#linking on a tablet and phone is such a pain

[lefluoritesys]

A breakdown of apps you can use to communicate with your alters as separate people and write down information about them online and offline with their pros, cons, and a personal rating because I really needed it when I was new to being a system:

Note: by "PC" I mean any computer/macbook/etc. By "all devices" I mean PC, mobile, tablet, iPad, etc.

I apologize for mistakes in advance.

1. Antar: An app created to chat with your "inner self," found in both Play Store and AppStore. One of the more popular ones among systems. It is an app where you get to create personas that would be chatting with each other in chats called "sessions." Those sessions can either be given a name or just left named after the date they were created on. Each persona is given a color that would become the color of their messages in sessions. Offline app.

Pros: Fiarly easy to use, no in-depth information needed to access it fully. Biometric lock; 4 languages (English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish) for the system, however any language can be used via text; no limit to the amount of personas added (as far as I'm aware). Messages sent by the wrong persona can be changed; the "quote" feature allows you to start a thread under a message; provides descriptions of each persona. You can also give your personas an avatar rather than just a color. Has a "replay" and "visualization" feature, though I'd say it's strictly just for funzies.

Cons: Not available on PC; has no backup, phone-related resets or deletion of the app results in all information lost. Session order constantly changes depending on which senssion you entered, which in my opinion (+OCD) is a nuisance; you can't delete the "me" character which I've been wanting to do for a while. Can't add hexcodes.

Personal rating: 6/10. If you need an app that you can lock from unwanted visitors, if you don't mind and even prefer something simple, and if you don't care that the conversations might disappear, this app is a good choice.

2. Discord's PluralKit: A more avdanced discord bot with tons of settings and commands that was created specifically for systems. Allows you to add almost any information about your system memebers, even such things as birthdays. The way it works is, it "proxies" your messages with a certain command somewhere in the "normal" message, sends a message identical to yours from a bot created with the name you chose, and deletes your original message. Basically replaces a message from your account with a message from a bot you created earlier. Proxies are small commands that give the both a green light to do that, and they can be whatever you want them to be. Online bot.

Pros: Feels like different people are talking; allows you to track your switches; available on all devices; one system can be linked to multiple accounts, although you can't create multiple systems under one account; allows you to group alters together; allows you to restrict access to certain information from all users; allows you to add as many alters as you want; has a number of ways you can access the information you put in which would all be sorted and organized for you; autoproxy allows you to not proxy every message you sent; since you can't delete messages of other people on servers that are not yours, and the bot messages are not, in fact, yours, PluralKit allows you to react to the message with an emoji that deletes the proxied message; while you can't use it in DMs, you can set up commands in DMs with the bot; every memeber has a unique code, and so does the system itself, and it records when the member was created; can be exported to SimplyPlural.

Cons: Commands are difficult and complex, and so is the dashboard; can only be used on servers; sometimes offline as all bots are, though rarely; you can't use it anywhere outside discord (a con for those who don't use discord); I had instances where I saw people use it for roleplay which is also allowed; proxies are a pain; you'd need a guide to tell you why certain things are needed in it; you cannot reply to messages with gifs when using a proxy; when being exported to SimplyPlural it exports everything, so if you had 10 members on SimplyPlural and 15 on PluralKit, it's best to add those 5 manually than delete 10 new exported alters (I did it with 100+ alters by accident and it was a pain).

Personal rating: 9/10. Complex, difficult to figure out, but once you get ahold of it and how it works, you'd be amazed. Also a pain that you can't use it in DMs, but it's to be expected from a bot. And you can always create a server with just you.

3. Discord's Tupperbox: A discord bot created mainly for roleplay, but actively used by systems who cannot get along with PluralKit. A simpler bot, easy to use and figure out, most things can be done via dashboard, doesn't have the opportunity to add a lot of inofrmation. Online bot.

Pros: Simple; allows grouping alters; allows different tags for different members and groups, sometimes individually; way simpler commands, and most things can be added via dashboard; looks and works almost the same as PluralKit when in a conversation; available on all devices.

Cons: Can't add avatars via dashboard, only using the commands; can't add two alters with the same name (which you can do with PluralKit); people reported it glitching out and deleting members; mainly used for roleplay; gives a weird list of members via commands that is unusable in my experience; doesn't work out of discord.

Personal rating: 7/10. Perfect for people who just want to talk and not write down information about them with the bot, but the threat of members being deleted, especially as a larger system, is concerning. We mainly use it for OSDD-1a subsystems. It was also not created for systems, as far as I'm aware. I see more cons than pros.

4. Simply Plural: Another more well-known tool used and created for systems. Simply Plural is an app that allows you to create profiles of your members and add any information you'd like about them via custom fields. It has a chat feature, allows you to track your front and switch history, add friends, and many more. Supports endogenic systems (which is being mentioned not for discorse purposes but as a fact. Whether you find it good or not is up to you) and allows singlets to create profiles as well, although I don't know a lot about that part. Both offline and online app.

Pros (and a bit about the app): Backup included; tracks your switches and front, allows you to change exact time for them, too (24-hour clock down to minutes included); the polls feature works like polls on same Tumblr and everywhere else but specifically for your system memebrs; analytics provide information about who fronts the most, during what time of day they usually front; you and your friends can see each other's profiles, which is why singlets can also create profiles, which allows you to acces info about each other's systems; "trusted people" feature allows you to pick whether you want everybody to see your alters or not, or if you want outsiders to see your profile at all; provides resources and guides to plurality (which I personally haven't checked, but still putting it in the pros, if somebody thinks I shouldn't, let me know); has an app reminders feature; you can add as much information as you want; front history shows up in a person's profile; alters can add notes; alter groups are available; available on all devices, however, only as a website on PC; colors of your alters can be used in the chat to highlight names; hexcodes are available; "custom front" is a status you set with fronting which can be hilarious sometimes; connects to PluralKit in a number of ways.

Cons: The chat feature is a bit difficult to use, and first time I did, I freaked out because I couldn't get out of it (the trick is to go to "channels" and press "navigation", there you'll see the dashboard); friends can't communicate with each other; copy-pasting is hard on both mobile and PC; something about the interface and navigation irks me and our visually impaired self; notes have same visibility as the profile itself, which is inconvenient if you want your profile to be seen but not your notes; avatars can't be added via website.

Personal rating: 6/10. I don't like how it looks and works (probably due to being visually impaired and other issues), but if you manage to get the information in it, it's pretty accessible and thoughtful of what systems might need. Could be used as a tool to start working with your system rather than do it long-term.

5. Twinote: An app that is your "personal Twitter." Pretty sure it was created for the purpose of having fun rather communicating with alters. Offline app.

Pros: Backup provided; allows "private accounts" that other "users" can't see; can create as many users as you want, as many posts as you want; can upload up to 4 images; works almost like Twitter; has a chat feature; comments, retweets, likes are present; "lists" feature allows you to group users and see only their messages which could be used for "things only protectors sent" and such; storage shows all pictures used in the app, so you won't lose anything; tagging and following people is still an option, and following private accounts give that user an opportunity to be the only one seeing their tweets.

Cons: Can't upload videos; can't do much with anything other than posts and profiles, so trends and other stuff there is off-limits (as far as I know); you have to constantly switch between profiles for the chat feature; share button only shares the contents of the message; very easy to accidentally press the wrong button and delete a tweet by dragging it left (which I almost did a few times).

Personal rating: 7,5/10. I know it's probably annoying that I didn't just type either 7 or 8, but the reaosn why is cause I have mixed feelings about it from a practical point of view. We use it strictly to communicate what we did during the day as a small journal and just joke with each other, and it's incredibly funny in itself, but it doesn't allow you to write down a lot of information about your alters and has a character limit in profiles. So it's strictly for communication.

6. Notion: An app created as a dashboard for literally everything you could ever dream of. You can personalize it however you want and use it for whatever you want. Those who saw the post we made a while ago probably know the reason I'm mentioning it is due to a template that I linked here. Online app.

Pros: Can be used for literally everything without limits; available on all devices; big and has enough storage for a lot of information, text, projects, etc; can be designed however you want; a lot of useful templates for all life instances (even taxes); can be shared with people who also use Notion in a variety of ways (either only comment, only see, etc); can add your own custom covers and icons via both gallery and links; looks neat and doesn't mess with visual impairment for us; can add a page in a page in a page which can be used for diaries; links to different pages on other pages are also available; endless possibilities, I could rant all day.

Cons: Glitches on the phone a lot; certain things are allowed on computer and not on mobile and vice versa; all templates available only on PC; you need to have an account in order to use it; glitches if it's offline; sometimes deletes a bunch of text because of glitches, usually the triggers for it are writing a lot in it directly or erasing previous text a bunch of times; can't invite someone in your space, it would take too much storage; some storage needs to be bought, although, I don't know the limit (but there's a lot. Like, a lot)

Personal rating: 9/10. With all its antics, I love this app dearly, it's incredibly useful, and you learn to deal with the cons. It's the best one I've used for communication and information storage so far.

7. Texting Stories app: As ridiculous as it sounds, it could be used as a tool to communicate with your alters, especially in secret. We are fighting for our safety here, so I ask you to take this suggestion seriously. Could be used when you don't want to let anyone know you're a system and have noisy family members/relatives/etc who like to snoop through you personal devices, by using it, you can say you've just been doing a story. Offline app.

Pros: I believe you can add as many people as you want; can add avatars; different stories can be different days of the week; easy to use; easy to brush off as "just making stories."

Cons: Can't change colors, you need to pay for most things.

Personal rating: 5/10. Can be used for emergencies and communication only, although we haven't used it much.

8. Notes: Just the same plain old notes app on your phone that everybody has installed as default. Offline app.

Pros: Easy to use; can be easily lost within your other notes for privacy; used for literally everything you desire, even drawing; automatic backup.

Cons: Doesn't give you the ability to really present as separate people; doesn't have as many options as Notion.

Personal rating: 5/10. used it at some point just for communication, was cool, somple, easy, but nothing too big.

I hope this helped to put these apps in perspective. I do apologize for it being a bit all over the place, but I did attempt to make it coherent enough (I am currently in a psychotic state, it's difficult for me to communicate). And remember, there are always options to use a written journal rather than a digital one. If anything, it's better to keep both in case one gets lost. Who knows, maybe our parents asking us what we would do if the internet disappeared is actually a warning. /j /nm

-host

[autolenaphilia]

It's remarkable how easy Linux Mint is to use, compared to Linux's general forbidding reputation. It was really easy to set up for me who has no coding knowledge. I had to fiddle with the boot order in my BIOS a bit but no biggie. Follow the installation guide on the website, and you will be fine. You can boot from an USB too, and test out the OS before installing it and wiping your drive. Transfer data to an external drive before you do.

And you probably won't have much trouble once it is installed either. The default settings are reasonable, and can be changed. It's a very easy to use OS. I have had no problems doing most of the ordinary things I use an OS for. My most used programs on Windows was already things like Firefox, VLC media player and Libreoffice on windows, and they function just as fine on Linux Mint (and are indeed installed by default).

Gaming has given me some trouble, but honestly Lutris has solved most of them. Granted I run mostly so old games on this laptop that Scummvm and dosbox is a solution for many of them. And installing 32 bit libraries has solved others (running the command in this link in the terminal solved so many issues alone). I play very old games, if you can't tell.

Sure, part of how Mint is so user-friendly is that it imitates Windows graphical user interface. But to be honest, it does mean users coming from Windows are already used to the interface. And Mint imitates only the parts of it that work, like the taskbar. And Microsoft has had a bad habit of making the gui look like a phone or a tablet for years now, so Mint does a Windows-like gui better than Windows at this point.

Mint is better than Windows in being a user-friendly operating system in general. Windows being spyware and full of bloatware is well-known and LInux gets away from that bullshit. And just how polite MInt is about updates is a massive improvement. No forced reboots here while an update takes ages to install.

Mint is a long-term support distro, which means it focuses on stability over the latest updates to packages and programs, introducing updates not when they are first released, but after a while when any bugs have been ironed out. And that improves the OS's stability a lot, which I value over getting bleeding edge updates. If you want updates as soon as they happen, and are willing to tinker a bit to fix things, there are other distros which use a rolling-release model.

It is less demanding on the hardware without compromising functionality. Like the majority of Linux distros takes up way less space on the drive and less memory compared to Windows, you can get more life out of an old computer this way.

There are so many older computers that still function fine hardware-wise, but since the specs on that hardware are too weak to switch to a newer more-resource hungry version of Windows, the machines are abandoned because the OS ends up unsupported and unsafe to use. Windows 10 support is going to end in 2025, it might be extended, but the end of w10 support is going to be a blood bath for this very reason. So many computers can't meet the specs for Windows 11 that the switch will be painful. And I would urge you if you are affected by this to upgrade to a LInux distro instead of getting a new computer just for windows 11.

[guardian-of-fandoms]

"WHAT WAS HE THINKING?!?!"

Kade pounded against the translucent barrier, the skin of his knuckles growing white.

"He's going to get himself killed!!! He can't take on his morocco alone, he could've died the last time!!"

Charlie grabbed Kade, gently pulling him away.

"Kade. I need you to calm down, son. We'll figure this out, we'll find him."

Kade's breaths were heaving, his eyes burning.

".... Something is wrong here, Dad. Something is seriously wrong. Think about it!"

"What do you mean?"

".... He told me I- his Kade- used himself as a Shield for him. Don't think for one second I wouldn't do that, because I would. But... Why was he there at all?"

".... He should've been in the command center..."

"Yes! Why was he there? We would've NEVER intentionally brought him somewhere potentially dangerous, so why was he there?"

Charlie was stunned, as he realized Kade was right.

Something wasn't adding up.

Graham suddenly pushed past them, peering through the barrier.

"Heatwave! Are you alright?!"

Heatwave groaned, struggling, but still trapped in place.

"I'm stuck, but i'll live."

Graham frowned, trying to remember what he could about the Alternate Cody's gear.

"He let Doc and I study his equipment when we were fixing it up. That looks like the same type of EMP block he used on Blades, Chase, and Boulder earlier. It should wear off in about Ten minutes."

"We don't have ten minutes!"

Kade nodded, meeting heatwave's gaze.

"Please tell me somebody knows how to get out of here! We need to find that hothead before Morocco does!"

Dani leaned down, staring at the metal blocks generating the barrier.

The blocks were engulfed into the barrier, Dani's hand getting stung by the sparks as she tried to grab at it.

"Ah!"

"You okay?"

Blades leaned down, and Dani nodded.

"Yeah, just stung me."

Doc, examining another block, suddenly paused.

He pushed his hand against his block, before glancing over at Dani, seeing the sparks flickering from her block.

"... Dani, I believe you just found our escape! Chase, we need you!"

Chase gingerly made his way over, as Doc explained,

"The blocks generating the field all appear to be linked, and this one appears faulty!"

Dani nodded, smirking at the fading red mark on her hand.

"I get it, take out this one, and we're free."

Doc nodded, then motioned to chase.

"Chase, if you can disable the block with the right voltage, it should dissolve the entire barrier."

Chase nodded, extending his Tazers.

"I would suggest getting back."

Everyone crowded to the back of the dome, with Blades and Boulder standing in front of the humans.

Chase leaned close to the faulty block, charging up his electricity.

He let the charge built, then blasted, plunging his wrists against the block.

"AUGH"

Chase couldn't help his cry, pained from the voltage shooting through him, but held steady.

"YOU'VE GOT THIS, CHASE!!"

"HANG IN THERE, PARTNER!"

Chase steeled himself, and with a final surge, he was sent reeling back, gasping.

"Easy, buddy!"

Boulder was quick to stabilize him, Chase letting out a quiet groan of pain as his wrists sputtered and sparked.

But the block faltered, and the dome flicked, before completely disappearing.

Everyone cheered, Chase regaining his strength as Charlie patted his leg.

"Great work, Partner, you okay?"

"I am operational, Sir."

Boulder made his way to Heatwave, prying off the EMP device.

"Better?"

"Much."

Heatwave stretched, haunted by the pain in the other Cody's face.

"... I don't get it, I really don't... It killed him to do that..."

Kade came up beside him, nodding.

"Something's wrong here, and If we don't find him NOW, He's going to get himself killed!"

"Working on it!"

Doc and Graham were huddled over another tablet, when Charlie's phone dinged.

"Griffin Rock Emergency- WHAT?! Okay, Okay, we're on our way, try to remain calm."

Charlie's face dropped, the fear showing in his eyes as he relayed to the team,

"I just got a call from the school, Cody and Frankie disappeared from the campsite."

"WHAT?!"

Doc gasped in horror, nearly letting the tablet fall to the ground, Graham scrambling to grab it.

"OH, DEAR!"

"We'll find them, they can't have gone far."

There was a ding from the tablet, and Graham's face paled.

".... Oh no...."

"What, did you locate him?"

Graham silently turned the tablet screen around.

A frigid terror swept over the team, as the tracker pointed to the woods.

-

The alternate Cody's eyes were glued to the screen of Doc's tablet, the chime telling him he was going in the right direction.

The case for the EMP hung heavy at his side, forcing him to constantly shift his weight to stay steady on the hoverboard, but heavier was his guilt.

His eyes still burned with dampness, but he forced himself ahead.

No turning back now.

Not after betraying the ones he came to save.

The board wound through the expanses of the woods, the glow from the power core and his arm casting eerie lights through the dark trees.

The tablet chimed, and he scanned the area intently.

He was close.

"You can't hide from me, Morocco."

"Ah, there you are.... Who says I was hiding?"

Cody heard the voice but couldn't see the source.

He spun around in a tight circle, scanning the trees as he scrambled to adjust his supplies, the gold energy crackling around his cybernetic.

"SHOW YOURSELF!"

His glitched, garbled voice seemed to echo from everywhere.

"How fascinating.... The intricacies of another reality are oh so fickle, are they not? So similar, so different. And yet.... You were drawn to them..."

"I tried to avoid them, keep them out of this, they didn't exactly give me a choice."

"You say that now.... But we both know you were tempted. The family you lost, just as they were before they... departed."

"YOU DON'T GET TO TALK ABOUT THEM!"

He leapt off the hoverboard, his helmet opening as the gold glow in his eyes illuminated the fury etched across his face.

"YOU TOOK THEM FROM ME!!! EVERYTHING I'VE DONE HAS BEEN SO I CAN TAKE MY REVENGE, GET JUSTICE FOR MY FAMILY!!"

The snap of branches caught his ear, and he whipped around, his focus steeling at the sight of the looming figure, bathed in darkness.

The monster's piercing red eyes cast an unsettling glow across the shadows, Cody instinctively raising his arm out, letting sparks crackle along his fingertips.

"How ironic... You've devoted yourself to destroying me, and yet... We're quite similar, you and I."

"I. AM. NOTHING LIKE YOU!"

He fired a blast, the gold energy shooting through the darkness, only to collide against the monster's metallic chest as he stepped forth.

Morocco emerged from the shadows, his tall, twisted form on full display, allowing Cody to see the repairs in his frame, miscellaneous pieces of scrap used to patch the damage.

As the gold energy struck his metallic frame, his chest opened, revealing the fractured purple gem beneath the metallic plating, and Cody could only watch as his own energy was absorbed by the gem.

A garbled, glitched laugh escaped Morocco, his arms outstretching.

"Everything you've done to destroy me has only made me stronger. Just look at yourself, Cody Burns, you say I am less human for upgrading myself, but haven't you done the same?"

"Upgrades?! I lost my arm in the explosion, you CHOSE to make yourself into THIS!!! I became who I am now because it was who i needed to be to survive! You're nothing but the ghost of a madman."

Morocco began pacing, stalking through the darkened foliage, circling Cody like a shark.

"How long do you intend to play this little game? You wish to tear me apart, but tell me. Who's truly suffered in your pursuit of me? How many bridges have you burnt? You claim yourself willing to sacrifice it all in the name of my death, but tell me me, Cody Burns. Tell me which of us bears the pain from this chase?"

Cody turned, following him closely.

"I never said I don't have regrets."

"You've pushed them away, haven't you? Doctor Greene, Francine, even the Firebot. You walk a desolate, destructive path, all for the sake of one of our deaths. But out of the two of us, the only one suffering, is you."

Morocco came to a stop, looming over Cody.

"You destroy yourself more and more. But all you have done to oppose me has only made me stronger. You aid me now.... Just as you did back then."

Cody felt his blood boil, dropping the case to the ground as he hopped back aboard the Hoverboard, his helmet closing over his face.

"ENOUGH!"

He glowered, then lunged directly at him.

The hoverboard left a glowing streak behind it as Cody flew through the air, circling the artificial madman.

He pulled another black box from his pocket, and shocked it with his electricity, watching a it split in half, revealing the thick, compressed cables he'd used to restrain the Rescue Team earlier.

He dipped low, diving underneath the twisted metal arm, allowing one of the metal blocks to latch onto the arm, secured through the magnetic lock.

"You menace!"

Morocco grabbed at him, but he was able to dodge, wrapping the cables around the robotic limbs.

Cody leapt off the hoverboard, using his momentum to swing himself in an arch around the other arm, launching himself through the air, slinging a disk down at the ground with another blast, pulling himself back onto the hoverboard just as the disk exploded.

Morocco cried out in outrage, the blast and his tangled limbs knocking him forward, and he collapsed onto the ground.

Cody leapt down onto his back, his eyes hardened as he pressed his cybernetic against the metal shell.

"You have something of mine."

His arm started glowing, pulsing and sparking as he concentrated, feeling his own power within the old shell.

He let it flow through him, embracing it, feeling his energy return to him.

He didn't notice the plating of the twisted limbs split apart, tearing into the cables.

"You amuse me, Cody Burns."

Cody grit his teeth together, not saying anything as he focused on the energy.

"You came here alone.... You had the opportunity to see the ones you ache for... and you threw it away. You cast such a chance aside, a chance you will never receive again."

"This isn't their fight. This is my mission, and my mission alone."

"Such a selfless ideal... But we both know, you hide more than you admit. It kills you, does it not? To see such familiar faces... and to know... They are oblivious to what you've done...."

Cody froze.

"I assume you haven't told them, anyhow."

".... Shut up."

A snapping of cables and shriek of metal caught Cody off guard, and he cried out as he was suddenly struck by a metal arm, being thrown to the side.

Morocco ripped the cables off, his piercing red eyes fixated on the boy below him as he loomed overhead.

"You know they'd hate you, if you told them. You look at the faces of the ones you've lost and know that if they learn the truth, They'd hate you. Just as your real family would."

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!!!"

Cody struggled to catch his breath, absently dragging himself across the ground, crawling desperately towards the EMP case.

"You hate me, Cody Burns. But you will never despise me more than you despise yourself. You torture yourself every day of your life, simply because you live and they do not. Anything I could do to bring you pain, I know you will never feel more agony than the heartache you already feel."

"STOP. TALKING."

Morocco leaned down, his twisted frame leaning over the horrified boy.

"You'll never forgive yourself, because you can never forget how you've helped me."

".... What?"

Cody felt his heart jump into his throat at the sound of Kade's voice.

The rescue team emerged from the trees, Cody's heart pumping faster by the second.

"NO, NO!!! GET AWAY, PLEASE! YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE!"

Kade stood at a distance, he and Heatwave standing the closest.

"What's he talking about? What does he mean, you helped him?"

".... Don't listen to him. Please, please, don't listen to him..."

A garbled laugh escaped Morocco, the monster pulling himself upright.

"My my.... how very interesting.... By this point, i'm quite you know the fate of your Counterparts, do you not?"

Charlie nudged Doc behind him, keeping his eyes steady.

"Col- Cody, listen to me. While we certainly don't appreciate that trap you set, we can understand that you were scared, you wanted to protect us. But listen to me. Alternate Dimension or no, you're family, and we just want to help you. Let us help you get justice for what happened, you don't have to do this alone!"

Cody only pulled himself to his knees, his head bowed low.

"... I don't deserve you.... I...."

"Tell them."

Morocco cocked his head, his tone simple and flat.

"Tell them. Tell them what you've done."

"No... no please.."

Kade felt his teeth grinding together, snapping,

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!"

Cody could only glance around the team helplessly, before one of Morocco's hands suddenly split apart, revealing a writhing mass of wires, which reached out to ensnare the boy, wrapping around him tightly as he was thrust up into the air.

The team tensed, everyone trying to think of what to do, as morocco used his other hand to tightly grip Cody's head, forcing him to stare out at the team.

"Go on now, explain. Explain to them all one simple truth.... You, Cody Burns, killed your family."

Dead silence swept across the woods.

Cody went limp in Morocco's grasp, a shudder overtaking him.

Kade and Heatwave met each other's faces, as Charlie let out a strangled,

".... What..."

"I didn't want to... I didn't want to..."

Tears streamed down Cody's face, his eyes closing as shame and guilt flooded him.

"It was all my fault... It was me..."

".... How?! Why?!"

Morocco pulled his second hand away, gesturing to the woods.

"Perhaps a demonstration will enlighten you."

He snapped his fingers, and out emerged two small figures from the shadows.

"No..."

"NO, YOU MONSTER!"

Cody and Frankie emerged on either side of Morocco.

They had glassy, vacant expressions, their movements were slow.

But what stood out most, were the phones clipped to their jackets.

Morocco drank in their horror, savoring the fear and panic saturating them.

Charlie and Doc gripped each other's hands, seized by the mutual fear from seeing their children in such a state.

"... Cody?"

"Frankie, my Little Archimedes?"

Neither answered, only staring blankly ahead.

The Alternate Cody started thrashing around wildly, screaming,

"YOU MONSTER!!! THEY'RE JUST KIDS-"

"You were about their age when it happened, were you not?"

The alternate Cody thrashed about wildly, his restrains only growing tighter.

"YOU TOOK MY CHOICE FROM ME, WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TAKE THEIRS?!"

"IS SOMEBODY GOING TO TELL US WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!?!"

Kade shot a glance over at his dad, seeing him also trying to piece together the story.

"Those Phones... Madeline Pynch made those!"

The alternate Cody gasped amid his struggle.

"Wait, there's a Madeline Pynch on this world too?!"

Through her stupor, Dani nodded.

"Yeah... she used them to control the entire town once, our Cody was the only one not effected."

Something clicked inside Kade.

".... Oh my god.... You were mind controlled, weren't you?!"

All eyes trained on him, as he met the team's gaze, tears staining his face.

".... I just wanted to help you all.... My Kade and I had a bad fight... he told me i shouldn't be on the team, i got mad. I went around town to clear my head when... I saw him... And I decided that if nobody believed I could help the team, then I needed to- HAD TO- prove myself, so I followed him. I found an old warehouse where he was hiding out, i was going to spy on him, find out what he was planning, and warn my family.... But... but..."

"You were caught."

Morocco gripped him tighter, a sneer on his digital features.

"Your foolhardy mission of arrogance was destined to fail. And once I had you within my grasp, I found it only fitting to make a pawn of the boy who'd so often been a thorn in my side. And I found just the use...."

Cody would never forget his fear in that moment.

Morocco had loomed over him, tall statured even before he had traded his flesh, cold as he ordered the Moor-Bot to seize the terrified boy.

The tears rolling down his face as Morocco held out the phone, and then....

Nothing.

Even now, he remembered the static.

The buzzing in his head,

The white nothingness that had plagued his darkest hours, it haunted him.

"And now... you bear the guilt, the consequences of your actions."

Kade locked eyes with the other Cody, feeling the pain in his heart.

".... It was all my fault... It was all my fault... If i hadn't tried to prove myself... If i had listened to you... if i had just stayed out of the way... You'd still be alive..."

Morocco chuckled darkly.

"It wasn't me who deliberately crashed that loathsome hoverboard into the statue. It wasn't me who put on quite the performance over the emergency line. And... it certainly wasn't my hands on the detonator."

The team all shot glances at one another, struggling to comprehend this turn of events.

"I'm sorry.... I'm so sorry...."

His voice was hoarse, broken and choked by sobs.

Morocco leaned in close, his tone mocking.

"You were supposed to die alongside them, with no knowledge of what you'd even done. But.... You survived. The truest of irony, I suppose. You lived, and thus, you torment yourself far more then I ever could. You condemn yourself to isolation, you've set yourself upon a path of ruin, if only to justify your actions under the false comfort of redemption. You believe if you die for my destruction, then you receive some fleeting sense of absolution, a balance for the deaths you've caused."

The clawed, razor-like finger of the other hand pinched his face, tight enough to draw blood from his cheeks as he turned his head, making him stare at each member of the team, before forcing him to stare at the two children, blankly staring ahead.

"You are going to die, Cody Burns. You are going to die by my hands. But not before I force you to watch as I destroy another team right before your eyes, and only then will i end your suffering, burdened with the knowledge that one act of defiance cemented the fates of so many."

He released the claws, gesturing towards the entranced children.

"I am a man of science, and i do believe in experimentation. I've destroyed the primary members once before, and so, I remain curious."

His second hand extended in length, the sharp claws tousling the younger Cody's hair slightly.

"Will this team destroy themselves as you did, If i kill these children before their eyes?"

The bots had to physically grab their partners, to keep them from lunging at Morocco.

The alternate Cody struggled to string together a single word, his heart feeling as though it was going to burst in his chest, his lungs burning and bile bubbling in his gut.

But as he hung loose in the monster's grasp, his could move his arm ever so slightly.

As stealthily as possible, he cautiously worked his hand into his pocket, his hand closing around one of his explosive disks.

He met Kade's panicked eyes, and slowly nodded towards his hand.

Kade caught sight of the disk, his eyes widening, and Cody's eyes flicked to his other hand, holding out three fingers.

Kade understood the silent message, and glanced up at Heatwave, who'd caught the same signals.

The three of them waited on bated breath, as Cody began to count down.

Three.

Kade and Heatwave braced themselves.

Two.

Chase struggled to gingerly contain Charlie and Doc, the horrified fathers thrashing about wildly in his grasp.

One.

Blades was forced to hold Dani in both hands, Graham frozen numbly from shock, Boulder struggling to brace both Graham and Blades.

Zero.

Cody threw the disk, Morocco barely having time to process what had happened before the explosive detonated.

The monster shrieked, the blast shattering his focus, his arm jerking outward, flinging the Alternate away.

Heatwave raced into action, grabbing the alternate as gently as possible, before lowering him to Kade.

Kade threw his cybernetic arm around his shoulders, the Alternate clearly winded, having been too cloes to the blast.

He gasped and heaved for breath, one hand clutching his torso tightly as he hoarsely shouted to Heatwave,

"THE PHONES.... GET... THE PHONES.... BREAK THEM AND THEY'LL BE OKAY!!!!"

"YOU HEARD HIM, TEAM, SAME RULES AS THIS WORLD!!"

Everyone snapped to attention, Charlie sighing as Chase's grip loosened.

"THAT'S OUR PLAN!!! LET'S MOVE!!!"

Kade didn't like the Alternate's harsh breath, nor the nicks on his face from morocco's claws.

"Hey, are you-"

"I'm not important."

Despite his buckling stance, he pulled away from Kade, a determination in his eyes.

"We need to focus on your Cody and Frankie now, please."

Kade hesitated, his gut telling him that something was wrong, but he nodded.

"Let's get this jerk, for both our families."

"Let's."

Kade rushed to regroup with the others, as the Bots charged Morocco.

Cody watched him go, before slowly pulling his hand from his torso, greeted by a crimson stain.

a long, thin metal shard had just slipped under his chest-plate, piercing through his skin.

He stared at it a moment, then grit his teeth, and charged forward.

No time to loose.

[dddemigirl]

Girlfriend bought a tablet. Turns out it’s a piece of shit that cost less than $5 to make and can barely function without crashing. The government tries to entice the elderly, and the disabled like ourselves with them because “ooh cheap tablet!” because the tablet costs you $10.

The company that makes them tries to censor anyone that could possibly complain by disabling their YouTube comments section. 🙂 (this is a fake smile. A smile of pain if you will.) Do not buy devices from Qlink. Their phones are equally shitty. Here’s the site for reference:

[nights-flying-fox]

a short tidepod duo sickfic gift for @little-banjo-frog & @spacemimz :] hope you guys feel better soon!!

Word count: 1283 ☆ fandom: rottmnt ☆ ao3 link: n/a (yet)

 Leo really hated being sick. It was always boring. Especially if he was the only one who got sick. Raph would get anxious and act like a mother hen, and Donnie would never let him leave his room if it was not necessary (and mind you, it is not because Leo has to rest, it is because he’d end up spreading his sickness in the lair), and would be a snitch whenever Leo tried to sneak out. At least Splinter had the experience and always knew what Leo needed. 

 The thing was that his dad seemed to miss the fact Leo had slept the whole morning, and then the whole noon, and now he couldn’t sleep. To be honest he didn’t want to either. Being sick was bad, but staying in your room and not being able to do much was also bad. The first was okay. He read comics, scrolled on his phone and read some fanfiction, played some video games... Yeah, he had company too but... He wanted to do something other than lying down all the time! He was well enough to walk around, and he was pretty sure his sickness wasn't contagious so he should be able to leave the room, right?

 So he got up. It was slow and careful steps, mostly to not wake up others. Thank Pizza Supreme in the Sky, he didn’t cough anymore. He could just have a tour of the lair, maybe even find something interesting to do—

 “Leo?”

 He turned to see Mikey standing at the entrance of his room. He had his blanket wrapped around him, and his eyes were tired. Uh oh.

 “Don’t tell me...” Leo started.

 “It is your fault.” Mikey glared.

 “...Is this why you came here?” Leo asked. “To accuse me of spreading sickness.”

 Mikey whined, “Noooo, I can’t sleep.” 

 Leo tilted his head, “Why?”

 “Because—” He began coughing. Leo watched, feeling terrible. Maybe this was his fault, alright. After his coughing fit was over, Mikey continued. “Well, this...”

 “Eugh boi... Yeah, let’s make you some warm tea.” Leo grabbed his blanket as well. It was cold out of his bed.

 “That sounds good, but I was wondering,” Mikey was looking at him pleadingly. “Could I stay with you tonight?” 

 Leo understood his pain very well. Sickness alone was boring as heck. “Sure, but we will visit the kitchen first.” He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he pulled his blanket and walked out of the room.

 He’d consider himself fast for someone sick, considering how Mikey had yet to join him. Except he wasn’t aware that Mikey was watching him walk, pulling his plushies on the blanket at the same time. The youngest smiled to himself as he followed his brother, deciding not to say anything. 

 Eventually, the two reached to the kitchen, Leo making two mugs of linden tea. Meanwhile, Mikey leaned on the counter, watching him. As Leo poured the warm tea into the mugs, he noticed something: “Hey, isn’t that Dad’s soup?” 

 Leo looked at where Mikey pointed at. A big casserole, which Leo knew that Splinter used it for when he made one of his famous soups. “Yeah, it is...”

 “Shouldn’t he have put it into the fridge?” Mikey muttered.

 “I dunno, you are the chef here.” Leo shrugged.

 They looked at each other for a second before Mikey said “I’m reheating it.” 

 “I’m getting the bowls.”

 And so the two warmed the soup, poured it into bowls, and headed out of the kitchen with two trays of soup and tea. The slideer had yet to notice his plushies on his blanket too, so they came along with the turtles as well. 

 Leo pointed out that Mikey’s room was the closest one, so they quietly headed there. However, Leo had forgotten that Mikey lacked a bed. Good thing Mikey had unreasonably a lot of pillows. Since Mikey had even less energy and was coughing a bit more now, Leo decided to handle putting the pillows down to make a comfortable place they could sit. As he did the task, he noticed the familiar purple tablet on the ground. “Is that Donnie’s tablet?” 

 “Mmmhmm.” Mikey murmured. 

 Well, they could use this! “Wanna watch a lame movie until we fall asleep or Raph finds us?” 

 “Yeah,” Mikey replied, enthusiastic but tired. “One of the lame horror movies?”

 “No, you won’t be able to sleep.” Leo said as he placed more pillows on the ground.

 “Nuh-uh.”

 “You literally couldn’t sleep after watching those fake ghost stories youtube videos for a week.” 

 “Lies.” 

 Leo rolled his eyes. He didn’t say anything though, because he got distracted once he pulled his blanket over the pillows. “Wha- are those my plushies?” 

 “Yea, you’ve been dragging them along with your blanket the whole time.” Mikey snickered.

 Oh. Okay, Leo maybe hadn’t recovered enough, how had he not noticed that? Eh, who cared. He took them and placed them on the pillows. “Bring yours too then.” He told Mikey as he sat down and pulled the trays closer, opening space to put the tablet on. Mikey did as he was told, and then sat next to Leo. They chose a movie and drank their soup and tea as they watched it in the dimly lit comfy room. The fairy lights and the way they were lying on the many pillows sleepily really made it feel like they were in a pillow fort. It was nice. 

 Mikey eventually got into his shell, only leaving his head out to see the screen. Leo held him close, circling gently his shell whenever his brother had a coughing fit. They both weren’t feeling their very best, but it seemed that the warm stuff and the comfort helped.

 The youngest was the first to fall asleep. Leo didn’t remember when, but he fell asleep too. In the morning they found themselves in Leo’s bed, surrounded with some pillows and stuffed animals. And there was grumpy Raph watching them- no, glaring at them, sitting next to them.

 “Hey big guy,” Leo smiled. Mikey was still sleeping beside him. “For your information, Mike’s joined the sick club.” 

 “I know.” He huffed. “What were you two thinking laying on the ground the whole night?”

 “On pillows, Raph.” Leo corrected.

 Raph glared at him even more, if it was possible.

 “Relaaax, I was restless and he wanted company. I thought tea would help with his coughing, and his room is closer than mine...” Leo explained.

 Raph sighed. “What am I gonna do with you two...” 

 “Bring us a very good breakfast?” He suggested.

 “How are you feeling?” Raph asked, ignoring Leo’s suggestion. But he had smiled, so he might’ve brought them a good breakfast. Or maybe it was already on the way. 

 “Still not feeling too hot, buuut kinda better.” Leo answered. “No coughing, a bit tired tho.”

 “Yeah, good.” Raph smiled, then put his hand on his forehead. “Your fever seems to be better. But don’t you dare to leave the bed yet. Not alone.”

 “Why, where are you going?” Leo asked.

 “Didn’t you ask for breakfast?” Raph smiled as he walked towards the door.

 “You’re the best Raph.” 

 “Yeah, yeah.” Raph waved his hand. As he left, he added, “Get prepared against Donnie’s rant of careful usage of his stuff and whatever Pops has to say about soup.” 

 When Leo groaned, Raph had already left. 

 But now Leo wasn’t sick and alone. Yeah, maybe being sick was boring, and so was being stuck in your room, but hey, at least he had his family that made his days better. He smiled to himself, closing his eyes to fall asleep before his twin or Splinter paid a visit.

[acaseforpencils]

Lynn Hsu.

Lynn tells us about her methods for making her wonderful cartoons featured in The New Yorker and many other publications this week!

Bio: I worked as an architect for many years before changing paths to become a cartoonist and writer. While working as an architect, I dabbled in printmaking, painting, and humor writing, often collaborating with sketch comedy groups at ImprovBoston. When the theater shut down during the pandemic, I started cartooning, which I found therapeutic and fun, as it combined my love of drawing with humor writing. Online classes taught by Emily Flake, Amy Kurzweil, and other talented people, were incredibly helpful and inspiring. In 2022, I sold my first cartoon (below) to The New Yorker and soon after, my first Daily Shouts piece.

Find this print here! 

My work has also appeared in publications such as Alta Journal, Air Mail, Weekly Humorist, Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, WSJ, and The American Bystander (cartoon below). 

Find this print here!

While I mostly focus on humor, I occasionally write darker stories for horror and sci-fi magazines like Space & Time. Currently, I reside in Boston with my husband, twin boys, and dog, Mochi, who provides emotional support when my work is rejected

Once I have a list of ideas and rough sketches, I draw the cartoon on my Samsung Galaxy Book 2-in-1 convertible laptop. It has a small built-in pen that comes with it. My preferred app is Clip Studio Paint, which is a less expensive alternative to Photoshop. I’m still experimenting with different brushes and washes in my work. For my posture, I use an adjustable stand by Lpoake. For my sanity, I often work on the porch so I can get some fresh air and vitamin D. Mochi keeps me company and nudges me periodically for attention.

Tool I wish I could use better: Watercolor. I love painting with oil and acrylics, but I struggle with washes and hope to improve. 

Tool I wish I existed: A magic chair that heals back and shoulder pain (and also teleports you to any location in the world). 

Tricks: Not a fancy trick, but I’ve been using Google Keep to jot ideas down in an organized way when I don’t have my sketchbook with me. I can access this list via phone, tablet, or computer.

Misc: Getting feedback on your work is invaluable. Sometimes, I’ll draw a cartoon and think it’s hilarious, but then I show it to my husband, who doesn’t understand the caption or the sketch. I’m fortunate to have found a group of supportive cartoonists with whom I can share my work and exchange comments on a regular basis. Online classes and workshops are also great ways to learn a new craft and meet other amazing artists, writers, and humorists.

Links: 

Here’s my website: lynnihsu.com 

I post cartoons on Instagram:@loopyline 

For New Yorker cartoon prints: Conde Nast Store 

---

If you enjoy this blog, and would like to contribute to labor and maintenance costs, there is a Patreon, and if you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee, there is a Ko-Fi  account as well! I do this blog for free because accessible arts education is important to me, and your support helps a lot! You can also find more posts about art supplies on Case’s Instagram and Twitter! Thank you!

[cuprohastes]

Opting out of Capitalism via Other capitalism.

OK, so the Web thing is a colossal craptacular disaster in the deathslide of Enshittification, forcing poor non technical humans to have to learn to run an ad blocker to strip 80-90% of the website away to see the 10 paragraphs of AI bloated text that contains the four actual lines of content.

What to doooo?

OK, well there's a way to deal with it.

First Stage

On your web browser - Edge or Safari will do it, Chrome will with a flag toggle... use Reader mode. it'll automatically strip the Cookies dialogue, adverts etc and re-format the page to be readable text.

On Safari for iPad you can enable this globally by default then whitelist pages that you want to see in original flavour.

Second Stage

Send any link to page to a Read it Later service. Instapaper or Matter or similar and they'll make a reading list of pages for you.

Advantage: One list can be read and synced between devices - tablets, computers, phones, etc.

Third Stage

Start reading your favourite websites via RSS. Inoreader, Feedly or whatever is around: You can even keep your own RSS feed on a cloud drive if you don't like involving a third party, and run yor own RSS solution: A huge pain and only for the sort of person who has strong views about linux.

Stage 4: Tech company spite.

[dilemmaontwolegs]

All I’m wondering is how you manage to put all the links for each chapter in your series for EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER?!?! That’s a lot of work 🫡

Requesting the desktop site in your phone/tablet/ipad browser or using a laptop is the key! Copy and pasting the link from one chapter to the next works perfectly that way. Doing it on the app or mobile-friendly website is painful and I would not recommend unless there is no other option (which has been me on occasion).

[car-lozsigns]

A few minutes more (pt13)

Synopsis: You and Carlos had crossed paths more than you thought was possible over a short weekend but time was not on your side. A love story that’s about the slow burn and companionship built connection, and how sometimes right place wrong time is the best of the available options

Author Note: So I didn’t know where to cut this, it is the longest so far. maybe I’ll just keep doing long updates

Length:~7.6k

Warning: none Allusions only ;)

Previous parts: Link to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 14

Part 13

Saturday passed in a blur. Much slower than the day before, with Carlos’s plan involving a road trip for the surrounding towns, him wanting to visit the cottages and villages of centuries past. It blew your mind just how old and how long these areas had been occupied. You weren’t used to seeing buildings that had been around for more than 150 years at most and here were homes and businesses that had been active since the 1600’s. Carlos was patient and he had done his research. Each town you drove to he did a tour and recited some facts to you. He was proud to share what he had remembered in his cram session on the plane from Spain to the UK, and even more happy when you responded with the rightly timed oohs and ahhs. He also had taken precautions this time, placing in the glove box motion sickness tablets and spare water. It pained him to drive slowly through the windy roads but it was not worth seeing you in a sheen of sweat again.

Each time he stopped to get out of the car he kept pace with you, tentatively keeping his hand next to you out of his pocket showing that if you wanted his touch, it was there. You had noticed, much like the boys who you went to the cinema with when you were an early teen, hand left palm up on the armrest hoping to hold your hand. It was the third stop where you relented, the wind had dropped allowing to take off your glove and wrap your fingers around Carlos’. His hand was just as warm as it had been when he hugged you after your bath yesterday. Inwardly annoyed at your stubbornness, you could have been warmer sooner if you just swallowed your pride. 

Carlos looked down at you trying to catch your eyes as you reached out to him. Your gaze were trained ahead as if to make no big deal out of it. But it was working. Small steps was what he told himself, small steps still mean you’re going forward.

After a day out and about, the drive back was tense again. Carlos had taken the opportunity from that town onwards to hold your hand and in the car have his hand rest on your thigh. You never shirked away from his touch, revelling in how it made you feel. Each time a thought popped in your head you shoved it to the side, wanting to enjoy the moment. You will talk to him tonight.

Carlos had told you that there was an early dinner reservation so as you got home later in the afternoon you rushed to get ready. You showered and applied your makeup, blow drying your hair so it hung straight down your back. The dress your sister had packed for you wasn’t too revealing at which you were thankful, it was however slim fitting which was typical of her. You hadn’t realised how the material hugged you until you had pulled it over your head. Laying in the bed it was looked like it covered you more than it did. Of course, your sister would do this, and you hadn’t packed a spare to wear instead. You half deliberated going out in jeans but none of your shoes were appropriate for an evening dinner let alone the shirts you had chosen to bring. You didn’t look bad, the dress actually made you feel very confident but you thought it was a bit much. Dress aside, you checked your phone and saw it was just before 6 and headed downstairs ready for dinner.

Carlos had been doing a workout while you were getting ready. It was the sound of your heels that took his attention. You looked transformed, he realised he hadn’t seen you dressed up like this before, all occasions being either at work or travelling, where the outfit was based on comfort and functionality not design or image. 

He was brought back to the present by the question “Are we not going out? I thought you said an early dinner?” Carlos was confused, they were going out early for dinner but it was still a few hours away. He realised here was another of the cultural differences between the two of you. Early for him was 8.30 where he would normally eat with his friends and family back home at 10. Early dinner to you meant 5 or 6pm when you would normally sit down for a meal at 7-8pm.

“We are going out early but not until 8.30” at this you were confused, how was that early? You were normally in bed by 10 or 11 at the latest and starting dinner that late meant you wouldn’t fall asleep for at least midnight.

Carlos saw you trying to comprehend what he said and interjected when the furrow of your brow didn’t relax “I should have said early for me, at home I normally eat later but restaurants here don’t stay open late enough for that” 

You didn’t know what to say with that answer, but now you could try to squeeze in some more of your book. “Is it ok if I keep doing my session? I’m half way though” 

If dinner wasn’t until later, Carlos had plenty of time. You nodded and as he went back to his mini circuit, while you went upstairs to grab your book. 

Reaching for the novel under your pillow you wondered if your sister’s other gift would go with the dress, you not risking being caught, grabbed your whole bag and locked yourself with it in the bathroom.

You reached in and pulled out the red fabric, questioning if it would first would fit and second, not be visible under the dress. You checked the tags and it was the right size. Pulling the dress off of you, draping it over the edge of the tub, you untangled the lace and adjusted I across your body. Untwisting the last strap on top of your shoulder, over you took a step back to see yourself in the mirror. It fit perfectly, didn’t pinch or dig into your curves, accentuating but not exaggerating your shape. You’d have to thank your sister one day, it was beautiful and must have cost a fair amount. All lingerie you had trying on in the past was uncomfortable, lace itchy or would cut in a weird line leaving you wishing you had worn nothing rather than the elasticised doily. But this one made you feel confident, beautiful and it was a feeling you weren’t used to. You had stopped trying to find pieces that fit and this here was like it was made for you. Luck had gone your way so far this weekend and with a gulp you reached for your dress to see if it would work on top. It did. The dress fit better than before with the gaping at points now filled out. If your confidence had been boosted a second ago it was sky high now, anything was possible when you felt this powerful. 

Your replenished confidence simmering behind your eyes you busied yourself with your book filling the time before dinner. 

Carlos and you left just before 8. 

The tension in the car was palpable, Carlos’ cologne swirling through the car as he turned the heat up higher, noticing that although you had a coat, your dress was much too thin to offer you any protection from the cool air. Carlos could feel heat radiating off of him, trying not to stare at you dressed to his absolute dream. His remainder of the work out was not beneficial at all. He could not get you out of his head, thankful that the circuit required sprints which took him outside, away from the intoxicating aura that was emanating from you. 

He wanted the exhaustion of his body to be a distraction but finishing up his set, entering back in the house, your head buried in a book, he was back to square one. He knew you were beautiful, however he hadn’t ever paid too close of attention before now. He was pulled in from who you were as an essence of a person, his eyes always focused on your eyes, deciphering what you were to say next. Not really noticing much else if he was honest to himself. Even when stalking through your photos you sent him while in Mexico, he found himself working out what had made you smile and not what you looked like. But that was all but impossible tonight. 

He could feel the heat radiating off of him in waves, which seemed to peak as your perfume moved his way. You both were surrounded by the scent of each other, and in such a confined space, both were desperate for someone to ease the tension that had built up. 

Carlos was as distracted as you were, peeking at each other out of your periphery, both getting caught each time, but neither saying anything. You were playing a game of chicken. You gave in again first. Hand reaching across to Carlos’ thigh squeezing a little in recognition and anticipation of the evening. You had dared further up than Carlos had earlier in the day, with you closer to the crease of thigh to hip, when Carlos had been practically at your knee.

You hope Carlos could read between the lines, thumb rubbing in small circles as Carlos no longer stole a glance. Eyes on the road, thinking of the scenery, the menu, what work he had to do on Monday, the weather, anything but what that hand on his leg was doing, and definitely not what he’d rather than hand be doing. 

You knew what you were doing, something had overtaken you tonight, the confidence still there. You were egged on by tonight being your last night with him, tomorrow going back to reality. Your determination to get what you want was driving Carlos crazy. You paid attention as his body stiffened when your hand was on his jeans, grip on the wheel tight, knuckles white.

This was the reaction you wanted, you read the room correctly, you didn’t even bother hiding the smirk that spread across your face. You were having too much fun to ease up.

Carlos exhaled with relief as he pulled into a bay opposite a strip of small shop front, warmly lit with people inside enjoying dinner. As he pulled the keys out, you lifted your hand slowly off his thigh and hovered for a moment, your eyes meeting his. You moved your body closer to his, his eyes widening at what he thought you were going to do next. Your hand however did not reconnect with his body as he had thought you would but instead reached back for your bag in the backseat that you had thrown in earlier. Your eyes re-met his, glanced down at just below his belt, and moved slowly back up to his face. You winked at Carlos as you straightened up in your seat, the wink and fire in your expression communicating that you had caught him out. A deep blush spread across his face, he cleared his throat and attempted again the control himself for a second time tonight. He was at your mercy and if he had doubt before, he had his answer now. 

He exited the car and made his way over to yours, opening the passenger’s door, hand open for you to take. You took his outstretched hand as you stood up, voicing a thank you at the offer. The heels you were wearing wear a fraction taller than you were used to, Carlos’ hand providing a grounding source to stabilise you. The ground was like that outside your cabin, a mix of rough gravel and a recipe for you to fall over. Carlos moved his hand from yours to round the small of your back as you stood up and made your way from the gravel to the paved stoop of the restaurant. 

Carlos held open the door to a small historical looking building, warm lights glittering the front windows and continuing through the inside string across the walls and ceiling in thin intertwining garlands. Christmas may be over but the decorations were still up here, keeping the cosiness and traditional festive feeling much alive. Carlos approached the small raised bench area at the opening, the hosts eyes widening. Carlos had booked the restaurant under his name forgetting that this was a possible reaction. He had felt normal for the first time in years, this weekend with you by his side, but the man’s reaction was a reminder that he was not. It was sobering and any desire he had been struggling to stifle before was not extinguished with a cold dousing of reality. You were not focusing on the host, your eyes glued to the decor. You missed the recognition and transition from the Carlos you had teased in the car to work demeanour Carlos slipping into place. He avoided the awkward interaction by being humble and smiling at the young man who couldn’t have been more than a few years older than him. The man gathered a few papers and a bound book steering the way to your table. He led Carlos to a small table tucked against one of the exposed brick walls you couldn’t help but stare at, trying to take in the detail and think what else had this building once been? You were wrapped in your own world, only noticing that Carlos’ hand never left your back until you were seated, the cool air hitting the warm spot on your back distracting you from the awkward exchange between Carlos and the host. 

He tucked your seat in as you hooked your handbag on the back of the chair, lightly hitting you calf. No menu was placed in front of you, the host placing them all in front of Carlos. Carlos merely acknowledged the words on the paper placed in front of him and before the host could turn away order both wine as well as food. He didn’t want the focus to be on the meal itself , yes it was lovely but when he had called to book, he had asked if the chef could prepare their table with whatever they thought was best or fresh for their meal. Another thing that Carlos had taken from childhood is that meals are ways to bring people together, it helped if the food itself was delicious but was meant to aid the evening not be the focus of it. By taking away the option to pick he had hoped that you would focus on him instead. It was a bit selfish, he had taken you away from your home, distracted you while on vacation and spent every living minute with you that he could. Just because you were out in public didn’t mean he wanted to change that now. Was it to the point of him getting you to the sit at the table  so that your face wasn’t visible to majority of the other tables , yes , did it mean he might be more recognised , he didn’t linger on the fact. Hoping it was off season no one was paying attention to him. He had been keeping an eye on socials to see if he had been posted about, and as luck would have it, they hadn’t. 

He normally wouldn’t care, he wasn’t too much of a social media user but he had explicitly asked his social media manager to keep their eyes out if anything did surface. He was that meticulous that he had asked his friends at home to tag him in their beach getaway this weekend just so that no one would suspect him laying low in the Welsh forests.

Dinner already wasn’t off to a great start, with Carlos wrapped around how his body reacted to yours and second being recognised by the restaurant staff, the night just wasn’t going the way he planned. In his mind he couldn’t get the thought out of his system that he was being watched. He should be used to it by now, but the stakes hadn’t been this high before.

It was you who offered to wrap the evening up. You had enjoyed the night chatting at Carlos rather than to him. His attention was elsewhere, you could see him trying to dial into what you were offering him, even slipping in some jokes that you knew would have earned you a wink or a scolding if he had registered them , but Carlos’ zoned out eyes told you to leave him be. Three times you tried to pull his attention to you by placing your hand on his across the small rounded table to him. He had jolted, hot lightening through his veins. You though maybe what you did in the car was too far for you touching him now to elicit such an opposing reaction, but even you could tell that here was not the time and place to draw attention to that question so you ignored his reaction and kept talking at him, trying to make the evening seem semi-normal. 

The plates were being collected when you asked for the cheque, the host nodding, dishes in hand. You excused yourself for the bathroom, stopping to pay. Returning to the table, Carlos was in the present again as you lifted his jacket handing from the back of his chair, handing it to him. While you were paying the host had returned to Carlos asking for a photo. He had obliged as he always did, smile clipped not touching his eyes, him trying to hide irritation that you had taken the opportunity to pay while he was worried about being seen. He was glad the picture was while you weren’t there reducing people knowing about you. Tonight was a risk, one he wouldn’t take again with our explicit permission, where just for the joy of having you by his side he might have compromised your privacy and trust. Not again.

Carlos took up the empty spot on the small of your back with his hand again, guiding you away from the restaurant and potentially more prying eyes, quicker than he would like in order to reach the safety of the car. Carlos reached into his pocket but found the space empty. He looked over to you in alarm but you simply had the keys dangling off your forefinger, silently saying “looking for these” Carlos glowered at you and just held his hand out towards you to hand them over. 

You simply ignored him, striding to the driver’s door leaving him by the entrance of the restaurant. Carlos took the steps to close the gap, meeting you hip to hip at the door, “Come on YN, let me drive”. He was tired and wanted to go home and this was not his idea of a quick escape.

“No fucking chance” you laughed at him hoping to bruise his ego just a little for basically ignoring you all night.

“I don’t know what was going through your mind tonight but something must be on your mind as I have never seen a guy go from jumping my bones to a wet blanket so fast in my life.” You were pushing your luck and although Carlos may have sobered up in the restaurant, you still wanted to play. The evening wasn’t going to end how you hoped it would, but you still wanted Carlos to want you as much as you could take without giving the reprieve he lost the chance for all because he ignored you.

“I don’t know if it’s safe if you drive, considering how spaced out you were. If I distracted you again while driving I don’t think we’d make it home” you winked again alluding to a few hours earlier and that caught Carlos off guard again.

Carlos’ mouth was left slightly agape, one at the memory of you and him in the car bringing a rush of blood and heat again, but secondly, you had said home.

“Home, you said home, not cabin?” Carlos spluttered

“Home, cabin, wont make a difference if you wrap us around a tree. This dress and what’s under it is much too nice for that”.

Carlos would never crash with you in the car, he didn’t even focus on the allusion to what you were wearing, your body and his desire lost again, irritation at the insult to his driving taking up prime space in his rebuttal.

“YN you do know this is literally my job, quick reflexes remember, he hip bumped you aside trying to get position at the drivers door, like that would make any difference.

“Fat chance Carlos , now let me drive or you’re walking”

In that instance she looked like his mum, telling him off for not washing his hands before dinner or wearing his shoes in the house. Carlos knew that look and gave in, walking to the passengers side but head still held high.

You had picked his keys from his pocket on a whim, you saw the opportunity pushing that if any night Carlos would relent it would be this one, knowing the car ride tomorrow you would have next to zero opportunity to do so. Adjusting the seat and mirrors, you took off for the cabin, not exactly flying but going faster than you would if you hadn’t been on these roads all day. There wasn’t anyone about just you Carlos and the flashing countryside and you felt alive. You didn’t have a car over here, leaving yours back home and the odd times you had driven were for work with colleagues by your side. 

Carlos, was not having fun. His left hand was gripped so tight on the door handle you could see the strain of the skin across his knuckles. His other hand didn’t offer much more assurance. It rested on his thigh, but you didn’t miss the twitch it made towards the hand brake when you took one corner too fast for his liking. You weren’t barely speeding but it made no difference to Carlos, his eyes planted on the road hand ready to save the day. He was stiff as a board with stress, but he didn’t comment on you behind the wheel once.

Even pulling up the cabin didn’t relax him.

“You can let go know” eyes motioning toward his hand still gripping the handle, you stepping out of the car swishing up towards the front door, gravel no issue to you now, not with the confidence practically streaking from you in waves .

You had already kicked off your heels wine glasses in hand when Carlos made his way inside. He shook his head. You placed the glasses down, looking at him. He looked stunned, you knew he wasn’t comfortable with you driving but it wasn’t that bad surely. 

“Hey hey what’s wrong?” reaching for his hands, pulling them into yours 

“Tonight was a reality check, we’ve been here in a safe space, but it’s not safe.” Ah so the driving wasn’t enough of a distraction from his mood earlier. It was worth a shot you thought wryly. He sat down on the couch, weight of the world on his shoulders. You sat next to him, hand still in yours, offering a safe space for him to let you in.

“Dinner was a mistake, I should have asked if it was ok with you, it was close, the host asked for a photo while you were at the counter , it was wrong of me taking the choice away from you to whether you want this, I took you going to dinner as a yes, but I should have asked first and I am sorry YN”

You nodded at him, you had thought that going out was enough of a yes too, but hearing Carlos’ concerns made you feel bad for teasing him tonight. 

You had learned a few things tonight. Carlos wanted you, desired you and that was so strong that he was concerned about the ramifications of you being with him. Carlos was not only private but he fiercely protected the privacy of those he cares about and that was now you, tonight was confirmation of that. What you thought was Carlos being a wet blanket and not paying attention to your obvious flirting and advances was him trying to protect that privacy, and she had read his reaction wrong. 

The carefree evening was long gone, but it was the time to discuss this. Carlos had put it off and the reality check was the push he needed to communicate the last piece of the puzzle he had kept hidden.

You didn’t even need to press him on the matter. Carlos started, albeit slowly, describing his last relationship and what had happened to her, how she was treated, and how it eventually led to such a strain that they decided to end things. They were both young and weren’t as cautious as he is now, being caught a few times out in public doing things that were better left to the privacy of their home. Carlos himself did not mourn that period of his life but didn’t want history to repeat itself with you. He would do everything he could to keep you from being chased, hounded, stalked. And if you hadn’t reached for your bag and moved closer to him in the car… it was history repeating himself and Carlos was going to make sure it didn’t end so poorly this time.

“I would do anything to make sure that you are protected from that, until you are ready.”

You understood, seeing him, digesting his worries, pulled Carlos into a hug. 

“Put it from your mind, we will take each day as it comes” Carlos didn’t pull away as you tried to break the embrace but only pulled you tighter, twisting you so that you were not longer opposite him but resting on him, head tilted back onto his chest, your legs between his, his arms still locked around you. Being in Carlos’ arms was so soothing, even though he was the one who needed support at this moment. You couldn’t help but feel at ease as he relaxed with you in his arms. The silence wasn’t loaded. It felt significant, the last piece of Carlos’ wall tumbling with each rise and fall of his chest on your back. So soothing that you found yourself being rocked gently into a lull, sleep close.

“I want to just stay here” you mumbled, sleep slowing taking hold. Carlos understood what you had tried to say, the words you couldn’t yet say. He too wanted to stay in this moment forever. Tonight had been a rollercoaster of emotions for him. As tumultuous as it was he was not going to forget this moment, you in his arms for the first time, him putting his whole trust in you. He loosened one of hands from round your chest to gently tuck a few loose strands of hair off your face. 

Carlos lightly kissed the top of your head resting on his chest. 

“Me too YN, me too” Carlos could hear in his own voice the poignancy that filled it. Both of you unsure of what the weeks and months ahead would mean for the two of you. All you heard was the desperate longing in Carlos’ voice. You took the leap, last dredges of confidence pushing you to go before it disappeared. 

“I really like you Carlos, but I want to do this correctly. I know how much is at stake, I don’t want to fuck it up”

You hoped Carlos understood. You really were falling for him, but love scared you, especially with someone who already cared for you so much more that you had allowed yourself to feel for him. Once again as if reading your mind Carlos gave you another light kiss to your head sensing that you needed reassurance.

“I know, whatever you want Y/N, I’ll be there for you, however long you want me to be here I will be” Carlos offering up his heart to you for you to decide. He hoped that you stay, and he had all the time in the world to wait and convince you. Carlos, lost in his own thoughts of the two of you, hadn’t realised that you had fallen asleep on him until he heard the soft snoring. As peaceful as you looked, he wasn’t too comfortable, but what’s one bad night’s sleep if he was able to hold you in his arms. Not knowing when the chance would present itself again, Carlos held you a little tighter and whispered “ I love you” making use of you dreaming to set off another train of overthinking and alternate realities in his head. 

*******

The light streaming in from the windows woke you up. You had fallen asleep in the living room and hadn’t have thought the previous night to swing the curtains across to shield the light now peeking over the valley in front of you . It was just as stunning as when you had hiked in person. You were a little surprised to find yourself on the couch though, in a different position to what you remember but still in Carlos’ arms. He had shifted you both sometime during the night so you were both laying down, fitting perfectly against each other. His knees behind yours, chest flush against your back his arm wrapped over the top of your shoulder, loose from where it would have been wrapped across your chest. You hadn’t felt so loved for such a long time, the emotion connection you had craved for so long keeping the warmth between you. You blinked the sleep from your eyes and focussed on Carlos’ deep breathing behind you. 

You decided that you will do whatever it takes to make this work. You had tasted the love and support Carlos could offer, and it was too tempting to walk away from. You rolled over to face Carlos.

Your stirring had woken him up, both of you still dressed in last night’s clothes, bras wire digging into your rib, Carlos’ jumper twisted around his chest. He was the embodiment of beautiful, sleep still a heavy fog, he like you did tried to blink away the dream of last night. Which only made you smile how in sync you had become. As he cleared the last of his dream, what he saw wasn’t too far from where he had been dreaming of. You were in his arms, facing him with affection covering your features. 

“Good morning “

“Good morning” 

He pulled out a numb arm and stroked the side of your face. He had renewed hope ,which had made him bold, he pushed himself up a little so that you weren’t craning you neck to look up at him anymore. He traced your jaw, fingers lightly brushing down and guiding up to outline the soft curve of your lips. Your eyes were flickering between his eyes and his own lips. Carlos was stunning in the morning, his feature brushed in the warm sunlight of dawn, the rays accentuating every little detail and bathing it in gold. You extracted you hand from the blanket he had pulled over you both. You reached up and placed it on the side of his face, mirroring his actions. This was the moment to leap.

“May I?” you offered to him

“Always” Carlos offered in return

Carlos’ hand had stilled on your jaw as yours had still on his. You looked between his eyes and lips again and closed the distance between you, letting the tip of your nose slightly touch his, affording one more moment to allow him to pull back if he wanted. With a quick intake your lips barely pressed against his. Wanting to keep this moment sweet, Carlos had moved his hand from your jaw to the nape of your neck, holding you close pressing you forward to show that he was ok with more pressure. You deepen the kiss slightly and at his Carlos moved into you removing all distance between you. It was better than what he wanted, he could taste the care, taste the emotion, taste the importance of the moment. It searing into his memory, one that he would have and would use to bring him out of the dark times ahead. You had chosen him, and Carlos couldn’t have been happier. 

Carlos could feel his body responding to you, and ended the kiss with a final peck before giving himself some distance. You offering this to him was not his opportunity to go beyond that. He didn’t want to leave your embrace but needed to remove himself from the vulnerable position he had found himself in.

You were glad you had waited for that moment with him, but now you were awake, you too were aware just how close you were. You could feel Carlos’ response to your advance and became acutely aware of how you would not in the condition for anything beyond a quick kiss. You could feel last nights makeup crusting between your eyes , and prayed it wasn’t smeared everywhere, hoping that your breath didn’t smell from a night without brushing your teeth. You pushed up away from Carlos, excusing yourself for a shower, making your way upstairs. Carlos waited until he heard the water system kick in before he tried to relieve the tension that the heated moment had caused. Both of your showers so far had been long so he was in no rush, however the risk  of being caught like a teenager was too high so he was quick, eager to have a shower himself and a coffee. 

You revelled in the heat of the shower, unwinding your shoulders that were stiff from the unconventional nights sleep. You, unlike Carlos had a clear mind, you hadn’t had clarity to this extent since you had decided to move away from home. It was like you were watching the potential futures play out in the swirls of steam, each more fantastical than the last, but none genuinely surprising you. You ordered which future you wanted while you washed your hair and lathed a loofa with soap, scrubbing both scalp and body until you couldn’t not be cleaner if you tried. As you turned your shower off you could hear something drifting up the stairs. You quietly slipped on clothes more suited to a long drive and crept downstairs. Carlos was talking quite animatedly to his phone, talking much louder than needed. He looked like the way you did when you were arguing with your sister. He saw you out of his periphery, smiled briefly and pointed to his coffee cup, silently asking if you’d like one. You nodded and went to sit on the couch , fully twisted round watching his speak in a quick fire Spanish.

There looked like two people moving on the screen of Carlos’ video call. You heard a female voice respond back to what Carlos had apparently asked, and a deeper male voice chiming in. They sounded older and you figured parents over friends. Carlos moved from the living room to the kitchen, careful to keep the screen close enough to his face so that his surroundings were discernible. You though back to what he said last night about privacy, and thought that he was doing this for you, keeping you separate until you were ready to meet his parents and your heart swelled to the point of bursting like it had during your kiss earlier. The coffee machine whirred and once finished Carlos , phone in one hand your coffee in the other handed the mug to you. Carlos had let the screen drift from his face just enough for your hand to be seen reaching for the mug he offered. At this a higher pitch message was spoken over the phone, accompanied by a bunch of shushing from his dad.

You didn’t need to understand Spanish to know what his mum had asked, the blush on Carlos’ cheeks and the hurried shake of his head confirmed it. Is that a girl there? Or some iteration of the question.

Carlos’s side glance gave him away, setting off quick queries, triggering Carlos to say goodbye and hang up, embarrassment emulating from him.

“Parents giving you a hard time? “

“Ah yes, I told them I was spending time with friends and my mum was asking about it, however I didn’t know that she had found out I wasn’t with my friends in Madrid. She called to get me to tell her where I was and I’m not very good at lying to my parents. My dad knew where I was but she worked out I was not at where I normally stay, and you reaching for the coffee made her ask if someone was there, and does she know them. I said no but she knows, she always knows.” He looked down at your hand grasping the mug. You had a ring on your pinky and your nails were painted a soft pink. Ahh, yes, you could see how he couldn’t hide his mum’s questions.

You could see Carlos trying to work out what to say, cogs whirring .

“So how persuasive is she?”

“Well, when you were with your family I was with mine” yes, his family was in Mexico while you were in Australia. “I was talking to my dad about you, don’t worry no names, and he’s much like me, can’t hide the truth for too long from those he cares for and my mum when she wants to know something is extremely determined. I knew it was a matter of time, but she all but got me to say where I was, I care about you YN as much as my mum wants to know who I’m with this weekend, I’m not ready to share you just yet. But me hiding you just then was the last thing I should have done. I’m not looking forward to going back home.” 

“I thought you had work in the UK this week?”

Carlos smiled, you missed nothing, he’d have to be careful around you like he was with him mum, you’d catch him out in a lie before he’d even thought about what he’d fabricate. 

“I do, but only for a few days, I’m flying to Madrid on Thursday night and will stay there until preseason starts in February . Maybe I should just stay in the UK until February, she might have forgotten by then...” he trailed off seriously considering if he could stay with you to avoid the millions of questions from him mum. His dad would be able to help reduce them but it would be still more than he’d want to answer.

“Where do you work again?” you raised

Carlos’ brow furrowed a little “McLaren YN, haven’t you been listening “ he joked as he gently pinched your arm.

“No no Carlos, where, like location, spatial, physical building ?” Recognition flared across his expression, 

“Oh let me pull up the address” 

Carlos opened his phone and zoomed into where his work was. You looked at the map it wasn’t that far from where you were. Before you could stop yourself, lips moving of their own volition, 

“Did you want to stay with me? You’re not too far and there’s a tube stop right by you could use?”

Carlos, like yourself nodded before he registered what he was doing. Was it going to be practical him staying in London and commuting to work, no. But you had offered your home and he was not going to say no to what you asked. Hell if you asked him to move to Norway he’d say yes. Could he ask Lando to get him from the train and they arrive at headquarters at the same time. Yes, Lando would help him out. Lando had been trying to set him up all last year and if he asked this favour Carlos knew his teammate would be his wingman, he would make it work. 

You were glad Carlos had agreed, extending your trip to a few more days with his company. But in your mind this was a second test, not one you had consciously made but important none the less. The talk about boyfriends and settling down was a common topic when you were around your mum and sister. Unlike a lot of your friends you hadn’t had a lot of relationships, the ones you had though had been fleeting, serious but knowing they wouldn’t be there for a long time. Which you were ok with at the time, but seeing your sister with her partner and mum and dad grow old together, it was what you wanted. They had both settled quickly with their respective others. Your mum working with your dad for a few months before they were engaged, and then married within a year of meeting. They had now been happily married for 28 years. Your sister, not as quick as your mum, but she had met her partner through friends, and after dating for a year we’re engaged and now married for 3 years. The same pieces of advice always came from them, you’ll know when it’s right, and when you do if you can, holiday with them, live with them and see how they are with friends and family as you’ll see who they are in each of those situations and if you don’t like them in one of them, decide if you can live with that or not. If you can you’ll be able to work through anything, if not, know that there might be a tough decision to make.

In your family there was no timeline for love. Your friends had dated their partners for years and they were still unsure, you didn’t see how if after a decade together you could still be unsure. You would have had the time to know if they were for you in a year like your parents, not ten. 

Unconsciously you had now ticked off the holiday portion off that list with Carlos, and then these next few days you’d tick off the living portion. 

The rest of the morning was more rushed than you both wanted. Falling asleep on the couch last night meant that neither of you had packed and you had to checkout in a few hours. So you both were effectively scrambling, keeping an eye on the clock making sure you hadn’t missed anything spread across the cabin. Carlos surprised you at how efficient he was, he had clothes and gym equipment spread everywhere, his bag was empty when he had started, however he had neatly packed and gathered everything before you had even finished folding your clothes. He wasn’t lying when he travelled a lot for work, and by which had taught him to pack very quickly, a skill you thought wryly would be nice if it rubbed off onto you. 

Carlos tried to stay out of your way. But you spent so long on your suitcase, he went to clean downstairs hoping to pass the time waiting for you. The kitchen cleaned, food packed and car packed and you still were upstairs. Carlos rounded the corner as you hauled your bag from your bed over your shoulder, looking up at him making your way to the door to leave. Carlos, ever the opportunity seeker, caught the shoulder strap and lifted it off your shoulder, pressing a kiss to your cheek, pride swelling in his chest as you huffed at his chivalry. 

You had a last check of the cabin making sure nothing had fallen behind the couch or tucked behind a door, and with a satisfied nod grabbed the keys from kitchen counter to lock up and leave for one last time. 

It was Carlos this time who recognised the moment as a potential core memory . Lock placed in the lock box, you turned directly Carlos’ chest , he had stood right behind you wanting the catch you .

Surprised but happy to be this close to him again, Carlos moved one hand to snake around your back holding your arm close to your side. His other arm reaching out , phone in hand, you moved yours to mirror him, resting on his hip. Carlos snapped a few pics, capturing this moment. You could tell, like Carlos that this weekend was the start of something new together. So you reached up,  looking at him no the camera,

“Take one of this”

You cupped one had on his cheek and reached up, your kiss this time, open mouthed deep, but brief. Stepping back , hand back on his hip, saying,

“And one more then we go”

Carlos listened to your instructions. He had been taken aback by your kiss, but remembered to press the camera shutter, and again afterwards, both your faces flushed with love. His spoken but not heard, Yours unspoken but understood. 

Neither of you could see how happy you were in that moment, but you made a note to grab Carlos’s phone to send them to you on the drive back. 

Never one to be too serious, you creeped your finger tips below the edge of the puffer vest and shirt Carlos had over him to blocked out the wind. Your cold finger tips garnered a yelp from Carlos as they pressed again his warm skin, at which he swatted your hand away, laughter ripping from your chest. The car ride back was going to be much more fun than the one a few days ago.

Part 14

[worldofgoo]

yayayay yippee (≧◡≦) i love how vibrant & lively your art is, i think my fav pieces are Horse Surgery & hanyuu (even tho i have no idea who that is) but that one wip with the rainbow is also v ery special 2me because it reminds me of my fav kind of weather ^_^ generic Which Program Do You Use question & also which programs have you tried so far? which one would you recommend for someone whose only experience so far wiht digital art has been scribbling in ms paint -_-? on topic, what do you draw with (mouse, phone, drawing tablet, ??) & was it easy for you to get used to digital art? i always get overwhelmed by the amound of different functions available so im not sure where to even start, any advice? which physical art forms do you like / would you like to learn (anything at all, i personally have been getting into air dry clay... well actually ive been using my sisters playdoh but maybe ill purchase smthn fancier :3) & final question how do you come up with poses to draw? your characters (+creatures) seem very animated and i really like that :)

HI okay i guess ill answer these in a list. actually will put it under the cut since i ended up saying a lot (and dw i enjoy being able to talk a lot so thank you!)

-THANK YOU im glad some of my more recent works (in my more current style) are appealing 2 people! like i wanna draw my own way even though i think it gets less notes... the higurashi fanarts (hanyuu and shion) r very memorable pieces to me because its when i started doing the loose sketches with the thin lines and block colors and thats the direction i reallyreally wanted to take my style in. also the rainbow is rian my friend rian

-i draw in paint tool sai! the only program i used before that was sketchbook pro, which i didnt like because the brushes were kind of... blurry/smudgy? sai allows you to zoom in and draw pixel by pixel which is something i like, and i like the way it does its blending. its also just easier for me to understand. i didnt pay for it i think i found some deviantart page that had the link, id have to find it again

-i draw with a wacom intuos tablet! its lasted me... almost 10 years now. ive heard newer ones are poorer quality in terms of at least the nibs needing to be replaced constantly, so idk what the most recommended tablet these days is. ive drawn with my mouse and tbh it caused awful hand pain so i would not recommend this. i draw on my phone with my finger sometimes but i find doing it on my laptop easier, however it is doable once you get used to it

-the way i got into digital art... well. i still have an archive of my earliest art if you wanna see! i was 14 n just drew random shit, often lining over doodles i did on paper and coloring them in. i think esp if youre overwhelmed start with making like throwaway experimental pieces, scribble around, doodle stupid things and color them in with different brushes and see what you enjoy. and then you can just keep the files to yourself if they dont look too good or maybe itll look interesting, it depends i guess haha. the other thing that ive always found helped me was telling myself id draw every day even if it was a little scribble or the tiniest amount of work on a wip bc getting a habit going helped my art a Lot beause it helped me spend more time thinking n focusing on it

more specific advice for sai that i found useful- using clipping groups & the preserve opacity functions are both lifesavers in terms of not spending so much time trying to color in the lines. if you color in a base layer you can just put everything above it as a clipping group and just not worry about it anymore. i also really like using the filters (like multiply) to mess around with the colors a drawing has, though sometimes its more effective to just select a layer/individual color and fuck with the hue/saturation/etc until it looks good. when i color, esp when its not turning out how i wanted to, i rely on shifting colors A LOT. n also mixing colors together using a blending brush and then colorpicking the intermediate color. very useful

-for the most part i stick to uncolored pencil doodles on like, notebook paper (even though i have some fancy supplies X[ one day) but i LOVE making things with clay, wish it was more accessible to do at home. i have a handful of clay animal statues and stuff that i made in my ceramics class in high school. would looove to do more

-because my poses tend to be very pushed/cartoony using references of real people isnt always useful (though obv knowing the basics of anatomy always helps) so in those cases ill use other cartoony art i like as inspiration, i try to see what i like about their poses nd emulate that with my own. sometimes when im struggling ill just do a bunch of studies where i copy art i like to try to get a feel for what im missing. mostly ive realized i like when the pose conveys some level of like, volume and taking up a 3D space (which im still definitely not a master of but bullshitting it can be fun). and i also like to have a balance of curved and angular shapes. sometimes i try to just do a pose that conveys a specific emotion or i just make shit up lol

alsooooo i cant reccomend aimless doodling enough! just random shapes, turning the random shapes into creatures, trying and trying and trying different ways to draw something until you like it, i feel like the things my hand makes when i shut my brain off and just scribble can inspire me as well, and i try to emulate whatever i made by chance while doodling. and if your doodles turn out better in traditional i tend to consider using a photo of a drawing as a way to skip the "preliminary sketch" phase nd drawing a rough sketch over that which i then use for my drawing (or just directly color since i draw very fast/lazy...)

[rigelmejo]

I’ve been mentioning HeavenlyPath, its a wonderful site that has a great FAQ for learning to read chinese and how to go about the process here: https://heavenlypath.notion.site/Reading-Tools-Tips-and-FAQ-b4d287ad630c439fb8978d33b06c1b00

Within the article it mentions some things I’d like to point out:

Reading apps that work well for learning chinese are Pleco’s reading tool section (probably the best single app for reading/looking up chinese words), and Readibu (links to a lot of webnovels for easier browsing). There’s also more free options listed, including ones for computers instead of phones/tablets. I’ll add that Mandarinspot.com has a good free copy/paste Annotation Tool which can include pinyin for beginners (and can be bookmarked to use on any site by going to the site then clicking the bookmark), the app Idiom is free and works as well as LingQ, zhongwen extension is a good quick click dictionary for browsers, and in a pinch you can just use Google Translate on phones or computers by highlighting a word/sentence and clicking ‘translate’. MTLnovel.com has traditional chinese text raws it can show directly under Machine Translated novel text if you make a free login, and that’s the quickest way to make a rough parallel text if you want to have a rough ‘english translation’ already made and handy. bearlang.app is a new site that popped up that can generate line by line translations (it’s using deepl or google translate based on MTL quality) and is also a quick way to make a rough parallel text translation ahead of time.

If you don’t know what to read: go to HeavenlyPath’s site book lists and browse by genre and difficulty then follow their links to read the novels, go to qidian.com, jjwxc.com, or go to novelupdates.com (where people link to novel translations) and find novels of shows you’ve seen and liked/linked similar novels/people’s rec lists they’ve made and copy the chinese name then paste into a search engine with “小说在线” xiaoshuo(novel) zaixian(online). You’ll quickly find a site hosting the novel you’d like to read (which is often just qidian or jjwxc). You can then use your reading click-definition extension, google translate, mandarinspot.com, Pleco etc to read. To read in something like Readibu, copy the url of the novel then click the + sign for “New Bookmark” in Readibu and paste into there to read in the Readibu app. 

If you want to read a print novel you already have or bought: open Google Translate (then use Camera and aim at physical book page or Import from a picture you took of a page) or Google Lens app (and click Translate in the lower left then aim at physical book page), or use Pleco’s OCR reader. Google Translate/Lens will work in a pinch but not be super great translations, Pleco’s OCR will work better but be more sensitive to needing a decent image. If the book is not too much higher than your reading level, try to type the hanzi by guessed-pinyin or use the ‘write’ option on your phone’s chinese keyboard or Google Translate’s ‘write’ input option to get the hanzi for the unknown words on your phone. Then you can copy/paste and look up the words in the place you find easiest. Another alternative is to find an existing english translation of what you are reading (either an official print translation or someone’s translations linked on novelupdates.com) and just compare to the translation as you read the chinese when you get lost.

HeavenlyPath’s FAQ gives example reading samples for each of it’s difficulty levels it uses to rate novels. I highly recommend reading through this section to figure out where you’re current extensive reading level, intensive reading level, and reading pain level would be. The FAQ also mentions that if you’ve been reading a while your vocabulary may no longer line up to their ratings and to HSK levels (which I found to be true for me), so to gauge each new text based on amount of unique characters and how many unknown words you’re running into after that first couple chapters of new-story-introduction. 

Again, HeavenlyPath’s novel links list can be found here: https://heavenlypath.notion.site/Webnovels-Books-29ee006777bd4d9fbbd0ea5eb29ec514

For myself, I find I am mostly reading at their Upper Intermediate Level, some novels at that level are easy for me to extensively read and others would give me a decent amount of new words but not more than probably 10 a chapter. For the Intermediate level, some are easy for me and some are hard and it depends on genre because where my vocabulary is weak my reading level for that genre is bad lol (so its still useful to read some Intermediate stuff). And it looks like for me, pushing into Advanced novels would put me into ‘intensive reading’ where I run into a lot more unknown words (and some would put me into reading pain). Which matches my experience: I can read a few ‘advanced’ level novels that I’ve already learned a lot of words from (which i guess dmbj would be maybe and zhenhun definitely is), but new novels like 破云 I can only follow maybe the main idea of what’s going on and everything else is a pain for me to parse unless I’m using a dictionary. 

[unogeeks234]

SUCCESS FACTORS APPLICATION

Essential Factors for a Successful Application

In today’s crowded digital landscape, a well-designed and functional application is essential for businesses and individuals. Whether aiming to reach more customers, streamline operations, or share your project with the world, a successful application makes a difference. Let’s dive into the key ingredients that lead to app success:

1. User Experience is King

Intuitive Navigation: Users should easily find what they need within your app. Design a clear hierarchy of information and use standard navigation patterns.

Effortless Interactions: Make actions and form-filling as simple as possible. Minimize the number of taps, clicks, and data entry needed.

Visual Appeal: A well-designed interface with a pleasing color scheme and appropriate typography can significantly increase user engagement.

2. Performance Matters

Speed: Nobody likes slow apps. Ensure fast load times, smooth transitions, and efficient resource use. Optimize images and code and streamline backend processes.

Stability: Your app should be reliable and crash-free. Thoroughly test across different devices and operating systems to catch bugs before users do.

Responsiveness: Your app must adapt gracefully to various screen sizes, from phones to tablets to desktops.

3. The Power of Value

Solve a Real Problem: Does your app address a genuine need or pain point for users? The more value it provides, the more likely people will use and recommend it.

Stand Out: Research competitors and identify your app’s unique selling point. What makes you different and appealing?

Target Audience: Tailor your design, functionality, and marketing towards a well-defined audience. Understanding their needs is vital.

4. Accessibility for All

Screen Reader Compatibility: Enable users with visual impairments to navigate your app easily. Use proper labeling, structure, and alternative text for images.

Keyboard Navigation: Ensure that all functionalities can be accessed using a keyboard for users who cannot use a mouse or touchscreen.

Clear Contrast & Text Size: Accommodate users with different vision needs by providing sufficient contrast and adjustable text sizing options.

5. Marketing and Visibility

App Store Optimization (ASO): Use relevant keywords, compelling descriptions, and eye-catching visuals to make your app stand out on app stores.

Website & Social Media: Create a dedicated landing page for your app with clear messaging. Promote it effectively on your social channels.

User Reviews and Ratings: Encourage positive reviews and respond to feedback, showing that you’re dedicated to improving the user experience.

Additional Tips:

Regular updates: Address bugs, add features, and stay current with platform updates. This shows users you are invested.

Analytics: Use analytics to understand user behavior, identify pain points, and optimize your app over time.

User Testing: Get feedback from real users throughout the development process to identify areas for improvement.

You can find more information about  SAP Successfactors in this  SAP Successfactors Link

Conclusion:

Unogeeks is the No.1 IT Training Institute for SAP  Training. Anyone Disagree? Please drop in a comment

You can check out our other latest blogs on  SAP Successfactors  here - SAP Successfactors Blogs

You can check out our Best In Class SAP Successfactors Details here - SAP Successfactors Training

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[lantrnmarketingdailyprogrmmes]

lantrn marketing

There are various ways to grow your business, but with advancing technology, ‘digital marketing’ is the new trend. Digital marketing enables you to grow your business while sitting in the comfort of your house or without needing to physically interact with your customers. Finding the best digital marketing agency to promote your brand can be tough, time-consuming, and a difficult choice to make. This is where Lantrn marketing comes in. Lantrn Marketing is one of the best digital marketing agencies in Hyderabad-India, and we provide our services all around the globe. To save you the pain of not being able to reach your target audience and promote your brand, we are here to help you. 

To start, let’s explain the basics. 

What is ‘Digital Marketing’?  

Digital marketing is a form of marketing that uses electronic devices and the Internet. The Internet is a global platform and not just limited to your locality, hence when you use the Internet to promote your products, brands, etc. it will be known as digital marketing. Typically, digital marketing refers to marketing campaigns that appear on computers, phones, tablets, or other devices. Digital marketing services have many forms such as online videos, display ads, SEO (search engine optimization), emails, paid social ads, social media posts, text messages, etc.  

Tools used in Digital Marketing 

Digital marketing has tools which are used to promote your brand and they can be divided into several categories and all of them have their qualities or uses. Those types are;   

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)  

The motive of SEO is to get your company a higher placement in Google search results, which will increase search engine traffic to the company’s website. To achieve this, SEO marketers research trending words and phrases the audience is using to search for information online, and then use those phrases and terms in their content.  

Now, what are some things which can improve a site’s SEO?  

Note that, one of the things which make SEO a challenge is that everything depends on the search engines and their present algorithm. Here are a few of the most important things SEO marketing strategists in general understand about how SEO works in the present day: 

Content indexing 

Content indexing is important, it allows the search engines to “read” clearly what the content of your site is, by doing things like adding text transcripts for audio or video content or adding alternative text for images. 

Good linking structure 

Note that, search engines can “crawl” your website structure to find all content on your site easily. An SEO professional can do many things to properly format URLs, links, and sitemaps to make them easily accessible to site crawlers. 

Keyword targeting and keywords. 

Properly using your keywords – i.e. the search phrases or terms you want your website to be found for, then the use of those terms in your content and headers is one of the important building blocks of SEO. It’s not good to stuff your content with those keyword terms and phrases. Such as, suppose your keyword is “Best digital marketing agencies in Hyderabad”, you cannot go on spamming it in the content you are writing, instead writing good quality content that consists of those terms a few times in a crawlable page will yield better results.  

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) 

Paid advertisements and promoted search engine results refer to Pay-Per-Click.  This is like a short-term type of digital marketing, which means that once you stop paying, the ad will also stop existing. PPC is another way to increase search traffic to a brand online just like SEO.  

PPC refers to the advertisements you usually see on top or sides of a page of your search results, browsing the web, ads appearing before YouTube videos, and ads in mobile applications. One of the few things which differentiate PPC from SEO is that you only pay for the results yielded. And in a classic PPC model like Google Adwords, you pay only the cost of the number of clicks and visits on your business website. There is also a variation in the cost when you use words that are highly trending or when there’s more competition for those terms in SEO and, when there’s less use of those terms. You also have the option of deciding where you want your ads to show up, be it local, a specific geographical location, or all around the globe.  

Social Media Marketing 

Everything a business performs through social media platforms is social media marketing. Almost everyone in today’s date is pretty much familiar with the use of technology and social media. Now Social media marketing goes way beyond just creating content for social media channels or responding to comments. To yield better results, the efforts being made must be consistent and coordinated rather than just an afterthought. Social media marketers need to keep in mind that they must work with the company’s broader marketing team to keep their message coordinated across all platforms. Social media professionals must also create strategies based on a thorough analysis of the performance of their posts. Social media marketing is way more complicated than just managing your profile on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter (now known as X).   

[rocksaltandmountainash]

Waking up in Beacon Hills - pt. 23

* Author: Ellie @rocksaltandmountainash​

* Summary:  Derek cares for Kara while she recovers from her injuries and everyone prepares to fight the Nogitsune. Set during Teen Wolf season 3, episode 23.

* Previous parts: can be found here.

* Warnings: descriptions of injuries. Chris Argent is a heart breaker.

* Gifs: not mine, credit to the owners/creators linked here: 

One | Two | Three 

* Word count: 2.4k

Derek drives you home in silence, politely tries to ignores the sadness emanating from you. He’s gentle when he helps you down the entrance to his loft. Patient as you have to turn and step awkwardly, try not to bend your knee too much. Leads you to his bed on the main floor so you don’t have to negotiate the staircase. 

Feeling grateful, you apologize for the intrusion and then settle on the mattress. He’s pulled an end table closer, set it up with tissues, a water bottle, and a phone charger. The thought and effort bring a smile to your face.

When you sit, the tiniest movements cause searing jolts of pain to shoot through your thigh, making you gasp. Derek kneels in front of you.

“Does it hurt?”

“Yup. But I got these…” you pull the brown package of medications out of your bag and read the labels “Advil, Amoxicillin, and oh…Tramadol…nice.”

“You shouldn’t take those on an empty stomach.”

Derek heads to the kitchen, bustles around, trying to be as quiet as possible. He returns and bashfully hands you a sandwich.

“Hope it’s okay? Ham and cheese?”

It shouldn’t make you tear up, but it does. The kindness. The shy way he’s looking after you, the napkin folded neatly on the side of the plate. Because as much as you can’t admit it, you really need someone to be nice to you right now, to care. 

Everything hurts, your wrist is itchy inside the brace, your neck is throbbing and you can detect a headache settling into the base of your skull. There’s a ringing in your ears and your leg is switching between thrumming with pain or tingling numbness. The lunch that Derek has made for you is your favorite, but with stomach tied in knots, you're uncertain if you can even take a bite.

And then there's your heart, which you're pretty sure is broken.

Fuck.

You choke back a sob that threatens to break through. Derek moves closer, ready to siphon off some of your sorrow.

“Can I ask you something?”

Derek agrees instantly but regrets it, anxious you’ll ask for relationship advice.

“Do you feel it?”

He doesn’t respond, unclear what you’re asking.

“I know you can sense when people are in pain. But do you feel it…all of it?”

His eyes go wide. No one had ever asked him that. No one ever cared if he said yes. 

“Sometimes.” 

“Huh…And when you do the thing?” you gesture hands being held together, and Derek nods, realizing you’re talking about when werewolves take people’s pain.

“That sounds awful.”

Derek turns away from your sympathetic stare, he hadn't thought about it in a long time. It has become expected, conditioned in him to help. Seizing the moment, you cram the corner of the sandwich into your mouth. You shove the water toward Derek to hold, understanding his need for busy hands, while you pop the tops off the pill bottles. 

“I don’t want you to do that for me.”

Taking back the water, you tip your head back and swallow the tablets. Derek’s troubled by the thought he’s overstepped the bounds of your growing friendship. He wasn’t skilled at this; closeness, friendship, always his way to be too much or not enough. 

“Let modern medicine solve this one, Derek.”

Smiling softly, you remind him, “Not everything’s on you.”

You hope he takes your point. Recently, guilt has raced across his face, and you’d caught the unreadable glances between him and Chris when he picked you up. Something happened, you don’t know what, but you know it’s not his fault. You guessed the Nogitsune had its hooks in him. In a perverse way, the fact dulled the anguish you felt. Helped to melt the icy touch of failure burrowing its way into you.

Derek lets out a brief sigh, uncomfortable with your caring, and promptly shifts the focus of the conversation back to you.

“You should rest.”

You hum in agreement. Derek busying himself with moving things off the bed while you unlace your boots, dizzy when you’re done, the warmth of the pain pill flooding over you. You let him tuck you in, mumble a “Thanks.” as you roll over. Asleep before you can even think to ask what your friends are doing, where they are in the search for Lydia.

The urgent pings of your phone wakes you, and you grope around the bedside table to bring it to your face. With one eye still closed, you read messages from Stiles, long paragraphs filled with apologies that make you bolt straight up in the bed. You dial his number, need him to hear you, can’t waste time on texts that risk being misunderstood.

“Hi.”

It comes out sad, and it makes your heart stutter.

“Stiles. Don’t be a dick. It wasn’t you.”

He’s silent while he processes, his heavy burden only slightly lifted at your familiar, no bullshit tone. But still hesitant, with a lingering doubt that you had forgiven him. He can’t fathom that to you, there was no cause for forgiveness.

“Stiles?”

“I’m here.”

“How are you?”

“I’m alright.”

Only half awake, you’re blunt; “Are you lying?”

“Maybe,” he confesses, knows there’s no point in trying to hide the truth from you.

“Put me on Facetime.”

You wait as he presses the button, his face coming into view.

“Right. Listen to me. It’s going to be okay, you’re going to be okay.”

“But you don’-”

You cut him off, anticipating what he’ll say; that you can’t possibly know that. He’s right, there aren’t guarantees. Still, you’re adamant as you remind him about the Darach, how your healed wounds had reopened without reason, weeks after it attacked you. That they’d returned to scars once Jennifer had been dealt with.

“Weird shit happens with these things Stiles. They get in your head and fuck with you, but I swear, you’ll be better soon.”

His mouth tugs into a faint smile. The knowledge he still has you, that you harbour no hatred toward him, alleviates his fears.

“When he’s dead?”

“Yeah, kid. When we kill it.”

Stretching in Derek’s bed, you consider what strength it’s going to take to get up. Hopeful that Derek won't mind the fallen crumbs, you munch on the rest of your sandwich.

Outside, the last of the daylight is fading away, bathing the loft in a washed out yellow glow. It’s time. If the others haven’t found Lydia yet, the Oni will lead you to her and the Nogitsune.

You need to get ready, had meant it when you told the Nogitsune you’d kill him. Your determination to fulfill that promise had only grown after the sharp bite of the blade piercing your flesh, narrowly missing your bone.

You take a few more Advil, gulping down water before taking a few tentative steps. It aches, but you’re not as dazed or unbalanced, and the buzzing in your head has dissipated enough for you to concentrate on the job ahead.

You rummage through the bag Allison had brought to you in the hospital - fresh clothes, your wallet, a set of knuckle dusters, plus a box of ammunition. Bless her. You wonder if Derek has weapons, your Desert Eagle and a few knives don’t seem enough. What you wouldn’t give to be holding the Winchesters’ demon killing blade right now.

Abruptly, the loft door slides open, Derek rushing in and depositing someone on the couch. You hadn’t even noticed his absence, though you can’t blame him for not sticking around to watch you passed out.

“Ugh,” you can’t conceal your hostility when you see who’s he’s dragged in with him. “What happened?”

“Not sure. Someone tried to kill them.”

"Should’ve left them," you mutter unkindly, distracted as Argent enters the room, hauling the other twin, “They killed Boyd.”

Chris tilts his head in greeting, but avoids your gaze, wiping black stained hands on his trousers, as Derek pulls him away.

“Like you’ve never killed anyone.” Aiden, or Ethan, you don’t care which spits your way, making you realize you had spoken aloud.

"Happy to add two more to the list," you say dismissively, your attention shifting to Derek and Argent's animated conversation.

“I found these.”

Derek produces spent shotgun shells from his pocket as you join them, clarifies for your benefit, “They’re filled with wolfsbane.”

“Oh.”

Possibly it’s the grogginess of your concussion, but you’re oblivious to why he’s surprised. If hunters were after the twins, it makes sense for them to be armed and know tricks of the trade. It was an added complication that you absolutely didn’t need right now, but surely not a reason for Derek to panic.

Hearing your phone ring, you shuffle toward the bed, one ear still trained on their discussion.

“This wasn’t Araya, was it?” Chris asks.

“I don’t think so - they don’t look like hers.”

You’re too slow, and your phone rings off before you make it over to the nightstand. Frustrated with your limitations, you round up your gear - gun, knife, ammo, get stuffed into your bag, phone clutched in your hand. Glancing over to where Chris is studying the shell further, something in how he spins it round and round, eyes narrowing as he examines it, piques your interest.

“It’s not possible…”

Shit. He’s definitely disturbed. But if it’s not the Nogitsune, or finding Lydia safe, it’s not your priority.

“It was Allison,” you tell Argent, waving the phone as you return to him and Derek, “Should I call her back?”

There’s no chance for him to reply before his phone starts, and he smiles at the picture instinctively.

“Allison.”

You only hear Chris’s side of the exchange, his hurried demands for her to wait for him. She won’t. Says there isn’t time and hangs up, leaving Chris shaken.

“Go,” Derek urges, “I’ll keep an eye on them.”

Chris nods, strides to the door.

“Wait! I’m coming.”

You trail behind him, in a lagging pace, desperate not to slow him down. He spins and starts to object.

“Please.”

A single plea - the rest are wordless. Please, let me help. Don’t shut me out. Please, let me be useful. Let’s go get your girl, let’s find Lydia. Let me fix my mistake. Please, let me kill him.

He says nothing, just steps back to allow you to pass. Almost lays a helping hand on the small of your back before remembering.

Chris starts the car, tone clipped as he asks “Can you check the map?”

“Course.”

You navigate out of downtown and direct him towards the rural road that leads to the Oak Creek camp. Then you stop talking and start chewing on your nail, calculating how much time you have, if he can beat the Oni there.

“Sore?” Chris asks, drawing you from your thoughts.

“Drugged.” you smile over. It’s so automatic to tease him, makes you swallow hard with regret.

With determination, he keeps his gaze fixed on the road ahead, his jaw clenched tightly as he fights back the urge to pull over and beg for forgiveness.

He presses, acquainted with the way you deflect concern; “Honestly... Are you okay?”

"I'm good," you promise, the confidence in your voice genuine. The combination of sleep and medication has worked wonders, reducing the pain in your leg to a level you can cope with, manage as an inconvenience. Still nauseous and a barely audible, far off drone echoes in your ears, but that’s a concussion for you.

Your reassurance calms him, and you spot his grip relaxing around the steering wheel. Feel glad you’ve not become a hinderance. The satisfaction brought by reading his moods so effortlessly is bittersweet. You want to detach from your feelings for him, spare yourself the agony.

You sneak a glance, guessing at his thoughts. Suspect he must despise you for what you said and how you hurt him, right? Unaware of his struggle and his talent for compartmentalising, you wonder how he’s so okay. Think you may have distorted the entire thing between you. “Relationship” seems like a stretch. And if you weren’t together, then ending it wasn’t exactly a break up.

Oh.

It dawns on you the situation might be worse than you thought. That just like with Sam, you had misjudged and made the same mistake. You thought you had discovered a kindred spirit, but it turned out that the bond you imagined was one-sided. That’s why Chris is being so unnervingly civil with you. He pities you. You’ve never felt so pathetic.

Sighing, you shake your head, deciding to prepare yourself to fight the Oni instead. Focus on something you can unravel, something you’re good at.

You begin with breathing exercises you’d learnt long ago, a habit to centre yourself. Rotate your wrist in the brace, testing your range of motion, before removing it altogether. The sprain isn’t serious, and you’d prefer not to signal your weakness to an opponent. You think of ways to compensate for your shaky leg.

Thankfully, you’re a southpaw, so your default of having your right foot forward would serve you well. You’ll have to dampen your instinct to move constantly.

You’d usually lead with your right - jabs and hooks - work them around the ring and follow up with left crosses - your strongest swing. But with your leg mangled, movement and shifting your stance could tire you out prematurely.

As you visualise, a tremor of excitement passes through you, muscles twitching in anticipation.

You’ll adjust, be more defensive, plant yourself and take the hits. It’s vital to make your punches count and inflict the most damage you can. The Oni’s masks were unyielding, rendering headshots pointless so you’ll wear the brass knuckles and go straight to the body. Powerful crosses, you might throw in a couple of bolos where you can, they always hurt. A few kidney punches for good measure.

It's akin to dancing, makes you sway in your seat as you envision the fight. Bob and weave to dodge the Oni. A few pulls to get them off kilter, counter and keep your head up. Pushing and driving to the part you love the most. Wild brawling. Training and skill going by the wayside, moves unsanctioned. Brutal. Glorious.

* * * * *

You were too late.

Allison.

[kapeefit]

How Melatonin Impacts Your Menstrual Cycle

The menstrual cycle is an intricate hormonal process that can be influenced by various factors, including sleep and circadian rhythms.

Melatonin is a hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles and has recently been discovered to also play a role in regulating menstrual cycles. 

In this article, we’ll explore the connection between melatonin and the menstrual cycle.

And how melatonin levels impact period regularity, and natural ways to optimize your melatonin levels for a healthy, regular cycle?

What is Melatonin?

Melatonin is often referred to as the “sleep hormone” since one of its main roles is to control circadian rhythms and induce sleepiness.

It is produced and released by the pineal gland in the brain, with levels rising in the evening and falling in the morning. 

Light exposure, especially from blue light like that emitted by electronic devices, suppresses melatonin production.

Darkness allows the pineal gland to secrete more melatonin, making us feel sleepy. Hence melatonin is part of the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle.

Beyond regulating sleep, melatonin acts as a hormone throughout the body.

It interacts with estrogen, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and other hormones integral to the menstrual cycle.

How Melatonin Levels Impact Menstruation

Research over the past decade has shown that melatonin deficiency can have profound effects on menstrual health.

Insufficient melatonin is linked to:

Irregular, inconsistent menstrual cycles.

Absent or infrequent periods (amenorrhea).

Heavy, prolonged periods.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Having optimal melatonin levels, on the other hand, is associated with regular, timely menstruation.

Let’s look closer at how exactly melatonin impacts the menstrual cycle:

Promotes Ovulation

Melatonin interacts with key reproductive hormones like estrogen and gonadotropins to promote ovulation.

Studies have found taking supplemental melatonin can increase progesterone levels and help induce ovulation in women with conditions like PCOS.

Regulates Estrogen

Estrogen rises and falls at various points during the menstrual cycle, stimulated by FSH and LH release.

Melatonin helps synchronize this hormonal activity. Low melatonin is linked to estrogen dominance which can cause menstrual irregularities.

Provides Antioxidant Support

Melatonin is a potent antioxidant that helps protect eggs and follicles from damage by free radicals.

It supports a healthy ovarian environment needed for ovulation and menstruation.

Controls Inflammation

Melatonin has natural anti-inflammatory abilities. It prevents excessive inflammation from disrupting menstrual cycles and causing symptoms like painful periods.

Manages Stress Response

Stress can suppress our reproductive hormones, but melatonin blunts the hyperactive stress response.

This helps counteract the menstrual irregularities stress can trigger.

As an integral regulator of female reproduction, optimizing melatonin levels is key for menstrual cycle regularity, hormonal balance, and fertility.

Natural Ways to Optimize Melatonin for Menstrual Health

If you’re dealing with irregular, painful, or other difficult menstrual symptoms, focusing on improving low melatonin levels can help get your cycle back on track naturally.

Try these tips:

Get More Morning Sun Exposure

Spending time in sunlight as soon as you wake up signals the brain to reduce melatonin production earlier, allowing levels to rise sooner at night. Aim for 10-20 minutes of morning sun.

Avoid Blue Light Exposure Before Bed

Blue light from phones, tablets, and other electronics inhibits melatonin release.

Avoid screens for 1-2 hours before bed and shift to calmer activities like reading or meditation.

Take Melatonin Supplements

Studies suggest 2-6 mg of melatonin supplements before bed may support menstrual cycle regulation. Consult an ayurvedic doctor for dosage guidance.

Increase Tryptophan-Rich Foods

Tryptophan amino acid is a precursor needed to produce melatonin. Eat tryptophan-rich foods like nuts, seeds, tofu, oats, beans, lentils, and tart cherry juice.

Apply Ayurvedic Herbs

Herbs like amalaki, ashwagandha, and Brahmi used in Ayurveda can balance hormones and increase melatonin levels to re-regulate menstrual cycles.

Follow an Early, Consistent Sleep Schedule 

Keep a fixed bedtime and wake-up time that allows for 8+ hours of quality sleep to support melatonin’s normal rise and fall.

Manage Stress through Yoga and Meditation

Lowering stress and anxiety takes pressure off reproductive hormones so melatonin can work properly. Practice yoga, meditation, or pranayama daily.

Avoid Alcohol, Smoking and Drugs

All of these disrupt melatonin release and production, potentially worsening menstrual problems. Limit or eliminate entirely.

Optimizing melatonin levels takes a holistic approach - one that combines sleep hygiene, dietary changes, stress management, and the right supplements.

Ayurveda offers time-tested wisdom for using this multi-pronged approach to balance hormones and restore menstrual regularity through melatonin optimization and other natural rhythms.

Consult an Ayurvedic Doctor for Personalized Recommendations

Every woman’s menstrual issues and melatonin needs are unique. Get customized advice on improving your melatonin levels and regulating your cycle through Ayurveda’s tailored protocols. 

Kapeefit offers easy online Ayurvedic consultations with experienced doctors.

Who will evaluate your specific hormonal imbalances and health history to provide diet.

And lifestyle guidance, herbal supplements, and other remedies that work for your body.

Get started by booking your appointment today for natural, effective solutions to optimize your menstrual cycles through Ayurveda’s wisdom.

[divinetrialsseries]

FAQ

What is the Series About?

The Divine Trials is a story about connections, empathy and love. It’s also a story about cool magic fights, familial trauma, and angels and demons (because they’re super aesthetic). When I started writing this series I felt very alone and isolated. So, I decided to write a story where someone feeling the same way got to go on an adventure in a wondrous and intriguing world, accompanied by a cast of fun characters. This series is the result, and I hope that Enoch’s story will resonate with others feeling as lonely as him. And if not his, then perhaps the journeys of those he meets along the way. After all, everyone we meet is going through a journey of their own, and the inhabitants of the Three Realms are no different.

No one is meant to be alone in this world, and if you’re willing to look, you’ll eventually find people that love you. You exist, so you’re worthy of being loved. Though on the surface, this is a series about people facing villains, having magic battles and stopping world-ending disasters, at its core it’s simply about people in pain healing through the love of those around them

Okay, but what is it about?

In a fantasy world split into three realms, a Scribe with prophetic powers finds himself dragged into the conflicts of angels, demons and gods. Visions of danger and destruction plague the dreams of a young human named Enoch Augnium. To protect those around him, he must face off against people blessed with magic abilities; track down Remnants of the gods that existed before the world itself; and stay true to his belief that every life is worth saving.

Rest of the FAQ is under the Keep Reading for your scrolling convenience.

I don’t have a Kobo Tablet or device, can I still read the digital version?

While using a Kobo device is the easiest way to read the book, you can also read it by:

Using the Kobo desktop site (on a computer or through the browser on your phone or tablet)

Using the Kobo Books app available for free in the Google Play store.

Is the eBook being sold on any other websites, like Amazon or Kindle?

Due to many publishing sites being based in the US (making payment more difficult because I’m Canadian), or requiring you to publish through them exclusively, right now it’s only available through the Kobo store here.

I’m interested in purchasing a physical copy of the book. How do I do that?

Physical copy orders can be made through the Etsy shop here! There’s also a link to all versions of the book on our Important Links page. If you aren’t able to use Etsy, you could also message on any of the series’ social media accounts and we could figure out payment/shipping that way. Etsy just helps streamline the process.

I ordered a physical copy of the book, when will I be getting that?

If you’ve ordered a physical copy, chances are I’m currently in the process of purchasing shipping stuff and getting it to the post office. The delivery day itself will depend on scheduling availability or mail times, but I’ll do my best to get it to you ASAP!

How much is a physical copy?

Base price for book one is $25 CAD (plus shipping). This price is based on the printing costs for the books themselves. There may be some changes in price for future editions/books due to a change in print location for the next batch. I’ll try to keep things as low as I can for you though.

Does an autographed copy cost more?

Nope! If you’d like your physical copy signed, just let me know which name you’d like me to use!

Am I allowed to do fanart, fanfiction and other fandom-related creative stuff about the series?

Yes! In fact, I highly encourage tagging this blog if you do! I’ll try to reblog any fanart or cosplay stuff here, but unfortunately I can’t read or share any fanfiction or writing related creations. While I hope that fans of the series won’t do this, there have been instances where fans have accidently predicted canon plot points through their fanfics, and then accused the writer of copying their ideas when the writer was simply doing what they’d originally planned to do with the story. Some of these incidents ended up as actual lawsuits, so to avoid that situation altogether I can’t read any fan content. That being said, as a writer myself I wouldn’t dream of discouraging people from writing, so even if I can’t read it, feel free to write things for each other!

If any other questions seem to pop up often, I’ll add them to this list down the line. Thanks for taking the time to read these!