#high concurrency processing

[sorenskr]

How Cross-Border Ecommerce Live Streaming Leverages Proxies' IPs

In the wave of cross-border e-commerce, live streaming with goods has become an efficient grip for merchants to expand their channels.

Through live broadcasting to display products, merchants can interact with global audiences in real time, quickly enhance product awareness and directly drive sales. However, cross-border live broadcasting brings network challenges is a big problem: network delays, lag, regional restrictions and other issues, often make the live effect greatly reduced.

At this time, Proxies IP is especially important. It can optimize the transmission of the network, support the switching of geographic location, to ensure that the live broadcast is more stable and smooth. I will take you to talk in detail about the practical role of Proxies in cross-border e-commerce live broadcast, to help merchants and enterprises to realize a "borderless" live broadcast.

What Proxies IP solves for cross-border live streaming

Cross-border live streaming differs from local live streaming in terms of network requirements and faces more complex challenges. The role of Proxies IP can be summarized in three simple ways:

Stable connection, so that the live broadcast is no longer stuck,in cross-border live broadcast, network instability brought about by the delay problem is very common, especially when the live audience around the world, long-distance network transmission is more likely to have problems. Proxies can shorten the transmission path by relaying data through the nearest node, thus reducing the delay and ensuring a smooth picture. This stable network connection is especially important for the viewing experience.

On-demand positioning switching for precise coverage of target marketsUsing Proxies IP, you can switch nodes on-demand to help merchants easily reach users in different countries and regions. For example, in Asian and European markets, merchants can use localized content and regional offers to attract users' attention. This flexible positioning allows brands to display content that is more relevant to local needs based on the preferences of different markets, increasing audience engagement.

Support high concurrency viewing, goodbye to live peak "congestion"Whenever promotions, new activities of the live peak hours, the number of viewers increased steeply, and Proxies IP can be distributed load balancing, decentralized access pressure, so that a large number of users at the same time to access the same time does not lag. In this way, the audience experience is not affected, the live sales conversion is also more secure.

How to use Proxies IP flexibly in cross-border e-commerce live streaming?

To get the best out of Proxies IP for cross-border live streaming, merchants can arrange it like this in the pre-live stage:

Selection of nodes suitable for the target market and testing of network quality

Before starting the broadcast, select nodes with similar locations to the target market for network testing to ensure that the live broadcast can give viewers smooth and clear images. For example, if the target audience is in North America and Europe, prioritizing high-quality nodes in these regions can effectively reduce latency.

Implementation Recommendation: Detect the network stability of each node through the network latency monitoring tool, and prioritize the nodes with low latency and stable network to ensure the live broadcast experience.

Adjust live content to viewers' regional preferences

Proxies IP supports the selection of specific nodes based on markets, giving merchants the flexibility to adapt content to audience preferences. For example, for the North American market, you can focus on promoting high-tech products, while the Asian market can focus more on beauty products.

Implementation suggestions: before the start of the broadcast, adjust the product content of the live broadcast according to the preferences of the target audience, relying on the node switching function of Proxies IP, so that viewers in each market can see the content that is more compatible with their own needs, and enhance the attractiveness of the live broadcast.

Real-time data tracking to optimize interaction and conversion strategies when appropriate

Obtaining real-time audience data through Proxies IP can help merchants analyze the engagement of viewers in each market, such as viewing hours and number of interactions. Based on the feedback from different regions, merchants can adjust interactive content and promotional efforts in a timely manner, such as distributing exclusive offers to more active markets to attract more purchases.

Implementation Suggestion: Utilize data monitoring tools combined with Proxies IP's real-time tracking function to keep an eye on viewer interaction in real time and adjust content strategy in a timely manner based on feedback to maintain viewer engagement and stickiness.

Cross-device and cross-platform testing to ensure a consistent viewing experience

Before the official live broadcast, merchants can simulate the viewing experience on various types of devices through Proxies IP to ensure that the live content is played smoothly on PC, cell phones, tablets and other devices. This can avoid the differences in viewing effect caused by compatibility problems between different devices, and further optimize the user experience.

Implementation recommendations: Select different devices and platforms for live testing, paying special attention to the clarity and response speed of the screen and audio to avoid affecting user viewing due to equipment differences.

Other details to keep in mind during live streaming

When doing cross-border live streaming on a global scale, it is crucial to find the right anchor. Anchors not only need to master the local language, but also have a sense of camera and affinity, which can make the audience feel close and credible. Whether in the Southeast Asian market, or North American and European markets, anchors who can mingle with the audience are more likely to drive sales.

In addition to introducing products, anchors also need to be flexible in responding to Rotating on air. For example, when the audience interaction is active, timely introduction of some limited-time discounts or small benefits, often better stimulate the purchase interest. At the same time, the habits of viewers in different countries are different. American viewers usually like a direct, dry introduction, European viewers may pay attention to product details, while Southeast Asian viewers favor a relaxed and casual chat atmosphere. Therefore, anchors need to adjust their interaction according to the audience's preferences, so that people can participate more naturally.

In order to make the live broadcast run smoothly, it is helpful to use local Proxies IP to monitor the data in real time. For example, you can switch to different regions via Proxies IP to check the local display effect and price of the products to ensure that the product price is consistent or in line with the local market expectation. In this way, not only can you better manage the pricing strategy for different markets around the world, but you can also track viewer engagement and purchasing behavior in real time, providing data to support your optimization strategy for the next live broadcast.

It's also important to maintain a natural atmosphere of communication during global live broadcasts. Avoiding a pushy sales pitch and introducing products and sharing usage feelings more as a friend can better win trust, especially among Southeast Asian and European viewers, who are more likely to recognize this approach. With these details under control and the support of Proxies IP, cross-border live broadcasting is not only smoother, but also brings the brand and the audience one step closer.

What should I look for when choosing a Proxies IP service?

High-quality Proxies IP services play a decisive role in the effectiveness of cross-border live streaming. Here are a few factors you should focus on when choosing a Proxies IP service:

Global Node Coverage: Ensure that the Proxies IP service provider's node coverage is wide enough so that nodes can be selected nearby in different markets to guarantee network stability.

High Concurrency Support: With a large number of viewers during peak hours, Proxies need to support high concurrency access to ensure that they do not drop out even when the traffic peaks.

Privacy and SecureProxies: Proxy IP service providers are required to provide privacy protection to prevent data from being interfered with or leaked during transmission and to ensure the security of the live broadcast process.

In cross-border e-commerce live broadcast, using the right Proxies IP can make the live broadcast twice as effective with half the effort. At this time, PROXY CC Residential Proxies can be a reliable choice for merchants. PROXY CC supports flexible selection of Proxies from 195 countries and regions around the world. PROXY CC supports flexible selection of proxy nodes from 195 countries and regions around the world, and the service covers 90 million active IP resources, providing precise location selection by country, region and even city to meet the high demand of cross-border live broadcasting.

As a leading IP Proxies service provider, PROXY CC not only supports high concurrency processing, but also provides unlimited bandwidth and number of devices to guarantee network stability for cross-border live broadcasting. Merchants can easily switch to the local IP of the target market through PROXY CC, which not only allows them to monitor the local live streaming effect, traffic situation and product pricing in real time, but also ensures smooth live streaming images and the best viewing experience for viewers.

To date, PROXY CC has served more than 20,000 individual users and more than 100 corporate users, with one of the largest IP pools, uptime and availability in the world. Relying on PROXY CC Residential Proxies , merchants can easily break through the limitations and realize the efficient conversion of live streaming with goods in different markets, bringing more business opportunities and market growth for brands going overseas.

Click on the link to try it now! Contact customer service at the end of the trial and get an extra discount!

Conclusion

Proxies IP technology brings a series of optimizations to cross-border live streaming, which not only guarantees network smoothness, but also enables flexible geographic coverage and high concurrency support. These key factors make it easier for brands to reach global users and provide strong support for e-commerce live streaming to expand in international markets.

[mintmatcha]

Inevitable Things : chapter ten

aizawa x reader fic

cw: aizawa x reader, cisfem reader, office AU, no quirks. Mentions of drug use

previous chapter | masterlist | next chapter

You kick yourself for leaving your room a mess. Your fluffy pajamas are strewn across the blue sheets of the bed, your makeup bag is scattered across the bathroom sink. The sheets are fluffed up from when you threw your luggage on them and the remote is nestled in your pillow-

But Aizawa doesn’t notice. 

He’s too busy kissing you like he can’t get close enough. On the greediest of movements, his teeth click against yours and he whimpers into the plush of your tongue, desperately pushing into you. His body follows suit, cornering you against the backside of the door, crowding you until your heart rate spikes-

Then his lips travel down, down, to the curve of your neck, the spot that makes your knees buckle a bit with his tongue drags across the skin. He must feel it too, because he does it again. Snd again. The sensation rips through your body the way fire rips through oil and you fear that you may combust before the fun’s even begun.

“Ah-hh-a-” Your body punches out without your permission. He growls in return and sucks at the same spot again- “Jesus, Shouta-”

“Say it again-” Aizawa demands.” Say my name again.”

And you do.

This time, he sucks you skin into his mouth until you whine for him to stop. He does and you can feel the blossoming pain of a bruise in his wake, throbbing for less and more concurrently.

You can feel how hard he is against you. It presses through the thick cloth of his pants, right into your lower stomach. It's thick. It's hard. He wants you-- unbelievably so. It takes every firing synapse in your skull to reach down and paw at his cock, to feel it beneath your fingertips.

 Heated desire flows through you, thrums, hot and totally overwhelming in every way. You barely notice how you’re sinking, down the smooth plane of the door, down until your knees hit the floor. He follows you the whole time, hunching over you as to not break the contact for even a moment. Tickles of hair and breath and simply him touch your cheeks. Somehow you end up supine, Aizawa slotted between your legs, carpet catching against your hair as he sinks lower, lower-

“We shouldn’t do this.” he whispers and you kiss him deeper, because no, you shouldn’t, but there’s something inside you that needs this, needs him. You press into his shoulder and off of the ground, flipping both of you around so he’s splayed on the floor. Gravity grinds you down against him and he groans - pained, wanted-

“We shouldn’t do this.” He’s firm this time, even with those dark, wet eyes that seem to be begging for it- “You’ve been-”

“I thought you wanted me.” You grip his shirt and you aren’t sure why. You aren’t going to disobey his wishes, but you wish you could, just to derive some pleasure from him, from tonight. “I thought we were past this hot and cold thing.”

“I do,” he says. “I am.”

Gently, he places a hand on your thigh. The cuts on your feet thrum in the silence, the pain sharp and demanding, just like the ache in your chest.

“But, not like this. You’ve been crying, drinking…”

Your grip loosens.

“Do…do you even want this?” he asks.

Do you? You let him sit up and you fall away and try to process it all. This whole drama between the two of you has you upside down; the fighting, the truce, the spark that's just lit between you- it all came together tonight. He waited for you, he was here- 

You want everything that Aizawa could be to you- but do you want him?

You barely know who he is. Even after all these years, Aizawa Shouta is basically a mystery to you. You don't know his favorite color or food or anything-- hell, you didn't know he owned cats until today! The emotional high you’ve been riding starts to waiver. You don’t think you’d regret sleeping with him, but…

“I don't know,” you say,  carefully, because you don't. Not really. You know you need someone new, but you aren’t sure if that’s Aizawa.

Aizawa nods, solemn, swallowing the news. He takes it better than you thought he would; he seems thankful to have a chance more than anything. 

“I don’t want you to almost want this.” He adjusts himself awkwardly, pants still tight at the front. It’s funny- you don’t even think you’ve seen a man use both heads at once. You don’t laugh, though, or even smirk; not while Aizawa looks so utterly defeated. “I want to be more than that.”

The two of you untangle from each other, you fixing your shirt, him fixing his pants. His hair is disheveled, wild from your touch and the carpet, and his lips are freshly kissed red. The hotel clock changes to the top of the hour, blinking its deep red pattern as you both sit there, silent. You find spaces against the door, side by side. Occasionally you can hear the elevator ding in the distance of the hall.

Fucking would be easier than this. Sex doesn’t need pretext or explanation, it just is what it is. You could just do it and move on, let tomorrow’s problems stay unaddressed, but instead you have to percolate it your emotions, decide exactly how you feel-

“It’s not that I don’t not like you.” You interrupt your own thoughts. “I do, I think. Like you.”

You shrug, still avoiding his gaze even as your shoulders slim each other. “At least, you make me do some stupid shit that no one else makes me do, other than--”

You don't want to talk about Touya. Luckily, he seems to understand. Aizawa just nods back to you, eyes lowered, expression tight.

“You also make me do some things that I regret,” He speaks so carefully.

“Like firing Denki?” You try to joke. “And moving the coffee machine?”

“I only fired Denki because he was abusing your good will and pushing his work off on to you.” Aizawa shifts a bit again with a sigh.  “I don’t regret that. I do regret making you so upset over it all.”

You guffaw. “You knew I did his work?” You thought you had been secretive about it!

“Of course I did.”  He shifts to turn your way, face so close to yours you can feel his breath against your cheek. You watch from the corner of your vision and try not to let that fluttering in your stomach take over. “No one else double staples like you do.”

You throw your hands up in frustration at the thought. “I never get the angle right the first time!”

And he smiles back at you with only his eyes, soft and sweet.

“I know.”

Since when did he start looking at you like that?  And since when did you start to like it?

Did Touya ever look at you like that? Maybe a long, long time ago, before the pills and heroin, back when you were both human and young. The attention is so sweet that it aches to bare, and yet you still do, maybe even smiling back. 

 You try not to shatter the moment.  “You really do like me, don’t you?”

He nods.

“Then why were you always so-?”

Aizawa opens his mouth, then closes it, Then, he does it again, seemingly finding no answer. His bad leg curls up to his chest and he loops an arm under his thigh to hold it in place. Silver peeks out from under the cuff, but he doesn’t seem to notice. The shape is very calf like, but utilitarian- no real design other than smooth curves. You try not to stare, especially when he speaks up again.

“I don’t know.” Shouta pulls himself tighter. “It’s like I’m still some stupid twenty year old when I’m around you.”

You remember the feeling of being twenty: the turbulence, the love, the fear. You think about your ink stained hands, the ones so desperate to hold and be held. Ones so young and yet so, so wounded. Against your better judgment, you reach out with those hands and grab Shouta’s free hand, giving it the lightest of squeezes.

“I feel that way too.”

And, when he squeezes back, you think, just for a moment, that maybe you do want this. 

The time he’s granting you is so appreciated and you almost want to try and fuck him again-

“Where do we go from here?” Aizawa asks.

“I think I’d like to try… whatever this is,” you say. A thrill and a fear thrills inside you. Something new, something unknown. The mystery of it all is terrifying. 

“It’ll be a lot of paperwork though.”  Aizawa, of course, brings you back to reality. That’s right, as coworker’s, it’s probably not the most smiled upon thing to date-- especially since Aizawa is so high up in the company. Bakugo and Izuku are together, but they had to disclose that fact before they were even hired. 

God, you’ll have to tell Yagi that you’re seeing Aizawa, won’t you? You can’t decide if he’ll be proud or alarmed. 

“We don’t have to jump right into dating,” you say, quickly. “We can just.. Go on dates.”

Aizawa’s scowl makes a return. “That’s dating.”

“No, it’s going on a date.” You stay firm. “Very different. Much less commitment. Nothing to tell the company about. Or Hizashi.”

“Hizashi can never know.” Aizawa groans. His hands fly to his head in mock pain. “He’d be insufferable about it.”

“The whole town would know if we told Hizashi!”

A giggle escapes you, then Aizawa follows suit. His laugh is crackling, low, rumbling, but it makes your hands vibrate with something you don’t recognize. Before you can stop it, you laugh harder too, then he follows, until you’re both nothing but laughter and tears, crumbling over almost nothing at all. Your head rolls onto his shoulder so you can feel how he bounces with joy, and it only fuels you more. It takes a full minute to pull yourself together again, core aching from the exertion.

“Okay,” There’s still a hint of levity to his voice. “Let’s move slow then. Figure out what you want on your own time.”

“Okay,” you say.

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

The fact that you’re so intertwined with him sets in. Your head is on his shoulder, leg popped over his, hands clasped so tightly you think you might never let go. It’s juvenile, like two kids behind the bleachers, savoring the moments before they get caught. You… like it. Dopamine receptors that haven’t been tickled in years are alight in your brain, giving you this tickling, quantifiable satisfaction. 

You stay there until the carpet burns your ass. 

“Do you want to sit on the bed?”  you say, peeling yourself from him and rising to your feet. Exhaustion is already aching under your eyes and in your joints. “It’ll be comfier.”

“I shouldn't stay too long.” He's already standing and walking towards the bed. “I have to present in the morning.”

You quickly throw your mess to the slide and then slide on top of the sheets.  Aizawa follows, stiffly flopping beside you. His bad leg kicks out a bit when he falls and you can’t help but wince at the thought. Another mystery about him that you haven’t been about to uncover: his leg is his business, but you can’t help but be curious, especially since it’s related to his speech tomorrow. Tensei or Hizashi could probably tell you, but that seems like a violation of Shouta’s privacy.

“I need to sleep,” he says, drifting along to your silent siren’s song.  He’s already slotting himself against you. “It’ll only be for a couple minutes.”

“Okay,” you say.

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

For a  while in comfortable silence, you listen to the way he breathes; its rhythmic, tempo only hitching when you move at all-- especially when you drape an arm across his chest. His eyes are bloodshot from work and the late hour, but you almost like how it looks, how the red deepens the brown until it’s past inky, almost bottomless.

Aizawa suddenly sighs, expression downturned.

“Can I say something?” 

You nod.

“I don’t want you to watch the presentation tomorrow.”

“Oh.” You clear your throat to buy time. How are you supposed to react to that? You want to lash out with anger - after tonight, he turns you away? Again?- but you try to swallow that down. Jumping to conclusions hasn’t helped either of you.  “Did I do something?”

“No.” He’s quick to correct. “My leg will be on display and--”

Aizawa sucks in his peach slice lips. “It’s different when it’s strangers looking at me with a scientific eye. You-- you’re different.”

Oh.

“You feel vulnerable,” you guess.

“Perhaps,” he all but confirms. Now, he won’t meet your eye, his gaze stuck to the ceiling. You try and find where he’s looking, try to pick one dot out in the uneven ceiling that makes sense, like you’re watching stars instead of plaster. 

But there isn’t anywhere to look.

Maybe you’ll never see things completely from his perspective or see what he sees. Maybe that’s okay, as long as you’re here to listen. Your hand finds his once again, just as his started looking for yours.

“How did it-?” you try.

“Car accident.” Aizawa cuts you off.  “Head on collision with a drunk driver. I was twenty.”

So young. You wince as you remember your fight for the front of the car that morning; he probably does need it, both for his leg and his mental well being. You try to imagine him, twenty, unscarred, no little crescent scar on his cheek and no hitch in his gate-

“That must have been so scary.”

He hums an affirmative. “Not as scary as the recovery.”

You squeeze his hand in yours, as tight as you can muster. “I’m so sorry.”

 “Me too.”

You almost talk about Touya, how your twentieth was hard in a different way, but the words don’t come. As close as you two have allowed yourselves to become, there’s still a wall between you-- double sided. Behind yours is years of loving a man who is set on destroying himself, loving someone that’s forgotten how to love you back-

Behind his, his own traumas. 

“I’ll hang out with Hizashi tomorrow,” you say after a very long time. “We’ll go slow.”

“Thank you.”

His nose presses into your cheek, followed by the plush of lips. When it draws a giggle from you, he does it again, slighting closer to your lips. His hands are trying to loop around you, under you, through the warmth of blanket to grab handfuls of your waist and thigh. When he squeezes, he laughs too, something low and grumbling that gets caught in his throat. If he weren’t about to kiss you, you probably wouldn’t have caught it.

“You said we should move slow,” you curl your arms around his neck and drag your body closer, until you’re pressed right against him-

“I think-” He presses his lips to your temple. “A kiss-” He does the same to the other. “-or two-” There’s a pause before he hits your lips. “Is alright.”

You oblige.

You never imagined being here, with him, would be so incredibly gentle. Not that you ever thought you’d be here, having a slow, meticulous kiss with Aizawa Shouta. He just seems so rough, so uncaring from a distance; who could have guessed he had such a capacity for the saccharine? Who could have guessed that he’d hold you like he needs you, that he’d suck on your lip like he’d die without you? 

It slowly devolves. The heat between you burns brighter and brighter, a rolling core of embers right under the surface, but you start to drift. Maybe it’s the expensive bed and perfect pillows, maybe it’s the comfort of being held, but sleep starts to creep into your mind. He must feel it too; the pauses between yet peck grow longer and longer, each drag of skin against skin getting lighter, more fleeting-

The bed creaks as he rolls over. 

“Shouta?” you ask, unable to open your eyes. “Are you really okay with me not knowing what I want from this?”

There’s a pause. He shifts back to you, hand on your waist.

“Don’t sleep in your contacts.” Shouta mumbles into your temple, on the precipice of sleep himself. “You’ll be mad in the morning.”

You hum his worries away.

---

He’s gone in the morning. You awake to creased sheets, the peep of sunlight creeping through your blinds, and sticky, blurry eyes. He was right- you do regret sleeping in your contacts, but that doesn’t kill the butterflies that have hatched inside you, flitting about in sheer excitement. You (kind of) (sort of) (not really) have a boyfriend. At least, someone in the shape of a boyfriend, who holds you all night and kisses you deep and makes your pussy-

You shake that off.

As you prepare for the day - brushing your teeth, washing your face, stripping off your dirty clothes and replacing them with a fresh pair of undies- you keep thinking back to him, him, him. Aizawa’s right- you feel twenty again. Maybe even better. You have no qualms about walking around naked post shower, breasts out and pearled in the thrull of the AC.

You’re standing in the middle of the room, watching the news and googling ‘coffee near me’ when you hear the door. It beeps, then creeps open, Aizawa ducking back in. Gone is the outfit from yesterday, replaced with a nice top and… sweatpants. He’s also freshly bathed, raven hair barely damp against his shirt. His usually hooded eyes pop wide and he freezes when he sees you standing there, only your panties to save your decency.

“Hi!” you say, more surprised than anything else.

“Hi,” he says back, just as awkwardly. He’s trying not to stare at you; you quickly scurry back under the covers to hide yourself, shoving handfuls of sheets over your tits.

 “You look-- I didn’t think you’d be awake--- I brought breakfast,” he tries, holding a brown bag up for you in one hand and a cup in the other. “And a latte. Nice-- glasses.”

You look at him. Really, really look at him. Breakfast in bed? You didn’t even fuck him. Why would he--?

“Really?” you try not to sound skeptical.

He hums a yes. “I borrowed your key, hope that’s okay.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s-” You’re less concerned about that than breakfast. After not having a real dinner, you’re starving; he must have been too. Taking the bag, you quickly look inside. It’s a little bagel sandwich, wrapped in tin foil and a heavenly smell. “You really brought me food?”

“Stop asking me that and take this.” He places the drink on the nightstand. “It all seemed like things you would like.”

You aren’t sure if you’re hungry or if the sandwich really is good. All you know is that you unpeel it from its wrapping and take a less than demure bite, followed very quickly by a second. Your eyes actually flutter back into your skull for a moment; fuck-- that’s a good fucking breakfast. The coffee smells fantastic too. All of this while sitting in high thread count sheets? You might be in heaven.

“Don’t look at my breasts if they fall out,” you mumble through your food. 

“I will be looking,” he says, completely serious. “Maybe even praying.”

With your free hand, you scooch the comforter down, exposing your tits to the cool hotel air. His expression grows hard and you glimmer under the attention. It’s new enough that it still feels elicit, dangerous, wrong, to be topless in front of the man.

“There is a God.” Aizawa sits on the edge of the bed. His eyes never leave your body. “Remind me to bring you breakfast in bed again some day.”

He leans on to his palms to duck over you, catching your cheek in a rather sloppy kiss. 

“You aren’t going to eat with me?” you ask.

"I'd rather spend the morning eating you.” His flirtation merely has you choking on your spit.  “But we agreed to go slow.”

He dots your other cheek with a kiss again. It’s funny how soft he has become in such a short time. Has this always been there, hiding under that stupid yellow sweatshirt? Or have you broken through him this weekend?

Then, you process what he said. Fuck, that sounds-- you’re still a little wet from last night, riding the high of being touched. It would only take a couple licks for you to-

“Don’t look at me like that.” Shouta shuts down your train of thought. “I really should be going to prepare.”

That’s right- there’s only a little time before he presents.

“Hm, okay. Another morning, then.” You take another bite. “Good luck with your speech. I won't be watching.”

You’re still a bit conflicted about not going, but you respect his choice. The accident seems to be a huge scar on his past; if he isn’t ready to debride it, you can’t force him. Besides, you haven’t discussed Touya with him-- that’s probably an equally big trauma in your life.

Especially because you may still be in love with Touya.

That thought cuts the wind from your sails.

[mithrandirl]

i always get questions when i do a split gifset, and it's a deceptively simple process so i thought i'd try to show how i do it! i don't know if these types of gifsets have a more universally recognized name, but that's what i call them so that's what i'm going with.

i'm going to write this assuming you have a solid familiarity with photoshop and making gifs, but please feel free to send me an ask if anything is unclear. i use video timeline/smart objects so will be showing that (here's a great general tutorial on giffing with timeline). i will also be talking A LOT about gif dimensions, so first let's briefly go over the limits and theory a little bit.

a 1 column gifset can accommodate gifs 540 pixels wide

2 columns = 268 pixels each with a 4 pixel gutter between

3 columns = 177, 178, 177 pixels with 4 pixel gutters

i'm mostly going to talk about 2 column split gifs here (what i will refer to as 2x1 from now on - 2 across and 1 high), but the process is the same for 3 column (3x1) and so on (1x2, 2x2, etc).

so, why would you even want to make a gifset like this? i mean, let’s face it, generally, bigger is better for gifs on tumblr, and there are obvious incentives to 540 width gifs over 268 or 177/8 width, especially since the upload limit went to 10MB. but even 10MB isn’t much when you’re talking about high quality footage. gif making is a constant balance between quality (whatever that means to you: frame dimensions, sharpening, coloring, etc) and file size. split gifs are a cheat to that limitation >:)

i personally believe an untapped frontier of tumblr gifmaking is playing with dimensions and time. that sentence makes me sound like an old-timey sci-fi villain, but you get the idea: gifmaking is an art and there are many fun and interesting ways of exploring the medium. you can do a lot with 268 pixels! longer frame loops to gif longer scenes unbroken, bolder coloring on a wide shot you don’t want to pare down. and, a shorter x axis means the y axis’s bang goes a lot further on a buck. also just if you have a 2 column set but only 5 gifs so you need to make one take up 2 slots. there's a lot of reasons but the most important one is it's fun :) here are some examples of other split gifs i've made: x, x, x

this isn't so much a limitation, more of a shift in how you think about gifs, but it's important to remember that each gif should ideally be doing something still. when making split gifs, it’s easy to pick a wide scene without thinking about how it’ll be split down the middle, and then you’re left with a lot of something on one side and a lot of incongruous nothing on the other - or you're left with a person cut in half awkwardly in the middle. so while a split gif can still be a whole scene, you shouldn’t ignore the break and what it means to the bigger picture. now this is personal preference, but i like to play with the break and make it a part of the gifset. mirrored movement, subjects trapped on either side but still talking to each other, a bird flying from one side to the other. fun with frames! it can be another way of drawing attention to specific images/moments/feelings happening within the same shot.

SIMPLE SPLIT GIFS

to more narrowly define what i’m calling “simple split gifs,” it’s one set of frames split down the middle into two separate gifs that are meant to play concurrently, side by side.

first thing's first, crop your gif and uncheck delete cropped pixels if it is not already (very important). i'm cropping it to the 1x1 size, in this case 268x350. if you need to see how the full size will look, you can try it out with 536 first. but this one is pretty easy, this is the exact center of the frame (the left boundary of this crop is the center line) and both their heads fit within their respective 1x1 crop.

then color as you normally would. if your scene is very different one side to the other, it might be easier for you to color on a wider crop and then either crop again or copy paste your coloring to the smaller crop version. i do that with the 2x6s, but it's usually not that big a deal to color the 2x1s with just the small crop on your canvas at the time. this scene is very symmetrical, both in movement and colors, so i'm good.

now the fun part! once you've got one side how you want it, save/export as you normally would. at this point i also like to make a mental note of how many frames there are.

so i have 49 frames and it's still only ~3MB! this is just an example that i picked from my rotk fancy set, otherwise i probably would have made this gif longer.

then onto the other side, so i ctrl + z my way back to my smart object video timeline. to get to theoden i just drag and drop the smart object 268 pixels over. since this one is in the exact center of the image, it even helpfully guides me (this can get annoying if you are NOT giffing the center of the image fyi, but you can always manually go pixel by pixel too if you need to with your <- -> keyboard buttons. just always remember where you started and count accurately). i can never move around my smart object without hiding the adjustment layers on top of it, so you'll see me do that in this screen recording.

see how it corrected me when i dragged it a few pixels down by accident, and with all those pink guidelines? sometimes photoshop is good 😌

then make sure you still like the coloring, adjust whatever needs to be adjusted, but watch out! don't make any major changes because it still has to match the other side. and export again.

what we perceive as 1 series of frames chopped down the middle is just 2 separate gifs with the same frame rate. when tumblr loads the images, it will run concurrently in the post (even though it never does in the draft post 🙄). and that's it!

COMPLEX SPLIT GIFS

again i'm making up terms, but i call anything with more than 2 components a complex split gifset. i've tweaked some things in the process as i went along, but this is generally how i did the lotr series. these sets are basically just many split gifs with transitions. and here's where endurance becomes a factor :) there's a lot of prep done blind. but if set up well, it will be fairly easy to pull together by the end.

first i decide on my dimensions, using my upper bounds to determine how big i'm going to go. since lotr has very nice large file sizes, i can go pretty big without sacrificing much in quality. i decided on 3 rows of 350 pixel height gifs and it's worked well for me. that means my biggest gif will have a total height of 1050 pixels - fun! you could also do 8 rows, with two 2x2s or just a series of 2x1s that transition to 1x1s. there really is no limit to this except your imagination and source material.

i cap everything i'm going to use before i even open photoshop, then do all of them at once. uncheck delete cropped pixels, then i make my gifs! this is where i spend 90% of the time on this set. every gif should be the size of the smallest 1x1 gif (268x350 for me). i make all 10 into a fully colored, separate psd. (and then i usually go back through all of them a few times to get the colors to match better 😅) for the bigger ones (2x1: 536x350 and 2x6: 536x1050), i just crop them as if they were 1x1 but always thinking about how they will look when big. this gets tricky when i do the big one :) my lazy workaround for that is to basically make it twice: one cropped as it will be and one full size for me to color. then i copy and paste all the coloring layers onto the small one and voila, i know that the coloring in the upper right slice will also look good on the bottom left slice 1050 pixels away because i saw it on the full size version.

coloring is probably the biggest thing i'm thinking about with this kind of set. the whole idea is that these gifs are using the same colors, more or less, throughout each phase. even with the 1x1s, they're still part of a larger color concept, and they should (🤞) work with each other.

in a pinch, i like to eyedrop a color from one gif and add it as an accent to another. one of my 1x1s had a much more muted color palette originally, but i wanted it to have deeper blues and yellows to complement the 1x1 that would go next to it, so i added some gradients on lower opacity over it, color picked from other gifs i already colored.

i keep my coloring and the smart object in separate folders to help me in the final step of combining everything, and then i trim everything down to my lowest common denominator of frames. you might think you need to keep frames pretty minimal if you're doing 3 phases with transitions like this, but there's more room to work with on a small gif, in terms of file size. i usually do 30-50 frames for each phase, with the assumption that i'll be adding a transition on each side of each gif that will eat up some frames (i usually do 4-6 frame fade transitions). for the rotk set my final frame count was 129 and i never went over 8MB on a gif, so there's plenty of space play around with things :)

and then, combine! whatever order you start with, you are stuck with (unless you're getting even more complicated, but we won't go into that lol). for these sets i go small 1x1 -> medium 2x1 -> big 2x6. i like to think of it in phases from this point on. small is the first phase, then medium, then big. then i put in the fade transitions, chopping up the first phase gif so the last one will fade into it, restarting the whole cycle seamlessly. i'm just doing a quick and dirty fade here, but here's a tutorial if you want more explanation on transitions.

at this point i save this psd as its position, "top left" or whatever (usually it's a psb by this point too 🥲), just in case i need to go back to it. then i export this first gif and move on to the rest.

it's the same concept as a simple split gif: drag and drop the smart object to the new position, but now there are multiple phases to keep track of. folder organization has been key for me to keep everything straight. i move through the gifs in a backwards S, starting with the top left. but you could go any direction, just gotta stick with it and remember your counts. in my case, i'm always thinking of 268 pixels over and, for the 2x6, 350 up/down. it's a tedious process, but it goes quick (apart from waiting for photoshop to load each time you export).

i did this series as a color concept aesthetic kind of thing, so my theory was by using the same-ish colors throughout, that would save me in the end when it came time to export. there's only 256 colors max to work with on a gif, and that's usually what gets me over the 10MB limit. but as i said, i have never even gotten close to the size limit on this series. it's pretty hard to reach the limit on 268 pixels, but not impossible. (i did run into that on the emma set i did, and that was hell. but also not an impossible fix in the end.)

and that's it! if you try any of this and have trouble, i'm happy to help if i can but mostly this is a "click around and see what works for you" kind of process. and feel free to tag me on your split gifsets :) i love seeing them <3

[mysticstronomy]

IS THE UNIVERSE IN EMPTY SPACE??

Blog#502

Welcome back,

Saturday, May 3rd, 2025,

When it comes to the physical Universe, the notion of “nothing” may truly be possible only in theory, not in practice. As we see the Universe today, it appears full of stuff: matter, radiation, antimatter, neutrinos, and even dark matter and dark energy, despite the fact that we don’t truly know the ultimate, fundamental nature of the latter two. Yet even if you took away every single quantum of energy, somehow removing it from the Universe entirely, you wouldn’t be left with an empty Universe. No matter how much you take out of it, the Universe will always generate new forms of energy.

How is this possible? It’s like the Universe itself doesn’t understand our idea of “nothing” at all; if we were to remove all the quanta of energy from our Universe, leaving behind only empty space, we would immediately expect that the Universe would be at absolute zero: with no energetic particles anywhere to be found. Yet that’s not the case at all. No matter how “empty” we artificially make the expanding Universe, the fact that it’s expanding would still spontaneously and unavoidably generate radiation. Even arbitrarily far into the future, or all the way back before the hot Big Bang, the Universe would never truly be empty. Here’s the science of why.

Here in our Universe today, it’s very clear that space is anything but empty. In every direction we look, we see:

stars, gas, dust, other galaxies, galaxy clusters, quasars,

high-energy cosmic particles (known as cosmic rays),

and radiation, both from starlight and left over from the Big Bang itself.

If we had better “eyes,” which is to say, superior tools at our disposal, we could also detect the signals that we know ought to be out there, but which cannot be detected with current technology.

We’d see gravitational waves from every mass that’s accelerating through a changing gravitational field. We’d “see” whatever is responsible for dark matter, rather than simply its gravitational effects. And we’d see black holes, both active and quiescent, rather than simply the ones that are emitting the greatest amounts of radiation.

All of what we see isn’t simply occurring in a static Universe, but rather in a Universe that’s evolving over time. What’s particularly interesting from a physical point of view is how our Universe is evolving. On a global scale, the fabric of our Universe — spacetime — is in the process of expanding, which is to say that if you put any two well-separated “points” down in your spacetime, you’ll find that the:

proper distance (as measured by an observer at one of the points) between those points,

the light-travel time between those points,

and the wavelength of the light that travels from one point to the other,

will all increase over time. The Universe is not just expanding, but also cooling concurrently as a result of the expansion. As light shifts to longer wavelengths, it also shifts towards lower energies and cooler temperatures; the Universe was hotter in the past and will be even colder in the future. And, through it all, the objects with mass and/or energy in the Universe gravitate, clumping and clustering together to form a great cosmic web.

Originally published on https://www.forbes.com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, May 7th, 2025)

"DO WE LIVE IN A GIANT VOID??"

[loving-family-poll]

Highly recommend botting. Everyone cheering for me in the tags was highly invigorating. I ran my script 1-5 times concurrently throughout most of the day. Every half hour or so (~7 minutes with 5 threads) I used a VPN to switch my IP address when Tumblr got mad at me. I became quite attached to my bots in the process! At one point I caught myself thinking, "why can't you be more like your sister" at my slowest daughter who was throwing up errors like her life depended on it and then I felt kind of bad because that's?? Also my daughter? And she deserves better. But yeah I was watching the numbers go up on my dual monitors like a real hacker with no company aside from my command line. I am very much an amateur and would recommend my script to absolutely no one because it is a beast and it sucks, but it got the job done (so far, at least)! My fastest voting speed was ~15 votes per minute across 5 bots (3 votes/bot/minute). Pretty sweet! High maintenance though, and it gave my laptop quite a workout. I'd have one bot working perfectly, three working pretty well but throwing up errors consistently, and one really struggling...

It started to feel like factory sim after a while. Or a family. I daydreamed a lot while I worked to the point where I felt guilty shutting down my girls for the day. I'm so proud of them. My five beautiful daughters who I gave birth to in VScode 🥹

Lovely poll, thanks for pushing me to code a bot for the first time, it was a lot of fun! Gcest is life and I listened to "Guess God Thinks I'm Abel" 112 times while I worked. I've tried Selenium before, but I had given up in the past, so I really appreciate the chance to learn a new skill. Biblical! I hope I can inspire others to commit fraud while I'm at it ✌️

Love,

- Botting for Gcest

UR THE #1 FRAUDSTER HERO!!!!!!! MWAH MWAH ILY!!!!!!!

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 11: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - The SEL 840A🎄💾🗓️

Systems Engineering Laboratories (SEL) introduced the SEL 840A in 1965. This is a deep cut folks, buckle in. It was designed as a high-performance, 24-bit general-purpose digital computer, particularly well-suited for scientific and industrial real-time applications.

Notable for using silicon monolithic integrated circuits and a modular architecture. Supported advanced computation with features like concurrent floating-point arithmetic via an optional Extended Arithmetic Unit (EAU), which allowed independent arithmetic processing in single or double precision. With a core memory cycle time of 1.75 microseconds and a capacity of up to 32,768 directly addressable words, the SEL 840A had impressive computational speed and versatility for its time.

Its instruction set covered arithmetic operations, branching, and program control. The computer had fairly robust I/O capabilities, supporting up to 128 input/output units and optional block transfer control for high-speed data movement. SEL 840A had real-time applications, such as data acquisition, industrial automation, and control systems, with features like multi-level priority interrupts and a real-time clock with millisecond resolution.

Software support included a FORTRAN IV compiler, mnemonic assembler, and a library of scientific subroutines, making it accessible for scientific and engineering use. The operator’s console provided immediate access to registers, control functions, and user interaction! Designed to be maintained, its modular design had serviceability you do often not see today, with swing-out circuit pages and accessible test points.

And here's a personal… personal computer history from Adafruit team member, Dan…

== The first computer I used was an SEL-840A, PDF:

I learned Fortran on it in eight grade, in 1970. It was at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where my parents worked, and was used to take data from cyclotron experiments and perform calculations. I later patched the Fortran compiler on it to take single-quoted strings, like 'HELLO', in Fortran FORMAT statements, instead of having to use Hollerith counts, like 5HHELLO.

In 1971-1972, in high school, I used a PDP-10 (model KA10) timesharing system, run by BOCES LIRICS on Long Island, NY, while we were there for one year on an exchange.

This is the front panel of the actual computer I used. I worked at the computer center in the summer. I know the fellow in the picture: he was an older high school student at the time.

The first "personal" computers I used were Xerox Alto, Xerox Dorado, Xerox Dandelion (Xerox Star 8010), Apple Lisa, and Apple Mac, and an original IBM PC. Later I used DEC VAXstations.

Dan kinda wins the first computer contest if there was one… Have first computer memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing – See you back here tomorrow!

[problematicsashawaybright]

I don't want to ruin anyone's fun, so genuinely do whatever you want in your post canon amphibia fanfics, but as someone who is a junior in college in California and studying psychology, hoping to do the same thing as Sasha, it is VERY unlikely, if not impossible, for Sasha Waybright to have a doctorate degree in psychology at the age of 23.

A doctorate in psychology (psyD), from high school graduation to attaining your doctorate is around 8-10 years, but it varies based on programs and individual circumstances. An associates degree is 2 years, a bachelor's is 2 years, and a doctorate is around 3.5-4 years minimum, assuming you're a full time student who doesn't need to work or pay for classes (college in the US/CA is very expensive, and grad school even more so) and you don't take any semesters off.

Assuming she wasn't held back a grade due to being missing in amphibia for the better part of a year, she would have graduated from high school right around 18. From 18-20, she would have been doing her associates degree, and from 20-22 she would have been doing her bachelor's degree. 22-24, she would have been doing her master's degree. This is assuming that she graduates on time and is able to do college all the way through, full time, with no breaks.

Hypothetically, even if Sasha started college early, the earliest you can leave high school in California is 16 with parental permission and passing the notoriously difficult California high school proficiency exam (similar to a GED test, however it's much more difficult and is the equivalent to a high school diploma. Also very hard to get approval to even attempt as a minor) so the earliest she could have started college was 16, and even if she did a concurrent bachelor's/masters program that cut a year, the youngest she could have her master's degree is 22, and if she's working with patients personally at 23, especially pediatrics and adolescents, then she's taken some sort of exam and has logged clinical hours and has been under the supervision of someone else. I would assume that this means that Sasha had either achieved or is working towards a license in marriage and family counseling (the typical degree therapists have), and is in the process or has barely achieved getting enough clinical hours (3,000) to take the certification exam.

Some people do work with patients while they're working towards a doctorate/psyD degree after their masters degree, however the chances of Sasha Waybright having earned an actual PsyD/doctorate in psychology degree are almost none, considering her age.

[prismaticpichu]

The Zack & Sephiroth Friendship Timeline, According to Pichu

Just a random self-indulgent post based on my everlasting headcanons of these goobers <3

~~~

Timeline

• As a young tadpole in Gongaga, Zack discovers Sephiroth via the local newspaper, having caught sight of a glorified picture at the kitchen table. The spark to be a hero is born.

• At age 13, Zack leaves for SOLDIER; he is eventually adopted by Angeal, who keeps Zack’s awe alight by sharing stories and anecdotes about his time working with the famed silver warrior.

• Sephiroth, concurrently, is fed little tidbits of information about Angeal’s new student, is painted pictures of Zack’s jubilant spirit and puppyish nature. He immediately believes Zack to be childish and naive—even if a little curious. This “pup,” he thinks, is never going to make it in this big dog-eat-dog world.

• Angeal tells Sephiroth to take care of Zack, should anything happen to him. Sephirotn scoffs it off.

• Come Wutai, and Angeal is gone. So is Genesis. Sephiroth is left all alone, torn asunder over the the double betrayal. This is when he finally meets Zack, saving the distracted pup from Ifrit’s Hellfire, cleaving those furious flames in two as Sephiroth smites the summon himself. However, the marvel is short—and the gratitude even shorter. Tensions are high; Sephiroth’s on edge. And he takes his anger out on Zack, snapping at him to know where Angeal is. Zack is equally quick to raise his voice at the… the cold-hearted warrior, incredulous that he would accuse his so-called friend of betraying them—and affirming Sephiroth’s perception of him as a naive, moronic child. Things are off to a rocky start.

• Weeks pass without Angeal’s return. Zack’s hope begins to wane, but he refuses to let it fade entirely. He’s also promoted to First Class at this time; Sephiroth is the only one who joins Zack in Lazard’s office.

• Genesis clones attack the base thereafter. Zack & Sephiroth are ordered to work together, and the younger First is surprised at just how much… synergy the two of the seem to have. Not once do they trip over each other while fighting; they instinctively cover each other’s blind spots; they fight side by side, like a team, despite the wisps of vitriol that still linger in the air between them. Sephiroth senses the same, if not impressed with the Firsts’s combat prowess.

• On the same day, en route to Hollander’s lab, Sephiroth feels something inside of him splinter; a wounded part of him that needs to be heard, that craves for an ear that would understand. And he can’t articulate why, but he just begins to speak, to open his heart as he leans over the railing, to vent about the training room incident and all that had sparked from his selfish, idiotic, arrogance…

• And it’s there, listening attentively to Sephiroth tear himself up, that Zack’s venom turns to understanding

• Zack and Sephiroth hang out more and more during this time, their friendship truly beginning to blossom. Zack begins shortening Sephiroth’s name; Sephiroth begins inviting Zack into his home. And for the first time in a long while, things feel stable. Safe. Comforting…

• Modeoheim hits; Angeal’s funeral is brief. It would have been longer, maybe, if either one of them bothered to stay longer than ten minutes. Seeing Sephiroth storm out after such a short amount of time, Zack follows suit… Only to push Sephiroth against the corridor wall, seething, mako-blue eyes ablaze with fury as he GLARED into the worthless, weak, cowardly…. pathetic warrior’s soul, burning tears beginning to streak down his cheeks in the process. He’s furious that Sephiroth didn’t come to Modeoheim with him; he’s furious that he refused the mission; he’s furious that all he does is hide, avoid… He’s furious that he ever, EVER considered him to be a worthy friend, let alone anything resembling even the faintest ghost of a hero—

• Sephiroth slaps him, right on his still-healing scar, and sends the young SOLDIER tumbling to the ground.

• Zack calls him a monster; he rushes away

~

• Weeks later, Zack is sobbing in his lonely First Class apartment, broken and beaten from all that had imploded in the company. His dreams feel crushes; he doesn’t know if they were ever attainable; he doesn’t know what to do anymore, where to go, how he could still wield the worm and torn Buster Sword…!—

• Sephiroth walks in, needing to deliver a paper to Zack, having taken over Lazard’s place after the man’s desertion. He’d fallen into absolute tatters since their incident after the funeral, and seeing Zack’s state seemed to break the last piece of resistance he had left. He remembers Angeal’s promise; he remembers being told, with words so distant and sincere now, to take care of the young pup should anything happen to him… And now, staring at the young First curled up on the couch—a small, vulnerable teenager…—he wants nothing more than to make Zack’s pain go away.

• He pulls Zack into his arms, holding the sobbing First close; Zack burrows into him, apologizing profusely, apologizing wholeheartedly. Sephiroth apologizes too

• And promises to always keep him safe.

~

• Their friendship burgeons and blossoms from here on out, stronger than it had ever been. Zack spends more nights at Sephiroth’s than he ever has; Sephiroth cooks Zack his favorite meals almost every night; Zack begins to smile again, talking about Aerith and Cloud and all his other buddies, beginning to enjoy life again…; Sephiroth, meanwhile, begins to eat again. His sleep schedule is mended, thanks to Zack’s gentle nudging—and, of course, their countless sleepovers. Zack is promoted to Seph’s second-in-command, spending every day in the office with him, working side-by-side—on and off missions. They do everything together… and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

• It’s time to leave for Nibelheim.

~

• They go to the Reactor; Genesis spews what he spews, destroying Sephiroth’s soul, feeding poison into his brain. His cells are activated; Jenova begins worming into his mind, twisting his thoughts. She’s the reason that Sephiroth has a sudden act or aggression, when the calm, concerned hand comes down on his shoulder, when the kind, worried “Hey, Sephiroth..!” comes shouting from behind. Jenova doesn’t want Zack to get close; he doesn’t want him to break his despair, to shatter her spell. She wants Sephirotn to flee—to run, to learn, to change……..

• Sephiroth rushes out of the Reactor

• Zack finds him in the library, just hours later; he never took a minute to stop looking for him

~

• There, Zack is able to soothe his best friend’s aches—if only momentarily. He assures him that he’s not a monster; he assures him that he’s the kindest, smartest, most wonderful person that he has ever met. He squeezes his arm, tries to wring the poisonous thoughts out. He won’t bear to lose another friend to the same toxic mindset that had crippled Angeal. He won’t…!

• And Sephiroth hears him.

• He really, really hears him.

• He believes him…

…

• …But he still wants to remain in the library to read, to learn about what he may never able to learn about again. And it’s then that he makes a promise to Zack: the moment he feels overwhelmed, stressed, scared… he will come right back to inn. Immediately.

• Zack is hesitant, but ultimately agrees.

• After all, he trusts his friend with his life

~

• Seeing her puppet beginning to slip away, Jenova brutally seizes control the moment Zack is gone

• Sephiroth tries to fight, but is too weak to resist alone, to fend her off.

.

.

.

• He succumbs, and out into the town he goes

🔥🔥🔥

• Back at the Reactor, enter Zack. He’s mortified; he’s enraged; he’s confused… He tries to bring his blade to the other’s neck, as he’s standing before the Thing’s tank, but can’t bring himself to do it. His arm his numb. He can’t even manage a single word, a single breath.

• Sephiroth takes the opportunity to attack him. Brutally…

…

• And it’s thereafter, when Sephiroth is monologuing about all this nonsense, about this drivel about being the Chosen One, that Zack realizes it—laying on the catwalk of the chamber, his arms gashed and bloodied, his eyes wide and hazed with tears:

• This isn’t Sephiroth.

.

.

.

• They continue to fight, Zack forced to defend to himself now. Blood is shed; screams are made; clothes and skin are torn—albeit only on Zack’s side, with Sephiroth’s face marred only with crimson that had already been spewed….

…

• And yet, Zack still refuses to fight.

• He continues calling out to his friend, trying to get him to hear his voice.

• He pleads.

• He cries.

• Sephiroth laughs.

• Sephiroth scoffs.

• Sephiroth smirks.

• Sephiroth impales him.

.

.

.

• And Zack gets up, having been thrown to the ground like a discarded toy.

• And he limps toward the possessed man.

• And he opens his arms,

• and throws himself into Sephiroth’s chest, whispering:

…

• “I love you, Sephiroth…”

.

.

.

.

.

And in this world, in this crazy universe you have taken the time to read through… those words are enough <3

[science-lover33]

🧪The sodium-potassium pump🧬

Greetings, Tumblr community! 🧠💡 Let's engage in a comprehensive exploration of the sodium-potassium pump, dissecting its molecular intricacies and elucidating its critical role in cellular homeostasis.

Introduction:

The sodium-potassium pump, residing within the cellular membrane, is an adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-dependent transmembrane protein pivotal for maintaining ionic balance. Its primary function is to actively transport three sodium ions out of the cell while concurrently importing two potassium ions.

Functional Mechanism:

In terms of mechanistic precision, the sodium-potassium pump operates as an ATPase enzyme, utilizing the energy derived from ATP hydrolysis. This primary active transport process involves sequential conformational changes within the pump's structure.

The process commences with the binding of intracellular sodium ions to high-affinity sites on the pump. Subsequent phosphorylation, facilitated by ATP, induces conformational alterations that render the pump receptive to extracellular potassium ions. This triggers dephosphorylation, allowing potassium ions to be released intracellularly.

This orchestrated ion exchange serves to uphold the electrochemical gradient across the cellular membrane, establishing and preserving the resting membrane potential. In essence, the sodium-potassium pump is the architect of the delicate balance between sodium and potassium concentrations.

Physiological Significance:

The physiological ramifications of this meticulous ion transport extend to neuronal excitability and osmoregulation. By contributing to the establishment of the resting membrane potential, the pump plays a pivotal role in regulating action potentials and facilitating the propagation of nerve impulses.

Additionally, the pump actively participates in cellular volume control through osmoregulation. Its influence on water movement prevents cellular swelling or shrinkage, underscoring its significance in maintaining cellular integrity.

For those seeking empirical validation, consider consulting the following authoritative sources:

1. **Alberts B, Johnson A, Lewis J, et al.** Molecular Biology of the Cell. 4th edition. New York: Garland Science; 2002. Section 11.3, The Plasma Membrane.

2. **Nelson DL, Cox MM.** Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. 7th edition. New York: W.H. Freeman; 2017. Chapter 11, Active Transport and the Cytoskeleton.

3. **Lodish H, Berk A, Zipursky SL, et al.** Molecular Cell Biology. 4th edition. New York: W. H. Freeman; 2000. Section 15.1, The Transport of Small Molecules Across Membranes.

Immerse yourself in the scientific intricacies of cellular dynamics with these foundational resources! 📚✨

[thispageisrendering]

Autistic Safe Spaces

If you own a business or a restaurant that serves the public, as the issue gets talked about more, you might be wondering how you can better help the neurodivergent community. Some places try to give spaces where autistic people can go to get their needs fulfilled, so if that is of interest to you, I've compiled a list of things we really enjoy.... made by an actual neurodivergent person.

NOTE: This is list is made by an adult, for adults and teens. The needs of children are slightly different, though similar, and would surely require a different list. 1. Silence - A lot of places, including malls, restaurants, and crowded stores, are overwhelmingly loud. The brains of autistic people process stimuli differently, and we can't "tune out" sounds in the same way neurotypicals can. Silence can involve the (seemingly) obvious things, like turning down music or reducing the number of people in an area, but a lot of things are loud to the point of pain that you might not think of, including metal silverware on ceramic dishware, shopping carts, doors opening and closing, and shoes on floors. A good rule of thumb is to think about how you would feel in a space if you had a migraine. This is easier in some places than others, but accommodations such as plastic dishware, softer floors, and carts left outside can make a big difference. 2. Stillness - I call the visual category stillness and not "blankness" or "simpleness" because that is simply not what I mean. A space can still be quite beautiful while not being overstimulating. We do not want ugly things, and you can still use style and color theory and design principles, but we do want walls without too much signage or distracting detail, floors and carpets without tightly repeating patterns or too much contrast (stripes and small tiles both bug me), and a visual block from the rest of the world, where things are moving like crazy.

3. Style - Because autism is often seen as a disorder than affects children, style can often be overlooked when designing materials and spaces for autistic people (although this, I would argue, is silly; many brilliant artists are / were on the spectrum, and a child, especially an autistic child, can enjoy beauty as much or more than you), and if you have the chance, I plead to you-- remedy this. Autistic people can appreciate detail and wonder in a way that is not concurrent with anything neurotypical people do, and along with having "icks", things we find particularly distressing, we also experience "glimmers", moments of unbounded joy over (possibly) seemingly ordinary things. I feel glimmers when shown any well-executed style; I feel glimmers in office buildings and abandoned neighborhoods and driving by courthouses... any style that is significantly different from my own, and significantly committed to the bit, so to speak, is a wonder to me. If you have the money and the resources, give us beauty, give us a an area that contains classy chic lounge or a medieval tavern or a vast, well-made mural of hyperfixations you polled from your own customers... pay craftsmen to give you a 20th century train station or a heist or an illusion floor in one area that looks as if dwarves are mining for gold hundreds of feet below you. You do not need to overwhelm us with detail-- this area need not be unusually large, or contain live-action roleplaying employees, or be loud or bright or over-the-top-- but you should also take the project seriously, bring people who love what they do and will truly take this opportunity with joy and a keen eye for style. 4. Solitude - I am a high-masking individual, which means that when I am being watched, I cannot "safely" relax; if you appear distressed, people sometimes talk to you, and ask if you are okay, which is a nightmare for me. I strongly prefer small, quiet spaces where I can be alone, about the size of a bathroom cubicle (which is where I do go to decompress a lot), where I can be unobserved and alone. It is a wonderful feeling-- it doesn't need to be (and shouldn't) be a perfectly soundproof room, but just somewhere I can be myself for a minute.

5. Snacking - Being autistic is exhausting. We process 42% more information than you all, and it really takes it out of us. Lots of people on all ends of the neurodiversity spectrum people have trouble waiting long hours between meals, but when a lack of snacks could mean a meltdown... please just let us eat our own food. At a sit-down restaurant, waiting for the food and not being able to eat anything until it comes is unbearable, I just get so hungry and frustrated, while being overstimulated and masking the whole time, and on top of that, because I cannot eat gluten, dairy, or much sugar / refined carbs, the appetizers are usually unappetizing or off-limits for me, and the food on the menu itself just as bad. I don't actually get much sustenance from meals provided and / or eaten in public, and a bit of acceptance around eating a couple pecans while you wait for you meal goes a long way. This is also true in stores, especially in malls, where food sold is usually not of much value to me, but there aren't great places to sit down and eat something. And, as a side note, if you want to sell food that appeals to people with autism, think Plain, Cheap, and Childish-- I mean this with absolutely no disrespect to autistic people, but I would never in a million years eat a fancy sharp cheddar (it tastes awful and gives me a headache), but I love the shredded colby jack from Costco. We like simple mac 'n' cheese, chicken nuggets, plain noodles, hot dogs... if a fancy chef would think it wasn't real food, it probably tastes amazing to us.

In conclusion: I don't know why I alliterated this list; I just started doing it, and I liked it. Many autistic people love life and everything in it, we just can't take it in all at once. Give us beauty. Give us the silence and stillness to appreciate it. And, overwhelmingly... leave us alone :). We love our solitude.

I have just been chatting in this post (I'm sure there are spelling mistakes please ignore them lol), so feel free to add if you have more ideas, fellow neurodivergents. POST SCRIPT: If you are doing anything similar to this, please talk to autistic people before embarking on a journey like this, and take in a wide bank of opinions. Don't worry, we like to answer honest questions, and we talk quite a lot if you let us. We love you guys. You got this.

[bunnyunderthebed]

there were protocols for this in place, an entire section of the farm's charter was dedicated to our very own BOLO program, but you knew i had never expected to hear it over the radio. others had been used from time to time, CAP GUN, ROSE GARDEN, even HEX KEY. the cameras at the edge of the property were helpful for these things, and though we'd learned how to leverage machine learning into an early warning system, i had secretly hoped it would prove to be overkill.

ALL CALL, ALL CALL. BOLO, SOUTH GATE. LONE MARE. BOLO, SOUTH GATE. LONE MARE.

i felt my blood freeze, and suddenly the basket of blackberries i had been picking weighed a hundred pounds. even in our garden, tucked into the northeastern corner of the property and furthest from the gate in question, i felt walls of cold air start to close in on me. i looked to my right, trying to not let the panic eat me alive, and saw the children playing in the grass. before i could process how much it would hurt to end their moment of joy, you ran out of the house to fetch them and shuffle them inside. it was a matter of duty to you, just as it was to me, to keep them safe. a look of loving concern from you as the door was shut filled me with confidence. i set down the basket of blackberries and ran to the garage, grabbing a rifle from the mount above the door and starting one of the utvs.

my heart was in my throat as i made down the road. cresting the low hills i could see our friends had thankfully beat me to the gate, and had already begun to engage with Her. i stopped a ways away from the scene, far enough to be out of earshot, and shut off the engine. the farmhand saw me step out, body tensed and rifle in hand, and broke away to meet me. i was vibrating when he arrived at my position.

"Are the kids inside?"

yes.

"We told Her to leave, but..."

i looked past him, at the old wolf down by the gate. he was angry, barking and menacing his rifle at Her, but the response was obstinace. i thought about taking a shot at the nearby tree, that maybe the shock and sound would carry understanding better than words. i looked back at the farmhand, the shaking not having improved. i must've looked crazed with the paranoia, but somehow i was still standing.

she crossed the property line. we have grounds.

"You're right."

you're not gonna talk me out of it?

"Nah, mate. You wrote the book."

the old wolf had only gotten louder, his rifle was raised now, high-ready. the look on Her was unlike anything i'd seen before, even at distance. conviction.

what does he think?

"He's willing to, you know that."

but what does he think?

"He thinks you wrote the book, mate. You'd do the same for the others."

i turned behind me, looking towards my home on that hill. the home i built with you, the home i had wanted since i could remember, the home i deserved. it seemed so peaceful, so full of love and life. if there truly was a future in that home, shouldn't i need to kill this past to obtain it? that's what made sense, what came intuitively; these things cannot exist concurrently, only one could be allowed to survive.

how many chances is too many?

"One fewer than what's been abused."

how much of a threat can be truly executed?

"One portion less than what's been bluffed."

how vastly should love be given?

"One measure less than what's been ignored."

i looked down at my rifle. the safety was still on. my whole body was screaming at me, begging with every fiber of my muscle memory to put the threat down for good. pleas for ultimate peace, that final respite, were pounding in my chest. my hands were itching, my fingers aching, my eyes twitching.

but the safety was still on.

[wormtoxin]

el salvador progressing from “oppression of the proletariat by landed elites” to “civil war between US-armed & funded right-wing authoritarians and a communist guerrilla left-wing armed insurrection” to “CIA-instigated military coup” to “CIA-instigated election fraud” to “escalation of guerrilla resistance” to “straight up US-involvement in disappearing mutilating and dumping citizens believed to be communists” to “international tribunal re: human rights offenses” to “mass exodus of salvadorans from their homeland to Honduras (the location of another concurrent civil war” to “violent street gangs amassed for self-defense in american barrios in LA” to “mass deportation of gang members back to el salvador” to “intolerably high murder rates in el salvador due to the continuance of gang activity” to “right wing-autocrat nightmare police state incarcerating convicted criminals and those awaiting fair trial alike and promising never to release a single prisoner” to “becoming ‘the first nation in the world with no criminals’ as one of my patients put it exactly” to becoming “not just pet state of US hegemony but literally dumping ground for ‘undesirables’ of conceivably any flavor of latino” to “straight up concentration camps which openly invite journalists and youtubers to witness flagrant abuses of human rights without due process” is

christ is it something

[daxargaagent]

Causes and effects

Our lovely psy-host of agent is very busy, so (happily wiggling vines) we are happy to help in scientific activities! Some cuties (us), will help other cuties in recognizing third cuties.

In the name of Blooming-Above-Time, it's time to remember the bureaucratic times of our youth! (And stop repeating ourselves, he-he-he.)

Data area: scientific data, biology.

Status: in the process of recognition.

Implementation address: Daxarga Unity / Alliance of Collective Mind of the Universes of the Plantarhy Cluster / Chronopackage "Affini Compact" / Basic options / Mental space.

Access: cognitive-dependent with optimization for recipients, without external restrictions.

Morphofunctional Adaptations of the Reproductive System and Metabolism in Homo androgynous extra

Edited for light bureaucracy style by Darth Lotus Eternal Blooming Daxarga's florets-avatar.

Note: epithets belonging to the attractive category, in particular the types "affection", "admiration", "adoration", etc. are not used intentionally because of their redundancy. The constant use of such epithets in relation to the wonderful homo androgynous extra is a well-known truism.

Functions of the Abdomino-Lumbar Muscular Corset: The developed musculature of the abdominal wall and lumbar region in the taxon Homo androgynous extra provides effective mechanical protection for the developing fetus during the gestation period and facilitates the execution of physiologically optimal (including the parameter of comfort) expulsion of the fetus during the process of parturition. The aforementioned adaptation determines the absence of a pronounced constriction in the waist region, which constitutes a characteristic feature of several other morphotypes within the species Homo sapiens, adapted to endogenous gestation.

Structural-Functional Characteristics of the Pelvic Girdle: The pelvic complex of Homo androgynous extra is characterized by increased width compared to the median statistical parameters inherent to the male morphotype of Homo sapiens. Concurrently, the musculoskeletal-ligamentous structures of this region demonstrate elevated indices of strength, tensile resistance, and elasticity. These morphological particularities represent the result of optimization for the performance of biomechanical support functions for the gestational fetus and the provision of an efficient parturition process.

Metabolic Origins of Cardiorespiratory System and Thoracic Development: The elevated energetic demands of the Homo androgynous extra organism, conditioned both by the general intensity level of metabolic processes and by the specificity of distinct physiological functions (including the realization of intraspecific conception via deep oral coitus and the execution of interspecific host-reproduction through mechanisms of atomic-molecular recombinations), necessitate the presence of highly developed systems for the maintenance of energetic homeostasis, particularly – efficient gas exchange. As a consequence, a high degree of development is noted in the respiratory and cardiovascular systems of this taxon. This anatomical specialization manifests exteriorly as increased dimensions of the pectoral girdle and thoracic cage, the width of which corresponds to or slightly exceeds the width of the pelvic complex.

Integral Characteristic of Bodily Proportions: The aggregate of the aforementioned adaptive traits (absence of a pronounced waist, increased pelvic width, developed structures of the thoracic cage and pectoral girdle) determines the overall configuration of bodily proportions in Homo androgynous extra, which exhibits a statistically significant similarity to the proportional structure of the male morphotype of Homo sapiens when compared to the female morphotype.

The data is ready for mental integration. To activate the package, use the trigger:

>> /execute -protocol HAE_Prime -target "MentalSpace:AffiniCompact" -optimize cognition

[bestworstcase]

I am really surprised that it seems no major time fuckery happened between time spent in the everafter and time passing on planet remnant. It seems like /at most/ a week or two has passed in remnant but it might honestly be a one to one on only a few days have passed. I really thought rwbyj would be coming home to major time loss like a few months because this show is so mean and the hits simply do not stop coming

i have a lot of questions about the time skip bc of this:

rwbyxjl2 suggests that it’s only been a few weeks since part one, which might just mean from team rwby’s perspective (ie, the elapsed time on remnant while they were in the ever after is not included)?

but by the time they get back, amity looks like that. it’s been converted into a fuckoff huge battleship (<- confirmed in screenshots of the script i think eddy shared on twitter last year) which is a very time- and labor-intensive process. i also simply do not believe it is feasible for this work to have been completed in vacuo, with everything so in shambles.

so my working theory right now is that qrow, robyn, and the ace-ops rendezvoused with maria and pietro onboard amity and helped pilot and/or haul it to argus, where they rendezvoused with cordovin, who has the means to take over the amity project and get it into working order as a military vessel with a labor force drawn from argus. (giving the citizens of argus a massive project like this to focus on will also be good for morale, win-win)

global comms are still down. once the plan was squared away with cordo, qrow and robyn and the ace-ops booked it straight to vacuo to update the coalition on the pledged future help from argus. all of that would have taken a few days to a week or two, tops.

(i imagine pietro and maria stayed behind in argus to help with amity; pietro’s expertise is most useful there, and she’d want to be there for him while he grieved and worried about penny.)

qrow and the rest aren’t there during the initial memorial service at the start of the epilogue but are present in the later gathering in winter’s monologue; because the mantelian civilians are present in the first but not in the second, i assume this is not an error but rather there was a second, smaller gathering once qrow, robyn, and the ace-ops arrived and learned that rwby and jaune were gone. so i don’t think the monologues/montages are happening concurrently; they’re in sequence.

grimm attack vacuo for days. things settle down for a while, with tensions still high. merc and tyrian spring the twins within a couple days of things starting to calm down, then qrow and everyone shows up not too long after with news about amity and help on the way if they can hold out for a few months. a little while after that, the refugee ship from vale arrives and grimm hammer the city again. an indeterminate amount of time passes—i think it has to be a few months, to give the amity construction time to finish and travel halfway around the world—before reinforcements arrive from argus, boosting morale and probably giving the coalition just enough of an edge to reestablish a sense of normalcy, with the result that the crown’s skyrocketing popular support plateaus. then team rwby and jaune return.

which is a fair bit to catch up on, but also not too bad, and tracks with “when you’re needed most”—the blacksmith probably sent rwbyj to the exact moment when the coalition stabilized so that they could help figure out a plan for what comes next.

[2percentsugar]

^ essential reading. incredibly good article which has completely reshaped the way i think about geopolitics & recent american history. I know it's unlikely that anyone will read this 45-minute article no matter how many times I say it's delightfully well-written and extremely illuminating, so let m say, it is also frequently very funny (bolding mine):

The issues of the Navy, in other words, go both wide and deep: some of the issues might even be close to unfixable. Yet there is at least one serious issue plaguing the Navy that seems both genuinely irrational and extremely easy to fix, which is why it has garnered the attention of many reform-minded people inside Washington. This is the Navy’s incredibly costly and disruptive habit of ordering ships without working out the full design specs in advance, and then changing the specs in the middle of the process of constructing a hull. Most recently, this unfortunate habit has seriously compromised the Constellation class frigate program, meant to address the fact that the Navy at present lacks a modern, high-performance frigate design. Here, the Navy started with an already existing frigate, the Franco-Italian fremm (European Multi-Mission Frigate), which is a proven and reliable design at a reasonable price point. But rather than leaning into the benefits of working off an already proven design, Navy leadership quickly began making major and wide-ranging changes to it: at the time of writing, the current specs for the Constellation class share around 15 percent design commonality with the original fremm design. Rather than getting a proven ship on time and on budget, the Navy chose to monkey-wrench enough new design considerations into the fremm to turn it into a wholly new ship, arguably at greater cost and complexity than it would have required to design a ship from the ground up. As an added pinch of salt in the proverbial wound, the Navy has kept tinkering with the Constellation design even as the first hulls are being built, meaning it is now committed to either retrofitting the first batch of hulls into whatever the final design ends up being, or living with the added costs of having to operate several noninterchangeable designs. This model of continuously devel­oping a platform after the start of serial production—so-called concurrency—has involved catastrophic drawbacks in the case of the F-35 program, and so it is remarkable that the Navy would want to incorporate this particularly troublesome “feature” into its own programs.

[racefortheironthrone]

For papal dispensations when Medieval nobles married cousins, as often happened, how did one go about getting them? It does seem a tad excessive that at one point anything closer than a seventh cousin technically needed a dispensation. Were there particular areas where people were more lapse on such close unions?

Great question!

Let’s start by clearing up a few common misconceptions. We should start by pointing out that dispensations were an innovation of the late High Middle Ages, as part of Innocent III’s campaign of papal supremacy. This wasn’t particularly popular, (in no small part because Innocent would not stop fucking with secular rulers in Iberia, the Holy Roman Empire, Sicily, Norway, France, Sweden, Bulgaria, and England) and the dispensation was part of that broader political effort.

Legally, dispensations emerged as an assertion that the Pope possessed the exclusive plenary power to issue exemptions from the law, rather than it being a concurrent authority shared with secular power, because as Innocent saw it, the Pope was a prince and “the prince is not bound by the laws.” This is why, despite Innocent III’s (IMO) largely unearned reputation (remember, this is the same dude responsible for the own goal of the Fourth Crusade, the moral abomination of the Albigensian Crusade, and quite a bit of anti-Semitic decrees in Fourth Lateran), even his successors had to agree that this was massively open to abuses and might lead to a Reformation or something down the line, leading to a series of reforms on down through the centuries.

Second, not all dispensations were papal. Bishops as well as Popes could issue dispensations, on marriage and other issues, but the Pope was kind of the court of final appeals for the whole process, so marriage dispensations of royals tended to get kicked upstairs for political and moneymaking reasons, but local noblemen could usually keep their cases local.