#my first attempt at an img description!

[bomberqueen17]

Sewing Things Update

So I uh, I worked for hours on sewing all last week and this past weekend, and uh well I didn’t finish anything but I did do a lot of stuff. So, a scattershot update:

1) I am making a muslin of this dress, out of muslin (amazing), and it has you bind the neckline with bias tape, which I had not done before. Well, I thought I hadn’t, and I didn’t understand the directions, but then i started to do it and duh this is the technique I used to finish the inside necklines of like, all the supportive kirtles I made for garb between 2006 and 2012. I just did the last stitching by hand for those, which gives a different look. But it’s entirely the same geometry as that.

Anyway here’s a photo, featuring me not feeling like cutting bias binding out of the muslin so I used the closest scrap to hand that seemed like it was cotton. I’m going to overdye the muslin if it turns out as something wearable anyway-- I also didn’t prewash it so it’s gonna depend how much it shrinks. This was all kind of an experiment. but I have some fabric I really like that I want to use for the final version of the dress, so I figured muslin was a good way to go.

[image description: a beige muslin garment sits on an ironing board with pins holding down the turquoise bias binding applied to the neckline.]

2) Once I lined the neckline I assembled the front and back bodices, and that meant it was Sleeve Set in Time and i hate gathering so I let myself hand-sew the gathers in. They turned out better on the second sleeve than the first, but now I know that technique.

[img description: beige muslin fabric, with a seam in the middle, and the fabric to the left is slightly gathered while the fabric to the right of the seam is flat.]

3) Muslining stretch garments: I got the pattern for this knit wrap dress exclusively so I could make cropped tops out of it, as I’ve always loved the idea of a wrap top and have never been able to buy one that fit me. I’m muslining it in dress length though, because like, why not, I’ve never had a wrap dress that fit me either. I have this huge wodge of really crappy cotton jersey that I got on clearance from dharma trading because it’s not *quite* white, and I’ve discovered that it’s reasonable quality fabric BUT it becomes grungy-looking upon the first wash. So it’s great for muslining because it was so cheap, and then I’m going to attempt to overdye it when I have a stash of muslins to overdye, and we’ll just see. Some of these muslins may not turn out wearable so I also may take them back apart, but these are all problems for future me. Meanwhile I’m squeezing the pattern pieces for as many things as I possibly can onto this stuff.

[image description: a stretch of white fabric is across two smallish tables; pattern pieces are drawn on in Sharpie because it’s a muslin so who cares what it looks like i just need it to be accurate so i can make my fit adjustments!]

4) and I finally read the pattern yardage charts correctly for this dress, which I have been longing to make but it needs 7 yards of fabric... if it’s 45″ wide and you’re making one size larger than I am. So actually, I have 4.5 yards of 55″ of this fabric I think is really cool, but then I need a contrast fabric to make the neck and waistbands out of.

and it crossed my mind that like i could... i could make inkle bands for this purpose. I posted a question to the forum (this is a Club pattern, which I got by subscription, and there’s a forum that goes along with the Club) and the dress designer told me that the neckline ties do need to be on the bias to stretch a little, but the waistband does not, there’s an interior piece stabilizing it, so it could be made out of anything. So I have gone through my weaving threads and tried to figure out what colors would coordinate.

[image description: a length of fabric printed with animals and women and flowers, with a hand-woven inkle band lying atop it.]

This test band is too wide and too short, I need it to be like 120″ long and half an inch wide or less, but the colors work-- cream, black, blue/gray, and bright green.

This is Mood’s Elysian Menagerie Cotton Voile and this girl is my new girlfriend:

[image description: a close-up of a woman printed on the fabric, who has her head at a coy angle and is wrapped in a blue-gray towel with a vine flowing around her.]

we’re going to be very happy together, if only i can figure out how to do the waist ties on this dress.

I bought the fabric with a different pattern in mind but the scale is so large on this print, that even with the size pattern pieces I’m using (i’m a US size 20) the girls and peacocks and zebras and giraffes would get chopped up, so I decided to use this dress because it’s in big vertical panels. The woman in this print is larger than my hand. So, I’m gonna give this a shot.

Also pray for me I’m not doing a muslin before hand because it’s SO much fabric and muslin is too thick, this needs to be pretty lightweight, and I don’t have four and a half yards of unwanted gauze or chiffon lying around. (Also, i’m a little worried that I will use up ALL of my sewing energy on these muslins and wind up with ZERO finished garments, so I’m going to go for it. The pattern pieces are so big that even if i fuck it up beyond all saving, I’ll be able to recut something else out of it. This may be famous last words but like. I gotta commit.)

[twinstrangersp]

From the desk of Miss Vaux:

Silas Caldwells letter home to his mother. Censored trifold by Vaux, Coffee Stains and Penmenship

{IMG Description: a handwritten letter in sloppy cursive, reading “Dearest mother,

Despite the best efforts of our team leader, I am still alive and well. My work has taken some… surprising turns, and we are engaging in more field work than I previously had envisioned for this job. Still, you have often urged me to get more exercise and sunlight, and I am doing just that. I can’t say much, and I’m not entirely certain how much of this will even make it to you, but I am thrilled to say that my work here is as [Redacted]

Still, I’d be remiss to say I don’t miss home already. I hope that you are keeping well. Hopefully you are receiving the payouts; I urge you to make yourself comfortable and see about getting help around the house while I am gone. I have to stress this point, since I know you will attempt to minimize your impact on the funds and keep yourself busy, but you really mustn’t exert yourself unduly and I’d be more than pleased to know your life is being made easier by my salary! Please promise me, in our next correspondence, that you are taking care of yourself, and I’ll pester you no more about it.

Our crew is made of some truly outstanding individuals. Mildly bizarre, in their own ways, but you’d be hard pressed to find more dependable or competent people. As previously mentioned, Cassius, our team leader, is a bit brazen, but I wouldn’t trust anyone else to lead us through the often dangerous environments where we do our work. They care deeply for each of us, as much as they might protest, and their field work and trailblazing skills are second to none. I hope I have a chance to regale you with the account of one of their latest exploits… Insanity! Alyx Yard is our [Redacted], and she’s a bit young to be doing all this, I think, but she brings an often hard to find ray of sunshine to our group and puts a brave face on everything. She is a bit of an enigma to me, but she humors my dour nature and I try to keep an eye on her, in kind. Elizabeth Bellenger is our [Redacted] but alas, here we are. Still, despite the oddity, Elizabeth is a lovely individual who makes some truly stunning works of art. I’m always pleased to see her at work and get her opinions and knowledge about [Redacted] . Greg Washburn runs our security detail (don’t worry, his skills are rarely necessary, but much appreciated). He managed to injure himself on one of our first outings, but took it like a champ. He and Jeremiah Woods do everything they can to safekeep our little group, and we are grateful for their company. June Dawson, our residence manager, has been keeping a close eye on each and every one of us. You needn’t worry about any of us while we are under her care

Please write back soon, it has been some time since I last heard from you, and pivotal career or not, I will head back to see you if you need. I have been instructed to say that Cassius says hello. More precisely, they said “whaddup”, but this did not seem to work in print. They’re mostly harmless. Mostly

With love from your son

Silas Caldwell” }

[speedyposts]

Block becomes the latest fintech to lay off workers

Block, the fintech company whose subsidiaries include Square, Cash App and Afterpay, is laying off staff at a tumultuous time for tech industry workers.

That’s according to an internal memo from CEO Jack Dorsey, obtained first by Business Insider, which states that “the growth of [Block] has far outpaced the growth of … business and revenue.”

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How to Get AdSense Approval Quickly a Personal Journey to Monetizing a Niche Blog

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The layoffs were executed this morning and affected staff in the Cash App, foundational and Square arms of Block. Reportedly, around 1,000 people — or 10% of Block’s headcount — were impacted.

“We decided it would be better to do at once rather than arbitrarily space them out, which didn’t seem fair to the individuals or to the company,” said Dorsey in the note to Block staff. “When we know we need to take an action, we want to take it immediately, rather than let things linger on forever.”

The firings don’t come as a total surprise. Block said in an earnings call last year that it would reduce its headcount from 13,000 in the Q3 2023 to an “absolute cap” of 12,000 by the end of this year.

But they add to a sense of malaise in the fintech and broader tech sector, which has seen tens of thousands of workers let go in the past few weeks.

Just today, PayPal said it would fire some 2,500 people, or 9% of the company. Last week, Brex, the expense management startup, laid off 282, or 20% of its staff. And Treasure Financial, a platform offering cash management software for businesses, let 14 employees go, leaving the company with about a third of its former workforce.

Block’s suffered a difficult, downward-trending year and change.

Revenues from Cash App, the peer-to-peer payments service, have declined steeply. Meanwhile, the buy now, pay later service Afterpay, which Block acquired in 2021 for $29 billion, has posted serious losses. Block’s Bitcoin revenue has fallen corresponding with the fall in the price of the cryptocurrency last year (although that’s recovered recently). And Square faces growing competition on multiple fronts, including from Fiserv’s Clover, Toast and Stripe.

Investors are displeased. Square stock retreated around 30% from January 2023 to October as Block founder Dorsey took the reigns from ex-Square head Alyssa Henry.

Block’s recent attempts to reinvigorate business include adding generative AI features to Square, acquiring music-focused fintech startup Hifi and launching a self-custody Bitcoin wallet, Bitkey, in the form of a mobile app and hardware storage.

Block reported $5.62 billion in revenue for the third quarter of 2023, with $44 million in profit on its Bitcoin holdings.

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How to Get AdSense Approval Quickly a Personal Journey to Monetizing a Niche Blog

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[sourcejust]

Dr rose ilift location

#Dr rose ilift location free#

Rather, it is a useful addition when street addresses are not accurate enough, and an instant, scalable solution where addresses do not exist.Ĭompared to current street addressing systems, 3 word addresses are far more accurate, as they refer to a specific 3m x 3m area. YouTube: Spotify: 3words does not aim to replace street addressing. Name: Ilift Media Group Instagram: Twitter: /drroseilift?s=11 He recently released his first EP titled “11/12: From My Perspective”, a release that is bound to skyrocket him to success in the world of rap music. Rose aspires to bring artistry and music to people and to inspire them as they make their ways through life’s toughest challenges. Rose is a successful cosmetic dentist hailing from Dallas, Texas, who is simultaneously balancing a career as a rising artist.

#Dr rose ilift location free#

For interviews, reviews and collaborations, feel free to reach out to the artist via email.ĭr. Rose always manages to successfully connect with his listeners as he takes them on a personal journey through his music. With beautiful vocals and personal undertones, Dr. Rose built his record label ILift Music Group (IMG) with staff that has over 20+ years of experience in all areas of the music industry. Having worked with quite a few producers in the past, Dr. The visual to the powerful new single will be released on March 1, 2022. The song “Right Now” was released on January 25 th, 2022, on Dr. The next song, “Bulletproof”, gives insight on what pushed him through his recovery and next chapter of life. The 3 song EP opens with “Altercations”, describing his experience first hand on the night of the shooting. Rose released his first EP titled “11/12: From My Perspective”, which contains a visceral and harrowingly personal description of that fateful night. During his successful recovery, he renewed his passion for his love for artistry and entertainment. This left him with a bullet in his back, and plunged him into the depths of anxiety associated with PTSD. Rose was the victim of a failed robbery attempt at his dental office. Rose is extremely passionate about music, and baffles everyone by juggling a budding music career alongside doing cosmetic dentistry, proving that one can always take out time for one’s passions.ĭespite being a beloved cosmetic dentist and aspiring musician, an extremely unfortunate event took place on November 12, 2020, when Dr. Rose is making a huge cultural impact through community outreach with his nonprofit, ILift (I Love Inspiring Future Talent), his over 360K Instagram followers, and a hugely successful dental practice, wherein he has designed custom smiles for clients such as Summer Walker, Cee Dee Lamb, and Amari Cooper of the Dallas Cowboys. He has quickly gained his stamp in the industry as one of the best cosmetic dentist to see for a smile transformation, ever since his graduation from the Baylor College of Dentistry. Rose”, has built a successful dental practice in Dallas, Texas. Jerrett Rosenborough, best known to most as “Dr. Rose’s lifeĭallas, Texas - March 4th, 2022 - Dr. “11/12: From My Perspective” is his latest EP, and it tells the story of the night that changed Dr.

[vewormeet]

Pregnant inflation game

I feel fairly sure its something I havent done properly before, and Im pretty pleased with how it looks. So catching them with drawn lines was used instead, as I was still a little obsessed with lasers after Ariana.Īnother thing thats new and a little tricky, is the way her body dips under lava. Obviously I didnt just want to use the exact same game mechanics as suicune, especially as that would involve separate breastbelly expansion. This lead to me having to create a head shaking animation, which had some -interesting results on first attempt (it made her face look like wavy water). Part of his request involved a lot more body movement, which I soon found was essential due to her inability to talk(one would think that would make things easier, but I think I actually prefer writing dialogue, as daunting as it can be). So this here marks my very first dragon animation (assuming vanilla charizard counts despite its typing).ĭigital Media Vector data-super-img data-super-width1024 data-super-height768 data-super-transparenttrue Ordinarily shes a charmeleon, but Starry brought up that this makes her seem like she might be a teenager, raising some unfortunate implications. The character used was Holly, a mute, chubby, kinky charizard with green features. This one was made for, an old friend of mine that finally got around to making himself a DA. Needless to say, I dropped the ball on this one in terms of deadline.īut oh well, its better than nothing, right So here we have another pokemon animation. Id been trying to do an unsaid thing where I upload an animation every month for the rest of the year, as I was sick of taking so long to make huge extravagant animations. Mature Content This content is intended for mature audiences Log in to confirm your age Add to Favourites Comment Interactive Pregnant Holly 867 273 80K ( 18 Today ) By Barn-flakes Watch Mature Published: animation babies baby barny belly bigger birth bump busty charizard charmanders chub chubby click cute draw eggs flash game gravid green growth holly interactive kinky lines mute oliver pregnancy pregnant pudge sequence sexy buizel fire 2015 - 2020 Barn-flakes. Poll Ask the community Find out what other deviants think - about anything at all.ĭA Muro Paint a picture Experiment with DeviantArts own digital drawing tools. Literature Submit your writing Upload stories, poems, character descriptions more.Ĭommission Get paid for your art Sell custom creations to people who love your style. Journal Post a journal Share your thoughts, experiences and the tales behind the art.

[alfamangle]

Two little @you-are-starclan doodles for funsies. love it when characters exist.

[img description:

picture one is of caja from yasc. she is looking upwards and saying "i wonder if skip's soul is ok..." beside her prance stares in mild horror. there is an arrow labled prance pointing at him.

in the second picture the first slot has euthamia gripping oleander tightly, she pleads "tell me what they think of me". oleander has a small purple halo. in the next oleander looks backwards with a larger purple starry halo. in the next a mass of starclan cats say "euth our beloved... Funny little construct... Girlbosses. Euthamia <3" and a picture of a goldenrod and a heart next to it. oleander is watching this. in the next oleander tells Euthamia "they love you". Euthamia in response is crying on the floor clutching her head. *angry crying* sits above her.]

[bemused-writer]

VNC Chapter 48 Analysis

The numbering system of the chapters continues to grow more confusing as it continues to be off by one (Web sites called the last one 48 on links but 47 on the chapter page), but we're just going to continue to call this chapter 48 instead of chapter 49 and hope for the best. Also, this chapter has been remarkably difficult to find for purchase. Why would YenPress hide it from me like this? D8

Anyway, none of that is the actual meta, so let's move on to that. As a general warning, the chapter itself dealt with some difficult subject matter, namely torture, so bear in mind that will be discussed in the meta.

We left off with Misha being left in Vanitas's care and this chapter begins with Vanitas taking that charge seriously, which was both surprising and completely predictable. As Noé once pointed out, Vanitas is made up of contradictions. We see that Vanitas is at least a little bit invested in Misha right away when he asks, "...You're sure it's okay if they cut it?"

He's referring to Misha's hair. Now, this is interesting for a few reasons. The first is that it demonstrates Vanitas wants to make sure Misha is as comfortable as he can be given the circumstances, but I also find it interesting because Vanitas himself has long hair. Only, he has kind of weird, chopped long hair.

Now, he has the same hairstyle in the flashbacks that he does in the present. At first I thought this was strange. How could he maintain such an elaborate hairstyle when he was imprisoned with Moreau? Did Mochizuki simply not want to come up with another hairstyle? But no, I don't think this is what happened. I think those scientists did try to cut Vanitas's hair when he was first brought to Moreau, he resisted, and the whole attempt resulted in his current 'do.

The fact that his hair is the same in the present means he's purposefully keeping it this way. Add this to the fact that he dresses like Vanitas of the Blue Moon, and I think Vanitas is manifesting all his traumas on his own person, possibly so he won't forget and so he won't give up on his revenge.

Moving on from that, it's unclear how long Vanitas had been with Moreau when Misha came along, but I think it's fair to say at least a few months? Maybe longer? Long enough that he knows how to behave around Moreau and can fill Misha in on how things are.

Vanitas explains to Misha he doesn't get to keep his old name, he's a number now. It's harsh, but it's another way of trying to prepare Misha for how awful things are going to be. An impossible task to be sure, but what else can he do?

We cut immediately to Misha being experimented on and tortured. He's in pain and also confused. He says, "Wasn't all the pain supposed to be over?" Roland's description of a happier place must seem like a massive lie right about now, but he had no way of knowing Misha would never get a chance at that fate.

The experiments themselves seem nonsensical. We see he's being injected with something in his arm, but we also see him strapped to a gurney with a metal object about his eyes. It looks like what they're doing is feeding the liquid from the vials through tubes into his eyes. I... don't see how this would be more effective than the previous syringes to be completely honest. My best guess is that since a vampire's power is centered in their eyes and Moreau is obsessed with vampires, he figured injecting this liquid directly into a human's eyes would have stronger results. Misha is also forced to drink something. Perhaps water, perhaps something else. Impossible to say.

The pain of it all reminds Misha of his mother beating him, which really just goes to show what a lousy mother she was. :/ He calls out for Vanitas to help him and we can see that Vanitas is bothered by what's happening. But what I did not expect was for Vanitas to turn around and offer to take Misha's place.

This is hands down the most selfless act we've ever seen from Vanitas. Willingly putting himself in danger? With the full knowledge he'll be tortured? That's incredible self-sacrifice. The only reason he did this is because he cares about Misha; he doesn't want to see someone suffer.

And yet, while I didn't expect this turn, it actually fits in perfectly from what we already know about Vanitas, even if he's gone to a lot of lengths to keep it obscured. Let's take a look at some previous panels:

This is one of our earliest examples. Vanitas was furious when Noé put himself in harm's way to protect him. He doesn't want others suffering because of him. But it's not just that.

That first scene is where Vanitas promises Jeanne he'll kill her if she ever loses control and hurts Luca. In other words, if she's no longer "Jeanne" he's taking responsibility for her failure to protect Luca. The next scene he promises to save Chloé, but what he actually says is that he'll accept all of Jeanne's ugly emotions for her.

In other words, Vanitas doesn't like it when other people suffer, especially if they're protecting him, but he readily takes on that very role himself. He goes out of his way to shield people even if he doesn't want them doing the same, and he readily accepts all the harsh, painful realities for someone so that they don't have to deal with it. In other words, what he's doing for Jeanne is similar to what he did for Misha, just on an emotional rather than physical level. But we also know he failed to keep some kind of promise to Misha and he remembered this when he promised to kill Jeanne. Perhaps he meant to keep Misha as "Misha," but he wasn't able to do so and he wasn't able to kill that which took his place.

All of this puts a slightly different spin on the Vanitas/Jeanne relationship. While there's definitely a selfish, immoral element there, this has also become Vanitas's attempt at doing something good, no matter how questionably he's going about it. Except, it was easier for him to do so when she didn't like him because not only does he not want people to risk themselves for him, he also doesn't want them to see him as worthy of doing so. Basically, as Roland said, he hates himself a lot more than we realized.

Now, what I want to know is whether Vanitas ever had siblings. Vanitas saw Misha suffering, but it was when he called out "Brother!" that he finally stepped in. Did it remind him of a sibling he actually had or was it just that he felt the weight of another person's life in the balance and he couldn't bear to do nothing?

This is the only cute scene of the chapter and we see that once again Vanitas doesn't push Misha away. He could have been angry with him for putting him in that predicament (not a rational feeling, but not one that would have been surprising given the circumstances), but instead he says nothing and let's him do as he wishes. This is also when No. 70 is brought up. I think the only thing we can safely say about No. 70 at this point is that he was a test subject involved in some other experiment (as Vanitas says) and that he is probably around Vanitas's age judging by what little we can make out of him.

Personally, I don't think this is a character we already know or, if it is, not well. Could be one of the chasseurs, but which one? This person was supposedly mute, but there haven't been any characters like that. So, a mystery for now. I am definitely curious, though. Vanitas and Misha were being turned into kin of the blue moon. Was No. 70 being turned into a proper vampire? That is Moreau's dream after all. But, for now, we simply don't have enough information to say anything at all.

And speaking of Moreau, he said he acquired the Books of Vanitas through "a certain channel." What does that mean? It sounds like it's probably a person, a contact, and one he's known for a while. Honestly, this one section raises so many questions. How would Vanitas lose her own books? It just seems absurd.

Anyway, Moreau goes on to explain the books are "analytical engines," which basically means they're machines, powered by a unique kind of astermite. Vanitas once told Noé he could manipulate the chasseurs' machines in the catacombs because they were also powered by astermite.

I think all of this is incredibly important. Just what is the world formula? Because whatever it is, it can be manipulated just the same way as astermite can, apparently. And who is connected to the world formula? Vampires. What can be tampered with by the books? Vampires' names. Where am I going with this? I'm not entirely sure. 8D But I've been thinking about this for a while. Astermite is some panacea stone that has removed pollution and done wonderful things. But that just sounds too good to be true. I really think there's something nefarious about astermite, and I think it's connected to vampires--and possibly the chasseurs--somehow.

I wrote a short fic once where astermite was made out of vampires' names. In other words, vampire souls. I'm still waiting to see what this stuff is actually made out of, but I just can't shake that theory, baseless though it is.

Still, only the blue moon's kin can open the Book of Vanitas and it uses a "different kind of astermite." Blue moon vampires are also different from red moon vampires. I wonder if the books have just a little bit of Vanitas of the Blue Moon's own essence. Hmmm...

Also, it turns out that Vanitas of the Blue Moon, and presumably all blue moon vampires, have blue blood. This means if you're a blue moon vampire, there really isn't a thing you can do to hide it, is there? 8D Your eyes are super blue, your blood is super blue. They probably smell differently, too. And it turns out Vanitas and Misha were injected with her blood to make them honorary kin.

Again, so many questions here. We're definitely dealing more with alchemy than straightforward science at this point, so I have to wonder: How changed are Vanitas and Misha's DNA? Do they even qualify as human? I mean, evidently their blood isn't blue, but Noé and Jeanne both agree that Vanitas smells good. How much of that is because of him as a person and how much is because of the blue moon blood running through his veins?

It seems most humans can't handle Vanitas of the Blue Moon's blood because they went mad instantly. But not these two.

Vanitas is understandably furious at what's been done to him. Having said that, this is also around the time period he hated vampires completely. I wonder how much of that anger is because he's been experimented on against his will and how much of it is because he was injected with a vampire's blood specifically.

Whichever it is, there's a certain level of irony that he's then saved by Vanitas herself. She comes in, blows up some stuff, and gets her books back.

Let's think about this for a moment. Somehow, Moreau not only had her books, he also had her blood. She does not look like a prisoner though, does she?

No, if anything, she definitely looks like the person in control of the room somehow, so I really have to wonder how they got these things from her. She evidently came to pick up her books, but that's not it.

I could be reading too much into it, but that, to me, doesn't sound like someone who's there to stop an evil experiment or save people. Or at least, that's not the only reason she's there. "That should be enough of a rampage to do the trick." What is she trying to accomplish? She already has the books!

Well, I suppose future chapters will give us an idea.

Misha convinces her to take them with her. Vanitas is shocked that the offer is extended to him as well. He was definitely prepared to simply stay, but then he thought of the chasseurs, the pain they inflicted on him, and I think he decided he'd rather take his chances with the vampire. He may hate vampires at this point, but humans haven't proven themselves to him either.

What I find interesting though is how similar this scene is to when Noé said "Not yet" in the catacombs.

They each offered him hope when he least expected it and showed him a path he never would have tried himself. It's also interesting that they also share some basic visual similarities. They both have darker skin and silver hair and they're vampires. Both of these scenarios happened in the catacombs as well. At a minimum, we can say they each led him to an important change in his life. Also, Vanitas of the Blue Moon had a definite "Noé" vibe in this one panel:

There's a certain awkwardness here that makes me think of him. The obvious difference being that Noé wouldn't let suffering children be an afterthought. Maybe this is more of a Teacher resemblance. Hard to say...

And so, Vanitas joined Vanitas of the Blue Moon! What a chapter. Dr. Moreau continues to be the worst, doesn't he? He's definitely lacking depth compared to the other villains wandering about. XD Very curious when Vanitas gets to kill him. And also whether Moreau's research will be successful. I think the series is going to get a lot darker if it is.

One thing I noticed is that Misha never lost his arm during these experiments, so that definitely happened later. My personal guess is that he's using the book a lot more than Vanitas and is being rewritten at a faster rate. If so, being rewritten could mean... disappearing from reality? Guess we'll find out. Ahh, I really want the next chapter... I'm looking forward to it!

[frightuccine]

It was always my HC that Jeff never killed his brother, he planned to out of mercy of not wanting his older brother to be forced to live without his parents and brother. He couldn’t do it though and ran away; even though “Jeff” has been spotted, authorities actually concluded that it was impossible that he would survive in the woods with the amount of damage he did to himself and died. He never got a proper funeral though, and Liu put up a rock as a ‘grave’ for his brother in their favorite spot in the woods that he visits often.

ok 2 kintag

description under readmore

[img desc: First panel is Ben brushing Jeff's hair, Ben says "Do you want to talk about it?" Jeff says Sure.

Second panel is a view of the top of the house, the Window that's visible is cracked open, Jeff says "I just wonder where he is. Does he hate me?"

Third panel is A picture being held by Liu, The picture is an old family photo with the two parents in the back faces crossed out. Young jeff and liu at the front smiling. Jeff says "Does he understand why I did it? Does he resent me for it?"

Fourth panel is a picture of Liu looking upwards at nothing, he was in the middle of homework but now he's lost in thought. Jeff says "I wish I could go and say I'm sorry"

Fifth panel is a picture of jeff with a cut mouth and blood on his sweater and face, he's crying, Liu is in a bed, crying and he has some wounds on his face. Jeff narrating says "Even when I tried to kill him he wanted to help me. I couldn't Kill him but I couldn't stay. A greyed out bubble from the past is Liu saying "jeff please I can help you don't do this"

Sixth panel is Liu walking in the woods. Jeff says "I... Hope he's doing better now. I hope he got that scholarship."

Seventh panel is Liu sitting at a crudely made grave for Jeffrey Woods. It's obvious Liu made that grave himself as his brother never got a real grave. "I Just missed my brother" Jeff says. "But I doubt he misses me."

Eighth panel is Back to ben messing with Jeff's hair. Ben says "Would it make you feel better if we saw what he is up to now?" in an attempt to make Jeff feel better, Jeff says "I think so"

Last panel is Jeff looking into a scrying mirror, Liu is somewhere with friends Ghost investigating for fun saying "If there's any spirits with us Please talk". Jeff looks happy and cries a bit, He is happy to see his brother. Ben is watching next to him. Jeff says "Of course he's ghost hunting...nerd..." ]

[dizzyhslightlyvoided]

So when I was an egg in high school, I created a self-insert OC named Yar Kramer. I used him for a bunch of RPs, and several works of fiction, only one of which I actually completed. There were like two sprite comics and one thing I made that was literally just "sprites + dialogue and descriptions of the action", plus an unpublished and incomplete novel.

RP

The original original roleplay was on a Hitchhiker's Guide website called the H2G2, created by Douglas Adams as an attempt at realizing the eponymous Guide (which has been largely supplanted by Wikipedia). My username was originally "Adolescent White American [wronggender] Who Likes 47" (I liked the number 47 to its frequency in Star Trek); people shortened this to "Yankee Kid, likes 47" and subsequently "YK-47" and just "YK", which I backronym'd to "Yaradovich Kramer"[sic], after Yaridovich from Super Mario RPG and Cid Kramer from Final Fantasy 8. He was originally a coolkid Jedi in a red jacket, but at some point I retconned it to generic "psychic powers."

I also roleplayed him on a few RP MUDs, but I don't really remember any details there.

The "Original" Story

The novel was going to be called "Red Jacket", I think. "Yar Kramer" was a witness-protection alias, and his original name was Daniel Lancaster (hmmmm, someone's primary identity doesn't match their birth name!); he and his family had been forced to work for an evil organization called Project Robinson, which intended to create genetically-engineered espers for reasons I'm not sure about now. Project Robinson was led by an evil scientist called Dr. Krause and a computer named Mother Brain; I justified stealing the name "Mother Brain" because there were three unrelated video games which featured a character by that name (Metroid, Phantasy Star II on the Genesis, and Chrono Trigger).

The Grim Reaper was a woman who talked in underlined dialogue, and whacked people over the head with her scythe rather than actually reaping. She'd changed her form in the 1960s because she found the whole "skeleton" deal to be depressing. She had a black motorcycle with a flame pattern and the text "Pale Horse", and the souls she collected traveled in a pink sidecar which said "Binky" on the side in Comic Sans (where "Binky" is obviously a Discworld reference). When I created this in the 00's, there was totally nothing significant about a character who'd clearly changed her gender, nuh-uh.

Yar's love interest was Mackenzie Robinson, one of Project Robinson's creation. Despite the fact that the gummint had an active hand in extracting Yar's family from Project Robinson, there was some FBI/CIA spook called Agent Pinkerton who hounded Mackenzie like Inspector Javert. I know he had a classmate named Eckhart, who was this ratty-faced jerk with a heart of gold, who was inspired by one of my RL classmates.

I also found a half-written script for a comic, which gets as far as a prologue, followed by a scene which estalishes the witness protection business. Yar jokingly introduces himself Trigun-style as "Yaradovich Halvorsen Thompson-Stryfe-Gainsborough Donatello Leonard Raphael Michelangelo Farnsworth Anderson-Smith Jean-Luc Jones Solo Pepper Tibloxley Amelia Fayette-Mahoney Kierkegaard Williamtonshireworth Melora Kramer I." Wow. Let's see, "Halvorsen" and "Kierkegaard Williamtonshireworth Melora" are clearly made from whol cloth, and I'm not sure where "Jones" came from, but other than that, I can see in order ... Trigun (Thompson and Stryfe), Final Fantasy VII (Strife and Gainsborough), all four Ninja Turtles, Futurama, The Matrix, Star Trek, Star Wars, Cowboy Bebop (re-engrished "Pepelu Tivruski"), and Slayers. Again, wow.

First Reality

The "main" sprite comic, which was a sort of Final Fantasy parody made mostly in RPG Maker, and which ran from 2001 to 2004 on Keenspace. Yar Kramer was a "Neo-Samurai" (basically a ripoff of SeeD from Final Fantasy 8), fighting alongside a dude named Shigeru 'Gary' Oak (Gary Oak except as an adult, with a gunblade and dressed as Seifer Almasy, with no sign of any pokemon), and Tina Branford (Terra Branford without her tragic backstory).

The setting was incomprehensible if you didn't have detailed knowledge of Final Fantasy 6, 7, 8, and also Mega Man X; nearly every single place name was named after something from Final Fantasy except for Death Mountain, where they went to in order to get the Triforce (long story). A pink-haired goofy-and-hyperactive Celes Chere was the princess of Mysidia, and was a FF8-Sorceress; she frequently went in disguise as a thief named Fobby, and used a Reploid named Dancer as a body-double.

The main villain was named Darklumen, and his evil plan was to destroy the world by weakening the fabric of existence by leveraging sprite comic cliches, thus demonstrating that I have always been Like That. (The fact that I had a direct author avatar called the "Ultimate Guardian Force" with semi-omnipotent powers over the comic isn't even worth dwelling on, because omnipotent "author" characters are par for the course with sprite comics.)

The other party members: Kefka Palazzo, who was the court jester for Mysidia; Enerion Imusen, a half-Esper who was invented from whole cloth, who overcame his hangups about being half-esper with Tina's help before he got killed off by the bad guy; and "Rock Light" (because one of the reality-damaging sprite comic cliches was "Mega Man is present"), who was actually the Great Guardian Force Yu-Yevon in disguise for convoluted reasons.

In the ending, it's mentioned that Gary marries Princess Celes, and sort of vaguely implies that Yar ends up with Tina. (Tina made actual romantic overtures to Yar halfway through the comic, but they were interrupted by shallow comedy.)

I absolutely refused to let go of a running gag in which a male character would say something that broke the fourth wall, and at least one female character would immediately yell at him for doing so.

... I actually found some MIDI songs in the First Reality files which I personally composed. Well ... I say "composed", but the Darklumen final boss music was clearly based on the Super Smash Bros 1's Final Destination music with techno-twittering from All Your Base, one was based on a boss theme from Final Fantasy X combined with anime music, and Yar Kramer's personal themesong was chiefly based on Glyde's theme from The Misadventures of Tron Bonne.

YaraY

The other sprite comic, hosted on a subdirectory of First Reality's site. The name came from Yar's evil twin, Ray Remark ("Yar" and "Kramer" spelled backwards), and also from the Japanese expression "yare yare" (translated in JJBA "good grief").

It was a shallow Bob and George-esque thing with Mega Man sprites, and invovled Yar's shenanigans opposite Ray Remark; a straightlaced roommate with blue hair named Elbert Ssab (I don't know where I got "Elbert" from, but I came up with "Ssab" after noticing that "Elbert" backwards is "Treble"); a Reploid named Jive who was an orange recolor of Zero from Mega Man Zero; and a girl in a pink shirt named Kira, whose character concept began and ended with "hyperactive blonde girl." At one point, there was a comic which depicted First Reality as an actual console RPG being played by Kira; this comic was then ported directly to First Reality.

I abruptly stopped updating it in the middle of a story arc in which Jive went off with a group Maverick Hunters which inexplicably included Zio from Phantasy Star 4, who was just there to be generically evil rather than actually pursuing any of his canonical goals.

Super Adventure Yar

And finally, the "sprites plus dialogue" thing. It used whatever anime, video game, and internet characters I was interested in at any given moment, and there were inserts from several people I knew online. All of whom were basically overpowered in some respect, i.e. one of the friend-inserts was literally just a redheaded Goku in a trench coat, except his Saiyan name was "Suckarot". It was the most absurd and ridiculous of these things.

Yar was your basic inexplicably-overpowered action-shounen protagonist, and people kept going "What!? Why is he so powerful!?" (If there was going to be an explanation, I never got a chance to give it and I don't remember what it was, but I doubt there was anything reasonable.) Of course, this was also true of pretty much every protagonist.

His fighting style involved throwing energy blasts, and his signature move was named "Island King Kamehameha", because I knew the etymology of the Dragonball attack, but the kind of creative person I was at the time was that nuance, self-awareness, and "general understanding of what I was putting into my stories" were something that happened to other people.

Mayl Sakurai was impulsively violent with a squeaky-mallet.

At one point, while the protagonists were discussing a plot point which Mayl wasn't present for, she said, "What the hell are you talking about?" and then tossed an entire burger into her mouth.

Cut Man's NetNavi was FishMan.exe.

Yar bought Chii Chobits from Strong Bad, who ran an unbelievably shady second-hand electronics store; Chii's copycat tendencies extended to copying other peoples' magic and superpowers.

He also bought a generic NetNavi and expressed the intention to customize it, but all sign of NetNavis were dropped after a few episodes.

The "ageless faceless gender-neutral culturally-ambiguous adventuring person" (AFGNCAAP) from Zork/Enchanter was one of the main characters. They frequently used spells from Enchanter such as "gaspar" ("provide for your own resurrection" -- basically like a Final Fantasy "Auto-Life" spell, but AFGNCAAP was also able to use it on others), "vaxum" ("make hostile creature friendly", and every single target which it actually worked on promised to kill them after it wore off), "krebf" ("repair willful damage"), and "talcor" (healing; this seems to be something I made up myself, because I can't find any references to it in Enchanter canon).

I insisted on using "he/she" and the like instead of just the singular "they", wow I was deep in the egg in 2004. But they did say "I don't have a gender" at one point!

Magus/Janus from Chrono Trigger was trying to take over the world using robotic Sinistars. His minions were "the Terrible Trio", which consisted of Onslaught from Marvel vs. Capcom 1, Dalton from Chrono Trigger, and Dynamo from Mega Man X.

I stole the "now I'm wet and on fire!" joke from the webcomic Adventurers! during a fight between Dalton and AFGNCAAP.

Magus got a Vegeta-style "suddenly I happen to be on the same side of the heroes" redemption with the sudden arrival of, um, the Saiyans. Starting with Raditz as just a retread of Dragonball Z.

After Raditz was beaten, he sent a message to Vegeta and "Zappa", who was just Nappa but with a terrible wig and an atrocious southern accent; I have no idea what I was going for there.

The planet Arlia from Dragonball Z was populated by clones of Alia from Mega Man X5. It had the same fate as in the show, namely that Vegeta and Zappa just casually blew it up after going on a rescue-a-princess quest.

There was an "It's a gundam!" joke there.

The Goku-expy friend-insert taught Yar how to fly Hitchhiker's Guide-style ("throw yourself at the ground and miss"), and how to use bullet-time.

Mayl trained under Magus. At one point, while she was fighting a friend-insert with a sniper rifle (who'd previously stolen everyone's wallets for no apparent reason), Magus remarked that she had "hidden potential" and noted that in her hands, her squeaky mallet was just as powerful as the sniper rifle.

Vash the Stampede showed up, and the plot promptly started getting derailed as everyone around him dropped everything to try to claim his $60 billion bounty (Onslaught, to Dalton and Dynamo: "We'll split it 50-50-50!").

At one point, Vash ran off with Chii for reasons that only slightly made sense in context, and Yar chased them to a town called Las Eisley.

The three of them got into a bar fight at a "restaulant"[sic] (I thiiiink this was originally actual engrish from Trigun itself?) which completely wrecked the building.

After the bar fight, Yar called up AFGNCAAP to make repairs using the krebf spell; AFGNCAAP asked, "Was all the damage willful?" and Yar replied, "Well, I definitely proceeded in the full knowledge that massive destruction would occur." Due to the rules of sprite-comic comedy, this was enough for krebf to work.

There was a "Dear Strong Bad, how do you type with boxing gloves on?" joke.

In the middle of everything else, I started writing an episode introducing Valkyries and Loki -- which displayed a surprisingly deep knowledge of Norse mythology on 18-year-old-me's part -- but I never finished it and my files don't even have the sprites for the main Valkyrie character, who was another friend-insert.

... All of these continuities just feel amazing to me in retrospect, because this is the kind of thing that can only happen in fanfiction. Only something using existing characters, our existing associations with these characters, can possibly reach this level of ridiculousness.

Which isn't to say it's all fun and games, though. I was a particularly un-woke Rotten Egg, which meant that there was rampant sexism, and lowkey fanservice. The concept might look fun, but the execution was invariably "the worst parts of the sprite comic fandom."

[urbansuburbangirlblog]

5 Kill-Proof Houseplants That Will Make You Look Like a Jungle Goddess.

~NEW POST~ 5 Kill-Proof Houseplants That Will Make You Look Like a Jungle Goddess. . . . #gardener #plantcare #plantcaretips #gardenjungle #wordpress #blogger #lifestyleblog #homes #gardens #living

Feature Photo Cred: Instagram @emily_draws_more

Decorating your first apartment in plants is like a right of passage into adulthood. One that shows you’re sophisticated, stylish, and intentional.

One can easily underestimate the work that’s required to keep a plant alive. I know I did when I first started collecting plants.

My first go-around, I attempted to grow Zone 9 vegetables on a…

[thecrochetcrowd]

Crochet Better Together Afghan Stitch Along

Crochet Better Together Afghan Stitch Along

Crochet Better Together Afghan with Jeanne and Mikey

Crochet Better Together Afghan Stitch Along

Introducing the Better Together Afghan, the first collaboration of Jeanne Steinhilber and Michael Sellick (me) in a blanket where two minds are better than one. This was our third attempt as I kept changing my mind. Honestly, frustrating the hell out of Jeanne with my stalling and finding time throw…

[krosewaterfall]

Selfcare is a big word. It asks a lot of efforts, that I don’t yet have. It was supposed to be the name of this article but I changed it to ‘Self-harm’. I like to write it like that: Self-harm. Self and harm are separated because they’re not supposed to be together. I learnt, not long ago, that it was a sin, in the Quran and even in the Bible. But it’s hard to get away from it.

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I’ve always been sad… most of the time. Since middle school. Things weren’t okay before too, because of the problems my family afflicted me. I only had little episodes of sadness. When I go to middle school, children started bullying me. Only because I was different. Before they did bully me due to my weight but nothing more. There they criticized my personality.

The worst thing they did to me, I’ll never forget. They wanted me to give then donuts otherwise they’d remove my skirt in the middle of the playground. I thought they were just joking. I was too naive… The next day they did. I cried and became rough. I wasn’t as nice as before. Even though I seemed stable and had a lot of authority, I cried every night. I had pressure because of my studies. I did my homework on my own and took breaks to cry. During that time I went through severe depression. The doctor diagnosed me and I couldn’t believe that people knew that. I didn’t know any human could feel like that.

I started thinking about death all the time. I was scared on a daily basis. My mother, my brothers, and mostly my older sister used to hit me most of the time since I was born. My older sister did it everyday. I cried until I liked it. Until I liked feeling pain and hurting myself. So when I grew up enough for no one to touch me, I started doing it myself. I hurt myself emotionally.

I went to high school and left the house. I felt terribly lonely, lost and sad. At times I felt numb, it was nothing but severe depression until then. I got eating disorders, I felt terrible physically. I threw up and stopped eating for days. Then I got Binge eating disorder and gained weight again.

This guy walked in my life, I call him Max. I fell in Love the first time I talked to him. He was different from others. I understood his humor.. I loved him so much. I always hid it and at times I showed it. For three years I was on him. I never changed to someone else. I had little crushes but nothing more. He was the one I never forgot. Once I told him I loved him my life flew with my hope. That’s when I started cutting. To me, I can’t live without him. Whatever happens I will always love him. He will always be in my heart. I keep sending him messages even though he doesn’t answer. I could even get married but still love him. Just being friend with him would be enough for me. I need him around.

At that time it became major depression. I became suicidal and did everything to hurt myself and take my life away. I started failing at school. I cried every night. No one could be there for me. I was ashamed towards my friends. And no one in my family talked to me. There is just times when everyone in my fam is against me. I don’t know why. I kept smiling after my suicide attempts. I promised myself that I’d become a big person one day and that I’ll find Max again.

That’s me today lol.. Anyhoo, as he used to say. Ever since I wake up very sad in the morning. That’s why I hate to wake up. All I like is to sleep when I am tired. At times I can’t sleep no matter how tired I am. Just because I think of all those dark thoughts all night. But when I get the chance to I become happy.

I become happy.

I hope I will say that in the past tense one day.

S E L F – H A R M Selfcare is a big word. It asks a lot of efforts, that I don't yet have. It was supposed to be the name of this article but I changed it to 'Self-harm'.

[the-gloomth]

Does this qualify as a holiday themed shoot? I’m not so into the holidays personally, by this time most years I am pretty exhausted from our busy Halloween season and scrambling to reduce my workload as best I can so I can try and enjoy the season. It’s a lot of pressure to shop and plan and attend everything, while being real tired and wishing you could summon a demon to do your chores. 😉

This demonic shoot features my first attempt at making monster claws! There’s a tutorial for them over here if you feel the need to show up to Xmas dinner with terrifying appendages.

Azura Rose wore our “Dracula’s Bride” dress (nearly sold out) with textured tights and leg warmers for a wintery-hellspawn vibe. I used my regular studio lights to fill the tattered bloodied backdrop and then added a red projection light to add some sparkle and fire effect to the scene.

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Shop this look right on our website!

Azura’s instagram!

More from this photoshoot can be seen on our flickr!

-Tae

New Hellfire Photoshoot! Does this qualify as a holiday themed shoot? I'm not so into the holidays personally, by this time most years I am pretty exhausted from our busy Halloween season and scrambling to reduce my workload as best I can so I can try and enjoy the season.

[lunaticlabs]

Day #182: Review - Modulation of soleus stretch reflexes during walking in people with chronic incomplete spinal cord injury

Day #182: Review - Modulation of soleus stretch reflexes during walking in people with chronic incomplete spinal cord injury #phdlife #phdchat --

Figure 2 of the paper showing examples of the soleus H-reflex (labeled H) during standing  and during different phases of walking in a participant without known neurological injuries (top) and in a participant with chronic incomplete SCI (bottom).

Today is my third attempt at a critical review paper. Since my PI gets a copy, so do all of you! You can read my first looking at elbow spinal stretch…

[foul-humors]

Radiant Duet II

It took some time for Steia to return to the Crystarium following Mister Lavada’s return from the fae kingdom. Twice she drifted off course, distracted by her thoughts. As unsteady as she was, an observer could be forgiven for believing she headed towards her own death. Once within the city at the base of Syrcus Tower, a guard even took notice, asking if she was okay.

She lied, assuring him she was merely put off balance by the returned night sky. The guard patted her shoulder before proceeding to wax poetic about the restored firmament. Steia didn’t listen, but made a show of feeling better.

Outside the door to her - or rather - Drassa’s room in the Crystarium, Steia paused. Hand on the doorknob; she could sense the presence within. Shaken once more, she took a step back. The presence felt like another Mirror, both known and unknown to her. As her mind raced with new questions - chief among them wondering what Esoterica had kept from her - a wave of vertigo took hold. Her breath quickened, she swayed, and she stepped back, gripping the railing behind her for support

.....

While Steia made way for the room, Drassa paced within. A pixie sat on the edge of the nearby table, sipping from a thimble of nectar. On that table, a basket of fresh fruits was arrayed, and a kettle of tea sat next to a bottle of the self-same nectar drank by the pixie. Drassa’s pacing took her past the table, and she snatched an apple from it, taking a few bites as she continued.

“I spy with my little eye,” the pixie began, looking about, “Something tiny, but bright and twinkling merrily.” They giggled.

Drassa stopped, and tilted her head. Then she cracked a grin and replied, “Your reflection in the mirror.”

“Oh! How do you know tis not a star in the sky?” the pixie replied, a tad frustrated that Drassa had guessed so quickly.

“Full certain am I you saw the stars, first, then thought of what else might fit such a description in effort to trick me.”

“You have been playing with me for too long, Petal,” the pixie replied. They mock pouted, then giggled again. “I shall fetch a new mortal to replace you, I think.”

Drassa chuckled, and sat down on the stool next to the table. “I doubt much you will find one quite like me, my Flower.” Quietly, Drassa appreciated the attempt to pull her from her thoughts. Like Steia, she was nervous. Unlike Steia, Drassa was burdened with knowledge. She knew where the woman had come from, and why she was here, even if Steia barely knew it herself. She'd had visions of other worlds, a being broken into fragments, and a cursed woman desperate to correct her errors.

“Do you think we will like her?” the pixie asked.

Drassa wrinkled her nose. “If one is to judge by the company she keeps, no.” She looked to the pixie. “Though, the bully did say they were simply family, and one does not choose their family.”

The pixie nodded. “She was alone most oft when I checked in on her.” They rolled their wrist. “Tis hard to know someone you cannot interact with, and she wears something that hides her true self.”

They were silent again, as Drassa took a few more bites of her apple. She amused and distracted herself by biting little patterns into it, then after a moment, stared at what she had done. Her smile brightened, and she looked to the Pixie. “I have an idea of how we might know her!”

.....

Steia was about to knock again, only to hear the moving of heavy furniture within. Curious, now, she quietly opened the door, and beheld a silver-haired woman in green robe expending effort to move a bench on her own. Chewing her lip thoughtfully, Steia finally entered, and went to the opposite side of the bench, gripping it to help move it.

Naturally, this caused the other to look up at her, and they both immediately dropped the bench with a start. Astonishment was clear on their features, but Drassa spoke first. “Light take me...you truly could be my twin.” She shook the thought away, and pointed to the side of the room. “This is to go over there. Ready?”

Steia continued to stare at her “twin” a moment, puzzled by how nonchalant Drassa was about the matter. Still, she’d silently offered to help, so she did, answering aloud: “Yes. On three? One, two, three!” The bench was lifted accordingly and moved. Then Drassa went to move a partition, with Steia helping. “What are we doing?” Steia asked.

“You will see,” Drassa replied. Steia wrinkled her nose, but continued helping until a large spot had been cleared in the middle of the room. Drassa grinned, then motioned to the table. “Okay, catch your breath, have a bite.”

Steia looked to the table, and shook head. “I fear I am not hungry. Mayhap one of your friends has filled my stomach with butterflies.” She paused, and approached the kettle. “If this is tea, however....”

Drassa chuckled. “Never would the little flowers do such a thing...lest you were to make the suggestion to them. And yes, tis tea. My favorite, in truth.” Steia poured herself a cup and took a sip. The taste of apple tea met her tongue, and brought a smile to her lips: it was her favorite as well.

“Most appreciated,” Steia murmured. A few more sips, and she set the cup down. Drassa was staring at her, curiously, but rather than ask a question, she motioned to the empty spot they’d created. “Stand here, and face me.” Steia did so, hesitantly. “Okay, I will be performing some movements, and I wish you to copy me.”

Steia screwed up her face, clearly confused. “You...wish me to copy you? What on Norvrandt for?” Drassa shook her head.

“You wished to meet with me, no? Well, these are my terms. Now, first....” The grey-haired woman grinned and stuck right arm out to the side, somewhat raised, fingers together. “Lali-ho!” she said enthusiastically. Steia boggled for a moment, but then copied the motion.

“Lali-ho?” She more asked than stated. Drassa nodded. “Needs work, but you understand! Now another.” Now she held her arms in front of her, elbows bent at right angles, as though she might fold her arms. Instead, the arms were spaced apart, and her hands cupped, the lower hand facing up, and the upper hand facing down.

Steia mimicked the action a little better, as she recognized it; she’d seen the guards in the Crystarium doing so as a sort of salute. Again, Drassa nodded, grinning. “Perfect! Another!”

Steia nodded, grinned, and parroted, “Perfect! Another!” This drew a giggle from Drassa, who then performed a more elaborate motion. Steia also giggled, and performed the motion as best she could. As they continued, the motions became more and more involved until they pair appeared to be dancing. Had anyone observed, they would be forgiven for thinking the pair to be fools, practicing for a show.

.....

“So what was that all about?” Steia asked after she caught her breath. They were seated at the table having finished Drassa’s little game. For the moment, they were in high spirits.

“Twas a bit of a test, I admit,” Drassa answered breathily, less in shape than Steia. “Your...family? I fear they were among the most dour visitors I have received in a while.” She took a few breaths before continuing. “The one that looked like an elf is much like the other Fae, but most unwelcome, known for bullying the others. The mystal-like woman seemed like she might be fun, I suppose, but her mood took a turn for the worst when my little flowers decided to turn her into a leafman as she announced she’d sit out on one of the games.”

Steia blanked. “I cannot speak for Mister Lavada - the elf - being a bully. Never have I thought of him as such. Yet Aspen’s stance seems understandable.” She paused. “Admittedly, her patience may have already been thinner than normal. Matters are strained between us.” Steia hung her head. “You see, I fear I have grown rather disconnected from the mortal world, and gravely offended her recently.”

“You are...disconnected?” Drassa chuckled. “As am I. It leads me to wonder: how much alike are we? I sense naught from you.” Steia nodded and removed her earrings and rings. “Ah...clever trinkets, hiding the truth of yourself...and I can see why. Tis a terribly, corrupt taint on your soul.”

Steia nodded, then tapped her fake eye three times, activating it. She looked Drassa over for a moment before tapping it three times again. “A fae taint upon yours.”

Drassa chuckled. “I should think it a mark, not a taint. Full proud I am of it.”

Steia frowned at that, and went to the window to look out at the sky. Drassa followed, wondering if she had offended. Steia folded her arms and stated, “Once did I feel the same way regarding my horns.”

“Until they were ripped from you, right?” Drassa asked, joining her. Steia nodded, then looked sharply to the fae-touched woman. Drassa chuckled, and motioned to her own head. “I have visions of people from time to time.”

Nose wrinkled, Steia muttered, “I should not be surprised...people where I come from call it ‘the Echo’. I should have known you would possess it, too.” Hanging her head, she asked, “Have you seen the reason I came?”

Drassa nodded. “Indeed. Tis quite an unfortunate situation...no fun at all.”

Steia nodded. “I was told I could find the solution by traveling to another world, and so here I am. I cannot think your presence a coincidence, and so...I would know if you have any ideas.”

Drassa rubbed her chin thoughtfully, then shrugged. “Tell the clan about your mirror, and I should think it will sort itself out.”

Steia shook her head. “She would simply alter their memories. She has done so before.”

“Hmm. I suppose destroying the clan is out of the question.”

Steia scoffed. “Twould certainly solve a number of problems, would it not? Alas, no.”

The two were silent for a moment before Drassa offered, “Why not create another of your Mirrors to fight her?”

Steia shook her head. “Reliance on mirrors is a poor idea, as I have proven. Not only might they rebel, but if Esoterica were to destroy that Mirror, their soul would rejoin with the nearest compatible mirror, that being Esoterica. Simply would she become more powerful.”

“So why not skip a few steps?”

Steia huffed. “What do you mean? Rejoin with the soul from the start? I suppose that might work, but I would still need to find a compatible...soul to....” She trailed off and looked to Drassa, who was grinning at her. Her jaw dropped as the realization struck her. “No!”

Drassa shrugged. “Yes.”

Staring at Drassa, all she could manage was, “Why?”

“Are you not tired, too?” Drassa asked. Steia furrowed her brow, and the other woman's smile softened as she continued, tone calm. “You are old, and have many regrets, yes, but you spent much of that time blindly seeking aether, and yet more of it drifting aimlessly through the void. In all that time, sans stimulation, even the most willful mind stills, eons becoming instants. How long have you actually lived?”

Steia shook her head. “I...I know not. Between lost memories and not really keeping track...”

Drassa chuckled. “I have lived...actually lived for centuries now. I know I might seem full of life, but I am exhausted. I was old ere the flood came, and I have regrets. Many, many regrets. I thought about ending my life several times now.” Drassa pinched the soft flesh of her wrist with her nails hard enough to leave a bruise. She showed it to Steia. “You see, I am merely ageless, not immortal. If one were to stab me in the heart, I would expire as quickly as any other hume.”

Drassa then mimed holding a knife to her chest. “Yet whenever the knife was to my bosom, I started thinking about what would happen to my body after the fact. Who would find it and have to deal with it? What tasks would I saddle someone else with? Whose hearts might I break?”

Dropping her hands to her sides with an exasperated sigh. “I would do naught but leave another mess for someone else to deal with, and worse yet, I would not have made up for all the suffering I have caused, or helped to cause. And so I resolved to wait until I could trade my life for something good...and tis my hope that you will help me do that.”

“But what about-?” Steia started, before Drassa interrupted.

“This world? Psh. Any fool can do the things I would do to help the people on this world, and oft they do. Tis the whole premise of the Crystarium, no? Yet how many fools can claim to have a reflection of themselves come from another world to seek their aid?” She pointed to herself. “I should think this fool uniquely blessed.”

Steia chewed on her lip. “I...Oh! Wait! You can simply return to Hydaelyn with me.”

Drassa grinned. “Assuming you can return as well, indeed I could!” She nodded, then shook her head. “But I will not.” She patted Steia’s shoulder. “No, I made up my mind ere I came here, and come to terms with my path. Already have I said my ‘farewells’ to those that might care to hear it.”

Drassa took Steia’s hands in her own. “And what of you? Do you make your peace with your loved ones ere you came here?”

Steia’s breath caught in her throat. “I...no. I did not really have time to think it over, and merely told them I was going away.” She chewed on her lips, mulling over the significance of this. After all, she had planned to return, but would she? “Oh...oh.... If I do not make a mirror of you first, what will happen to me?”

Drassa gave Steia’s hands a little squeeze. “You know the answer to that. So, again...are you not tired, too?”

[brownkamm]

The ‘Failed’ Sacrifice 

~ Ooooiii, hows it going fairies? I've been recently doing research & thought about BOTW 2 and the small cutscenes we get to see. And, of course, lots of theories have come out to figure out just WHAT exactly happened to Ganondorf & why he's dried out like a prune under Hyrule Castle 🏰 So join me in this semi-long theory of what I think happened to not only Ganondorf, but the Zonai Tribe as well... Also, your free to have your agreements & disagreements in the comments. Just...don't get harmful 😅 Alright, let's talk about the Zonai Tribe. Who were they and how did NEARLY their entire race mysteriously disappear? I say NEARLY because I believe their people still live, but I'll get to that a bit later. As we know, the Zonai were Ancient Warlike People during their time in Hyrule, though it seemed their people were pretty hidden from if not all, but most of those in Hyrule before Calamity Ganon struck. We also know that, thanks to the Barbarian Armor you can acquire in the game, that they were a strong Tribe and clearly from the 3 Labyrinths you can find in Gerudo Desert, Herbra Plains & behind Robbie's lab, they were clearly WAY more advanced than most Hylians, kinda like the Sheikah Clan, but... the real question is: if they were such a great and strong tribe...how did they go extinct (or to me, NEARLY extinct) ∆∇∆ - here's my main points I want to stick with: ONE: The Zonai & The Sheikah Clan had some kind of connection to one another. TWO: They "mysteriously" disappeared all at once because of a great sacrifice they made to keep Ganondorf locked away. THREE: The mysterious blue/green hand we see on Ganondorf heart before grabbing Link to help Zelda & him up was a way to stop Demise's cycle. Because...no reincarnation. No curse. FOUR: Someone, moreover the Sheikah, was close to the Royal Family who could have possibly tricked Ganondorf into going under the castle to "have the upper hand" on Hyrule. [C]∆∇∆ Okay, so let's start with the first. I believe the Zonai & The Sheikah Clan had some kind of connections with one another, though it seemed the tribe were seemingly standoffish to most of Hyrule. I say this because if you enter in any of labyrinths, what's the first thing you see? Specifically, in the air. [IMG=C8H] [CIU]Guardian Skywatchers. And I think we can all agree that sometimes these things can be annoying to shoot down, especially if you have terrible aim like me 🙂, but that's not the point. Now I know most may say: "Those could have been placed there AFTER The Zonai disappeared" And that could be true, which is why I'm not 100% sold on them working together, BUT, say for instance if that wasn't the case. Say if someone was so convincing to the tribe that they could help them achieve the one goal they had in mind: Stopping Ganondorf. Now, I say it may have been the Sheikah who leaned onto the Zonai because it was clear 100 years ago that Zelda's Triforce wasn't awaking & without a Royal Psychic ( which is usually ONE of the women in the Royal Family, possible Zelda's mother ) they were desperate for a way to get more time so Zelda could awaken her power since her mother couldn't teach her. Now, I say Zelda's mother could have been the one with the psychic ability because it's said that some females in the Hyrule Family have this magic stood upon them & pass down their knowledge of the next generation shows signs, meaning that not ALL princesses & queens of Hyrule have this ability. As we know, Zelda's mother died when she was only 6 from a mysterious illness & she didn't have a chance to learn her teachings. Some even theorize that she was poisoned by someone close to the Royal Family who could have been a Yiga Spy, but I don't know. It's not impossible considering the time era Legend of Zelda takes place in for if you were someone with such HIGH standard, you would have a lot of enemies & needed to watch who you kept close to you... Now without Zelda's mother's ability, the Sheikah were at a standstill. Their Clan was already split into two: The Sheikah and The Yiga Clan from their technology being thrown away because the Royal Family feared of them overthrowing them, so without their greatest inventions of this time era, they needed something that could assist Zelda while she searched for that THING to help unlock her power...which leads me to the Zonai. It's clear the Zonai were around before and during The Great Calamity, but not after..or so it's said. I believe that the Sheikah, without telling the King Rhoam or Zelda of their plan, went to the Ancient Tribe and realized they had the same idea of getting rid of Ganondorf once and for all to stop the endless cycle of this curse. Now, I can't fully say WHAT the labyrinths were for. Maybe a test for Link, but they feared others would go near it and enter themselves? (Which I think might have been possible because if you interact with anyone who notices the Sheikah Slate on Link's hip after awaking, they always say something along the lines of "That's A Sheikah Slate" And never really "THE Sheikah Slate". If there was only ONE in existence, wouldn't they say THE instead of A? Idk) Maybe they just wanted to keep outsiders out & insured that with a long & complicated maze? Or maybe they were doing their Ancient Art Magic in each area to see if it were a good place to hold the King of The Desert? ( and yes, I know, from one of Link's memories that Zelda tried to enter, but didn't have access. Could it possible that the shrines were only made for Link? Or maybe that particular Sheikah Slate is like the Master Sword and only responds to him because it only has one task: assisting the hero.) Regardless of what the labyrinths were for, it's clear that the Sheikah have left their mark on these ancient artifacts and knew of more knowledge on this tribe than anyone else.Now remember, the Zonai worshiped the Water Dragon, AKA Farosh 🐉 so they were clearly those who trusted somewhat in The Golden Goddesses...maybe. ∆∇∆ Now onto my second point. They mysteriously disappeared without a trace, which is strange considering they were clearly in a LOT of areas of Hyrule. From the sandy beaches in Lurelin to the hot desert all the way to the colder regions of the Hebra..it was clear their tribe might have been bigger than most expected....either that or they were just really sneaky. I like to say that their "mysterious death" was really a noble sacrifice. Remember that if this is true, it isn't the first time someone else, other than Zelda and Link, stepped in and tried to stop the Demon King. In Twilight Princess, the ones know as the Six Sages also took matters into their own hands & attempted to stop Ganondorf by stabbing him in the chest with The Sword of The Six Sages... But they failed miserably, even thinking that the gods were playing a cruel joke when seeing Ganondorf had The Triforce of Power on his left hand, leading to the king breaking free & killing one of the six Sages before they used The Mirror of Twilight to send him away and think of their actions. Which...if were being honest...the goddesses have some things messed up about them, but that's a different rant for another time. Now I say they had a noble sacrifice because one of things we see in the short cutscene of BOTW 2 is the famous Lumious Stone that can found just about everywhere in Hyrule, but specifically underground there's A LOT OF IT. And if we read the description of the material, it's clear that some of Hyrule like to theorize it glows so bright because their are souls trapped inside. Now, clearly, there's a LOT of lumious stone in this one area, and if my theory is right tat the Zonai were one of the people who used their ancient magic to try and seal away Ganondorf, I feel it would have taken A GREAT AMOUNT of magic to do so considering we know how strong not only Ganondorf is, but the Triforce of Power. Hell..it stopped him from dying by a goddess forged weapon! YOU TELLIN ME THAT AINT STRONG!? I believe that possible not only the Zonai, but some of the Sheikah Clan, died doing a noble cause of holding Ganondorf back, or at least his body, to keep him from a new reincarnation. Alright...I know this is a lot. Take a breather. Get some snacks and a drink because here's POINT 3: This caught everyone's attention. The Hand. Off the back, we can tell this clearly Ganondorf's newly found prison & a terrible and dark one at that. I mean, cmon, I personally wouldn't want to be mummified and have my heart grabbed at by a hand, but that's just me Now from this hand we can tell it's the same color as the ones that reside around Lumious Stone, The Fallen Champions, & The Monks when taking their Spirit Orbs to give to the Hylia Statues when exchanging it during prayer...kinda like Link is the key to setting their soul free for doing their deed for Hylia. I believe a lot of spirits were brought together in sealing away Ganondorf....a lot of ANGRY spirits, but as we see in BOTW 2 cutscenes that it's clear the hand not only moved itself (or the spirits moved themselves) to help Link and Zelda when they almost fell to their doom. And, even though this is a different game, I make the comparison of a lot of souls in ONE BODY to Noob Cybot from Mortal Kombat. Even though he appears as one person, there are lot of souls stood inside of him and one of his quotes are "We are many. You are one". The power of the hand, now given to Link, could be the spirits last attempt at helping Link and Zelda seal away Ganondorf considering it seems The Master Sword isn't as strong as it use to be ten to thousands of years ago. But in doing so, they released the seal that held Ganondorf captive for those past 100-10,000 years. I'm sure the only freedom Ganondorf had was The Malice that leaves his body (which is just a mixture of rage and hate..and honestly I'd be mad too if my only escape was a spirit form of myself) and his mind, if it wasn't already gone by then. Because of the seal now being broken, our beautiful demon king was up from his long nap 😅 I mean...cmon now...theorized to be bad or not, Ganondorf is FIIIIINNNNEEEE 😍 and I would give myself to him, but we're not here for my girly fantasies. And now was prepared to release havoc on Hyrule once more. Now, I say that this was a attempted by the Zonai and Sheikah to hold Ganondorf back because even though it's clear Ganondorf can still attack in spirit forms and smaller, puppet forms, as we see with the BLIGHTS, Ganondorf can't reincarnate if the DOESN'T HAVE A BODY FOR IT. Clearly when Ganondorf dies in his physical, Gerudo form, it takes Eons later for him to reform and be born into the world again, but...his body was still under Hyrule....and it could be possible, just like the Monks, that he was still alive, but had no ability to move, leading him to release so much hate in the world that it created Blights and Calamity Ganon, along with Dark Beast Ganon And now with that seal gone and nothing holding him back, the Demon King was Awaken once more, but...my final question is...how did he get down there in the first place? ∆∇∆ I'll try making this last part short considering this was longer than I expected. Also, no more pictures passed this point. I've already reached the MAX if you couldn't tell 😅 Now this is my own thought. I believe someone in the Sheikah Clan who served the Royal Family set Ganondorf up. I say this because I can't think of any other reason why Ganondorf would be hiding below the castle and not strike. There's also my thought that Ganondorf was either led there or possible kidnapped and brought to the sacrificial grounds below Hyrule castle. And I know some might say: "Ganondorf...kidnapped? That's impossible" But we have no clue HOW STRONG the Zonai's magic really was. Even in Twilight Princess, those who wielded a very strong and ancient magic had power great enough to take over Hyrule for their terrible desires, leading them to living in the Twilight Realm, so it's not as if it's not possible that this power was equally as great, but used for a different cause. Whose to say the similar green color of the Twilight Magic isn't being used once again, but this time for good and not selfish greed for the power of the Triforce? I believe that if Ganondorf was led to this area, he was clearly betrayed. Now, in many incidents  in past time eras, Ganondorf has been betrayed by many and his power was turned against him, which I hate, but this isn't about my personal feelings on the king. I have TWO ideas of how it could have happened: Say if the "spy" for Ganondorf was actually working for the Royal Family and tricked him to believe that they were getting as much intel as possible to keep from him being killed by Zelda and Link. What if the spy had been discovered by a fellow Sheikah member and eliminated them to keep things as they should have been? What if they gained so much of Ganondorf trust to the point where he thought they were a ally that they gave him the idea of going under Hyrule Castle, hiding for a certain period of time and was ambushed by the power of the Zonai and The Sheikah Clan? The other idea is that someone was ONCE loyal to the Royal Family, but betrayed them and went to Ganondorf instead. I think this is possible because it's clear the Royal Family has dumped the Sheikah Clan many times and doesn't trust them fully (which is understandable in that day in age, but still) and a few banded together to betray the Royal Family. Telling Ganondorf of the technology they created and how they were planning on using it against him, leading to him creating the Blights and attacking all 4 divine beast and the champions, but they were figured out, forced to reveal where Ganondorf was hiding OR someone followed them and found out the truth and set them up under the castle, but maybe not all, and this birthed The Yiga Clan in secret. It could have been possible that Master Kohga could have been there as well, or heard information of it, considering the Sheikah can live up to 100 years plus as we see with Impa, Robbie and Purah, along with the monks, but idk if it was Master Kohga in particular considering how goofy he is, but some like to theorize that he's a descendent of Zant because he mentions something of his great great grandfather's magic that was once sealed away was taught to him. Not to mention, they have similar personalities and fighting styles. So it could be possible...that the power of the Twili tried so hard to get rid of ten to thousands of years ago...still lives on, but now, used for good instead of evil by the Zonai. I could go on and on about this, but I clearly need more information on the whole thing. That and this is getting way too long. These are just my theories of what may be in the story line of BOTW 2. I hope you fairies liked this one 🧚‍♀️ PS: if you didn't notice, the same symbol that's on the walls in the cutscene of the SWIRL that can found on other works of the Zonai are the SAME as the symbol of Lurelin. This is what I meant when I said that it's possible that their people are still alive, but either the people of Lurelin don't know of their history considering most of their tribe died or was lost OR they know, hold some power, but keep it secret from outsiders of the village and disguise themselves as "noble fishermen" . I also think it's strange that Lurelin wasn't effected by the Calamity considering it was BEHIND that great defense wall where Zelda awakens her power & Link nearly dies. I say it's strange because I feel like Lurelins people & the Zonai have a very strong connection, but that's just a theory. A GAME THEORY ‼️