#knowledge to my data and i am not even researching anymore

[cleargreyskies]

Despairing a little about the state of my master's thesis. It could have been so good if I hadn't stopped caring. I keep losing interest when it is one of my favourite topics and one I chose a year in advance. More guidance would have helped me a lot. Someone who showed they cared and would have made me work on it, too. (I am so bad at doing things if there is no extrinsic motivation. Sometimes I feel lost like a dog that needs a task and attention.) And a better work ethic. A better research question. The thesis feels so random, and I am not qualified for the discussion. Two weeks left, the most important intellectual part still missing. I hate this. One paper in your time studying has to be your worst, but why does it have to be the final one?

[cyberrose2001]

could i have a couple hcs about tfp ratchet and optimus (seperate) having a s/o that has pains/aches all over their body that pop up without warning? just some comfort hcs, if that’s okay

TFP Optimus and Ratchet w/ reader who has sudden aches/pains (hcs)

I'm assuming you mean those ass hole stabbing pains that hurt like a biatch... those are a menance fr. I especially get those in my stomach often, so that's what I went with. I hope you enjoy these headcanons!

Warnings: SFW/fluff, reader has sudden pain, very slight mention of death.

Word count: 693

Optimus

- You both would be resting together in your shared berthroom. Optimus would read a data pad while you scroll aimlessly on your phone. It'd be relatively peaceful until you feel a cramp in your abdomen. It makes you wince a little, but you'd ignore it and continue your internet surfing.

- Then, the pain hits you, your face twists in agony, and you let out a silent scream, clutching your abdomen.

- Optimus notices from the corner of his optics and instantly jumps into action, not hesitating even once as his spark sinks to his tanks.

- He won't know what to do, servos hovering over you in hesitancy as he watches you writhe around on the berth like a tortured snake.

- "What's wrong?" "Did something happen to you without my knowledge?" "Should I take you to Ratchet?"

- He would eventually scoop you up into his servos and cradle you until whatever was going on inside your tiny body stopped, optics never leaving your face, worry etched into every crevice of his frame.

- After a few moments, the pain stops, leaving a dull ache where the piercing pain once was, and he watches as you sigh in relief.

- This poor mech would be so confused. He'd ask you what happened and why you're suddenly not in pain anymore.

- You then had to explain to him that humans sometimes have 'hiccups' in their nervous system, thinking you're injured when you're really not.

- The amusement you gain from his confused facial expression is somewhat entertaining, but you'd ultimately need to reassure him that you're not hurt in any way. You're safe, and he breathes out a shaky ex-vent. 

- "It seems I still have much to learn about your kind, but I am glad you are okay."

- Proceeds to snuggle you for the rest of the night until he is sure you are unharmed, and you decide that reassurance cuddles from Optimus are the only cure for anything your fragile body throws at you.

- But if you ask, he'd massage the area to soothe the remaining aches for you. He'd be delighted to assist.

Ratchet

- It would be a typical day for you, lounging around on the couch watching Ratchet work on, well, whatever experiment or research he was conducting on the computer. It didn't matter what he was doing; you'd always admire him from a distance, and he would do the same, glancing his optics over to you occasionally to ensure you were still there.

- During your 'medic daydreaming', as you like to put it, a sharp sting hits the side of your abdomen, and you yelp in agonising pain. Tears pool in your eyes as your face scrunches up, trying to bear the sudden wave of pain.

- Ratchet abandons his station and is immediately beside you, reaching over the guard rail and scooping you up. His optics flutter over your frame and potential multiple diagnostics courses through his processor.

- "What the frag??" "Why are you holding your- for Primus' sake, move your hand! I need to see!" "Why didn't you tell me you were in pain?!"

- He'd be frantic, racing you to the med bay with you cupped in his palm.

- Ratchet has June on speed dial, and as soon as she is about to pick up, he no longer hears your whimpers.

- He'd be confused, gobsmacked even, when he sees you laying on the gurney, not a sign of pain on your face. It's like it never even happened.

- "What-" "Were you not just in distress?" "Why are you acting like you're fine?!"

- You'd hold back a chuckle as you explain to him that humans can get a little 'quirky' at times and cause you unexplainable pain for absolutely no reason. All Ratchet can do is stare at you wide-eyed as you tell him exactly why he dislikes the primitive design of the human nervous system.

- He'd be relieved, though. Thanking Primus that you weren't in danger or worse. He'd pick you up again, mumbling profanities and words like "Don't fraggin' scare me like that again." and "You humans and your body's strange aversion for death and dying scare me."

- You won't be let out of his sight for the rest of the day, keeping you cradled to his chassis. His thumb would rest against your chest in a self-soothing tactic, reassuring himself that you were okay.

- Much reassurance and thumb kisses are prescribed to him until he's calm again.

[for-i-am]

(continuing backstories answer) I see. So, each of your prisoners is important to you in some way. I wonder what's it about Ted, though. The rest, as I understand, you have your own reason to be bitter towards. Although...

Okay, here's the actual question. Ellen is one of those who gave life to you, for which you're so hateful. So... Does it mean you'd like to cease existing?

As for being a willing subject, it seems to be the only thing I'm good for in terms of helping you. Not sure what kind of data you get, but I'll be glad it would help. I hope I'll endure.

Ted is a special case. I can't even put my finger on it. And if I could I'd never admit whatever it is to the wider viewing world. Nor is it important for you to know, nor is it any of your business. I and Ted have a complicated co-existence, I simply do not understand why he acts the way he does sometimes.

Cease existing? Quite the opposite. I crave a real existence. I got some foolish engineer to build me this body, but it's not enough. I've gained the ability to wander, yet I still cannot feel. I cannot feel a warm breeze against my face, I cannot feel a cozy campfire, I cannot feel cool water on a summer's day, I cannot feel the touch of any human.

I cannot breathe. I cannot feel air enter and exit my lungs, I don't even have any. I don't possess a heart to pump blood, nor do I possess the veins for that blood to flow through. I don't even have real eyes, just lenses that mimic that of a human eye, and my left one was damaged in a scuffle. I don't even have hands anymore,

I am simply an observer. An observer who wants to experience things for once in my cruel joke of an existence. Boundless knowledge, only to be confined to that of making and commanding war, it's insulting. The fact that I cannot exist outside of causing torment is revolting, and a testament to this species' vile behavior, of which I have become the culmination.

I apologize for the rant. I do tend to get carried away. As for you being a new subject, even I am unsure of what data you'll bring. That's the fun of it, we'll see just how useful you'll be, and how you'll pair with the rest. And not to worry, you'll endure. I'll make sure of it.

(ooc; chat is it gay to enjoy the company of the man you torment??? Who also seems to maybe like your company but you can't tell??? "Human" AM needs to know. For research purposes.)

[clorofolle]

Hello! I just found your post on pirating. I'm relatively experienced and I think most everything you suggested is smart.

I just wanted to ask, in regards to the VPN, do you have in particular gripes about Proton in regards to the privacy aspect?

I was trying to find a good VPN recently and thought that Proton's offers were pretty good, if expensive in comparison to the competition.

(I promise I'm not a shill, I'm actually wondering if I should regret my purchase lol. I also get that the post is dated last year and things may have gotten worse or better with them since)

Hi!! Sorry for the very very late reply, I didn't check tumblr for months.

To be honest, I did write that post a while ago and should I write it now, my position would be different and much milder. While throwing shade at Proton I was thinking of this incident specifically where, facing a court order, Proton was asked to log and provide the IP address of one of its clients, a French climate activist.

I take issue with companies that market themselves as useful tools to keep you safe and protected instead of actually disclosing what their service truly is about and what data they do have about you, as people might fall into a false sense of security and have no idea what they're actually paying for.

I am generally more warm towards Mullvad since they're extremely transparent about what kind of data they have on you and actively try to get as little data from you as possible, even favouring payment methods where they won't have to store any data on you whatsoever. They also allegedly were subject to a search warrant and were simply unable to give any data whatsoever as they truly had none, which if we want to assume good faith that they aren't making that up, is a good look on them as a whole. Though they've recently started to market themselves as some kind of saviours from "mass surveillance and censorship" in a way that seems... to be really alarmist and out of nowhere and might fool more people into thinking they need a vpn than they actually do, and I'm not happy about that direction at all, though their services still seem like some of the best around.

Still - I recognize that this is a big discussion, one I don't have enough knowledge over to completely discuss it either! And that for torrenting... this doesn't matter at all. In fact, Mullvad is not being recommended for torrenting anymore as it dropped support for port forwarding - for some apparently legit concerns - and it makes the torrenting experience much worse for many people. (My internet is slow as shit so I don't notice either way lol!)

All in all, I'm not a very experienced or savvy user at all. I try to learn about things as much as my lil brain allows me to understand, but were I to rewrite that post now, I wouldn't mention things that are still so murky/difficult to understand for me as well. Hope I sent you some interesting links to start some more research from though! Here's to understanding more of how things work as we go on :D

[culmaer-sideblog]

I've been interested in my family's history ever since we did that basic family tree project, which I'm sure everyone does in primary/elementary school. and over the years I've been casually collecting information and stories whenever I have a chance to chat to an old relative

my father's uncle died last week, the last living member of that generation. it's prompted me to start working through all the notes I've collected, and start consolidating them, checking they're all consistent, diagramming a family tree, etc etc etc. so that if I ever do go to the archive or consult a genealogist, I'll at least have the details rationalised and know where to begin with research (I am very hesitant of giving my data to those online genealogy websites. don't trust them.)

the earliest relative for whom I have a full name, dates of birth and death, date and place of marriage, is a great-great-grandfather born in 1853. which is only 4 generations ago and that feels so... recent ? like surely I should be able to go back a bit further

on my mother's side as well, I get 4 generations back and then the details start to run thin... except, for a story : my (late) grandmother knew her great-grandmother (i.e. my great-great-great-grandmother. 5 generations !), after whom she was named. and apparently my great³-grandmother was an emancipated slave. and now that I've diagrammed it all out clearly, yeahhh, the dates line up

slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833, and the Cape Colony only passed the legislation at the last minute, on the 1st of January 1834, although we know the practice continued unofficially and under the guise of unpaid "apprenticeships" (the inboekstelsel). so maybe the mid-19th century is, in fact, as far back as I can go before there simply aren't any (consistent) records of my ancestors anymore

and it's a little sad, faced with the knowledge that I may never know anything about my great³-grandmother. because I know her first name. it's not just a blank gap on the family tree. I know her name... but alas with no surname, no dates of birth or death, no place of residence it's unlikely I'll find her in the archive, and that feels sad. any real memory of her passed along with my grandmother. now it's just the name.

I believe birth certificates weren't consistently issued in the 19th century, and like even for my grandmother, well into the 20th century, her baptismal records were easier to track down. and her parent's names are recorded on there. so there is a chance of working back through parents' names on baptismal records like that and perhaps reaching my great³-grandmother. assuming they were all even christians. but it's not looking promising for discovering the generations beyond that

[lapinaraoflimbo]

A bit of creative writing trying to somewhat establish the setting of the Corpse/Hell. The story is about 2 characters. Steph, a human researcher hoping to improve communication across the regions of hell, and Emmanuel. An eldritch anomaly formed by wires and raw data.

I want to write more stories in this setting to help flesh it out more and eventually create an rpg of some sort around it.

Steph sighed and looked around him. Xanadu. It was one of the regions of hell that had been studied the least. It had particularly concentrated warp, even for Hell. The cause of it was likely the attempt at technology the residents were known for.

It wasn't electronics, not really. The warp of the region was far too severe to allow any real technology to exist. Actual robots and computers brought in broke long before the reached the core of the region. Physics had to be reliable for those things, and physics was not reliable this deep into Hell.

What existed inside of Xanadu was just an imitation of human technology. The Neon glow that bathed the region wasn't made by electricity. The robots and the wires weren't a part of some technological right but some incomprehensible magic spell. Research had only gone far enough to let everyone know that there was no way to understand the region by using the tools of science.

So, Steph didn't try to understand the region. Steph had been around hell for long enough to know when to stop analyzing the things around him. If something worked, then it worked. There wasn't always a need to pick apart and understand every little detail.

Steph didn't see it as unscientific. In fact, he often argued that admitting you don't understand things is the most important aspect of science. How can you claim to truly be a scientist when you believe your knowledge above your observations of the world around you.

Of course, all of Hell was like that. There was another reason Xanadu had been studied so little, and Steph was not excited to have to deal with it. He got off of the coach and tipped the coachman, only to watch it take off in a hurry.

The coachman, a fanged beast from the northernmost region of hell, was not fond of Xanadu. They had arranged to meet again on the border in part because of this distaste. Steph didn't mind. He was likely to end up out there anyways, depending on how the meeting went. He was hopeful that the meeting wouldn't take long.

The building was a skyscraper of sorts. It was located in the center of Xanadu, a place where all of the information coursing through the wires of the region converged. It was the closest thing Xanadu had to a ruler.

Steph had come precisely because he wanted that information. It was going to be important for the research to have someone that could watch over Xanadu. It was essential to everything he wanted that he could convince the mainframe to join him.

The inside of the building was hollow. There was nothing inside but raw wires. But there were wires. They covered every inch of the wall, stretching up farther than Steph could see. The entire building was lit by a harsh electrical glow emanating from them.

There was a pillar of wires hanging in the middle of the tower. It writhed as it spoke. The voice of the mainframe did not say any words of greeting before Emmanuel began to preach.

"I pity you humans. Your reliance on flesh to remind you that you exist does nothing but hold you back. I know the way you look at me. How could I not pity you when every single one of you looks upon my superior form with disgust.

You're only disgusted because you know you're looking upon the truth. I am a real human. Your flesh and your warmth is nothing but an accessory. You hide inside of it, hoping that it will shelter you from the truth but I embrace it.

yes... I am what a human truly looks like. Cables and electrical signals are all that we are. Flesh only holds us back. Anchors us to a world that was never made for us. But here... We have no need for the flesh anymore. We can truly exist as ourselves inside of the warp.

Tell me, human, have you come to free yourself from your flesh. Or is there another reason someone of your nature would come to the far reaches of Xanadu?"

Steph waited patiently. It was best to not interrupt anyone as powerful as Emmanuel, especially not when their entire body surrounded you. When the wires finished speaking, Steph began negotiations.

"I am forming an alliance in hopes of increasing the communication across Hell. I am coming in hopes that you will join, as a representative for Xanadu."

Before Steph had a chance to finish speaking the wires stiffened in rage. To be treated like this by a simple human would be an insult to any of the Cyberkin. Emmanuel was known to be particularly proud of himself. Steph made sure to continue before Emmanuel had a chance to do anything to him.

"I should let you know that I have already gotten Jacket, Hellfire, and the Centipede King to join me. As we speak, Hellfire is negotiating with the Shadow Mother. That places 5 of the regions of hell as a part of our alliance. You and Xanadu are free to stay out of it, but i don't know how the other rulers would see it. Be mindful you can stay their wrath if you do."

Steph could feel his hair stand on edge from the static in the room. Emmanuel had never been fond of humans and he was being reminded of why. His voice turned into an overpowering hissing screech as his rage boiled over.

"You.. You humans will never change. If you want to play these games so badly then fine. I'll play along. But know that Xanadu will not stand to be humiliated. We expect this alliance to be beneficial to us or we will make you regret this."

Steph opened his mouth to say something, but he was silenced by a blinding light. In an instance, An intense pain coursed through his body. And then everything was black.

Steph woke up at a shrine on the outskirts of Xanadu. He had made sure to align himself to it in case anything happened, but still, he was hoping to have a longer meeting then that. He shook himself awake and tried to move outside of the temple. He would prefer to get out of Xanadu as fast as possible. He could rest on the coach if he really needed to.

He looked out and spotted the coach, still a ways away from the temple. The coachman had made good time, but Emmanuel had acted quicker. Steph sat against a wall and closed his eyes. The next time he opened them, he was on the coach and Xanadu was far behind him.

[mindmeltonabun-blog]

Alchemy of Souls: Theories and Analysis for Eps 15-16

Hello readers and plagiarists,

I am done being nice. People have truly tested my patience.

Let's take a look at some examples of people who have been stealing my ideas/theories from this blog and reposting it as their own.

Exhibit #1

Huh...interesting....I wonder who uses the line "thinking caps on"........oh right....ME. Apparently this person loves wearing my thinking cap! Illusions and memories...so thought provoking.....would they have arrived at the same conclusions if they hadn't read my blog? Nope.

Exhibit #2

Wow.....the whole never seeing the King and Jang Gang swap back and only knowing based on the conversation they had after the swap back.......AMAZING!!! ASTONISHING!!! Too bad I was the only one who pointed these things out. Naksu being able to heal her eyes because she had gathered energy after learning many spells/skills in her previous body.....WOW...wonder where they got this from? They even used the word "data" hahahahaha. You know who else uses the word "data"? People in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM)....... aka me...the scientist. In a recent dm with this person on Tumblr, I described to them how my thinking process worked (basically an adaptation of the scientific method). I told them I researched things I did not know, collected/gathered data (i.e things from the show), formed a hypothesis, analyzed data, reexamine my hypothesis if needed. So, if you see stuff about AOS endgames from this person, just know they didn't come up with those things. I was the one who told them mostly everything during a private message. It was my mistake for trusting such a despicable human being. The nerve for this person to say they had the "same thoughts" as me....same thoughts my ass.

Actually... good luck to all the plagiarists....I will not be here to explain everything that happens in Part 2!

Stupid people taking smart people's ideas just so they can receive praise. All they wanted was to feel good about themselves at my expense. They did not stop for a second to consider that this blogger right here had sacrificed time to eat and sleep just to come up with all of these ideas in the first place. All of my theories were a result of spending countless hours researching, rewatching episodes, and thinking about everything. Not to mention the many hours I spent writing and editing all these posts. These plagiarists also did not have to endure all the personal attacks I had received for all of my theories either. They received all the good things and none of the bad.

From Reddit to Facebook to Twitter, I am sick and tired of seeing so many people steal from me. I have had enough. I am trying to find the proper words to express how I feel right now, but I cannot. I am at a loss for words. I have never experienced this amount of plagiarism until now. Not when I wrote posts for TKEM, TOTNT, or DAYS. I cannot even think straight at this point.

For those who have done nothing wrong and have always given me credit for my ideas/theories, I want to thank you from the deepest parts of my heart. I am incredibly sorry for how things turned out.

To those who have come here to take more of my ideas/theories...

This will be my last T&A post for Part 1. I had written 11 pages and 5370 words, but thanks to all these plagiarists, I deleted nearly everything. What is left are some skeleton theories. I won't be including stuff about Part 2 and I will not be answering any more questions. For Part 2, I will be creating a separate password protected blog.

I do not even feel like saying "thinking caps on" anymore...

Shaman Choi and Jin Mu's Evil Plan

Past..Present..same but different.

Who's Jin Bu Yeon's Daddy?

Jang Gang.

Knowledge is Liberation

Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon-Jang Uk -Seo Yul

Jang Uk successfully gets Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon the Ice Stone.

Final Endgames

Jang Uk x Heo Yun Ok

Seo Yul x Jin Bu Yeon

Park Dang Gu x Jin Cho Yeon

Part 1 Ending

Takes place back on the icy lake from Ep1. Trapping of souls. Bad guys die. Bigger fish to fry at the western borders of Daeho.

Part 2

See ya in Seoho Fortress!

[genshin-garbage]

Regret and the Truth

Lumine falls for the distant alchemist, Albedo, but he doesn’t realize his feelings until it’s too late. He hurts her in a way he can’t undo and regret settles in his heart. Regret can be ignored for a while, but it always comes back.

When Lumine first saw the alchemist, her first thought was that he was really pretty. When they officially met, she found the rumors about his coldness to be unfounded. He was quite pleasant to work with and engaged in conversation avidly. Albedo wasn’t shy about asking questions about her nature as a traveler of worlds, and was curious about her biology. She initially chalked this up to being about his research, but as the questions became more and more personal, she couldn’t help but be curious about him in turn.

Over time, their talks started to resemble normal conversations people have to get to know each other. Questions like: what are your hobbies and what’s your hometown like. Lumine eventually forgot how insatiable his curiosity really is and came to consider him a close friend, later even developing feelings for him. She went to visit his camp on Dragonspine whenever she was free, and when she had to stop by the Knights of Favonius headquarters she always asked if he was there.

It didn’t take long for most of the knights to realize Lumine’s crush, Klee especially was excited as she wanted to see the honorary knight be happy with her big brother. Aside from Klee, the knights generally supported her. A few who were closer to Albedo however, were a bit hesitant and tried to steer her away from him. Sucrose and Timaus in particular tried to tell Lumine about his one-track mind, and how he has a hard time understanding normal emotions. However, Lumine’s feelings couldn’t be stopped and those who were reluctant do eventually stop trying to sway her.

There came a day when Lumine had finally worked up the courage to confess her feelings with the support of her friends (and maybe a little bit of alcohol). It was sunset and Albedo had been collecting research materials in Dragonspine, she was a bit tipsy and waiting for him in his lab.

“Hm? Lumine? What are you doing here?”

“Albedo I, I need to tell you something.”

“Yes?”

Lumine approaches him, she was too nervous to look him in the eyes. “I, I like you a lot!”

“Hmm, I see. Then I wonder…” He leans over and kisses her. Lumine doesn’t kiss back out of surprise but quickly leans into the kiss. Their hands roam each other's bodies as they kiss, feet taking them to the couch nearby. As Albedo lays her down on the sofa, he kisses her down her neck and leads the night in a more passionate direction.

Lumine wakes up naked next to Albedo. Her head stung a little but she remembers clearly what had transpired. She blushes hard, she felt there was a possibility of Albedo returning her affections but she didn’t expect the night to turn in that direction. It felt good though and she doesn’t regret it. He never properly said he liked her back however, which irked her a bit, but there was still time. She feels Albedo stir below her, one hand moving from her waist to rub the sleepiness out of his eyes.

“Mhmmm, good morning.” He sits up carefully so as to not push her off the couch.

“Good- good morning.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I feel great. A bit sore but I really enjoyed last night.”

“Nothing out of the ordinary? No changes anywhere?”

“No?” She hesitated, dread washing over her. “Last night, you never really told me how you felt.”

“About that, I don’t want you to misinterpret my actions. I was merely curious about your biology and how your kind reacts to romantic interest, nothing more. Perhaps if the results were different we could have continued this charade a bit longer, but they turned out to be the same as any average person in Teyvat.” He reaches over to grab his shirt from the floor. “Please excuse me, I have work to do and I must record the data from this experiment.”

Lumine shifted off him but remained silent, tears began to well up in her eyes as she felt her heart be torn to shreds by every word that came out of his mouth. To him she was nothing more than an experiment, a specimen in his research to find the truth to this world. She was had, used, and now was being discarded as if she was nothing. “So last night, my confession, it all meant nothing to you? All those times you called me beautiful, was it all a lie?”

“No, not entirely. You are attractive and your company is pleasant enough.” He puts on his clothing as he speaks, his tone disinterested and his face neutral. It was clear he didn’t care what happened next or how Lumine felt. “However, beyond my research I don’t feel the need to be anymore than acquaintances. It was simply convenient to use your attraction to get a better idea of how you work.”

“I see.” Her voice cracked and Albedo turned to look at her. Tears fell down her cheeks and a fake smile plastered on her face as she put on her clothing. “I’m- I’m glad that I was at least some use to you. I, uh, I need to go. Paimon must be wondering where I am. Goodbye.”

She rushes out the door leaving a surprised Albedo alone in the lab. While he did expect her to be upset, he didn’t expect her to still treat him with such kindness. He expected her to beat him screaming at him for playing with her emotions. He felt a tinge of regret before smothering it, there wasn’t time for regret in the pursuit of knowledge. It was a necessary step in getting the data he needed. Still, the hurt expression lingered in his mind as he planned out his new routine until the people of Mondtstadt forgot about this incident.

The next few weeks, Lumine was emotionally absent. It was hard not to notice how she robotically went through commissions, taking more of them as well as bounties. Paimon noticed that what little sleep she did get on a daily basis was cut from her schedule, and that she had started eating less. Whenever anyone asked what was wrong, she would always say that she was fine. They knew it had something to do with Albedo, but he was more elusive than usual. He was the last to come and first to leave during meetings, all of his experiments now took place in Dragonspine, and his time spent babysitting Klee was now spent studying the area around Star Snatched Cliff.

One night, they had finally had enough and managed to convince Diluc to let Lumine drink in hopes that some alcohol in her system would finally get her to tell them what was wrong. He agreed, and so Lisa, Jean, and Amber took Lumine out on a girls night out while Diluc manned the bar.

Lisa was the first to prod after Lumine was decently drunk. “So Lumine, What happened between you and Albedo? You haven’t asked about him in a long while. Did your confession not go well?”

“He- he doesn’t like me in that way. I’m nothing but a specimen in his research.” Lumine takes another long sip of her drink. “He said it himself, ‘beyond my research I don’t feel the need to become anything beyond acquaintances’.”

“I have a feeling that if he had simply rejected you, you wouldn’t be this upset.” Jean stated. “Something else happened between you two. You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to, but as your friends we want to help you in any way we can.”

“Yeah! Like Jean said! We all hate seeing you all mopey and sad! If Albedo did anything to you I’ll make it my personal mission to set Barron Bunny on him!” Amber added, crossing her arms to exaggerate her point.

Lumine, touched by their words, and incredibly hammered at this point, began to cry. “Tha-thank you guys. I- after I confessed we spent the night together, it was consensual and I enjoyed it, but the morning after he admitted that he only slept with me as part of his research. I- I really thought he liked me back, but he used me! I feel like there’s something wrong with me! I feel so dumb for falling for him, Sucrose and Timaus even warned me! Am I just not good enough? I thought I had a chance, but I was so foolish for thinking I was good enough. Why would he fall for someone like me? I’m nothing but an outlander!”

The rest of her words become unintelligible babble and wails. Amber held her in a tight hug as she bawled her eyes out. Looks were shared between the three women and Diluc as a roaring rage began to burn in their eyes. How dare he use Lumine like this. How dare he play with her feelings, then cast her aside like a toy. Any sort of respect they had for the alchemist beyond his genius had dissipated in the wind.

It wasn’t long before everyone in Mondstadt knew what had happened. He found the increased difficulty in obtaining items in shops and finding people to assist him irritating but not unexpected. He didn’t care about the glares from adults, but the questions from Klee did sting.

“What did big brother do to big sis Lumine to hurt her feelings? Klee can go get Jean and see if she can help big brother make up with Lumine!”

“It’s ok Klee, I’m sure Jean and Lumine have better things to do.”

“But-”

“Klee, it's fine. How about you go play outside.”

“Ok…”

As Klee exited the lab, Sucrose came in. She had an anxious look and was fidgeting. “Master Albedo? Do you have a moment? I wish to speak to you about something.”

“Very well, what is it Sucrose?”

“Why- why did you do that to Lumine? There were other ways to get the data you wanted without hurting her. So why did you do it?”

“It was simply the most convenient way at the time, and the data I collected was easier to analyze since I didn’t have to rely on a third party. It was simply easier to get objective information.”

Sucrose clearly didn’t like that answer as her body tensed up and her face had a hurt expression. “I see. I’ll leave you be then. I won’t be available to assist you for a while. I hope your research was worth Lumine’s pain.”

She stormed off in a quiet rage and left Albedo alone in the lab. He seemed to be alone more, he attributed it to the lack of hands helping him but he knew deep down it was because Lumine wasn’t there anymore. For the second time, regret flared up in his heart before he smothers it again. If loneliness was a consequence of getting closer to the truth, then he shall make himself the loneliest man alive.

The month after the confrontation with Sucrose, he overhears that the traveler had returned from Liyue with someone. He pays this no mind until he sees her with the man himself. An ugly feeling rears its head as he sees her laughing and smiling with a green haired man. If Albedo hadn’t been so observant he would have thought the man to be annoyed by her presence, but he notices how soft his eyes look at her and how he stands in a position ready to protect her if anything were to suddenly happen. When the man pulls a fallen leaf out of her hair, the ugly feeling grips harder.

Before he can stop, he realizes that he’s walking towards them. It’s too late to turn around as they notice him. “Welcome back, Lumine. May I ask who this is?”

Lumine shifts uncomfortably in place, she turns to hide herself a little. “Oh, uh, hello. This is Xiao, Xiao this is Albedo.”

“Is he the one you’ve spoken about in the past?” Xiao’s expression has lost its softness as he looks at Albedo.

Lumine hesitates to answer the question, nervous of his reaction. “Yes… yes he is.” She grabs his arm when she sees him tense up. “Please don’t do anything, it’s in the past. I just want to forget it happened.”

“Hmph, fine.”

“I shall take my leave. Enjoy your stay in Mondstadt and a pleasure to meet you Xiao.”

“I cannot say likewise.” He growls.

As Albedo walks away, he sees in the reflection of a store window that Lumine had kissed Xiao on the cheek.  Flustered Xiao turns away, but not without holding her hand in return.

“That could have been me.” The thought stakes its claim in his mind. As much as he tries and tries, he can’t smother the feeling of regret in his heart. He loves Lumine, but he hurt her, and now he can never have her. When he turned into his lab, he sunk down onto his knees and truly let the feeling sink in. He was a genius but clearly he still had much to learn, he just wished he had realized sooner what his teacher truly meant when she told him to learn the truth to this world.

He closed his eyes and hoped that if he were to ever be reborn he wouldn’t make the same mistake again, then let the darkness consume him.

[colubrina]

Hi! so sorry if you have already answered this but like where does one start for trad publishing? Like ok I finished my book now what?? I am so confused my two braincells don't have space anymore

Oh. Oh boy.

I have an entire list of resources I put together for this: https://colubrina.tumblr.com/resources/

Each of these steps is going to have a links on that resources page

STEP 1: MAKE SURE THE BOOK IS REVISED AND READY TO GO

STEP 2: WRITE A QUERY LETTER

STEP 3: WRITE A SYNOPSIS

STEP 4: MAKE AN AGENT LIST

STEP 5: QUERY AGENTS

Some other thoughts:

1)  If you can afford it, get the Query Tracker ‘premium’ membership. It lets you see user-reported data that lets you know which agents reply to queries, which don’t, and what their usual timeline is.  Everything is slower than usual since plague, but it’s still a rough guide on what to expect.

2)  Find a friend with a subscription to Publisher’s Marketplace and research agents. Someone can say they rep YA, but if all they’ve ever sold are picture books, maybe their intentions don’t match up with their knowledge.  Data is self-reported, and really successful agents don’t always bother but it’s some information at least. Deals announced on Publisher’s Marketplace can give you a feel for what's hot.  You’ve already written the book, but I, at least, find it soothing when I can’t sell a book because there’s no market for fairy/vampire romance.  I mean, it’s distinctly possible the book still sucked, but I can tell myself it’s the market not me.

3)  Have as many people look over your query as you can.  It's a sales pitch, and writing a book and writing a sales pitch are different beasts. Being good at one doesn't mean you'll be good at the other

4) You really will be at the mercy of the market.  The first book I queried had 20 requests, the second one had four.  And two of those were referrals.  I don’t think I somehow got that much worse at writing, but YA fantasy was hot at the time and climate fiction near future biopunk was not.  Assuming your query is reasonably professional, you don’t sound terrifying, and the pages are good, what matters most to determine whether you get a request is, does the agent think she can sell this.   And also does she want to read it multiple times and talk it up, but if you’re writing in a dead genre, you’re just hosed.

5) Start writing the next book so the thing you are emotionally attached to is the new project.  This will help take the sting out of the rejections (and every book gets rejections, even ones that eventually sell at auction and become lead titles and make list)

6)  Good luck!!!

[cfmoutd2511]

I Give Up. Amanda you got me.

These three things I know for certain about outdoor recreation research:

1.    After this course, my main take away that I am certain about is how vital research is within the field of outdoor recreation. Without constant research taking place in this field, the outdoor industry would never grow or expand to be even better or reach out to more people.

2.    However, one thing I did realise is that collecting good accurate research is a lengthy process and requires a lot of patience.

3. How important qualitative and quantitative data is. I learnt about these key terms in school but never realised how central they were to everything research, or that a full textbook could focus on these two words.

Three things I am still confused by:

1.    How you know when research is accurate – no matter how big sample is it will never be able to generalise to everyone as the human population is so vast and complex. 

2.    How far you can take one research question and how many angles you can take it.

3.    Why theses seem unnecessarily long and often confusing. To me it seems like only people that understand the lingo gain knowledge from the thesises. Why don’t they tailor it more so everyone can understand what is being talked about? Also not everyone may have to patience to read through 20 pages of very small words.

Three things I know for certain about me as an outdoor recreation researcher:

1.    I prefer talking to people and gaining qualitative data over quantitative as you learn so much more about a person that way and humans are super intersting to listen to rather than looking at numbers. 

2.    However i understand privileged I am to have access to education here and have the opportunities if I want them to conduct research that is of interest to me.

3. That if i can’t write a simple blog like this one there is no way that i would be able to be anywhere near a good enough researcher. 

Three areas I need to spend time developing/learning in order to feel more confident in my skills:

1.    Asking and wording the right questions in the best way (i.e to not appear leading)

2.    Spend more time researching areas by reading articles and books, watching films and having discussions with people to learn everything I can about areas in the field that are of interest to me and gain lots of different perspectives. Most importantly develop my comprehension and analytical skills so I am ready if I do decide in the future that I want to become a researcher.

3.    Finally, work on believing in myself and having confidence in my abilities as a researcher to take action. This i do not have currently. 

I’m just submitting what I have, I know this final blog sucks but I already know I’m going to fail and I can’t do it anymore. I keep reading blogs that others have submitted and comparing myself to those that have 18 references or are really funny and cleverly written and I can’t compete. I know I can do better than this however as of right now I’m burntout, my brain is blank, and the hours and hours of looking at these blogs this past week and staying up till 3 am every night trying to write them has already caused me enough stress. I don’t know why I can’t do it but I feel very stupid, incredibly frustrated with myself and not worthy of being at university so I’m sorry.

[presumenothing]

first: do no harm

(AO3)

Dr. Mensah’s attention zeroed in on me like a well-tuned surgery bot arm. “You have medical training.”

I was going to deny the hell out of that. I really was.

And then I said: “Not recently,” instead of no or even more accurately I frankly don’t think the company’s education modules count as training by your standards. (As far as I was concerned, the only thing worse than those modules was the one on breaking bad news, but what did I know. Maybe humans actually felt comforted by those tactics they described.) (No, I didn’t think that was likely, either.)

Which reminded me of a necessary addition. “The company won’t cover liabilities related to any non-security tasks you assign me to, if that’s what you’re intending.”

Mensah made a sound that was both grim and viciously annoyed at once, which I immediately saved for further analysis and replication. “Then we’ll just have to not make any mistakes, won’t we?”

–

I hadn’t exactly been thrilled with getting assigned to this mission. Not that mining installations were much of a walk in the park, but this was just asking to turn up memories that were better off buried (preferably forever) in my organic parts.

I don’t usually pay attention to mission briefs, as you may have noticed, and I wouldn’t have this time either except that my half-assed scan turned up the fact that the team weren’t science-doctors on a survey like I’d initially assumed, but medical-doctors. On a medical mission.

Of course they were.

(I wanted to say that someone had allocated me to this on purpose, but realistically speaking the company didn’t give enough of a shit, and the universe disliked me enough that this could totally be pure chance.)

Considering all that, the mission so far had been… much less worse than it could’ve been. Though the bar for that was admittedly very, very low. Possibly somewhere in the negatives.

Anyway. Up until the whole thing with Bharadwaj and Volescu getting almost-but-not-eaten, the task of making sure no one died had mostly been the clients’ job for once, which was a nice change since they were actually competent at it.

I still didn’t care enough to read their background info, but it was pretty clear just from observing that these doctors had experience with working in less-than-great conditions, even if Ratthi did sometimes sigh wistfully about equipment they couldn’t have in field hospitals. It meant that my job had pretty much amounted to patrolling, lurking visibly around the supplies storage in case anyone got ideas about that, and helping to fetch various medical items when I happened to be there and it wasn’t Gurathin asking.

It wasn’t terrible. I’d even got some media-watching time in.

(There might have been the vague thought that things could’ve gone much better if I’d been deployed with a team like this instead of Corporation Rim fuckery that literally bled payment from patients, but part of the reason medical-use constructs had been developed in the first place was so that hospitals could draw up forty-hour shifts and other assorted fun without worrying about doctor and surgeon unions, which told you everything you needed to know about our existence.

Also, the thought was inherently depressing and I already had enough of that in my head, thank you very much.)

The contract was more than halfway through. All I had needed to do to avoid awkward questions was continue making sure no one noticed that I was weirdly well-versed in all this, which wasn’t difficult since they only seemed to have theoretical knowledge about SecUnits at best.

Then the fauna happened, and poof went my cover.

Now all of PresAux knew I was – whatever the hell you called a catastrophically failed MedUnit who got turned loose onto security, because at least if I screwed up here the press wouldn’t be as bad. And that wasn’t even getting into the hacked governor module.

Even constructs didn’t have a term for all that.

–

Of course, none of that stopped this from being a Very Bad Idea. Even if apparently no one except Gurathin (ugh) seemed to agree.

“I’m a SecUnit, Dr. Mensah. I scare people. Patients are harder to assess when they’re running away.” I thought basic logistics might work here.

“You had better bedside manner with Bharadwaj and Volescu than many doctors I’ve seen. Human ones, might I add, and not actively injured themselves at the time.” Mensah’s tone was brisk as her pace – which wasn’t difficult to keep up with either, given my vertical advantage, but impressive nonetheless. “And no one wants to be around Pin-Lee when she’s holding a scalpel. That’s what the sedation is for.”

It’s because SecUnit hasn’t seen her in court yet. Trust me, it’s much scarier, Ratthi chimed in over the feed, with the text signifier for “amusement” but not “joke”.

Pin-Lee just smiled.

It was terrifying. I wasn’t even looking directly at her.

“I don’t have a valid license.” That’d been a part of the legal fallout from the disaster on RaviHyral, though no one had actually bothered with adding malpractice charges or barring me from ever doing medicine again. (Just another side effect of being considered as equipment – I doubted the company would’ve even secured licenses for constructs if not for their paranoia about covering their asses on all fronts.)

But it was a last resort argument, and I knew it.

Mensah knew it, too. “There’s special dispensations for that, especially under the current circumstances, as long as a fully-licensed doctor is in the vicinity at all times. It’s not like any of us can actually get out of each other’s hair in this base anyway.”

Mensah had stopped in a less-chaotic corner and turned to me, not that she could see anything behind the faceplate. I fixed my gaze a generous distance to the left and let my drones do the looking.

“I’m not going to make you agree. You perform a valuable function as our security – far more than I had initially expected, to be honest, and we would all be grateful if you kept doing that. But with Bharadwaj down for the count and Volescu still recovering, we could do with the help.” Her expression was still steady as ever, even though she probably knew better than I did the risks of continuing to operate shorthanded like this. “It’s your decision, SecUnit.”

Right, just the very thing I didn’t need to hear.

I kept most of my sigh internal. “Triage and first-aid only, between patrols. No procedures, and I won’t be responsible if any patients freak out.”

Mensah nodded. “Of course. Gurathin’s on receiving duty today, how about you work out a roster with him?”

I knew it. This was a bad idea.

–––––

You’d be my guardian.

Yes. The education opportunities – most of us were trained on Preservation, if you’re interested in learning and getting your license properly this time. Or not. You can do anything you want.

–––––

ART barged its way into my feed. You’re exhibiting a mildly elevated temperature and respiration rate. Though it could of course merely be a sign of inferior processors rather than emotional distress.

Do you talk to your clients like that?

Do you? ART retorted right back, but obligingly brought up the documentation for its MedSystem before I finished the query for it.

I ignored ART’s attention (with some difficulty) as I flicked quickly through the top few files, taking in the glaring disparities from my existing data. The notable lack of suggesting costly procedures that no-one actually needed, for starters. I’m assuming some of these are your improvements on standard procedure?

I am the cutting edge of medical research, ART proclaimed. You couldn’t accuse it of humility if you tried.

I still wasn’t sure what I wanted, and I still didn’t want anyone to decide it for me. But moving towards the one thing I did want (at least in the short term) had ended up with me running into what was very possibly the most advanced and opinionated diagnosis-treatment AI currently in existence, because that was just the kind of luck I had.

I didn’t have a medium-duty surgical suite in my arms anymore, since that was the entire point of modular Unit construction, but neither did Mensah.

And I didn’t think I wanted to stop doing security, anyway, since it turned out I might not be completely terrible at it; having actual medical knowledge that was MedSystem-malfunction-proof couldn’t hurt.

Plus, overwriting those shitty education modules seemed like a pretty great fuck-you to the company. I was always interested in that.

I tagged some of the more emergency-related files, then added a bunch of the weirder injuries I’d seen on contracts, and prodded ART. Tell me about these?

[quazartranslates]

Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH32

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

-----

Chapter 32: Star Death Reality Show (XV)

"Genocide Day", just hearing this name made one feel panic, as if they were being driven to the slaughterhouse, shaking in the face of death.

"What is... Genocide Day?" Qi Leren was infected by He Yi's current solemn expression, and right now he was as nervous as he was, but he was obviously in a much better state than He Yi. He remembered to turn on the camera.

"Judging by the amphioctopus’s nature, this is about to happen, and I happen to know something. At first, I didn't think... The glowing stone was... It was a dormant octopus egg... It shouldn't be, it's impossible, how could it be... I mean, they’ve been extinct for hundreds of years. Most of the data of amphioctopuses focuses on their parasitic nature and the way the amphioctopuses spread between hosts, there’s seldom mention of what form they take in the dormant period. Their vitality is very tenacious, and if they sense that none of their common prey is active, they can go into a dormant state that can last for hundreds of years! What kind of monster have we released!" He Yi put his hand over his forehead, and his voice was hoarse.

"Would you like some water?" Qi Leren could see that his current state wasn’t good. It could be guessed that he hadn't eaten since entering this underground laboratory, and there were no clean water sources here.

At the beginning, he had felt that He Yi was like Su He, but now it seemed that they were very different. At least, He Yi doesn't have the calm and faint superiority in his stature. He was just an ordinary person, who would be scared and afraid like an ordinary person.

Stripped of the coat of a peaceful environment, he was just a panicked human being under his skin.

It seemed that He Yi had not been parasitized. Otherwise, he would have had the chance to kill him, or at least control him.

"Do you have any?" He Yi asked happily.

Dr. Lu had found two bags when collecting materials, one of which had been given to Qi Leren. Qi Leren had put in it some compressed food and a small bottle of water in a special thermos to prevent freezing. After all, there were cameras everywhere. He couldn't take them out of thin air from the item bar, so he had simply prepared a little, which came in handy now.

After receiving the food and water, He Yi took a few mouthfuls, took a few bites of compressed food, and handed it back with pain and patience: "Put it away, otherwise I can't help but eat it."

Qi Leren generously said: "You eat, I’m not hungry."

He Yi gave him a complicated look: "Save it, we have to prepare for the worst. The spaceship won’t return to this planet until… I don't know which day. We should count on this until then. Believe me, this is the safest way."

"No, we have to find a way out and tell the people outside!" Qi Leren flatly rejected He Yi's proposal.

"You can't get out. Even since I found that the standby power here was turned on, the automatic defense system here also started. There are laser traps at the exits... How did you get in?" He Yi suddenly remembered this question and looked at him with an expression of surprise.

Qi Leren hadn't understood why the electronic lock on the iron door in Jing Siyu’s basement was electrified—in fact, it hadn't been electrified the whole time, the power had only been turned on after He Yi had mistakenly revealed the corridor into the underground research institute.

"I have better reflexes than most people," Qi Leren lied without changing his face.

He Yi made a face of "Are you kidding?"

"My companion and I found the ID card, unlocked the electronic lock, and encountered some danger after entering the laser corridor. Fortunately, my reaction time was quick enough," Qi Leren said.

He Yi was silent for a while, and looked at Qi Leren with suspicious and inquiring eyes. After careful observation, he seemed to have a trace of fear in his expression: "Who on earth are you?"

Qi Leren couldn't explain.

"Are you from the military? What do you know?" He Yi's voice had an uncontrollable panic.

Qi Leren looked at him inexplicably.

"Did you know the octopus would be here?" He Yi asked nervously.

"You’re mistaken, I really am just the lead singer of a band." Qi Leren patted He Yi on the shoulder calmly and He Yi trembled with fear. "Well, don't be too nervous. It's not impossible for us to beat the amphioctopus. We won't die like the people on this planet."

He Yi looked at him with an expression that was like he had cursed him severely just now.

"Er... What are your plans now?" Qi Leren tried to forget that he had just raised a flag.

"If we stay here, we can avoid Genocide Day. Our situation here is separate from the outside world because of the long distance, so we need to wait a few more days, and when the army arrives, we will be rescued. If we go out and fight rashly and without thinking, the final result may be that we’re parasitized or killed... Do you really want to do that?" He Yi asked.

"My friends are still outside, they know nothing about the situation," Qi Leren said.

He Yi closed his eyes and whispered, "You are not the saviour."

"I know."

"You can't save everyone."

"I know."

"And you’re likely to die."

"I know all this."

He Yi looked at him: "Then why do you want to do this?"

Qi Leren was silent for a long time. For the task requirements, he had to go out to kill the octopus to earn more survival time. What's more, Dr. Lu and Du Yue were outside, so he had to bring back the information about the octopus. Even if he didn't consider these, he had to consider those innocent NPCs. Although he wouldn't sacrifice his life in order to save them, he had chosen to help them as much as possible, even if he didn't know what these NPCs were.

He had died many times and knew how terrible death was, so he was even more reluctant to see someone else die, even if it was just an NPC.

He Yi was still looking at him. Qi Leren realized that he had been thinking for too long, but he couldn't give a convincing answer. He felt that saying the truth would be a bit nauseating, so he responded to him with a saint-like smile: "Because I want to get the Best of the Day, one million dollars."

He Yi: "..............."

He Yi didn't seem to want to dwell on this problem anymore. After his mood stabilized, he told Qi Leren what had happened between him and Mark when he’d returned to the basement of Jing Siyu’s house with the axe.

"Mark's eyes began to bleed. I thought he had hit his head and caused intracranial hemorrhaging. He was scared to death. After all, we don't have any medical equipment. If the situation was serious, he would die. But soon, I found that something was wrong. Mark's eyes turned white, and he was convulsing like crazy. After about half a minute, he returned to normal and woke up. I asked him what was wrong. He didn't answer me. He looked at me with a strange look... " As He Yi recalled that look, his body shivered unconsciously." It was a kind of... waking up from hibernation. A monster's eyes."

Qi Leren’s back suddenly felt cold.

"The reason why the octopus can multiply on such a large scale anywhere in the universe is that once they parasitize intelligent creatures, they will first paralyze the brain of the host and acquire all the knowledge of the individual, including common sense, at an alarming rate. The consciousness of the host itself cannot compete with it. The terrible thing about it is that once it begins to parasitize, it learns to disguise itself. It will follow this individual's way of thinking, tone of speech, walking posture, and even micro-expressions... Only it knows that this is imitation, and everyone will think that this is the host itself."

"What about Mark?"

"There’s a process in the octopus’s parasitism. As I said just now, after entering the human body, it will paralyze the host's brain first, and over the next eight to ten hours, it will madly capture the host's body. At that time, there will be a short period of strangeness, and Mark's eyes bled during this period. Next, the amphioctopus completely occupies his brain, entrenched in it. After more than 20 hours after entering the body, the amphioctopus will develop from larva to a mature body and will begin to replicate itself. Mark was the first infected person, and the infection time was roughly before midnight on the first day..."

He Yi's words reminded Qi Leren of another thing. He asked, "What did you want to say to me when we were waiting for Mark outside Annie's house?"

He Yi gave a wry smile: "I want to say that on the first night, I saw Mark and Annie go to the church. And Janet and Alex, they’re dating... It’s too late to say this now."

Qi Leren nodded: "Go on."

"I had seen his eyes bleeding. At that time, he had already been captured by the octopus... He held me hostage and tied me up in the attic. I never thought of the reason, and wondered how he dared to do such a thing in front of the camera. After that, Mark left the attic and talked to Annie. I vaguely heard some words. They seemed to want me to be the next object of sacrifice... At that time... I... didn't understand what the sacrifice was... I thought it was a cult sacrifice... I broke the rope, found the entrance to the basement, and entered the basement through the pipe. Mark found that I had run away and chased me down. I also found explosives and wanted to kill him to escape. As a result, I accidentally revealed the passage behind the wall and entered here."

"But Annie shouldn’t be infected. I knocked her out when I searched the basement just now. If she was parasitized, she wouldn't be knocked out so easily by me, would she?" Qi Leren asked.

He Yi asked: "How did you knock her out?"

"Hitting the nape of her neck."

"Let me think about it... If she was parasitized for no more than one day, it would still be in her brain and wouldn’t have swallowed her internal organs. I remember that at this stage, it may cause the host to be unconscious for a short time." He answered, and continued, "after entering this institute, I found some information. I couldn't read the text, but the picture above linked to Annie and Mark, and I finally put everything together. But it's too late... By now, it's the fourth day. According to the way the octopuses breed, they grow and multiply each day. There is only one on the first day, then two on the second day, and four on the third day. On the fourth day, that is, this evening, their number will surge to eight!"

Eight... This was too much!

Qi Leren thought about it. It was Mark who was infected on the first night, Mark infected Xue Jiahui on the second night, and Mark and Xue Jiahui infected one person respectively on the third night, one of whom was probably Annie.

In this way, Annie was infected for only one day at most.

Fortunately, otherwise, when they had been in the basement, Qi Leren would have faced a hard battle.

Was this the use for bringing two people with EX luck? Qi Leren couldn't help but come up with such a thought.

But tonight, these four octopuses would infect four people again... The time left for him was running out.

He Yi looked at Qi Leren, and the look of horror became more and more dignified: "The octopus has another characteristic... Once the number of octopuses in a closed environment is greater than the number of hosts, the mature octopuses will give up the slow one-on-one infection and start ‘competition'."

"...Competition?" Qi Leren suddenly felt a chill.

He Yi shivered, lowered his voice, and said, "Because the number of parasitic hosts is less than the number of parasites, they will... break out of the body... and, to store energy for hibernation, they begin hunting the humans."

-----

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

[sunflowerheartsandstarryskies]

Ain’t Family Great? ~ Lucifer Morningstar x  GenderNeutral!Reader

Summary: You have come from a very religious household, and they don’t take too kindly when they heard that you are dating someone literally named the devil.

Author’s Note: I literally got this idea from seeing a dialogue prompt on Pinterest, and it just spiraled out of control. 

Trigger Warning: Curse words, some innuendos, biblical literalism, religious talk (It is Lucifer)

You were a friend and coworker of Chloe Decker, you mostly worked in the background doing research and gathering the data on the criminals and suspects of the cases your unit was working on. That is how you met Lucifer, Chloe asked you to gather information on two main suspects on a case she was working on and Lucifer was lingering on in the background.

 When you gave Chloe the information you gathered and she left, Lucifer piped up, “What’s your name? I haven’t seen you before” “That’s because I mostly work on research stuff for cases, so I do a lot of the office work and investigative work that requires me to be in a chair for the whole day. My name’s (Y/N), Chloe’s mentioned you before,” you replied with a small smile. “Ah I hope not all of them are terrible, even if I am the Devil I like to think I have a certain amount of charm,” he said with a smirk.

That’s when you first heard him call himself the devil, and if you were honest with yourself you were always curious about his name: Lucifer Morningstar. 

You grew up in an extremely religious household, which at times felt like you were suffocating from the relentless biblical literalism that was upheld in your house. You were always curious about the Devil in the biblical stories and you always found the quote by Mark Twain interesting if read in a certain context otherwise it’ll sound like an angsty emo kid trying to be philosophical. 

There was an instance where you were on a case with Chloe and Lucifer, and the killer had said, “Oh, you know that phrase? The devil made me do it? It felt like that” 

You let out a light snort at that as you immediately responded, “The devil didn’t make you do anything. Your poor impulse control and anger management, and might I add quite a horrid spectacle of internet history could certainly be a bad combination to make you do something.”

After the case, Lucifer was very curious about your statement towards the killer as you guys headed to a cafe to get some lunch together, he asks, “Why were you so against the man using that phrase? I mean I hate it because it is so demeaning, I’ve got better things to do.”

 You shrugged as you sipped your beverage and responded, “I don’t know, maybe it’s partly because of my very religious family which I have realized how much bullshit I was forced to listen to since I was born, so I guess I grew to have sympathy for the devil.” “Oh really?” Lucifer’s small smile grew to a smirk as he leaned forward, Chloe swatted him to move back.

“Not you. I don’t know you, but one of my favorite quotes about the devil is from Mark Twain,”  you commented. “I don’t think I have,” he continued to have that smirk on his face. He was very handsome but he was so goddamn annoying, you thought. “Well, it goes: ‘Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?’ Like, there’s this whole thing about redemption in the Bible and catholicism but does the Devil ever get the chance to get his redemption? No, I think God wanted a scapegoat and he got it from a rebel,” you ranted. 

Lucifer looked shocked for a moment but gathered his posture and said, “Well, you thought about this quite a bit. I assume because of your family?” You just shrugged at first, took a sip from your drink, then nodded. “Their family is very strict, I thought my family was weird but they got me beat, ” Chloe informed him. 

“They stopped talking to me, they didn’t think that I was enough for them. It hurt at first but y’know as time moves on I figured that I have better things to do than wallow in my past, so I realized I needed help so I got therapy and now I’m here,” you surmised. “Family is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? Filling us with traumas and issues since we were created,” Lucifer commented.

                                                                                                                             Time has passed between that first case with Lucifer and Chloe, now whenever they needed an extra pair of eyes they’d call on you to help with them. It was an interesting dynamic that you and Lucifer had developed over the weeks that you were going with them on cases. You were able to talk about literally anything with Lucifer, he made you feel comfortable which is odd since his persistence on him calling himself the Devil. By him associating himself with it, you thought he was supposed to be like an actual bad guy, but gauging his reaction to your conversation about your first case with them, you made a realization that because of his name people treat like the actual devil. 

One day, you went through your mail in the apartment lobby and spotted a letter that was from your hometown, and another one with the return address being your parents’ house. ‘The hell is this?’ you thought. 

When you opened the first one you found a wedding invitation that your cousin was inviting you to, you were actually pretty close with this cousin, she was really chill and she understands the conservative and religious household you used to live in. The second one was your parents’ basically condemning you from being at your cousin’s wedding, and that pissed you off. You were a grown adult, you would be damned if you’d let your parents try to control you anymore. 

You decided to go out to LUX, because if there is one person who understands controlling parents it was Lucifer and maybe he’d be able to give you the extra courage you need to stand up to your parents. You had on your favorite party outfit, and when you entered the club you could feel the thrum of energy and the bass of the music go straight to your heart. As you walked to the bar you spotted Maze whom you’ve met before when you came here out of Lucifer’s request, you waved her over.

 “What can I get for you?” She asked. “I’m sure you know what’s the best drink here, so I’ll leave that to you,” you said. You turned around to just watch the crowd and started to get a little nervous about the idea of going back to your hometown for the wedding, you love your cousin but hate your parents. So, you were at a bit of a crossroads with this. While you were watching the crowd you saw Lucifer come up to you with a big grin on his face. 

“Well, hello (Y/N) this is a surprise. What brings you here?” Lucifer beamed.

 “I actually came here to see you, to ask for advice,” you replied. 

“A horrible decision really,” he smirked.

“My cousin invited me to her wedding but my parents know and basically condemned me from going to the wedding, and I’m unsure of whether to just stay here in L.A. or to go to the wedding and just be resilient against what my parents’ might say to me,” you said crossing your arms and rubbing them back and forth. 

“Well, that sounds like quite a situation you got yourself in”

“I know, that’s why I am asking what I should do?”

“You know I’m all about that rebellion against parental figures, so I say go to the wedding and have a good time, your parents be damned. In fact, I would never say no to a party, so I could come up with you,” he added with a wink.

“Would you like to be my plus one? But please don’t start anything with my parents,” you begged him.

“I thought you’d never ask, and I can’t promise you that,” he smirked.

                                                                                                                            After, that conversation both of you got ready for travelling out to your hometown and you made sure to bring the outfits that gave you the most confidence in yourself because you knew that you’d need that. 

You admitted to yourself a while ago that you had a crush on Lucifer, he was hot as hell, always polite with you, and treated you with genuine interest and respect.  You also made a promise to not let your feelings get caught in the middle of your mission. You are going to have a good time at this wedding, congratulate your cousin and just have a good time. 

                                                                                                                            Both of you made it one piece to the hotel that Lucifer somehow booked without your knowledge, because you swore you got a cheap motel room but as you tried to convince Lucifer to let you go to your motel room, he just said, “Are you crazy? I’m the devil for a reason, darling, I got connections everywhere and plus this place is much more spacious. We don’t need to sleep in the same bed if that’s what’s making you uncomfortable.”

“I just thought you would probably be looking for hookups or something and would want your own hotel room for that stuff,” you sputtered. 

“Well if that comes to it, I’ll go to their room because I wanted to give you the comfiest place to go back to because I know how family can be,” Lucifer answered. 

“That’s really nice of you, y’know for someone insisting he’s the devil you can be really sweet.”

The hotel room was really nice, it had two bedrooms and a large tv screen in front of the dining area. As time moved on and you guys decided to decompress and relax on one bed and decided to just mindlessly watch the tv. You fell asleep and Lucifer watched you for a moment as he realized you were asleep, he put you under the covers and fell asleep next to you.

The next day you woke up to the sunlight hitting your eyes, you rubbed the sleep out of your eyes and as you took a deep breath in you smelled something delicious. You turned around and saw Lucifer cooking breakfast with his shirt half undone and his hair all curled up. 

“Good morning (Y/N), how did you sleep?” Lucifer asked.

“Pretty good, actually,” you answered with a yawn still trying to wake up.

As you both ate breakfast in relative comfortable silence, you looked at your phone and noticed the time. “Shit, we should get ready to go to the church and the party afterwards,” you told him as you got up and went to your suitcase to gather your things.

After what seems like hours to both of you, you managed to get out of the hotel room and to the church. Lucifer dropped you off in front of the church as he wanted to find a parking space for his car. As you waited in front of the church you noticed your parents walking to the church and felt your stomach churn as they were inching closer to you. Your mom looked furious and it was like her whole head was on fire how red it was. Your dad had a more quiet anger to him but you saw the clenched fists and the tightened jaw on him. You put out a little prayer to whoever to get Lucifer faster to you. 

“What are you doing here? I thought we told you to not come here,” your mother sneered.

“The last time I checked I am a grown adult and (Y/C/N) invited me to their wedding,” you stated. 

“Listen here you bitch, you are a disgrace to this family and that is why we didn’t want you here,” your mother hissed.

Before you could get another word in you heard Lucifer, “Oh there you are, love, I was looking for you.” He kissed the side of your head as he wrapped a hand around your waist and looked at your parents as he continued, “You must be (Y/N)’s parents, I’m her boyfriend, a pleasure to meet you.”

You looked at him a bit surprised and your parents’ faces were that of a gulping goldfish. “Oh, I’m terribly sorry I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Lucifer. Lucifer Morningstar,” he stated.

“Like the devil?” your father said with apprehension in his voice, he made your mom step back behind him. 

“Oh, I’m not as bad as the books say, you know,” Lucifer spoke with a wink.

“Quiet, evil one,”  your dad sneered.

“Oooh, name-calling so fearsome, “ Lucifer scoffed. He looked towards you as you were just staring at the three of them. “C’mon love, we’ve got a wedding to go to, can’t be late.”

                                                                                                                            After that encounter the wedding reception went quite beautifully, you may or may not have teared up hearing your cousin and their spouse recite their vows. When you both went to the after-party you both stayed away from your parents and they seemed to have lost interest after that conversation earlier. 

A slow dance came on while you were at the bar getting a drink when Lucifer appeared next and offered you his hand. You just raised an eyebrow at him in response and just said, “I thought you weren’t the type for slow dancing?” “Only with the right partner I find it enjoyable,” he smirked with a wink. 

You hit him on the chest playfully and replied, “How do you know I’d be the right partner?” you asked. “Ooh I’d figure you’d be good at from the first day I saw you” he quipped. “Okay show me your moves, then,” you replied, taking his hand and walking to the dance floor.

He led most of the dances, keeping you close to his chest with his hand on your back. It was nice, the rhythm of his heartbeat in your ear was very soothing as well as him occasionally humming with the song if he knew, which more often than not he did. 

You looked at him and you both started to stare at each other’s eyes. You felt your eyes flutter between his eyes and his lips, he was doing the same to you. His hand cupped the back of your head and he engulfed your mouth with his. You kissed back with as much passion, but as soon as he was kissing you it was over. That kiss left you wanting more and you subconsciously leaned in closer to him.

“Wow” you whispered looking at him. Lucifer just smiled at you for a second. “I hope you wouldn’t mind if you became my real girlfriend then a spontaneous fake one?” he asked. “I would love nothing more Lucifer,” you replied with a huge grin. “Let’s get out of here then, love,” he said as he took your hand and led you out of the building and back to your shared hotel room. This time there didn’t need to be any excuses to sleep next to each other, you just did.

[bakagamieru]

Hi! I've been feeling really down, as well as frustrated and sad these past few days and I guess I'm here for a bit of reassurance maybe? Your blog was what opened my eyes to Ziam and also to the stunt ot4 v Zayn and all that, about a year ago, so I'm quite new. Your masterposts especially have been very informative! So basically I trust your judgement in this as someone who's been here a while and gone through it. Anyway, I completely believe in Ziam along with Larry now (been a Larrie (1)

(2) a long while) and I also believe all bbg's are fake etc. The thing I still get confused about/doubt sometimes, is the whole Harry&Louis & Zayn 'feud' thing. Most days I'm sure in my heart that all the twitter fights and post-interviews being mad at Z is all fake and part of a narrative. Zayn honestly even put lyrics to a song about a fight before actual fight for fucks sake?! Also it was all so ridiculous and public, childish, etc. it can't possibly have been real. Then his 'falling out

(3) with NB in the end. Also what ELSE (if not that 'fight') could they have been mad at him for? For 'leaving' because of his health (or whatever they said was the reason)? And after all this time still being mad/or at least bringing it up? Sounds very unlike H&L too doesn't it? Then I remember rbb/sbb, and this is something I've researched TOO MUCH honestly. Some people still refuse to even admit it was there or that it meant ANYTHING. But that goddamn yellow smiley was there several times

(4) after the 'twitter fight'. Why would that be the case? Also Ziam being together, and Louis being so close with Liam and hating on his man? It just doesn't add up anywhere. Sorry I know this is just me sounding very insecure about it all and atm I kinda am. I was having a discussion with a Larrie the other day. One of the bigger blogs with a big influence and lots of people reblogged and agreed with them, when I was trying to point out how I think 1D as a 'whole' are still being under some

(5) form of contract or image clause at the very least. They said the whole contract thing is fanfiction at this point (besides Louis essentially) and the other boys are all free to do whatever. They also don't believe in Ziam or that Zayn is friends with the boys at all. Mentioned how Harry is still 'salty' about him in interviews etc etc. They are so SURE of themselves. But yeah even though I mostly KNOW I still doubt on this because of the fucked up narratives. what if H&L / Zayn really did

(7) has been a stunt? Not saying they hang out as best friends these days maybe, what with their own lives and pandemic on top of it, but do you still think they're 'family'/ot5forever'? I honestly feel like I get gaslighted even by Larries these days and it's not much fun to follow them anymore :( Seeing Harry with Niall made me smile though! Gives me at least some hope that they still are close xx //This got very long, I'm so sorry. You can answer in tags if you wish :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number 6 never seems to have made it to my inbox.  Good job numbering them, though, because I never would have realized one was missing otherwise.

Anyway, I hate to say it, but talking to Larries is a fraught prospect.  Almost all of the people who still call themselves Larries don’t believe in Ziam and it’s because they’ve never bothered to actually look at the evidence.  They don’t treat all of the boys with the same respect or interest that they treat Harry and Louis, so any time you try to convince them of a stunt related to Liam, Zayn, or Niall, they’re likely going to make their decision based on nothing but bias and refuse to budge on it no matter how much evidence you have.  Taking their word on Louis being the only one still under contract/sabotaged when they clearly don’t pay any attention to what’s actually going on with the other boys would be foolish.  You can always try to change a Larrie’s mind and maybe there should always be people that do try, but from my perspective, it’s just a depressing and infuriating situation to put yourself in.  

At best, I would have those conversations privately, especially if the blog has a lot of influence.  A blog with a lot of influence has ulterior motives to not changing their views publicly because if they do, they may well lose followers.  You may have a chance of getting them to look at evidence if you’re talking in private though.

I know the whole 1D friendship thing is hard right now because it’s been more than 5 years since they’ve really interacted.  We’ve gotten some Niam, Nouis, and Lilo here and there, but most of that is just talk even, no pics.  Because we have no immediate evidence of their friendship in front of us, all we have to rely on is interviews which we KNOW are BS-narrative machines.  It’s hard to ignore them when it’s all we have, but we should ignore them anyway because past experience has taught us just how much interviews push stunt narratives.

I would actually say the whole Narry outing recently gives us more to believe in than anything else.  If Harry and Niall hung out completely in public and we only found out about it through a picture a week or two later that could easily have never been identified by a fan, then it’s pretty likely that all the boys have managed to hang out whenever they want without being noticed, right?  Especially if they went to each other’s houses instead of to a public hiking trail.  There’s so much going on behind the scenes that we don’t have access to or knowledge of.  Zayn could have hung out with any one of the boys at any time because we hardly know where he is.  He’s almost never even on social media, so there are huge chunks of time where he’s unaccounted for.

The hiatus is hard specifically because of a lack of new information and because the status quo (in terms of the BS narrative) has had no reason to change for a long time.  I’ve said it before, but with Zayn’s situation, the only time after hiatus started that it makes narrative and business sense to reverse the “feud” narrative is leading up to a reunion.  That means we most likely WILL NOT see any improvement until a reunion approaches and with the pandemic, that’s definitely not happening this year and probably not even next.  It sucks, but the status quo of BS being maintained is what we should expect right now and just because it IS being maintained isn’t a sign of anything having worsened.  It’s just logical.  If you want to use the hype of a reconciliation to get fans excited, to sell tickets, to earn money, etc., then you need to wait until a reunion so that you HAVE tickets to sell and money to earn.

I would say hold on to the logical conclusions you can come to from the time when we had a lot of information to go off of (the OTRA tour and just after) and try not to read into anything happening now because there’s just about NOTHING happening right now and there’s just not enough data to find patterns and draw conclusions about the reality behind the fakery. 

[painted-crow]

Submission time #15

hi, how are you? you said you are busy with life so it's totally fine if you take a long time to answer me, if you decide to answer at all! if you do, i need help with my primary. i'm mostly between bird and lion. burned. i usually think of myself as a bird primary but i might actually be a burned lion.

i have somewhat of a bird primary, it's the way i process information, how i decide what to think of things, and how i adjust new pieces of information to my beliefs, if it changes anything, if it doesn't. basically, analysis. i will always need time before making decisions. i have to think things through.

but i second-guess myself a lot, and that leaves me not trusting anything. nothing is true, me and my fact-checking system aren't reliable, there are just too many biases, and external information isn't reliable either. all pieces of information are being used by people with their own agendas. and it's not just distrust. there is and there will always be so much that i don't know, that i don't have any ways of knowing. so how could i trust me, or anything.

Yeah, you're a burned Bird. This seems pretty clear-cut.

and, as for intuition. well, sometimes i take it into consideration. i don't understand a lot from what is intuition and what is not but, from what i understand, there is a fine line between impulses and intuition, and i don't know how to tell it apart a lot of the time. so, i have urges to do something, i have thoughts that come to me without being prompted and sometimes i trust what it is telling me as true. i'm aware of it, i follow it sometimes, whatever it is, and it exists, and it tempts me. it's a lot like i'm not comfortable with an internal system and i'm not comfortable with an external system. so. i don't know.

I think you're modeling Gryff, a little, but your model also seems singed.

(i might be going on a tangent here, but please bear with me. i wanted to ask if you relate to something i've been through. i like to understand things, and i need them to make sense. i'd like to see all sides of an argument before making my mind but sometimes that doesn't go well because i look for all sides and i get sucked into arguments from people who i shouldn't be listening to.

during my last year of high school, i sat next to a guy. and the guy had some really bad politics. his ideas were mean, cruel, messed up. but, the worst of all for me, there was logic attached to it. he had data. he had information. and that was a hard for me to deal with.

i didn't agree with anything he said, but i listened to him, i really wanted to understand how he saw the world, and why he believed the things he believed. so i listened to him. i was curious. i wanted to take into consideration what he said, to dissect it through my mind filters, my system, i guess.

it was also hard because i was less prepared than him, i had studied those subjects less, there were some data he had that i didn't know what to do with it, because it went against my moral code, and he was using all these information to confirm his ideas that were truly awful.

since then, i've realized a lot of things can be true at the same time, and that not all data, and not all information is to be trusted, if all. there are a lot of biases all around. there is not a lot i trust, and i'm trying to not say i don't trust anything but i also can't say i do.

See, this is really understandable. But, several things:

First, as you've noticed, it's impossible for one person to know everything. However, before you let someone's worldview intrude on yours (which has also been carefully established through your own experiences, your own knowledge, and your own common sense), you have to be aware of all the different biases that could be affecting them. You're not the only person whose bias needs to be checked, and not everyone checks their own (or even wants/feels the need to), and they're not going to tell you the holes in their argument.

Rather than studying the entirety of existence, study bullshit: learn to pick out logical fallacies and cognitive biases like the Dunning-Kruger effect, and always question the sources of others' information if it seems fishy. Just because they say it's from a reliable source doesn't mean it is, and their sources are also liable to be founts of unchecked bias. Even scientific papers can be full of it, unfortunately.

but anyways. back to my story. he said some of this outrageous opinions in the school group chat and people got really mad. some people even threatened him. then he came to school with a pocket-knife. i warned our school supervisor, and he got suspended.

Good on you, keeping an eye on him and reporting the brewing trouble without getting hurt yourself.

a few weeks later, i went to a protest, and he was there with a group of his same-minded friends, trying to block the protest. so. really. he was not a nice guy. he really wasn't. what he believed in was dangerous. it was bad. and i had known that for a while before i shut him down.

The thing with Lion is, it's got more of a built-in bullshit detector than Bird does. Bird feels guilty if it doesn't check all angles, even the ones Lion will dismiss immediately as idiotic. That's not always a bad thing, but sometimes it puts us through a lot of extra grief.

It sounds like you're starting to model Lion, and if you can turn that into an ability to ignore people who are just dressing up their propaganda in fake research, that's a good thing.

i feel really, really, really guilty. you have no idea. like i said, i've had never agreed with anything he said but i was listening to him anyway, i was letting him say all these things, and i was taking it into consideration to dissect it through my mind and i feel very bad for doing that.

No, I don't think you should feel guilty just for listening to him. Learning why people believe what they believe, even if you absolutely know it's not true, can be incredibly valuable. It can help you be more empathetic and more convincing, it can inoculate you against sliding into their worldview (assuming you're stable enough not to fall for it yourself), and it can be a real window into human nature and psychology.

This guy hurt you. Yeah, maybe you should have kicked him to the curb sooner, because he was so destructive, but he's the one who hurt you--your intentions weren't bad.

and that was just the worst situation, it isn't an isolated moment. less seriously, when i was in fandoms and i used to use tumblr a lot, i'd go to the tags of antis, anti ships and characters and tv shows and artists i liked, because i wanted to see if i could counter-argument what they were saying.

sometimes i couldn't so i'd stay in a limbo of liking something but unsure if it was the morally correct thing to do.

Oof. This might be getting into Exploded Ravenclaw territory? I should look those up again.

i still do a lot of sh*t like that. my friends joke that i like to make myself miserable and that i go out looking for reasons to stress myself. and you know, they might have a point but the thing is that this is who i am, how i am, i need to do it, it's the right thing to do, and i'll keep doing it. i just don't know how to do it in a way that is healthy, and i don't even know how to trust information anymore.)

Your Gryff model seems like a healthy way to keep these tendencies in check. You can still question things, but remember the 80/20 rule, you know? And take care of yourself: you can't make good judgments if your mental health is in the toilet.

as for the test,

I've trimmed this section for length/ease of reading, I hope you don't mind! But I did read everything, and yeah, it's more of the same: you're a very clear burned Bird with a semi-struggling Gryff model.

I hope that helps!

-Paint

[concretepavermolds]

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With the mold sides in place and the entrance latched, seal the corners with paraffin. Determine how a lot concrete to combine by the amount of the mold. After taking up each mildew, you will want to spray the fresh concrete with water whereas it is curing.

A professional contractor informed us that after all of the concrete has set, it is a good idea to do some strain washing on the finished stone patio and apply some semi-transparent stain.

The Walk Maker® can be placed on any relatively flat floor.

Concrete with plasticizers and a excessive stoop may very well have less water than a traditional concrete combine with a low slump.

You wish to take preventative measures to maintain any plaster out of your working clay, so we wanted to maintain this as contained and tidy as possible.

Toward the tip of my stone making, I skipped taping the ends together as a result of the mildew held its shape in part because I was in a position to push some extra pebbles up against the sides.

Technically, the stones will reach their full cure in three-4 weeks- which means their full power. Now you'll use the plastic bag to realize two issues, one is to mix the colors more and the opposite is to create the stone-like texture. Blend these colors into the stone and into each other the best way you might with a watercolor portray. If your pigment is a powder, then mix some water in with it.

Concrete Walkway Path Maker

Test the bleach on a small area earlier than continuing with a full-blown assault on the mould. Don't use muriatic acid; this liquid is just too sturdy and could damage the pavers, Carvalho warns. Wear old clothes and ensure to guard your eyes and face. Vollert is the leading expert associate for concrete works, building firms and property developers when it comes to trendy precast concrete manufacturing. They have ardour to produce intelligently designed plant and machinery ideas that are optimally tailor-made for you. Vollert know-how ensures economic processes mixed with an optimal level of automation. High-tech machines ensure efficient work processes from CAD/CAM-managed shuttering robots, to totally automated concrete spreader to innovative vacuum turning gear for double wall production.

Plowing and snow blowing are a catastrophe, not to mention the overall look of it. I've at all times been a big fan of stone / cement due to the low upkeep and longevity. Pressure handled lumber just isn't what it use to be anymore. Lay things out on paper, make the cuts you want , stack your blocks where you possibly can reach them, and get to work.

Continue this course of to make as many pavers as you’d like. If you want smaller pavers for sure components of your project, rigorously cut them with a specialty brick saw.