#hosts are also now doing all the physical logistics it's just not possible to do this even if you know to try

[elainemorisi]

perhaps, for my thirties, it is time to harness my powers of not giving a solitary shit what people think of me and Learn Conversation by brute force and repetition, because hoo boy, my generation, the skill, she is lost

[anarcho-physicist]

My favorite weird phase of matter (and also some intro-y stuff that you can skip if you want to look at the pretty pictures)

[Fig. 1 (a) from Mur, M., Kos, Ž., Ravnik, M. et al. Continuous generation of topological defects in a passively driven nematic liquid crystal. Nat Commun 13, 6855 (2022).]

Hi again! In my previous posts, I described what the term soft matter means to a physicist, and how physicists really understand phases of matter mostly in terms of symmetries. In the future, I'm similarly planning to write more long form, in-depth explanations of specific concepts/topics in soft matter physics.

I'd really like to be able to dive into the math behind everything, but I also want to keep things as understandable and enjoyable as possible to those with little to no math background. So I'll try my best to explain every bit of every equation I show, and I think forcing myself to do so will help me understand them better.

I might also post some things other than long-form essays. One idea I've been thinking of doing is to post a daily/weekly/whateverly arXiv update, where I pick one or a few soft matter physics preprints that have been uploaded recently, and write short, informal summaries of their findings. I think that might be a good way to keep myself and anyone who's interested informed on the state of the field. I also intend to do shorter posts on specific papers or results I think are really cool. My research and academic responsibilities keep me very busy, so I'll likely make shorter posts when I don't have the time or energy to write longer, deeper explanations.

Another idea I've been toying around with is potentially using this account as something like a radically open research notebook/journal, where I immediately write up and publicly post each little research milestone I've made for the day/week/whatever. My paycheck comes mostly from government grants, the research I do is publicly funded. I think the public ought to be aware of exactly what they're funding, and particularly, I think the members of the public who are interested in what we do should be able to engage with researchers, to learn about the current state of the field. I also think this ability to engage with current research should be accessible to all members of the public, not just those wealthy enough to be able to spend a lot of time around universities. On the other hand, there are some ethical and logistical considerations when it comes to sharing unpublished research, and I'd at the very least need to get approval from all of my collaborators, so if I end up doing something like this, it wouldn't be for a while.

Anyways, for now, I'd just like to show you some really cool experimental realizations of a gorgeously weird phase of matter that is very dear to my heart (and my CV):

Active Nematic Liquid Crystals

[Video taken by the Dogic Lab]

These two-dimensional, spontaneously flowing "line fluids" host topological defects (the little comet-shaped and triangle-shaped dark spots). These are quasiparticles with fascinating dynamics, and some really beautiful mathematics behind their structure. To quote my PI who was quoting some other physicist I can't remember:

Materials are like people; it's the defects that make them interesting.

The term liquid crystal refers to a general class of materials with symmetries and properties in-between those of a crystal and those of a simple liquid. Nematics are a particular type of liquid crystal, one with full translational symmetry, but S^1 / Z_2 -broken rotational symmetry. Active nematics are nematics that also break time-reversal symmetry, and thus energy conservation (I'll explain how this is possible in an energy-conserving universe sometime soon; the short answer is "coarse-graining").

Here's what happens if you put an active nematic on a sphere:

[Dogic Lab again -- they're great they do a lot of really cool stuff]

Fun fact: These defects attract and repel each other just like charged particles (via Gauss's law), except they aren't electrically charged, they're topologically charged. Rather than electromagnetic fields, the medium of interaction here is the elastic free energy associated with curves in the line field. The comet-shaped defects have a +1/2 topological charge, while the triangular ones have a -1/2 charge. If you bring two defects close enough together, they'll effectively "add" their charges up. This means oppositely-charged defects can annihilate each other into the uniform/vacuum state, and that a sufficiently perturbed vacuum can pair-produce oppositely charged defects. That eye-catching picture at the top of this post is a cross-polarized image of that pair-production process in an externally-driven passive nematic. The two arrows point to two individual defects.

In an active nematic, things get even more interesting; the +1/2 defects become effectively self-propelled, while the -1/2 defects do not. At least, not if the activity is spatiotemporally constant (this is a hint to a really cool upcoming paper I'll hopefully be publishing before the end of this summer). This results in all sorts of weird nonequilibrium behavior, like the chaotic state displayed in the first animation, or the oscillatory swirling of the four +1/2 defects on the vesicle depicted in the second.

Why do we only see four +1/2 defects, and no -1/2s on the sphere? For two reasons: 1) The sphere is fairly small relative to the active length scale, which is roughly the average separation distance between defects. This is governed by the balance of active and elastic stresses. And 2) The hairy ball theorem necessitates a net topological charge on the sphere of +2 = 4 x +1/2.

All of the nematics I've shown you so far have been synthetic, but nematics (and even active nematics) show up in nature too. One really good example: look at your hands. I mean, really look at them. Do you see any familiar little triangle shapes? Maybe some little whorly comets? Fingerprints are a frozen nematic texture! But the defects in your fingerprints aren't very interesting, because they don't move (I hope). What else is there?

This brings us to my favorite experimental discovery ever made. Hydra are microscopic freshwater creatures that regrow their limbs. It turns out, the hydra's supracellular actin fibres, which play a major role in this morphogenesis, order like an active nematic. They have topological defects, which appear to correlate with sites of new organ growth. You can see them in the hydra itself:

[Fig. 1 (a-f) from Maroudas-Sacks, Y., Garion, L., Shani-Zerbib, L. et al. Topological defects in the nematic order of actin fibres as organization centres of Hydra morphogenesis. Nat. Phys. 17, 251–259 (2021).]

It's literally algebraic topology come to life.

[carnivalls]

Hi! i have some questions about vulture culture:

how will it be distributed?

is there a requirement for the stories or authors to be queer?

who owns the rights to what is published?

how often are you planning to put out issues, and can we get a preview of future themes?

I think this is really cool and I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes of it!

thanks x

hiya! thanks sm for your interest, as well as for your kind words. we're still finetuning the logistics of it all, but on first impressions:

1) as of now, the distribution will be solely online (assuming that's what you're referring to). there is a possibility for physical copies down the line, but since we are two random uni students atm i don't think it's feasible. we are also not monetized, and as such unable to pay for submissions at this point in time (again, see: two random uni students) (sorry) (i understand if this is a dealbreaker for people, but we did also say to send us work you couldn't see landing anywhere else) (sorry again).

2) nope! we accept anyone and everyone.

3) we have to research this a little further as not to misinform, but right now we are thinking that the rights always stay with the author - your work is fundamentally your own to do whatever you wish with, we're just glad to host it. we just ask that, should you later choose to republish your work, that you credit us as the first publisher. also once officially published in our magazine there is little we can do in way of like... potentially removing or retracting your piece (in the submissions period this is still fair game). as such, we by necessity reserve the right to archive (and promote!) anything published with us. having said all this though, this is a fairly unofficial project, so if you're worried about anything/need to remove something you sent/want to edit a submitted work or something of the sort just shoot us an email and we'll do our best to accommodate you <3

4) we're currently aiming for every two months, allowing for a one month submission period between issues. a preview of future themes includes THALASSOPHOBIA and SIGNAL LOST.

[jamesonsjournal]

post one of three - the basics of the “mal-a.i.” (from my understanding of this point.)

hello everyone. jameson here. i’m sorry i could divulge this sooner. i had a lot of things to do today, including my newly acquired status as a member of the theatrics club! i’ve always wished to join a theatre club, but i never found any time for it until now, and i’ve been having fun. i also had to cook dinner for my recently moved-in roommate: danielle jaiden willow. ( she’s some big-shot from france? you probably know her. ) moving on from that however, ( as you most likely don’t want to hear about my personal life ) i did promise to expand on the topic i brought up back during my introduction- covering everything i’ve learned so far of the mental-health assistance and logistics artificial intelligence program, or “mal-AI” when abbrieviated. i shall be splitting this post into two, with this first one speculating on its’ anatomy, abilities and purpose.

-

chapter one - anatomy and abilities. to keep it brief, i do not know much about the ai as of this moment. i still feel like i’m kept in the dark of its objectives, or its full capabilities as a piece of technology. these things are an anomaly, and i don’t even know if my research applies to other mal-ai out there, considering the fact that there are most likely millions of them out there and each one of them is personalized to the user.  despite that however, it is the duty of a researcher to be able to jot down all that they discover and understand of such new things, so i will be doing so for archival purposes.  to start, the a.i. is some sort of mental health assistant which comes to people who may have issues with their personal life, may be going through particularly rough moments in time, and in my case, struggling on how to reintegrate themselves into normal, everyday society.

(a basic diagram i’ve done of my mal-ai, ella. i shall discuss of her later on.) their anatomy is incredibly interesting, as their appendages are not connected to one another. their bodies are segmented like construction shapes in basic anatomy practice for artists. their body proper seems to only be made with simple shapes for easier rendering in the mind of the host. the hologram can somehow be felt, consisting a weird artificial-plastic-skin type texture to it. something like a barbie doll?  another thing that caught my eye was her lack of one. one of her eyes was missing. i was assuming it could possibly be a technical glitch, as she did say she was malfunctioning. (which i will go into detail in the next part of this post.) there’s also this weird logo plastered on both her hairband and her belt buckle. i’m assuming it to be the logo of the company who created her? considering it is on the collar that she is connected to? this reminds me. i should most likely speak of the collar.

-

chapter two - the collar.

(another diagram, this time depicting the ai’s hardware– the collar.) this piece of hardware (which i just call “the collar” for convenience’s sake) is what connects the mal-ai to their host. i drew the diagram above, basing it off of pictures i took of my face and neck. the inside portion i can only guess. the one thing i knew for sure was there was some kind of needle that’s inserted into the back of my neck to connect to my spine. i’m guessing it’s so the wiring can connect with the rest of my body’s nervous system. there’s also some kind of compartment. for what exactly, i do not know.

with all of the anatomy and physical hardware the a.i. is connected with, it is now time for me to talk of ability.

-

chapter three - abilities.

from what i have experienced so far, the a.i has a few abilities at their disposal to make the task of helping their host much more streamlined. - ability to create screens from thin air. most likely for convenience's sake, the a.i. can easily grab screens to look at whatever they need. they can look through the internet, they have pieces of literature saved in databanks to pull from. this is groundbreaking technology, honestly! being able to create screens from nowhere, having access to all sorts of information through your fingertips- this is like the natural evolution of the smartphone! it's impressive- wish i could take the collar off and look into the code. - access to the host's memories and thoughts.

this one is... quite concerning, in my personal opinion. basically, the a.i., through the screen that i spoke of earlier, they can look into the thoughts and memories of their host. all of their thoughts. even ones you don't remember yourself. i've had a plentitude of moments wherein my a.i. had taken memories i don't even recall just to mock me. it is horrifying how in-detail it can be. - electric stimulant to the spine.

if the host isn't properly complying with what the a.i. is telling them to do, they can apply a last measure, which is applying a jolt of electricity from the collar to wherever the connector is attached to. which, unfortunately for whoever has it, is in the spine. those things hurt like hell, i can promise you that. i think i've gotten scars on my neck crawling all the way to my back because of the shocks i've recieved. i can try to take a picture of it sometime- not now though, as it is incredibly late for me.

- ability to alter physical form and turn tangible and intangible at will.

the a.i. not only can deactivate themselves for a recharge, but they can also make themselves tangible, for them to be able to physically interact with the host. my best guess is that it does this by tricking the neurons and nervous system that something is touching them / they're touching something, which is just a technical marvel. they can also alter their body at will, change things like hair, add accessories, change clothing, eye color, accent, anything depending on the mood of the a.i.. mine usually uses this ability to customize herself with a variety of hairstyles and outfits. i must say, she looks incredible.

-

that is so far all that i know about the ai. i shall be posting more about them tomorrow, detailing more about my specific case, talking about my a.i., 3-lla, and how me and her became stuck with one another.  i shall also be updating this post with more information through what is called as "reblogs." expect those as new information pops up. goodnight again, tumblr, jameson.

[spencers-renaissance]

I turn and reach for you

Summary: Three months after Hankel, Spencer starts getting terrible nightmares that keep him up at night. He tries desperately to keep his secret until one day when it's all too much to bear anymore. Luckily, Derek Morgan is there to hold him together as he falls apart.

Tags: nightmares, hurt/comfort, ptsd, angst with a happy ending, fluff, literal sleeping together, getting together, post-revelations TW: past non-con drug use mentioned once in passing

Pairing: Derek Morgan x Spencer Reid

Word Count: 2.1k

Masterlist // Read on AO3 // Bad Things Happen Bingo

This feels the "Nightmares" square on my Bad Things Happen bingo card, and was written for this prompt by @i-write-whump. Title from a poem by Devon Strang.

After Spencer is kidnapped by Tobias Hankel, he stays with Derek. Nobody on the team wants him to be alone, and he’s always felt the most comfortable with him, so it makes sense. Besides, he’s got the space.

Spencer sometimes wonders whether the team pushed so hard for it because they genuinely believed that, logistically, Derek was the best option, or because they could also see the slow-burning romance simmering under the surface of their relationship. They’ve always had a special friendship, but Spencer can feel the growing tension: the deep and intense looks they share mid-case, the lingering touches on backs and arms, the affection leaking into each ‘pretty boy’ and every ‘Der’.

Perhaps if Hankel never came into the picture they’d already be together — it really had felt like they were on the precipice of something special — but it’s three months later and Spencer’s still sleeping in the spare room; there’s still just as much will they, won’t they lingering in the air between them.

He tries not to mind too much. After all, he’s never had so much free access to the man he’s pined after for years now, and they’re living in each other’s pockets. Almost every waking hour is spent in one another’s company: they cook together, eat together, watch films together, and neither of them are showing any sign of getting sick of it. But every time they’re cooking pasta and Derek says something ridiculous, Spencer wishes he was allowed to lean in and kiss the tip of his nose; every time they sit down to watch something together, he wishes he could burrow into his side and rest his head in the crook of his neck.

(Sometimes, Spencer wishes he could rewind to the weeks immediately after the Hankel incident when Derek would carry him around the flat to keep him off his broken feet; when he could press his face into his shoulder and inhale the scent of complete and utter safety.)

It’s almost torturous, being so close yet so far.

He isn’t quite sure why the nightmares start so late. The nights during the first couple of months are blissfully dreamless, so exhausted from the physical and emotional trauma that sleep was a tantalising escape, but once he’s back in the field, once normal life resumes, everything changes.

The first time he wakes up sweating and panting, heart pounding as he tries to convince himself that he’s no longer in Hankel’s clutches but is safe and sound in Derek’s apartment, he dismisses it as a one-off. He hasn’t had nightmares yet, so why should they start now? He doesn’t go back to sleep that night, too shaken to relax back into the comforting embrace of sleep, too afraid of deception: that he wouldn’t sleep dreamlessly but that the nightmare would be waiting for him once again.

The second time worries him. He gets up this time and gets a glass of water as quietly as possible, leaning with his back against the kitchen counter as he ponders what this could mean for him. The thing is, they’re so incredibly vivid. It really feels like he’s back at the mercy of a three-in-one torturer armed with drugs and belts and guns, genuinely unsure of whether he’ll ever see his family again. He doesn’t go back to sleep this time, either, instead pacing around the living room until Derek wakes up. He lies that he’s only been up for half an hour, and Derek believes him.

The third time solidifies for Spencer the fact that this is a problem. Three is a pattern, everybody knows that, and Spencer spends the rest of the night scouring the internet for studies conducted around delayed trauma responses and discovers the prevalence of delayed-onset PTSD. He’s tempted to contact a professor he met during his third PhD who specialised in the psychology of trauma, but he thinks better of it. Admitting these nightmares would be admitting defeat.

This is something he has to deal with alone.

(He ignores the truth that it’s more fear than anything else that keeps him from telling anyone: fear of being seen as weak, fear of nothing changing, fear of voicing his trauma out loud. It’s easier to pretend it’s about independent agency.)

It doesn’t affect him too much at first. Sure, he’s scared to go to sleep and he sweats so profusely that it soaks through his bedsheets almost every night, but he’s managing. He’s okay. He contributes just as much to their profiles and takes down unsubs without flinching. He dances around Derek like they have done for over a year, and he sits through Dr Who marathons with Penelope just fine. So what if he’s a bit tired? He’s stared down some of America’s Most Wanted and interviewed famous serial killers, he can cope with a little fatigue.

It doesn’t stay that easy for long.

Soon everybody’s asking about the bags under his eyes, his slower reaction times when they visit the gun range, his twitchiness around the team.

“Are you sleeping okay, Spencer?” Penelope asks him one day, brushing a curly lock of hair behind his ears as they sit side by side on the sofa next to a conked out Derek.

He can’t nod his head quick enough. “Yeah! Yes, uh. Yes, Penelope, I’m sleeping fine, I promise,” he says as convincingly as he can, flashing her a smile. He hates lying to her, but he can’t let anyone find out, he just can’t.

Slowly, he begins losing his grip on reality. He’s almost delusional from the sleep deprivation, and he starts seeing Hankel everywhere he goes. He’s stood behind the fridge door, in the foyer of the FBI Headquarters, in the toilets of a local police station, stood right behind the unsub they’re currently trying to talk down, goddamnit.

He’s beyond exhausted, but some nights he still refuses to sleep, too afraid of what awaits him in his dreams, too afraid of the fear he knows he’ll carry into the next day, too afraid of feeling weak again. Helpless. Completely and utterly without agency.

He sits up with his back against the headboard, the main light off but the lamp switched on, scrolling through as many scholarly articles as he can read in a night, drinking cup after cup of steaming black coffee. Most nights he makes it through till morning without sleeping a wink, but sometimes he can’t stop himself from drifting off The nightmares on those nights are the worst.

He isn’t okay and people are starting to notice. Everyone’s walking on eggshells around him right now, but he knows it won’t be long before Penelope organises an intervention that Hotch hosts and Derek directs. The worst part about it is that he feels like a trainwreck waiting to happen. He’s headed straight for complete and utter collapse, and the only possible way to stop the train in its tracks is to reach out and get help, the one thing he can’t get himself to do.

And he isn’t even really sure why.

It all comes to a head on a warm night in July. He’d fallen into bed that night deliberately, actually intending to sleep for once. The bone-deep tiredness had finally caught up to him and he didn’t even care that he was walking straight into the arms of Tobias Hankel, if it meant he got even an iota of refreshing sleep, then it would be worth it.

But he isn’t quite of the same mind when he wakes up at two in the morning like he does almost every night: soaked in sweat with his heart going a million beats per minute, with only one difference. Tonight, he’s crying.

Maybe it’s the emotional turmoil of the last few months catching up to him, or maybe it’s just the severity of this particular dream, but whatever it is, he can’t seem to stop even once he’s awake. Sobs wrack his shoulders as he cries miserably into the pillow, finally letting out the emotions he’s kept bottled up so tightly, and he’s almost wailing after a couple of minutes of anguish.

All he can think as he cries helplessly is how badly he wants Derek. He wants to be wrapped up in his strong and safe embrace, he wants to feel the movement of his soft goatee against his cheek, he wants to inhale the comforting scent of his sleep t-shirts, he wants the warmth and solace that only Derek Morgan can give him, and in that moment, emotionally distraught and so incredibly sleep-deprived, he decides to get it.

He stumbles out of his bedroom and down the hall, stopping once he reaches Derek’s door. He hesitates for only a second before he pushes it open slowly, allowing the light from the lamp they keep switched on in the hallway to gently illuminate the shadows of his bedroom.

“Spencer?” Derek asks groggily, immediately sitting up and wiping his eyes. “What’s wrong? Are you crying?”

At the acknowledgement of his tears, Spencer starts to cry harder, and as embarrassed as he feels, he can’t slow the steady stream of tears rolling down his face as he stands in the doorway like a child in their parents’ room.

“Spence,” Derek says again, gentle and sympathetic, “come here.” He lifts the duvet up and scooches over slightly as if to make room for him in his already spacious king-size bed.

He doesn’t need to be told twice, though, and he stumbles forward, collapsing into bed and wrapping himself around Derek instantly. His arms come up to circle Spencer’s waist, caressing him gently as he holds him close to his body, shushing him quietly.

“It’s okay, Spence,” he murmurs. “I’m here now, alright? We’re gonna fix whatever it is, I promise you. We’ll get through this. You’ll get through this.”

He lets himself cry and cry and cry until his tears are dried up and he’s hiccupping from the force of his sobs. He would feel terrible about the damp spot left on Derek’s t-shirt, but he simply doesn’t have the energy. Instead, he continues to lie there on Derek’s chest, listening to his softly spoken assurances and losing himself in the sensation of Derek’s fingertips caressing the skin of his waist.

After a couple of minutes of silence, interrupted only by the odd hiccup from Spencer’s tired lungs, Derek finally asks the question. “What was that all about, pretty boy?” he asks with a tenderness Spencer isn’t sure he’s ever heard before. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Been having nightmares,” Spencer whispers, keeping his eyes closed against Derek’s imploring gaze.

He feels Derek tense beneath him, his fingers briefly pausing before resuming their comforting patterns on his waist, and a heavy breath escapes his lips. “For how long?”

“Last couple of months,” he mumbles, and somehow another tear manages to escape Spencer’s screwed up eyes.

“Well,” Derek sighs, “I suppose that explains a lot. We’ve been so worried about you, Spencer. We had no idea what was going on but we could all see you withdrawing, and it wasn’t exactly a secret how exhausted you were.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Derek says sadly. “I should’ve pushed harder to figure out what was going on with you. I’m so sorry you’ve had to deal with this all alone.”

“I didn’t know how to tell anyone,” Spencer says, suddenly desperate to explain as he shifts slightly to look Derek in the eye. “I was so scared and I didn’t want anyone to think that I was weak or I couldn’t do my job anymore, and I just didn’t know what to do.”

“I know, Spence,” Derek says soothingly, “but you’ve told me now, haven’t you? And I’m going to do everything I can to get you some help. We’ll fix this, baby. I promise you, I’m going to make sure you’re happy and healthy again if it’s the last thing I do, okay?”

Spencer sniffs a little, wiping tiredly at his eyes as he blinks up at the sincerity on Derek’s face. For the first time in far too long he manages a smile. “Okay.”

Derek runs a hand through his hair before dropping a kiss to the top of his head. “Do you want to sleep here tonight?”

Spencer’s smile widens and he buries his face in Derek’s chest again as his cheeks flush red. “Please.”

Months later, they’ll realise they never officially asked one another to be in an actual, exclusive relationship. Months later, they’ll know instinctively and with absolute certainty that this night was the night that changed everything for them, and exactly one year later, they’ll celebrate their first anniversary on that date.

Tonight, though, they sleep curled up next to one another in Derek’s bed, and although Spencer doesn’t fall into the same dreamless sleep he grew used to immediately after Hankel, for once he isn’t haunted by nightmares, but dreams inflected with hope for what the future holds for them, and he’ll take that over dreamlessness any day.

taglist: @criminalmindsvibez @lesbiantodds @suburban--gothic @strippersenseii @takeyourleap-of-faith @negativefouriq @makaylajadewrites @iamrenstark @livrere-blue @hotchseyebrows @enbyspencer @reidology @transhanniballecter @spencerspecifics @bau-gremlin @hotchedyke @tobias-hankel @ @marsjareau @garcias-bitch @oliverbrnch @im-autistic @anxious-enby @kuolonsyoja @reidreids @ropoto @thosecriminalminds (add yourself to my taglist)

[rusty-k]

A Theory About the Saint of Duty

[HTN/TLT SPOILERS]

Hey TLT people--

There was a reddit thread about the Saint of Duty the other day (link), and I commented some G1deon thoughts of mine that’ve been brewing in my head for a while. I figured I’d bring them to the tumblr tag to open up some discussion and see if anyone else buys this theory, or honestly just to spread some G1deon love. (I imprint on minor characters; it’s a curse.)

This is more or less copied from my reddit comment word-for-word, but here’s some general thought on Gideon the First’s personality, and why I have a theory that he might’ve lobotomized himself like Harrow:

G1deon character thoughts

G1deon as we know him in HtN is likely very different from the man he must've been 10,000 years ago. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if he changed significantly between the start of the Wake affair and the events of book 2.

More so than any of the other Lyctors, Gideon and Pyrrha seemed to have had this strong synergy going on. Unlike most necros, Gideon is a buff beef jerky man, and we see two rapiers in G&P's room. The winnowing/construct trial is also referred to as "Pyrrha's trial," which has always struck me as a curious detail and suggests to me that Pyrrha knew more about necromancy than cavs generally do. We know that the saintly epithets refer to the cavs, in general, but I don't think that was exactly the case for G&P; based on the previously stated, I believe they were both equally dutiful people, willing to throw themselves into each other's studies and share each other's skills.

Aug and Mercy were forced to rush their Lyctorization process because of their reckless cavs, and G1deon was next, but the fact that Pyrrha compartmentalized suggests they were closer to figuring it out than Aug and Mercy were--which I think is greatly due to the harmony of their relationship.

We know from what the other Lyctors & John have said that Gid loved and respected Pyrrha deeply. I wouldn't be surprised if the ferocity with which he threw himself into his saintly work over the 10,000 years emerged--at least partially, if not primarily--from his devotion to her. There's Pyrrha, the most spectacular cav and an all-around badass, and Gideon--having taken her to fuel his ascension--acting as John's attack dog with an intensity that would make her sacrifice worthwhile.

It's difficult to gauge how much Gideon actually enjoyed any of this; John seems to think he did, but I wouldn’t trust John for shit, and I'm sure John's understanding of G1d is heavily skewed in his own favor.

I think it's also important to consider Pyrrha's side of this story as it relates to G1deon’s current state, as well as the Wake affair. Her actions raise several questions. First of all, how long did it take for her to realize that she could take control of his body? How exactly did it happen, the first time? And how aware is Gideon? Does he have any inkling at all? Is there something more to his forgetfulness, something purposeful?

I have to imagine that in any case, Pyrrha must have gone through a lot over those 10,000 years. 10,000 years of odd sensory deprivation, which was probably hell for a fiery badass like P. 10,000 years of watching Gideon put up with John's bullshit, of watching the other Lyctors die off one-by-one and accumulate a host of mental, physical, and emotional scars. I'm convinced that Pyrrha's relationship with "duty" changed over the course of the years as she watched from this disembodied perspective, and that her "treachery" against John (her affair with Wake & possibly feeding intel to the BoE) was just a natural progression of that change.

When Wake factors in, I'd bet good money that the driving factor in both Pyrrha and Gideon's attraction to her is that she reminds them both of Pyrrha. Hell, Pyrrha even says this outright: "She was the most dangerous woman I'd ever met who wasn't me." I imagine that P's attraction to Wake, beyond this cool display of cockiness, also emerged from a sort of nostalgia--maybe Wake reminds her of what life used to be when she had a body, when she could fight and command, when she had a cause to occupy her energy. On G1d's side, he sees a woman who's dedicated and dutiful, even if it's for an enemy faction, and a woman who would undeniably make one hell of a cavalier (I think someone says this in HtN, although I'm forgetting who, so correct me if I’m wrong). I'm sure there's nostalgia in it for him, too.

Then, there's elephant in the room: Wake's fiery red hair and Pyrrha's name, meaning "flame-colored." I'm convinced that at least some of the similarities were physical. And at the bottom of it all is the inherent sexiness of finding a worthy opponent who's also hot. Lol.

Gideon Prime Lobotomy Time(?)

Here's where things get squirrelly for me, and the main reason why I have a theory that G1d's current state might be partially self-inflicted.

G&P were having discrete affairs with Wake, which inherently brings up logistical questions. First of all, how? And how exactly did Wake come to "kiss" Gideon "before she realized what they were?" How long were the durations of time in which Pyrrha kept his body under her control? In any case, after Wake & Gideon initiated their leg of the affair, it continued throughout the two years up until Gideon Jr.'s birth, which implies that Gideon Prime had some agency and willfulness in all of it. It's difficult to imagine the permanently-spaced-out-thousand-yard-stare man we know in HtN actively participating in such an entanglement.

Of course, I’ll acknowledge that it's entirely possible that I'm wrong, and that Wake just jumps his bones when she feels like it, and he's like "ok I guess," so take this as you will; but I'd like to put forth the suggestion that G1d's memory loss and overall lack of lucidity might be self-inflicted, to the tune of Harrow's lobotomy. We don't know how aware Gideon is of Pyrrha's presence, but it does seem to be the case that Lyctors having an awareness of the cav is dangerous for the cav. Being an accomplished necromancer, I'm sure Gideon was/is a smart man. Pyrrha mentions that she was "able to go underground" from him, but what if Gideon started to catch on to Pyrrha's presence through the double-affair? What if Wake let something slip? What if the thing that Wake didn't realize about them was the fact that Pyrrha's survival depends on Gideon's lack of awareness?

What if he lobotomized himself at some point, after catching onto Pyrrha's presence, at the expense of his sanity?

What really strikes me is the post-incinerator scene (HtN ch.31, pg. 292 in the hardcover):

The Saint of Duty turned his body toward you. He was clutching his rapier; but it was idle ... His eyebrows were very slightly drawn together, a sort of exhausted crinkle. He looked at you, and he said in a voice you had known since you were eight years old: "I sometimes--forget."

It was the tone--clinical, enamelled, half-defensive, half-endangered--the tone of someone admitting a final fraily. It was familiar because you had used it yourself. Understand I am insane.

It's his quiet resolution that does it for me; he knows something's missing, and he's accepted it. He's being set up as a parallel to Harrow in this particular moment, and it just makes me wonder if the parallel goes beyond his understanding of his own “insanity” and extends to the means by which he has become "insane." 

Pyrrha's already being set up as a parallel to Gideon Jr., both in terms of her formerly-skewed sense of duty and her compartmentalization, so I think this sort of dual-parallel between G1d and Harrow would work nicely, if only from a meta perspective.

In short, I think Gideon the First's feelings on everything that happened are complex, fraught. I think "duty" is what defined much of his personality, and I think what we see of him now is the result of split senses of duty having torn him apart:

he's torn between his devotion to Pyrrha (and by extension, ironically, his devotion to John) and his interest in (and perhaps love for) Wake;

torn between John's command to kill Harrow and whatever it is that caused him to pull punches (I'm guessing a combination of basic decency and solidarity); and

at the end of it all, he's quietly accepting of his own "frailty," understanding that the current situation is the shitty result of everything that's happened over the past myriad, and that there's likely no way to set himself straight, even though his shortcomings put him in direct conflict with the man he's "supposed to be," according to this awful religion, and according to what others think of him.

Anyway, for those who’ve stuck around, that’s all I have to say for now! I’m just so fascinated by the Saint of Duty/the Pyrwakeon story that’s going on behind the scenes; there’s such an understated intensity to it, and honestly, it didn’t even hit me until months after my first read-through. 

I’m curious to hear what other people are thinking, too!

[i-will-physically-fight-you]

Monsters in the Closet

Title: Monsters in the Closet

Summary: “You’re so much nicer when you’re bigger.” 

 Roman knows he can’t change the past. He can’t change the way he treated Virgil horribly, driving him to feel the only way he could be accepted was to be the villain of the story. But he can sit there and feel guilty knowing he is not worthy of any of the trust this young Virgil has placed in him. 

(Part of the Tiny Virgil verse, takes place after An Itsy Bitsy Nightmare)

Word-Count: 2.7k

Pairing: Brotherly Prinixety

Warnings: Guilt, Panic/Anxiety, Treating Someone Wrongfully in the Past, Deaging, Hurt/Comfort

This part of a very late birthday present for @theeternalspace! I’m so sorry this took so long, please forgive me and I hope you enjoy! :)

-

Roman lets out a sigh and opens his eyes. Virgil is still snuggled close to his chest, asleep again after waking up what appeared to be a horrible nightmare. Roman can’t find himself to fall back asleep. His mind refuses to settle, refuses to let go of what Virgil said to him moments ago. 

“You’re so much nicer when you’re bigger.”

The words rumble in Roman’s mind like that of a great and fearsome thunderstorm. How could it not? All the more confirmation that regardless of the unfounded trust young Virgil placed in him, he’d still expected to inevitably be treated terribly.

And that? The guilt of that stings deeper than any sting of the blade or a bandersnatch’s ferocious bite.

It also makes him wonder what exactly the Ankle-Terror thought was going on. Kids aren’t stupid. Naïve, yes, but that’s different from being stupid. They’re creative and innovative in ways adults couldn’t dream to be. Plus, they tended to love engaging in-depth conversations about Disney. 

Sometimes, Roman misses the days when Thomas was a kid. Back when they were free to run around in the backyard and reimagine the swings as a spaceship or the underneath of the trampoline as the lair of an evil sorcerer. Back when they weren’t bound by inane things such as time constraints and the logistics of translating an idea into a real-world possibility. 

He could get Thomas and the others roped in a fantastical make-believe for hours. Weeks even of stretching an incredible imaginary world to its limits. The only things that ever stood in their way was the outside forces of school, parents and bedtime.

Nowadays, the reminiscing with a tinge of regret. There always had to be villains to fight, you see. An evil mad scientist. A corrupt king. A greedy dragon. The list goes on and on. He never ever played the villain. He’d always cast himself and Thomas as the heroes. Logan and Patton were the supporting stars. Virgil and the rest? The villains through and through. 

Virgil at this age would be used to this treatment. Rather than in his rightful heroic role as Protector, Defender, Watcher of All Perceived Threats--he played roles such as a wicked sorcerer who cast fear and disgrace upon the entire kingdom with his heinous sorcery.

He took to the roles without much grumbling. Oftentimes, he didn’t perform to young Roman’s expectations. Roman would chastise his performances, critiquing every bit. He wasn’t ever scary or evil enough for a Side responsible for making Thomas scared of monsters under his bed.

Virgil would also veto actions such as climbing super high up a tree and using it as a crow’s nest for a pirate ship. Much to Roman’s dismay, the others would side with him. Logan because Thomas could break a bone if he should fall and Patton because their parents wouldn’t approve. Thus making Virgil a major downer at times in Roman’s eyes and all the more deserving of the villain title.

It wasn’t until Thomas was older, closer to middle school, that Virgil started lashing out. He refused to play along, slinking off to sulk in his room. His influence had also grown and suddenly it wasn’t just monsters under the bed anymore--the monsters were everywhere. Homework, Teachers, Friends, Family. Roman worked overtime to help Thomas escape to worlds unfettered by these fears.

Of course, back then, he presumed this was Virgil fully showing his true colors as an antagonist. Thomas himself believed it, wishing vehemently for Virgil to just disappear. It was Roman’s responsibility, nay his purpose, to make Thomas’s dreams and desires come true. He was the Fairy Godmother to Thomas’s Cinderella. So for years and years he’d pursued this dream, desperate to make Thomas happy, proud even.

Now, he knows better. He knows that Virgil is more than just Anxiety, just like Roman and the others are more than what their title implies. He is vigilant, he keeps Thomas safe from external threats. Sometimes he can be overzealous, but he means well. And shutting him out isn’t the answer. It never was. 

With all that in mind, he wonders if the Boy Terror thinks this is one of Roman’s elaborate make-believe games. Roman could easily picture a younger him coming up with a make-believe game involving himself and the others being adults. True, Thomas back then liked envisioning himself as a kid defeating the evil dragon like kids his age did in the media he watched. 

But all kids at some point wonder what it’d be like to be an adult. They imagined themselves in the most exciting professions that made a real impact on the world. Then they’d grow up and very few of them made it to such professions.

(Except Thomas of course. Roman is incredibly proud of him and his accomplishments as an Ex-Viner turned Youtuber. Yes, they are still far from achieving feats such as Hollywood or Broadway, but still! For a while Thomas had to settle for a real, sensible job such as a chemical engineer. While science interested him, it didn’t drive him the way that creative pursuits such as singing and acting had. Thomas is lucky to be able to have a platform to do what he loves. Roman tries reminding himself of this during incredibly rare moments of insecurity.)

Kid Fright must be ecstatic about this. For possibly the first time in his life Creativity is including him in a game without making him the villain. Adult Virgil doesn’t talk much about the past--the few times Roman has tried to breach the topic it’d been an instant shutdown. 

But Virgil has always cared for them, even before they’d all realized this. He must’ve taken any part Roman gave him out of a desperation to be with them and keep them safe. It sickens Roman just thinking about it. He doesn’t know how Virgil stayed strong for so long. Roman doesn’t know if he could’ve lasted a day in Virgil’s place.

He is probably also terrified and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Regardless of his age, Virgil always expects the worst out of any scenario. Even now that’s been a year since he’s been accepted among the core sides that make up Thomas. He can’t help it, it’s in his nature. Roman can’t blame him for it. One year isn’t enough to undo the damages that the other twenty-nine years caused.

One thing is for certain: if he does think this is one of Roman’s make-believe games, he must think Thomas is still a kid. And Roman’s not sure if he should let Virgil know any different. In fact, it might be best to keep Virgil distracted while the others work to find the solution to this strange vexing problem. Because he knows Virgil won’t take it well to finding his host all grown-up. He thinks that none of them would in his place.

So he’ll keep Fall Out Kid safe away in the mindscape and continue being the Prince he deserved. He’ll allow Virgil to be the hero and he’ll play all the other roles. Sidekick, damsel-in-distress, villain--if he must. It’s silly, but he’s almost buzzing with excitement at all the worlds they could explore from within the common area. Cowboys, Spaceship, Space Cowboys. The possibilities are endless!

A small hand tugs at his sleeve, tugging him away from his thoughts altogether. He looks down at the inquisitive eyes slightly shrouded by a mop of dirty blond hair.

“Yes, little prince?” He says, trying to blink away the prickling sensation in his eyes. 

He refuses to cry again in front of the Little Shop of Terror. He knows he will have to confront his bubbling guilt and sorrow at some point, but for now he must push it aside. He is used to this. Being a hero means sometimes remaining strong and not showing vulnerability to loved ones.

“M’hungry.” Virgil murmurs into his chest, little arms wrapped around Roman’s neck. It’s almost endearing with how much he resembles a baby possum clinging to their mother. Roman isn’t used to a Virgil so physically affectionate. 

Virgil is like a feral cat. You couldn’t hug or pat him on the shoulder without warning. You had to ask and very rarely did he accept, even if it came from Patton. No, the best way is to let him initiate it. Let him lean his head against your shoulder, or his leg overlapping your own during a movie night. 

You also don’t acknowledge it and by not acknowledging it, Virgil then inches his way more until it grows into a proper hug. Then he would withdraw and promptly act like nothing  happened. Like you were to forget the interaction ever occured in the first place.

Logan has a theory that it’s because Virgil is the Fight-or-Flight instincts and physical affection lowers his guard in a way he isn’t completely comfortable with. Roman now has a theory that it’s a lot more heartbreaking than that. 

“You’re hungry?” Roman asks, attempting to steer his mind out of Despairing Drive and into Present Place. 

 A small growling noise occurs and Jack Smallington ducks his head down, embarrassed.

Roman isn’t entirely surprised considering that it’s been about eight hours since they discovered approximately five-year-old Virgil in the place of grown-up Virgil. Who knows how long he’d been like that, alone in his room, before that. Virgil also rarely eats so the poor kid probably woke up hungry. 

Roman feels so stupid. If it’d been Patton or Logan watching him, the first thing they would’ve made sure is if he was hungry. Because kid or not, it isn’t in Virgil’s nature to be self-advocating. That type of stuff freaks him out. Yet another reason Roman is completely unqualified to watch over Virgil. 

“Okay,” Roman breaths in, smiling, “thanks for letting me know, big guy. To the kitchen at once!”

With that, he hoists Virgil up, settling him on top of his shoulders. There’s a squawk of surprise and Roman’s almost worried until it turns into a gleeful giggle. When Roman lets out a neigh, pretending he’s a horse, Virgil’s giggles grow louder.

“You’re not a horse,” Virgil says.

“Neigh I am!” Roman says, “I am your trusty steed and we’re embarking on a perilous-but-completely-safe journey to the kitchen!”

He treks towards the kitchen, clicking his tongue in an imitation of a horse clip-clopping along. 

“Faster,” Virgil urges, resting his hands on top of Roman’s head.

“Faster?” Roman asks, almost stopping in surprise. 

“Yeah!” Virgil insists, “We gotta get there as fast as possible before any monsters come and eat us!”

“Never fear,” Roman says, “For I shall get us there before any monster even thinks of gobbling us up!”

With that Roman quickens his pace, ensuring he had a firm hold onto Virgil to keep him falling off. 

 “Faster, faster, faster!” Virgil chants in an anxious yet excited tone, “I think I see one!”

“Oh?” Roman turns his head back, “Oh, I see him too! Neigh, we better hurry!”

There isn’t an actual monster there. No sharp fangs or numerous eyes glaring menacingly in their direction. He can’t tell if Virgil is making up a game or if he actually believes there is one there. Either way, Roman is Creativity. If there’s one thing he knows best, it’s how to combat imaginary foes. Such as reaching the threshold of the kitchen.

With one great bound, he makes it onto the black-and-white checkered tiles.

“Aha! Now no monsters can attack us while we feast in the dwelling of this noble kitchen!” Roman grins, setting Virgil atop the kitchen counter before jumping up to sit beside him.

Virgil beams up at him, face wide with utter delight and awe. Roman is left dumbfounded at this. Even as a kid, Virgil had been very closed-off with his emotions. So shy and distrustful of everyone and everything. But here he looks at Roman like he’s some great hero or something.

 ‘How,’ Roman wonders, ‘how can you look at me like this when I’m the obstinate villain of this story?’

“Princey,” Virgil swings his legs, “won’t Dad be upset if he finds us sitting on the counter?”

Roman blinks. At first he thinks Virgil is referring to Thomas’s father until he remembers Patton also goes by Dad. For the longest time, Pat had even been insistent that was his name. In the way that young children believe their parents’ real names really are Mom and Dad. 

“Well,” Roman says, offering a pinky, “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“Okay.” Virgil hesitates before interlocking his tiny pinky with Roman’s.

“Excellent! Now what would you like to eat?”

“Ummmm, I--I don’t know.” Virgil bites his lips, eyes flickering around the kitchen. Roman’s heart squeezes at this. He should’ve known such an open-ended question would set his anxiety off. They’ve learned recently that it was better giving Virgil the option of clearly-defined choices rather than vague ones.

“Would you like grilled cheese or spaghetti?” He asks kindly instead. 

“Grilled cheese? With applesauce?” Virgil doesn’t meet his gaze, as if afraid Roman will condemn his choices.

Roman smiles, “Your wish is my command.” 

He could’ve just snapped the food into existence right then and there. A few years back, it would’ve been enough to suffice. But as much as the Sides influence Thomas, the same holds true the other way around. Thomas once saw a fanart of Patton cooking breakfast for the sides and the idea stuck.

 Now Roman could still summon fully prepared meals but they weren’t super filling. Roman didn’t mind too much; contrary to popular belief (Logan) cooking could be a very creative endeavor. As Thomas’s creativity he could make up steps to dishes and still have them turn out perfect in the end. He may or may not enjoy it simply because it frustrated Logan to no end. 

He hops off the kitchen counter, snapping a finger. Instantly cabinet doors magically open as the ingredients and the materials he needed floated out onto the countertop beside the stove. Okay, so he cheated a bit, but just because the others lacked a little imagination didn’t mean he couldn’t bend reality in a place where reality is inconsequential. 

Roman turns to Virgil, unable to hide his smile at Virgil’s gobsmacked expression.

“Here, you can help put butter on the bread,” He tells Virgil, handing him a butter knife.

Grilled cheese sandwiches are a quick and easy meal. Before too long, Roman hands the kid a plate with a plain grilled cheese cut in halves and a cup of prepackaged apple sauce. 

“Thank you,” Virgil squeaks out before digging in.

“Of course.” Roman says, resisting the urge to ruffle the Little Terror’s hair. Instead he takes a bite of his own grilled cheese. Admittedly, he went a bit overboard with his own grilled cheese sandwich; three different types of cheese with lettuce, tomato and pickles. He isn’t quite sure if he’s a fan of the pickles but ah well. So it goes when in the pursuit of creativity.

They eat on top of the kitchen counters with relative silence. Roman hums a bit between bites of grilled cheese. Halfway through, he notices Virgil sending him glances when he thinks Roman isn’t looking. The kid squirms a bit in place, his face twisting in apprehension. 

“Is there something troubling you, Little Prince?” Roman asks at last.

“Princey, where are the others? A--are they okay?!” 

Oh. Oh, of course. Roman’s heart aches knowing how much Virgil worries and cares for everyone, even at such a young age. He’s so quick to reassure him that he doesn’t even pause to think about the phrasing of his words.

“They’re perfectly fine, rest assured. Logan is shut away in his room reading like the insufferable nerd he is and Patton is simply checking up on our dear Thomas--”

“Thomas?” Virgil breathes in, eyes bright with alarm. His shoulders raise to his ears like hackles raising on a frightened cat.

It is at this moment Roman knew that he messed up.

“Virgil, wait--” Roman pleads, attempting to place a placating hand on his shoulder. 

Roman is too late. His hand meets air as Virgil disappears in front of him with a loud crackle. All that’s left is a plate of half-eaten grilled cheese clattering to the countertops and a terror that shakes the entirety of the mindscape. 

[rivahisu107]

The Unresolved Baby Subplot Chapter 4: Two Ackermans & Two Plotholes

With Levi and Hange out of the way, the island of Paradis is descending further into unrest: the Jaegerists are gaining control, the wine plan has been exposed, and Marley is on its way for retribution. Would any of this had happened if the Queen were not having a child under the strangest of circumstances? 

Meanwhile, Eren’s friends have been hurt by his apparent betrayal, but Mikasa has taken the worst of it. Eren claims that as an Ackerman, she latched onto him as a host due to her genetics and claims that he has always hated her. And now they are being held in prison as Yelena provides her side of the story. But what does this have to do with the baby? And what else can we learn about the Ackermans?

Hold on, we’re in for a wild ride and a callback to an overlooked but vital clue from Clash of the Titans in the latest install of this (conspiracy) theory for the unresolved baby subplot! Because let me tell you, there is a key piece of evidence here that almost certainly proves the paternity of the child.

Yelena is coolly explaining the logistics of Zeke and Eren’s secret plan to the Corps. With sterilization, the Jaeger brothers will save the world from the curse of the Subjects of Ymir by taking out their reproductive abilities. Unfortunately, this is met with complete disgust- and mockery on Armin’s part- from the Corps. But how exactly will this plan protect Paradis from invasion until the last of the people die out? Let’s let Yelena explain with a cameo from Historia:

To compare to the fifty year plan:

Both involve using a partial Rumbling as a deterrent force.

Both involve maintaining the Founder.

Both need the royal family. 

The problem is... on repeat readings, Yelena is not making much sense here, and the euthanasia plan has a huge plot hole. Why? Let’s do a breakdown. 

“Both the Founder and the royal family must be maintained.” 

Problem one. Assuming euthanasia succeeds, there will be no more possibility of Historia having more royal blood children, but she will have one child- and from the reader’s perspective, this is her child who is assumed to be born of her and of the normal, humble farmer. Sounds good so far, right? But what is Yelena saying here? The Founder can only be used as a deterrent if possessed by either 1. a person of royal blood or 2. a non-royal blood user of the Founder and a royal blood Titan. And Yelena is saying that these must be maintained separately. Huh? And what happened to Historia inheriting the Beast Titan? It could still be part of the plan, but that leads to problem two. 

“So long as a few Subjects of Ymir inherit the Founding Titan until that child passes from the world.”

See? Nothing about the two remaining members of the royal family inheriting the Titan Shifters. Only a few non-royal Subjects of Ymir are going to be getting the Founder. Even assuming the Beast Titan would be inherited by Historia and then her child, their life spans would only be totaled twenty-six years. This is not enough time to wait for all the Subjects of Ymir to die off. Besides, Yelena only mentions the child. It seems that the royal family would have been spared turning into Titan Shifters. 

The problem is: How is a child of royal blood, who is not going to be given a Titan Shifter to inherit, going to protect the island for at least fifty or so years until the population dies off by working together with the non-royal Founder users?

I’m sorry, dear readers, but I will just say here. If you still think that this child is supposed to be the child of a nameless, faceless farmer at this point, then you are fools. Yes, Historia doesn’t have to love somebody who has special abilities that could be passed on to her children, but with a plot hole like this, there has to be something bigger going on. You do not have to be special to be born into the world, but clearly there is something special about this child that could be easily exploited by Yelena and the like. 

...

Alright, time to travel back to Clash of the Titans arc! Wait, what? Why here? It features a huge moment with the main couple of the manga. Remember, Eren thinks back to this time during the time skip when he realizes just how he activated the Coordinate for the first time. 

As he and Mikasa were about to die and he promised to always wrap that scarf around her, Eren, unknowingly possessing the Founder along with the Attack Titan, got the strength to punch back the Titan who later turned out to be Dina Fritz, the royal blooded mother of Zeke, and activated the Coordinate to control the Titans and get revenge for Hannes’ death. We all know that now, correct?

The Corps is making its getaway, but then they have Reiner and Bertholdt to deal with as well. Reiner correctly predicts to us readers that Eren is the most dangerous person to possess the Founder. And then Eren uses its power again. 

What’s going on here? Eren activated the Coordinate again without being in contact with a Titan of royal blood! The only person he is in physical contact with is Mikasa Ackerman.

Ackerman. 

We all know Eren lied about the Ackerman slave thing, but he mixed in some lies with the truth about Ackermans. This is what else he had to say based on his conversations with Zeke, who has all these memories of Tom Ksaver’s work with the Titan Research Society with all kinds of info about Titans and the Ackerman clan.

“A bloodline that could partly manifest the strength of a Titan while in human form.”

Oh! So that explains why Mikasa and Levi are so strong and heal faster than normal Eldians and why they are also immune to memory wipes. Okay, they’re Titans in human form, so how could Mikasa activate the Coordinate at least partially?

Well. In Chapter 107, the same chapter that Historia is revealed to be pregnant under unusual circumstances, we have a flashback and visit from Hizuru, the land of some of Mikasa’s lineage on her mother’s side. And what do we learn from Kiyomi? Mikasa is the descendent of the shogun- the royal family- who was left behind and lost on Paradis for at least a century! A lost princess! 

Dear readers, Mikasa has been the key this whole time. She, a person of Ackerman, normal Eldian, and royal blood of Hizuru, managed to activate the Coordinate by being in contact with Eren, even if it was only a partial activation. 

This here is the answer to the euthanasia plothole. This is also almost absolute proof that this child was intended to be Levi and Historia’s child. An Ackerman with Eldian royal blood would have the ability to manifest the strength and powers of a Titan without having to turn into a Titan. And when in contact with the Founder, they would be able to use the Coordinate to defend the island. And the child would be able to live out a full life, so no worries about Titan shifting. 

But unfortunately, this would mean using the child as a tool, used for causing mass destruction no matter if one is pro-euthanasia or pro-Rumbling. The parents of the child would likely be opposed to this, and Eren himself has qualms with using children. It’s no wonder that Yelena and Floch were more than happy to get their number one threat, Levi, out of the way, and Hange as well.

Oh. Oh oh oh. And if you want to see some classic Isayama trolling, check out this Q & A from the August 2018 magazine- you know, the magazine with Chapter 107, the pregnancy plot reveal. 

Um, yeah, so it seems that this was what Isayama was going for all along with the pregnancy subplot. 

Unfortunately, it never amounted to anything really, not even symbolically. We still don’t have all our answers for it explicitly made. It’s rather too bad, because there is potentially further proof I found- and a plothole- that connects to this, also about Ackermans.

...

Chapter 126 opens with Hange killing off several Jaegerists while protecting a comatose Levi. She tends to his wounds and delivers some exposition about Ackermans which fits with the previous chapter about euthanasia and the child. 

What is the problem here? In story, we never find out the reason how Hange even knows this. In Chapter 108, the Corps was discussing inheriting the Founder, and Jean mentioned that at the time about a year before the Rumbling, they didn’t even understand what the Ackerman clan was. 

So, how does Hange know this, and why is it so important to know that Ackermans can’t turn into Titans? Sure, the two known members of the clan were the only two people who were left to kill Eren because they were immune to the centipede which just vanished for unknown reasons after Eren died, but I am asking how Hange knew this in the first place. Why?

“Everyone was turned into Titans, but only you survived.”

Hange hadn’t seen Levi in at least a month. There is no way that Hange could have asked him if he drank the tainted wine or seen him drink it and then go on to conclude that Ackermans can’t turn into Titans without affirming the former was done while he was unconscious. 

One thing about Hange post time skip is that the focus is on her being commander without much for the Titan science aspect. There is one obscure moment from Chapter 109 that got me thinking. While she is having a moment of frustration, she suddenly collects herself and states:

What does she need to study? Is she trying to find more solutions to the problem at hand? I don’t know if books will really help them in the situation of, “What to do when the Queen is pregnant and can’t become a Titan Shifter to guarantee the island’s safety while trying to prepare for a global strike because Eren was an idiot and acted alone”, but I do have to wonder here. Could Hange have been trying to study something about the Ackerman clan, something about a potential child with mixed genes? 

The above is more of a guess from me than anything, but it’s the only thing I could find that would explain how Hange would make such a bold statement without seeing the evidence- that would make her a bad scientist. 

Funny enough, as readers, believe it or not, we might have proof that at some point, even if not in the forest, that Levi did drink tainted wine. It’s blink and you miss it. 

A few chapters back, I speculated about the banquet and Levi being counted as top brass, the only section of the military permitted to drink the wine. Again, without seeing the banquet ever, this point is hard to prove, but it’s not impossible to think that it would happen. It’s in Chapter 112 when Zeke’s plan goes into action that we can see something happen to Levi’s body.

There is a twitch effect surrounding his body going through his hair and clothes. The brass from many miles away felt a reaction go through their bodies too akin to a shock or a twitch. And to see what the anime staff did, check out this blink and you miss it GIF.

Furthermore, check out this dialogue.

“When’d he start tainting it?” 

Oh dear. He really screwed up in many ways this arc. But he is one of the lucky ones indeed. If he weren’t an Ackerman, he’d be long dead in the story. 

...

That was a lot of ground to cover in this chapter, but perhaps we have struck through the surface of the mystery of the Ackerman clan in the most unexpected ways. 

The next chapter will feature bits and pieces of odd evidence that could be key to the unresolved baby plot. After Chapter 123, it seems that the whole thing is almost forgotten, so I do question if there really was a retcon or a change to a more open ending with it all. Even if what is said in the following chapters has nothing to do with the baby, the buildup theorized about here may unlock a few of the creative decisions made.

[crystalectomy]

I call this piece “leaving the groupchat”

I'm starting off somewhat small - I removed myself from the groupchat. I haven't told anyone yet (and the group settings mean there will be no notification that I’ve done it, people will have to find out on their own). 

I don't know yet the FULL extent of the backing-slowly-into-the-hedges I want to do with these people. I know, broadly speaking, that if I get invited to things from this group in the future there will be a few things I straight up say no to: 

most get togethers at [A]’s house

any camping trips

most parties in general, esp hosted by [A], [B], [C] , or [D]

Things I might say yes to:

a concert w [B]

a boardgame night (occasional)

a park hang, bar hop, or outdoor festival (anything it's easy to bounce from)

Things I will be pleased to continue:

some kinda relationship with [C]

maybe a reconnection with [E] some day

My brother’s advice was to leave the group chat and only explain myself to anyone who asks about it. He said leaving it would be good for gaining closure (as opposed to just turning off notifications, which I've tried many times already). From what I've told him it seems I have every reason to do so -- he did not try even for a second to talk me out of it. He said he had a similar situation where he left/was cut out of a friend group a year ago and he has had absolutely no regrets at all. 

He also said he thinks our Dad sticks too long with people / doesn't recognize when they've become harmful to be around, so if the goal is to not be like Dad (which, yes), then recognizing when to move on from people is one way to get there. 

I'm doing everyone a favor here (probably too aggro a thing to say)

I've been reading about people who've broken up with friends or left friend groups and a familiar refrain keeps coming up -- friendships should be with people who you trust, who uplift you, who do not leave you feeling stressed and drained. I cannot say that about this group, as a whole, anymore. At all. 

For a long time -- years now -- I've flirted with the idea of leaving the groupchat. It hasn't been a fun groupchat. A lot of it is people posting links and videos that I'm not interested in, giving life update announcements that don't need to be given in a group setting, or posting plan-making logistics, which always end up being a little awkward when some people can participate in them and others can't (which is always the case, b/c of awkward breakups in the couples of the group, east bay vs sf commute times, and now differing covid sensibilities and vaxxed/unvaxxed status).

All of that is innocuous enough, but if it's clutter, it's clutter. And there's no reason not to remove it. 

So what made the group good if not the groupchat? The hangs. The drugs, the alcohol, the games. The concerts, the movies, the camping trips. Since we've had a forced year without those things, I've gotten a better look at what the core of this group feels like to be in without all that -- and it sucks.

So why not just ride it out until we can hangout in person again (which will be v soon!)? I guess I'm just feeling like a spring cleaning attitude about it. Like, maybe I can spend my precious time in the afterlife hanging out with people who I can feel close with emotionally as well as physically? Maybe now that I'm in a very different phase of my life than I was when I met them (turning-30-realness) I should cultivate relationships that fulfill me where I'm at now -- people I can share exciting work news, poems, and pictures of my cat with, yes, but also people I can unravel the secrets of the universe and the pros and cons of major life choices with.

I've spent a lot of the quarantine either in solitude or staying connected to / reconnecting with friends who make me feel good. Who listen to my advice, who give me advice and encouragement in turn, who share similar interests with me, who do not call me "unique " "weird" "soooo alternative" over and over again (either in admiration or jest). Who have understood and interpreted and lived out the COVID thing in similar ways as me. 

And look -- I don't mean people who have had the same privileges necessarily! Some of the people I've gotten closer to were just as social as the folks in this group +/or worked jobs where they had to be on the frontlines and couldn't barricade themselves quite as much as me and my husband did. But they respected our decision to take as strict a stance on this whole thing as humanly possible, did not call us "sensitive" or "conservative" at any point along the way, and when they asked us to hangout, did so in ways that felt respectful of and empathetic towards our boundaries. It’s not that this group made different choices than I would have, it’s that they, by contrast to my other friends, treated me with judgment, derision, and disrespect for my decisions. I promise I’ve not done the same.

I'm purging a lot of things from my life right now. Leaving my toxic-ish job at the end of April. Trying to lose the last 5 lbs. Getting rid of as much clutter in the house as possible.

As I start to prepare and dream for a life outside of quarantine, I think about  who are some of the first people I want to grab a drink with, go for a walk with, celebrate an occasion with. And for the most part, it's not these people.

Y'all are funny, interesting, intelligent, engaging, and a good time. But I don't feel like I belong here. And I often leave hangouts with the group feeling stressed or upset.

Moreso, in my life I feel I've gotten much harder. Cynical, crabby, pessimistic, aggressive, barbed, judgmental. Like, really had those parts of me take over. And I'm almost certain this group being my main group was a contributing factor. It's behavior that's, if not required, then encouraged to be a member here.

I thought about writing a message in the groupchat to explain myself instead of ghosting but a few things occurred to me:

9 times out of 10 when I try to be earnest or express any feelings that aren't straight up enthusiasm for something with this group, I feel ignored at best or patronized and shut down at worst. 

given the pervading sense of devil-may-care cavalierness in this group, i figured most of you wouldn't notice/care anyway

I thought of folks like [X], [Y], and [Z] who have been in/out of this groupchat for years, all of whom have since faded away, and none of whom felt the need to say anything. Since there's a precedent, I figured I'd follow it

I'm extremely self conscious about this decision -- I'm worried it comes off as self-absorbed, self-righteous, selfish, etc. and I don't think I know a way to ensure it doesn't come off that way when trying to address it head on.

I'm kind of a coward about this kind of thing (awkward social interactions) anyway. So this is a kind of cowardly way to do it. It fits.

I've been thinking about doing this for so long that nothing anyone can say will convince me otherwise, so why invite a dialogue?

If anyone asks (which my husband assures me they won't): 

“Oh, I left the group chat a little while ago, so if you're trying to reach me, specifically, text/phone call is the best way to do so. Email works too. No shade to you or anyone in particular, I just found the energy of the group as a whole to be kind of toxic, and have so for some time now (even pre pandemic).”

Then, maybe:

“I thought about saying something but I honestly couldn't think of what to say that wouldn't come off as arrogant or dramatic or weird. Maybe it's weirder to ghost... but I never seem to accurately gauge how people in this group will react to things I do and say, and I didn’t want to be misinterpreted and cause more stress. There's no good or codified way to leave a friend group, so I just did the easiest, path of least resistance way I could think of.” 

And if there’s time:

“And that's the other thing, I didn't want to like, break up with any of you as friends. I'm not going to say no to every game night invitation or avoid people altogether IRL or anything. And I'm hoping and planning to have 1x1 or 2x2 hangs with some of y’all in the future. So I didn't want to invite any truly nasty energy between me and any of the individuals in the group. I'm just excusing myself from the overall 'zeitgeist' of the groupchat, and okay with probably getting invited to fewer outings as a result.” 

Or at least:

“I didn’t mean to offend, I just did what I thought was best for me in a way that I hoped would cause the least amount of harm to everyone involved. And I did think long and hard about it, so at least I hope no one can say it was a completely thoughtless decision.”

I'm taking this impending re-entry into society thing as an opportunity to prioritize the relationships that have felt enriching, healthy, fruitful during it. And I’m excited to chase down hobbies and events at work, post pandemic, with the goal of making new friends who I can be more myself with.

[dont-let-me-stop-you]

Singing superstar, American Idol breakout and The Voice coach Kelly Clarkson gets her own talk show. And, boy, does she have a lot to say!

Clarkson is still shocked that NBC crowned her the host of her very own daytime talk show. “When it was brought up to me, I was like, ‘What? No one’s going to watch!’” she says, with a self-deprecating laugh. It’s exactly that everyday charm that makes Clarkson so relatable—and so perfect as the host of The Kelly Clarkson Show (premiering Monday, September 9, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC). She calls the opportunity “a dream I never had but didn’t know I loved—and wanted!”

Clarkson, of course, is no stranger to television. The Grammy-winning songstress got her break in 2002 at the age of 20, after winning the inaugural season of American Idol. She went on to serve as a mentor on ABC’s singing competition Duets and as a bubbly coach on NBC’s The Voice, where she’ll return alongside Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and John Legend when season 17 begins September 23.

She grew up singing in church alongside her fellow parishioners in Burleson, Texas, not realizing she had a special talent until she was asked to join the junior high choir. “I was like, ‘Nerd alert!’ And then I became a nerd!” she jokes. It was then that Clarkson realized she had a versatile range and was a natural onstage. “I was oddly comfortable. Even from the first time; I never was nervous.”

Her mother, a first-grade English teacher, wasn’t exactly thrilled that her daughter turned down college to pursue a singing career. “When I said I wanted to be a singer, she was like, ‘Well, a lot of people do,’ and she was right.” But Clarkson appreciated the nudge to perfect her craft and go after her dream, which was initially to be a backup vocalist for noteworthy acts. “On Idol, I saw so many parents lie to their children, telling them they’re awesome and should pursue it when they were so off-key,” she admits. “My mom inspired me to work extra hard.”

She now thinks of early days on Idol as “the ultimate boot camp.” With the network still figuring out the show’s concept during season one, the contenders were frequently whisked from one location to another, asked to perform songs they didn’t know minutes before taking the stage, and worked through exhaustion. “I feel like I can handle anything now!” Clarkson, 37, says confidently, which will definitely come in handy for her own show, as she will be filming The Voice and The Kelly Clarkson Show simultaneously, rushing from one NBC set to another on a golf cart. “It’s going to get a little tricky, but I think we figured it out,” she says with her signature perk and optimism.

Dream Guests Clarkson has learned a few tricks from appearing on so many talk shows herself. As her own career progressed from Idol breakout to format-spanning superstar, she found herself a guest on just about all of them, talking about how she came from a little town in Texas, went on to win TV’s biggest talent show and amass dozens of awards (including three Grammys)—as well as notch more than 25 Billboard Top 100 singles, including the No. 1 pop hits “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You),” “My Life Would Suck Without You” and “A Moment Like This.”

She’s a true talk-show fan who “grew up on Oprah,” she says. “My mom and I watched her every day after school.” She also appreciates the humor of Ellen DeGeneres—in fact, her new show will lead into The Ellen DeGeneres Show in the NBC afternoon lineup—and says she hopes to infuse elements of her talk-show idols into her own show format. She wants to provide a lighthearted escape from the day while tackling more serious topics.

Her dream guest is Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep. “I’m a tad bit obsessed,” she says. She’d also love to wrangle some of her musical pals, like Dolly Parton and superstar country couple Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks. But Clarkson is just as excited to sit down and chat with everyday folks doing noteworthy endeavors. She’s quick to rave about a woman who runs an organization that throws birthday parties for homeless youth, whom she had on the pilot test run of her show. “I hope we bring her back!”

But music, naturally, will always be a recurring theme. “We’re opening up every show with music and highlighting artists we love,” she says, teasing that she might even join a few of her guests onstage. She also promises a mix of serious and heartwarming moments, hilarious skits and interesting guests across the board. And expect “anything and everything to happen,” whether she’s prepared for it or not.

“The thing I’ve learned from people like Jimmy [Fallon], Seth [Meyers] and Ellen is don’t plan too much because life takes hold of the show and things start happening,” she says. So Clarkson is ready to go with whatever pops up, a skill she demonstrated when hosting the 2019 Billboard Music Awards several months ago while battling appendicitis and requiring emergency surgery hours after exiting the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The multifaceted star, who’s had hits on the pop, dance and country charts, admits she had somewhat of a déjà vu moment weeks later when she had an ovarian cyst burst seconds before going live on The Voice. “I grabbed Blake’s arm, Carson [Daly] said, ‘We’re live,’ and I thought, Oh Lord, here we go!” she recalls. Clarkson battled on and wound up back in the ER, joking that she felt horrible for making the paramedic attending to her so nervous that he had to poke her three times to find her vein for the IV.

The only thing that scares her, she says, is potentially not knowing the backstory of all of her guests ahead of time. “There’s no way I could possibly know everyone,” she says, candidly. But she’s surrounded herself with a team to keep her prepped, a lesson she learned from country superstar Reba McEntire, who she’s looked to as a mentor throughout her career (and who is her husband’s former stepmother). “She told me once, ‘You’re caring too much about too many things. You have to have people in the right spots,’” says Clarkson, who deemed the advice life-changing.

Clarkson is mostly unfiltered, which she likes to think is a positive trait. “Sometimes my husband doesn’t agree,” she jokes—and she does her best to make everyone feel comfortable on her set.

Family Affair Speaking of her husband, you won’t see Brandon Blackstock, 42, on the show—if he has anything to do with it. Clarkson admits her attempts to drag him out during the practice rounds were futile. “But I’ll probably force it somehow!” she says.

They’ve been married for almost six years. They met in 2006 when Clarkson performed on an Academy of Country Music Awards telecast and reconnected six years later at Super Bowl XLVI after Clarkson’s then-manager, Narvel Blackstock (McEntire’s ex-husband and Blackstock’s father), reintroduced them. “I found out he was single and I was like, ‘Yes, please!’” she says, recalling that he ticked all the boxes—including that he had career in the industry, meaning that he would understand her life in the limelight. The duo later learned they were, coincidentally, raised in the same small town, which further cemented their bond.

Today, Blackstock manages her, and Clarkson deems him her ultimate teammate. “We both love what we do, but we’re really good about checking out whenever we make it home from work,” she says. They spend time together every night after putting their kids to bed. “Sometimes we’ll go out or we’ll just listen to music,” she says, noting she’s “the bold one” and will often initiate a slow dance. “I’ll ask and he’s like, ‘OK!’ He’s probably just trying to get lucky!”

When she’s not at work, Clarkson prefers the quiet life and quality family time with their kids, River, 5, and Remington, 3, and Blackstock’s two children from his previous marriage, Savannah, 17, and Seth, 12, at their homes in Los Angeles and the Nashville area. “We go bowling, putt-putt, have movie nights, color together, ride little bikes in the backyard,” she says. In her physically demanding line of work, it’s also important to prioritize her health by planning quieter times, whether that’s harvesting honey from her backyard beehives or cooking with eggs from her hens. And she credits her typical happy-go-lucky persona to decades of hard work.

“I used to suffer from depression and I could easily slip back into that if I weren’t steadily paying attention to time management. With all the things that I do, I definitely need time for me,” she says. One of her favorite self-care practices includes keeping a gratitude journal. She is a sucker for a good self-help book and a big believer in surrounding herself with positive people. “Once I started weeding out [negative] people, it made a huge difference,” she says.

Another must is constantly trying new things. “I like being all over the map. I get really bored with monotony and I can’t stand to do the same thing,” she says. Clarkson enjoyed voicing the character Moxy in the animated movie UglyDolls early this year. “It was a fun challenge to hop into the [recording] booth,” she says.

Beyond her new TV series, she has her sights set on Broadway. She admits that between her current work and raising kids, it would be hard to pull off logistically. But she’s hoping to sneak in an upcoming NBC Live performance. “I want them to do White Christmas and I want to be Rosemary Clooney!” she says.

She acknowledges that she has enough on her plate for the time being, juggling multiple jobs, family and kids of all ages and stages. While her toddlers are in what she describes as a “cute stage,” which involves them adorably singing along to her vast array of tunes, her 17-year-old stepdaughter’s musical choices sometimes lead her into some interesting new parenting terrain.

“I’ll be in the car with her and I’m like, ‘What are we listening to? Do not let your father hear this,’” she says, with a laugh. “She’s a good kid, but if those hardcore lyrics ever lead to action, then stepmom is gonna take it away!” she playfully threatens.

Clarkson believes she’ll be able to handle whatever comes her way—on the new show or off. “I’m into a lot of stuff that maybe normal 37-year-olds don’t know about because of teenagers,” she says. “But then I am super into Disney because of our toddlers. I’m also a working woman and I own a business.” On The Kelly Clarkson Show, her goal will be to connect with her guests while letting her natural personality shine.

“I’m not going to try too hard to be anything. I feel like they gave me a show because they like me,” she says. “So I’m just going to lean into KC and hope it works out!”

[colortheorydesignco]

PORTLAND’S Eco-friendly Flower shop

Hi all! As you might have seen in our latest Instagram post, we are getting very close to finishing up the work on our flower shop in Portland Oregon and hoping to open by January 1st, 2020! If you didn’t see the post, the components of our walk-in cooler have arrived, rough-in plumbing work should be finished by tomorrow, and the glass garage door is slated to be installed by December 13th.

Now that we are tidying up some of the loose ends on the flower shop build out, which has consumed much of our attention and energy over the past few months, we would like to momentarily shift our focus to some important details in defining:

- Who we are as a flower shop -

- What we stand for -

- What we believe in -

- What type of impact we aim to have on the community and on the planet -

We’d like to go into 2020 having a plan with clear intentions. Today we will elaborate on what we’ve decided these guiding principles are for us, particularly emphasizing the principles that pertain to the environment, our magnificent planet and sustainable floristry practices. Every little action that we take on a regular basis can immense impacts when mapped out over extended periods of time. We often take our environmentally-friendly practices for granted, but we realize that by publicly sharing and spelling out what that looks like for florists, this may enlighten and empower others to evaluate and potentially refine their daily practices for the betterment of all.

FLORAL FOAM

First of all, our flower shop in Portland will be completely floral foam-free! Foam is plastic-based and full of toxic & carcinogenic compounds that can compromise the well-being of humans. Even if you’re taking precautions to reduce topical or respiratory exposure to the foam, the fact that the foam breaks down into micro-plastics that are not bio-degradable makes the usage of this product inescapably detrimental due to it’s impact on the environment as a waste product. We have not wanted to announce this change until we had devised a practical plan for realizing a foam-free operation, but we have retooled our practices to achieve such a state and can now confidently declare ourselves a floral foam-free operation.

Up until now, we have intermittently used floral foam when we felt it was “necessary”, but this has been a form of lazy thinking on our part. We will be designing much more frequently in the flower shop and therefore will have the potential to create more hazardous waste if we do not reassess the processes that we implement. We will also serve as a working example of “green” floral design practices for budding florists, since we will be operating on a more publicly visible platform. We wish to make use of this platform to show how possible it is to create systems that have definite rules and boundaries so we are forced to think outside of the box and come up with design solutions when we would have just used foam instead! It is our hope that our clients will value the purpose behind our environmentally-friendly methods and be flexible with crafting floral designs in the absence of traditional floral foam.

Our courses and workshops will incorporate foam-free designing, so if you are interested in expanding your scope of knowledge on this aspect of design, please join a class! Being foam-free does take a good chunk of change to invest in enough floral frogs and chicken wire at first, but these elements can be reused for events. Since we will be designing a lot of our deliveries with floral frogs, they will be ever so slightly pricier. However, we will be offering a vase and floral frog recycling program where you can bring them back in exchange for flowers or cash. Stay tuned for more information about this program!

COMPOSTING

First of all, we are thankful to be in a city that provides easy access to composting services, so…thank you Portland! We will certainly be separating our green waste from our other waste. As a florist, we naturally have a ton of compostable waste, so this is a huge perk! When processing flowers we will place our green bin under the chopping block where stems will be cut in bulk. This will streamline the process and make composting and separating green waste relatively mindless. As soon as we open up the flower shop in Portland, we will have a large composting bin and will schedule weekly, rather than bi-weekly, pick ups from the city.

RECYCLING

Recycling is definitely something that we are a bit torn about, as arguments for and against city-wide recycling programs have seemingly rational points. It is inarguably preferable to re-purpose disposed of plastics rather to produce more. Some critics of large-scale recycling programs claim that the service ends up consuming resources and generating environmentally pernicious side effects with large carbon footprints that may or may not offset the programs’s proposed benefits. We don’t claim to have a comprehensive grasp of the macro-level cost-benefit analysis of recycling programs. Although, aiming to have a full recycling bin each week is definitely not our goal. We would love to eliminate as much waste as possible, recyclable or not…which means that we avoid consuming things that require the purchase of disposable and single-use containers. We try not to have all of our flowers wrapped with paper or put into boxes when those options are available. When we buy flowers from the market we often decline any kind of wrap and just stack the individual flower bunches on a cart to be placed directly into our vehicle. It creates more physical work when transporting flowers from one place to another, but eliminates the wasteful aftermath of boxes, plastic and paper wrap left after numerous trips to the flower market each week.

SOURCING BLOOMS LOCALLY

As a Portland florist, we are lucky to have so many local options for blooms. Throughout most of the year, we will be able to source 100% locally and we will do so happily! Our reasons for buying flowers locally:

Flowers are generally not wrapped with plastic…and often they are not wrapped with paper! This is amazing and decreases the waste that we have to dispose of quite dramatically. If you are a flower farmer that happens to wrap product with plastic or even paper (specifically waxed paper, which isn’t recyclable), we urge you to research more eco-friendly alternatives. Let’s eliminate trash at the source, PLEASE! It’s much easier to simply stop producing or using a product which is inherently destined to become a byproduct waste rather than to hope that somebody down the line will figure out how to manage it’s disposal properly.

Buying locally supports small businesses. Any time that we can support a local business we are excited to do so. We are thankful to live in an area of the country where flowers abound and supporting conscientious local farmers who adopt responsible flower farming practices ensures that these small businesses can remain competitive in an industry that doesn’t always promote or prioritize a preference for flowers which are produced by way of safe and sustainable practices.

No major transportation footprint on the environment. This is HUGE. So many flowers come from South America, Holland, Kenya and beyond which requires extensive transportation logistics involving massive refrigerated warehouses, refrigerated cargo trucks and refrigerated airplanes. Every leg of the transport process consumes insane amounts of energy and generates a LOT of CO2 emissions. Buying locally bypasses ALL of these factors.

No chemical-ladened blooms. Turning the spotlight back to importing floral products from international flower farms: flowers from, say, Columbia, are COVERED in very toxic pesticides. Many of these pesticides have actually been banned in the USA, but since they aren’t being applied to food crops, developing countries are still permitting their application in specific industries. Therefore, depending on where the flowers are grown, we florists are potentially being exposed to very toxic stems, which we then unknowingly pass along to our customers. Our skin is a very absorbent organ and exposure to these chemicals on even a semi-regular basis, let alone a DAILY basis, could be very detrimental to your health. By sourcing flowers locally you have the ability to speak candidly with the farmer about the pesticides that they may use and, consequently, make more informed and safer decisions. The widespread use of pesticides in the flower farming industry and the associated toxicity is a massive subject that I’d like to write more about some day as it’s an aspect of the floral industry that hasn’t received much attention other than a few research studies in Europe. Evidently, the purported consequences of peddling toxic flowers on a daily basis could include a whole host of health complications like reproductive issues and cancer! Kind of a big deal and definitely worthy of further research and investigation!

Flowers are fresher!! If we are buying locally then the blooms don’t have to be shipped to us by airplane, where they lie compressed in a box for 1-2 days after they are harvested. Avoiding the hardships of transportation means that the flowers are going to have a few more days of life in our customers’ homes. The local flowers we provide will be fresher and live longer. Can’t be mad about that!

FLOWER DONATIONS

Most of this post is about waste and this section is no different. When flowers don’t sell at the peak of their freshness, many flower shops throw them away or take them home. Flowers are generally enjoyed by most, but not affordable for all. Flowers brighten a room and bring a sparkle to the eyes of many and we want to share this love in Portland. We will be donating flowers on a weekly basis (rather than composting perfectly lovable flowers) to a variety of places such as hospice care centers and youth shelters. We are totally open to suggestions if you know someone whose day would be brightened by a room of flowers. Please send me an email and we can discuss the situation.

PLASTIC and WASTE-FREE

We have been fairly free of plastic for many years and plan on extending these behaviors to our Portland flower shop. It’s fairly easy to do when you aren’t interested in consuming packaged foods and products, in general. It seems that if you value toxin-free living you are most likely fairly waste-free. We have long made use of re-usable containers at grocery store bulk bins, avoided single-serving packaged products, and DIY’d our own health and food products using glass, wood and stainless steel containers. We will continue to do this. Some other ways we will continue to be plastic & waste free in the shop are:

Liquid (soap, cleaning agents, etc) contained in glass dispensers, refilled from bulk. No one-time-use containers will be purchased.

Stainless Steel Berkey Water Filter - no plastic bottles

Vase recycle incentive program - stay tuned for details once we open!

Washable cloth rags only - no paper towel use

No trash bags will be used except for biodegradable trash bags for our non-compostable, non-recyclable waste, which we will keep to a bare minimum.

Coffee maker with reusable filter only

Bouquets will be wrapped in minimal recyclable paper and tied with raffia

Reusable dish scrubbers and “toilet'“ scrubbers will be used made out of WOOD and natural fibers, not plastic. We use a toilet scrubber for cleaning buckets, which is why we are mentioning this detail. We use a SEPARATE scrubber for the toilet…don’t worry.

Reusable gloves - no disposable gloves here

CHEMICAL AND TOXIN-FREE

For some time now, driven by concerns for our own personal health, we have strived to eliminate chemicals and toxins from our workspace…barring the occasional use of floral foam. We are relieved to move forward knowing that this harmful product has been phased out of our floral shop and that we are able to provide a better work environment for our team and a safer product for our clients.

Toxic things you will NOT find in our shop with the corresponding safe solution:

Floral foam | Instead: Flower frogs and chicken wire

Quick Dip (used to facilitate hydration of flowers after initial processing) | Instead: Maintaining a sharp and clean edge on cutting tools so the stems of your flowers do not structurally collapse when cutting. Fill buckets with tepid water and do not put in the cooler for at least an hour. For some specific woodier stems, flowers hydrate better if the bottom of the stem is crushed or burned - another topic for another day.

Flower food | Some flower food is not toxic, however we are not a big fan of either packaging options: numerous small individual packages OR huge plastic containers. The benefits DO NOT outweigh the amount of container waste that is produced. Instead: Keep your buckets and vases bacteria-free using vinegar and wash between each use. A little bit of sugar can be sprinkled into the vase as “food” and this can perk up the blooms.

Toxic Cleaning Agents | Instead: Use vinegar, a thieves oil-based cleaning spray (make it yourself and spray from a glass container), and Bon Ami when you need a deep scrub.

Bleach | Instead: Vinegar

BPA-Ladened Receipt Paper | Instead: Source BPA-free receipt paper and be sure to disable the function of printing a receipt with every sale. Very few people will want a receipt - be sure to offer a receipt by email instead.

▲

CONCLUSION

The consequences stemming from humankind’s activity within our terrestrial eco-system is immense, complex and multi-faceted. We aren’t pretending to have all of the answers nor are we taking a fixed, agenda-backed stance (i.e. political, religious, etc…). We shall remain flexible and willing to change our mind when presented with new data. It seems that a legitimate way to start making a difference is to be the change that we wish to see. This requires action. We aim to take action aligned with the best possible sources of knowledge that we currently have access to. There are no bite-sized, 144-character silver-bullet statements of wisdom that can define for every human, in every walk of life, what it means to be living in harmony with the surrounding environs. What we DO know, is that instead of pointing fingers, we need to look at ourselves and ask, “how can we do better?” Determine what we have the ability to change…and then take the necessary steps to implement those changes.

Let’s support each other’s journey forward in re-engineering the best versions of our daily practices. Please feel free ask questions, challenge the ideas presented here, or share any other tips that you think would make the floral industry more eco-friendly!

[ssiyckitten-blog]

Organisation Opportunities Articles.

The effect of shopping on the international economy is significant. Ecommerce internet sites are prone (no matter what individuals claim) to hacking and digital burglary which will certainly leave you and also your service vast open for lawsuits if any of your customers think this happened due to purchasing something with your website. Now if you're fighting with understanding just what web site hosting is or even how internet sites function; or if you are worried and also thinking about obtaining your eCommerce website established, you rate to Shopify advancement firm. Ecommerce these days has actually become one of the easiest, safeguarded as well as fastest ways to sell or buy products. When the resource information consists of a hill of invoices and also order kinds, including up regular monthly sales numbers as well as evaluating which items are best sellers could be difficult. Therefore, ecommerce can help you acquire the products all at the same time. I either reduced the offering price on amazon.com to attempt to attract a customer or "trade" guide for something more desirable. Amazon's one-year old category for handcrafted goods saw a 200 percent boost in sales, which is way more than just what it made a year earlier. You can sell your frozen food things on Amazon.com and customers could purchase them quickly. Till the business resolves the concerns, legit vendors risk of losing items and also suggestions to Chinese duplicates. Mentioning a surge in the price of transport, a statement from Amazon claimed that the cost for a one-pound standard package, which make up a "significant section" of the plans in the fulfillment program, would certainly increase by "only" $0.09. That $0.09 might not seem like a lot, however it's a considerable dive per item on top of other costs, including delivery rates. ECommerce is just specified as something you sell or acquisition, or any kind of business deal you develop over the internet. After your vendor account is developed, you can begin listing books offer for sale. Dave Robus gives details on how you can benefit from the general public Domain at Old Publications Earn Money where he covers e-book production from old books in a rational detailed procedure. Sure, they will all charge you to detail your supply and a commission on each sale, yet a lot of are extremely affordable and their costs do not mean that much if you are providing and marketing sufficient books. Sellers are excited concerning this program, as well as it supplies a method for small companies to benefit from Amazon.com's scale decrease in logistics expenses. You will certainly sell books you would not have marketed or else. Ecommerce is an excellent means for physicals stores to broaden their customer base, along with a fantastic platform for dreamers to begin excellent services, after all was a little ecommerce shop when. With this design, you'll need to collect "leads" regarding a prospective client and also analyze whether the receiving service demands your products or services. Considering That Black Friday and Cyber Monday have actually reoccured on-line stores are still providing bargains on all kinds of products. Therefore every service is needed to hold an efficient sales representative for its chain of product in addition to solutions. Amazon also charges a selection of costs consisting of selling as well as recommendation charges. If you desire to develop top marketing e-books after that some e-book creating pointers will help. For instance numerous customer circumstances currently have an existing web as well as eCommerce option. This implies you could invest almost all your time really advertising and also marketing - points that make you cash. If you have an ecommerce business, and you wish for on-line consumers to purchase from you, you need to attract their interest - and make their shopping experience satisfying and simple. While we know that for any person who is not much aware of the functioning of the eCommerce world and also exactly how things go real-time overnight, choosing a system appropriately to establish their own online shop is a backbreaking job. When it comes to buying physical products online, immediacy isn't really a choice. Internet marketing experts think about regulating them would use unlimited possibilities. Throughout the years, a lot of people have actually asked me various concerns about self-help publications, not counting on them.

[artificialqueens]

If Samson and Delilah Lived Happily Ever After (Sashea)- Melon

A/N:

To those of you who actually remember this fic: I’m so sorry. I know it’s been over four months. I know.

I’m a day later than I promised, but we always knew I was a liar. I also promised a weekly update schedule, too. I’m actually hoping to get back on that, or at least updating as much as I possibly can. I genuinely love this story, and I’m gonna get it done y'all, I swear.

This chapter (2k words) is about partially just Shea’s day, including a lot of character exploration for her, but not necessarily focused on the actual plot. It gives you a good sense of who Shea is in this world, but it’s not crucial to the story. The second half is the date! A lot of fluff, Sashea getting to know each other better, developing their dynamic, and just overall good gayness. I’m trying a new format for the poems, let me know what you think on my fic blog!

Part One  Part Two  Part Three  Side Blog

Sasha and Shea swap schedules over the weekend, planning out the logistics in between banter. A movie takes too long, wouldn’t want to be late for the show; it’s too early for dinner and too late for lunch, and Shea doesn’t share Sasha’s belief that time is a social construct that should be ignored when at all possible; they’re broke as hell, so extravagant dates are a solid no. Sasha suggests meeting up at a fro-yo place in Bushwick and just walking around afterwards.

It’s a risk. Shea knows she wants Sasha, but she doesn’t really know her, not yet. A spark of chemistry across a room doesn’t secure a lifetime of happiness, or whatever, and it’s easy to forget how someone made her feel for a moment in the hours that followed it- plus there’s no time limit to an ‘eat and walk around’ date besides the show. The show they’re going to together.

They could run out of things to say.

Shea types out her agreement, they plan to meet three hours before the show. Being prepared for the worst has never hurt Shea in the past, but she can’t stand in her own way here.

———-

Saturday morning sees Shea up before dawn, dance bag in hand as she heads to the cheapest coffee shop within a ten mile radius. She’s exhausted, but she’s always exhausted, always moving, figuring out the bare minimum hours she has to work at her day job to pay rent and be able to buy a morning coffee when she desperately needs it.

She smiles at the barista despite her lack of sleep. Her mama raised her right.

The studio walls welcome her home when she arrives, unchanged since she last saw them two days ago. The sun is just coming above the city horizon, painting the room orange and shining in the wall of mirrors. Everything is either shadow or warmth, the safety of darkness succumbing to the small windows left of her without a fight. She rarely sees the dance hall in the daylight, usually arriving at closer to one AM  for a late night practice. It’s pretty. It’s a little strange.

Facing the glass covered wall in front of her, Shea begins her stretches. Everything in the world around her slows with her body, moving like elastic bands, expanding as she pulls towards each limb’s end. She’s unaware of anything outside of her own vision, a movie that no one watched because the director chose to shoot in black-and-white despite making it in 2010.

This moment is what she lives for. It’s the power that comes only when she’s on, performing or practicing, facing down her own physical form or the limits of her creative mind. Shea is all powerful when she’s in artistic spaces, removed from the clatter of the world. She was born to be in a world of loud talking, messy bitches- but the calm of this moment is part of her, too.

The stretches morph into routines, mapping out ideas that push her body ever so slightly out of its comfort zone. She’s still connected to her physical form enough to know her limits. Somewhere in the distance, far away from her conscious, Shea’s phone is playing music and recording her spontaneous changes to the choreography.

It’s now that she thinks of Sasha, when she’s half in tune with her body and even less in tune with her mind.

Here, Shea is focusing on her heart.

The pragmatist still runs in the background, reminding her to keep an eye on the time, planning her outfit, telling her to wear sensible shoes even though pumps go better with those jeans, but it’s quieted.

The loudest voice says to remember the night she first saw Sasha. How Sasha looked at her the way so many had before her but better because Shea wanted to look at her back. How Shea doesn’t know her, but knows she wants to. How she ran the first night. And then, how she came back.

It helps that she’s a good kisser, too.

Her train of thought comes to a stop as the next song comes to an end, her time in the studio going with them. She’s almost surprised to see that the world continued on after she abandoned it, but the sun’s higher now, the streets below more crowded. Time to go home, get ready.

———-

Sasha finds Shea on a park bench outside Frosty’s five minutes before they’re supposed to meet up. She’s on her phone, scrolling through an endless stream of some social media that reflects in her sunglasses. God I hope it’s not Tumblr, Sasha thinks.

Shea glances up, smiling when she sees Sasha. “Hey, good looking,” she calls. “How’s it going?”

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” Sasha asks in her low, joking tone, hair bouncing with the movement of her head. Shea stands, reaching Sasha in a few long strides. She pulls her close, placing an air kiss on either cheek, separating with a gentle squeeze of Sasha’s waist. It’s all too fluid, too casual, to be reserved just for Sasha- but God does she wish it was.

“Come on, let’s head in.”

Many describe a perfect a perfect pair as two who contrast each other in every way, sharing only core pieces. Yin and Yang. The two that argue constantly but have a deeper understanding.

Those people missed Sasha and Shea entering a tiny frozen yogurt store side by side. They don’t stand stronger in stark contrast to each other, but rather gravitate towards each other because of how much they look like they belong in the same world.

Shea finishes choosing her flavors and toppings in under two minutes. Sasha takes…longer. She wants to try a new flavor but doesn’t want to sample each one that looks interesting. Shea’s glancing at her in both annoyance and amusement, her own yogurt already paid for. Sasha’s walking in between stations, eyebrows furrowed in a way that is not entirely unadorable. Shea can’t help but smile to herself. They have enough time for Shea to humor Sasha’s five minute internal struggle over dessert.

After way too long of a decision making process, Sasha steps up to the cashier, smiling as she hands him four dollars. Shea notes this, checking off the “nice to service industry workers” box in her mental list. It’s a small thing, but it says a lot.

The pair make their way out. Neither remembers who holds the door for who, but someone does and it’s nice. Sasha curves towards Shea once on the sidewalk, legs crossing as she walks. She’s radiating the midday sunshine right back at Shea.

“So who’s on for tonight?” She asks. Shea has to think for a moment, even though she set up the schedule. She hosts every other week, Trinity taking the other half of the schedule when she’s in town, so it’s hard to keep up with who she planned last time she hosted and who she has tonight.

“Well, there’s Val, I think, if she shows up. Aja for sure, Nina, myself, and Trinity.” The cast is a genuinely good one, especially Aja, who usually reserves her poetry for her house meetings.

“Val was really interesting last time. I don’t fully remember what she said, but I remember being impressed by how she captivates a crowd,” Sasha pauses, thinking of how to word her observation of the poet, “The audience see as the embodiment of an idealistic worldview, which I actually agree with- she is. She’s beautiful, positive, and a natural entertainer,” she says, but it’s missing the end, like she’s holding back her full opinion because of Shea.

“But did you like her?”

“No,” Sasha laughingly admits. “I liked the whiny one way better,” she giggles, doing her best to mimic the high pitched, toddler-esque noises that often came out of Farrah’s mouth. Shea laughs with her failed attempts, and harder at her successes. Sasha gets eerily good at impersonating the tiny blonde.

“You,” Shea pauses to catch her breath, “You shady bitch, stop it or I’m gonna drop my ice-cream.” She’s not lying- said frozen yogurt had nearly fallen with Shea’s laughter shaken body multiple times. Being here with Sasha, giggling over the dumbest shit imaginable, felt right. She almost misses the hours passing.

The conversation takes them through the streets, stopping to step into an antique store here and there, but never finding something worth buying.

They never quite stop laughing.

Sasha and Shea start walking to the bar just before sunset, comfortable silence overcoming them as night took hold of the city. They no longer have to say anything to prove they were capable of talking to each other in the first place- they could if they wanted to, but for now they were both content with just walking next to each other.

They break apart at the entrance, Sasha joining her friends in the crowd, Shea disappearing behind the scenes to organize everyone. Sasha keeps the midday sunshine in her smile all the way to the table Pepper saved for herself, Aja, and Sasha.

Sasha settles next to her friend, ignoring the raised eyebrow presented to her in favor of stealing a sip Pep’s drink. She scrunches her nose at the unexpectedly boozy cocktail. “Peppermint it’s literally 6:00. This is a midnight drink,” Sasha says disparagingly.

“I am getting tired of you judging my life choices, Sasha,” Peppermint snatches the drink back, since it clearly won’t be appreciated by her friend. “You forget, I knew you in college.”

“Oh god, I wasn’t that bad,” Sasha smiles, thinking back on her and Pep’s first years of friendship. Okay, she wasn’t very good, either, if she’s honest, but she was hardly alone. Getting your Masters is hard, especially when your parents are such hyper-intellectual academics; the pressure was a lot. Young Sasha deserved to have a little fun.

“You kept up bitch, you kept up,”

“Shh, they’re getting started. You can remind me of all the mistakes I’ve made later,” Sasha casually leans against Peppermint as Shea opens the show. Shea magically located a pair of heels backstage, somehow. Sasha’s becoming more and more convinced of her initial Goddess theory.

“How you guys doing tonight?” Shea yells to the crowded room, easily heard over the remaining chatter. Her energy is a lot brighter now than the first show Sasha attended, exuberant instead of smooth and mischievous. She’s riling them up, pushing their energy to its peak, and they’re responding.

Sasha realizes Shea’s finished speaking while Sasha watched the crowd, stepping off the stage for the first performer. This time, Sasha’s eyes don’t follow her- she knows where Shea will be for the next few minutes, the way Shea will interact with the people backstage- she’s no less enraptured by Shea, but there’s already a comfortability there. She can enjoy the actual show, for once.

Her reaction to Shea coming onstage for her own piece doesn’t change, though. Shea still walks like that, like she meant to drive her heel through the wood instead of on top of it, still steals the air from everyone’s lungs when she speaks.

She skips an introduction, again, she usually does for her own pieces. She knows the audience remembers her name.

“Before I found me:

    I have words to speak,

     but will not.

    Tucked into an alcove,

    my tongue sewn safely into the lining of my cheek,

    I am lost.

    Teeth clamped tight around a final shred of dignity,

    embalmed,

    saved posthumously,

    but the rotting has started to leak.

    Bodies of text embossed,

    growing moss in a grove

    covers everything Brown.

    Tongue-in-cheek

    is not a subtle death,

    but it is a silent one.

    One nobody likes to confront

    because loud women are just so

    inconvenient.”

It’s longer than most- sadder. She carried the weight of it in her stomach, as though it will be safe there. Sasha hopes it will be, for Shea’s sake. Uncurling herself from the melancholy of her piece, Shea addresses the audience a final time, introducing the last act. Sasha desperately tries to listen to her, but she keeps getting caught up in her voice while missing her words.

Shea steps off the stage for the second to last time, taking the energy of the past few minutes with her. Sasha can only watch her go hopelessly.

Shea is, undeniably, turning into a problem for her. She’s pretty sure she’s okay with it.

[dhivya-arun]

The best way to start your own Furniture Ecommerce Marketplace

Home is the place where we feel peace and comfort. These days people love to keep their home elegance and magnificence all over the home. Not only at home, nowadays workplaces are also made sophisticated for the employees to work in a pleasant environment. According to statistics, Revenue in the Furniture market is projected to reach US$216,293m in 2021. This makes the furniture industry more successful and productive than other businesses.

Furniture marketers predominantly have their physical store to exhibit their beautiful furniture. In this modern era this is not enough to reach a large number of customers. By creating a Shopping cart software, you can Exhibiting the products effectively and reach your customers instantly

Now the big question mark comes here, how to start selling furniture online? How to start a furniture shopping cart website? Is it possible to start my own online furniture stores?

Technology has made everything simple and it’s quite easy to start an ecommerce platform. Here we are going to share some ideas on the best way to start a furniture ecommerce website.

Pick out the best Ecommerce Website Builder

The year 2020 has turned our view to online stores since offline stores are not business-friendly. Having your own Furniture Ecommerce website gives a professional-look and it’s a great plan of action to win the tread. You can think of selling your products on a third-party website like Flipkart, Amazon or eBay which will be simple to earn profit. These sites are good to some extent up to one or two sales. But having your own ecommerce shopping cart software helps in saving your time, money and managing your store.

Don’t panic… These days it’s trouble free, you can approach ecommerce website builders like Zielcommerce, BigCommerce and Shopify to create a website for your own, on a monthly subscription. The best thing in choosing this ecommerce platform is that they will provide all features like hosting, payment gateways, inventory management, design tools, social media marketing etc… So that you can start selling the products online straight away.

Select your Domain Name

Domain name will be the address for your online furniture stores and customers will recognize your website. Domain names can be acquired which helps in boosting your site rank on search engine. Also, it creates a trustworthy and expert image for your shopping cart platform. Before choosing a domain name keep this in mind, it should be simple, short, catchy and relevant without hyphens/numbers.

Have a clear idea on your furniture selling websites

Apart from choosing the ideal ecommerce builder for your website, you have to concentrate on many other things to be successful in the ecommerce business.

Finding a reliable manufacturer

These days customers are more conscious about the quality and price of the products they are buying. When you have your own manufacturing unit with well-equipped furniture designers, you can sell your products straight away to the buyers. If you don’t have a manufacturing unit on your own, it doesn’t matter there are a lot of ways to trade furniture online. You have to do a market research in order to find a trustworthy supplier or wholesaler with a quality product, at low cost and good finishing. Once everything is set, you can go ahead on building your online platform.

Determine furniture category

To make your shopping cart websites Users friendly display the products at the right category. Taste and style differ from one person to another. In furniture shops you have customers for both industrial use and domestic use.

The most significant customer is the one who purchases items in a large quantity. When you supply furniture for public spaces, like a hotel, restaurant, office, hospital, shopping mall etc. you need to have items like Beds, Chairs, tables, Mirrors, glass, lamps, wardrobes, drawers, Stools, sofa, etc. For domestic use, you need to have a wide range of goods in your shop such as Wardrobe, sofas, bed, Kitchen furniture like a dining table, study table, bookshelf etc.

Upload your Products

It is the time you’re waiting for, add your furniture in your furniture marketplace and grow your business worldwide. Before doing this, you have to think about the following things to be successful at your business.

Furniture Description

Unlike other products (e.g. clothes or books), it’s not easy to purchase Furniture online. Customers think once for twice before making a final decision to buy furniture. your product description should contain all the information that your customers want to know before they ask for it. Ensure your Product description must contain Furniture dimensions, material, Warranty information, weight of the furniture, Estimated shipping time and Maintenance instructions

Take Quality Photos

Product image reaches the buyer first. Posting a high definition picture of your furniture will draw the attention of the customers to search in your products. Take a high quality, clear, good color picture of your furniture from different angles. Avoid low quality, grainy, pixelated pictures. Display the photos big enough at your furniture shopping cart website.

Set a Sensible Price

The core point of setting up your online furniture store is to reach more customers and earn more profit. Since you’re selling online you can’t overprice your products or undersell them either. Price of the furniture you sell is a reflection of its quality. Either its antique pieces or a normal one the price should be sensible.

Discount and special offers:

Discounts and special offers grab the attention of the customer. Anyway, you can’t provide discounts and offers on a regular period. This will make the customer wait for the offers instead of paying full price. So that you can set offers for the goods at a certain price and this will encourage customers to buy more goods.

Set Up Payments

After completing all your hard work, it’s time to pay off. Your website must need a payment gateway to accept those hard-earned payments. Ecommerce website builders will provide the payment gateways like PayPal, RazorPay, CCAvenue etc. just a few clicks.

Sort Out Your Shipping Settings

Finally, you’re entering the last step to reach your customer. Before shipping furniture get the address where to ship and calculate shipping charges. Finalize your shipping zones; whether you’re going to ship locally, nationally or internationally. Some time, customers may receive damaged furniture during transit in shipping. Pay more attention since your furniture ecommerce store is responsible for the product your customers receive. Make a Partner with some delivery logistics for smooth and timely delivery.

Mobile App

In this day and age smart phones are ruling the world.in online shopping, smart phones have become the principal source to capture more customers. So, it is prominent to have a mobile app for your ecommerce shopping cart store. It becomes an easy and smooth way for the customer to buy online.

Manage Your Inventory

Furniture ecommerce business is entirely different from other ecommerce businesses (e.g. clothing, glossary, electronics etc.). It is hard to store the entire inventory in one small space. all your orders should be kept tracking and stock should be maintained. You must keep an eye on products that are at low stock, out of stock, need to be replaced or removed.

Conclusion:

Ecommerce website builders will provide all the technical features that your Shopping cart website needs. By understanding the above things, you can start your Furniture Marketplace and be successful.

[omegauae]

12 Ecommerce Website Advantages You Need to Know

What are eCommerce ‘s benefits?

You have come to understand what the benefits of running an online company are. Low financial costs are top of the list of e-commerce benefits, but other pros include foreign sales , customer retargeting, customization of the shopping experience, etc. These e-commerce advantages will help you decide whether it’s right for you to start an online store.

#1: Low Cost of Financing

One of the advantages of eCommerce is that it has a lower start-up rate. In order to lease one of their store locations, physical retail stores have to pay up to thousands of dollars annually. They also have upfront expenditures, such as shop signs, store design, inventory procurement, equipment and many more. In order to function and run each place, physical retail stores have to pay employees.

Nevertheless, startup costs were projected at $432 in 2019 for a dropshipping store and ecommerce stores pay just $3192 a year for virtual ‘leasing’ ecommerce stores at the most. Just like cloudjade offers an easy-to-use website, hosting, free themes for you, fantastic mobile apps with your branding and several other great benefits. You will only need to recruit employees if you expand exponentially to help you with logistics. Depending on what type of e-commerce company you operate, these employees can work remotely because your online store is online, making it easier to find employees that will suit your business.

You won’t need to purchase a big inventory if you chose to dropship online, saving you a lot of money. Often the emblem of your shop is more affordable than a store sign. In e-commerce, the business costs are usually much lesser. For new entrepreneurs trying to keep their costs down, this is one of the most appealing advantages.

#2: Potential Revenue 24/7

In the current situation another benefit of e-commerce business is that online shops are still open for business. You will get a new customer at 11 p.m with your Facebook ads. Uh, or even at 4 a.m. and from every region of the globe. The majority of physical location shops open between 9 a.m. up to 9 p.m. You will draw even customers who would usually pick up a product in supermarkets, if the store were open, by being available for them 24 x 7.

Think of your customers who don’t work regular hours or are too busy to buy thing in a store. You may draw those who may have unusual work schedules or who may not have time to shop in person; with an e-commerce store you make it all possible. For a customer to order at night, you don’t need to have employees working the night shift to ensure all orders get processed. You’ll never need to hire a security guard! And all you need to do is automate your ordering systems so that customers receive a confirmation email when they place their order to give them peace of mind.

#3: Internationally Selling

Next on the list of e-commerce advantages is that it is easy for a new brand to sell to consumers around the world. If they’re in the U.K., South America, or any other nations, you have the opportunity to target your audience around the world. Many brands offer cheap ePacket shipping or free shipping if you want to dropship. This makes it possible for you to price and ship your goods to a worldwide audience competitively.

It’s a great feat to sell worldwide as it lets you develop your brand even quicker, grow your business exponentially, and allows you to see benefits instantly.

#4: Bestsellers Quick to Highlight

E – commerce advantages, such as being able to view best-sellers quickly, make it easier for consumers to show goods. Although you can plan a brick and mortar shop to inspire customers to purchase those items, discovering the best-sellers in an online store is easier for a client.

The reason why you want your best-sellers to be bought by clients is because they’re confirmed. They have already been purchased by other clients and are satisfied with their purchase. If you want to offer consumers new products, you can include them in your advertisements for upselling, email marketing, or retargeting. You would need good product photographs and full product details in an e-commerce store to influence the customer’s decision.

#5: Personalized experience online

Personalization of the website, one of the online business benefits, will boost the online shopping experience. Without much hard work on your hand, designing custom landing pages for different audiences will entice them to buy from you. It’s not like customers who you need to nurture from the first minute come into a physical store. Before you start a campaign, you can do all the hard work and then relax until the campaign is published to your customer base.

Based on sales made, location or even how much money a customer spent, consider segmenting the email lists. You may also target a customer who visited your online store to show them an advertisement for a product they added and forgot about in their cart. If your online company has a login feature, a welcome message such as ‘Welcome back (name)’ can appear.

Packaging multiple products together will help the consumer buy more and raise the average order value at a cheaper price. Based on what the client has looked at or what you think they would want based on their buying actions, you can even tailor your upsells.

#6: Affordable Workers

One of the advantages of e-commerce is that it is comparatively inexpensive to recruit developers and you can recruit them from anywhere in the world, as stated before. In countries where the cost of living is much lower, you can choose to outsource work to virtual assistants. In an online company, you would need less workers than in a retail store. You don’t need to recruit workers at launch, a big benefit of online companies. You can launch and operate an e-commerce company all on your own. You could start to recruit employees only when you start to expand.

#7: Easier to promote buying impulses

Another advantage of e-commerce is that as online shoppers are more likely to engage in this, you can capitalise on impulse shopping. You can create advertisements that drive impulse purchases if you have appealing product photographs, with vivid colour or human emotion. A variety of scarcity techniques, such as countdown timers or restricted numbers, may prompt users to buy impulsively.

#8: Simple to Retarget or Customer Remarket

When running an online business, it is easy to build retargeting ads to reach out to customers in your area , making it one of the most lucrative e-commerce advantages. You can generate pixels for Facebook. To retarget the browsers that visit your store but do not buy, you can use the Shoelace Shopify app.

You can retarget customers with e-commerce stores that add items to the cart but don’t give up and don’t purchase or visit a blog post and never purchase. With an efficient pop-up or lead magnet, you can easily collect email addresses and continue marketing to your clients after the sale has been made.

#9: Clients have a less intrusive experience

Some people fear going into a brick and mortar shop as they are forced to deal with the employees of the shop. Some may prefer online shopping, whether learning about a sales deal or being asked questions during the shopping process, as it can be a little less intrusive, making it one of ecommerce’s best advantages. They can click on a live chat function, email or send a Facebook message if a customer wants to contact the store owner.

#10: Easily gain access to client data

One of the best e-commerce benefits is that the customer can easily access data for research. Most individuals feel awkward giving physical retailers email addresses or postal codes away. In eCommerce, you can get the name, mailing address, e-mail address, and phone number of your customer. That means that you have at least three different ways of interacting with them and establishing a relationship. You can also get them to fill out marketing surveys, share with you their date of birth, and more. You will receive even more details from them to best support them if you ask them to build an account. Be mindful of GDPR regulations if your customers are located within Europe when contacting customers.

#11: Able to accommodate a high number of orders

Long queues in retail stores can discourage individuals from shopping. With eCommerce, there’s no time to wait, with no delays, a client can order on his or her own time without the worry of long wait time, enabling you to accept a large number of orders.

#12: Business can scale quick

Another advantage of e-commerce is that rapid scale-up of the company is easy. When advertisements perform well, you can increase your ad budget without having to think too much about keeping up with the demand.

With brick and mortar stores, because of the limited space, it can be difficult to expand product lines or add more cashiers. In order to scale up your business, you will need to find a larger room, renovate or wait for your lease to end.

Conclusion

One of e-commerce advantages is that it is exponentially increasing, most of the market is seeing market share held by physical retail is reducing.As of now, e-commerce is one of the fastest growing industries in the global economy. As per one estimate, it grows nearly 23% every year. And it is projected to be a $27 trillion industry by the end of this decade. In the early stages, getting an online setup helps you to become a pioneer in your niche, and cloudjade can help you kick start your online business quickly.

[boliviahome-blog]

4.11.18

I don’t talk much about our job down here, mostly for reasons of privacy. We have a team of 7 volunteers, all between the ages of 19-30, and they’re each living and telling their own stories, in their own words. I feel protective of that, especially with social media being what it is. It feels wrong to be posting about them.

But they exist, they’re why we’re here, and Matthew and I stay busy with the work of supporting them. This year’s team is 4 women and 3 men, from Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Cambodia, and the US. They are living with Bolivian host families for a year and working 40+ hours a week in our various partner organizations, mostly serving low-income or parent-less children, but also advocating for peace and educating about the high rates of violence against women and children in Bolivia. 

These volunteers pay $6,000 out of their own pockets (or donated by others) for the privilege of serving this way. It’s an incredibly difficult program and I know - full stop - that I could not do it. Not now, and probably not when I was that age. I would have thought I could do it (in fact, I applied for it once), but it would have been too much for me. I wouldn’t have done well.

This is because they don’t ever get a break, not really. The difference between what they are doing and what I did instead (and am doing now) is that - though they serve for 1 year, not 3 - they do it while living with a host family. We get our own house, we cook our own food, and in the evenings if we want to watch a little Veronica Mars, we have the internet to do so. That’s not a given for them. Their host families are generous, flawed, perfectly typical Bolivian families. Imagine what it’s like to live that closely with people who are not your real families, nor from your culture, for a whole year - it’s both the best and the hardest part of the experience.

I am constantly struck by how challenging it is what they are doing. All of them struggle to various degrees, not just the Americans and the Cambodian. Being Latin@ doesn’t make it tons easier. Of all their home countries, Colombia is the closest, geographically, and it’s still super different from Bolivian culture. The food, at first glance, seems more or less the same - except it’s totally not! It’s way different! Even for our native Spanish-speakers, the language is different too: the slang, the various terms for banana (you wouldn’t believe), the accents, the cadence. 

Then our volunteers go to their jobs and it’s often emotionally, physically, and spiritually-exhausting labor they are providing. They do it, though, because it’s also meaningful and satisfying, they feel that God has called them to do this. What they offer makes a big difference to these obscure, grass-roots Bolivian ministries who are doing the day-in and day-out hard work of caring for poor kids or educating about violence. This is the reward, and why the program continues, despite the immense challenges of a long year that streeeeetches on, passing slowly, far from the comforts of friends and home.

It feels good to help them make it through the experience. It changes their lives, either way, whether the year is amazing or terrible. These volunteers enter into it thinking and feeling one way, often idealizing what it means to serve as a person of faith or to be overseas (who doesn’t?), and pretty much to a person, they leave it different from when they came. Our job is to make that difference as constructive and transformative as possible, an important marker on their search for vocation, identity, and the hand of God in their lives. But their journey, ultimately, is their own, to make of it what they will.

We do a lot of other work too, unrelated to this team of volunteers: plan retreats, orient new staff, write the monthly newsletter. But the soul of our job is with the volunteers, to handle logistics, help them feel less alone, give them a leg-up when they need it, bless them with kindness and push them to stretch beyond their comfort zones. They need this; we all do. 

I have so much respect for what they are doing. 

For an Exile - A Blessing

When you dream, it is always home. You are there among your own, The rhythm of their voices rising like song Your blood would sing through any dark.

Then you awake to find yourself listening To the sounds of the traffic in another land. For a moment your whole body recoils At the strange emptiness of where you are.

This country is cold to your voice. It is still a place without echoes. Nothing of yours has happened here.

No one knows you, The language slows you, The thick accent smothers your presence.

You sound foreign to yourself; Their eyes reflect how strange you seem When seen across a cold distance That has no bridge to carry The charisma in which you friends Delight at home.

Though your work here is hard, It brings relief, helps your mind In returning to the small Bounties of your absence.

Evening is without protection; Your room waits, Ready to take you Back like some convict Who is afraid Of the life outside.

The things you brought from home Look back at you; out of place here They take on a lonely power.

You cringe at the thought That someone from home Might see you now here, In this unsheltered room.

Now is the time to hold faithful To your dream, to understand That this is an interim time Full of awkward disconnection.

Gradually you will come to find Your way to friends who will open Doors into a new belonging.

Your heart will brighten With new discovery, Your presence will unclench And find ease, Letting your substance And promise be seen.

Slowly a new world will open for you. The eyes of your heart, refined By this desert time, will be free To see and celebrate the new life For which you sacrificed everything.

- John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us