#in my defense i started drawing that while the internet was out (which is precisely why any of this exists)

[blazichu]

I couldn't work on my WIP yesterday, so instead, I made memes about my WIP.

Bonus:

[virtual-crisis]

⭐Alpha Centauri⭐, Part Thirteen

School spirit, right? Thought I’d post a new part for the new semester.

....Yeah, that’s totally why it took this long.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naturally, we stuck around in Scape’s office for a while so my bleeding could stop and dry up. I feigned nodding off, closing my eyes and lolling my head down to the side while Ty and Scape were chatting with eachother so they would passively drop me from the conversation, unaware I was still listening.

“So your twin…. Which one is he?”

Chai scoffed. “Calls himself Ezekiel. He’s embarrassed by his real name, ‘Zippy’, ‘cause it makes him sound like a little kid.”

“Are you sure he’s embarrassed by it?”

“Why else would he take a biblical name as a human?”

“It has phonetic parallels, like yours and Alyssa’s. After all, Chialer means to cry…”

“It refers to blubber. Like on a whale.” Chai snapped.

“Blubbering is a synonym for crying, Tyler.”

“And fucking what?!”

There was silence for a minute. It was really eerie—unlike most of Earth, this office was so perfectly soundproofed that, lacking the sound of one’s breathing, it was completely silent. I shivered.

“...You know, radiant atronachs are virtually nonexistent.”

“Thanks a lot to my mom and dad.”

“Cér—” Scape cleared his throat. “...Carrie and Marcus, yes?”

“Yeah, them. Stupid fucking curse they got on all of us because one of them made a swear on the name of Leviathan that they were fuckin’ lying about.”

Scape hummed. “Non, Leviathan n'apprécie pas qu'on se moque de lui..”

My eyes opened at that. “Leviathan what?”

Both did a double-take at me. “Uh…. He doesn’t like being made fun of?” Chai said as if I should’ve known.

Scape waved a hand at her, shaking his head. “Désolé, désolé, I slipped into my native language.”

Now Chai was staring in confusion at Scape right along with me. “...You what? You’ve been talking French this whole time, though?”

I blinked in confusion, looking down at myself. “Uh… Eu pensei que vocês estavam falando em português...?” I murmured, suddenly feeling oddly self-conscious.

Scape looked between us, then chuckled. “Ah, adorable when young demons find out…. Here in Boston, everyone hears us in English,” he said. “It’s a response from Lucifer regarding the Babel incident: while language has and will divide mortal-kind for eternity, demons of Hell will remain able to understand eachother, and mortals them.”

I looked over at Chai, who was now staring at me. “....You’re French?” I said.

“You’re Portu… Portugess…?”

“Brazilian,” I corrected. “...And it’s Portuguese…”

Scape chuckled again. “Here I thought you two were better acquainted than that.”

Chai flushed a bright green—y’know, uranium under the suit and all. “W-we didn’t know about the Babel thing!”

I smirked. “Do you even know what Babel is?”

“Like you do.” she jeered. To be fair, I didn’t.

“The tower to heaven?” Scape mused. “Unsurprising, it’s not well accounted outside of biblical texts. All of humanity convened to build their way to God…” he began. Strangely, when he said a holy word like such, it didn’t bother us. Well, it did, but it didn’t cause a physical response. “God sighed, metaphorically, as they would eventually reach a point in the stratosphere lacking enough air to breathe, rather than reach Heaven. Therefore he scattered the humans, toppled the tower, and scrambled their minds so there would never be a unified ‘single language’ among mortals. Such a thing eliminates individuality, and leads to… Problematic ventures.”

“Huh.” Chai grunted, echoed shortly after by me.

“So what was that about a beast-damned prince of hell cursing your family?” I said at her.

Chai quivered for a moment. “...I’ll get into specifics some other time. Basically, I spent my childhood and teen years wandering a desert because my mom and dad couldn’t be honest with eachother millennia ago.” she explained.

I stared blankly at her, slowly looking at Scape. “.........I’m not the only one who heard that, right?”

“What, did part of that translate into a Brazilian swear word?” Chai teased.

“Portuguese.” I said flatly. “What do you mean wandering a desert?!”

“I mean I’ve had to kill people and predatory animals to survive to adulthood. If you DO reach adulthood as one of my family, Leviathan sends an aspect of itself to try and kill you where its machinations failed.”

“What. The fuck.”

Scape leaned back on the couch, arms behind his neck. “It’s true. I’ve met one of her siblings before- long time ago, but I had the luck to be right in the very place Leviathan dropped her to be ‘tried’ by survival.”

My jaw was agape as I tried to process this. Chai killing things? She was a punk archetype for sure, but BEFORE college age? Fuck, I still got freaked out seeing blood when I was a teen.

“Ooh, her? Do you mean Abby?” Chai said, suddenly looking giddy.

“Abigail, yes. The first to survive that trial if I remember right.”

Chai clapped. “Fuck yeah! That chick was forced to fend off dragons in the medieval times!”

“...You guys are weird,” I mumbled, standing up. “I’m gonna, like…”

“Not leave yet, surely?” Scape said, raising a brow. “Your hand…”

I unwrapped the cloth he’d put around my ‘stab wounds’. Nothing but little black curves marking my hand now, with some discoloration on my skin around them. “I’ll just wear gloves, yeah.”

Scape shrugged, standing up to step over and retrieve the makeshift cast from me. “Fair enough. Just be attentive as usual.”

“Wouldn’t want another angel attacking you~” Chai quipped.

I deadpanned back at her. “Not funny.”

Scape just shook his head, fighting off a smile as I walked out and crammed my hands under the waistband of my skirt. Stupid no-pocket women’s clothes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I went somewhere different this time: Monty’s. He was on the fraternity-saturated football team, sure, but he lived in a normal dorm building a couple blocks from mine. Not for a date this time—we’d accepted by now that romance wouldn’t really gel for us—but rather to go for a drive.

“Oh, Alyssa! Wasn’t expecting to see you coming all the way up here,” was his reaction on opening his door.

I snorted. “Yo, jus’ ‘cause I’m like, sloth levels of lazy, doesn’t mean I can’t walk place to place.”

Monty chuckled, fixing his glasses. “Well, I guess you wouldn’t reach your classes if you couldn’t. Anything you wanted?”

“Bit of a tour around the city, maybe,” I said passively, waving my clot-ridden hand. “Wanted to… Y’know, chat a bit, maybe. I’unno.”

Monty sheepishly pointed at my hand. “Uh, how did…”

“Bad tattoo—I mean—Ty cut me with her fingernails. Had the damn things shaped into claws again.”

“Again? Yeesh. I’m guessing that happens often?”

“Nah, she normally has pretty good restraint. She just got kinda… Pissed off.”

“What about?”

I waved my hand dismissively. “I’ll explain it in the car.”

For a card up Mammon’s sleeve, Monty’s car was… a pretty normal four-door sedan. I guess it helped him not stick out too much from the crowds—probably would be the same case for demons if we weren’t too ‘inherently sociopathic’ to be allowed to drive. I got Monty talking a bit about his own business ventures while we were on our way off campus, so I could think a bit about a couple things. Namely the idea of Chialer being some kind of killing machine, yikes.

“...Yeah, the keyfob for my car is, itself, a weapon for self defense. I press the button opposite the key release, it flips out a switchblade.”

“Yikes.”

“Not the most practical for a fight, but it’s good at drawing blood.”

“Great for pentagrams, I’ll bet.”

“Yeah, but then I have to clean the blade. That’s a huge pain.”

“You know from what experience?” I quipped.

Monty rolled his eyes. “I told you, you’re the first demon I’ve knowingly met outside of the Mam’ himself. I just know blood is a bitch and a half to clean, even off linoleum or stainless steel.”

I thought for a moment, then quickly poked his thigh. Monty snorted.

“...Yeah, that too.”

“What else can that thing do then? Some kinda Hell’s Army Knife or something?”

“Damn, that’d be cool to have. Nah though, it’s got a couple nifty features, but nothing too amazing. Switchblade, a precision laser for distracting cats…”

“As if that’s what it’s for.”

“You’d be surprised how many greed demons are feline. Or well… Mammon told me I would be.”

“Yeah, but those’re human toys. Demon toys aren’t shipped if they can’t be used to mutilate someone.”

“...Fair,” Monty said passively, then gulped. “It reflects light through microscopic prisms inside the keyfob so when it actually shoots out, it can burn through a lot of thinner materials with some focus.”

“Oh sweet, so a mini me.”

The car skidded to a more abrupt stop than usual, Monty slamming the brakes for a stoplight as he snickered at that. “You… Shoot lasers?”

“Yeah, I’m like, a moth and all, but my head’s basically a weaponized CRT TV.”

Monty glanced at me, then the light, then me again for a moment before back to the road. “...A TV head? Those’re real popular on the internet lately.”

“Yeah, I noticed. And yes, like that one final boss from that one high-concept RPG.”

Monty snickered again, shaking his head. “I wasn’t thinking that, but okay.”

He drove along in silence. It felt weird moving… Fast-ish? But also really slow, considering. When we were on a main street with the speed-o-meter saying 45, it felt pretty normal to me, but despite this being faster than I would normally move around, it felt sluggish. Suppose I was just distracting myself.

“What’re we driving by M.I.T. for?” I asked. As implied, we were rolling onto the Mitts campus, Monty leisurely driving amidst the various buildings and weaving by cars plastered over with new ‘Dragons’ stickers.

“Game next week, right? I’m probably not gonna be participating, but I gotta be there, so I may’s well see where we’re gonna be headed.”

Traffic started to get congested near the IT’s stadium. I didn’t say anything at first, but I did furrow my brow. “Didja notice they changed the mascot?”

“Nah, not like it’s been beavers for decades or anything.”

“Word is it’s because of a demon of pride.”

Monty zipped forward suddenly, scrambling to slam the brake and pull away to avoid a crash. “Uh…. Yikes? Aren’t they like, the most powerful?”

“Sorta…. Their prince is the devil himself.” I said, crossing my arms and leaning back.

Monty glanced at me before righting himself back onto the street. “Kinda figured…. Has that not been done before or something?”

“Probably has, I’unno. Kicker is, the jackass is my roommate’s brother.”

“No shit?”

“No shit. She was pretty pissed about it earlier today.”

“Lemme guess….”

“Oh yeah, obviously the reason I got cut up.”

Monty drove around by the parking lot for the stadium…. And rolled up to park. “Apparently there’s a pep rally going on…. Explains the traffic and all.”

“What, going into the core of enemy territory for shits and giggles?” I quipped, hesitantly getting up and out of the car.

“Well, maybe a bit of espionage. Really, I’m just caught up on studying, and football practice’s tomorrow.”

I snorted. “Aha. Aha… Yeah, uh, I got outta cheer practice early.”

We both chuckled awkwardly at that, and after a bit of second guessing ourselves (or at least me), made our way into the stadium.

And uh, beast-damn.

The Mitts’ football team was running a workout routine around the field, high-fiving people as they passed by the barriers, and whooping and shouting a ‘go team’ chant. Hundreds of M.I.T. students were convened in the stands, all cramming themselves down in front to get a close-up view of their sportsballers. Monty prodded at one to ask “shouldn’t half of you be in class?”, to which a few people giddily explained that the school was paid off to observe some random holiday that was today. This seemed really over the top, and that was exactly the point.

Leading the newly green-and-gold-clad sports team was their mascot: a golden-scaled dragon with an emeraldesque underbelly, plated on joints with pads that looked more like combat armor, and a ‘jersey’ that had to be a flak jacket painted over.

The sight bothered me in a way. That guy was winding one of the most prestigious places of learning on Earth around his claw, parading around as himself by way of a glorified fursuit. What really concerned me though was the fact it was combat-ready. He was ready to walk that suit into a gunfight, and I did not want to know why.

Then he started shouting along for the team and crowd, too.

“When I say M-I, you say T! Mass in!” “Tech!” “Mass in!” “Tech!”

“Let’s go dragons, let’s go!” “Fire with fire! Raze and blaze!”

A presumable QB tossed a football to Ezekiel, and he ran forward to throw it in a perfect arc to the guy in back. That guy crouched in place, and hurled the thing for the opposite end of the field. Ezekiel wasted no time bolting after it, the wings of his suit furling out and flapping. Too stiff to be real, but that’d have to be expensive as fuck for a costume prop. When he passed the thirty, he dove forward. By the twenty, he was sliding along the slicked astroturf. At the ten, the football landed down into his suit’s oversized paws, and he stopped his penguin slide right at the touchdown line.

The crowd roared, all the cliques shamelessly roaring like dragons as best they could, no matter how bad it sounded or how sick or hoarse they may’ve been. Monty joined in. I stared blankly as Tyler’s twin stood up to dance and twirl around.

“M-I-T! M-I-T!” “M-I-T! M-I-T!”

I sidled next to Monty, looking at his eyes from the side. Practically glazed over. Thinking on my feet, I snuck a hand into his pocket and fished out the keys delicately while he was entranced. After that, I slipped away into the away team’s locker room.

“Ty?”

“Ally? Where the home are you?”

I cupped a hand around the mic on my phone. “Mitts stadium, it’s a shitshow.”

“You think? My brother studies there.”

“No like, seriously, he’s running a pep rally. Running a pep rally.”

“What do you mean by that?” Scape cut in. Chai was still in his office, evidently.

“They’re cheering and chanting with him and all, but like…. Everyone’s glazing over. The shy guys are crowding up in front to shout, the emos and jocks are doing cheesy roars with the rest… Fucking Monty joined in with them.”

“Monty who?” “Robert, Tyler…”

“Is that not possession?”

“Is bandwagoning possession?” Scape retorted.

I furrowed my brow, fiddling with Monty’s keyfob. “Come on, he’s a demon.”

“He’s naturally charismatic.”

“Monty’s on the football team against his!”

“Yeah, that’s bullshit.” Chai said flatly.

“So a supporter of the red sox would have to be possessed to join the cheers?”

I took an agitated breath. “Okay, Ty, so ‘Zippy’’s out there riling everyone up. What would you be doing?”

“Not the best idea…” Scape murmured more distantly.

“I’ll save the ass-kicking for the game. I say give him some kinda warning of what’s to come, but it’s not like you’re gonna get anywhere with your cheer uni-”

I hung up, grinning to myself.

As I pocketed Monty’s key for later, I passively listened to the crowd.

“Bulldogs lie! Dragons fly! Bulldogs lie! Dragons fly!”

It was getting more directed against Boston U. If I caught Monty cheering along with that, he’d be catching my four hands later. But right now? They were reserved for homegirl’s reptilian twin.

“Ay! Ay! Scale-back chump!”

The crowd kept on their chant, ignoring that callout. Boring.

“DRAGONS DIE!”

That shut them up. Everyone turned to the stadium’s away team door. I did a ballerina twirl, putting up two peace signs, two hands to my left hip, posed like an anime protagonist in a triumphant freeze-frame.

“It’s MOTHS that fly!”

Several gasps passed through the crowd like snakes hissing in the bushes. I hopped back, and jogged out directly towards Ezekiel. I may’ve been smaller than him in his suit, but a humanoid moth was no less cartoony than a foam and fiberglass dragon.

The dragon crossed his arms, tilting his head back as I ran up. “Hey, missy, the furry convention’s down in the Fens.”

I got up in his face, crossing my arms right back. My eyes were already hurting from keeping wide open, but I could see him shrink back just a bit. “Yeah, they thought you got lost on your way~” I teased.

“Just who’re you supposed to be, some butterfly fresh out of a toner cartridge explosion?”

I twirled back away, my foot barely missing his stomach. Turned away from him, I struck another pose, showing off my Boston U jersey before going into a dance. “Gimme an S! Gimme a T! Gimme e-l-l A! Stella the moth! Raring to play!”

After a cartwheel, I did a handstand on my two left hands, shaking somewhat but still managing to stick up a heart symbol with my right hands. “Boston U’s star bug! The bug zapper, the astral attacker!”

I dropped back down and did a jump and spin, taking a fighting stance at Zippy as his ball team grouped up behind him, confused. I pointed two fingers at Zippy, nervous someone had noticed my right hands desyncing before. “And the dragons’ waking night-terror!”

Silence filled the air, everyone holding their breath for several moments. Then an uproar of cheers and boos, rabid Mitt supporters verbally fighting to out-enthuse the folks I excited. Obscuring as his mask was, I could feel Zippy glaring at me.

I did a cartwheel back away. “Satur-satur-saturday! Lizard vee’ Saturnian!” I chanted.

“Lizard verse’ Scribonia!” came a single voice. Monty’s, and beast-damnit that correction made me cringe.

I did another cartwheel, then a twirl in place, flupping out my wings to show off the night-sky pattern on them. “M-I-T! Boston U! Moths will slay! Drakes fall through!”

“Moths will slay!” “Drakes will flay!” “M-I-T!” “Go Boston U!” “Hell yeah Stella!” “Get her, Sammy!”

‘Sammy’. How unoriginal. I just smirked, doing another wheel, then another, belting out another cheer with each one. The pep rally turned into a split of spirits, Monty disappearing from the crowd while several people pulled their phones, or already had them out. As I hit the edge of the turf, I made eye contact with Zippy, who had an air of disgust hiding under those fake eyes. I pointed to myself then him.

“Next week, serpent boy! You better practice that crawling on your belly! You’ll need it when I’m done with you!”

“We’ll see about that, micro-mothra! You fly into my flames, you’re gonna get burned!”

I went out to the parking lot, where Monty was frantically patting himself down. I skipped up and dangled his keys out for him. “Sorryyyyy, I got some stabby thoughts about dumbhead mcgee back there. Decided to challenge him to a boxing match instead~”

Monty’s eyes went wide at the sight of me in my real form. “...Holy shit, Alyssa, you look… Wow. Can’t even be mad about the keys…”

I scoffed, dropping the ‘fob on the asphalt at his feet so he’d scramble to pick them back up and unlock his car. “Wooooow, you like some insect more than miss unconventionally attractive hispanic girl? Can’t tell whether to call you racist, superficial, or a furry~” I jeered.

Monty chuckled awkwardly. “Uh, isn’t that your… Actual self though?”

I giggled, pushing him towards the car door as I skipped around to get in the passenger’s seat. “Duh~ What better than having an actual live cryptid come up to rep a university football team?”

“Oh, I thought mothman lived in Virginia?”

I glanced around, before my fur and lower arms retracted, my body morphing to human guise once again. “I mean, you’re not WRONG about mothman, but legit, that was going around Ty and I’s dorm.”

Monty turned away as I changed, probably to be polite, then got to driving out and back to our campus. “Not gonna be that great when the bulldogs show up anyway, though.”

“Oh you’ll see, Monto, I’ve got my methods- and Ty’s gonna owe me grands when we get a new costume and merch in.”

My phone vibrated, and I pulled it out. Tyler calling, so I ignored it. I had multiple missed calls from her, Scape, and Nebula all at once… I’d take that as a stunt success.

[plagg-o]

Better Together

Jumping onto this @auyeahaugust train with an idea I had and might continue later!

Day 4 - Enemies [Hacker AU]

Growing up homeschooled and alone, Adrien Agreste was never allowed to have a normal life. Eventually, he found his ‘freedom’ in the form of hacking, starting his career by infiltrating and taking down evil corporations from the inside and ending up with many clients running from another hacker with the codename HawkMoth. But then someone better came along.

Words: 3,125

He hadn’t meant to make an enemy of her. She’d stolen a client from him once; he’d sent her a virus in return. An impulsive move, he admitted, and for a while he wasn’t sure what had come over him. Jealousy, maybe? It wasn’t that he cared about losing money — he had enough of that to spare. But it had been a hit to his pride, this new hacker upstart coming in and taking a job he’d been working on for days right from under his nose. And so he’d taken it out on her. Two days later she sent him a tweaked version, signed with a heart.

Annoying, but harmless. You’ll get along well. -L

Adrien wasn’t quite sure what to make of Plagg at first. Codename ‘Ladybug’ had taken the VI virus he’d implanted to mess with her system and turned it, somehow, into an AI that never shut up — but also didn’t ever do damage. And, while the note had most certainly been a jab at his abilities — Ladybug hadn’t been wrong. He and Plagg did get along well…weirdly enough. At first, he couldn’t get past the safeguards she’d put in place to disable it — and then, he stopped trying. He liked the company.

From the day he sent her that virus, Ladybug never left him alone. And he never left her alone, either. They ended up always dipping into the same pool of clients, always in competition even though they were trying to accomplish the same things. He had spent countless hours hacking into her system, trying his best to gain the upper hand, trying to win back clients. Ladybug’s counterattacks seemed to exist simply to mock him; she was always trolling him, driving him up the wall — and little notes she sent along seemed meant to taunt him further.

Nice try, Chaton. Try this instead. -L

You almost got me with that one! Almost. -L

I fixed it for you. -L

Hey, that wasn’t very nice, Chaton. Have fun re-downloading all those files. -L

Plagg got a new update last night! Enjoy. ;) -L

It was infuriating, and confusing, but his biggest concern was that Ladybug was better than he was. No matter what he tried, she turned it on him within days, with modifications and upgrades and things he would never even think of. But it was never damaging or irreversible. Sure, she’d sometimes slip into his system in the dead of night and delete games he’d spent hours downloading or disable every web browser but Internet Explorer, but nothing that actually prevented him from doing his work.

He hadn’t meant to make an enemy of her, but he’d always found himself antagonizing her — or trying to. Perhaps the way with which she handled it kept drawing him back to her. They were well known in the community for being pitted against each other — the rumors had spread, and now he was facing a conversation he had never wanted to begin.

Adrien’s eyes rested on the screen, cursor blinking impatiently at his hesitation.

[HawkMoth]: I’m still waiting for an answer.

[HawkMoth]: We could take her down together. No one would have to know.

[HawkMoth]: After it’s done, everything can go back to the way it was before.

[HawkMoth]: You’ll have no competition.

[HawkMoth]: You could be done with all of this.

How crazy had he gotten, to think that Adrien would say yes? Then again — HawkMoth was capable of destroying his entire system in fifteen minutes flat, as well as wiping out his account. He couldn’t exactly say no right off the bat, or it would all be gone.

[Chat Noir]: Let me think about it. Give me a few days.

[HawkMoth]: …You have 24 hours.

[Chat Noir]: Fine. More generous than usual, anyway.

[HawkMoth]: I can be patient. You have no other options, after all.

//hawkmoth has disconnected.

After checking his defense and making sure his activity couldn’t be traced, he took a deep breath. Now or never. It took him a good three minutes just to press send.

[Chat Noir]: Hey, can you imagine how annoying it might be to have to find a new picture of Camembert every thirty minutes for three years?

Her reply was near-instant, much to Adrien’s relief.

[Ladybug]: That was Plagg’s idea, actually. ;)

[Ladybug]: Every thirty minutes is a bit much, tbh. You’re spoiling him. I’m smiling!

[Ladybug]: Tikki likes cookies.

[Chat Noir]: You named the virus I sent you Tikki?

[Ladybug]: It fits.

[Ladybug]: Not a virus anymore, btw.

[Ladybug]: I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever actually talk to me.

[Chat Noir]: Are you always this friendly with your enemies?

[Chat Noir]: I can’t say this is what I was expecting.

[Ladybug]: Is that how you see us?

[Ladybug]: I think ‘rivals’ is more fitting, personally.

[Ladybug]: I’ve always enjoyed a little friendly competition.

Ladybug was…not like he expected. And it made his life way easier — tonight, anyway.

[Ladybug]: You still with me, Chaton?

[Chat Noir]: We need to talk — somewhere secure.

[Ladybug]: Ah.

[Ladybug]: Go offline and then talk to Plagg.

//ladybug has disconnected.

Adrien blinked. He’d approached her with caution and she had immediately taken him at his word, had not even questioned it. He supposed he should do the same. He shut everything down except for Plagg. The image of the little black cat floated in the middle of the darkened screen, smirking.

‘OH, FINALLY.’ Apparently much more in the loop than Adrien was, Plagg didn’t hesitate. ‘GIVE ME YOUR PHONE.’

Hesitantly, Adrien stood up. “Plagg. You don’t actually have hands.” Suddenly, Plagg’s voice was coming from behind him, much quieter than usual.

‘Yeah, no kidding, genius.’

Whirling around, Adrien snatched up his phone, eyes widening to see he’d taken over the screen. “You can jump into my phone?! How long have you been able to do that???”

Snickering, Plagg shrugged. ‘Since the beginning? Ladybug didn’t think it would take this long. I don’t think she knew just how stubborn you were.’

“Do you mean to tell me that Ladybug had planned for this from the beginning? That we’d meet?”

‘Guess you’ll have to ask her when you get there.’ Just as Plagg said that, the phone beeped: a text from a blocked number with an address and short instructions.

11 pm by the fountain. Cover your face.

————

Adrien’s stomach was in knots as he arrived in the darkened park, black hoodie and scarf successfully obscuring his identity. He’d spent years fighting with this girl, albeit not quite the ‘enemy’ he’d dubbed her, and in all honesty before tonight — he’d never even considered meeting her. To find that she had planned this all along was — what, exactly? He didn’t even know.

‘Calm down, kid. She’s not gonna murder you.’ Despite the fact that his phone was firmly in his pocket, he could almost see the eye-roll.

“Don’t make me regret the ear piece, Plagg. And that’s not — I didn’t think she was.” Not until Plagg had said that, anyway. But it was a fear he could fairly easily push aside — after all, they might be rivals, but they were both doing good work, even if they weren’t exactly going by the law to do it. After a few moments of steeling his resolve, he made his way to the fountain, sitting on the edge with nothing to do but wait and hope.

“You’re early!” Adrien nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice coming seemingly out of nowhere behind him. The very loud voice, for their very discreet meeting. And then she was giggling. “Oh, you even jump like a cat when scared. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you!” When he finally calmed his heart enough to turn around and face her, he was met with more giggling.

Again, Ladybug was not what he was expecting.

She was wearing a red hoodie with fabric that covered her face; the only thing he could see were her striking blue eyes. Eyes that were smiling at him — she was still laughing. And he found himself quickly covering his embarrassment with a huff. “Anyone would have jumped at that.” His voice didn’t come out quite as friendly as he’d intended — especially considering why he had asked her here — but it did nothing to dampen her mood, apparently.

“Oh no, I’m—” Ladybug stifled another giggle as she shook her head, waving her hands in front of her enthusiastically. “I just didn’t expect your hoodie to have cat ears. I didn’t see them until you turned around.” She shook her head, finally recovering, and he could see the laughter fade into determination in her gaze. It almost captivated him for a moment — almost. Plagg must have noticed, somehow, because he could hear the snickering in his ear. That’s when Adrien took the ear piece out.

“I know we just met, and I know you don’t know me. But I need you to trust me for a minute. I need you to close your eyes.” Ladybug took a step forward, arm reaching out almost as if she was going to touch him, but it dropped to her side almost as quickly, as if she had thought better of it.

Adrien didn’t know why, precisely, but he trusted her — and so he did. He felt slender fingers wrap around his hand, then, and without a second thought he found himself sliding his fingers through hers. She began to lead him, and he followed for what felt like hours before he felt her stop and open up a door, leading them both through it. The room lit up around him and she released his hand. “Okay, you can open your eyes.” Her voice sounded more timid now, and he did as she said.

His eyes hadn’t even fully adjusted to the light when he started sputtering in surprise. “T-this is…?!”

“Where I do my work.” She laughed a little shyly as she extended her hands, gesturing to the large room. It wasn’t just full of computers, but also pictures and mannequins and scraps of fabric and half-finished clothing everywhere. “I, uh, spend most of my time in here so other things have bled into it, but you won’t find a safer spot to talk in all of Paris.” She shook her head. “Sorry about having you close your eyes. I didn’t want to give away the location just yet.”

“No, it’s uh — that makes sense,” Adrien murmured, a little at a loss for what to say. “Um, sorry I didn’t really expect…” His voice trailed off. Honestly, he’d had no idea what to expect, but this girl didn’t seem like the trolling hacking machine he’d once thought she was.

Ladybug’s eyes darted to the side, and she shrugged. “So, um — you needed to talk somewhere secure?” She was looking at him again, and this time it was Adrien looking away. “Does this have to do with HawkMoth?”

She was giving him every opening he needed to start talking, but he found himself stumbling over his words, what he had planned to say vanishing from his mind as soon as he opened his mouth. “Y-yeah, good intuition,” he finally managed, and found himself sinking into one of the desk chairs. “He’s trying to get me to team up with him to take you down.” Once he got started, it had been easier to say than he was expecting.

“Oooh. I didn’t expect that.” For all the girl’s words, she didn’t actually sound terribly surprised. In fact, she was already halfway across the room, flipping over her dry erase board to reveal the back — an extensive record of HawkMoth and his methods, codes, and possible plans. She was already jotting the information down in one of the few bare spots on the board, tucked away in a small corner. “I mean, I knew he wanted to get rid of me, obviously, but he always works alone and trusts no one so that strategy is a little surprising, you know? I mean, not that I’m an expert, but I’ve been tracking his actions over the past few years and I—”

“Whoa, this is insane,” he cut in, now standing next to her and examining the board. He only felt a little bad about cutting her off…he felt that might be the only way he got a word in edgewise. “You realize this looks like one of those crazy conspiracy theorist boards?”

Ladybug laughed. “Well, at this point, it kind of is? I mean, I don’t really know what he’s after. But everyone that comes to us is trying to escape from him, aren’t they?” She grabbed his arm, suddenly serious again. Her moods seemed to shift on a whim, and Adrien couldn’t help but be fascinated by it. “Chat, you need to say yes.”

And now his jaw had dropped, not that she could see it beneath the fabric. Was this girl actually insane? But she didn’t look crazy — she looked determined. “I — you’re serious?”

“If he lets you in, even a little bit, wouldn’t that be a chance to learn enough to take him down? We can work with this!” Ladybug did not seem to have a grasp on the potential dangers of the situation, and Adrien felt himself slipping into a weird sort of panic on her behalf.

“What…what kind of things could we even learn from that? There’s way too many chances for it to backfire. No way.” He shook his head, finding it hard to hold her gaze when it was so earnest. Why did it have to be her eyes that he could see? “I came to you to avoid that.”

Her eyes were pleading with him now, and he had to break away from her touch before she hypnotized him. “If we could learn his identity, I’m sure we could find a way to connect everything with him and—”

“That is not an issue.” Adrien gritted his teeth. Now or never. “I already know his identity.” There’s no going back.

Ladybug froze, her eyes widening. For a moment, he could swear he saw the fear of the worst flashing through her eyes before she recovered enough to prompt him. “…oh?”

Adrien sighed. “HawkMoth is my father.”

“Oh…oh.” Ladybug’s voice was soft, but it wasn’t pity he felt from her. She was touching his hand, now, and somehow he felt like she was sharing every bit of the pain he’d felt when having to say those words out loud. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine how hard that is.” Before he’d realized she’d done it, she had led him over to the couch, sitting them both down on it, hand still on his.

She didn’t ask about his father’s identity.

After a few moments, she spoke, hesitantly. “I admit I noticed some…similarities. At first, I was suspicious, but when I confirmed that you definitely weren’t — well, him — I … I had thought maybe that you would be the key to bringing him down for good.”

“He taught me everything I know,” he murmured half bitterly, leaning back. He didn’t make any move to remove her hand…hers was a comforting touch, and Adrien didn’t know how much he had needed that until tonight. “You really think we could bring him down?”

When she didn’t immediately respond, he looked at her curiously. “Are you…sure that’s what you want?” She shook her head. “I—I mean, HawkMoth needs to be stopped but I can understand if you don’t want to be involved in that, it’s—”

“Yes, it’s what I want.” He sounded more confident than he felt. “But — he taught me everything I know,” he said again. “He’s got me outmatched, and when I don’t say yes tomorrow, he’s going to be able to cut me off from everything.”

Ladybug shook her head, and her hold on his hand tightened slightly. “You say that, but the way you code—” She stopped mid-sentence, shaking her head again; it looked as if she was having trouble getting her words out. “Would it make any sense if I said it had more heart?” She laughed. “No, I just — I need you to understand how good you are. I’ve been freaking out over it for like, three years, okay?”

And now, Adrien was having trouble keeping up again. “You’ve improved and outdone everything I’ve ever sent to you.”

“Yes! No,” she corrected herself almost immediately, her voice speeding up excitedly. “No that’s just it! That virus you sent me, the very first time. It had something in it I’d never seen before, not in anything HawkMoth has done, not in anything my master taught me — it was completely unique. I can’t explain it, but it’s been in everything you’ve sent me. The only reason I’ve been able to make the things I have is because I was building off of your code.” She had released his hand now, only to gesture excitedly with both of hers — still, he found himself missing that warmth. And he was definitely blushing now.

“I, uh…didn’t…notice…” he mumbled awkwardly, unable to meet her eyes again — although now she, too, was looking away.

A little calmer now, she started again. “There’s something about putting our minds together that just…works. I think we could do it, if we were working together.” She paused for a moment. “Is that — what you wanted when you came?”

Adrien gave a barely perceptible nod. “I messaged you earlier hoping to ask you to help me defeat him, yeah.” Even so, he felt himself somehow swept away by how the evening had unfolded so far.

“Then…we need to trust each other.” He saw her nod out of the corner of his eyes. “I have a plan, but there’s no way it can work if we’re staying in the shadows — not from each other, anyway.” She sounded hesitant, but resolved. And she didn’t wait for an answer before he saw the hood come down. Adrien’s head whipped towards her more quickly than he thought physically capable, and he found himself locking eyes with her once more, jaw dropping as his breath caught in his chest. She then pulled down the fabric from around her face and greeted him with a smile much more beautiful than he had dared to expect — then again, Ladybug had a habit of defying his expectations. “My name is Marinette.”

And he smiled. Reaching up to pull down his own hoodie and remove his scarf, he was still smiling when the fabric dropped. Any apprehension he had felt earlier had all but vanished, at least in this moment. “It’s nice to officially meet you, Marinette. I’m Adrien.”

[forksofwisdom]

Twilight Characters Cast as Greek Deities - pictures + explanations

Warning:

This is a long one (but there are a lot of pretty pictures!)

By Greek Deities I mean all of them - the Primordial gods, Titans, Olympians, Daemones (personified spirits), and Nymphs. I focused on the deities personalities, abilities or history to find the right fit! Relationships are not taken into account!

Thanks to the anon who encouraged me to combine my love of Greek mythology with Twilight! This is for you!

These are simply my headcanons, so you're free to disagree or expand on them as you like!

The Olympic Coven

Carlisle's foremost characteristic is his compassion and desire to heal others. He saved the lives of most of his family members; Edward, Rosalie, Esme, and Emmet. Asclepius, the son of Apollo and famed physician, was punished by Zeus for saving the life of mortals from certain death. He was elevated to godhood in death.

Esme is described as the heart of the family. In ancient Greece, the hearth was the center of the home and family. Hestia received the first offering in every household since she presided over the preparation of the family meal.

Jasper participated in two major wars, both as a major and then as a second-in-command. He isn't rash or sadistic enough to be Ares, but his gift for strategy and charisma makes Pallas, the Titan god of Warcraft and military campaign, an excellent choice for him.

Alice has the gift of foresight, but her vivacious personality is why I chose the Titaness, Phoebe, out of all of the prophets and oracles. Phoebe is derived from the Greek word "phoibos" which means bright or radiant!

Emmett has superior strength than most vampires. Kratos is the personified spirit of strength, might, power and sovereign rule.

Rosalie was a difficult choice because she's like the lovechild of Aphrodite and Athena. She's beautiful, passionate, and desires children (procreation) but a she's also intelligent and interested in mechanics and engineering which is Athena's domain. I went with Aphrodite in the end because Athena is a maiden goddess and asexual.

Edward was an easy choice however because there are surprisingly few gods who rule music. Apollo is the god of music, poetry, and healing (to name a few) and Edward has an interest in medicine. To my knowledge, there are no Greek gods with the ability to read minds as Edward does.

The Quileutes

Sam was forced to keep the Alpha position by Jacob, which is an immense responsibility. Atlas was condemned to bear the entire sky for leading the Titans in their war against Zeus. Atlas came to mean endurance. (I thought of Hades at first, and I totally agree with you anon - he's got the 'hard on the outside soft on the inside' thing down to pat, but Hades fit another character better!)

Jared has the penchant for gambling. At first, I thought Hermes would be a good match for him, but Hermes many other titles (so, so many titles). I decided that Caerus, who is the god of opportunity, critical time, advantage and profit, was a better fit since those are attributes of (successful) betting.

Paul has a temper, but he's not a sadist like Ares. Poseidon is infamous for his temper tantrums, causing earthquakes and tsunamis (he's also a petty bitch, and I wouldn't put it past Paul to be one too if he could get away with it)

Jacob has a love for mechanics, and not many can say that they built their car! Hephaestus became the god of smiths, fire, and metalworking and his creations are prized and sought after by all the other gods!

Leah was challenging to cast. Initially, I thought she'd make a good Artemis, but that goddess has notoriously born hatred for all men since her birth. The only side of Leah we get to see in canon is the front she puts up - burnt and bitter. She's argumentative, sharp-tongued, and downright vicious. Eris is... not pleasant to be around. I think Leah would join Artemis and become her handmaiden once she's calmed down and away from Sam and Emily.

Seth is our sunshine boy!!! (need I say more???)

Embry is reserved and likes his space. I think he's the type to take advantage of the trails around La Push and go on long walks and enjoy his own company. Pan was the god of shepherds and forests of the mountain wilds. The Greeks associated his name with the word pan which means "all." However, its true origin lay in an old Arcadian word for rustic, but I couldn't resist quoting Hitchhiker's Guide in the picture - it's my favorite. I'M ONLY HUMAN!)

Quil is remarkably relaxed and cheerful for a boy who's supposed to be raging with testosterone *cough* Jake *cough* Paul *hack*. He seems like the sort of guy to enjoy a good party, and Dionysos certainly does. It doesn't hurt that he's best friends with Pan (Embry).

Emily was against Sam imprinting her at first. She was a victim of circumstance (it’s still shitty what they did to Leah), and Persephone was precisely that: a victim. Hades asked Zeus for the hand of one of his daughters and Zeus said that he could have Persephone, but that he'd need to kidnap her because Demeter would never allow him to have her daughter. He stole her and later tricked Persephone into staying with him for eternity. They fall deeply in love by the end tho.

Kim's personality isn't known in canon - other than that she's shy. She's a favorite of mine though, so that's why she's here! In my headcanon, Kim is intelligent and offers great advice. She's cunning as well, and nothing goes past her - Jared doesn't stand a chance. Metis was a councilor of Zeus during his war against the Titans and hatched the plan which would make Cronus regurgitate Zeus's siblings. (She's also the mother of Athena - pls read her story it's incredible! ಥ_ಥ)

The Swan Family

Bella is a shield, both in her human life and as a vampire. She does what she can to protect her loved ones, even going as far as to sacrifice herself by drawing blood as a distraction during the battle against Victoria. Soteria is the goddess and personification of safety, deliverance, and protection from harm. Deliverance, the action of being rescued or set free, is appropriate since Bella saved Edward from his inner demons as well.

Charlie represents the human laws in Twilight as a police officer. He's calm and more accepting than most (though he has his limits *cough* Edward *cough*). Rhadamanthys was a famously just lawmaker during his mortal life and was appointed as one of the three Judges of the Dead and King of the Elysian Fields after he died.

Renée tends to shift her hobbies and interests from one to another. Horme is the personification of effort and represents setting oneself in motion, and starting an action.

The Volturi

Aro is the current king and ruler of the vampires. He isn't a philanderer, so Zeus was out, but how he murdered his sister, Dinyme, in cold blood to keep Marcus from leaving the Volturi (and thus losing his power) reminds me of Cronus's desperate attempt to thwart his prophesied defeat at the hands of his child. Cronus ate his own children and familicide was one of the worst crimes you could commit in ancient Greece.

Marcus was DEPRESSED after he lost Didyme, his mate. The guy whispered "finally" when his head was about to be ripped off. Penthos is the personification of lamentation and mourning.

Caius is a sadist whose answer for everything is death and destruction. Ares revels in war for its own sake. He delights in the din and roar of battles, in the slaughter of men, and the destruction of towns. When Thanatos (the grim reaper) went missing, and people stopped dying, Ares sulked and famously said: "What's the point of war if no one dies?"

Jane was easy. She experienced such pain when she was burning at the stake that she could wield it with her mind when she became a vampire. Lupe is one of The Algea, who are three sisters that are the personification of pain and suffering - in both body and mind - grief, sorrow, and distress.

Alec's power reminded me of Hypnos, who puts you to sleep before Morpheus gives you dreams. Alec shuts off all of your senses - kind of like turning the off switch.

Sulpicia isn't given much of a personality in canon, and in Life and Death, Smeyer simply turned her into a female Aro by giving her his abilities of tactile telepathy. She deserves more credit; she's incredibly old, and I like to think that while she's locked up in the tower, Sulpicia keeps up with the times by watching the news on TV or reading news articles on the internet. Mnemosyne was the Titan goddess of memory and represented the rote memorization required to preserve the stories of history and myth before the introduction of writing.

Didyme's power was inducing happiness. Euphrosyne was one of the three Charities and the goddess of good cheer, mirth, merriment, and joy.

Athenodora is said to be one of the oldest vampires still walking the earth. We don't know much about her, but I bet she's created a few vampires in her time to keep the species going. Gaia was born at the dawn of creation, and all of the heavenly gods are her descendants.

Corin's addictive power is what persuades the wives and Chelsea to stay content in their imprisonment. You go through severe withdrawal by leaving, but it can be done since Eleazar, whose ability Aro coveted, left with Carmen. Peitho personifies persuasion and seduction - not 100% fitting to Corin's talents but the best I could think of...

Felix is a high-ranking guard and relies on strength and combat techniques to serve his leaders. His physical capabilities are so powerful that he has maintained within the guard for centuries. Alexiares, whose name means unconquerable, is one of two brothers that preside over defense and fortification of Olympus's gate.

Demitri's tracking ability and "Casanova lifestyle" immediately reminded me of Hermes, who is the god of herds, travelers and hospitality, roads and trade, thievery and cunning, heralds and diplomacy. It's fitting because Demitri is also shown to be polite and restrained, but he undoubtedly has a few aces up his sleeves to have survived in the Volturi guard for centuries.

Chelsea's ability to strip people of their emotional ties and forge new ones is unnerving. Ananke was the primordial goddess of necessity, compulsion, and inevitability. She emerged from Chaos fully formed at the beginning of all creation and is thought to be untouchable by all, from mortals and the immortals. She's able to control the fates of other gods and make them slaves to their own urges if she so chooses.

Afton's ability to make himself invisible is not found in any Greek deity, but Hades owns a helmet which is made of darkness and renders the user invisible.

The Denali Coven

Eleazar's ability to see other's potential reminds me of Prometheus's forethought and the unshakable belief he has in the humans Zeus forced him to create.

Carmen is pretty chill and peaceful from what we get to see of her in Breaking Dawn. She isn't overly troubled by the legality of things since she accepts Renesmee, whose existence goes against both the laws of vampires and those of nature, at once. We see that Carmen is maternal and gentle when she asks if she can hold Renesmee. Eirene is the personification of peace, and for Carmen, I interpreted that as personal peace and not upholding the legal system. Statues of Eirene often depict her as a maiden holding the infant Ploutos (Wealth) in her arms.

Kate is OOOLD but not the oldest vampire in existence. Since the power of lightning is solely in Zeus's domain (and Kate isn't a serial rapist), I had to overlook her electric ability. Electricity is used as a source of light, so I think Hemera is a good choice for Kate. She's the primordial goddess of the day and would disperse her mother Nyx's dark mists every morning to bathe the earth in the light from the ether.

Tanya reminds me of the Titaness Eos because they both have an insatiable desire for handsome men. Eos shares Hemera's domain, and later took over her duty of bringing the dawn to earth by opening the gates for Helios's chariot.

Irina thought the Cullens had created an immortal child, which was the outlawed. To her, it seemed like the Cullens thought they were above their laws and reported them to the Volturi accordingly. Nemesis is the goddess who exacted retribution against those who succumb to hubris.

The Irish Coven

Maggie can detect lies. Aletheia's the personification of truth and sincerity.

Siobhan's talent is outcome manipulation, which I assume means she can affect the outcome of some event. Lachesis was the second of the Three Fates. She distributes the 'thread' of a life. "Lanchano" means to obtain by lot, by fate, or by the will of the gods.

The Amazon Coven

Zafrina's ability of visual projection reminded me of Pasithea's past time of inducing hallucinations and relaxation. She was one of the younger Charities but later married Hypnos and now resides with him in the Underworld.  

Kachiri was the first out of the Amazon Coven to be bitten, but she didn't want to be separated from her two best friends, Senna and Zafrina, so she went back and turned them as well. I'm endlessly fascinated by their coven, so I didn't want to separate them here! Macaria is the goddess of "blessed" death which reminded me of how Kachiri came to collect her friends.

Senna is the quiet one, but that might be because she was wary around the Cullens. Gorgyra is a nymph in the Underworld and gave birth to Hade's orchardist. I can see her chilling with Katchiri and Zafrina in her son's orchard.

James’s Coven

James is an asshole. He’s so petty that he couldn't deal with the Cullen's refusal of sharing their meal, so he tricked Bella into coming to him by pretending to have her mother (how would he know who Renée was and wasn't she in Jacksonville??? Use your brain, Bella). Dolos is the personification of trickery, cunning deception, treachery, and guile - so basically, he's a nasty piece of work. He and James deserve each other.

Victoria was the first one I cast. She instantly reminded me of Hera because instead of punishing her husband/mate for his wandering eyes (greedy, in James's case) she goes to great length to punish Edward by trying to kill Bella, who is the innocent one in this whole shitshow. Hera, the goddess of marriage, should have picked a better husband because Zeus already was notorious for panting after every attractive face that came his way before they wed (heck he even cheated on her during their wedding celebration).

Laurent didn't give me a lot to work with since he's only portrayed as a coward. That doesn't seem correct because he came back to warn the Cullen's of James's plans and he later returned to Forks as a favor to Victoria. Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus, was the Titan god of afterthought and excuses. I think Laurent regretted his decisions in the end, both for having traveled with James, and for having listened to Victoria. He also gave Bella the excuse that he had to kill her since Victoria was his old buddy.

Nomads

Peter was another difficult choice. At first, I thought Thanatos might be a good choice since Peter enjoyed fighting in Maria's army.  Thanatos's gentle touch kills instantly, but Jasper was the one who killed the newborns. Peter fell in love with Charlotte, whose newborn powers eventually expired, but instead of "delivering" Charlotte to her death, Peter told her to run and chased after her. Kharon (Charon) transported the dead across the waters to Hades in his boat but refused those that couldn't pay for the ride.

Charlotte is a survivor. She isn't a fighter by nature, but she made it through the Southern vampire wars alive and then fled with Peter to roam free as a nomad. Nike is the goddess of victory - both in war and in peaceful competition. I think Charlotte conquered all of life's trials and also when it came to love.

Alistair is an ancient hermit. He's suspicious by nature and rather displeased with his lot in life. I don't blame the guy since he was betrayed by his father and as a vampire, the falcons Alistair loved flew away from him in terror. Ouranos was the primordial god of the sky and was later betrayed by his sons.

Garrett was a hotheaded patriot who willingly fought for the colonies' right to self-govern. He was a true believer in the American dream. Menoetius was the god of rash actions and violent rage. The Greek word “menos” means might, force, passion, and battle rage.

Maria isn't a nomad, but I thought I'd include her on the list. She lived in Monterrey with her coven, her mate and two others that were like parents to her, before they were destroyed in the vampire battle for territory. Maria was the only survivor, and she built an army to extract revenge and get her territory back. Poine is the personified spirit of retribution, vengeance, recompense, punishment, and penalty for the crime of murder and manslaughter.

The Egyptian Coven

Benjamin was a tough one because of his elemental powers. The Greek gods divided the four elements between them, so there isn't one deity that has control over them all at once. Phanes was the primordial god of creation in the Orphic cosmogony. He was the generator of life and the driving force behind reproduction in the early cosmos. Phanes hatched from the world-egg, a primordial mix of elements split into its constituent parts. So he sort of had control over the elements at one point before dispersing them among his siblings. (Phanes was later known as Eros).

Tia was a quiet woman but when she did speak her words were insightful, and there was gravity to everything she said. Epiphron was the personification of shrewdness, careful consideration, and sagacity.

Kebi was Amun's slave while she was human. He chose her to become his mate because of her good looks. She was helpless from the start, and we never get to hear her speak or show any indication of being unhappy with her situation. Aporia is the personified spirit of powerlessness, want and difficulty.

Amun was tricky because, to be honest, he's a bastard, but we mustn't forget cultural relativity. Slavery was considered to be a-okay back in the days, and it was probably a fantastic way to keep a vampire's kitchen stocked. Now not so much but Amun doesn't seem like the type to evolve with the times. He's possessive and paranoid, keeping Benjamin locked away in an ivory tower so the Volturi won't come and steal him away as they did to Demitri. He also deprived Kebi of her choices and made her his slave/mate in death as well. Along with ruling death and funeral rites, Hades is also the god of the hidden wealth of the earth, from the fertile soil with nourished the seed-grain to the mined wealth of gold, silver, and other metals. Benjamin is Amun's hidden treasure.

Humans

Jessica is a normal teenage girl. She likes having friends, gossiping, and has a crush on the most handsome boy in school who doesn't return her affections. Echo was much the same; she gossiped, but she wasn't meanspirited, and genuinely wanted to help her friends in the conquest of love. She lied to Hera, who cursed her to have an echo of a voice as punishment for distracting her from Zeus's affairs with her endless chatter. She later fell in love with Narcissus who spurned her affections.

Angela is the sweetest, most kindhearted person we get to meet in Twilight. Philophrosyne is one of the younger Charities and is the personification of friendliness and welcome.

Mike has the hots for Bella. He has an on-and-off relationship with Jessica but only asked her out because Bella told him to. Himeros is the god of sexual desire and the personification of longing, and yearning.

Lauren is jealous of everyone who is pretty, despite being the most popular girl at school. She's also standoffish and snobby. Hybris is the personified spirit of insolence, hubris, violence, reckless pride, arrogance and outrageous behavior in general.

Let me know what you think!

Please don’t repost the pictures without asking for permission first and don’t remove credit!

[dansphlevels]

Please please this idea has been in my head for so long a prompt dan realized he has feelings for Phil during the making of tabinof so he just straight out asks Phil on a date and they share a milkshake with 2 straws

I ended up making it while they’re on the tour, not while they’re writing the book. I hope you like it!

Nothing And Everything

Day 4 of 12 Days Of Prompts

Length: 3.5k

Themes: tatinof, friends to lovers, ‘friendly kissing’, cereal stealing, milkshakes with two straws

 "Phil!"

 Phil stuffed the box back into the cupboard, slamming it closed and shoving the last handful of cereal into his mouth before turning and running.

 "My... fucking... Crunchy Nut!" Dan bellowed throughout the bus.

 Phil skidded out of the miniature kitchenette, fumbling with the bus lock before slamming the door open and sprinted out, almost tripping and choking on the cereal in his mouth. He ran along the side of the bus, speeding up as he heard the door slam open behind him.

 "No, no! You won't get away, you fucking-"

 Phil turned the corner of the bus, Dan hot on his heels. He turned again, ran along the length and turned again, then again, and was back at the door of the bus but was going far too fast to be able to turn into it. Instead, he ran away from the bus towards the McDonald's.

 Dan was hot on his trail, yelling and generally making a commotion. Phil sprinted across the parking lot, almost getting hit by a car, and slammed the door of the restaurant open with his shoulder, bolting in. He shoved the other door open and shoved past the line of early morning commuters who hadn't gotten their morning coffee yet.

 "You little bitch!"

 Phil dropped to his knees and slid five feet under a table. Hidden from sight, he gasped for breath, trying to swallow the cereal mush in his mouth.

 It was silent for a few moments, besides the general commotion of the McDonalds.

 "Ah ha!"

Phil jumped, hitting his head against the underside of the table. Dan was grinning from ear to ear, while still managing to scowl. "Phil, mind to tell me what you're eating?"

 Phil was hardly eating the cereal, more choking on it. He swallowed the last mushy bite. "Your cereal!" He admitted shamefully.

 "Now tell me Phil, do you not have your own cereal? Did you finish it?"

 "No! I just wanted some of yours!" Phil crawled out from under the table, standing and facing Dan with his hands on his hips. People were staring, but they didn't really care. They were in some random city in... Missouri was it?... and the tour had been going on long enough that they'd publicly humiliated themselves more than once.

 Dan nodded sympathetically. "And will you do it again?"

 "Probably!" With that, Phil turned and ran, ignoring Dan's protests behind them. He was chased back through the McDonalds, across the pavement- by then the sun had almost fully risen, turning the sky shades of pink and orange that you just didn't get in London- and back into the bus. There, Phil ran straight to the back, through the living/kitchenette area, past the bathroom and through the hall with the bunk beds, into the master bedroom. There, Dan tackled him onto the bed, and they wrestled, throwing out various cereal-based insults and grinning the whole time.

 They were best friends. Phil and Dan, two boys from the U.K. who found video cameras and started putting out content, never imagining what could come from it. Dan had been 18, with a bad haircut and minimal understanding of producing when he put out his first video, almost 7 years prior. Now, he tackled and wrestled with his former idol and current best friend Phil, in the bus for their world tour. How he'd gotten so lucky, he truly didn't know.

 Even if Phil did steal his cereal.

 Finally, they admitted a draw, and Dan rolled over onto his side of the bed, trying to catch his breath. He mumbled something about how Phil should 'get your own Crunchy Nuts', to which Phil giggled and made a bad innuendo. Dan shoved him lightly, but he laughed too, that breathy little laugh he made whenever Phil said something ridiculous yet painfully endearing.

 Dan rolled over onto his side, where he found Phil already doing the same. He smiled at his friend, feeling his eyes drift from Phil's eyes to his lips.

 They heard footsteps coming towards them and quickly scooted away, giving each other as much space as possible on the queen-sized bed. Dan moved to his side of the side, lying on his back with his hands under his head while Phil sat up on his side, grabbing his phone defensively, like someone had yelled 'be casual!' and they had to pretend they weren't doing something naughty. Which, for the record, they weren't- unless you considered going all goo-goo eyed over your best friend naughty.

 The driver knocked on the door.

 "Come in!" Phil called casually.

 The bus driver opened the door, observing the overly casual scene. "Just checking that you both are here. Ready to go?"

 Phil glanced over at Dan as if they hadn't just chased each other out of the bus and ended up in a full blown tackle fight. "You good?"

 "I'm good. Let's head out!"

 "Next stop, Denver!"

----

It was a much-needed rest day. Dan and Phil's sleep schedules were permanently skewed, but they always managed to get naps in between states and take advantage of the days without shows. To get to Colorado, they had to drive across Kansas, which was just about as interesting as it could be.

 "Hey Phil, wake up." Dan nudged Phil awake, pointing out the window. "Look. Don't you see it?"

 Phil blinked awake, his hair having fallen in front of his face. They were in the living area of the bus, where they ate, napped, watched tv, used and abused the in-bus wifi, and played an excess of board games. The table was currently folded and covered with firm cushions, making it a perfect place to sit and stare out the large windows at the views of the states as they drove through them. It still didn't provide too much room, but neither Dan nor Phil minded getting close.

 Phil yawned, stretching and grabbing his glasses in own move. He wiggled a little, getting comfortable, before finally looking out the window to see what Dan had been so excited about. "What is it?"

 "Cornfields," Dan said, still in that low, relaxed tone. "Have you ever seen one like this before?"

 Phil blinked, looking a little closer. "What's interesting about it?"

 "It's the same one as an hour ago. Phil, you literally fell asleep at this same field. An hour ago." His expression was strained. "The Internet is down and I'm going insane."

 "Was that really worth waking me up over?"

 "Yes. I can't remember my lines for tomorrow night if I've lost my mind."

 Phil sat up more, bending his knees in front of him and stretching them out a little. Dan stretched his legs out a little too, and they tangled together.

 Dan stared at their legs a moment too long. Phil said something, but he didn't hear it, too focused on the constant typing in his head- narrating out his legs intertwined with Phil's and the way he caught his breath and the thoughts he wasn't supposed to really exactly have-

 "What?"

 "I said do you want to play a board game? We could have a rematch of Bucket of Doom."

 Dan appreciated his best friend's features for a moment too long. "Um, yeah, let’s do that! I'll wait here while you get it."

 Phil grumbled something about Dan being lazy as he got up and ruffled Dan's hair, knowing how much it would annoy him. Dan fixed it pointedly, claiming Phil shouldn't destroy artwork like that.

----

 They'd made a mistake. Dan knew that in his present state, he should not be watching romance movies or anything of that nature, and he definitely shouldn't be watching them with Phil. But Phil suggested it, and it sounded like a good movie, and Dan was so damn whipped, fuck.

 So they watched the movie. Sitting, cuddled up in a mass of blankets and pillows and limbs, because they were sitting in the same spot as earlier, on the bench by the window with the table folded underneath. Except now, it was nighttime, the curtains were drawn, and Dan and Phil sat curled together facing the tv.

 Or, to be more precise, that's what they had been doing. Until the movie ended, and they got to talking, and fuck it, they were both in the mood and no one was watching and they hadn't dated anyone for ages, so they kissed.

 Only a little. For a few minutes. It wasn't supposed to go too far. They were still kissing. They still hadn't stopped. Both on their respective sides of the couch, except they weren't keeping a respectable distance between each other. Neither was on top; neither dominated the kiss; they were perfect equals. And more importantly, neither wanted to stop.

 "We can't keep doing this," Dan whispered into the kiss when his conscience got the best of him.

 Phil made a noise between a whine and a sigh. "Tell me when to stop."

 Dan didn't tell them to stop. He just kept kissing him, pressing deeper and trying to contain himself. They stayed that way for moments- minutes? hours?- more, before Dan whispered "Stop."

 They both pulled away, wiping their mouths and adjusting the blankets over their crotches in perfect unison. Dan lent his head against the back cushion, catching his breath.

 They stayed there in the quiet for a few moments, as they always did when they kissed. Friendly kisses, they called them, because of course they were just friends and they had to label it in some way so they would know what the hell they were doing. They weren't lovers, nor were they friends with benefits. They were strictly friends- friends who sometimes sort of kissed, but only a little and only when they were in the mood and only when they convinced themselves it was acceptable. And only when they were alone and there was absolutely zero possibility that someone would see. The bus was still running and the curtains were drawn, which meant there was zero possibility that someone would see.

 Phil breathed out a laugh. "That was good."

 "You were good."

 They both laughed that same stupid breathy laugh because they were stupid and stupid people have to do stupid things sometimes.

 Speaking of. "I like you." The words were out of Dan's mouth and he wanted so badly to regret them but he didn't, not even a little.

 The hesitation that followed was condemning and promising all at once. "We're best friends," Phil said, treading lightly. "I would hope that you like me."

 "Not like that." Dan didn't need to explain it further, because as Phil had said, they were best friends. Words become less necessary when you can read each other's silence like braille.

 "Oh." Phil considered this. "Like what then?"

 "You can say no," Dan ventured, because he was always the brave one and he had to be brave and it was too late now, "But I'd like to take you out on a date."

 The d-word had been dropped. Date.

 "A date."

 "A date."

 "Like... to the movies?"

 "Like out to eat or something. A date date. Like... a relationship date. The thing you do when you want to test out the waters, without actually diving in."

 "This isn't diving in?"

 "No, it's wading in. We can wade for a while... test out the, erm, waters... just tell me? Is it a no?"

 Phil scrunched up his face. "It's not... not a no."

 "Phil, this is the age of consent. I need to hear a yes."

 "Then it's a yes. But... only if you tell me what we're doing on the date."

 Dan was smiling a little dreamily. It felt like a dream, at least. He hadn't planned on asking Phil out, even. But he'd done it. "We're... doing something cheesy. I don't know, I didn't think this through. We'll... go out to eat and share a milkshake. And I'll pick you up at noon."

 Phil hummed. "But we're in the same bus. Why would you pick me up?"

 "Because I'm trying to do this right. Why, do you want to do it a different way?"

 It was quiet as Phil considered. "We'll share a milkshake?"

 "Two straws," Dan promised.

 "Then... let's do it your way. But only if we get a large milkshake."

----

 Dan took a shower the next morning, scrubbing down and washing his face, taking longer than normal as he tried to prepare.

 He walked into the shared master bedroom without thinking, only wearing his boxers with the towel around his shoulders. Phil was propped up on the bed, on his phone, but he looked up when he saw Dan. "You smell good," he noted. "Who you trying to impress?"

 "I have a date this afternoon."

 "Oh. Do you think I'll like him?"

 Dan smiled, playing along as he got out his clothes to get dressed. "Nah, he's kinda weird. And he's old. He's almost thirty."

 Dan laughed when the pillow hit him, Phil telling him to shut up in that low voice he had whenever Dan annoyed him and made him laugh at the same time.

----

 The bus was parked at a small diner. It had promising yelp reviews and, even more promisingly, had a parking lot that was almost empty.

 They were somewhere in Colorado. It had that soft warmth, and when Dan stepped out of the bus ten minutes early, he could see the blue mountains in the distance, barely capped with white. The air had a certain freshness to it, dry, but also clean. Dan inhaled deeply, realizing as he stepped onto the pavement that it was his first time in the state.

 He was wearing a pair of black jeans and a button down black and white plaid shirt. He'd actually dug through Phil's drawers and found a black bow tie of his, but it just looked dorky. He found one of his own skinny black ties, but when he put it on, he just looked like he was from a boy band. Finally, he gave up, fixed his hair one last time, and pulled on a black jacket.

 He went into the restaurant, which as promised by the parking lot, was blessedly empty. A few old couples sat around the room, but they weren't exactly their target demographic. Dan got a table for two in the area of the restaurant furthest from the front and sat, staring at the clock on his phone until it was time.

 The night prior, he hadn't had time to think about it. They'd kissed, which neither had exactly planned to do, then Dan asked Phil out, which he definitely hadn't planned to do. And Phil had said yes.

  Did he mean to say yes, Dan wondered, his anxiety growing as the minutes passed and noon came closer. 11:56. Or was he just being polite? Did he understand what I meant when I asked?

 What ifs and oh nos raced through Dan's mind as he fumbled with his phone, pressing the power button each time it turned off from disuse. 11:58.

 What if it goes horribly wrong? What if it ruins everything?

 11:59 and it was time to go.

 Dan left the restaurant, telling his waitress that he'd be right back, and walked out to the bus. There, he fixed his hair once more- okay, twice more- and knocking on the door.

 There was a small crashing noise from inside. Dan wanted to just open up the door and see what it was but resisted. Then Phil opened the door, and instantly, all of Dan's fears melted away.

 "Hi," he murmured, his brain too busy freaking out to think up anything witty to say. "It's noon?"

 "I think so." Phil hopped out of the bus, brushing off his own jacket. He was wearing a maroon shirt with a warm jean jacket over it, and for once Dan stared at him openly, not hypersensitive of how long he was staring for or if it was awkward.

 "I checked," Dan said, his voice still more unsure than he'd intended. "They have shakes."

---

 The table was so small that their legs touched underneath it, but neither of them complained. It was a very old-fashioned American restaurant, whites and blues and reds, a soda fountain from dozens and dozens of years ago that was still up and running. They boasted the best cheeseburgers in the county.

 They ordered- actually, Phil told Dan what he wanted and Dan ordered, because he was the one who asked Phil out and they were doing things traditionally- and then they handed over the menu and were promised the food would be out soon.

 They talked of the same things they always talked about. There were the things they had in common: the tour, the animes they were watching, friends. And they had the things that made them unique from each other: stories from childhood, university. They read one of the pamphlets on the side of the table that talked about the history of the restaurant.

 "Originally opened as a park-and-eat.... family owned business.... over fifty years..."

 "The owner must be so old! Imagine just this ninety-year-old flipping burgers!"

 Then there was the "Phil," quickly followed by Dan explaining that the owner probably didn't still work there. Followed by Phil laughing at his mistake, and coming up with all the reasons why working at a restaurant would be beneficial for old people all while Dan stared at him Fondly(TM) because he was ridiculous, he was so so ridiculous, and Dan was absolutely head over heels for him.

 Their food came in red plastic baskets and a tall classic milkshake glass. "I brought the refill too," the waitress explained, giving them another cup, this one metal and half full of milkshake. "Can I get you anything else?"

 "Can we get another straw?" Dan asked. 

 The waitress agreed, and seeming slightly curious, asked if they were from Britain. Then, after Dan agreed, she said, "I love your accents. I think it's so interesting how they are slightly different though, they're both very unique."

 Cue Phil explaining how your accent depends on what part of the U.K. you lived in. Cue Dan making fun of Phil's northern accent. Cue the waitress going to get them another straw. Cue their legs brushing against each other underneath the table, because they could give each other personal space, but what fun is that?

 Phil started to say something. Then he quickly closed his mouth, instead holding up his hands in the shape of two brackets, mouthing the words Hi, my name is-

"Oh, fuck off!" Dan threw the spoon he had just picked up in Phil's general vicinity, Phil not bothering to stop laughing even as it hit his chest and fell into his lap.

 The waitress came back with the extra straw, and left as they popped them into the milkshake. The table was small enough that both were able to drink from it at the same time.

 "This is so cheesy," Phil commented, though he didn't pull back.

 "It's supposed to be cheesy." One of Dan's hands held his straw and the other was laid on the table. Phil inched his hand over, casually brushing against Dan's. They intertwined their fingers, and it felt so normal, so right, that Dan wondered why they'd never done this before.

 The rest of their date was perfect. The food could have been made out of cardboard and Dan probably wouldn't have noticed, he was too busy laughing and staring at the boy in front of him. They had to pull their hands apart to eat, but somehow their hands kept inching back until they were intertwined once more.

 "I had a lot of fun," Phil said. They were standing outside of the bus, the food gone and bill paid. "I... I'd like to do stuff like this more. Like... make it a thing."

 "A thing?"

 "You know... a thing thing."

   A thing thing. Phil, I like you. Like like you. Like... like dating relationships like you. A date date. That type of date. Wading, not diving in. Just taking a dip. Testing the waters. Phil, I like like you.

 They were holding hands again. Dan didn't want to let go. Ever. Ever ever.

  Phil... I like like you.

 Dan told him he agreed. And hesitantly, as if they'd never done it before, they kissed. The slow cute little first date kiss, like they were still kids who hardly knew each other but were excited at the prospect of a relationship. But they did know each other. They were best friends. Except now, now they were something a little bit more.

 The kiss was familiar. The kiss was sweet. The kiss was natural. They kissed like it was nothing. But it wasn't nothing. It was everything and nothing at the same time, and they didn't want to ever pull away.

12 Days Of Prompts Masterlist / Fic Masterlist / Request A Fic

[navigatorkyle]

To You, 40,000 Years in the Past

Graham Littler, with his overlooking view of the battlefield, considers his tactical options. His forces are clustered around a central, vital objective, which must be held if victory is to be achieved. The enemy was slower to reach the objective, but they are almost upon Littler's soldiers now, and if they were to engage in melee then the day would surely be lost. To make matters worse, a precision ambush mere moments ago had taken his tank column out of commission- it was down to the foot soldiers to clinch victory. But how to break this charge? Abandon the objective to take the enemy head on, hoping to recapture it if they survive? Have the troops hold their ground and pray they can endure? Spend precious resources to bolster the defense? Littler considers the pile of dice in his hand, and the lovingly crafted miniatures in the center of the six-by-four table. His forces would hold. After all, they were his. As ever, the victor would be decided by fortune. He shakes the dice in his hand, and lets them roll across the table.

Back to Basics

It is the year 2020, and the giants of the modern entertainment industry, wherever one draws its boundary lines, is held in the iron grip of technology. Television has evolved, and is now more accessible and ubiquitous than ever. Mobile phones have become astoundingly complex, and everyone who has one understands how difficult it is to go without. Video games have shouldered their way further into the mainstream, with increasing levels of fidelity and capability provided by the blistering pace of technological progress. It's not difficult to imagine that the sheer dynamism of these forms of technology would have buried the more retro forms of entertainment, like board games. This is not the case. In fact, the amount of money in the millions of dollars being poured into tabletop games up for funding on websites like Kickstarter is only increasing- last year that number rose to $176.4 million, up 7% from 2018. And as tabletop games industry giant Games Workshop's stock continues to rise, it seems more and more people are being drawn into the fascinating hobby of tabletop wargames.

The Daydreamer's take

The appeal of games like Warhammer 40,000, Games Workshop's flaghip Intellectual Property and by far the most popular tabletop wargame in the world, can be understood in the way its players look at themselves. Take luck, for example. Littler shook his head as he scraped excess plastic off of a piece of a sculpt fresh off the sprue- a shoulder pad he planned to add to one of his officer miniatures. “When I use my lucky dice... I'd say it's up there, but compared to everyone else, probably on the lower end.” Everyone who plays sees themselves this way- an underdog, battling against their opponent and their own rotten luck at the same time. Narrative is the core of this hobby. Games like Chess, or Mahjong, or Abalone, or Shogi are deep and complex contests of wit, but they lack a certain context. Warhammer, on the other hand- “It's massive. My army of thousands is merely a cog in a giant machine of war in this huge universe that we can explore, through this game.” To put it in perspective, when you purchase a rulebook for Warhammer 40,000, you don't just get the rules. You get pages upon laden pages of rich lore and absurd, fantastic storytelling that gives depth to 40k's grimy, grungy vision of our galaxy. It's a time-honored tradition among players to reserve the right to name a miniature after they have- through sheer luck of the dice or supreme tactics on behalf of the player- performed some incredible feat. It's notions like this that transform tabletop wargaming from a purely competitive experience to something akin to a combination of collaborative storytelling and competition. “With things like video games, your interactions with people usually go something like 'why aren't you playing this correctly, you absolute bonobo.' Whereas, with this game, you're usually only playing with one other person. So if they're not playing well, you'll either give them pointers, or 'teach them the hard way,'” Chuckles the veteran Littler. The advantage of tabletop games over internet-based games is a much more helpful, generous, and tight-knit community. What's more, the game is only half the hobby.

Arts and Crafts

There's something incredibly fascinating about watching someone with an eye for artistic composition carefully and painstakingly apply tasteful colors to a small, heroically posed model soldier, while listening to heavy metal music. This is the second draw of tabletop wargames- the hobby behind the game itself, or the building and painting of a collection of miniatures with which to play the game. Essentially, it boils down to personalizing your band of merry fighters. “I feel a lot more when I lose one of my Intercessors, or a T'au, or one of the cultists I worked on, because that model has some real personality- I think it helps me invest myself in the game more,” Says Littler as he carefully glues a pouch of grenades the size of a termite to the belt of a 32mm tall, revolver-toting gunslinger. No two armies look the same in this hobby. Every faction out of the 32 available has a unique aesthetic and art style, with models ranging from the blocky, brutish tanks of the grim Astra Militarum to the sleek, graceful organic contours of the sophisticated Eldar. On top of that, acrylic paints drawn from every color under the sun are widely available from any number of established paint companies, allowing for literally limitless artistic expression. Among Littler's regular play group can be found his black-and-patina Space Marines, blood-red and bone-white space pirates of the Dark Eldar, Ghastly green and gunmetal of the notorious Chaos Space Marines, and the gore-spattered browns and greens of the Death Guard.

The Galaxy is Your Oyster

Tabletop wargaming as a hobby has never been easier to experience. “I think pretty much anyone can get into it, considering the amount of content they have- there are so many points to get into the game.” Littler says when asked about the accessibility of Warhammer 40,000. There's a little something for just about everyone. The hardcore strategists, the painting demons, the modeling gurus, the lore junkies- all enjoying a shared hobby. “It starts when you play your first game,” Littler grins. “Then you're hooked.”

[rivercitywarrior]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_jj14nU_ko)

Silat class in three minutes, great refresher in you were present the last couple weeks. Here's the three major throws we've been working on, this time from a common 50/50 tie up. This grappling position is found in wrestling, BJJ, Muay Thai, and the street, and is a great asset to understand for a foundation. 

One of the key major differences in the approach in Silat, is the goal of the practitioner is to leave themself in a position to strike or wield a knife. There's a brief moment in this video where I deliver an elbow to illustrate this point. Often times we get caught up on grappling while training and start to throw out common sense like punch defense because we are now in grappling mode. That's a very sport oriented approach and in our view not good for self defense, 

This is precisely why our Silat class blends very well with our BJJ. Anibal Lobo our chief black belt instructor NEVER prescribes a move on the ground without thinking about striking. In Jiu jitsu we refer to this simply as self defense, because in the real world if you commit to an arm lock in a room full of strangers you'd better know how to keep a lookout and what your options are if the technique fails. 

Often on the internet you'll see video titles that are for more extravagant than we use at RCW. You know the kind for shock and awe, a.k.a. “Clickbait.” As if we could dispense one ultimate move that would be all you'd ever need in life and self defense. That'd make my job easier, I'd only have to make one video! 

In reality fighting comes down to accuracy, percentages, and averages just like anything else. A high batting average is in the upper 30-40% with the latter being extremely high. Watch a boxing match and at the end the numbers will usually see the victor landing shots 30-60% of the time. When it comes to firearms any avid shooter knows they can miss on their best day. 

When students throw boxing combinations this idea seems to be evident. If you miss, you keep firing. When it comes to throws and takedowns that same philosophy should be used. If you miss the trip or the tackle, will you look to do the next throw in the sequence? Will you return to striking instead? Will you draw a pocket tool or weapon? Grappling, just like striking involves combinations, and only after dedicated study can you begin to pull those combinations off. At RCW we rep these combinations and drill every day to activate our auto pilot. With over 25 years experience there's a lot that's gone into our self defense programs. Many people tell us from their very first class, which is always free, that they can sense the quality. Come by and be the judge for yourself, we'd love to have you check out Silat and Kali first hand.

The final thought for this one for today, what's your plan if you were to get in an altercation? 

[spiralingworm]

Let's Switch it up!

So us you probably all know I like Nintendo products. There are couple of reasons for that, but I think nostalgia has a lot to do with it. I liked playing games like Contra or Mario in my younger times, because those games were simply fun. Nintendo still has some great ideas when it comes to game designing. I think Splatoon is one of the prime examples here.

(You’re a kid, you’re a squid now!)

For those of you that don't know about what game am I talking now Splatoon is a team based platforming arena shooter about squids. Oh and paintball... You win by covering map with your team colour, and by turning into a squid you can swin in your paint for higher movement speed and longer jumps. If this very brief explanation doesn't seem exciting for you it's okay, because I really think you need to play it or extensively watch to understand. This whole bizzare concept for a game came from young team of game designers in Nintendo. In the world of really violent shooters like Titanfall 2, Doom or Battlefield the non-violent route seems risky to say the least. Nintendo is known from this high risk high reward move or in other words cheese.

(Triforce... cheese joke...)

Nintendo's whole bussines relies on three fundamentals let's call this a Triforce for humour purposes.

Zelda

Link started his adventure on Nintendo Entertainment System with Legend of Zelda and it quickly proved everyone that he is here to stay. There is something magical about all those games starring Link. Maybe it is everyone's dream for the grand adventure where you save a princess. You know the one that takes place in a kingdom far, far away. You just pick up a sword and charge into unknown. Is it safe out there? Of course not and that is why you have a sword. Maybe it is the fact that Link is just another random noname boy and he simply believes that what he is doing is right. By the way this is courage App... back to the point. I know that this seems like a typical  story in typical world by lazy writer, but I don't know it just works. It is simple and it is fun.

Mario

Platformer about a plumber who saves a princess, but in Mario defense those games actually have very little story to it. This game is all about precise jumps and last second decisions. Nobody actually cares who Mario is, why he is here or why the hell he has a mustache. He just is here to beat King Koopa and his minions and free princess Peach from her prison. Ridiculous? Of course it is, but again this a game about story. Everyone plays Mario for great level design and interesting mechanics or power ups. Thanks to the succes of the first game Mario became an icon for Nintendo. So much so the company venture into other genres with him like kart racing or RPG. He even was briefly considered as a playable character fo Splatoon and thank Jim they went with squids. Mario is on the front line for gaming not just for Nintendo.

Gimmicks

Wait, what? Yes, I think that trying to be as innovative as possible with every product is the fundament of Nintendo and it is the most important one for them. It is at the same time a blessing and a curse for them. I mean just look at the Wii succes versus Wii U failure. Yeah the marketing for the latter was just so painly bad that it is hard to even comprehend, but it is also showing the mentality of Nintendo “Play big or don't even bother”. They create hardware that relies on some new interesting idea and then they will try to build a game that use it to its fullest potential. Most of the times this approach really works and we receive a well balanced gameplay that is just fun to play around. The problem appears when N will try to reinvent a wheel and gameplay will suffer because they refuse to use schematics that simply work. Nintendo is Nintendo biggest enemy in this situations.

(That was actually very good)

Okay so with all that in mind let's talk march 3rd and the upcoming release of Nintendo Switch. Brand new hybrid of handheld and stationary console which was, for a very long time, known under a codename NX. As, hopefully, you can see the premise is simple but actually really exciting. Play your games on a TV and when you need to leave your home just snap Joycon's on the console and take your game with you. Even the click sound is something that still sits in my head and does not want to leave. I don't know this console just spoke to me when on october 20th this clip saw the light of day. It was awesome till like 5 minutes after the clip realeased. It went only down for me after that.

(My excellent hype versus time line)

I think the biggest problem for me is the attitude that Nintendo presented after that. They simply refused to say anything about their shiny new console until January 12th. They didn't want to comment on anything, not even a confirmation that Skyrim would be ported for the device. Why would you show gameplay of a game if you aren't ready to acknowledge it will be on your console. You could say that they wanted to avoid drowning in sea of mud that is christmas, but for me this just shows that you don't believe in your product. You don't have anything new this holiday season so why in the hell you go silent? Okay so maybe this is just my gamer ADHD speaking. Maybe the January presentation will be awesome and it will be all fine.

(I feel kinda meh..)

Well... yes and no. The price is actually quite nice and of course the games are actually really interesting. Of course we already knew a lot about Breath of the Wild and it actually looks really good from gameplay perspective. There is of course new Mario game which looks really weird and awesome at the same time. The hat throwing in particular seems like a mechanic that can provide really hard and really satisfying manouvers. Splatoon is coming back with some more splatting and while it looks like just more of the same it is fine, because this game is just that good. Of course Nintendo wouldn't be itself if it didn't introduce something entirely new to the table.

(Arms a new IP)

Arms is game about putting on some boxing gloves and stepping on a ring to fight 1on1 with some absurd enemy. Oh and your character is also absurd just to let you know. I mean the over stylisation is fine, because at this point you just don't expect anything else from Nintendo. Not to mention that they are the company that actually can deliver when it comes down to simple fun from gameplay. So actually while Arms may as well seem really stupid it can actually work pretty well.

(Series of mini games.)

1-2 Switch is actually series of mini games that tries to show off what an actual hardware can do. In most cases you don't even need to look on the screen to play. There are games like cow milking, wizard fight, cowboy quick draw... Simple stuff that will entertain your guests for like an hour and it will be put back to the box and never shown again. In their defense Wii Sports is on the second place when it comes to copies sold, but it also was bundled to Wii for a very long time. 1-2 is not budled it is a stand-alone product with MSRP 49.99. This is a lot I don't care how many mini games are there.

(Those are of course included in base console, but additional cost...)

I think this is the problem I have with Switch the cost is low, but not as low to reason day one/year one purchase. It may seem like there is a lot games coming to Switch now in March, but no. Mario will be released in holiday season. Arms will be month or two after Switch and the same goes for Mario Kart. Splatoon 2? Summer 2017. Of all that games only Zelda and 1-2 Switch  is coming day one. No, wait Bomberman R... wait no... Do I want to count it? Well early adopters sure as hell will need to do it because there is nothing else they will be able to do with this device.

(Wii U got crap for too big controller. How is it any different?)

There will be no video apps available for them at launch and before you ask. No, not even Youtube. Meaning that you are either happy with Zelda or will use Switch as shiny statue on your shelf. I don't expect Zelda to suck as the matter of fact I can safely claim this will GOTY for 2017, but some choice would be nice. Surely we can compromise I mean Wii U had some awesome internet browser and almost everything worked there. There is only one small exception for this Nintendo Switch will not feature aa internet browser on launch. If and when it will appear remains a secret. Not that you could use internet on the go. Switch will not have sim card slot for 3G or something like that. So maybe let's turn to third parties, indies of this world.

(The indies)

So there will be World of Goo on day one, great. Except people that would want to play this game already did on other devices. We have Binding of Isaac great game that will debut on march 17th, but wait currently only for NA region. Despite claiming on the presentation that will not be region locked we still need to jump through hoopes of company own regional politics. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't sometimes pissed on Sony for the very same thing, but I swear Nintendo is worse. We also have Shovel Knight great game... here actually have a list and sort by date here. It seems like a lot but keep in my mind that most of those are just rereleased products. Please don't exactly believe people saying something along the line of “X game is amazing I bought it on y, z and t, and I will buy it for Switch”. I mean maybe believe them, but are you seriously consider them sane? For comparison PS4 here, and of course sort by date and look at day one/month one anything after that is pointless.

(JoyCon)

Remember when I said that the biggest enemy of Nintendo is Nintendo? I think the villain strikes again. Aside the horrendous accessory prices for Switch. Single Joycons that presumably are perfect for a grown-up. Like hell they are... There is the problem of power. There is reason as to why specifics about GPU or CPU can be found only in rumours and leaks. Official specifications here basicly says “Yes, we have a GPU here.”... Well I hope so. The internet got mad about Mohammad Alavi comment "No. F*** no. No you're not going to be able to fit Titanfall on it. That's the same Zelda from the Wii U [laughs].". This is Respawn Entertainment senior designer saying no to prospect of porting TF2 to Switch. Just to let you know they did exceptional optimisation for PS4 in my eyes. You receive nice 60 FPS and I swear sometimes I blinked and missed the load times for couple MP matches. The amount of work needed to downgrade a game like this so it will work like this is absurd and not worth the money. AAA developers would need to create games specifically for Switch and they will not create games for a platform that doesn't sold well. It didn't sold well because people are not especially keened on buying Nintendo only exclusive device... I mean I have Wii U, but I am not entirely sane... exactly... So the playerbase will stay low and... You see where I am going here? Okay, but you could say Wii and try to shut me down this way.

(Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii)

Well the whole premise of motion controls simply worked for everyone. Gramma, granda, mother, father, uncle, three year old sister, that cousin that hate games. Pretty much all of them know how to swing a tennis racket or play golf using Wiimote. The stereotypical housewives played Wii Sports to stay fit and it was a perfect sell. I mean if there was one thing that nerds don't do is exercise. So no I don't think Switch even remotely compares to what Wii have to offer. Not to mention that those housewives does not have any reason to buy a new shiny box. At this point I am fairly convinced that Nintendo hardware would endure atomic bomb, napalm strike, Cyclops laser beam, dropping from 100 meters and Hugh Jackman.

(That’s right!)

As always only time will tell if Nintendo is a genius or they will need to live through another generation of weak sales. I wish I was wrong. I wish that Switch will be a great game changer, but at this point I think there only be one true game changer. Pokemon. If there ever was a franchise that literally moved consoles and people bought a device only to play one game it is this one. It would also need to come with the news of killing New 3DS. It is possible, but when?

[raystart]

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 8 – AI – Chris Lynch and Nand Mulchandani

We just held our eighth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy.

Today’s topic was Artificial Intelligence and Modern War.

Catch up with the class by reading our summaries of the previous seven classes here.

Some of the readings for this class session included What The Machine Learning Value Chain Means For Geopolitics, How Artificial Intelligence Will Reshape The Global Order, An Understanding Of Ai’s Limitations Is Starting To Sink In, and The Panopticon Is Already Here.

AI and The Department of Defense In our last class session General Shanahan, described the mission of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (the JAIC) which is to insert AI across the entire Department of Defense. He also said, “The most important hire I made in my time at the JAIC was the chief technology officer, Nand Mulchandani.” Nand changed the culture of the JAIC, bringing in Silicon Valley tools for product development, product management and for the first time a culture that focused on UI/UX, MVPs and continuous integration and deployment.

In this class session Nand Mulchandani, JAIC CTO who just completed an extended stint as Acting Director, continued the discussion of AI and the role of the JAIC.

In addition to Nand, the class also heard from Chris Lynch, founder of the Defense Digital Service (DDS), now the CEO of Rebellion Defense, a new vendor of AI to the DOD. One of the main purposes of the class is to expose our best and brightest to DoD challenges and inspire them to serve. Chris’s story of why he started DDS and how he built the team is a model for how you create a movement.

I’ve extracted and paraphrased a few of their key insights below, but there are many others throughout this substantive discussion, and I urge you to read the entire transcript (here and here) and watch the video.

—-

Nand Mulchandani

How the JAIC is Organized The JAIC is a tiny team, yet we have a product directorate with 32 products that we’re building across six verticals – all the way from warfighter health to Joint warfighting to Business Process automation, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, cybersecurity and predictive maintenance. And we own the AI autonomous weapon systems ethics and policy for the DOD.

We have an acquisition arm and Congress is probably going to give us acquisition authority this year. And we have a missions team headed up by a one-star Flag Officer with six O-6 level officers (Colonels and Navy Captains) heading up the different missions.

Selling JAIC Like Enterprise Sales When General Shanahan brought me in a year and a half ago, we were focused on building one-off products that in some sense were what I called “using a peashooter against a tank.” One product at a time wasn’t going to change the trajectory of the DOD. This is where I brought in the thinking of how we build businesses here in Silicon Valley. We needed to be building leveraged business models in scale. Leverage is a key part of how you change a 3-million-person organization through technology.

Everything that we do at the JAIC has to be built and done with leverage in mind. I organized my missions teams like an enterprise sales team. We took all the colonels and the captains and said, “You are now going out there and finding the repeatable customer patterns. You’re not finding the one-off custom projects to come build. Instead you need to find the patterns, where I can build a single piece of IP or technology and then “sell it” to all the combatant commands and services equally.” Because doing one-offs is never ever going to change the DOD.

JAIC Is Applied AI – Focused on Impact AI is not a single technology. It’s picked up every piece of technology in statistics and regression and we’re dealing anywhere from string data to numeric data to audio, language, still image things, full motion video object recognition.

But we take this technology and apply it to a particular set of customer problems and focus on the impact. I take a very practical approach to this. I’m an entrepreneur and an implementation guy. So, my focus is on practical ways of moving this big rock, in a in a tactical, tangible way, slowly and surely, while big thinkers will the work on the broader theoretical pieces.

For instance, inside the DOD we have aging equipment and we have a number of business processes that are really less than optimum. How do we tackle those with AI which can become quick wins so that success begets success?

However, using AI for new warfighting capability that’s much, much more complicated. That’s the stuff that Rebellion and Anduril and a number of other companies are helping us with.

Connecting Systems End to End We’re applying AI across the board. Take a look at the diagram below. On the left is the Pentagon with  highly connected data centers with high bandwidth. And on the right, you’ve got the tactical edge, where we’ve got UAVs, tanks, spacecraft, etc.

At the JAIC we’re focusing on what we call the autonomy space – close combat, AI for small unit maneuvers, around things for SOCOM, and what the Marines and others are going to have to do with the new National Defense Strategy and new operational concepts.

And then we’re also focused on autonomy. The magic words – Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) – are the automation pieces. How do you connect all of our systems end to end? That requires targeting logistics, fires, everything else. Today, it’s a process that’s half manual, half PowerPoint, half Excel, half whiteboard, and half a bunch of lieutenants, majors and colonels all drawing stuff and cobbling it together. If we agree that the next generation of warfare is going to be fought at the speed of software, you need these end-to-end systems all connected together in a backplane, a platform.

Now the problem is, in the diagram below on the left, this is what our DOD architecture looks like today. It’s a bunch of vertically integrated snowflake applications with a mouse and a keyboard and a screen. Applications are developed in silos, making it impossible to enable centralized functionality.

And for students of economics, you see the cost curve. The graph on the left just doesn’t work. Your marginal costs and your average costs of building software do not go down over time. What’s ironic is that software is one of the few businesses where the more you build, the cheaper it gets, it should.

The curve you want is on the right – lower marginal cost per application, rapid development, increased developer productivity, etc. And the only way you’re going to get there is through building common platform services and the application architecture that internet-scale companies do today. And in the DOD that discussion and ideas are completely missing. And so we continue to build stuff as it is on the left. The discussion we’re having in the Pentagon is how do we move things from left to the right.

Moving from Vertical Silos to Horizontal Platforms Enables “Software defined warfare” Our observation is that the architecture of DOD systems is vertically scaled. What that means is that for that last few decades the goal for every weapon system is about how does each generation get a bigger and bigger version of the same weapon system?

Today that means we just made our targets bigger for our adversaries. Think of a giant aircraft carrier sitting out in the ocean with a hypersonic missile targeted against it. It’s like a giant, vertically scaled data center that we used to have 15, 20 years ago. The architecture changes we need to make in our design for the next generation Combat Systems are precisely the same things that we had to do to change the way we operated data centers. Which is moving from stateful, long running, individual systems, to horizontally scaled, stateless systems. We need them attritable, able to work in denied and degraded environments.

This is what we’re thinking when we call it “software defined warfare.”

However, AI as a services-oriented architecture has to get built out on top of an infrastructure platform. The biggest problem is that no one in the DOD owns running that. So while others can run the JEDI cloud for the DOD, nobody owns running application services for the DOD. And the JAIC can’t run them because we’re not an operational software organization.

Joint Common Foundation One of the biggest mandates we’re focused on now is the Joint Common Foundation, the JCF. It’s an AI development and data environment for the DOD that democratizes access to compute and data.

The vision is a tactical team sitting out in one of our remote bases. Imagine if they can power up a secure laptop, crank out 30 lines of Python code; and grab a set of services – logistic services, mapping services, targeting services, etc,– that are DOD wide available directly through the JCF; and crank out a piece of code that they get into production, use it for a month and then throw it away.

That is the reconfigurability and speed that we need to have at the DOD. So if we are ever in combat, the reconfigurability of our infrastructure, whether it be hardware infrastructure at the tactical edge or a back end systems to react, that is the level of game that we have to have, or we’re toast. That’s it. It’s that simple.

—–

Chris Lynch Culture and the culture of change – Getting the Job to Run the Defense Digital Service In 2015, the Chief Technology Officer at the White House, Todd Park, mentioned I ought to meet with the Department of Defense who were thinking of creating the Defense Digital Service, a DOD version of United States Digital Service. The goal was to bring modern, private-sector tools, technology, and talent into the DOD to solve high-impact challenges.

And Todd Park said, there’s going be a lot of people who want to do this, who want to lead innovation and a lot of people are going to come through, they’re going to pitch their version. I thought about the job like a startup. I came in with a pitch around a “SWAT team of nerds,” one that would work on problems of impact and things that matter. I remember the first time I walked into the waiting room for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. It felt like “Shark Tank.” There were a bunch of other people all going in to do their pitch and talk about their idea for what they wanted to build. Some of them had presentations, and all of them had things printed out of course, because it’s the Department of Defense. Here, we’re talking about technology and innovative ideas, and doing things different with technology and software, and of course, nobody was able to do an actual presentation with a computer.

I chose to show up that day representing what I thought was the culture of what it had to be from the very beginning. That if we tried to build the bridge by being what they were, it wasn’t going to be right. It wasn’t going to be authentic. And we would never attract the best people into the most important mission in the entire world – the mission of defense and national security.

So I showed up in a hoodie and I showed up as me. I didn’t print off a presentation. I pitched the idea, let’s do the SWAT team of nerds. And, and I can remember it felt really, really, weird standing in that office with people in suits and people in uniform in the military. It was just such a different world, completely and totally unlike anything that I had ever seen.

And you know, that’s what they wanted. And that’s what I wanted to be in that part of the story. Because I felt it was important that we actually get people to show up to do the mission. I think that that’s probably one of the most critical things that became the basis of how I thought about what we were building.

Recruiting for the Defense Digital Service I told people, I want you to leave your job where you’re paid more than what I’m going to pay you. I want you to leave your job, where you’re getting free meals, where you’re living and working around a bunch of other software engineers. And I want you to come into a place that is going to be so unbelievably difficult, frustrating, sometimes demoralizing, and very, very difficult. I want you to come into that.

And I want you to give me six months to one year. But I also just want you to be you.

And when you leave, if you do your job here, if you do the thing that we showed up to do, and if we are successful in what we’re trying to accomplish, it will change your life until the day you die. You’ll never be able to get it out of your blood. And that’s the place that we built. I think that that’s the culture, I think that’s the right place to be.

Because it allowed us to show up in what we were comfortable wearing, we became known as, the people in hoodies. And you would have the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doing a presentation for newly minted generals. And they would show a slide with a picture of me with orange tennis shoes on. And it just became our uniform. And it also made it really easy to be like, “Oh, that’s Chris Lynch. He’s a nerd, right? That’s the person that I want to talk to.”

And that was the culture that we decided to build. Just keep focused on results and not getting caught up in sizzle. But getting caught up in real things, in building real tangible stuff. And I think we were successful.

Starting Rebellion Defense When I left the Defense Digital Service, I felt like I was standing at the shore of this vast sea of all the things that I might do next.

Rebellion Defense was built around the idea of let’s do something spectacular. Let’s continue that mission, but at a scale that would be impossible inside the DOD. And we would be able to bring in incredible new people who wanted to work on something meaningful and impactful.

Surprises from Being Outside the Government Selling In It’s funny, one of the things I never had to worry about on the inside of the Pentagon was budget. As it turns out, finding who has a budget and can allocate funds is a lot more complicated than you’d think. Just because you find someone who has a budget, they have to find a contracting office to do the buy.

My second point is, if you simply believe that you’re going to show up with an awesome product and awesome technology, guess what? That doesn’t mean anything. if you’re selling this customer technology you already lost. The DOD is a mission-driven organization. Which means you have to understand what they are doing. If there’s a person saying, “Oh I need more AI and ML,” they’re likely not the person who has the budget at the end of the day.

Next, this space has a lot of companies in it that have been here for much longer than you. And you probably don’t know anybody in this space. They do. They know them all. They previously have occupied the jobs that the current people in those roles are doing. And so they have all those relationships. That’s a moat.

And incumbents and competitors say they do pretty much anything that you will say that you do. They’ll say, AI and Machine Learning? We do AI/ML on quantum clusters with Cheddar cheese. And literally, I have had people who send me the most random word-salad construction of words and phrases, I don’t even understand what you’re saying. I get that all the time. I can’t tell you the weird stuff that I get sent my way.

So you have to find that partner that has a belief in solving a problem. They have to know what is real and what is not.

How Will AI Be Used? Why Should Silicon Valley Engineers and Our Students Get Involved?

We either show up or we cede our ability to influence and decide on that policy.

If the world’s greatest technologists do not show up and build the systems for the Department of Defense, to lead in this area and decide the ethical and moral boundaries that we believe in, and that we as a nation are comfortable with, somebody else is going to show up and lead in the way that those technologies are built. And they will decide how they’re used and that will be the definition of ethics and morality.

So you have one very, very simple choice: Show up. If you don’t show up, then you don’t get to play a part in the discussion. Because if other countries who do not share your beliefs become the leaders in how these capabilities are used in a military context and they deploy them, it doesn’t matter what you think. That becomes the norm.

I believe that technologists – people like you, and people like me – we can’t give that up to somebody else. I don’t want somebody less capable than the best in this country to show up and build those systems.

Postscript

The Department of Defense awarded a $106 million contract to build the JAIC’s Joint Common Foundation to… Deloitte Consulting.

Read the entire transcript of Chris Lynch and Nand Mulchandani talks here and here and watch the video below.

If you can’t see the video click here

Lessons Learned

 Nand Mulchandani

The JAIC acts like DOD’s AI service bureau, building leveraged business models in scale.

It’s working on a portfolio of 32 products in 6 verticals across the DOD

It’s looking for repeatable customer patterns

It’s applying AI to both autonomy and automation applications

For example, the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS)

The DOD needs to move from vertical silos to horizontal platforms

AI needs to become a services-oriented architecture built out on top of an infrastructure platform

Hopefully the Joint Common Foundation will do just that

Chris Lynch

Built the Defense Digital Service as a SWAT team of nerds

How he motivated his team is inspiring:

“If you do your job here, if you do the thing that we showed up to do, and if we are successful in what we’re trying to accomplish, it will change your life until the day you die. You’ll never be able to get it out of your blood. And that’s the place that we built.”

Surprises at Rebellion Defense included:

How to find customers with a budget

Competing with incumbents who came from the revolving door

Competing with other companies who claim “we can do that, too”

Why work with the DOD on AI?

“If the world’s greatest technologists do not show up to lead and decide the ethical and moral boundaries that we believe in, and that we as a nation are comfortable with, somebody else is going to show up and lead. And they will decide how they’re used and that will be the definition of ethics and morality.”

Show Up

[apsbicepstraining]

Surprising Insider Realities Of Being Trans In The Military

This morning, we all woke up to see a major shift in U.S. Defense Department policy released via our president’s Twitter TAGEND

Donald Trump/ Twitter

Donald Trump/ Twitter

Donald Trump/ Twitter

It perceives a bit like being broken up with via textbook, but since it is a presidential statement, it’s more or less official. Instead of suspecting what it’s actually like for transgender beings in the military forces, we reached out to Emma Shinn, a trans woman and former Marine Corps platoon sergeant with extensive fighting ordeal in Fallujah. We too spoke to various other current active and reserve responsibility trans soldiers. They told us …

3

Trans Beings Are 2-3 Eras As Likely To Provide As The General Population

In the wake of the president’s tweeted announcements this morning, a lively dialogue over trans kinfolks in the military has cropped up in all the regions of the internet. One justification for the ban steams down to “There precisely aren’t that many of them! “

It’s true that transgender beings aren’t a huge gob of the military. But it’s likewise true-life that they suffice at a higher rate than pretty much any other demographic. Generally pronouncing, simply 10 percent of Americans have served in the armed forces. But studies indicate that 20 percentage of all trans-identified Americans have joined up. And another contemplate found that digit increases to 30 percent for trans women — around triple that of the general population. To Emma, these numerals shape total feel TAGEND

“I would say that a lot of beings prior to transitioning find the need to prove themselves as birth certificates gender, and particularly for transgender girls, that includes doing stereotypically masculine works. Communicating personally, I know the Marine Corps was very attractive to me because I wanted to prove myself as a guy. Not simply was I a person, I was an uber person. Not merely as enlisted infantry but as a sergeant-at-law, I felt that would help assuage the disconnect.”

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Dirt For Dinner: Living With The Weird Condition Called Pica

Emma’s experience isn’t uncommon. In point, this was studied and written about path back in 1988 by Air Force psychiatrist George Brown ( now an associate chair for VA affairs ). Being written a few a few decades ago, such studies gives outdated nomenclature to discuss transgender beings, but it shows that this phenomenon has been around for some time. He surveyed the higher pace of enlistment among trans individuals and called it a “flight into hypermasculinity” — an attempt to suppress the confusion associated with gender dysphoria through negative buttres and work that’s seen as “macho.” From that view, the all-encompassing live-where-you-work armed itinerary seems like a pretty great flee. It’s too often considered as a good alternative for high school graduates who want a fighting chance at a decent profession and benefits, and don’t attention getting the hell out of sidestep to do it. That’s not a bad deal for a population that is at much greater risk of becoming homeless.

As it is about to change, the military forces is the single largest bos of trans people in the country. But since this is an employer whose central commodity is “protecting the nation” and “watching over all the rockets, ” it IS important to ask the question: Are trans parties able to perform their duties, even with the overcome of transitioning? Well, it is about to change that’s not as big of an issue as people fear.

2

Here’s What it’s Like To Transition While A Soldier

Jerry is a transgender gentleman providing on active role in the Navy. He pointed out that, first, the military forces isn’t precisely in the business of paying for extensive surgery. “Military program is to at the least cover pharmaceutical and mental healthcare. Anything else asks serious motivation and luck … I paid for my top surgery alone, when “theres” thousands of guys posting[ on Reddit] every day how they didn’t pay a dime for their surgery, and they’re, like, baristas.( Nothing against baristas, it’s only insane that I’ve gotten PTSD as a souvenir from overseas deployments and can’t get something that someone who “re going home” every night reeking like luscious coffee and tarts can get with a fraction of international efforts .) “

He points out that if a soldier does modulation while on active role, they’re bound by very strict rules as to when they can do it: “Commanders are less likely to approve you going surgery if you have to deploy — which prepares gumption, and should be the case.”

Transitioning can have a significant impact on a soldier’s physical abilities. Harriet transitioned while invited to take part in the National Guard, and she certainly saw a difference: “When I started hormones, my forte and speeding both changed dramatically! Hormones feign everyone differently to a degree, but higher testosterone absolutely builds it easier to build and maintain muscle, and unless I wanted to live and sleep in a gym, I plainly wasn’t going to maintain the kind of fitness ranks I had as a ‘guy.'” Harriet shared her Army Physical Fitness Test Scorecard. Overall, her run era for two miles has increased by about six hours, and she did significantly fewer push-ups and sit-ups, although her overall ratings are “respectable, but nothing spectacular.”

But the changes brought on by change gash both paths. Jerry, our active-duty Navy trans boy, said, “Exercising has get loadings easier! I rarely qualify for the running part of the physical fitness exam now, and I extend just fine. In the past, if I didn’t extended every day, my tallies would be lower than average. I can elevate more, I can run faster, push-ups are a breeze. I’m training for a button move competition called the 1,000 Lbs Club: terrace, squatting, deadlift must equate 1,000 pounds. Females have the 600 Lbs Club. Without any serious train, I’ve already matched the 600 -pound standard. One downside, however, is the load increase. I’ve easily gained 27 pounds since starting[ testosterone ]. Can’t lose it — I’ve tried! “

The most important fact to note about soldiers transitioning while on active office is that it’s unbelievably uncommon. This RAND study thinks between 25 and 130 surgeries per year among active-duty personnel. Between 10 and 130 soldiers per year could experience “reduced deployability.” There are currently more than 50,000 active-duty soldiers who are undeployable. The vast majority of these soldiers have short-term harms, like torn ACLs from a basketball game gone bad. If you’re to be concerned about military readiness, pick-up football match are perhaps a most pressing threat than transgender people.

1

The Military Has Been Adapting

Trump’s announcement draws it looks a lot like transgender beings are justification the mighty mainstays of the military institution to crumble. But Emma said in regards to trans beings in the military forces, “There wasn’t an effect on readiness or lethality … it was a non-story until President Trump stirred the fib today. When he said they’re a interruption — that was the word he used in his tweet — he is the one who is interrupting the morale and duel efficiency of our services by basically throwing away 15,000 exceedingly trained, highly capable fighters … “

Our roots have noted some difficulties — about the paperwork involved in name changes, some weird armed programs on when other soldiers should use a different pronoun for them, and shit like Harriet’s experience here: “I was out at a army prepare activity, and I had been isolated as much as is lodging is concerned — they’re like, ‘Well, the soldier isn’t male enough to stay with all the male soldiers, and we don’t know if she’s genuinely female, ‘ so I was set by myself. And that was pretty crushing.”

The military doesn’t change on a dime. But that’s not to say they weren’t adapting. The Department of Defense published a whole manual on it, which includes some quite woke quotations on gender identity, such as: “Sex and gender are different. Copulation is whether a person is male or girl through their biology. Gender is the socially defined the responsibilities and characteristics of being male and female associated with that sex.”

And while Harriet dealt with predictable bullshit, she also encountered supremely understanding officers: “In my military mental health evaluation, one of the things the mental health officer actually said was that they needed to act quickly to change my reputation and gender issues, because I was so far developed and they didn’t want to induce severe detrimental mental health effects or stressors on an otherwise well-functioning soldier.”

On a personal stage, all of the transgender soldiers we spoke to reported widespread support from their comrades. When Harriet was stopped from lodging with her fellow female soldiers after coming out, they stepped up to shape circumstances right: “All of the other women soldiers that were there at the time — some of them didn’t know me at all — actually got together of their own accord and went to leadership and said, ‘This is wrong. She belongs with us. She’s one of our sisters.’ It was truly, really awesome.”

For their area, our sources haven’t been subjected to the various kinds of we’ll-get-you-while-you’re-asleep-in-your-barrack boys’ squad punishment we might expect from Hollywood’s depiction of intolerant military culture. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, and there are still a lot of soldiers( 41 percent ) who don’t supporter transgender assistance beings, but Jerry fantasizes many of those tribes just haven’t actually fulfilled any out trans soldiers. He justified, “I’ve been stealth for a year now, and four you knew at my command. These guys are proudly republican, and each of them have considered me with glory and respect. One of them was a former cholo, and now senior enlisted, fucking crazy regard to him. So when I verify someone on social media comment about “tranny this” and “shim that, ” I know I can change their perspective, because I’ve done it four times on base already. It’s all about patience and education. The professionalism of our army never fails to surprised to see me. In the end, we’re all brothers and sisters in arms, and we should crave what’s excellent for each other.”

Harriet actually seems safer with her compatriots than she does out in the normal world: “One of the safest residences that I find I are actually not have to worry is among other soldiers. I don’t know if it’s simply because of me personally, that I’m lucky enough to be not super tall and sort of fit kind of what parties expect a woman to look like … Or if it was my prior reputation? I’ve been with the same component the entire seven years I’ve been in the Guard. I feel having all those personal relationships already certainly helped … I appear little safe off-base than I do on.”

Emma is no longer in the military. But she is a lawyer, and most of her clients are soldiers, so she still spends a lot of time in and around the military. After she came out, she noted: “I would say 99 percent of my friends, my subsidiaries, and even my mentors in my senior navals who were in charge of me ought to have unbelievably supportive. Y’know, I have everyone from general police to lance corporals saying, ‘I’m delighted to see that you came out’ — utilizing the remedy pronouns, using the correct figure. All of that was really supportive.”

She’s preferably pee-pee about the president’s freshly tweeted plan: “I have friends who are still on active obedience, and they are extremely hideous , not only for their occupations but also for their physical security — not necessary from their service members, but from members of the public who may see this as carte blanche to discriminate and assault transgender beings … I think that what the president was your day was callously contemptuous of the faithfulnes our services members have supplied — especially the transgender assistance members. I think he was negligent today with the well-being of transgender assistance members.”

Robert Evans has a notebook, and you can buy it here . For more, check out 5 Shockingly Outdated Problems Women in the Armed Face and Raped On The Battlefield: What Male Veteran Survivors Know . Have a narrative to share with Cracked? Email us here . Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out How One Escaped Slave Changed The American Civil War Forever, and watch other videos you won’t meet on the area !

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The post Surprising Insider Realities Of Being Trans In The Military appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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5 Reasons You Should Make Producing A Medical Oversight Case.

When particular components from documentations have to be always kept classified while the rest could be read/ accessed by any person, redaction is a necessary tool. The 5th oversight providers create is to certainly never take into consideration generating a picture and identification for their business. If you have any queries regarding wherever and how to use yellow pages ni (mouse click the following post), you can contact us at our web site. However, the fully grown as well as expert thing to perform is actually to own up as well as accept to your manager or even manager that it was you that made the blunder. OVERSIGHT 3: Replicate or unoptimised content- Numerous content farms feed on the internet that provide articles on different topics that have actually been actually replicated from various other sources. Equipments that recognize a wrong activity or even part can be utilized to blunder evidence a procedure. You can easily consistently seek quotes and also review it along with four to 5 requests as well as select the very best. Merryll Manning: Trapped On Puzzle Isle by John Howard Reid was actually posted much more than twenty years back in Australia. This is important for you to avoid this mistake as well as be prepared for other costs like inspection prices, evaluation costs, financing handling charges, and so on There actually are actually indisputable, merely decisions you created accordinged to the perceptions you had at the time. Michael Keaton created the same oversight as Jenna - as well as on a much greater phase - yet he didn't drop any type of rips for the mistake. In my 13 years as a Rhode Island Kid Wardship Attorney, I have observed a lot of dads and also moms create inane and silly choices throughout the course from Rhode Island Youngster Protection Procedures. Make a list of the occasions coming from your life that you remain to harp on as well as cannot seem to be to allow go of. For each activity, write down what your error was actually, just what you learned from this mistake, and also something good you possess today due to the situation. Be caring and soft when you connect this with her, but don't make the mistake from disregarding that. You'll simply create animosity over time, which is actually visiting injure your marital relationship. Katie immediately contacted her employer, explained the blunder and also offered concepts about how they can safeguard brand new backing resources to maintain the organization afloat. This's not regarding our blunders in life that determines who our experts are actually, it has to do with the personality that is actually built as a result of them, the understanding that our company gain coming from them as well as the know-how that when our experts do create oversights our company will definitely obtain past them as well as still live a great lifestyle. Do not make the blunder from waiting on a person or something to find along as well as create you pleased. To puts it simply, the mistakes that take place in nominal accounts and goods profiles are actually the parties that affect the net revenue. Very most significantly, he learned from the oversight and also began to take a far more regimented strategy to cash flow. BLUNDER 5: Poor inner linking- Links are the relationships between web sites and are actually essential in improving the web visitor traffic. Perhaps you would just like some new standpoints about mistakes: Errors are legitimate as well as reasonable: You could possibly state there is actually no such point as mistakes, however our company are all fairly utilized to that word. For this blunder I merely preferred to have the inaccuracies taken care of, as well as a brand new report made, to ensure that future copies from the book will be actually right. Nonetheless, a lot of house owners create a set of mistakes when this pertains to mounting this kind and also getting from home windows as well as some of these errors are additionally listed below. This will alert the medical center or surgical procedure to the act concerned and they are going to manage to guarantee that the same blunders to certainly not occur again. They attempted that, knew exactly what will create this better the following time, made the improvements as well as always kept practicing. Grammatical errors offer an incredibly poor feeling and this performs certainly not matter if you are actually off a technological background or otherwise. All it has is for one blunder to take place as well as whatever you've operated so tough to accomplish could be eliminated in the blink of an eye. The a single thing they all share is the willingness to have a risk even though they may create blunders en route. From document hiding, utilizing redaction resource programs and redaction software as well as lawful redaction, below are actually a few of the standard blunders individuals produce. And also all of us perform. Maybe we make the exact same blunder 3 opportunities, yet hopefully certainly not four or even 5. After it is actually all around, as stupid an other as I am could see that oversights were produced. The primary thing to perform after making an inaccuracy is to accept obligation for it. Some individuals make the error from denying responsibility and delay positioning fault on others. You will be shocked through how quickly you react to mistakes later on as well as your ability to avoid identical scenarios completely. When you search for as a lot of points as you can easily to become grateful for in a blunder, you amazingly transform the oversight right into benefits. The third error is that as soon as the company experiences a tough time, they reduced their advertising and marketing budget and draw inside their layer like a tortoise. As well as if you perform have a person in your lifestyle who is trying to keep you coming from forgetting and also moving on, recognize that this is their own globe they are actually creating and that they may appreciate holding those sensations as well as notions of previous errors over you. But irrespective of the workplace atmosphere, you must determine just how you may equate the blunder coming from a responsibility in to an asset," Gergen states. Continuously creating the same error will result in concerns to become talked to - bad inquiries either! When you've created a mistake and removal on, the trick is actually to recognize. Perspective that as an experiment that gave valuable info. Error from legislation is a self defense that the criminal offender misconstrued or was unaware from the regulation as this existed back then. Since he desires our company to know and obtain several experiences in lifestyle, blunders are accurate present coming from God that he has actually given our team. Going out with oversights of the attribute typically result in false impression as well as courting can even end listed below. For mechanical computations, an event could be able to reserve the agreement on these reasons gave that the other gathering does certainly not attempt to make the most of the oversight, or 'take up' the deal (involving a bargain that carried out certainly not aim to make, uncovered through a mistake in arithmetic etc.). This will definitely be seen through an unprejudiced specification, or if a sensible person would manage to know that the mistake would certainly certainly not make sense to one of the celebrations. Identifying on your own as a person who's always creating blunders wreckages havoc on a person's self-confidence. Through learning exactly what these blunders are actually, you may swiftly place them responsible for you and get on monitor to seeing much better results. Children which are sincere and also believe alright concerning correcting a blunder hardly ever condemn others. I am going to outline the primary ones to ensure if you are actually carrying out the activity to put in marble floor ceramic tiles you have a chance not to earn the usual errors from the beginning. You and also your little ones can easily view this movie without concern from distressing as well as undesirable trash originated in sensationalism for scores and piggishness. Don't forget, regardless of how many mistakes you create or even exactly how slow-moving you progress, you are actually still way in advance of every person that isn't really attempting. The No 2 error that a lot of Foreign exchange investors make is actually to start increasing up on a dropping profession as well as, once again, they produce this error for precisely the exact same explanation. There are actually others that refuse to acknowledge the blunders that they perform and also condemn all of them on others. The trick is actually to always keep removaling as well as not dwell on each individual real estate spending error that you make, specifically beforehand!

[greta28d9208-blog]

FIFA 18 Wishlist – FIFPlay

In what comes as a whole and utter surprise, Electronic Arts has announced that FIFA 18 can be released on September 29, 2017. Cue sigh of relief. EA Sports most awaited offering, FIFA 18 is set to be released in just under two months, 29th September to be precise and anticipation is building for what is arguably the most awaited annual sports gaming instalment on the planet. It will likely be released on 29 September – with EA Access members getting their hands on the sport first. For Devin, getting drafted just isn't only a dream to realize, but a technique to honor his late father. This was painstakingly demonstrated to us with wire-frame, under-the-bonnet clips comparing Fifa 18 to Fifa 17. EA says the difference shall be like comparing 4K visuals to a standard 1080p resolution. The former will once again capitalise on ‘Pro Mode’ – allowing for increased detail and a more stable framerate. Stadiums feel much more alive, which seem a small and insignificant detail but it surely really helps amp up the atmosphere. Releasing information in small increments keeps the reader hooked to the story, and keeps him coming back for more. Player’s personal injury and plenty of others information. If an offensive player’s chance is deflected into the goal by the goalkeeper or defense, the player still gets credit for your target. There have been some iconic celebrations through the years, like Eric Cantona standing still and looking out on the group, Tim Cahill air boxing near the corner flag, Mario Balotelli’s ‘why always me? These will influence the gaming experience in ways you couldn’t have imagined before. About NCS: National Citizen Service (NCS) is an experience you actually don't want to overlook. Based on fans, because footballers are becoming quite creative in they manner during which they celebrate their goals, they wish to view new goal festivities. If you're a football lover or a fan of your favorite teams then you'll probably go for the soccer shirt in your team's color. Here are the main ones. The primary point of contention is the engine: FIFA 18 runs on Frostbite, a demanding engine that delivers visually impressive results. A version of the game may also launch on Nintendo Switch, though it will likely be missing key features, such as the Journey and the Frostbite game engine. The smartest thing to do is quit it after which start another game on your Xbox One in order that you already know you’ve quit the game completely. A game that was very much like soccer-meets-rugby was popular among the many army camps of Rome’s Imperial forces. As reported earlier, FIFA 18 will arrive on the 29th of September and will invade the market in three different editions: Standard, Ronaldo and Icon. Electronic Arts announced that the cover star for FIFA 18 can be none aside from Cristiano Ronaldo. FIFA World Cup, but Brazilians took pride in its smooth functioning. As we all know, FIFA 18 will come to us two months later. No pressure, then. In my game, I was able to score and arrange a few teammates, drawing the two teams level. There could be no doubt that FIFA has outperformed PES on this regard across the last two seasons, yet Konami is firing back: the addition of two-on-2 and 3-on-3 co-op is an especially tantalising prospect. Guide forgotten prospect Devin Wade on his journey to the NFL Draft-on and off the field-in Madden's first-ever cinematic and playable story mode. FUT 18 Web App Daily Gifts may be available during the primary 2 weeks of FIFA 18. That is the best opportunity to make coins in FUT! While I'd like to see him rank within the mid-70s with potential touching the 80s, I don’t think EA Sports is able to make that leap yet, as they have a history of being rather conservative. We believe that they are going to add, at the least, the Wanda Metropolitano but we could have to attend to know. If you happen to see one you want, just tap the corresponding button and your man shall be off the pitch before you comprehend it. If you have any sort of concerns regarding where and how you can use safe fifa 18 coins (http://suzannesabina.zohosites.com/do-and-exactly-why-you-require-fifa-and-you-know-the-fifa-18-coins-coins.html), you could contact us at our own internet site.

[financevisionary]

6 pieces of misguided financial advice that need to die

Recently, one of my buddies was curtain shopping when she got some pretty crazy insight from a friendly store employee.

'You need to expect to spend around 5 % of your residence's worth on curtains and drapes,' the saleswoman described as she sauntered around the sales floor.

Of training course, my pal stopped at the idea. Not only is spending that much cash on drapes absolutely unreasonable, yet it is likewise extremely unrealistic.

Where we live, you can get a truly nice four-bedroom home for $200,000, toss a few Wal-Mart drapes up, and also stop. For paradise's sake, nobody should invest that significantly money on curtains.

I know I absolutely really did not. Customarily, I missed the memo on what someone else thinks I must invest on this or that. When we got our house, my whole drape spending consisted of the cost of a few frames from J.C. Penney. What, maybe $50?

Well guess what, my home looks equally as great as it would certainly if I had actually bought customized Louis Vuitton drapes with gold leaf needlework. (Or whatever kind of curtains set you back $10,000-- I'm not really sure.)

Regardless, the entire scenario with my buddy obtained me thinking concerning all crazy economic guidance I have actually listened to throughout the years. Due to the fact that, allow's encounter it, bad monetary recommendations is all over. And while some is just obsoleted, various other tidbits of wisdom are marginal criminal to disseminate.

Here are some monetary pearls of wisdom that people must truly quit discussing:

1. Anticipate to spend 2 months' wage on an engagement ring.

Nothing grinds my gears greater than the idea that guys or ladies should fork over 2 month's wage for an engagement ring. Think about it. A man drawing in $60,000 need to expect to invest $10,000 on a ring, while a male (or lady) making $90,000 should invest $15,000. Even an individual managing on $30,000 would certainly have to drop $5,000 to meet this standard.

That's the greatest lots of crazy talk I've ever before listened to, as well as it makes good sense when you learn where this guidance stemmed from. Fashion jewelry titan DeBeers crafted that practical policy in the 1980s with the campaign slogan, 'Exactly how can you make two months' income last forever?' Prior to that, the cost wide range DeBeers suggested was more like one month's earnings.

The profits: When you allow a business's advertising and marketing campaign decide just how significantly you ought to invest on their product, expectations will certainly be high. Invest as much as you want on an engagement ring, and also not a penny much more. For many of us, 2 month's salary makes little to no sense.

2. Get as much house as you can afford.

For those who noted and took note, the real estate accident of 2008 functions as a pointer of what occurs when prices spiral unmanageable. However, people often fail to remember promptly. And even worse, they get back to believing the precise same nonsense that got them into trouble in the initial place.

When we were property shopping last year, we heard a lot of the recommendations that confirmed awful back just before the housing bubble popped. 'You guys need to actually purchase a lot even more residence than this,' one Real estate professional told us. 'Buy huge as well as you could quickly double the value of our home over the next decade.'

Another real estate agent echoed a similar position. 'Interest prices are reduced,' she stated. 'Now is the moment to acquire as long as you can.'

But, just how much could we acquire? According to a common home mortgage calculator, we could spend about 300 % of exactly what we would certainly planned. During that time, I didn't care just what a calculator told me, nor did I care what the financial institution would certainly offer me. I recognized exactly what I could possibly pay for, and I was fairly content with my decision.

The profits: Just you know what you could afford. Don't listen to the bank. And for heaven's purpose, don't hear real estate agents-- their incomes could increase or fall depending on exactly how significantly you spend.

3. Credit cards are the devil.

Although this certain insight is obsoleted, monetary master Dave Ramsey remains to lead the cost versus the usage of credit report as a way of payment. Back in 2009, he didn't dice words when he told his fans to prevent credit history in any way costs.

"There is no favorable side to credit rating card use. You will spend more if you utilize credit report cards,' he created on his internet site. 'Even by paying the expenses promptly, you are not defeating the hvac system! A lot of family members don't pay on time.'

His viewpoint could not have transformed because then, however the globe certain has. Now you can barely obtain by without a minimum of having a charge card for unexpected emergencies. These days, you need credit history to rent a resort room or a rental vehicle. (You could make use of debit, but they will put a grip versus the real funds in your account if you do.)

Meanwhile, credit history cards supply particular defenses that you i simply can not acquire if you make use of cash-- or even debit. Traveling insurance coverage, travel insurance coverage, as well as fraud protection are a few of the biggest rewards, but there are lots of others.

The truth is, bank card are not the evil one-- the way we utilize them is the problem. Credit history cards don't acquire you in the red, you do. Find out to make use of credit intelligently, or don't use it at all. Just do not blame a piece of plastic for your problems.

4. Save 10 % for retirement as well as you'll be fine.

For as long as I can bear in mind, I have actually heard that I need to save 10 % of my incomes for that remote celebration in the future known just as 'retired life.'

But over the training course of my life time, the profession landscape has altered significantly. Where workers once worked at the exact same business for 20 or Three Decade, people are now considerably a lot more most likely to change tasks whenever the wind strikes. And also where the majority of people worked for another person their entire lives, much more are now independent or component of the growing freelance economy.

Is 10 % still enough? Maybe, however those of us that intend to retire early sure do not think so.

Let's evaluation of the selections. A family making an average of $60,000 which socks away simply 10 % of that revenue for 30 years would have only $734,075 for retired life if they made an average of 8 % on their investments. If they could possibly manage to put away 20 % instead, they would have near $1.5 million.

The concept of saving just 10 % for retirement died right in addition to the suggestion that you might invest your entire life helping one law firm. If you intend to retire very early -- if you really want to have options-- you should conserve much more than that. And you ought to start now.

5. Bring an equilibrium to boost your credit report score.

This one actually irritates me, and it's merely not since it's patently untrue, it also costs individuals money. Evidently, word on the street is that bring an equilibrium (as well as paying interest) could in fact enhance your credit history score.

Here's the truth: 5 varying factors are taken into consideration when coming up with each individual's credit history score. As MyFico.com reports, 30 % of your rating is based on amounts owed, 35 % on payment past history, 15 % on the ordinary length of your credit report history, 10 % on the amount of brand-new credit you have, and also an additional 10 % on your credit history mix.

The 'totals owed' component is of utmost importance in this disagreement. Basically, the amount of cash you owe on your accounts compared with your overall account restriction is your 'balance-to-limit' proportion, additionally understood as your 'utilization.' Below's exactly how Experian details it:

'Your balance-to-limit proportion, also called your use price, is determined by separating the total amount of the equilibriums on your credit rating cards by the total amount of the credit limitations on your charge card. A high balance-to-limit proportion notifies creditors that you may be experiencing economic trouble or using credit to live beyond your means. A high use rate is a strong indicator of credit rating risk, 2nd just to your repayment history. According to VantageScore, your balances need to not surpass 30 % of your credit line. The reduced your use rate, the much better. The very best approach is to pay your equilibriums in complete every month.'

In other words, owing cash misbehaves for your use, and therefore, bad for your credit report. So rather than bring a balance with the false hope that it's a great thing, pay your credit rating card in complete and also relish in the joy of coming to be debt-free.

6. College is constantly an excellent investment.

Here's the largest whopper of them all-- the lie of all lies-- the one economic mistake that can change your life for years to come.

It's true that university is the ideal assets that many individuals have ever made or will ever make. However is it a great financial investment for everyone? I think not.

While a college degree might be a demand for some occupations, it isn't called for in any way for others. Nurses, physicians, attorneys, as well as educators need that oral plaque buildup on the wall surface and also the suitable accreditations, yet do builders, artists, as well as tech workers? The answer: Not always.

The increasing expenses of a college level also play a component in this formula. When university costs rise faster than the salaries of degree-holders, the return-on-investment, or ROI, goes down like a lead brick.

According to one of the most current figures from University Board, the typical expense of a four-year level from a four-year in-state institution has actually reached nearly $40,000 for the 2014-15 academic year. At the same time, the price of the very same level at a personal college rose to virtually $125,000. And also remember, that's just the cost for tuition as well as charges, it doesn't include room as well as board, real estate, as well as all of the various other expenses that maintain college unreachable for so many.

And maybe the greatest red flag is this: Practically fifty percent of newbie university pupils do not complete making their degree. That implies many pupils leave institution with a lot of pupil funding financial obligation-- and very little else to reveal for it.

The truth: College isn't for every person, neither ought to it be. Believe long and also hard just before you press your kids into something that will certainly cost them a lot, yet potentially return so little. Specific jobs might call for that four-year degree, however others need simply an associate's degree, a few accreditations, or some applicable encounter. It depends on you to know the difference.

Learning to spot bad advice from a mile away

When you're young as well as still figuring things out, it's simple to hear monetary suggestions such as this as well as believe that's i simply the method things are. When you have actually been around for a while, you start to recognize that bad financial insight is anywhere-- and also it's up to you to prevent it.

So rather of relying on what others claim, learn to believe things through on your own. It could be smart to get in touch with a financial specialist in specific situations, but a lot of the time, you most likely already recognize the solution. If a $20,000 engagement ring seems like the craziest point you have actually ever listened to, it's most likely due to the fact that it is. That cares just what DeBeers needs to claim regarding it?

The bottom line is this: Only you understand just what you can pay for. Just you know if specific advice makes good sense for your scenario. And also for heaven's sake, only you recognize just how much you should invest on curtains. As well as at the end of the day, just your point of view matters.

So do yourself and also everybody else a support-- disregard bad financial insight, or at the very least stop repeating it. Some bad financial suggestions needs to die-- once and for all.

[caredogstips]

Why Apple didn’t need to buy Time Warner

Image: hbo

Own an iPhone? Like Game of Thrones ? In a world-wide where Apple bought Time Warner, the media company behind HBO, CNN and TBS, the next season of the hyped imagination sequence could have premiere exclusively to iPhone users.

It’s a perplexing scenario, but also one well worth considering now that AT& T agreed to buy Time Warner over the weekend for around $85 billion. The announcement of the batch reincarnated conversation that Apple had been and could still be interested in the media company.

SEE ALSO: You damn well should care about the AT& T and Time Warner deal

You know Apple as the manufacturer of your iPhone, MacBook, iPad and Watches, concoctions that have helped make it among the most valuable companionships in the world. But when “theres only” so much better hardware to sell and so many people to sell to, the tech giant could be gazing an expansion. The company has looked at a few different industries like autoes, healthcare and, yes, entertainment.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes disavowed there being recent and continued interest from Apple, pointing out that they are in a separate business.

“They’re busy with phones and inventions on a world-wide basis and I’m not sure that they’re focused on media product, ” Bewkes told CNBC Monday morning.

But the action for Time Warner between AT& T or Apple isn’t fairly that different.

“Both have substantial revelation to the mobile data, content and infrastructure, albeit one as air carriers and one as a “manufacturers “, ” James Gellert, CEO of fiscal research and analytics fellowship Rapid Ratings, told Mashable . “Both are also in the contents distribution business.”

For AT& T, Time Warner’s content is also possible funneled through its readers on cellular wireless and on broadband. Apple touches buyers through iTunes and Apple TV, who were able to stand to take advantage of an influx of content from a friendly, content-making sister fellowship like Time Warner.

Apple everything

Apple is no longer claiming like it’s not getting into the content game.

While iTunes was once simply a distributor of digital albums or individual sungs with a fee, the tech monster now offers Apple Music a streaming service opponent to Spotify and now Amazon Prime. For $9.99 per month, people can pay for access to a library of sungs and some juicy exclusive content.

With access to all of Time Warner’s content, Apple could exhaust a product like Apple Music “but forTV demonstrates or a true native-Apple version of Netflix, “Jeff Reeves, executive editor and commentator at InvestorPlace.com, told Mashable .

Such a consolidation allowed by “ability to watch more content on challenge or stream their favorite TV station right on an iPhone or iPad the path God intended.”

How it’s retained a leg-up over other services: Give exclusive access. In the last six months, Rihanna, Drake and Frank Ocean have all debuted or had exclusive trails on Apple Music. Beyond music, Apple bought James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke.” It has also schemed a new show “Planet of the Apps.”

Apple already works with HBO through the company’s HBO Now app. But Apple senior vice president of internet software Eddy Cue was speedy to dismiss future challenger or more oversight between the two companies.

Were doing particular shows today that weve announced, so were surely doing some things, but I dont think youre going to see us do a huge number of them. I think youll continue to see us do more partnerships, ” Cue told an audience at Vanity Fair’s conference in San Francisco last week.

Investors have been watching Apple’s growth beyond machines closely. Apple’s July earnings revealed that 11 percentage of overall revenue was coming from the company’s business business, which includes the the App Store, iTunes and Apple Pay. CEO Tim Cook did income in 2017 would form those occupations the equivalent of a Fortune 100 business.

Money isn’t the problem

One thing is certain: Apple has the money. Apple had $231.5 billion cash on hand last one-quarter. While that was down $1.4 billion from the previous one-quarter, the modesties still place the tech giant in a position of power to construct strategic acquisitions.

AT& T and Time Warner agreed to an $85 billion handled in money and capital. Sure, that’s a great deal of money, and it would be a proportion of amount beyond anything Apple has ever done before.

But it is a defensive move for AT& T, which has had to face tough competition in its primary business of wireless service.

“T-Mobile and Sprint are munching them up with brand-new customers. AT& T is of the view that content will help them be developed further a bigger moat to keep out the dogs, ” spoke Phil Davis, CEO of Philstockworld.com and PSW Investments.

Time Warner is still a massive busines, but compared to Apple its business might not make much of a difference. The tech monstrou built roughly $234 billion in 2015 while Time Warner brought in $6.1 billion in revenue. Apple “could come up with a fasten clip that constitutes$ 6 billion a year. Wheres the bang for the buck? ” Davis said.

Even though its cost might not be out of Apple’s reach, the acquisition precisely doesn’t make sense on a tactical height. There’s management shakeups and execution costs that can be confusing for the company at hand.

At this point in time for Apple, it draws more sense to buy one-off serial like “Carpool Karaoke” rather than deal with the logistics of owning a media company.

“As the ad-supported TV simulate is collapsing, a tech company could use HBO, and bequest TV/ movie networks to try to lock up content, but its easier to start from zero and start expend, ” read Johnny Won, CEO of tech consultancy Hyperstop. “This can be endlessly complicated.”

“My guess is Apple feels like they can deliver their own content better, ” did Sander Read, CEO of Lyons Wealth Management.

One to watch

Where Apple and AT& T enormously contradict is the state of their respective businesses.

Apple’s device manufacturing isn’t expected to grow greatly in the near future, but it should remain among the world’s most profitable fellowships for quite a while.

AT& T, on the other handwriting, is facing a difficult room forwards as it tries to adapt to a future in which spread exclusively changes more competitive.

About 30 years ago, that wasn’t the occasion. Back in the early 1990 s, before Steve Jobs recalled as CEO and the iPod changed the music manufacture, Apple and AT& T were “on the verge of merging, ” Peter Friedman, Apple’s vice president and general manager of internet services at the time and now CEO of social software busines LiveWorld, told Mashable . “AT& T was trying to get into digital technology, and Apple was trying to find a sugar daddy to bail it out of the business.”

Apple’s disappointing financial results those quarters purposed up settling the batch, Friedman said.

In 2016, Apple is far from needing a savior. Its grocery capitalisation of more than $600 billion far outshines that of AT& T’s at $200 billion. It has the wealth and influence to acquire Time Warner, but precisely doesn’t need to even if it would be just a clump of its dwelling currency stockpile.

If the deal between Time Warner and AT& T does go through, Apple is slotted even more delicately for a future deal.

“Apple has become the most difficult company in “the worlds”, and “the worlds largest” loved company on driving customer suffers within operating systems, ” Friedman replied. “They have plenty to do within autoes and TVs to give their focus in and expand their ecosystem without taking on actual material assets right now.”

BONUS: If you wear an Apple Watch, you’re a jerk

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