#no credits on the divider TT

[chaerouqe]

` 　　꒰　　　 　. thirsty

[groceryreceiptss]

𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 | j.p.

james potter x reader | word count : 7.2k | requested

↳ part one / part two ───✧₊∘

summary : james always said that you were his best friend and you always said that he was yours. but you didn't realize that the meaning of the words had changed for you until it was a week before the yule ball and you two were walking through the snow covered streets of hogsmeade (reader's pov)

contains : my writing (warning lmao), pretty cheesy. (childhood) best friends to lovers!! flufff, herbal tea slander (sorry if you like it), lots of out-of-place references (like pjo and spiderman, i'm SORRY, i can't help it). i’m never sure on what to put in here to be honest so just let me know!

a/n : soo i might have gone a biiiiit overboard and make it a two part! this one takes place in hogsmeade (mostly), told from reader's point of view. i'm planning for the second one to be from james' point of view and for it to take place during the yule ball (no promises on when i’m going to finish it though TT )

credits : lovelyy dividers by @cafekitsune, pins i used (1) (2) (3)

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The castle seemed to have its own separate life in December. Snow, trees, warm hearth, lights, candles, sweaters, hot drinks, and not to mention the food. The students always seemed to be reinvigorated by the time this month came too. Excited whispers floated the hallways in strings of exclamations.

This year, they were way louder than usual though. And the reason for it was visible in every room. The vibrant yet elegant posters, the talks of elaborate plans, scenes of people asking and being asked (and the cheers that would follow it), conversations of suits and dresses, and absolutely nonchalant talks of dates and hopes.The Yule Ball.

This extravagance of the event only happened once in every four years, so of course, everyone was excited. Nothing could be more thrilling than a chance to live out your silly teenage dreams and be like one in the movies.

You loved it too. The smiles, the laughter, the gossip, the drama. It was fun, though you weren't expecting much for yourself. You weren't being a downer or whatever (which was what James would definitely tell you), it was just that, if truth be told, you had learned not to hope too much in anything. Retrospective had taught you a long time ago that it would only tarnish the joy out of a perfectly good moment. 

Today was a festive Saturday morning. Talks of the ball were echoing off the walls in a more persistent way than ever. Understandable for they only had a week left before the festivities, anxiety and anticipation were sure rising.

You were just about to enter The Great Hall, the comforting smell of good breakfast already reached your nose, before someone suddenly threw their arms around you from the back, throwing you off balance a bit, his warmth enveloping you. James Potter.

Funny how someone's laugh could be so familiar to one's ears.

"How are you in this fine lovely morning?" The bespectacled boy greeted you as you turned around, eyes meeting his, your lips turned upward mirroring his smile. He really did have the most annoying charming smile. It was infectious.

"Freezing to death," you responded, slinging his arm around your shoulders as both of you walked the rest of the way to the hall. "Where are the others?”

"Already there," he scoffed, and continued on dramatically, "They left me to fend for myself!"

"To be fair, you are a heavy sleeper."

"You're one to talk," he grinned at you, "Why do you think both of us are the last ones to arrive?"

And he hit it right. You straightened up, ready to defend yourself. "Well, look–"

But he was way ahead of you. "Good book?" he smiled knowingly. And right again.

"So good," You nodded your head vigorously. "You should read it sometimes. I'll add that to your list." You waved your hand away casually, as if to say ‘done and done.’

"I look forward to reading it."

You smiled up at him, agreed. "Good, because you must." And before you could stop it, you went on telling him all about your reading from last night.

He didn't seem to mind, he never did. In fact, he always seemed to be interested in everything you had to say, so you continued. It had become a routine. You told him about a book he had never heard of, he told him about a match you had never watched.

James Potter was your best friend. Always had and always would be. The two of you had known each other since you were five and knew nothing and everything. Both of your parents had been best friends and it just progressed naturally. They would often spend the holidays and breaks together and so his house was yours as much as yours was his. 

And when both of you got the Hogwarts letter at the age of eleven and were sorted into Gryffindor, it was inevitable that you grew even closer. Everything about him had become so familiar now. It was like you knew him at the back of your hand.

His favorite color, his favorite food, his favorite song. How his eyes brightened a bit when he laughed. The dimples that came with his smile. How he would bite his lip a bit when McGonagall caught him and his friends in their mischievous schemes, or when he was thinking of a lie to tell her.

How he liked to put his arm around your shoulder, or tucked it in the inside of your arm every time he saw you. His glasses that were always lopsided, and his hair that was always tousled. Just like it was right now.

Both of you sat down in front of Remus and Sirius, who were laughing about something. Crisp toast, bacon, and eggs on the plates completely abandoned. You eyed them closely and wondered how two people could be so oblivious to one another when they were sitting that close to each other. And look at Remus! He was almost red.

If only you did not have a sense of decency and could have it in you to interfere with these two, then maybe, just maybe, they'd finally admit their feelings and go to the Yule Ball together.

"Where's Wormtail?" James asked them, getting himself a plate of eggs and sausages. You decided to grab some toasts, marmalade, and some eggs.

"Don't know," Sirius shrugged. "Probably hatching a plan to ask Jane out."

"Doesn't she already have a date?" You asked him, confusion on your face.

"Not sure," Remus chimed in, "it's hard to keep track these days." True that.

The four of you talked some more. You and James tried multiple times trying to get these two to talk about their dates to the ball—or more like the lack of it—and did a bait and switch. And you were good at it, but boy were they better.

After their plates had emptied, Remus said that he was going to make a quick run at the library and Sirius, very subtly and casually, offered that he could come too because he was "bored." You and James could barely contain your smiles until they disappeared out of view.

He grabbed a bit of your toast, put some of his fruits on your plate in exchange for it, and asked, "So... what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Who are you going with to the dance?"

"Oh," you pondered a bit, biting one of the strawberries. "I don't know. I'm thinking of going by myself, maybe? I think it'd be fun."

"No one has asked you yet?" He asked, surprised.

You let out a laugh at his expression. "Don't pretend to be shocked now, James. I don't exactly have a line of people waiting to ask me out."

"People here have bad tastes then.” He concluded. 

You shrugged, “I don’t mind. It’d be a pity spending the night with some stranger I don’t know, or even like, anyway. What about you and Lily?”

James' die-hard affection for the red-head girl was never a secret. The entire school knew it. It had been going on since first year and you doubted it would ever stop.

The way he always talked about her — with so much fondness and care. It was, the way she smiled, the way she laughed, the way she talked. But you noticed the way he looked at her too. It was like he fell in love every time he laid his eyes on her.

You figured that he was going to at least work up the courage to ask her out to the ball, even if it would only end up in vain, but no news from him so far. It was weird, like a sudden change of the weather. You had had to endure listening to him for what seemed like ages after Lily talked to him for the first time. And then another and another and another about his failed attempts at asking her out. What's with the quiet and silence now?

Was the fact that she turned him down again for the dance hurt him that bad? Oh, now you felt guilty for asking.

What was so strange, though, was that there wasn't sadness on his face now. No hidden pain or aches. Instead, he said, ever so casually, your toast in his hand "I haven't asked her yet."

You were taken aback, shocked, eyebrows scrunched up. "What?"

James' fruitless efforts with Lily was also very much widely known, but he was never ashamed of it. You couldn't remember the last time he passed an opportunity to confess his— as he said it —undying love for her.

"What, what do you mean you haven't asked her out?" You sputtered out.

He chuckled nervously at your response, raising his hands in trying to calm you down. "Is it really that surprising?"

"Considering the fact that you, James Potter, have been after her for like forever and never faltered in his efforts to make her know that he is head over heels for her, then I'd say, yeah. It's pretty surprising." You responded, baffled. "What changed?"

"Nothing! I just figured that she'd turn me down anyway and didn't bother. And then I heard she already accepted someone else's offer anyways." he shrugged.

"Oh," you put his hand in yours and gave it a squeeze. "I'm sorry."

James squeezed yours in return and gave you a smile. "Nothing to be sorry about. I'm fine, honestly." he assured you. “I think it might be for the best.”

Though you didn’t believe that, he did look fine. And James was never one to hide his feelings from you— in fact it was the total opposite, he was always ever so dramatic — so you took his words. You bit your lip and asked, "You want some tea?"

"What is it this time?" He asked as he took a bite of the egg.

You grabbed one of the teacups and gave it a sniff. "Oh," you scrunched up your nose from the smell, "Herbal, I think." you put it down. "That's a no then."

He groaned, "Why couldn't they just serve normal tea?"

"Because then we won't have a ‘refined’ palate." You rolled your eyes, quoting something Madam Pince had told you in the library for what seemed like a long time ago.

"That's a silly excuse for serving only herbal tea at breakfast."

You couldn't say that you disagree.

"So,” he started. “What are you doing today? Any plans?" 

"No,” you shook your head, “Nothing much." You poured yourself a glass of orange juice and passed the jug to him. "I'll probably just read. You?"

He poured one himself and grinned at you. "That depends, you want to go to Hogsmeade?" 

"Uh-oh," you let out a laugh, sensing trouble. "What are you up to?"

He gasped dramatically. "What do you mean ‘what are you up to?’ I am offended.” He placed a hand on his chest for good measure. “Could it be possible that maybe I just want to spend the day at Hogsmeade with my best friend?”

You raised your eyebrows at him.

He laughed. “I’m not going to do anything, honestly. And It'll be fun, I promise!" he nudged you. "We haven't gone there in a while." Well, that was true.

"It's cold," you argued.

"I have an extra coat if you want double."

"It will be very crowded."

"Then we'll find some place no one knows."

"That's impossible."

"Anything is possible, love. Please." He pleaded, looking at you with his big doe eyes. It was so unfair of the world to give someone such gorgeous brown eyes and left the others to dust. So unfair.

You sighed, letting out at last. He would be the death of you one of these days. "Fine," — which brought a whispered "Yes!" from him— "But we're going to have to visit the quill shop."

"Consider it done." 

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Hogsmeade was truly beautiful in the winter. Its snow-covered roads, the orange lights visible in every shop, and the chattering crowds in their coats and scarves. Though the hits of cold wind on your face made you shiver, you were glad that you decided to go. And that you were with James. His arms around your shoulders provided you warmth just as much as his breath on your cheeks did.

As promised, both of you visited Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop. James had complained at first and tried to negotiate by saying you should "save the best for last" and head to Zonko's instead to open the trip, but after both of you saw the line the place'd formed, he agreed that maybe quills were more fascinating.

"Why are there so many types of ink?" he whispered loudly at you as he examined the shelves, "Who cares if it's lavender purple or lilac purple? They're purple!"

"Lots of people do." You answered before quietly squealing to him after finding a rare gem. "Look!"

You pushed the ink bottles to his face so he'd read the label. "Rainbow ink?"

"Rainbow ink!" You nodded excitedly.

"You do not need rainbow ink, love." He shook his head but couldn't force back the affectionate smile that had appeared on his face.

"Just like you don't need those hand-biting teacups or whatever from Zonko's, and yet here we are." You hummed giddily as you grabbed one of the brand new boxes of rainbow ink from the shelf.

"It's nose-biting teacups— please don't take the fun out of it," he corrected you, "and yes I do need it! It's fun! Trashy fun, but fun!”

"Whatever you say, love." Something caught your attention and you immediately grabbed the cuff of his shirt. "Oh! Let's look here!" 

With the rainbow ink tucked safely in your coat pocket, you and James walked out of the shop and visited Zonko's. He recounted all of the items he had once bought and how he had used them up, mostly with Sirius. He ended up getting something called Inflatable Tongue (for what you didn't want to know) before both of you walked out. 

You turned to him with a glint in your eyes. "Honeydukes?" 

He returned the mischief and grinned. "I thought you'd never ask. Time?"

You thought it over, looking at the clock nailed onto the wall of the shop through the glass.

“Five minutes,” you pointed out. “Letter?”

"B,” he decided as he rubbed his gloved hands together. "Ready?"

"One..." you looked over at him, I'm going to obliterated you. 

"Two…”

“Three.. Go!" you declared before both of you ran to the brightly colored store. 

You and James had many traditions. This was one of them. 

The challenge was simple. You only had to find as many candies as possible that started with the decided letter in those few minutes.

It had started with a silly argument in second year, about who knew more about sweets and, later on, the knowledge of Hogsmeade's own candy shop's stocks and products. You only had been able to visit by third year of course, and the real game had only begun there, but the fire was already established way before. 

Your friend, Marlene, thought it was stupid, and so did the rest of the Marauders, but there was something to be said about the similar stubbornness you two had. Sirius had said they were eerily alike.

You and James entered the shop with thrill and jumpy nerves, but were still decent enough to try not to run like little children that would definitely result in getting kicked out. Like that time both of you visited those muggles candy stores over a summer when you were younger. Lessons were learned.

You immediately went to the right part of the store, claiming the territory. Directed by your decision, James went to the left. 

You knew the store well. James didn’t know it, but you had been visiting this cheerful shop a lot recently. Mostly because Mary was so down after her breakup with her toxic ex and these treats are one of the things that could cheer her up. But on the side, you had done your research. The Bs were on this side of the store.

Bolandi’s Exquisite Crystallized Pineapple. Blood-flavored lollipop. Bat’s Blood Soup? Gross. And some chunks of brownies. 

Five minutes passed, and with James only got Bertie’s and bubblegums, you came out of the shop victorious. 

You jumped and threw your hands in the air. “And miss y/l/n won again. Thank you, thank you.” You bowed to a nonexistent audience. 

He only smiled at you. “Don’t be so proud now. Remember, miss y/l/n, I am still the running champion here. 3-2” he reminded you with a smug smile on his face. 

You shrugged. “That won’t be hard to feat, you mark my words.“ you offered him a look into your paper bag. “Want to try some?” 

“What’s new?” 

“Bat’s blood soup.” Your nose wrinkled at the name. “He said that it’s actually chocolate, but the name is too off putting.” 

“It’d be good with strawberries,” he offered. “We can grab some from dinner later.” 

You nodded your head as both of you made your way through the village. “I think Mary would like it too anyways.”

“Oh, right.” James said. He and Mary weren’t close but they were friendly, especially from being past neighbors and all. “How is she these days?” 

“Better every day I'm sure. It’s for the best, Matt’s an asshole.” 

“We can only hope that that itching powder will find its way real soon.” he grinned at their latest form of tricks. “Or maybe during the Yule Ball actually. That would be so much better.” 

You snorted. “Usually I would say that’s cruel, but he deserves it. We thank you for your service.” You continued solemnly. 

He waved his hand as if tipping off his hat. “And you are so very welcome.” 

Both of you walked through the well-lit village. Talking about everything and nothing, laughing at that student making a fool of himself in one of the shops, and slipped some bites of the crystallized pineapples.He asked you about how far into the book you were now, and you asked him about his Quidditch team and whether the newest member– someone from year two, you believed–was still afraid of heights.  

James had his left arm around you and your gloved hands were holding his–the one near your neck–fighting for some sense of warmth. You and James hadn’t done this in a while and you’d forgotten how much you missed it. You looked up at him as he was talking about the second-year boy and saw the flecks of snow scattered on his face, his askew glasses, and his jet black hair. It made him look a tad bit adorable, you thought. His brown eyes that had that bit of green in them were alight with something so charmingly infectious that you couldn’t help but smile. 

You looked at him as he talked about the latest match, his right hand going everywhere as he was talking at the speed of 893 miles per hour. You loved seeing him talk excitedly about something. There was just something so beautiful in hearing the people you cared about talk about things that they cared about so passionately and ardently, no matter how trivial they may be. It was like you were trusted enough to see this crazy side of them. It’s nice.

A group of third-years passed by and you heard them complaining about not being able to go to the ball yet. Something about dances, dresses and suits, and dying alone. 

"Oh," you fought a smile to keep it from surfacing as you remembered a particular last week incident. “How are your dance moves coming along?" 

He groaned. “Not this again.  You're trying not to laugh." 

"I'm not!" but a chortle escaped you either way. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I know you're trying your best."  

"I am!" he whined. "It's just really hard and Padfoot isn't exactly the best dance partner for practicing," he grumbled.

"Steps-on-you-shoes kind of bad or doesn't-catch-you-after-the-spin-that-you-end-up-falling kind of bad?" You said with a smile and with raised eyebrows. 

He rolled his eyes as he revealed a sheepish smile. As if he could forget. "I said I'm sorry."

“I know. but it was right there. I couldn't not do it.”

A week ago, in the empty common room at night, James had asked you to teach him the basic dance steps most people used for the ball. Despite his mother's graces for it, you found that her son was very much an amateur. 

He kept stepping on your foot and collided with you as he took the wrong directions. You were laughing and kept saying that it was fine, but he still apologized every other second of it. 

The ending to the attempts was a disaster. A playful one for you, but he seemed very embarrassed of it. You had suggested the spin—and honestly it was your fault to have recommended it in the first place when it had only been an hour and a half—and as he tried to pull you back, he might have tugged your hand a bit too hard and you ended up crashing into one another. Your figure on top of his, his hands on your waist. 

His cheeks had turned slightly red, and yours had grown hot as the fall stopped and you found your face so close to his. Your eyes inevitably found his brown ones and you felt his rapid breaths on your skin. His eyes have a little bit of green in them, like stars, your mind wandered before catching yourself. You let out a slight awkward cough and tried to laugh it off as you made yourself stand up. 

He gave you a string of apologies afterward, and although you had assured him that it was all in good fun, he never asked you to teach him again. You kind of wished he would, for reasons you couldn't quite explain, but you didn't want to push him when he had turned to Sirius to "let the failures just befall on him", as he'd said it. 

"But, either way, have you improved under the capable hands of Sirius Black, Mr. Potter?" you asked him now, an eyebrow raised. 

"Well, he's definitely not as capable as you." He gave you an admiring smile, and you almost looked away from it. Taking compliments was never one of your talents. Especially if you felt undeserved of it. 

"Well, it might come to you as a surprise, but what we learned was the easy part. I'm an intermediate myself." Deflected and dodged. 

He laughed. "Either way, you're still graceful at it. You know, the incident did happen again. With Sirius." 

You snorted. "What?" 

"Yeah. Luckily, it's still in the privacy of our dorm. so it's good."

"I'd give money to see that." 

"Would never let that happen in a million years."

“With the way things are going, I might. The dance is a public affair.” 

“I’d have to get better by next week then.” He said it solemnly like it was a promise, but he probably was kidding. That small child-like smile on his face said it all. 

You had walked to the empty side of the village. You didn't think there was one, but the snow covered streets around you were scarce of people. Only a few passersby before they too disappeared into the warm shelter of a wooden shop. Just the way you preferred it.

A sudden thought crossed your mind and before you could even give it a second thought, your mouth decided to give it a voice. "You want to try again?"

He looked around, his snow flecked eyebrows raising, and his smile tinted with a hint of amusement. "Here?"

Well now you wished you hadn't. But, playing along was always better than an embarrassed "never mind, that was stupid" right?

"Well, yes!"  you told him as if you definitely didn't have any second thoughts at all. "Almost no one’s here. Besides," You continued with a light feather edge on your words. "I heard it's freeing to dance in the cold December wind."

He shot you with one of his cheeky smiles. "Is that so?" before putting on his thinking face, a guess on the tip of his tongue. "Romance?" He ventured.

"Partly. It's a coming-of-age drama and such." You corrected him. "It's also on our winter list for this year you'll see."

"Can't wait." and he meant it. But only because, "I hope you'll also like that match tape I got of a muggles' football match. They're entertaining too to say the least."

After years of being best friends together, he had learned that you liked to talk in quotes from the books you'd read and the movies you'd watched. And after years of spending winter and summer breaks together watching and listening to the muggles' form of entertainment media, it was like you shared the same frequency. He could guess which type of movies or shows or songs you had probably heard the saying from, and you could guess which sport match did he reference that joke from.

It was a whole different game. Total number of players : two.

He stopped in his tracks, letting his arm fall from his shoulder, making your neck shudder a bit at the loss of warmth.

"So," he gave you a gentleman's bow—and a playful smile along with it—and offered his gloved hand. "May I have this dance?"

You almost let out a surprised laugh at the gesture. You took a ladylike bow, pinching the fabric of your invisible royal dress. "That depends," you said in an exaggerated accent, "are you able to do so without giving me a head injury?"

He returned the overplayed accent. "I shall make no promises. But, if i were to slip and let you fall, best believe I'd try my best to catch you."

On the usual days, you'd bring up Gwen Stacy falling into her demise in one of the remakes of the Spider-Man movies. How Peter wasn't able to catch her and she ended up dead. James would've gotten the reference—you had cried to him for hours after that first watch last summer—but you couldn't bring yourself to do it.

And yet instead, you were here, trying not to let the invisible red take too much space on your already freezing cheeks. You smiled, and it was a smile you couldn't contain. Not like others. It was one that just kept going wider and wider the more you looked at the beam plastered on his face until it wasn't physically possible anymore.

James, your head echoed his name as you mentally shook your head. A soft laugh escaped your lips. What have you done?

“We’re going to look stupid.” You admitted.

“Hey, it was your idea." He reminded you, his hand still stood in the air.

"It was a moment of foolery." But you took it.

The wind had started to pick up its course again and caused the snow to fall rapidly. Under the glow of the streetlights, you two danced and laughed. It started off as an attempt to the formal dance two would usually use at a ball, but after one or two or seven missteps, you agreed that maybe you should start over.

There was no music to accompany you but there was a faint piano playing from one of the shops. It whispered gently with the wind that swept you and James' rowdy steps. 

His laughters were echoing in your ears, into your mind. His breath was on your cheeks, and his gloved hand on your woolen one was a warming touch. His glasses were a bit askew, and a part of his hair that came out of his beanie was flecked with snow.

There was no rhyme nor reason to your steps or the placement change of your hands. It was so stupid and silly. One minute it was an amateur attempt at classic dances, and another you were fooling around as if you were at a house party.

It was nice. Like you two were five again and you knew nothing and everything. Childhood innocence, where have you gone?

There were a lot of things you were late to realize about your friendship with James. You guessed you didn’t really think much about a friendship that had started since you could remember. It had always just been there, all your life. So long that you couldn’t imagine a life without it. A steadfast thing, the most you ever had one with someone that used to be a stranger to you.

You couldn’t even imagine that now. James Potter, a stranger. It felt so wrong. You had known too much about him, he had known too much about you. He was memorized in your mind.

From his hazel brown eyes that felt like the warm hearth of your home every time you looked at them, to the quirk of his lips and the gentleness of his smile.

To his voice that had once become a soothing presence after you had had paranoid nightmares about one of the people you knew dying. To the sound of his laughter that accompany the hot days in June and the freezing weather of winter, like how it did right now.

How he would run his hands through his hair when he was frustrated or didn’t know what to do. Or how his handwriting looked and how the Gs and Ys are always so sloppy and how the Ss barely look like one.

And so many things. So many other things you couldn’t imagine living without. Maybe this was just you being too present in a moment that you couldn’t think of it being ripped away and making you not be there anymore, but you weren’t sure.

You looked at him, and it was like the rest of the world fell away. His eyes had stars in them and his cheeks were red from the cold.

Your thoughts raced in a hundred miles per hour as your breaths and the pulse in your veins tried to catch up. All of them were beating to get out of your skin and onto the snow. They all had the same jitters, the same sound, and the same beat. And they all were talking in one unison, a whisper of the name of the person in front of you.

James Potter. James Potter. James. Oh. Oh.

It was a moment too late before you realized you had not been watching your steps and tripped yourself over a good mound of snow.

“Woah, woah” You started as you fell forward onto the snow, with your hands still on James’.

You heard the soft thump of the snow hitting James’ head, as your body fell on top of his. The rough old material of his father's coat met with your similar one. Your eyes were inches from his and so were your lips. You didn’t know what to think, your mind just went blank at the sudden proximity.

You should— wait, what should you do? You should— right, oh my god, apologize!

Fighting your inner thoughts and denying its claims, you immediately got up. Maybe too quickly for nonchalance but your racing brain didn’t have time to think it through. Not when it was jammed with mixed and confused signals from your heart.

“James! I’m so so sorry!” you offered him your hand and pulled him to stand, brushing off the snow from his coat. “Sorry, I wasn’t in my mind for that one second. Sorry.”

You couldn’t meet his eyes, or even look at him—which almost never was a problem before, at least not because of this kind of… thing— so you resumed correcting his lopsided beanie. 

He just laughed though. All casual as if you didn’t just find a big revelation. “It’s okay, it’s fine.” He tried to assure you. But you still wouldn’t stop, so he took hold of your hands to stop them from fixing his woolen headwear.

Great, now you were forced to look at him. You just hoped the cold weather was still a believable reason to cover up for whatever your face may look like now. Flushed, probably. But hopefully not too embarrassed.

You looked at his face, a trace of mirth still on his lips that were so close to you a minute ago. His face was kinda red too, but it was probably because of the season.

“It’s okay,” he assured you again. “You know,” an end to his smile turned a bit more upward and you knew that a tease was coming. “You reminded me of an old me,” he continued breezily, “i made this same mistake too back then. When i was more foolish.”

You couldn’t help but let out a snort. James, james. Alright, just let things—and especially you—calm down a little, you told yourself. Let everything go back to normal.

“You mean a week ago, old man?” You lightly punched his arm, before dusting off the snow from your own coat. 

“Time is relative. Miles Morales said it himself.” He said as he helped you brush the snow out of your hair and coat. “Or actually it was Ernest whatnot but whatever.”

You let out a breath of laughter as you shook your head. His glasses were crooked so your hands automatically went up to fix it. Like you had done so many times. “There. It was crooked.” You heard yourself explaining.

“Thanks,” he said with that stupid silly smile of his. You hated that smile now. How can one have such a charismatic smile? It wasn’t fair. 

“No problem, wise man.” You responded with your new-found nickname for him, playfully rolling your eyes.  

“Seaweed brain," He called back, and that made you smile– you didn’t even realize it.

You gave him a nod of approval. "The Percy Jackson reference. Touché."

"I've learned sooo much from you." He said solemnly.

"I know." You smiled up at him. And he looked right into your eyes, that blinding smile of his radiating onto them before suddenly averting his gaze onto the ground, where evidence of your very own accident made a mark on the snow.

James rubbed his hands together, searching for warmth. "Hey, you want to go to the Three Broomsticks? It’ll probably be emptier now.” He offered, like he always did because he was your friend. Your best friend since you could remember.

You didn’t know why you were acting weird. It was only an hour ago when everything was normal. You didn’t know how everything could just change in a matter of seconds. He was your friend, it would be okay. However this would unfold, everything would be fine. Both of you had always overcome things before. It was with James, you two would get through it. You were grateful to have him. 

“Oh yeah sure.” You agreed. Wait, was that too quick of a response? Oh fuck it. He was your best friend, he had known you all his life too—which was exactly why if there was something off with you, he’d definitely be the first person to notice it, but you didn’t want to think about it too much. You shook your heads to clear all maddening thoughts. “Have you heard from Frank? Haven’t gone there in a while.”

“Oh, yeah he’s great.” He continued in a whisper, “I heard he has just received a new package of fire whiskey and Sirius and I are hoping to get a snatch of it or two. You know, for the house.”

“Right, for the house,” You rolled your eyes.

He lent out a hand to you, "Shall we?"

You took it and he gave it a soft squeeze, its grip sending vibrations through your bones.

"We shall."

───────────────∘

James was right, it wasn't as crowded as it would be if you had come earlier. Most people here had their drink and company either at noon or late afternoon and night. 3 pm wasn't exactly a busy hour. Though there were still too many people and noises for your comfort, you and James could at least find a table for two in the corner, quieter spot.

He came to the table holding two butterbeers in his hand. Both served hot to minimize the cold. He slid yours down the table and took a seat in front of you. His glasses are turned slightly uneven again. 

"So, y/n" he started as you picked up your drink and sighed at the heat it gave you. Your hands were absolutely freezing.

"Hm?" You responded, more focused on the comforting smell that radiated from your cup.

"I've been thinking," He continued, and now you looked up. You were so distracted before that you didn't notice how his hands were moving as if he were drumming his thighs under the table— a habit he often did when he was nervous.

You furrowed your eyebrows for a second but decided to ignore it. "Uh-oh. Nothing good ever comes up from that." You took a careful sip of the butterbeer, its warmth traveled all through your withered body. "New horrible trick ideas?"

He rolled his eyes, a breathy laugh came out of his lips. "Why is it that you always always think the worst of me, miss y/l/n?"

Just this morning, at the Great Hall, every part of you was functioning alright. Nothing going haywire. But now, there was a skipped beat in your heart and a flip in your stomach. You tried to deflect it but the butterflies couldn't be bothered.

"I don't always always think the worst of you James. I just know you." You did, you really did. You wondered if he knew it though.

"Well, I bet you wouldn't guess what's going to come out of my mouth this time." He claimed in a challenging tone.

You raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Five guesses." He grinned as he pulled up five fingers to illustrate his point. "No retracting."

"Alright then," You accepted the challenge. You silently thought to yourself before voicing it all aloud. "Wasn't a trick, so maybe you are... planning to do something to the Marauders? Like, I don't know, maybe get those two idiots together to the ball?"

He pulled down a finger. "You know, maybe I should. But that wasn't it. You were kinda close though." 

Close where? “Sirius and Remus?”

He made a loud incorrect buzzer sound and pulled down another finger.

“Hey, that wasn’t-”

“No retracting,” he reminded you, as he took a sip of his own beverage.

“Not fair,” you grumbled. You thought about it again before guessing, “Oh! Yule Ball shenanigans? Oh wait no-“

Another buzzer sound, and two fingers left. “My, you really don’t know me, do you y/n?” He feigned a dramatic hurt on his face and a slight pout. “You’re close though.” 

About the dance? What’s about the dance? “What, you’re going to skip the ball?” You said it as a joke but he wasn’t laughing. In fact, there was just a trace of truth in that smile of his when you said it. “What, I’m right?”

“No. But that depends actually.”

“You’re talking in riddles.” 

“Yeah, it’s fun, isn’t it?” His smile had a slight smirk now, like it was still held back or something. “That counted as incorrect by the way.” He made another buzzer sound and one finger left.

You sighed in frustration. The Yule Ball, but it wasn’t about any tricks. So what? Oh. The realization hit you as you felt your heart drop. It was so silly, but bad timing, James. Bad timing.

“You’re finally going to try and ask someone else to go to the ball with you?” You voiced out your thoughts, hoping there wasn’t a hint that could suggest something else; reluctance and hesitation. What, did he meet her in the hallway before you two went out or something? 

He pulled his lips together and gave you a small shrug. “Close,” he concluded. “But again that depends.”

You sighed. “Alright, fine. I give up. I surrender. Just tell me.” You almost pleaded with him. 

“You’re my best friend, right?”

Right. Best friend. Of course. You nodded. “Mhm.”

“So…” he stopped, like he was nervous to get the words out. That was weird.

A worse idea came to mind.Oh please don’t tell me he’s going to ask me to become his fake date for the ball to make Lily jealous, you silently desperately prayed. It would’ve been easy if it had been any other week before, but not this week. Not today. And specifically not at this hour, when you were still processing everything. 

“Will you…” he continued hesitantly, his fingers playing with a loose thread on one of his gloves, a smile fighting to still be displayed on his lips. “Give me the honor and go with me to the dance?"

You said nothing, only slightly raised your eyebrows in surprise. That depends. You didn’t want to let the fireworks surround you. Skepticism came first, as it always had to.

But your silence seemed to jittered him, and he immediately jumped to explanation. “You know, because we’re best friends, and none of us have a date, and I don't know, I thought it would be fun? To go together. As friends. Casual thing. You know.” He shrugged.

You let out a smile at that, and it seemed to relax him a bit. Why was he so nervous? Of course you’d go with him. You were his best friend, and he was yours, he knew that. “Well, you are not a stranger I don't know or even like.” You joked.

He gave you a grin at that. “No, I’m not. So, you’d go? With me, I mean?”

He was cuter when he was nervous, it wasn’t fair. Why was he nervous again? You’d understand if it was you who were nervous, but why was he?

You couldn’t focus on anything besides the annoyingly loud flutter in your heart—and how hard you are trying to beat and stomp it to death right now. This doesn’t mean anything, it was just a friendly gesture. James was in love with Lily, there was no question, of course.

But you still felt the butterflies on your stomach go wild. You were fighting to contain that smile on your face, scared he’d figure out it wasn’t just any casual thing for you. You were going to the ball with your best friend and you realized there was no else you’d rather go with. 

“Of course, James. You’re my best friend!” You smiled up at him, the warmth coming through your gloves from the hot drink was now small compared to the thrill that coursed through your body. “Though do you have a written contract for possible head damage compensation because I might need it.”

He shook his head, a slight relieved laughter came out of his lips. “You’re impossible.”

“And you love me because of it.” You were only teasing, but you thought he looked at you with such sincerity in his eyes that it jarred your senses a bit. 

“Yeah, I do.”

───────────────────────

[alanangel]

𓂅 Kaito rentry graphic!

I got this Kaito card in psekai today and fell in love... he looks so so so so so good TT

But anyways!! I'm finally back to making edits again ♥︎ requests are always open if you're interested!

free to use w credit! reshares are appreciated!

dividers by @/schizsou ♥︎

[hantenguclonesimp-minuszoha]

Hello! Apologies for bothering you. I’m here to warn you of an a user called Mothziiidk. They have an account here on tumblr, as well as X/Twitter.

For the past few months she reposted mine and my friend’s artwork on her TikTok page (same username is also Mothzii). They were all uncredited. Some were hantengu clone x clone art (I don’t ship incest and I don’t ship them as brothers fyi!) and she would make fun of it. She would make fun of my art too. The least she was asked to do was to either take down the posts or give credit, but she said “no” and said we needed “medical help”. The insults were terrible. I had to reach out to her mutual to beg for those posts to be taken down. Thankfully they were.

However recently she supports a user in this fandom named Kyoten19 (twitter). This person told my friend to k1ll themself for saying Karaku is a pleasure clone. That same friend was also a SA survivor and was already going through mental health issues. When Mothzii was made aware of this, she said it was “cute” and even defended kyoten by brushing it off as a “joke” when the other person was clearly hurt.

Words cannot describe the hurt me and my friends felt through this. She harasses and bullies people when they’re just minding their own business, and calls them racist if anyone draws hantengu even a tad bit lighter skin. She harassed minors on Pinterest too (you can see it when you look up her username “_Mothziiidk_” on Pinterest) She also reposts art there with no credit. She even called my friend a whore for liking cloncest (not shipping as brothers). If you draw your own oc x canon, she will be very kind to you in hopes of getting free art from you.

I just wanted to warn you of this user just in case you decide to interact.. Safest regards ❤️

Oh, no no, dw, friend. I've interacted with said person before without knowing but was luckily informed of what type of scum bitchzii is by another friend (they ignored me btw after I politely asked for criticism but I don't need an asshole's advice). BUT, I did not know about Kyoten. I follow that person on tt and quite enjoy their content. Shame what type of shit person they ended up being.

Tsym for the heads up kisses kisses 😚😚

Divider credits: sanrio

[shumron]

Pinned! ^-^

pretty rb heavy but I do text posts when i'm feeling silly (not just tma/tmagp)

tiktok: shumron2 (for just redacted audio etc.) + shumronnnn (for everything else)

twitter + letterboxd + carrd

other blogs: shumron2 , ultchaeyoungbias , off-to-sea , undeadvampirefan ( i rarely ever use them now TT)

^dms and inbox are open all the time <3 (i need friends TT)

not spoiler free but i tag where i can <333

divider credit: @cafekitsune

[museum-of-cool-vids]

hiiii i'm mariska (she/her • 25)

and i love watching cool, creative videos/edits on tiktok so i made this side blog to share the stuff i like on here with all of u too! i always credit the original video creator in each post's caption (TT usernames are also displayed on the top left and bottom right of the video by default when you save someone else's video to your device), so if you have an account on there as well and you really like something i've shared, be sure to give the creator's original video a like/comment/etc too!

general content warning:

• horror is my personal favorite fiction genre, and will likely be the most frequent type of content i share on here, so please keep that in mind if you follow. i'll always do my best to tag specific warnings on a post, but if themes of (fictional) horror, slasher, unreality, analog horror, 4th wall breaks etc are upsetting, triggering or just not something you enjoy, this is probably not a good blog to follow •

if a video you made has been shared on this blog and you'd like me to remove the post,

• please feel free to send me an inbox message or reply to the specific post and let me know, i will gladly remove the post from this blog as soon as i see your message •

💌 this pinned post will eventually be updated with direct links to tags used in posts to help make the navigation of content on this blog easier and more overall organized in general. stay tuned! 💌

🍄 my main blog url is @mariska 🍄

🎞️ dividers used at the top and bottom of this post (and the colorful line dividers used in individual posts) were made by @firefly-graphics 🎞️

[shuchu]

i got so excited so i just had to request TT congratulations btw! for the eventt, 30 nsfw with mr shu yamino

.・゜-: ✧ :- “you taste so good” -: ✧ :-゜・．

shuchu’s 100 follower event ♡

prompt: “stay still, don’t move your hips.”

character: shu yamino

warnings: NSFW content, minors dni ; fem-bodied!reader

author notes: thank you for the congrats anon!! ♡( ◡‿◡ ) this one’s short but, it gets straight to the point (//ω//) thank you for participating in the event and i hope that this was to your liking (´꒳`)♡ as usual, feel free to leave some feedback and/or send in requests! decorative divider credit to: @/mykaesu on twt  *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

enjoy lovelies! ♡

shu’s hands were roaming your body greedily, touching and squeezing whilst his tongue was busy exploring your mouth making you moan in delight. 

this all started because you went into shu’s streaming room wearing a new set of lingerie that you had just bought to show it to him. you did a little twirl and a pose asking if shu liked it. in that moment shu thought you looked so cute, yet hot at the same time. before shu’s brain could even register it, he had lifted you up into his arms, his lips kissing you hungrily as he walks into the bedroom.

he mumbles against your lips, “god, i’m so lucky…” and he starts kissing down to your neck leaving wet sloppy kisses all over. your fingers were tangled in his raven locks and the other was gripping his shirt. you gasp and moan from his actions, feeling yourself get wetter. shu starts kissing down from your neck to your chest. he lingers at your chest for a while then he continues making his way down your body to your thighs, rubbing your inner thigh with one hand.

he kisses both of your inner thighs once, all while making eye contact with you. you groan as he slides your panties to one side, sliding the tip of his finger between your folds. he smirks, feeling how wet you are and he sticks his tongue out giving your pussy soft kitten licks. you tasted so sweet and shu couldn’t help but want more so he starts lapping at your juices. you moan and your grip on his hair tightens, your eyes rolling back in pleasure. shu groans against you and takes your folds in between his lips, sucking on them, making you arch your back. 

shu couldn’t get enough of your taste, he wants more. he keeps lapping at your folds making you squirm from how good it feels, moans flowing out of your mouth uncontrollably. his hands move to grab your hips, holding you in place. “stay still, don’t move your hips baby.” he mumbles against your clit and gives it a kiss. 

you groan in response and whine, “b-but babe, it feels so good, i- i can’t help it.” shu grins and presses his tongue flat against your slit, licking a long strip up before diving his tongue back into your pussy. 

“fuck! baby i-i’m gonna- ah!” with shu’s grip on your hips, you were unable to escape his tongue’s sweet assault on you. you moaned his name as you came undone on his tongue, shu groans, feeling you climax and he laps up all your juices, not wanting leave a single drop. 

he lifted himself up a little, his lips glistening from your essence, he licks his lips and chuckles, “i hope you’re ready for more baby,” he says as he moves back down to your pussy again, his hot breath against your throbbing clit. “you just taste so good and i can’t help but want more.” he latches his lips onto your clit, sucking on it, making you mewl his name. it was going to be a long night

[delilah-dust]

Masterlist

A/N: These are the current stories I have posted on ao3 already. Whenever I update or add new ones this will change, hopefully on time... Knowing me it’ll probably be late...

My Account on AO3: Delilah_Dust

Fanfiction.net: delilah dust

((Also I do have extremely poor health so please forgive any long delays or lapses in between updates. Thank you!))

[Please let me know if you would like to repost my fics or at least credit me in the description]

- Requests are opened if ya’ll have any, my fandoms are listed below XD -

UPDATED ON 10/21/2023

Ratings:

One (*) inappropriate references / intense swearing

Two (**) mild adult content, no explicit material

Three (***) n$fw / disturbing content

[Some of my stories will not be posted on tumblr due to content warnings, but their titles will still be listed.]

Current Fandoms:

{Hetalia, Teen Titans, Batman, Steven Universe, Rise!Tmnt, Young Justice, Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy}

~ ~ ~

[All Current Fanfics Posted]

Anime:

Hetalia

Brothers Divided

Cepelinai (Crossover TT)

Erika

Liza

Christine

Tobias

Connie

Richard

Lane

Lucy

Vivienne

Elijah

Winnie

Libby*

Ursula

Malachi

Sawyer

Charlie

When I Needed You

Quiet Mornings

Cartoons:

Batman

Musketeer**

En Garde

Dick and Josie (Crossover TT)

Playing Darts*

Clapback* (Crossover TT)

Ambivalent Assholes** (Crossover TT)

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Soft Like Velvet, Smooth Like Silk

Us And The Moon

Oh Brother How I Failed You

Hold Me Back

Steven Universe

Shine Like A Diamond (Crossover TT)

I Can Hug Myself

Teen Titans (TT)

Disconsolate***

Orion ***

Perfectly Anna***

Spearfishing

Beads, Charms, and Flower Petals

Sideburns

Home Sick

Bumble

Jo Mama

Blink

Friday Nights

Intergalactically Delicious

Blueberry Muffins

Strawberry Ice Cream

Something Fishy

Adorable Is Thy Name

Camellia

Speed Bump***

The Replacement

Training Fins

Narcotic*

Enchanted

Snowfall

50**

The Predator’s Angel

The Third Degree

Skin Deep

Butter

Baptism***

The Portrait***

Good Vibes Only

Knowing Tuesday

The F In Family*

All Show No Tell**

Young Justice

Cherry Filling***

Movies:

Avengers

Crashing By (Crossover TT)

Guardians of the Galaxy

Star Child (Crossover TT)

Head Cannons:

Hetalia (Statetalia Senior Elites OC’s)

Drabbles:

Teen Titans

[venialsun]

to begin with, take warning (1/3)

[read on ao3]

1 | 2 | 3

Dick watched Damian physically try to not show his nerves on his face for a full ten minutes—with the success of a trained actor and the failure of a nervous fourteen-year-old playing it off to his older brother—when he caved. They had just driven past the Welcome to Gotham! billboard with “u sure?” and “go back to metropolis cuck!!!” graffitied in looping, hot pink script on the side. It’d be another twenty-five minutes of traffic before they made it to central downtown, and Dick could only stand so much of not-twitchy, not-nervous, I’m-above-this Damian before he burst into laughter and caused some problems.

So he said, “It’s okay to be nervous.”

And from the passenger side, feet up on the dash, looking at his phone, Damian snapped, “I’m not nervous! What is there to be nervous about? It’s an American high school. Big deal. Last week, I stopped a planet-wide catastrophe that would have killed billions in another galaxy, and every night, unless you don’t know, we fight actual monsters and supervillains who actively try to kill us. Some have even succeeded. This is nothing.”

“Yeah,” said Dick, “maybe don’t mention all that on the first day.”

“I know that.”

“And I think you mean ‘my friends and I went to space and stopped a war.’ You know you have to give them credit, too.”

“They’re not my friends,” said Damian. “I work with them. Father isn’t friends with every member of the Justice League, yet he’s worked with near every one of them on League missions. They are my colleagues.”

“So what you’re saying is that you are organizing and leading team missions?” Dick could not keep the amusement out of his voice. “What happened to ‘Teams are unnecessary and a waste of time’? What about the Titans? I know they invited you back.”

“Timothy leads the Titans,” said Damian. “And there’s no room for two Robins on the same team.”

“Mm, don’t know about that, but I also know neither of you would play nice long enough to really try. So no team, okay,” Dick agreed, “and you just happen to be having adventures with other underaged heroes of no relation to you on a periodic basis. And they’re not your friends.”

Damian blinked away from his phone—success!—and scowled. “I do not get your obsession with making friends, Richard,” he said.

Dick splayed his hands on the steering wheel. “I’m glad to see you hanging out with kids your own age, is all. It’s good for you.”

Damian snorted and looked out the window. Gotham’s littered streets and the growing mob of early-morning commuters blurred gray in the smog. In tones of great solemnity he said, “That’s what this whole thing is about, isn’t it? I am going to school to learn how to maintain a secret identity and cultivate a normal public persona. I will be surrounded by kids my own age, and I will be sure to make connections that I will treasure for the rest of my life. These next four years will be the happiest of my life, I know it.”

Dick laughed, and Damian smirked.

“Alright, smartass, I get it. You’re Damian Wayne, haver of too many titles and not leader of any teams, and you’re not nervous about going to high school. I believe you.”

They stopped at a light. Gotham Academy was a few blocks ahead. If they walked, they could be there in ten minutes. Driving as they were in the morning congestion, it would take at least fifteen. Dick didn’t mind. He hummed to himself, waiting. Damian went back to his phone. The light turned green. Dick eased his foot off the brake. They advanced slowly and made it to the front of the line of cars, when the light blinked yellow, then red, and they stopped again.

Damian said, “Father says you were a good student. Well-liked. Studious. Only Robin’s duties caused problems.”

“Bruce said that?” Dick rolled his eyes. “Of course, he did. School was fine,” he said, “though I was mostly focused on being Robin and then the Titans at the time. It was nice, I think. It seems so long ago. But it was hard to have a life there when the most important parts of my life were somewhere else.”

“Wait, Grayson,” Damian said, gleefully, “were you unpopular?”

Dick chuckled, and the light turned green again. “I don’t know what you mean, Dames. I didn’t have that much trouble, and I had a good group of friends. But sometimes I thought it was all a waste of time, time I should’ve spent being Robin. It wasn’t easy hiding parts of myself from my classmates. Keeping the secret meant I couldn’t really be myself or talk to anyone about anything other than school.”

“Until the Titans,” said Damian.

“Until the Titans,” agreed Dick. He glanced at Damian, still with his marginally tense shoulders. “If it counts for anything,” he said, “I don’t think it was a waste of time now. I’m glad I went. I think this is a good thing.”

“Tt,” Damian tutted, but his look was speculative.

“I won’t lie to you and say you will love school. But give it a chance. You might end up liking it.”

“Ever the optimist.”

Dick pulled up into the line of cars for day student drop-off. Gotham Academy stretched across the block, its front tower looming darkly over them in the morning fog. Teenagers in uniform and cheery-looking adults were wandering about, huddling in groups or directing the flow of foot traffic to the entrance and around the side of the façade.

“Got your schedule? Know where you’re going?” Dick asked.

Damian glowered at him.

Dick chuckled. “Right, right, ‘course you do. So I’ll pick you up at four o’clock, okay?”

“And not a minute later,” threatened Damian. And then he set his shoulders, got out of the car, slammed the door, and marched away like he was going into battle.

Dick couldn’t help himself. As he pulled away, he rolled down the window and shouted, “Have a great day at school, Damian! Love ya!”

Without turning around, Damian flipped him the bird.

A whistle blew, and in the rear view Dick saw an upset-looking woman, probably an administrator, point at Damian and loudly scold, “Young man!”

Dick winced, sympathetic yet unrepentant, and merged back into traffic.

Whoops.

•

Yanez knew this would happen, but she had thought it would be at least until midday. Homeroom hadn’t even started. She was busy alternating between threatening her teachers to smile and look happy to be here and smiling half-encouragingly, half-threateningly at students and shepherding them away from their hormonal clusters, when Headmaster Hammer cut a line through the crowd and headed straight to her. A sour-faced Damian Wayne kept pace behind him.

“Good morning,” she greeted, raising an eyebrow, and silently prayed for patience. “Can I help you?”

“Principal Yanez,” said Hammer. He motioned Damian in front of him. “Your student is in need of a reminder of our disciplinary code of conduct.”

Yanez did not miss the emphasis on your. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Hammer was still smarting over his demotion from Grand Headmaster of Gotham Academy, with the full powers that entailed, to “Grand Headmaster” of Gotham Academy, a purely honorary title that delegated tasks to the grammar, middle, and upper level administration that Gotham Academy had been divided into. She ignored him and looked down at the dark-haired boy in front of her. He glared back, defiant.

Ah. One of those.

“Damian Wayne, right?” she asked. “Isn’t it too early to be getting in trouble on the first day of school?”

“That depends on your definition of trouble, I suppose,” Damian said. To her surprise, he had the barest hint of an accent. British, maybe. He stuck out his hand. “You must be Samantha Yanez, the Head Principal for grades nine through twelve.”

Bemused, Yanez shook his hand. “That’s me.”

“I can only hope you are better than your predecessor,” said Damian. He glanced at Hammer and managed to make it seem like he was looking down his nose at him, despite being a full foot shorter. “He left much to be desired.”

“Note that down, Principal. Another perfect example of abhorrent and disrespectful student behavior,” said Hammer.

Yanez frowned. “What happened? Perhaps we should take this in my office.”

Already Yanez could see the curious bubble of students starting to form, talking behind their hands or blatantly recording on their phones.

“Certainly,” said Hammer. “It will help expedite the expulsion process.”

“That remains to be seen, Headmaster,” said Yanez.

She led them back to her office, past the crowds of mingling students and through the arching stone hallway that had been commandeered for the clerical staff. She took a seat behind her desk and indicated for them to sit. She tried not to be too annoyed when Hammer went instead to stand behind her, looming over like a gnarled skeleton.

“Okay,” she said. “Damian. Why don’t you explain to me why Headmaster Hammer has brought you in here? He’s threatening expulsion, but I only reserve that option for the most extreme of cases. Think this merits that?”

“Hardly,” scoffed Damian. “My brother was dropping me off and I flipped him off.”

“You—you flipped him off? You put your middle finger up at him?”

“Yes.”

Yanez barely resisted the urge to laugh and glanced at Hammer. His expression was thunderous. She looked back at Damian and waited, but he did not elaborate. “Why did you flip him off?” she asked.

“He is an embarrassment to me.”

“All brothers are embarrassing to their siblings, especially younger ones. Is there more?”

“No.”

“He has treated every administrator that tried to correct his behavior with rancor and disrespect,” said Hammer.

“Hrm.” Yanez steepled her fingers together. “Headmaster Hammer, could Damian and I have the room? I’ll take care of this. I’m sure you are very busy, and I know Principal Trammer could use the help with the elementary kids.”

Hammer scowled—Yanez knew he hated dealing with the primary school kids—but did not argue and took his leave.

When he was gone, Yanez took a moment to study the young boy in front of her. Petulant and angry, dark-haired, brown-skinned, and light-eyed, something tense and haughty in his shoulders—he looked every bit like any of the troubled kids Yanez had taught over her decades-long career. And yet nothing like them at all. There was something different in the set of his chin, the sharpness of his gaze, his crossed arms, like he was looking for danger and ready to meet it.

“Do you want to be here, Damian?” she asked.

Damian’s mouth twisted. “In this room, wasting my time? Not particularly.”

“Well, we can agree on that,” said Yanez. “But I meant here, Gotham Academy.”

Damian shrugged. “My family insists this will be an enriching opportunity.”

“They’re probably right. But I have looked at your records. You tested out of most of the core subjects, and your home-schooling portfolio is very impressive. Yet you are signed up for the standard ninth-grade honors track. When your Father and I met this summer to discuss the terms of your enrollment, he told me you insisted on it.”

Finally some of the animosity slipped from Damian’s face. He seemed intrigued. “You spoke with my father?”

“Only the once and very briefly,” said Yanez, “but yes. He said re-enrolling at Gotham Academy and coming back to school was your idea.”

Damian scowled.

“So I believe some part of you wants to be here, wants to be a student. Is that accurate?” she asked.

“I already regret it,” Damian muttered.

Yanez smiled. “Not the resounding yes I wanted to hear, but I’ll take it.” She reached into a side drawer and pulled out a quarter-sheet of yellow paper and scrawled down a few details. “If you want to be here, then being a student means abiding by some ground rules. Respect others, respect yourself, respect the school.”

“My respect is earned,” said Damian, “not freely given because of some archaic code of conduct.”

“Then you’re already miles ahead of most of the people in this building,” said Yanez. She handed him the slip of paper. “Respect is earned, yes, but you have to give people the chance to earn it in the first place. That means holding off on rude gestures and comments when it can be helped, which is most times. I am giving you two days of community lunch tutoring for flipping your brother off on school grounds and insulting the administrators.”

“Community lunch tutoring?” Damian echoed, scanning the slip.

“It is similar to detention, but instead you tutor other students and help them with their assignments. Report to the technology atrium during your lunchtime today and tomorrow.”

“Sounds dumb,” said Damian. “Why not just expel me?”

“For expressing your feelings and saying mean things to grown adults?” Yanez chuckled and shook her head. “Damian, this is a high school. If I expelled every bratty kid with no respect for authority and a penchant for dramatics, I would be out of a job. If you want to flip people off and bad-mouth teachers and administrators, that’s your business. It is not in my power to stop you, not fully anyway. You’re a smart kid. If you want to be a delinquent then at least be smart about it. If you get caught or the wrong adult overhears you, then you and I will be meeting more often, the repercussions will not be as merciful, and I will have to do a lot more paperwork. And Damian?”

She waited until she had his full attention, and he looked up, curious.

“I hate paperwork,” she said. “Don't let it come to that.” She waved a hand. “Now get out of my office. You’re late.”

next ->

[dukeofriven]

Fun Jade/Rose Facts (Well... facts.)

Note: These facts are divided between “In-Comic” (Everything from Page 1 of Homestuck (A young man stands in his bedroom...) to page 8128 (The End) and “The Credits” (Pages 8129-8130). If I update this after the Epilogue, we’ll... cross that bridge when we get there.

In-Comic Jade/Rose Facts

Jade and Rose have only five conversations in the entire comic.

1 2 3 4 (2 pages) 5 (2 pages)

Conversation #4 is repeated. We see it first from Jade’s POV, then from Rose’s.

The number of conversations goes up to six if you count GrimBark Jade saying “Bark” and “Hey guys long time no see” to the assembled group in Act 6 Intermission 5 - but since Rose says nothing back, I am not counting this as a conversation.

You may do so if you wish.

After removing dialogue tags (like “TT”) and Pesterlog archival data (“ceased pestering” etc), their shortest conversation is their fourth at 80 words long.

Their longest one-on-one conversation is their third at 571 words long.

Their longest conversation is their fifth. It features Doc Scratch, and runs some 1,170 words long.

All told, about 2,711 words are exchanged in one-another’s chat windows. Discounting Doc Scratch’s intrusion into their final conversation, they speak 2324 words to one-another.

If you are counting the Grimbark conversation, add another 7 words.

6 if ‘BARK” is more of a sound.

By contrast, this single one-page Fruity Rumpus Asshole Factory exchange between Dave, John, and Karkat runs some 2188 words - over a thousand words longer than any single Jade/Rose conversation, and only some 136 less than their entire conversation history.

Rose never speaks a single word to Jade aloud.

Rose never uses Jade’s name in conversation with her.

Jade and Rose "share the screen” 15 times during the comic. (I have excluded both Caliborn’s ‘Homosuck’ cutouts and his Plasticine maquette because A) they are facsimiles of an event recited by an even-more unreliable narrator than usual, not the real thing, and B) Seriously: Fuck That Guy)

One of these on-camera appearances was ret-conned out of existence.

In only seven of these appearances are both Jade and Rose conscious.

Here are all their on-camera appearances:

Act 6 Intermission 5

(Don’t think I ever noticed Gamzee hiding in the background before.) Act 6 Act 5

Act 7

(It’s tough to tell but I think the above photo is the closest Rose and Jade ever get in the comic.)

Rose never speaks to Jade again after their fifth conversation in Act 5 Act 2.

Rose and Jade do not converse for the entirety of Act 6.

Rose and Jade do not converse for the entirety of Act 7

Going off “page math” alone. here are some fun facts about Jade and Rose conversations:

5% - or about 1/20th of the comic - passes before Rose and Jade speak.

Rose and Jade spend 39% - 39/100ths - of the comic “in-touch” with one another.    

They spent the remaining 56% of the comic not talking.

Rose and Jade spend approximately 61% of Homestuck not in-contact, not in-touch with one another.

Counting the repeat conversation and a single still panel, there are only 9 pages in Homestuck where Rose and Jade are talking.

0.11072834645669291% of Homestuck - 5,536,417,323/5,000,000,000,000ths - (5.5 milliard billionths of the comic - 5.5 billion trillionths for our American readers. ~11/10000) is devoted to Rose and Jade’s “on-screen” relationship. And that’s counting a repeat conversation and a silent panel.

Rose and Jade “share” the screen - either while message-conversing or literally “in the same shot” in 20 pages of Homestuck.

That’s 0.24606299212598426% of Homestuck. About 24,606,299,213/10,000,000,000,000 (~1/400ths) of the comic.

Homestuck contains about 817,612 words.

Jade-Rose conversations all together comprise some 2779 words, taking into account that the fourth conversation is repeated twice.

Jade-Rose conversations comprise approximately 0.33989227163984875% of Homestuck’s text.

That’s 8497306791/2500000000000ths

Credits Jade/Rose Facts

There is no canonical evidence that Jade attended Rose’s wedding.

Seriously - she’s not there in the pictures. When all the kids are lifting the bride and bride up on chairs as part of the “thing done during the horah that isn’t actually part of the horah guess who just did a deep dive into the history of the horah did you know it’s from Greece via Romania and only dates back to 1930 as a traditional pan-Jewish custom it’s kind of like clan tartans in that it’s a cultural touchstone that feels ancient but isn’t” she’s... absent. Jake is in the picture twice once at the top, once in trickster mode on the bottom. Jade Harley: had better things to do than go to Rose’s wedding?

Jade and Rose are the only two kids to never be shown with Trickster modes.

This following photograph is the only conversation Rose and Jade ever have in-person in all the Homestuck franchise. It is their only moment of contact after Act 5 Act 2. We have no demonstrative way of proving that they ever conversed in-person before John’s 18th birthday party on Earth-C:

This is their only verbal conversation, and their only conversation to go textually unrecorded.

We have no way of proving that this is not Rose and Jade burying the hatchet after a... four year feud after Jade clumsily let Rose know her mother had been brutally murdered. 

This is 1.3297872340425532% of the entire credits video.

That’s 664893617/50000000000ths of the entire credits - because the only good joke is a cumbersome running joke.

BONUS: Snapchat Jade/Rose Facts

Welcome to the land of dubious canonicity. [Update 23/04/19: I’d like to note that I used this phrase before the Epilogues hit. Also, these are now officially outside of even the broader Homestuck meta-canon as far as anyone can tell. Radio silence on this remains aggravating. What were these and what did Andrew Hussie actually want?]

Do you remember the Snapchats? They didn’t stop being a thing or anything.

... well, they did, actually. Who knows if they’re canon any more. [Again: they are not]

That’s why this section is a bonus - its demi-canonical!

Man, remember when we were all excited that the future of Homestuck was going to be snapchats?

We were going to get so many snapped chats.

So many you guys.

Sigh.

Please no walking on the grass. That grass is only semi-canon. We are liable for damages with the rental company.

Jade and Rose appear together in one (1) snapchat photo:

I’m pretty sure this is the only Beta kids group shot in the entirety of Homestuck!

This Jade/Rose interaction comprises 1.5151515151515151% of all the snapchats.

That’s 946969697/62500000000ths.

That’s really all there is to say on the matter.

FAQ Will you cover the Epilogue?

I will, of course, update this most important resource if/when the Epilogue gives us any more Jade/Rose content. Statistically speaking, it won’t take up much space. You missed interaction [X]! Can I tell you about it?

Yes please! Thanks for letting me know, I will add it right away and update my maths.

You missed interaction [Caliborn’s Master Plan]! Can I -? You may not. This seems elaborate and kind of pointless - why would you do this? Because Jade/Rose is a ship and talking about the Jade/Rose friendship is a thing and I... uh... I didn’t get it. But now having done all this work I... ... I still don’t get it. I always questioned Jade/Rose because I said to myself “they don’t really interact much,” and now that I’ve sat down and run the numbers they really don’t interact much. Now if you’re wondering “did you run though every single conversation looking for the times Jade mentioned Rose or Rose mentioned Jade” the answer would be “ha ha ha that would be crazy of course I did.” I am very tired. And... they don’t talk about each-other much. I mean ‘actually’ talk - I’m not counting all the “hey do you know what Rose/Jade is doing” questions asked between the kids or the trolls (though there’s not that many, really) - I’m talking about actual conversations, like when John talks about how he feels about having to marry Rose according to the Shipping Chart or Karkat mutters that Jade maybe kind of meant something to him once. Jade has this to say about Rose - talking to, of all people, Eridan: GG: rose? GG: i do not have a score to settle with rose!!! GG: why would you think that?    CA: oh CA: wwell fuck CA: suppose i wwas guessin it wwas natural to presume somesuch relation like that betwween the twwo a you    GG: i think you are projecting your own attitude on to others GG: just because you tend to hate and/or hit on everyone you meet doesnt mean everyone else is that way GG: rose just sent me a code for a crystal ball, shes my friend and is basically the best!  It’s a very Harleybert sentiment. And sadly it doesn’t add up to anything. At the very least, Rose doesn’t think that much about Jade. Take it from me: a guy who literally went through every conversation Rose and Jade ever had with and about each other: Rose doesn’t think much about Jade. When Jade shows up sleeping at the end of act six lots of people talk about her: Rose’s only comment is to make a crack about Jade ending end-game ships when she wakes up, and also to note that there was Bird Dave and Dog Jade and Cat Rose but No [Animal] Egbert. That’s it. The most Rose ever has to say is the “she has the karma” conversation all the way back in Act 3 - and it’s still really about Dave. When GrimbarkJade shows up on LOLAR... Rose makes no comment whatsoever. Jade does not take the time to go see Rose when she wakes up in the ret-con timeline. Jade discusses Rose with John only in the context of John and his shipping chart destiny. Rose never seems to have anything to say about Jade to Dave or John. If these kids had had a normal sibling existence in the same high school and John had been hit by a car Jade would have remained friends with Dave but she and Rose would be revealed to not be all that close - their common point of friendship is John, not one-another. Rose talks about so much shit - but not about Jade. Jade might say Rose is “the best” but it’s Harley hyperbole more than anything: she didn’t even get Rose a birthday present because she says Rose is hard to shop for! Rose LaLonde is hard to shop for? What?

There. It’s an Emily the Strange t-shirt with Charles Dutton’s head. it took me ten seconds to come up with it you are welcome Jade. You want to ship Rose/Jade? Fuck yeah, man - go for it! You want to write an eighty thousand word fan-fiction on Rose and Jade: BFF Treasure Hunter Essayists? Sounds fucking rad please write that. You want to say that, canonically, Jade and Rose are great friends? I’m going to have to disagree. Homestuck is a story about four friends - it is not a story about four equally friendly friends. Maybe it was meant to be: not going to lie, I like Act 6 and the ending of Homestuck a lot but even I concede that Jade gets shafted in the “having shit to do” department - the fact that she sits out the big Giant Talky Session at the end of the comic? Weird as shit. If she was up and awake and had any kind of conversation with Rose where they seemed friendly and in-touch I would change my opinion in a heartbeat: I’m not some crank who hates Jade and Rose being best of friends because I’m a weirdo. I mean I am a weirdo but for other reasons, not this. No, I just don’t agree with the idea because it’s not supported by the text. Five conversations in seven acts? Less than 3,000 words exchanged in a document running into the hundred of thousands - and some of that repeat, and some of that the words of a giant cueball tool? If Andrew Hussie wanted us to believe that Jade Harley and Rose LaLonde are particularly close friends, he put no sign of that into the text. If I missed something please - tell me. Argue it with me, even, if you disagree with my assessment - or my math.I am not great at math. Regardless - reach out. We should talk about this more. Edit: Updated 10:38 EST April 12, 2019: corrected multiple typos, changed “dismissed” to “questioning,” clarified point about the horah to sound less weird.

[architectnews]

Wohnregal is a prefabricated concrete live-work apartment block in Berlin

Architecture studio FAR has built a six-storey housing block in Berlin from precast concrete slabs.

Named Wohnregal, the warehouse-style block was constructed form prefabricated concrete elements, with pillars and beams that support slabs to create the potential for wide-open rooms.

Sliding glass doors cover two facades

The individual stories have no structural walls inside and span 13 metres from the facade to facade. Occupants can insert their own drywalls into the spaces to divide them according to their lifestyles.

A type of precast concrete beams called TT-beams were used for the construction.

Stainless steel mesh screens the external stairs

Two curtain walls on Wohnregal's east and west facade are formed by floor-to-ceiling glass doors, turning the sheltered spaces into covered balconies and walkways.

The sliding glass doors can be opened in summer to naturally ventilate the building.

Outdoor staircases covered with stainless steel mesh zigzag up the side of the building, turning a functional element into a visual part of the block's facade.

Prefabricated concrete elements took just six weeks to assemble

The decision to use prefabricated materials was motivated by Berlin's increasingly expensive house prices and a desire to change preconceptions about prefabricated design as too prescriptive

"The ambition was to bridge two apparently contradictory challenges the housing market in Berlin is facing," said FAR.

"Industrial prefabrication offers the benefits of serial construction techniques, including cost-savings and shorter construction timelines, and thus addresses the rising construction costs for housing," added the studio.

"Countering preconceptions that serial construction automatically implies a standardization of the inhabitable unit itself, Wohnregal offers a wide range of different live/work atelier layouts for an ever-broadening bandwidth of urban lifestyles."

Units have their own corner balconies

Wohnregal was built with just six weeks of onsite assembly and construction costs averaged at €1,500 (£1,350) per square metre.

Aside from two mechanical cores, there are no restraints on the layouts of the floors, each of which are divided into the different apartment and workshop sizes.

There are no structural internal walls

Units vary from 35 to 110 square metres, facing east or west or, for some of the larger ones, both. Sunrises and sunsets are visible from the corner balconies of each unit.

"Prefabrication in housing has been a century-long story of optimization, and has had a continuous up and down of promises stated and promises broken," said FAR.

"Wohnregal re-appropriates the DNA of the prefabricated warehouse, which has taken the approach of optimization to its absolute limits while exploiting that very economy. It also reinterprets its structural openness to introduce a discourse that has been strangely absent in the focus on prefabrication: the complexity and variety of inhabitation."

FAR hopes the project demonstrates prefabrication's customisable qualities

FAR, short for Frohn and Rojas, was founded in 2004 by Marc Frohn and Mario Rojas Toledo and is based in Berlin.

Wohnregal has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the housing projects category, along with projects such as an apartment block for "slash youths" in China and a co-housing project in France.

Photography is by David von Becker.

Project credits:

Architect: FAR Design team: Marc Frohn, Mario Rojas Toledo, Max Koch, Ulrike vandenBerghe, Lisa Behringer, Ruth Meigen, Martin Gjoleka, Felix Schöllhorn, Pan Hu, Julius Grün, Erik Tsurumaki, Katharina Wiedwald Client: Private Structural engineering: IB Paasche Electrical engineering: Zwerg Mechanical engineering: Joco Fire protection: Ingenieurbüro für Brandschutz, Ingolf Kühn Energy planner: Gerdes Hubert Ingenieurbüro

The post Wohnregal is a prefabricated concrete live-work apartment block in Berlin appeared first on Dezeen.

[tak4hir0]

CUSTOM GAME ENGINES: A Small Study A couple of weeks ago I played (and finished) A Plague Tale, a game by Asobo Studio. I was really captivated by the game, not only by the beautiful graphics but also by the story and the locations in the game. I decided to investigate a bit about the game tech and I was surprised to see it was developed with a custom engine by a relatively small studio. I know there are some companies using custom engines but it's very difficult to find a detailed market study with that kind of information curated and updated. So this article. Nowadays lots of companies choose engines like Unreal or Unity for their games (or that's what lot of people think) because developing a custom AAA-level engine requires lots of resources, so, I decided to list here some of the most popular custom engines with the team-sizes and notable titles released with those engines. Most of the engines listed here have been developed along the years with multiple iterations and multiple videogames, those engines have gone through several versions or even complete (or semi-complete) rewrites from scratch, with a consequent engine name change. Also, important to note, most of those engines use numerous middleware for specific functionalities (Platform, Physics, Network, Vegetation, UI, Rendering, Audio...). *NOTE: I tried to be as much accurate as possible with the information about the employees count (I checked the companies websites, Wikipedia or company LinkedIn) but take it with a grain of salt (some employees numbers could not be up to date). The BIG Companies *From left to right: Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Final Fantasy XV, Red Dead Redemption 2 Below list is for very big corporations, sometimes with complex corporate structures with several divisions (not only focused on videogames) and various studios/subsidiaries developing games. Some of them work with multiple engines, not only custom ones but also licensed ones. Company Employees Studios Engine(s) Notable Games Activision/Blizzard ~9200 ~9 custom engine(s) Call of Duty series, Overwatch, Starcraft II Electronic Arts ~9300 ~36 Frostbite 3 Star Wars Battlefront II, Anthem, Battlefield 1/V, FIFA 20, Need for Speed series Ubisoft ~16000 ~54 AnvilNext 2.0 Assassin's Creed series Disrupt engine Watch Dogs series UbiArt Framework Rayman Legends, Child of Light, Valiant Hearts Snowdrop Tom Clancy's The Division 2, The Settlers Dunia (CryEngine-based) FarCry series Silex (Anvil-based) Ghost Recon Wildlands LEAD engine Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series Dunia-based The Crew Capcom +2800 ~15 MT Framework Monster Hunter: World RE Engine Resident Evil 7, Devil May Cry 5, RE2:Remake, RE3:Remake Konami +10000 ~30 Fox Engine Pro Evolution Soccer series, Metal Gear Solid V Square Enix +4600 ~18 Luminous Studio Final Fantasy XV Nintendo +6100 ~8 custom engine(s) Zelda: BOTW, Mario Odyssey Riot Games ~2500 ~3 custom engine League of Legends Rockstar +2000 ~9 RAGE engine GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2 CD Projekt +1100 ~4 REDEngine 3 The Witcher 3 Epic +1000 ~11 Unreal Engine 4 Fortnite Usually those companies invest in custom engines to have full control over the technology and also avoid the revenue cut imposed by the licensed engines. Despite that fact, there are some big companies that in the latest years have chosen Unreal Engine for their productions, the most notable cases are: Capcom is using Unreal for the new Street Fighter IV/V titles. Bandai Namco latest big hits are using Unreal: Jump Force, Dragon Ball Fighter Z, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Tales of Arise. Square Enix also moved to Unreal for several new titles: Dragon Quest XI, Kingdom Hearts III, Final Fantasy VII Remake It's interesting to see that those big three are Japanesse companies, I wonder if that's maybe a market trend for Japan. Also to note, the chinesse holding Tencent owns 40% of Epic Games, I bet it has some influence in the Asian market. Middle-size Studios *From left to right: Rise of the Tomb Raider, Uncharted 4, A Plague Tale Here we have the medium-small companies that decided to create their custom technology for their titles. The number of employees could be a nice reference to consider because a custom game engine is usually developed in-house (I mean, not outsourced) but note that some of those companies could have a big number of people due to in-house artist/audio teams, while other companies out-source those parts of the development. It would be really nice to know how many engineers are working on the engine division for each company, I'm sure there would be some big surprises, probably by the low number of engineers working in the engine and tools! Also interesting to know more info about the tooling included with those engines, it's really difficult to have access to that kind of information. Engines tooling is usually a hidden-secret (beside some GDC presentations or some quick showcase videos). *From left to right: Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Death Stranding Company Employees Engine Notable Games Creative Assembly +650 Warscape Engine Total War series Bungie ~600 Tiger Engine Destiny series Infinity Ward +500 IW 7.0 Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Eidos-Montréal ~500 Dawn Engine (Glacier2-based) Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Paradox Interactive +400 Clausewitz Engine Imperator: Rome Bethesda ~400 Creation Engine Skyrim, Fallout 4, Fallout 76 Valve Corp. ~360 Source 2 Dota 2, Half-Life: Alyx Crystal Dynamics ~350 Foundation Engine Rise/Shadow of the Tomb Raider Avalanche Studios ~320 Apex engine Just Cause series, Renegade Ops, Mad Max, RAGE 2 Naughty Dog +300 Naughty Dog Game Engine Uncharted series, Last of Us Rebellion Developments ~300 Asura engine Alien vs. Predator series, Sniper Elite series Techland ~300 Chrome Engine 6 Dying Light Crytek ~290 CryEngine V The Climb, Hunt:Showdown From Software +280 Dark Souls engine Bloodborne, Dark Souls III, Sekiro Remedy +250 Northlight Engine Quantum Break, Control Guerrilla Games +250 Decima Killzone Shadow Fall, Until Dawn, Horizon Zero Dawn Platinum Games ~250 Platinum Engine NieR Automata, Bayonetta, Vanquish Santa Monica Studio +200 custom engine God Of War series id Software +200 idTech 6/7 Doom, Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein series Sucker Punch +200 custom engine Infamous Second Son, Ghost of Tsushima? Insomniac Games ~180 Insomniac Engine Rachet&Clank series, Marvel's Spider-Man Quantic Dreams ~180 custom engine Detroit: Become Human IO Interactive ~170 Glacier2 Hitman series Asobo Studio +140 Zouna A Plague Tale Ready At Dawn ~120 custom engine The Order: 1886, Lone Echo Mercury Steam ~110 custom engine Spacelords, Castlevania:Lords of Shadow series Monolith Productions +100 LithTech F.E.A.R. series, Condemned series, Shadow of Mordor/War 11 Bit Studios ~100 Liquid Engine Frostpunk Frozenbyte ~100 Storm3D Trine series, Shadowgrounds Kylotonn ~100 KtEngine WRC series, TT Isle of Man series, V-Rally 4 TaleWorlds Entertainment ~100 custom engine Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Daedalic Entertainment ~90 Visionaire Studio The Whispered World, Deponia series Media Molecule ~80 Bubblebath Engine Dreams Deck13 ~70 Fledge Lords of the Fallen, The Surge, The Surge 2 Nihon Falcom ~60 Yamaneko Engine Ys VII, Ys VIII, Ys IX Croteam +40 Serious Engine The Talos Principle, Serious Sam series Some observations from this list: Rise of the Tomb Raider lists only 10 programmers working on Foundation engine in the credits, probably a good reference number to get an idea of the people working on the core engine. Kojima Productions use Decima engine, developed by Guerrilla Games, for Death Stranding, previously they used Fox Engine for Metal Gear Solid V. Media Molecule latest game/engine (Dreams) seems to have been developed by only ~15 coders, amazing! Companies targeting one single platform, usually have less restrictions and can push the limits of that platform. Unfortunately, that's a luxury that most companies can not afford. Asobo Studio, the company that originated this market study is not that small... but, like other companies, they seem to work in multiple titles in parallel. Very nice to see that some of the engines have entries in the Wikipedia with some details and titles released, it should be a must. Small-size Studios (Indie Studios) *From left to right: The Witness, No Man's Sky, X-Morph Defense Here we have some really small studios that also choose to develop a custom engine for their games. Note that most of those engines rely on other libraries/frameworks for certain parts of the game, the common choices we find are SDL (cross-platform graphics/input), OGRE (rendering engine), MonoGame (cross-platform game framework, also relyes on SDL, SharpDX, OpenTK, OpenAL-Soft...). One question many people could ask is, what parts of the engine are actually coded by the developers? Well, it depends, but usually coders take care of the screen-manager, entities-manager and content-manager as well as the wrappers/interfaces to the external libraries. Second question, what parts of the engine usually rely on external libraries/middleware? It also depends on the company resources but usually audio-system, physics, rendering, networking, ui-system, terrain-system, vegetation-system and some other pieces. *From left to right: Factorio, Thimbleweed Park, Owlboy On the following list (and the next one below) I added the publishing date (only +2012) and the link to Steam for all the games... there are not many games with custom engine from small studios out there and I think they deserve to be recognized and supported. Company Employees Engine Notable Games Shiro Games ~30 Heaps.io Northgard (2018), Evoland (2013), Evoland II (2015) Hello Games ~25 No Man's Sky Engine No Man's Sky (2016) Frictional Games ~25 HPL engine SOMA (2015), Amnesia series DrinkBox Studios ~25 custom engine Guacamelee (2013), Guacamelee! 2 (2018), Severed (2016) Supergiant Games ~20 MonoGame-based Hades (2019), Pyre (2017), Transistor (2014) Wube Software ~20 Allegro/SDL-based Factorio (2019) Chucklefish ~20 Halley Engine Wargroove (2019), Starbound (2016) Ronimo Games ~17 RoniTech Engine (SDL) Awesomenauts (2017) Runic Games ~17 OGRE-based Hob (2017), Tochlight II (2012) Lab Zero Games ~17 Z-Engine Indivisible (2019), Skullgirls (2013) Introversion Software ~14 SystemIV (SDL) Prison Architect (2015) Exor Studios ~14 OGRE-based Schmetterling The Riftbreaker (2020), X-Morph: Defense (2017) Tribute Games ~11 MonoGame-based Flinthook (2017), Mercenary Kings (2014) Thekla Inc. (Jonathan Blow) ~10 custom engine The Witness (2016) Terrible Toybox (Ron Gilbert) 9 custom engine (SDL) Thimbleweed Park (2017) Matt Makes Games (Matt Thorson) ~7 MonoGame-based Celeste (2018), TowerFall Ascension (2014) Coilworks ~7 custom engine Super Cloudbuilt (2017), Cloudbuilt (2014) Lo-fi Games (Chris Hunt) 6 OGRE-based Kenshi (2018) D-Pad Studio 6 MonoGame-based Owlboy (2016) BitKid, Inc. 6 MonoGame-based CHASM (2020) Double Damage Games 5 OGRE-based Rebel Galaxy Outlaw (2019), Rebel Galaxy (2015) Almost Human Games 4 custom engine Legend of Grimrock (2012), Legend of Grimrock 2 (2014) Wolfire Games 4 Phoenix Engine Overgrowth (2017) Some observations from this list: Nicolas Cannasse, co-founder of Shiro Games, is the the developer of Haxe programming language and Heaps engine, used by Motion Twin for Dead Cells (2017). Hello Games is a very small studio considering the size of No Man's Sky and that they use a custom engine. Really impressive! Runic Games was dissolved in November 2017, the founders created Double Damage, now they are working on Echtra Games on Torchlight III. Rodrigo Braz Monteiro, Chucklefish CTO, is the person in charge of Halley engine, actually the engine is open-source! In most of those studios the people in charge of creating the game engine it's only 1-3 persons! Lo-fi Games was a one-man team (Chris Hunt) for more than 6 years! Some of the games in this list took +5 years of development! Not many games... a couple of hits per year... One-man custom engines *From left to right: Stardew Valley, ScourgeBringer, Eagle Island Finally, the list of the heroes. Games developed by 1-2 people with custom game engines, engines mostly coded by one person! Respect. Creating an engine and a game from scratch to the point of publishing it is an extraordinary accomplishment, not many people in the world is ready for that. Almost all of them are 2D games, usually with very small budgets and developed along multiple years. Congratulations to the developers! *From left to right: Axiom Verge, Ghost 1.0, Remnants of Naezith Some observations from this list: Some of those teams are formed by 1-2 people but probably grew at some point and/or outsourced some parts of the development (art, audio...). Usually the publisher also helps with some resources (localization, marketing...). Omar Cornut from Lizardcube is the main programmer for Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap engine and also the developer of Dear ImGui, a free and open-source immediate-mode gui library used by lots of AAA custom engines. Ben Fiquet from Lizardcube is also the main artist for Streets of Rage 4, the custom engine of Guard Crush Games is written by Cyrille Lagarigue. Marc Flury programmed Thumper game engine rejecting the OOP paradigm in favor of a procedural programming approach. Christian Whitehead is the creator of Star Engine used in Sonic Mania but Headcannon (Simon Thomley) and PagodaWest Games (Jared Kasl and Tom Fry) were also involved in the development of the game. Some of the games in this list took +5 years of development! Not many games... a couple of hits per year... There are some other remarkable games using custom engines (usually XNA/MonoGame) that worth mentioning: Minecraft (2011), Braid (2009), Super Meat Boy (2010), Terraria (2011), Dustforce (2012), Sword and Sorcery EP (2012), FEZ (2013), Dust: An Elysian Tail (2013), Rogue Legacy (2013), Dyad (2012), SpaceChem (2013). Conclusions I'll start saying I'm biased, I'm really passionate about videogames-making technologies and I admire custom engines and game-making tools. I also contributed to custom engines ecosystem with my grain of salt: raylib and several game-making tools. I prefer a custom engine over a licensed one, I consider that the extra amount of effort put into the product usually translates into some specific great mechanic or some amazing in-game details. Said that, I must admit that creating a custom engine is a big endeavour and not many people are ready for that. I recognize Unity (and Unreal to less extend) have really democratized videogames development, lots of small-medium size companies can use Unity today to develop games quicly and put them on the market, sometimes with very low budgets... But, still, lots of big companies prefer to rely on their own custom technologies. From my gamedev-teacher perspective, I think students must learn how engines work internally with as much detail as possible. Relying only on engines like Unity/Unreal for education to allow students develop eye-candy project in short-time is not the way to go. At the end of the day, someone has to write the engine and the tools! NOTE: Feedback and improvements are welcome! :)

[olympictickets]

Olympic Swimming: Thompson joins Carter in Tokyo Olympic

Ace Olympic Swimming Champion Cherelle Thompson turned into TT's second swim competitor to fit the bill for the Summer Games in Tokyo Olympic, Japan. At the TYR Pro Swim Series in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Sunday, the 27-year old competitor accomplished the authority Olympic 2020 'B' qualifying time of 25.51 seconds, by checking a rankling 25.39s in the Women's 50m free-form.

Olympic enthusiasts from all over the world are invited to book Olympic 2020 tickets from our online platforms for Olympic Tickets. Olympic Swimming followers can book Olympic Swimming Tickets from our ticketing marketplace exclusively on discounted prices.

Thompson's great demonstrating additionally observed her sprinkle to another national record, cleaning ceaselessly her own past time of 25.52s, set at an Amateur Swimming Association of TT (ASATT) Invitational Meet at the Aquatic Center, Couva, only one month prior.

This predominant showcase sees her join Dylan Carter (100m free-form) in Tokyo Olympic. Addressing Thompson's mentor, Stephen Mendoza, on Sunday, he communicated delight yet said there was still a lot of work to be finished.

This is actually where we needed her to be as of now, said Mendoza in the wake of coming back from Tennessee only two hours earlier. Among now and July, we'll possess enough energy for her to improve to get the 'A' qualifying time (24.77s). She's on that course of events and improving reliably. The point, by March-April, is to enter the 24-second section. From that point, we're progressing in the direction of the lower half of the 24-second imprint. The objective is medaling and not simply setting off to the Olympic 2020.

As per the prepared mentor, there the group has just made arrangements for one nearby and one remote meet for each month to accomplish the proposed targets. He accepts once Thompson keeps up serious consistency over the coming months, she will keep dropping her occasions.

In November 2019, the gifted swimmer crushed previous TT Olympian, Siobhan Cropper's 19-year 50m free-form record of 25.32s, when she contacted the divider in 24.89s at the National Open Short Course Olympic Swimming Championships. Thompson at that point caught up with another record-breaking appearing in December, breaking Cropper's 22-year 25.89s rule, with a smooth 25.52s exhibition at the long course meet.

Just a year ago, Cherelle has been breaking Cropper's longstanding records, presently she's breaking her own (records). Consistently, we have planned one nearby and one remote swim meet for her to reliably better her exhibitions. We're working with her and testing it. That is the direction we are in the present moment, the mentor included.

Mendoza, who has been training Thompson for over 10 years, credited his instructing staff for the competitor's ongoing victories. He said after she passed up the 2016 Games in Brazil, Thompson unequivocally thought to be resigning.

Be that as it may, with the inspiration infused by previous TT Olympic swimmer Sharntelle McLean (2004, 2008), ex-national swimmer Christian Homer, specialized advisor Franz Pouchet and Mendoza, they had the option to change her attitude.

This is a group approach, Mendoza said. A collective endeavor made her leave retirement. I inquired as to whether her fantasy was still there when she didn't make the 2016 Olympics – she said yes. I stated, 'Well you're alive, so we should do it.' And here we are.

Thompson closed her examinations at the University of Tennessee in 2016 and is currently enlisted at The University of the West Indies to contemplate medication. Notwithstanding, she has since taken a year off to seek after her Olympic 2020 dream.

Olympic 2020 supporters can get Olympic Tickets through our trusted online ticketing market place. Sportticketexchange.com is the most reliable and consistent source to book Olympic Packages.

[jobsearchtips02]

Low degree of momentary Tesla profitability forward of collapse: Brief vendor

Stanphyl Capital’s letter to traders for the month of November, 2019, discussing the momentary Tesla profitability.

dominickvietor / Pixabay

We stay quick inventory and name choices in Tesla Inc. (TSLA), which I nonetheless take into account to be the largest single inventory bubble on this entire bubble market. The core factors of our Tesla quick thesis are:

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Q3 2019 hedge fund letters, conferences and extra

Tesla has no “moat” of any type; i.e., nothing meaningfully proprietary when it comes to electrical automobile expertise, whereas current automakers—in contrast to Tesla­—have a decades-long “experience moat” of understanding the right way to mass-produce, distribute and repair high-quality automobiles constantly and profitably, in addition to the power to subsidize losses on electrical automobiles with earnings from their typical automobiles. By mid-to-late 2020 Tesla and its terrible stability sheet will return to dropping cash. Tesla is now a “busted growth story”; income was roughly flat sequentially and declined year-over-year whereas unit demand for its automobiles is barely being maintained by way of continuous worth reductions and expiring tax incentives. Elon Musk is a securities fraud-committing pathological liar.

Tesla reported Q3 earnings in October and income for this alleged “growth company” was lots of of thousands and thousands of dollars decrease than the year-ago quarter (U.S. income was down 39%!) and likewise down vs. the earlier quarter, but sequential Tesla profitability unexpectedly flipped from a $408 million GAAP loss in Q2 2019 to a $153 million Q3 revenue (vs. our expectation of a $300 million loss). In final month’s letter I laid out a number of the reason why Q3 would, in actual fact, have proven a multi-hundred-million-dollar loss with out varied accounting video games and unsustainable expense cuts, and in November fund supervisor Jim Chanos laid out a concise case on Twitter why even when one accepts Tesla’s numbers its fairness is value “zero.”

We might also see an analogous low degree of momentary Tesla profitability in This autumn (the one we’re in now) or Q1 of 2020, when in a single or (divided between) each of these quarters Tesla acknowledges roughly $500 million of non-cash (it’s already on the stability sheet) deferred income from its fraudulently named “Full Self-Driving” (the capabilities of which supply nothing of the type). By rolling out varied ineffective and harmful options of this homicidal software program suite, Tesla will declare that prior consumers of this nonsense obtained what they paid for, and can thus run these non-cash earnings by way of its monetary assertion, thereby once more maybe offering this money-losing firm with a fleeting second of minor profitability. As with Q3, these can be non-repeatable one-time good points (or, if you happen to favor, “games”), and later in 2020 the losses will resume.

In the meantime Tesla is barely exhibiting unit supply progress (with declining income) by intensive 2019 worth slashing and fulfilling Mannequin Three backlog in international locations the place deliveries simply started (most notably the UK in Q3 and South Korea in This autumn), and the place EV incentives are about to run out (the Netherlands till year-end). In different phrases, the Tesla “hypergrowth” story is over.

For these of you in search of a resumption of progress from Tesla’s upcoming Mannequin Y, when it’s obtainable in Q2 2020 it’s going to each massively cannibalize gross sales of the Mannequin Three sedan and (by late 2020) face superior competitors from the a lot nicer electrical Audi This autumn e-tron, BMW iX3, Mercedes EQB, Volvo XC40 and Volkswagen ID Crozz, whereas cheaper and obtainable now are the superb new all-electric Hyundai Kona and Kia Niro, extraordinarily nicely reviewed small crossovers with an EPA vary of 258 miles for the Hyundai and 238 miles for the Kia, at costs of beneath $30,000 inclusive of the $7500 U.S. tax credit score. In the meantime, the Mannequin Three sedan could have terrific direct “sedan competition” in 2020 from Volvo’s stunning new Polestar 2, the BMW i4 and the premium model of Volkswagen’s ID.Three.

And if you happen to suppose China is the key to the resumption of Tesla’s progress, let’s put that market in perspective: Tesla at present sells round 30,000 Mannequin 3s a yr there and “the story” is that avoiding the 15% tariff and 10% VAT will enable it to promote much more. Nevertheless, the rule of thumb for the elasticity of auto pricing is that each 1% worth minimize leads to a gross sales improve of 1% to 2.four%. If we assume a 2.4x “elasticity multiplier,” domestically produced Mannequin 3s which are 25% cheaper would lead to annual gross sales of 48,000 Mannequin 3s (25% x 2.four = 60% greater than the present 30,000), that means Tesla’s new Chinese language manufacturing unit could be an enormous money-loser as it will be operating at lower than 1/Three of its preliminary 150,000-unit annual capability. Maybe realizing this, Tesla is initially mandating the acquisition of Autopilot, and thus Chinese language-made Mannequin Three will solely be barely cheaper than earlier variations. Though that may considerably enhance per-car profitability and maybe make the manufacturing unit marginally worthwhile, it’s going to assure vastly missed progress targets and it’s “growth” (or extra precisely, the fantasy of progress) that drives Tesla’s inventory worth. And good luck with rising at any worthwhile worth—right here’s an ideal overview of what a dogfight the Chinese language EV market has develop into.

In the meantime, gross sales of Tesla’s highest-margin automobiles (the Fashions S&X) are down by over 30% worldwide this yr, because of cannibalization from the Mannequin Three and the not too long ago launched Audi e-tron and Jaguar I-Tempo, and this gross sales drop is earlier than this winter’s arrival of the Mercedes EQC and completely spectacular Porsche Taycan, with a number of extra electrical Audis, Mercedes and Porsches to comply with, many at beginning costs significantly under these of the high-end Teslas. (See the hyperlinks under for extra particulars.)

And oh, the joke of a “pickup truck” Tesla launched in November gained’t be any type of “growth engine” both, particularly as if it’s ever constructed it’s going to enter a dogfight of a market.

In the meantime, Tesla has probably the most government departures I’ve ever seen from any firm; right here’s the astounding full record of escapees. These individuals aren’t leaving as a result of issues are going nice (and even passably) at Tesla; somewhat, they’re doubtless leaving as a result of Musk is both an outright criminal or the world’s greatest jerk to work for (or each). May the enterprise (if not the inventory worth) be saved in its current type if he left? Nope, it’s too late.  Even when Musk steps down in favor of somebody who is aware of what he’s doing, rising aggressive components (outlined in nice element under) and Tesla’s stability sheet and big extra liabilities make the corporate too late to “fix” with out main monetary and operational restructuring.

In Could Shopper Stories fully eviscerated the protection of Tesla’s so-called “Autopilot” system; in actual fact, Teslas have way more professional rata (i.e., relative to the quantity bought) lethal incidents than different comparable new luxurious automobiles; right here’s a hyperlink to these which were made public. In the meantime Shopper Report’s annual auto reliability survey ranks Tesla 23rd out of 30 manufacturers and the variety of lawsuits of all kinds towards the corporate continues to escalate– there at the moment are over 800 together with one proving blatant fraud by Musk within the SolarCity buyout (if you wish to be actually entertained, learn his deposition!), an allegation that unsafe door handles precipitated a Tesla driver to burn to demise in his automobile, and proof that the corporate secretly rolled again battery efficiency with out compensating homeowners.

So right here is Tesla’s competitors in automobiles (word: these hyperlinks are frequently up to date)…

Porsche Taycan

Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo

Porsche Macan EV to get Taycan platform and tech

Audi e-tron: Electrical Has Gone Audi 2020 Audi E-Tron Sportback debuts slick new roofline, a bit extra vary

AUDI E-TRON GT FIRST DRIVE: LOOK OUT, TESLA (obtainable 2020)

Audi’s This autumn e-tron previews entry-level EV for 2021

Audi e-tron compact hatch to steer model’s electrification plans

Audi TT set to morph into all-electric crossover

THE AWARD-WINNING ALL-ELECTRIC JAGUAR I‑PACE

Jaguar Land Rover readies electrical XJ and Vary Rover

Mercedes EQC Electrical SUV Accessible Late 2019

Mercedes EQV Electrical Minivan Revealed – Accessible Early 2020

Mercedes EQB Small SUV to spice up model’s electrical line-up

Mercedes EQS can be constructed along with the S-Class on a brand new devoted electrical platform

Volvo Polestar 2 Arrives early 2020

Volvo XC40 Recharge, a 408-HP Electrical SUV is available in 2020

Volvo XC-90 EV coming in 2022

Volkswagen unveils the ID.Three, its first ‘electric car for the masses’

VW’s EV crossover for U.S. can be known as ID4

VW Group to launch 70 pure electrical automobiles over the following decade

258-Mile Hyundai Kona electrical is offered now for beneath $40,000

239-Mile Kia Niro EV is Accessible Now For Beneath $40,000

Kia Soul (obtainable mid-2019) EV’s Vary Jumps to 243 Miles

Kia Europe to have six pure electrical fashions by 2022

All-Electrical Ford Mustang Mach-E Delivers Energy, Fashion and Freedom for New Technology

Ford, GM rev up electrical pickup vehicles to move off Tesla

Chevrolet Bolt Now Affords 259 Miles of Vary

GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant anticipated to construct electrical Escalade, Sierra GM is remodeling Cadillac into an electrical model

Ford to construct two European EVs based mostly on VW’s MEB platform

Nissan LEAF e+ with 226-mile vary is offered now

Nissan Ariya Electrical SUV Idea Is Destined for Manufacturing

BMW 1 Sequence Electrical Coming As Early As 2021

BMW iX3 electrical crossover goes on sale in 2020

2021 BMW i4 particulars revealed: 80-kWh battery, 530 hp, 373-mile vary

BMW’s 2021 iNEXT Returns In New Teasers Displaying Prototypes Manufacturing

Rivian electrical pickup truck- funded by Amazon, Ford, Cox & others- is on the best way

Renault upgrades Zoe electrical automobile as competitors intensifies

Peugeot 208 to affect Europe’s small-car market

Peugeot to supply EV model of recent 2008 small crossover

Electrical Mini Arrives 2020

Toyota and Subaru Comply with Collectively Develop BEV-dedicated Platform and BEV SUV

Mazda extends MX title to new MX-30 electrical crossover

SEAT will launch 6 electrical and hybrid fashions and develop a brand new platform for electrical autos

Opel sees electrical Corsa as key EV entry

Opel/Vauxhall will launch electrical SUV and van in 2020

Skoda accepting deposits for electrical automobiles

New Citroen C4 Cactus to be first electrified Citroen in 2020

FCA to speculate $788M to construct new 500 EV in Italy

Maserati to launch electrical sports activities automobile

Bentley Will Supply Hybrid Variations of Each Automobile It Makes and Add an EV by 2025

Lucid Motors closes $1 billion take care of Saudi Arabia to fund electrical automobile manufacturing

Meet the Canoo, a Subscription-Solely EV Pod Coming in 2021

Two new electrical automobiles from Mahindra in India by 2019; International Tesla rival e-car quickly

Former Saab manufacturing unit will get new life constructing solar-powered Sono Sion electrical automobiles

And in China…

VW ramps up China electrical automobile factories, taking intention at Tesla

SAIC Volkswagen to roll out Three MEB-based EV fashions in 2020/2021

JAC-Volkswagen Launch SOL E20X, The first EV from the Joint Enterprise

Audi Q2L e-tron debuts at Auto Shanghai

Audi will construct This autumn e-tron in China

FAW-Volkswagen’s Foshan plant mentioned to provide e-tron Sportback

FAW Hongqi begins promoting electrical SUV with 400km vary for $32,000

FAW (Hongqi) to roll out 15 electrical fashions by 2025

China’s BYD launches six new electrified autos

Prime of Type

Backside of Type

Daimler & BYD launch new DENZA electrical car for the Chinese language market

Mercedes styled Denza X 7-seat electrical SUV to hit market

BAIC Goes Electrical, & Establishes Itself as a Pressure in China’s New Vitality Car Future

BAIC BJEV, Magna able to pour RMB2 bln in all-electric PV manufacturing JV

Daimler to Begin EQC Electrical SUV Manufacturing in China in 2019

Daimler and BMW to cooperate on inexpensive electrical automobile in China

BMW, Nice Wall to construct new China plant for electrical automobiles

Toyota, BYD will collectively develop electrical autos for China

GAC Toyota to make all-electric C-HR

GAC Aion

GAC unveils new NEV offshoot dubbed HYCAN

Chevrolet’s new China-only EV is named the Menlo and it seems good

Buick Rolls Out First Electrical Automobile for China

Normal Motors’ Chinese language Enterprise to Sink $four.Three Billion Into Electrical Autos by 2024

Nissan & Dongfeng to speculate $9.5 billion in China to spice up electrical autos

Dongfeng Peugeot mentioned to roll out three NEV fashions in first-half 2020

Hyundai Motor Remodeling Chongqing Manufacturing unit into Electrical Car Plant

Nio

Jaguar Land Rover’s Chinese language arm invests £800m in EV manufacturing

Renault reveals collection city e-SUV Ok-ZE for China

Renault & Brilliance element electrical van lineup for China

Renault varieties China electrical car enterprise with JMCG

Honda Debuts New Everus VE-1 All-Electrical SUV, However Solely For China

Honda to roll out over 20 electrical fashions in China by 2025

Geely launches new electrical automobile model ‘Geometry’ – will launch 10 EVs by 2025

Mazda to roll out China-only electrical autos by 2020

Xpeng Motors sells a number of EV fashions

Changan New Vitality

WM Motors/Weltmeister

Chery

Seres

Byton

Enovate

China’s cute Ora R1 electrical hatch affords an enormous vary for lower than US$9,000

Singulato

JAC Motors releases new product planning, together with many NEVs

Seat to make purely electrical automobiles with JAC VW in China

Iconiq Motors

EV maker Bordrin skips flash, retains real-car focus

Aiways

NEVS launches electric-car output with Saab 9-Three platform in China

Youxia

CHJ Automotive begins to simply accept orders of Main Perfect ONE

Infiniti to launch Chinese language-built EV in 2022

Zotye Auto to roll out 10 plus NEV fashions by 2020

Thunder Energy

Leapmotor

Continental, Didi signal deal on growing EVs for China

Mine Mobility (Thailand)

Right here’s Tesla’s competitors in autonomous driving…

Shopper Stories finds Tesla’s Navigate on Autopilot is much much less competent than a human driver

Navigant Ranks Tesla Final Amongst Automakers & Suppliers for Automated Driving

Tesla has a self-driving technique different firms deserted years in the past

Waymo and Lyft associate to scale self-driving robotaxi service in Phoenix

Jaguar and Waymo announce an electrical, absolutely autonomous automobile

Renault, Nissan associate with Waymo for self-driving autos

Fiat Chrysler companions with Aurora to develop self-driving business vans

Hyundai and Kia Spend money on Aurora

Aptiv and Hyundai Motor Group Type Autonomous Driving Joint Enterprise

Cadillac Tremendous Cruise

Units the Customary for Palms-Free Freeway Driving

Honda Joins with Cruise and Normal Motors to Construct New Autonomous Car

SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund to Make investments $2.25 Billion in GM Cruise

Ford-VW alliance with Argo may redraw self-driving sector

VW faucets Baidu’s Apollo platform to develop self-driving automobiles in China

Audi to affix Daimler, BMW self-driving tech alliance

Daimler’s heavy vehicles begin self-driving a number of the manner

SoftBank, Toyota’s self-driving automobile enterprise provides Mazda, Suzuki, Subaru Corp, Isuzu Daihatsu 

Volvo, Nvidia develop autonomous driving collaboration

Continental & NVIDIA Accomplice to Allow Manufacturing of Synthetic Intelligence Self-Driving Vehicles

Intel’s Mobileye has 2 million automobiles (VW, BMW & Nissan) on roads constructing HD maps

Nissan offers Japan model of Infiniti Q50 hands-free freeway driving

Nissan and Mobileye to generate, share, and make the most of imaginative and prescient knowledge for crowdsourced mapping

Magna joins the BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye platform as an Integrator for AVs

Hyundai to start out autonomous ride-sharing service in Calif.

Uber unveils next-generation Volvo self-driving automobile

Baidu kicks off trial operation of Apollo robotaxi in Changsha

Toyota to affix Baidu’s open-source self-driving platform

Baidu, WM Motor announce strategic partnership for L3, L4 autonomous driving options

Baidu plans to mass produce Stage four self-driving automobiles with BAIC by 2021

Volvo, Baidu to co-develop EVs with Stage four autonomy for China

Geely selects Volvo, Veoneer three way partnership as autonomous tech provider

BMW and Tencent to develop self-driving automobile expertise collectively

BMW, NavInfo bolster partnership in HD map service for autonomous automobiles in China

FAW Hongqi readies electrical SUV providing Stage four autonomous driving

Tencent, Changan Auto Announce Autonomous-Car Joint Enterprise

Huawei seems to self-driving automobiles in bid to broaden AI focus

BYD companions with Huawei for autonomous driving

Pony.ai, GAC Group launches Aion LX’s degree four self-driving model

Lyft, Magna in Deal to Develop Hardware, Software program for Self-Driving Vehicles

Deutsche Put up to Deploy Take a look at Fleet Of Totally Autonomous Supply Vehicles

ZF autonomous EV enterprise names first buyer

Magna’s new MAX4 self-driving platform affords autonomy as much as Stage four

Groupe PSA’s protected and intuitive autonomous automobile examined by most people

Mitsubishi Electrical to Exhibit Autonomous-driving Applied sciences in New xAUTO Take a look at Car

Apple acquires self-driving startup Drive.ai

Momenta – Constructing Autonomous Driving Brains

JD.com Delivers on Self-Driving Electrical Vehicles

NAVYA Unveils First Totally Autonomous Taxi

Fujitsu and HERE to associate on superior mobility providers and autonomous driving

Lucid Chooses Mobileye as Accomplice for Autonomous Car Know-how

First Look Inside Zoox’s Autonomous Taxi

Nuro’s Robotic Supply Vans Are Arriving Earlier than Self-Driving Vehicles

Right here’s the place Tesla’s competitors will get its battery cells…

Panasonic (making offers with a number of automakers)

LG

Samsung

SK Innovation

Toshiba

CATL

BYD

Northvolt (backed by VW & BMW)

Farasis

Akasol

Cenat

Wanxiang

Svolt

Romeo Energy

Toyota accelerates goal for EV with solid-state battery to 2020

ProLogium Know-how Will Produce First Subsequent Technology Lithium Ceramic Battery For EVs

BMW invests in Strong Energy solid-state batteries

Ford invests in Strong Energy solid-state batteries

Hyundai Motor growing solid-state EV batteries

Most automobile makers will use these battery cells to fabricate their very own packs. Listed here are some examples:

Daimler begins constructing electrical automobile batteries in Tuscaloosa – one in all eight battery factories

GM inaugurates battery meeting plant in Shanghai

PSA to assemble batteries for hybrid, electrical automobiles in Slovakia

Honda Companions on Normal Motors’ Subsequent Gen Battery Improvement

France’s Saft plans manufacturing of next-gen lithium ion batteries from 2020

Sokon goals to be international supplier of battery, electrical motor, electrical management methods

BMW Group invests 200 million euros in Battery Cell Competence Centre

BMW Brilliance Automotive opens battery manufacturing unit in Shenyang

Rimac goes to mass produce batteries and electrical motors for OEMs

Right here’s Tesla’s competitors in charging networks…

Electrify America is spending $2 billion constructing a high-speed U.S. charging community

EVgo is constructing a U.S. charging community

191 U.S. Porsche sellers are putting in 350kw chargers

ChargePoint to equip Daimler sellers with electrical automobile chargers

GM and Bechtel plan to construct 1000’s of electrical automobile charging stations throughout the US

Ford introduces 12,000 station charging community, groups with Amazon on house set up

Volta is rolling out a free charging community

Ionity has over 150 European 350kw charging stations

E.ON and Virta launch one of many largest clever EV charging networks in Europe

Volkswagen plans 36,000 charging factors for electrical automobiles all through Europe

Smatric has over 400 charging factors in Austria

Allego has lots of of chargers in Europe

PodPoint UK charging stations

BP Chargemaster/Polar is constructing stations throughout the UK

Instavolt is rolling out a UK charging community

Fastned constructing 150kw-350kw chargers in Europe

Deutsche Telekom launches set up of charging community for e-cars

Shell begins rollout of ultrafast electrical automobile chargers in Europe

Complete to construct 1,000 high-powered charging factors at 300 European service-stations

Volkswagen, FAW Group, JAC Motors, Star Cost formally announce new EV charging JV

BP, Didi Soar on Electrical-Car Charging Bandwagon

Evie rolls out ultrafast charging community in Australia

Evie Networks To Set up 42 Extremely-Quick Charging Websites In Australia

And right here’s Tesla’s competitors in storage batteries…

Panasonic

Samsung

LG

BYD

AES + Siemens (Fluence)

GE

Bosch

Mitsubishi Hitachi

NEC

Toshiba

ABB

Saft

Johnson Contols

EnerSys

SOLARWATT

Schneider Electrical

Sonnen

Kyocera

Kokam

NantEnergy

Eaton

Nissan

Tesvolt

Kreisel

Leclanche

Lockheed Martin

EOS Vitality Storage

ESS

UET

electrIQ Energy

Belectric

Stem

ENGIE

Redflow

Renault

Primus Energy

Simpliphi Energy

redT Vitality Storage

Murata

Bluestorage

Adara

Blue Planet

Tabuchi Electrical

Aggreko

Orison

Moixa

Powin Vitality

Nidec

Powervault

Schmid

24M

Ecoult

Innolith

LithiumWerks

Natron Vitality

Vitality Vault

Ambri

But regardless of all that deep-pocketed competitors, maybe you need to purchase shares of Tesla since you consider in its administration staff. Actually???

Elon Musk knew SolarCity confronted a ‘liquidity crisis’ at time of 2016 deal, authorized paperwork present

Musk’s empire was in peril in 2016, and new paperwork reveal the determined plan to reserve it

Elon Musk knew SolarCity was going broke earlier than merger with Tesla

Elon Musk Settles SEC Fraud Costs

Elon Musk, June 2009: “Tesla will cross over into profitability next month”

Extra Damaged Guarantees From Tesla

Tesla SEC Correspondence Reveals A Sample Of Inaccurate, Incomplete & Deceptive Disclosures

Tesla: Test Your Full Self-Driving Snake Oil Expiration Date

As Musk Hyped and Joyful-Talked Buyers, Tesla Stored Quiet A couple of Yr-Lengthy SEC Probe

The Fact Is Catching Up With Tesla

With Deceptive Messages And Buyer NDAs, Tesla Performs Stealth Recall

Who You Gonna Imagine? Elon Musk’s Phrases Or Your Personal Mendacity Eyes?

How Tesla and Elon Musk Exaggerated Security Claims About Autopilot and Vehicles

When Is Sufficient Sufficient With Elon Musk?

Musk Talked Merger With SolarCity CEO Earlier than Tesla Inventory Sale

Tesla Continues To Mislead Customers

Tesla Misses The Level With Fortune Autopilot Story

Tesla Timeline Reveals Musk’s Morality Is Extremely Handy

Tesla Scares Prospects With Nugatory NDAs, The Day by day Kanban Talks To Attorneys

Tesla: O, What A Tangled Net We Weave When First We Observe To Deceive

Tesla’s Monetary Shenanigans

Tesla: A Failure To Talk

Can You Actually Belief Tesla?

Elon Musk Seems To Have Misled Buyers On Tesla’s Most Current Convention Name

Understanding Tesla’s Potemkin Swap Station

So in abstract, Tesla is about to face an enormous onslaught of competitors with a market cap bigger than Ford’s and GM’s regardless of promoting fewer than 400,000 automobiles a yr whereas Ford and GM make billions of dollars promoting 6 million and over eight million autos respectively. Thus, this cash-burning Musk self-importance undertaking is value vastly lower than its roughly $70 billion enterprise worth and—because of over $30 billion in debt, buy and lease obligations—could finally be value “zero.”

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/low-degree-of-momentary-tesla-profitability-forward-of-collapse-brief-vendor/

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300+ TOP BROADCAST Objective Questions and Answers

BROADCAST Multiple Choice Questions :-

1. The acronym FM stands for A. frequency modes B. filter modulation C. frequency modulation D. filter methodology E. future mediocrity ANS:- C 2. According to studies, the quarter of the hour with the largest listening audience is A. 0 - 15 min B. 15 - 30 min C. 30 - 45 min D. 45 - 60 min ANS:- A 3. Which scientist is credited with the discovery the existence of radio waves A. Thomas Edison B. Heinrich Hertz C. Ben Franklin D. Guglielmo Marconi E. Albert Einstein ANS:-B 4. Which inventor conducted the first radio transmission in the year 1895 A. Thomas Edison B. Heinrich Hertz C. Ben Franklin D. Guglielmo Marconi E. Albert Einstein ANS:-D 5. Which single event resulted in global acceptance of 24 hour mandatory use of radio for shipping communications A. The 'War of the Worlds' broadcast B. The attack on Pearl Harbor C. The crash of the Hindenburg Zeppelin D. The sinking of the S.S. Titanic E. Hitler's invasion of Poland ANS:-D 6. Morse Code is what form of radio transmission A. AM (Amplitude modulation) B. FM (Frequency Modulation) C. PDM (Pulse Duration Modulation) D. PCS (Personal Communications Services) E. PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) ANS:-C 7. FM broadcasts are assigned what radio frequencies by the FCC A. 540 kHz - 1630 kHz B. 88 MHz - 174 MHz C. 300 MHz - 3000 MHz D. 1850 MHz - 1990 MHz E. 7.25 gHz - 8.4 gHz ANS:-B 8. Line of sight propagation is defined as A. A signal traveling directly from the transmitter antenna to the receiver antenna B. The 'dead area' within the skip zone C. A signal refracted, or bent back to the earth by the ionosphere D. A signal traveling along the ground following the curve of the earth E. None of the above ANS:-A 9. The term 'Picket Fencing' is used to describe A. Slats of wood that divide one receiver from another B. The actuality of direct and reflecting waves first canceling then reinforcing each other, causing fluttering of the transmission C. The actuality of direct and reflecting waves canceling each other, but not reinforcing, thus causing fluttering of the transmission D. None of the above E. All of the above (Your Answer) ANS:-B 10. At night, AM transmissions can be received from great distances because A. There are fewer stations broadcasting B. There is less traffic on the roads to cause interference C. The dissipation of the 'D' layer of the ionosphere D. All of the above E. None of the above ANS:-C

BROADCAST MCQs 11. The type of cable used to send a program from the broadcast amplifier to the transmission antenna is called A. XLR B. TRS C. RCA D. Coaxial E. TT/Batham ANS:-D 12. Satellite transmissions work on what kind of signal A. AM B. FM C. UHF D. VHF E. PCM ANS:-E 13. Lavaliere mics are used widely in TV broadcasting because A. They are unidirectional and reject ambient noise B. They are dynamic and add no bed noise C. They are small and nonintrusive to the video camera's view D. They are unidirectional and reject ambient noise and they are dynamic and add no bed noise E. All of the above ANS:-C 14. Omnidirectional mics are used in field recordings for A. Capturing ambiance B. They are impervieous to the proximity effect. C. Capturing more than one source at a time D. All of the above E. None of the above ANS:-D 15. An obstacle of using hand operated 'booms' or 'fish pole' stands is A. they are illegal in many states B. The operator's arms may tire from long use C. They're expensive D. Mic can interfere with the camera view if it drops into frame E. The operator's arms may tire from long use AND the mic can interfere with the camera view if it drops into frame ANS:-E 16. Miking sporting events requires sound pickups from what sources A. Announcers B. The crowd C. The action D. All of the above E. None of the above ANS:-D 17. The process of temporarily lowering the volume of a recording (or any source) in order to speak over it is called A. A quick fade B. A drop out C. A donut D. A hole E. None of the above ANS:-C 18. What two factors determine sky-wave propagation between two points? A. the frequency in use B. the level of humidity in the air C. the level of ionization D. the level of humidity in the air & the level of ionization E. the frequency in use & the level of ionization ANS:-E 19. The highest frequency at which the ionosphere bends radio waves back to Earth is called A. air B. non-conductive materials C. space D. all of the above E. none of the above ANS:- D 20. VSWR is a measure of an impedance mismatch between A. the antenna and the receiver B. the transmission line and its load C. the compressor and the oscillator D. the antenna and the receiver & the transmission line and its load E. all of the above ANS:- B 21. The optimum standing wave ratio is A. 1:1 B. 2:1 C. 3:1 D. 4:1 E. 5:1 ANS:- A 22. a 'cart' is used in broadcast productions for A. P.S.A.'s B. sound effects C. commercials D. all of the above E. none of the above ANS:- D 23. The largest amount of broadcasting air time is dedicated to A. sit-coms B. news C. commercials D. dramas E. sporting events ANS:- B 24. A downward 45 degree angle of a D.J.'s vocal mic is used to A. help reduce sibilance B. help reduce plosives C. help reduce ambient noise D. help reduce phase problems from reflected waves E. help reduce sibilance & help reduce ambient noise ANS:- B 25. 'Split-Channel' mixers are used primarily for: A. Film production B. T.V. production C. Music production D. Radio production E. Radio and T.V. broadcasts ANS:- E 26. DARS brodcast systems use hybrid transmitters known as: A. ICBM Systems B. POTS Systems C. ISDN Systems D. Phased Array Systems E. IBOC Systems ANS:- E 27. What frequencies are allocated by the FCC for commercial AM transmitions? A. 88Mghz-175Mghz B. 275Khz-1750Khz C. 106Mghz-1250Mghz D. 540Khz-1630Khz E. 160Khz-1900Khz ANS:-D 28. The communication system used between principal production crew members and the talent is called... A. IFB: Interruptable Foldback System B. SA: Studio Address System C. PL: Private Line System D. SMS: Studio Monitor System E. CMS: Crew Monitor System ANS:- A 29. XM and Sirius use what type of transmission systems? A. AM B. FM C. DARS D. S-DARS E. IBOC ANS:- D 30. The primary purpose of radio is to convey information from one place to another through A. air B. non-conductive materials C. space D. all of the above E. none of the above ANS:- D 31. Sometimes a radio manager, seeing a weakness in a rival station, will: A. Adopt that station's format, hoping to do it better and lure away listeners B. Exploit the weakness through an aggressive negative-advertising campaign C. Avoid using the same music format, fearing that it may be inherently weak D. Try to develop a network of spies within the rival station to make it weaker E. None of the above ANS:- A 32. Media corporations are said to be seeking synergy when they: A. Replace their accounting firms with in-house auditors B. Break ground for broadcast stations in new locations C. Sell off stations to avoid violating FCC ownership rules D. Get into carriage battles with local cable systems E. Acquire companies that can work together in creative ways ANS:- E 33. The TV program credited with (or blamed for) making profitability mandatory in news is: A. PBS' McNeil-Lehrer News Hour B. CBS' 60 Minutes C. CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 D. ABC's 20-20 E. CNBC's The News with Brian Williams ANS:- B 34. Networks and their affiliates have argued over how much a network has to pay a station in: A. Licensing fees B. Barter minutes C. Compensation (comp.) D. Accounting credits E. Advertising funds ANS:- C 35. One major breakthrough in the development of the personal computer was the addition of icons and visual links to replace text-based commands in the computer's operating system. This innovation was called: A. Pulse Code Modulation B. Quantization C. Graphic User Interface (GUI) D. Sampling E. Data Storage ANS:- C BROADCAST Objective type Questions with Answers 37. The number of local TV stations in the country from which newscasts flow is about: A. 600 B. 800 C. 1,000 D. 300 E. None of the Above ANS:- B 38. In order to describe the speed of bits flowing in data streams, engineers refer to "bit rates," which are measured in: A. Frequencies B. Cycles C. Hertz D. Bits per Second (bps) E. Bytes (kilo, mega, giga) ANS:- D 39. The term "bit" is formed by compressing two terms; they are: A. Binary, Digit B. Binary, Terminal C. Basic, Intelligence D. Broadcast, Digital E. None of the above ANS:- A 40. On average, TV-news salaries are very low, starting at little more than: A. $18,000 a year B. $700 a week C. $20,000 a year D. $1,500 a month E. $25,000 a year ANS:- C 41. The Swedish engineer whose design was to rethink analogous waves of energy in terms of dots and dashes was: A. Harry Nyquist B. Claude Shannon C. Warren Weaver D. John Mauchly E. J. Presper Eckert ANS:- A 42. Overall, the largest sector of U.S. broadcast journalism today is: A. Public-Radio News B. Syndicated Radio News C. Network TV News D. Local TV news E. Local Radio News ANS:- D 43. The only true broadcasters in the U.S. system are: A. Fiber-Optics Webs B. Broadcast Networks C. Cable Systems D. Local Stations E. Internet Sites ANS:- D 44. One tool that many radio stations use to analyze the timing and competitiveness of their programs is the: A. Music Chart B. Hot Clock C. Playlist D. Computer E. Newsletter ANS:- B 45. A fundamental change from the 1970's is that big-time television today no longer has: A. News divisions as "loss leaders" B. African-American correspondents C. Assignment desks D. Labor unions E. Foreign bureaus ANS:- A 46. The broadcast industry rests on a three-legged stool of these economic factors: A. Station, Station Group, Network B. Broadcaster, Producer, Advertiser C. Revenue, Payroll, Profit D. Researcher, Producer, Marketer E. Broadcaster, Audience, Advertiser ANS:- E 47. This part of the personal computer is important because it translates software applications for the CPU. A. Operating System (OS) B. Storage Memory C. Random Access Memory (RAM) D. Floppy Disk Drive E. Mouse ANS:- A 48. In the basic transaction in commercial broadcasting, A. Consumers buy programs directly from networks B. Advertisers sell their products to audiences C. Advertisers buy shows from production companies D. Networks buy programs from affiliated stations E. Broadcasters sell their audiences to advertisers ANS:- E 49. Unlike most countries, the United States began early to allow broadcasting to operate as: A. A national treasure B. Private enterprise C. An arm of government D. The chief entertainer E. None of the above ANS:- B 50. If a TV network broadcasts a female-oriented sitcom when its top rival is airing a pro football game, that's usually called: A. Evasive Action B. Audience Raiding C. Hammocking D. Block Tentpoling E. Counterprogramming ANS:- E 51. Which advertising medium has the advantage of low costs, flexibility, and effectiveness? A. Radio B. Television C. CD-ROMs D. Video ANS:-A 52. What advertising medium typically runs for four to six minutes and is used to showcase a property to prospects before they visit? A. Radio B. Television C. CD-ROMs D. Video ANS:-D 53. What type of advertisement is most successful when it is visual, grabs attention, and has an identity all of its own? A. Radio B. Television C. CD-ROMs D. Video ANS:-B 54. Broadcast faxing is: A. an excellent saturation medium that can enhance a message with visuals. B. used to get a message to a number of prospects at the same time. C. a system in which the hospitality firm gives selected travel intermediaries or other target markets a special fax number they may call to receive its latest information at any time. D. a high-quality presence that can quickly provide new information to consumers. ANS:- B 55. Which of the following is an advantage of Internet advertising? A. High saturation B. Long shelf life C. Quick updates D. Highly targeted ANS:- C 56. Video brochures have a higher storage capacity than CD-ROMs. A. True B. False ANS:-B 57. Travel services on the Internet serve as an online directory of properties. A. True B. False ANS:-A 58. Television advertising is expensive as hotels must pay for both airtime and production. A. True B. False ANS:-A 59. It is important to determine audience demographics and develop targeted ads when advertising on television. A. True B. False ANS:- A 60. The Internet is an inherently interactive medium, so it isn’t necessary for a property Website to build in interactivity. A. True B. False ANS:- B 61. __________ is the measurement of the opening in a lens of a camera that allows a specific amount of light to be let in . A. composition B. aperture C. diffusion D. focal length ANS:- B 62. _______ is the term for removing and dismantling sets after a production. A. cleanup B. strike C. break down D. load out ANS:- C 63. What do the letters C.C.D stand for? A. charge coupled device B. crispy creme donuts C. charge current distribution D. common cathode disc ANS:- A 64. Dimmer is part of a camera . A. True B. False ANS:- B 65. Switcher is part of lighting. A. True B. False ANS:- B 66. F-Stop can be found on the camera. A. True B. False ANS:- A 67. Match cuts are found in editing. A. True B. False ANS:- A 68. What is the correct kelvin temperature of indoor videography? A. 5600 Degrees B. 7200 Degrees C. 1200 Degrees D. 3200 Degrees ANS:- D 69. What is the correct exterior kelvin temperature for daytime exterior videography? A. 5600 Degrees B. 3200 Degrees C. 7200 Degrees D. 1200 Degrees ANS:- A 70. What does RGB signify? A. Rig, Ballast, Grid B. Right, Bright, Great C. Ring, Bing, Gring D. Red, Blue, Green ANS:- D BROADCAST Questions and Answers pdf Download Read the full article

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Reading this make me cry😢😢😢😢😢😢...so damn proud of my girls!!!!!

[TRANS] http://bit.ly/2uQ024a [SNSD 10TH ANNIVERSARY ①] All 8…Why Did Only ‘Soshi’ Survive,credit ch0sshi

“The road SNSD walked will become history for K-POP girl groups.”

SNSD will be celebrating their 10th anniversary on August 5th, the nation’s longest-running, active girl group. SNSD is living up to their name as the nation’s top girl group by being listed as the number 1 group in Billboard’s top 10 list of 'K-Pop Girl Groups of the Past Decade (Critic’s Picks)’.

2nd generation groups that debuted in 2007 divided into three parts with Wonder Girls and KARA alongside SNSD, but only SNSD survived.

SNSD was ambitiously put forth by SM Entertainment, the company who discovered the representative group for first generation idols, H.O.T. The history of idols in Korea goes back over 20 years following H.O.T’s debut in 1996, and SNSD occupies half of that.

Professionals agree that SNSD is an unprecedented group, as girl groups do not last a long time, and that is considered matter of fact.

Pop music critic Kim Yoon Ha said, “SNSD is a rare group in K-POP, where girl groups are considered to having a short lifespan. Contracts between the company and artist lasts for a maximum of 7 years. Maintaining this for 10 years has meaning and is symbolic.”

Editor-in-chief for idol webzine 'Idology’ and pop music critic Moon Yong Min also stated, “There are almost no girl groups that celebrate their 10th anniversary. Being able to carry on the 'girl’ title until their late-20s in itself has a deep meaning.”

-Why did only SNSD survive

Regarding SNSD, SM confidently said, “This is the nation’s first completed girl group, brought together by all of SM’s planning from casting-training-producing-management.

In order to bring each member’s singing, dancing, acting, and language all together, members received various training, at the longest, 7 years, and for an average of 5 years. We put our heart and soul into this from the stages of forming the members.”

Professionals also agreed with these things. Critic Kim Yoon Ha said, “Korea’s biggest entertainment company, SM, also plays a part in SNSD’s 10th anniversary. The quality control was done well.”

SM’s producing also stands out. SNSD’s debut single 'Into the New World’, released on August 5, 2007, was assessed as having maximized the image the general public has for girl groups in terms of music, performance, and visuals.

Their self-titled official album, 'Girls’ Generation’, released the same year in November, was also the same. Remaking Lee Seung Chul’s big hit from 1989, which also has the same name as their group name, 'Girls’ Generation’, was brilliant.

Critic Moon Yong Min said, “The fact that girl group idols who put forth the 'girl [image/title]’ reached their 10th anniversary hold a deep meaning. Each and everything that SNSD promotes from now on will become history for K-POP girl groups.”

One thing that’s different between 2nd generation girl groups, like SNSD, and 1st generation girl groups, like S.E.S and Fin.K.L, is the former took on the role of Hallyu advancement.

SNSD gained lots of popularity in Japan with their 'alpha girl’ image from, not only their visuals and musical capabilities, but also from their confidence and enthusiasm.

Critic Moon Yong Min chose the title song from SNSD’s 4th mini album, 'Mr. Mr.’, released in February of 2014, as one that had that image compressed into it the most. The narrator is a girl in love, but it’s a song that has the active demeanor of leading a guy.

Critic Moon stated, “If you compare SNSD with girl groups who debuted around the same time, they have a strong image of an ambitious, confident female college student who grew up comfortably. 'Mr. Mr.’ seems to praise and flatter the guy, but it’s actually about telling the guy to become someone who suits the girl.”

They don’t just put forth their visuals and performance, but their music also plays a role. 'I Got A Boy’ from their 4th official album, released in January of 2013, had a really complicated structure and was judged as an innovative song at the time.

Pop music critic Lee Dae Hwa stated, “It’s amazing that they’ve been able to keep their place on top for 10 years with dance music, when those trends change quickly. They weren’t the best every time, but the music itself was good and they put out a good concept along with it. There was a girl group craze starting at the end of 2000, that contributed to the flow going on for a long time.”

Of course, there was also a crisis. In 2014 Jessica left the group and they had to reorganize as from 9 members to 8. However, because “the members had strong desires to uphold the group” (critic Moon Yong Min), they were able to tie things up well.

In her interview with W magazine, which SNSD decorated the August cover for, Sunny said, “Everyone had their own slumps like when they went through puberty, and and we experienced group difficulties together. I think the thing that helped at times like that was each other.”

-The 8 members’ growth

SNSD was able to become a long-running girl group because of the group as well as how each of the members have developed. Each were able to take advantage of their own personalities and positive traits, each of the 8 members were able to gain big recognition.

With her superior singing skills, main vocal Taeyeon had her solo album and took part in various drama OSTs, making a place for herself as a strong artist. Sunny has been showing her talents on variety shows with her cheerful charms.

Tiffany, whose eye smiles is one of her charms, is active with her language skills and global music sense. Hyoyeon has her great dance skills and hearty personality. Yuri’s innocent and cheerfulness appeals to both men and women.

Sooyoung has good sense and is thought of as a new fashionista. Yoona, who is beautiful to the point of being called the standard of girl group centers, is active as an acting-[i]dol in her drama 'The King Loves’. The youngest, Seohyun, received acknowledgement for her singing and acting through the musicals 'Gone With the Wind’ and 'Mamma Mia!’.

SNSD also attempted quite a few things with things like the TTS unit group with their vocals, Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun, doing music with a different color from SNSD’s.

SM said, “When the members are doing their group and individual activities, their personalities are clear, and SNSD appealed in various areas. That played a role in SNSD being able to go on for a long time.”

SM said they carefully watched over them during their singing, dancing, acting, and language training before they debuted.

“We picked up on what each member was particularly good at during that process. The vocal member focused SNSD-TaeTiSeo unit promoted successfully. When the members released their solo albums, we took each of their vocal styles, performance skills, and visuals into consideration.

For members who had a talent in acting, we let them build up their acting experiences through lessons from their early debut days. We’re going to continue showing good appearances of the members individual advantages through musicals, variety shows, and other things.”

Critic Kim Yoon Ha said, “Each of the members characters are unique and their abilities were expressed well. This was refined individually and as a group the past 10 years.”