shouldn’t walk in the rain for hours on end.

Sometimes you feel like shit afterwards.

Wei Wuxian blinked through the blurriness in his vision. The cold had seeped into his very bones, every step growing heavier as he makes his way to the closest village. There’s no point in hiding out in the forest if he’s just going to die and the engagement falls through.

With his legs numb, the throbbing ache had moved to pound behind his eyes as Wei Wuxian clutched his head. He could feel his throat growing itchy as his nose stuffed up. If he doesn’t get somewhere warm soon then he might get sick for real. Not the most attractive thing to sneeze into the bride and groom’s shared wine cup.

After what felt like ages Wei Wuxian finally reached the village entrance. Though small, it thankfully served as a pit stop for travellers and therefore had some inns available. Wei Wuxian picked a small but cozy building, not so cheap as to be shady but also below what the guards would assume he would stay in. It was a family-run establishment with the husband handling the business while the wife catered to the guests. They were kind people who didn’t judge Wei Wuxian’s ability to pay by his frankly homeless appearance. The husband had laughed that they had seen many of their competitors lose business by kicking ragged men and women out of their rooms to make space for high-end clients, only to learn they were actually some rich or important person who got caught up in the war or got attacked by bandits.

Wei Wuxian laughed as well, shaking his head at those people who would never learn. When the wife left to fetch some bathwater, Wei Wuxian’s smile dropped. If that many ‘important’ people got caught on the road, how many regular people’s suffering went unnoticed?

He thanked the wife for the hot water and prepared to finally get a hot soak, his cloak dropping with a chime.

Wei Wuxian paused.

He rubbed his forehead as if trying to remember something as he walked to his bag. Stopping down to rummage through it, Wei Wuxian grabbed the bag and lept out the window, the sound of shocked gasps behind him as a number of footsteps scrambled to follow after him.

Wei Wuxian never kept his charity bell on his cloak.

Shouts of ‘General!’ sounded out behind him as the royal guard begged him to stop and return to Lotus Pier. Wei Wuxian drowned them out as he assessed his situation. There were only five of them even after all this shouting. Wei Wuxian flinched when they sent out the signal flare, but even minutes later no one came. They must have divided amongst the villages along the main road in hopes of catching sight of him. The villages might be quite the distance by foot, but that distance is nothing by horse.

They’ll be here sooner than later.

Wei Wuxian cursed as he ran through his options before a smirk crawled onto his face. Whipping out Suibian’s compass, Wei Wuxian calculated the direction of Lotus Pier and ran the guards around in circles, dodging any ambush when he noticed less than five people chasing after him. With their attention locked on him, they never realized Wei Wuxian kept inching closer to the horses tied near the end of the village.

With a burst of speed once he grew near, Wei Wuxian slashed at the ropes tying the horse to the post, smirking as the guards’ eyes widened and faces paled as they realized what they had unintentionally done. Laughing, Wei Wuxian sped past before they could recover and disappeared down the road.

One of the most unintuitive vices in combat is the idea of being overcautious. Everyone in Yunmeng knows not to underestimate Wei Wuxian. Every time someone has, they have lost if not died, so it is no surprise that the guards would take every precaution to ensure Wei Wuxian doesn’t notice them surrounding him. But when people get so caught up in one aspect of a plan they forget about other details, such as where to leave their horses. In this case, they were afraid he would get spooked by the sound of horses and therefore left them where they entered the village to search for him on foot. While good in theory, this also leaves those horses in a predictable position. That is, in the direction of Lotus Pier.

This also proves they’re not one of his men, who know better not only through Wei Wuxian’s rigorous training but also his habits. And judging by the lack of hoofs behind him, they’re not as well-trained for the weather either.

Wei Wuxian laughed as he patted the horse through his throbbing headache.

Fucking finally.

The wind stabbed a chill deep into his bones yet he felt hot.

Lan Wangji tried to convince himself the pounding of his heart was due to his intense journey and not the distance slowly closing between him and Wei Ying.

One day.

He was just one day’s journey from the bridge.

A few more hours and he would make it in time to catch Wei Ying before he journeyed across alone.

Lan Wangji bit his lip as he shook his head, eyes focusing on the road ahead. It was dangerous to get distracted in such weather. Although the hail had reverted to rain this far south, the weather was no less terrible. The canopy of tree tops covering the path couldn’t prevent all the rain from passing through and the wind was not helping.

The last thing he wanted was to lose it all when he was so close.

The road was easy to navigate. No matter how far he went the road remained empty, the more sensible people having opted to stay inside. No caravans or adventurers, not even a patrol. Nothing but the sounds of the hoofs beneath him, the rain around him, and the thumping within him.

It was a bit lonely. As if he was the only one in the world.

It never felt like this when he was alone with Wei Ying. Silent but for their quiet breaths, still but for the slight glance or small fidget. Even their stake-outs against one another had felt more intimate than empty.

He wondered if Wei Ying was just as lonely on his own journey right now.

Lan Wangji rode silently for the rest of the journey.

Sliding off his horse, Lan Wangji could almost feel his legs trembling as the guard confirmed that General Wei Wuxian had not been sighted on the bridge yet. He made it in time.

As the adrenaline faded, Lan Wangji could feel the slosh of his boots, the weight of his cloak, the drops sliding down his face. The emperor tensed imperceptibly, fishing out a small mirror to be faced with a frankly unacceptable appearance. Hair clinging to his face from where it escaped his topknot, robes clinging to his skin, specks of mud splattered across the bottom hem of his robes, face both flushed and pale.

The emperor had never looked less than pristine even in the throes of battle. He can’t let Wei Ying see him in such a state.

Giving orders to the guard to contact him at any sighting, Lan Wangji sped off to a hotel to clean up, ignoring his horse’s mocking whinny.

It was already evening by the time Lan Wangji arrived at the bridge, yet he could not help but stand under the roof of the entrance to be the first to see Wei Ying. He smoothed his robes for the fourth time within the hour. In a new set of clothes and with his previous ones washed, dried, and packed within his luggage, Lan Wangji looked as if he had just stepped out of the Cloud Recesses.

He wondered what Wei Ying looked like.

Wei Ying had always dressed casually when he could, but this was a special occasion that he took very seriously. And with his flair for dramatics, Wei Ying might have even travelled in wedding robes the entire time.

Lan Wangji’s ears burned as he imagined it.

Well, Wei Ying always dressed in black and red with a gold-ornamented sword, so technically… Though Lan Wangji would never make him settle for wedding robes of that caliber. Not that Wei Ying’s clothes are low quality, of course. Wei Ying always looks nice. His clothes have a certain wordly charm to them. Not that they are not charming over all of course—.

He might need to practice speaking before they meet.

A call from the guard has the emperor’s head snapping up to the bridge, only to slump in disappointment.

White and blue. The Gusu royal guard.

When the leader caught sight of him, he shouted out orders behind him before charging ahead to reach Lan Wangji. Jumping off his horse, the captain bowed in salute, “Master.”

Lan Wangji’s eyes softened as he waved his hand to rise, “Bichen.”

Bichen got up from his bow to tilt his head at Lan Wangji, confusion clear on his face before morphing into worry. Lan Wangji never leaves the palace alone, especially without the proper dress of his status. Something must have happened.

Lan Wangji’s ears burned as he gave a small but rigid shake of his head. As Bichen’s confusion grew, Lan Wangji’s ears only burned more red. With no one else around, Lan Wangji looked down, “I came to escort Wei Ying.”

Bichen’s face exploded with a blush. For the emperor to come personally…

Then he blinked, coughing to cover his slip-up, “He accepted then?”

Lan Wangji gave a small sharp nod.

Bichen kept a composed face as he congratulated his master, but he could feel happiness bubbling in his chest. His master wanted this for so long…

“Did you speak to him?”

Bichen snapped to attention, “I delivered the letter, but nothing more.”

Lan Wangji looked at him for a moment, “Not Wei Ying.”

Bichen’s eyes widened in realization as he fidgeted with his fingers inside his clasped sleeves, “...No. He was not in the room with General Wei so I handed the letter over to Wen Qionglin before leaving. Though he and Doctor Wen ran in the direction of the meeting room, so I do not know if they forgot about it.”

Lan Wangji looked at him, “Wei Ying’s people are never negligent. The letter reached him.”

Bichen blinked and smiled.

“Why not speak to him?”

Bichen’s smile froze. He fidgeted in place, looking this way and that, “We’re still enemies at war, I did not wish to overstay my welcome. And I did not know what he was doing, so there’s no reason to interrupt him, especially if he’s still injured. What if I woke him up?” Bichen’s cheeks puffed out as he muttered, “Hmph, he would probably be sleeping even if he wasn’t injured.”

Lan Wangji looked on with raised eyebrows, understanding his brother a bit more, “I can make a formal appointment.”

Bichen choked as he began frantically denying it, horrified that his small little wish could blow up into an international incident. Lan Wangji looked on amused as Bichen gave every excuse he could come up with about why he shouldn’t speak with Suibian after all. Finally Bichen huffed as he crossed his arms and looked away, “And who needs to talk to a guy like that? Only nonsense would come out of his mouth anyway!”

Lan Wangji just nodded in acquiescence as the light flush across Bichen’s cheeks darkened. Deciding to let Bichen save some face, Lan Wangji had him explain the rest of his journey.

As Bichen gave his report, Lan Wangji felt something was off.

Although Bichen did leave earlier than Wei Ying, the General’s horse was faster even at a jogging pace. There would be no reason for Wei Ying to hide from the royal guard either, so if they didn’t come together it could only mean Wei Ying passed them and went ahead.

So why has no one seen him yet?

On top of that, Yunmeng had suddenly declared Winter. Even Gusu had just barely declared Winter all the way up north. It was even more strange that Lotus Pier went as far as to spread the news with the royal courier falcons instead of riders. Yunmeng had always taken full advantage of their southern position to extend the travel seasons, so why the sudden rush?

The butterflies in his stomach seemed to drop as a cold heaviness settled in his chest. Bichen seemed to notice, stopping his report to await the emperor’s orders.

Lan Wangji took a deep breath. Wei Ying’s strange letter suddenly made sense. It was not the Jiang family who accepted the letter, it was Wei Ying himself against their wishes. They must be trying to stop him for some reason.

Bichen was shocked as Lan Wangji explained. The Gusu royal guard had not faced any trouble along their journey in either direction despite their gear being fairly obvious about where they are from. They were riding through some of Wei Wuxian’s ‘territory’ but surely such a serious reaction would have affected them.

Lan Wangji placed his hands in his sleeves, shoulders back in the regal pose of the emperor bestowing orders, “Return to the Cloud Recesses. Brother must know the situation. Tell no one else. I will go ahead.”

Bichen’s jaw dropped dumbfounded. The emperor, charging into hostile territory and leaving his Sentinel behind? It was Bichen’s job to go with him, always!

Lan Wangji wouldn’t budge and gave his orders a second time, making Bichen salute in shocked acceptance. The emperor makes a point not to repeat orders. He’s serious.

Lan Wangji was going to explain, but stopped as he squinted his eyes into the distance. He felt his fingers numb.

It was a purple lotus signal flare.

Whatever it was, Lan Wangji had to hurry.

In any other situation, reaching the eye of the storm so quickly would be a blessing.

Wei Wuxian cursed as he willed his horse to stay quiet when the rush of hooves flew past. Of all the times he could have used the natural camouflage of rain, it had to let up when he was surrounded. Any way he tries to break through now, he’ll inevitably be seen and chased. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but his vision had already been blurring with exhaustion the day before and he had ridden through the night without any sleep. Wei Wuxian even had to leave his cloak behind, so he had spent the coldest hours of night with barely any protection from the storm.

He can already feel a fever forming.

Wei Wuxian shook his head to stop the forest from spinning and placed all his focus into his surroundings. They had been in this stalemate for a few hours now, knowing Wei Wuxian is here but the general maneuvering just so to stay hidden. Each side waiting for the other to leave an opening.

If only he could see who the riders were, he could exploit their weaknesses.

Wei Wuxian flinched as the riders suddenly doubled, his heart rate skyrocketing before he took some deep breaths and pinched himself. His blurred vision slowly returned to focus. His horse gave a small whinny at the movement and it was as if the world froze as everything went silent.

Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened as he sprung into action, charging through the closest gap he could find. He could distantly hear a flare being sent up.

Shit.

That black stallion of his may be a giant pain in the ass sometimes, but at least he knew when to handle himself.

Wei Wuxian never thought he’d feel so helpless because of a fucking horse.

Arrows flew past his arms as the group of Yunmeng troops charged after him.

Arrows, really?! And they keep missing too, do these bastards want to triple their regimen to show him such a disgrace?!

Wei Wuxian bit his tongue from shouting out advice as he wove through the barrage on his horse. This is not a time where he should want their archery to improve.

A stray arrow finally nicked his arm and an instant numbing sensation followed. Wei Wuxian cursed. Paralyzing arrows?! He knew Wen Qing would not make them a new batch of paralyzer to coat them so where did these bastards get them?!

Wei Wuxian narrowed his eyes. Don’t tell me… Did some fucker secretly keep a batch of arrows and claim they ran out. Wei Wuxian barked a sardonic laugh. With all the factions he wouldn’t doubt it.

Well, at least their aim makes a tiny bit more sense now. They don’t want to actually hit him, just nick him enough times to catch him. Though falling off a horse at full speed isn’t exactly the safest option.

With one arm quickly losing function, Wei Wuxian had to think fast. He took a sudden dive into the forest. Wen Qing packed him all sorts of medicine, so if Wei Wuxian could just lose them for an hour he should be able to get his arm back.

Lan Wangji followed the direction of the signal flare, gritting his teeth at their slow advance despite going faster than they had through the entire journey.

Nothing good can come out of a Lotus Flare in this situation. Most flares across the continent were mainly used to either signal a location or call for help. Either way, they must have found Wei Ying.

Lan Wangji’s hands tightened around the reins until his knuckles had turned completely white. He saw that first signal flare hours ago. They could be in a completely different direction by now but all the emperor could do was charge blindly forward like a buffoon.

Why didn’t he think more carefully about the proposal and the acceptance letter? Why did he wait an entire day to set off, and another day at the bridge?

Lan Wangji was so caught up in his childish euphoria that he forgot how Lotus Pier tends to disagree with Wei Ying almost on principle.

He was such a coward.

Had he not feared being rejected and scheduled a formal meeting with the royal family, they could have resolved all of this directly. Instead he just sent a letter, a small part of himself resembling a young Lan Wangji fearing the truth and ready to wave the rejection off as coming from the Jiangs instead of Wei Ying.

Lan Wangji bit his lip as he glared forward.

He was so close.

A boom off in the distance made him flinch as Lan Wangji looked up to see a much closer Lotus Flare. Memorizing the location, Lan Wangji charged forward.

They were persistent.

Wei Wuxian had been weaving through the forest and back onto the main road repeatedly, trying to lose the guards in the prison of the forest. But no matter which direction he went or how dark it got, they dogged after him. It was incredibly difficult to navigate a forest on horseback, the wide array of possible obstacles ready to shred the horse and its rider without the most careful maneuvering. A couple of the guards were lost on the way, but the majority were frustratingly competent.

The entire time they had been calling for him to stop and return home. That more than anything was wearing him down.

Didn’t they understand that he wanted to go home?!

Wei Wuxian grit his teeth as he reached a clearing with a hill. If he could break their eye contact on his back for just a second, he could disappear. Gritting his teeth, Wei Wuxian tightened his grip on the reins as he heard his horse whinny.

Suddenly he felt himself falling.

Wei Wuxian’s horse tumbled forward in a heap with Wei Wuxian being thrown forward out of the harness. By reflex he angled his body in such a way to roughly roll forward without breaking anything, the final smack of his back against the hard ground gouging the air from his lungs. Wei Wuxian coughed as black spots entered his vision. Head lolling, he could barely make out through his fluctuating vision the glare of an arrow sticking out of his horse’s chest.

Wei Wuxian struggled to get up before he even registered what he was doing.

The Yunmeng troops were all behind him and none of them would shoot the horse during friendly fire. Someone else was here.

Pain shot through Wei Wuxian’s leg as he tried to get up, his forgotten numb arm slipping and sending Wei Wuxian’s face into the mud.

He can barely move.

He’s been in worse situations before.

With the desperate burst of energy that is found only in the face of death, Wei Wuxian crawled to the nearest tree trunk for cover. His body screamed with every movement, Wei Wuxian biting the fabric of his numb hand to keep from screaming out. No matter how good their night vision is, with Wei Wuxian’s dirt-crusted black clothes he’s practically invisible in the night. His horse, not so much.

Wei Wuxian closed his eyes as it let out a final whimper before going silent.

In the sudden quiet, Wei Wuxian realized the Yunmeng troops should have caught up to him by now.

In the eye of the storm, the moonlight peaked through the clouds to illuminate the clearing. Wei Wuxian felt his eyes dull.

The arrow had purple feathers.

They wouldn’t.

Wei Wuxian didn’t even realize he, too, had been revealed by the light. His dull gaze struggled to raise with the sound of light footsteps coming closer. Seeing the purple uniform, Wei Wuxian felt himself go numb.

The masked assailant leapt forward, sword stretched out towards Wei Wuxian’s chest as he threw his body to the side. The sword impaled itself into the tree trunk, buying Wei Ying a precious few seconds to jam his searing arm into his bag to grab a bomb, a knife, a shoe, ANYTHING!

The shadow of a blade over him had Wei Wuxian turning around with the bag held out ready to catch the blow, only to hear a grunt as two bodies hit the ground. Looking over, Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened as another Yunmeng guard had pinned the first and with a slice at his neck with an arrow knocked the guy out.

Wei Wuxian panted as the new Yunmeng troop took off his mask and Wei Wuxian felt his lips tremble into a smile, “...Third Shidi…!”

The guard sent him a V for victory with his hand as he finished tying the assailant up and ran over, “General!”

Wei Wuxian struggled to sit up on his elbow, “How did you—” Wei Wuxian noticed the quiver of Paralyzing arrows and his jaw dropped indignantly, “That was you?!”

Third Shidi scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Wei Wuxian felt his blood boil a bit, “To think you’d shoot your own commander! And you couldn’t even shoot properly, what was that crap?! You want a triple training regimen? Quadruple?!”

The color quickly draining from Third Shidi’s face satisfied his bloodlust a little. The stockier man held his hands up in surrender, “Yes, our training has fallen completely off the rails since General’s disappearance! Our aim has become downright horrible!” He sent Wei Wuxian a wink.

Wei Wuxian huffed a breath in understanding. So his loyals had snuck into the sentries to let him escape should they catch him. But then…

Wei Wuxian’s face fell as he looked at the tied up Yunmeng troop. Third Shidi followed and his once warm and friendly gaze hardened into ice, “Don’t know what the fuck was up with that. Motherfuckers had the nerve…!”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes narrowed sharply, “There were more?”

Third Shidi nodded, “They ambushed us with a gas bomb when General ran for the clearing. The normal troops were knocked out but the enemy didn’t factor the Wei faction’s training into the strength of it. The others stayed behind to fight off the rest of the group while I ran ahead since I was the only one not locked in a battle.”

Wei Wuxian sighed in relief. His men could handle the best of them on the worst of days. They’ll be fine. Wei Wuxian grunted as Third Shidi helped him stand up, “How likely that they’re imposters?”

Third Shidi steadied him against the tree trunk, “Most of the factions aren’t this stupid. Some are. It’s hard to say, but I checked and that’s a genuine Yunmeng uniform so if they are imposters then that raises a lot of questions.”

Wei Wuxian groaned, freezing at the echo. His eyes darted left and right. Third Shidi tensed imperceptibly as he noticed. Holding his hands out as if continuing to steady Wei Wuxian he raised his eyebrow in question. Wei Wuxian pursed his lips and drummed his fingers on Third Shidi’s arm in code.

It’s too quiet.

Third Shidi’s eyes widened as he noticed the unsettling silence. The fight had ended and there was no hostility between them, yet the forest was as silent as the dead.

Third Shidi inched his hand toward his sword as Wei Wuxian clutched his bag.

Wei Wuxian swept Third Shidi’s feet with a kick that sent them both down as an arrow thumped into the trunk where their heads had been. With a fluid turn, Third Shidi smoothly unsheathed his sword intime to deflect another arrow as Wei Wuxian crashed to the ground. Third Shidi spun to check on him, leaving his back open for the split second necessary for the enemy to jump out of the shadows and lunge forward as one.

Wei Wuxian grabbed the first thing in his bag and yelled, “Flash!”

They both closed their eyes as Wei Wuxian threw out the flash bomb, blinding the enemy into crashing into one another. Third Shidi used those few seconds to knock three of them unconscious with a shocked horror on his face. Wei Wuxian must have looked the same. There’s no way it would be taking this long for his men to beat a group that small, and if anything there's even more enemies than before.

Wei Wuxian quickly glared as he barked at Third Shidi, “You can’t get information if you’re dead, at this point their lives are forfeit!”

Third Shidi lunged with a roar, “YES SIR!”

Wei Wuxian noticed some attackers sneaking up behind Third Shidi and threw a chili bomb at their heads, the screams of agony as they scratched at their eyes making Third Shidi spin around to quickly end the group in three fatal strikes before returning to his previous opponents. Wei Wuxian wobbled onto his feet through pure adrenaline as he barked out locations and orders.

The numbers just seemed to keep growing until some finally made it past Third Shidi and charged at Wei Wuxian. He ducked under the first blow, striking his palm upwards in a sudden smack that cracked the bastard’s neck and threw him back onto his little buddy, Wei Wuxian biting back a scream as lightning shot up his injured arm. He sent out a kick to send the two bodies crashing backwards, knocking their heads together with a crack.

Wei Wuxian crashed to the side at a flash of moonlight, the sword shaving off a few strands of his hair as the enemy continued in a relentless assault that had Wei Wuxian dodging and kicking on the ground with no break to scramble up. He swiped a bomb out of his bag and the enemy shut his eyes in preparation, Wei Wuxian smirking as he dropped the bomb to cover his ears with one hand and his shoulder, “BANSHEE!!!”

Third Shidi smacked his hands against his ears without even dropping his sword just as a horrifyingly piercing screech thundered through the forest, sending whatever birds were left scrambling to escape. Wei Wuxian laughed as the bastards around him dropped unconscious with blood dripping out of their ears, his own still ringing from being at ground zero.

Without a second to waste, Wei Wuxian pulled himself up with the tree trunk and reached for his sword as one of the recovered assailants charged at him blindly, cutting through his chest like paper then using his momentum to turn and drive his sword into another guy and using his body for leverage as he roundhouse kicked a third behind him. Wei Wuxian pulled out his sword swiftly and jumped to back up Third Shidi, slicing clean through one guy at his back and two at his side when he felt himself flying through the air, a stabbing pain shooting through his good arm.

Wei Wuxian crashed to the ground, arrow sticking out just below his shoulder joint glinting purple and red light in a mockery of Wei Wuxian’s own troop colors. He willed his numb arm to move, kicking another bastard’s knees as he tried stabbing down and then kicking his face for good measure. A shadow behind him had Wei Wuxian flipping around in time to block, cursing as his legs were angled in the wrong direction and twisting his neck to dodge the blow when as arrow struck the bastard right in the fucking head.

More thumps sounded behind him as Wei Wuxian twisted around to find four bodies hitting the floor at the same time, bullseye on each one.

A whinny roared through the battlefield as a horse charged through people like roadkill, a silver flash of moonlight severing head from bodies with the swiftness of a war god.

Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened as he saw the man haloed by the moon flicking blood off his sword as if he were too pure for such filthy things. He lashed out his sword with the ruthlessness of a demon, eyes glowing the molten starlight of divine fury as he swept Wei Wuxian’s limp body into his hold.

The arrows were white.

#mdzs #Royalty!AU #emperor!lwj #general!WWX #lan wangji #wei wuxian #arranged marriage AU #mo dao zu shi

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laceymorganwrites · 5 years

Text

I envy her

Word Count: 1,579

Pairing: Zoro x reader

Warnings: swearing, mentions of sex, mentions of injury

A/N: SLIGHT WANO SPOILERS!!! Nothing Major, I tried to Keep it spoiler free but I had to Mention one character from Wano

When somebody would´ve told you ten years ago that you would join a scrawny looking rubber kid and a nap loving, socially awkward swordsman on their journey to make the rubber kid pirate king, you would´ve been seriously concerned about the person´s mental stability.

But if the same person would´ve told you you would fall in love head over heels with said swordsman and find love within him as well as happiness?

Well, the hypothetical person would honestly deserve a gold medal for predicting the future so accurately.

You were a pirate yourself before you joined their crew, meeting them after a battle in the new world you just barely escaped.

Never in a million years would you have believed you´d actually survive the new world and end up in the east blue.

Your ship was about to sink when Luffy and Zoro took you in, saving you from drowning.

Luffy wanted to hear everything about your adventures, so you told them all there was to them. They told you about how they first met and Luffy´s dream.

It was nice sailing with them in safe waters, but eventually you had to stop at an island to get some food.

As you walked around town you started to really look at Zoro, he was handsome with his defined muscles, the way he seemed so cool. And yet, he was the most awkward person you ever met.

Whenever you gave him a compliment about his physique he blushed bright red and started stuttering in embarrassment.

This always made you laugh and think about how cute he was.

It wasn´t long before you started glancing over to him once in a while.

More people joined the crew, you two talked more and more, spent more time together.

And it came as it had to: you fell head over heels in love with him.

After all this time you still couldn´t grasp why, it just happened out of the blue and over time there were simply so many reasons you lost count.

Yes of course your first kiss was awkward, he was too embarrassed to hold your hand in public, not to mention the disaster of your first time. But all of that was normal, and it was Zoro.

He was worth everything, he was worth the waiting, the fights, the jealousy, all of it.

Nobody said it would be easy.

Yet, when he didn´t let go of your waist when you were out, your heart fluttered and you felt safe.

It was the way he looked and smiled at you that made you sure this was true love.

And it was the way he got jealous of any male eyeing you that made you know this would last.

You never knew it was possible to love someone as much as you loved Zoro, yet here you were.

You also never thought you´d be with someone this long, you always were afraid of falling out of love, but with Zoro you just kept falling in love, with every day you loved him more.

And then you arrived in Wano.

Nothing, literally nothing went like planned.

You ran into Luffy and met some residents of the country, after some very chaotic happenings the two of you ended up tagging along the most famous courtesan of Wano.

Well, she was tagging along you and your boyfriend, third-wheeling even, you´d say.

Of course you were mad, you had lost your captain and you doubted you´d find him again so soon, then a whole bunch of other avoidable things happened that led to your presence being known throughout the entire country.

But the woman who was known to give the best head in the country apparently only joined when you and Zoro were in trouble.

All you remembered was running, trying to drag Zoro with you.

How did you get into this situation? Why were you running from a bloodthirsty murderer? Well, Zoro managed to slay the wrong people and now the whole country was after him and with you being with him all the time, they were also after you.

Not having his Shusui made it harder for him to fight and he even got injured by the murderer.

As it turned out you weren´t the ones being chased by the man, it was in fact the priciest courtesan of Wano.

It was the first time you saw her and goddamn was she beautiful, you could never compete with that.

She asked Zoro for help and Zoro being Zoro in his weakened state agreed to fight the murderer.

After the rather unsuccessful fight she invited you for food.

She then proceeded to bandage his wounds, at this point you were fuming.

How could this stranger make your boyfriend undress like that? You didn´t like the way she eyed his toned body like that, you didn´t like the way she touched him the least bit.

But the worst thing was that he didn´t mind it at all.

“You´re overreacting, she just treated my wounds” he tried to calm you down, making you out to be the angry, crazy jealous girlfriend.

The more time you spent with her, you felt yourself drifting apart from Zoro more and more.

You felt as if you were the problem suddenly and kept to yourself in the next days.

Maybe Zoro was right and there was nothing to worry about, maybe you were just overreacting.

But then again, whenever Zoro was jealous, it was a different story. He was jealous way more often than you and very protective over you. Jealousy only ensured in something beautiful with him, but now that you were jealous the first time, it was like you were suddenly the fury from the legends.

It was unfair.

You were about to confront him about this, saying it was silly being jealous and apologizing, but when you entered the shed you stayed in you found Komurasaki snuggled up against Zoro the way you´d normally do it.

Perplexed you stood in the doorway, Zoro was still asleep like a baby, it didn´t even bother him.

“Did you like sleeping with me?” she cheekily asked him and glanced up to you with an innocent smile.

That. Fucking. Bitch.

Saying you were angry would be true at first, but then you saw how calm Zoro was when he was sleeping in her presence. You´ve never seen him so peaceful before.

And it broke your heart, it hurt seeing him like this, with her, knowing she was better than you in every way.

She was the most beautiful creature that ever blessed the earth with walking on it, she had an effect on Zoro in just the few days she knew him you couldn´t compete with.

Hell, she was everything Zoro ever wanted. She needed to be protected and Zoro loved protecting people. You could protect yourself.

Maybe it was you all along who pushed him to her, you were his first partner, showing him everything and now that he knew all that, he could find his true love.

And Komurasaki seemed to be just that.

The more you thought about it the more it all made sense.

When was the last time he said he loved you? You knew he was sick of you, especially now.

You decided you couldn´t stay with them and sought out Komurasaki.

“What´s the fastest way to the flower capital from here?” you asked her.

“Did something happen? Is it not safe here anymore?” she grabbed your arms and looked deeply in your eyes, she was scared, you could sense it.

Sighing you pushed her away softly. “You´re perfectly fine here, besides, shouldn´t you be happy I´m finally gone? Nothing´s in your way anymore… I´m sorry for being so rude to you before, I should´ve let you have him all along.” you apologized sincerely, but your heart weighed heavy in your chest and your lungs squeezed together.

“But...you´re not in my way, what are you talking about?” she tilted her head.

You didn´t know why now but the lump in your throat wasn´t going away, it only grew the more you thought about how your unreasonable jealousy just screwed up your relationship.

“I´m sorry…” were the last words you were able to squeeze out before the first tears started falling.

Komurasaki was sightly overwhelmed with the situation and rushed out of the room to get Zoro.

You weren´t able to hold her back unfortunately, you didn´t want Zoro to see you cry, he never had, you didn´t want him to see you weak like that.

When Zoro heard crying he immediately ran to the room you were in, when he didn´t see any danger he came closer to you in confusion.

Something must´ve happened to make you cry like that, you never cried, not even with a knife buried inside your belly.

“Oi, what happened? Did you hurt her? Don´t upset my partner” he growled at Komurasaki.

She held her hands up defensively and explained the situation.

Zoro´s expression clearly softened after he listened to her.

“I told you there´s no need to be worried, babe. You´re the only one for me” he embraced you in a warm hug, holding you tight and nuzzling his face in your neck, cradling your back and taking in your scent.

He wasn´t good at words or romance or comforting people but he hated seeing you cry and there was one thing he knew: he would never let you go.

#one piece #one piece imagine #one piece one shot #one piece zoro #anime #anime imagine #anime one shot #one shot #imagine #reader insert #zoro x reader #roronoa zoro #zoro

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