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ultimatepokemontournament · 2 years

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I’m sorry to bother you with a question like this, but may I ask how you went about putting this bracket together? I’m trying to figure out my own addition to this showdown bandwagon and am also working with a large roster of characters. Jumping in blind would be a disaster, so I thought it best to seek guidance from someone who’s got a solid approach going.

I can definitely summarize what I did! Though without knowing what you're working with, I'm not sure how much this will map onto anything else!

1) Organizing Matches by the Numbers

So I split up the 1000+ Pokemon into more manageable groups by doing them by Generation, which technically means that I'm just running 9 100+ competitor brackets.

Then, for each generation, I targeted ~high 20s, low 30s for my number of matches with 3-5 Pokemon in each match. I wouldn't exceed 5 in a match, and lower is ideal, when you're trying to figure out how this works for your numbers.

Now, I targeted that number of matches because I wanted to use the next round to force-fit it into better tournament numbers— A nice proper 1v1 tournament has power of 2 competitors, so 2, 4, 8, 16, etc... It simplifies the math and makes it easier, and that's something that I chose for my tournament to avoid Pokemon "skipping" rounds, but you don't have to follow that.

So I will be targeting 8 Pokemon going to round 3 out of round 2, so if we take the number of round 1 winners from Gen 1 for example, there are 31 of them. 31/8=3.875 which means 7 4-Pokemoj matches and 1 3-Pokemon match. Perfect. Run those matches, get your 8 winners, pit your 8 winners against each other in the typical 1v1 tournament style (4 matches), get your 4 winners, etc.

2) Organizing Competitors into Matches

This part is super messy and the actual proper way to do seeding is probably via pre-tournament polling and also by having 1v1 matches, so what I did was the nearest reasonable approximation, given time and effort requirements.

The process: Put all your competitors in a spreadsheet column. Go through the list and bold all the fan favorites, all of the ones you expect to win, etc. Shuffle the column. If the top n(*) competitors look okay for a matchup (ideally, only one bolded name), mark it as (probably) acceptable (I changed the cell colors), and move to the next match. If not, shuffle again. (You'll probably have to do this a lot. However, if just a few of of them are messing up the match, you can move them to the bottom of the match stack and just shuffle them into the remaining competitors.) By the time you get to the bottom, you will very likely have to move things around or break up previously acceptable matches to get the last ones fitting.

(*) n is the target number of competitors in a match.

Note I chose this method specifically because I wanted my own biases to impact the match sorting as little as possible. It's worked out most of the time, sometimes there were fan favorites I completely didn't anticipate. Again, not a perfect system, but it prevents stuff like having Bulbasaur and Eevee in the same round 1 match.

(And sometimes you can't avoid having more than one fan favorite in the same match. In those cases, you want to try your best to pair most-fan-favorites with considerably less fan favorites, but this is also where smaller match sizes do come in handy. 1 5-competitor match allows for 1 fan favorite in 5 competitors, while 2 3-competitor matches allow for 2 fan favorites in 6 competitors... But again it's messy and you can't anticipate everything and sometimes there are a lot of fan favorites.)

(One more thing, Google Sheets does let you randomize a selected range if you right click on it, which can save you time running back and forth between random.org.)

3) Rematches

Personally I think if you want good data in a 3+ competitor winner-take-all kind of situation, you have to run rematches. Say 40% of people like competitor A, 30% of people like competitor B, and the remaining 30% are spread out among competitors C, D, and E. competitor A would win without rematches, but it could very much be the case that of the latter 30% of voters, if their picks were eliminated, only 5% would vote for competitor A, and the remaining 25% would vote for competitor B. That would leave us with 45/55 in B's favor.

Anyway, you can do whatever suits you because running rematches is a little tricky and it requires keeping track of all these extra scattered little polls, but the rules I have for rematches are as follows:

If the winner wins by 50% or more, no rematch.

If the winner is in the lead by 20%, no rematch.

If there are two leading competitor, single rematch.

If there's one leading competitor and two close runner ups, double rematch.

If it looks like it could be a double rematch, but the 2nd place competitor is closer to the first place competitor, it should be a single rematch (and vice versa).

If it looks like it could be a double rematch, the 3rd + 4th + etc place competitors results must be greater than or equal to the 1st place competitor for a double rematch to be held.

4) Scheduling

This one is rather unique to my situation, so I can't really offer too much advice here. Really depending on your voter-base and your access to them, you need to determine if you want to do this long term (slowly releasing the polls) or short term (release them more or less all at once) and if you want to do 1 week polls (requires some extra coordination, especially so that you don't have 1 week gaps between poll drops as you wait for previous round's data to come in) or 1 day polls (easier, but requires your voter base to be more readily available to you).

My very long term approach is based mostly on the fact that the Pokemon community here is very very large and scattered and, starting off, I effectively had 0 way to spread news about the tournament to anyone other than via Blaze. I think if you search scheduling on this blog, you can find the posts that were made when I decided to change the poll schedule, and I did so fairly publicly, so it should be pretty easy to see the structure of this tournament from that.

5) Tournament Summaries/Brackets

Wasn't sure what to call this one but it's basically a, oh no this thing is huge and constantly shifting but people want to kind of get an idea of where we've been and what's coming next, but because it's not a typical 1v1 tournament and also there are hundreds of these guys, I have no idea how to do that.

Which doesn't fit so well in a title lol.

Anyway there are probably a lot better ways of doing this than I did, but I basically just set up a free Neocities site to help keep track of anything. It took me a very long evening to do it, especially since my web dev is super rusty, but it's working out great because it also helps me keep track of everything, because the way I had it set up in my spreadsheet was not super intuitive or easy to see. I doubt anyone wants it, but I am totally willing to share the code behind the site if you all don't know how to get it from just inspecting the page and all. It's pretty clunky though so I'm not advertising it lol.

If I was really smart I'd have all the data in a JSON file and have a JS script just make all the cards that I have in there for me instead of using a separate C++ script (yes, sorry, I use C++ for things like this but that's because I know it better than like Python which would actually probably be the better choice) to generate the cards in HTML which I then paste into the HTML file, but also that would take a lot of time to figure out how to do, and time is not on my side. So.

Anyway. That's most of what I've got organization-wise. I typed this all up on my phone away from my computer so hopefully it's not too messy. I'm not sure if I've provided the info you're looking for or if I've included too much of the information you're not looking for, but I've rarely been accused of not being thorough at least 😭

If you have more questions, feel free to drop me an ask off anon and I'll send you a DM from my main! Otherwise, best of luck!!

#inquiries

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paydayquid · 1 year

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#Short Term Loans UK #Same Day Loans UK #Short Term Cash Loans

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thomascarterpd · 1 month

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Finding the Right Path Through Study and Work – Sophie's Story

Sophie, an adult with cerebral palsy, shares her story about navigating the challenges of tertiary education and finding a rewarding profession

Year 12 often represents a pivotal transition in someone’s life as they leave school and go onto further education, employment, or other pathways. As a young person with cerebral palsy, I reflect back on this time, nine years later, and I remember feelings of excitement and curiosity but also more nerves and anxiety. This was largely due to the fact that my post school life didn’t have a clear and linear path.

In Year 10, as part of the curriculum in NSW every student is required to participate in a week of work experience. In my case, I felt that my options were extremely limited because while my peers were working in hairdressers, vets, and cafes, I knew due to my physical limitations that these jobs were not going to be practical for me. My mum and I reached out to the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, an organisation that I had been affiliated with all my life. Some people reading this may argue that this was an easy option, and maybe at the time, it was.

From that moment forward I knew that I wanted to work in the disability sector in some capacity.

Fast forward to the last couple of months of year 12 where my head is buried in books trying to retain information that I would forget as soon as the ‘pencils are down’. At this time, I am also juggling many specialist appointments which are exhausting to say the least. Especially when I’m having to undergo rigorous standardised testing to prove the special provisions that I would need to complete the HSC on an equal basis. But amidst all this, I’m also trying to figure out the next chapter.

As part of every students’ departure from schooling life, they and their parent/guardian are required to have a meeting with the Careers Advisor. I remember sitting in the office and the advisor asked if I had any thoughts about my future possibilities and I replied: “I’m looking at social work at uni, but I’m unsure if I can do it because of a key part of the degree is to complete 1000 hours of placement over the 4 year degree”, my mum added “having been to a few uni open days, I am worried that Soph will not get the support she needs whilst being considered a number in such a big place”.

The Careers Advisor looked at both of us and said “have you considered TAFE?”. I must admit, I hadn’t really thought of TAFE as an option. Whether this was because it wasn’t largely advertised or spoken about as a post-school option or, because all I heard amongst my peers was: “what university open day have you been to?”, “what courses are you going to apply for?”. Given this was the conversation that was happening around me, there was a seemingly unspoken pressure or assumption that university was the most prestigious path to take. If you didn’t go to uni, you weren’t going to succeed and you were going to fall behind.

As one door closed, it was time to look forward to the next chapter.

TAFE started in January 2016 and I enrolled in a Certificate IV of Community Services. The worries we had in terms of me being a number in the university system quickly faded. Smaller classes were a reality and in this space I began to find myself and have my voice heard. TAFE allowed me to have meaningful relationships with my peers rather than meeting someone in one class with no guarantee that you would see them again the following semester. TAFE was different. My entire cohort stayed together for the 12-month course and many of us went on to do the Diploma of Community Services the following year.

Both these courses allowed me to slowly take more independent steps in a supportive environment and I witnessed my confidence grow and my anxiety around new situations fade. During this time I also had the support of a Youth Coach who also happened to have lived experience of cerebral palsy. As a young person who was trying to find her feet in the big wide world, I can’t tell you just how invaluable this support was. My Youth Coach was able to pass on the skills and knowledge she had as another person with cerebral palsy.

I was even given the opportunity to learn how to book my own ski holiday for my family. While these skills might seem like common sense to some, these life skills were neglected due to me trying to manage my appointments as well as my fatigue levels during my schooling years. TAFE gave me so much more than a University education ever could and I can say this with confidence because I have attended both institutions, but I will address my university experience in due course.

Throughout my 2 years at TAFE I completed 240 hours of work placement in the disability sector in a variety of roles. This gave me a further taste into the workforce, cementing my passion for the disability sector. TAFE saw me go from a shy teenager to a confident young adult who wanted to secure her first permanent part-time role within the sector. The following year I was successful in achieving my goal when I landed my first role as an administrator for Hireup, a company that aims to give back choice and control to participants in the support that they receive.

The friendships that I built at Hireup were very important to me as many of my colleagues shared the same passion and interests, some also having lived experience of disability. I stayed in this role for 18 months before moving across to their sister organisation called Fighting Chance. I started in this role as a Learning Coordinator and this is where I would stay for the next 3 and a half years. If I didn’t already have enough on my plate, I decided to go to university to complete a Bachelor of Inclusive Education and Disability Studies.

My university experience taught me resilience and the power of my own voice. I remember on my first day of university I was sitting in a big lecture theatre and I had a flashback to what my careers advisor had stated to me those 4 years ago and the comment that was made around me being a number. I definitely did feel this, there was no-one checking in to make sure that I had the support necessary, instead that was all up to me. I soon had the realisation that from this moment forward I could no longer rely on someone else to advocate for me on my behalf. This was an important realisation that I needed to have and something that I carry with me to this day: If I want something to change, no one else is going to do it for me.

Keeping up with the university workload was definitely tough as I had to dictate all of my assignments to my support worker or exam supervisor. Given that this is not a skill that comes naturally to most people, this was incredibly time consuming and fatiguing. Although I thoroughly enjoyed university, for me personally, I am glad that I took the stepping stones that I did up until this point. By the end of my university degree in 2022, I was definitely ready to see the back of assignments and exams. Having been at Fighting Chance now for 3-and-a-half years, I was also looking for my next career move.

Read the full article to know more about Finding the Right Path Through Study and Work — Sophie’s Story

#cp #mycpguide #cerebralpalsysupport #cerebralpalsyresources

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katherinemathew · 1 month

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Finding the Right Path Through Study and Work – Sophie's Story

Sophie, an adult with cerebral palsy, shares her story about navigating the challenges of tertiary education and finding a rewarding profession

From that moment forward I knew that I wanted to work in the disability sector in some capacity.

As one door closed, it was time to look forward to the next chapter.

Read the full article to know more about Finding the Right Path Through Study and Work — Sophie’s Story

#cp #mycpguide #cerebralpalsysupport #cerebralpalsyresources

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rotdnd · 5 months

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Session 6

A guard drops a letter onto the table. It is from Lord Varian. He is asking us to come help him.

"We have found information related to the black spider i am in hneed of your help once more ps there will be a reward"

Led into the drawing room

Rose and Alexandria!!! THE KIDS :) Are here.

Charles tries to make a swan but epic fail makes a pos that looks like a bunny, alexandria likes it

Tomorrow morning city guard will be attacking all safe houses at the same time

He wants to hire us to go to a safehouse that they have seen a lot of movement, may be main headquarters - wants us to extreme kill the terrorists

Reward is honor sentinel?? badge highest level of adventurer, personal blacksmith giving us all armor slay, adventurers are first group allowed to leave the city after the crisis has passed - we can take whatever quests we like

Piper Down wants gold lol. Can offer 1000 before crisis, after crisis can be given higher amount of gold. Piper Down got us 5% of the fortress gold lol. LLUMP SUM.

We are going to the slums - the fortress is in the slums. Dozens to a couple dozen people. Abandoned one bedroom home.

We get 5% discount on rent.

The house we're going to is rank

The wooden door is barely hanging onto the doorframe - smells like old person. we enter the house, there is no lighting in the house, extremely dark. furniture is thrown about, in the center of the room there is a very large iron chest.

there is a creaky floorboard beneath the chest.

charles, scott, and piper get 1 inspiration point :3

scott gets 1 inspo point for poem

piper kicks his foot through the floor, piper gets a key and uses it on the key. piper looks into the hole, there is a ladder. can see it is a 50 foot ladder. can hear running water (cave?)

going down ladder

z, pd, r, w, e, q, c :)

we are in the sewers.

room to right and left. end of hallway goes even further

piper looking down corner, piper sees another door.

scott can see faint outline of some tools to room to his right. rhicca and scott are going to check out the tools.

quartzara hears bones creeking. it is a necromancer and 2 skeletons :(

scott charles and warren are together.

rhicca quartzara scott elwyn ghost are in room,

quartzara scott elwyn begin to glow. blessed.

scott fs the guy up.

entered purifier room - divided into 4 smaller sections connected to central purifier.

recycled water kek. water in the sewer is green? water purifier is off - only water purifier in the district. this one has been turned off, looks like it has been turned off for a year.

charles felt compulsion to open his codex book.

charles opens his book that has a diagram of a water purifier and tells me how to turn it on. switches need to be flipped in correct order. order is dependent on whatever city it is from.

piper down turns on the purifier LMAO baller on first try. rip lost his 4 turns.

elwyn killed a skeleton.

piper and warren step into office. there is a GROTESQUE APPARATION extremely icky super gross iron spikes floating around him very scary he looks super icky, howls when he sees piper and warren, then charges at piper and warren

NAUR alistair hit em with the eldritch blast

elwyn walks into the room and black spider member attacks her. charles kills black spider member.

alistair is charmed with crown of madness. >:(

alistair remember the number 20, 5 charges, begins glowing w/ divine light, healed by 4 points. now at 16

alistair tries to bite warren again.

warren attacks alistair and breaks alistairs spell.

elwyn got god weapon

#rotdnd raw notes

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tipco613 · 1 year

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New Post has been published on http://cryptonewsuniverse.com/become-your-own-bank/

Become Your Own Bank

It seems that traditional banking is on life support. This article looks at the recent update in support of this premise and explores how to become your own bank in light of our crumbling banking system.

Current Reality | Traditional Banking

You will already be aware of the collapse of Silvergate Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank, and many are predicting that this is only the beginning of a domino effect. If you live outside America, you may be concerned about where your bank now stands.

You could check in with your bank to see whether they conducted a recent stress test and, if so, how they fared. A stress test looks at a bank’s financial capacity to tolerate sharp economic downturns.

The problem with relying on this feedback is that banks do not wish to cause panic because this would result in a bank run. So it may be wise to hold that data on a loose palm, so to speak.

Bear in mind that when you deposit money into the banks, it does not stay in your account. The banks trade deposits for profits without your permission and keep any profits while continuing to charge you for custody of your money.

Since the stock market is also collapsing, if a bank run were to occur, there would not be enough money for everyone to access their accounts.

With the implosion of the markets surpassing that of 2008 while economic depression looking likely to overtake the Great Depression of the 1930s, the signs are that traditional banking is coming to an end.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

There is a growing concern that the bank collapse is entirely orchestrated to bring down cryptocurrency, remove cash from our society and usher in the Central Bank Digital Currency. (CBDC) In other words, any competitor to the CBDC is being removed by fair or foul means.

If you still think this is not imminent, take a look at this latest CBDC chart of which stage countries are at with the adoption of the CBDC. You can see the reality playing out, which lends credence to the theory of orchestration.

Image source: Atlantic Council

There is no democratic process about this either. In Nigeria, for example, they started to bring in their digital currency, the eNaira, which very few people wanted.

The government declared cash as no longer valid or legal, then charged citizens as much as 20% for withdrawing cash. Riots and violence broke out in the wake of this. Through lack of cash, more than half of their population has reportedly been forced to adopt the eNaira.

Europe is following closely behind, with Christine Lagarde imposing a $1000 spending cash limit with the threat of imprisonment if you do otherwise! With each passing conversation, CBDCs are revealing themselves to be about surveillance and control and not about enjoying the fruits of your labor.

America seems to be about to do something of a segway to a CBDC via their FedNow instant payment service, which is due to launch this summer of 2023. It doesn’t look good for the world in general. If this plays out to the mapped agenda above, then cash and traditional banking have their days numbered.

Also, be mindful that there is a move to depart from the dollar as the world's default currency. This is true of the BRICS countries, who are discussing their own digital currency, possibly backed by precious metals such as gold.

The Alternative | Become Your Own Bank

The question arises as to what you can do about it and how you can protect your personal assets as well as your business concerns. Some consider we have no choice but to accept the new global agenda, but that depends on how much we care about people and democracy. We have been here before in 2008 on a smaller scale, so we have an opportunity to learn from the lessons this imparted.

While nothing is guaranteed in life, what is certain is that if you do not prioritize finding an alternative safeguard that protects your interest against this draconian agenda, it will be dictated to you and not for your benefit.

So what does it mean to become your own bank? Since banking is supposed to be about the safe custody and access to your funds, it is about how you can replicate that for yourself in a decentralized manner.

When Richard Werner carried out his 15-year study about banks and the double-entry bookkeeping that takes place to give the illusion of money, he also concluded that we need more community banks that will support local businesses. You may want to listen to his thoughts here.

youtube

You may wish to research community banks in the quest to find a safer haven for your business and personal affairs.

In a recent Markethive webinar, our CEO Thomas Prendergast pointed out another option in America that is open to businesses worldwide and is both decentralized and supportive of cryptocurrency.

He demonstrated how to set up a Wyoming Corporation first of all, even if you do not live in the USA. Here is a document you can download that walks you through the particulars of setting up your Wyoming company.

This is an important first step to acquiring banking through a fintech company called Mercury which facilitates banking services through its partners with decentralization at its core and solid insurance cover.

You may also want to consider using physically allocated gold and silver to transact with. It used to be that you could only hold these as a long-term store of value. However, platforms like Kinesis and Glintpay now make it possible to digitize gold via a debit card so that you can transact accordingly.

There is much ambivalence about cryptocurrency, given the volatile nature of its market and the frequent rise of pump-and-dump schemes. However, bitcoin remains the longstanding cryptocurrency that continues to gather in adoption, so you can research businesses that accept bitcoin and do so yourself depending on the demand.

For example, PostFinance, a major government financial organization in Switzerland, has partnered with Sygnum to offer cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin to its customers. A more transitional approach may be to consider gold-backed cryptocurrencies such as Tether Gold or DigixGlobal.

Taxes

The other consideration around cryptocurrency is taxes, and this will vary from country to country. Here in the United Kingdom, the following needs to be factored into money management.

Starting in 2024/2025, the self-assessment form will have a place for capital assets to report gains and losses in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency will be subject to capital gains tax. In 2024 the capital gains tax-free allowance will be heavily reduced from the current 12, 300 ton 3,000.

Security

Security is essential when becoming your own bank, hence the layers of security that Markethive are building into their own wallet. Security is often an afterthought for many delving into the world of cryptocurrency, but responsibility is a key part of any money management system, particularly a decentralized system.

The password concept with opening crypto wallets is different in that you are usually assigned a mnemonic of 12-24 words which act as your security password for that wallet. If you lose it, there is no calling upon a central authority to issue you with a new one, as in a password recovery. So the buck stops with you.

Therefore it is important to write your words down safely on paper rather than online, where you are open to being hacked, and then ideally to put them in a small fireproof safe.

Many decentralized platforms have two-factor authentication as part of their security setup. You must pass this security layer to access the platform in question. It can also be used to confirm transactions. You can learn more about how that works in this Markethive tutorial example.

While there are decentralized exchanges like Yobit and decentralized exchanges within wallets such as Atomic Wallet, it is also important to have a cold storage wallet. This is a physical wallet offline which enables safe custody of your assets.

Cold wallets like Ledger and Trezor are well-known options, but there are other alternatives, such as secure encrypted flash drives in which you can place your wallet. They do not involve KYC or ‘Know Your Customer,’ and you can boot off the stick itself rather than the hard drive using a Linux operating system.

Summary

It stands to reason that the long-term acceptance of any cryptocurrency or alternative currency will be determined by the combination of a growing community and the use value of its native cryptocurrency.

This is where Markethive is innovating and leading the way to show that it is possible to establish an ecosystem outside of traditional banking and the proposed CBDC.

You can also appreciate why such innovation is so painstaking, particularly as Markethive is building the technology in such a way to be independent of third parties, who may become compromised by their government mandates and, therefore, negatively disrupt the ecosystem.

As Markethive nears launch, we now have the visible signs and tangible formation of what it is like to have an operational ecosystem that puts the destiny of entrepreneurs back in their hands.

Entrepreneurs can now trade their products and services and transact with a native coin or token without the censorship or threats to privacy that are now commonplace online.

With a growing community of beyond 200,000, this is what is possible when the entrepreneur arises and comes together in a community with like-minded entrepreneurs to solve real-world problems in service to humanity as a force for good.

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About: Anita Narayan. (United Kingdom) My life's work is about helping individuals to greater freedom through joy and purpose without self-sabotage, so that inspirational legacy can serve generations to come. Find me at my Markethive Profile Page | My Twitter Account | and my LinkedIn Profile.

Also published @ BeforeIt’sNews.com; Substack.com:

#cryptocurrency #FinancialCrisis #markethive

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thehorsedispatch · 2 years

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New Post has been published on https://horsetoloan.com/horse-breeds/arabian-horse/

Arabian Horse

When it comes to the Arabian horse breed, it is easily one of the more recognizable breeds of horse, even for people who are not equestrians or are not familiar with horses on an intimate level.

The Arabian is easy to pick out of a lineup due to its arched tail and dished face, as well as its overall elegance. Arabians were also the cornerstone of most breeds of modern-day horses, as they were one of the first breeds of domesticated horses.

Other breeds of horse can thank the Arabian horse for their athleticism. The Arabian is a breed that has been romanticized over the years, especially in movies and literature. Read on to learn more about the Arabian horse, including features such as its physical characteristics and some of its common personality traits.

Arabian Horse Characteristics

First off, what are the characteristics of the Arabian horse ? There are many specific characteristics that make the breed, and we can thank the thousands of years of careful, selective breeding for this fact. One of the first features of the Arabian is its dished head and face, which is filled by large, wide set eyes. The Arabian also has large nostrils but a delicate muzzle.

This face is one of the defining features of the breed and what makes an Arabian horse an Arabian. In addition to this, the Arabian has an elegant neck, sloping shoulders, and a short back ending in an arched tail. Arabians also have clean legs ending in string hooves.

Arabian Horse Size

The size of the Arabian horse can also be a distinguishing factor. According to the Arabian breed standard, this horse falls between 14.1 and 15.1 hands high. Arabian mares are usually a bit smaller, on average, than stallions or geldings. If a horse is not yet an adult, then its size is proportional to its age. This breed is one that is smaller compared to other breeds of horse, and there are even myths regarding this!

Arabians first originated as desert horses, so because of this, they were smaller due to the nutrition available there in the desert. The horses also needed to be smaller as they were expected to stay in tents.

The small size of the Arabian horse has an impact on their strength and balance, and it has allowed for great athleticism, too. Arabains can be found in all of the many equestrian disciplines, which is not always the norm with a breed of horse!

Arabian Horse Weight

When it comes to the weight of the Arabian horse, this breed averages between 800 and 1000 pounds. Just like with height, female Arabians are usually smaller in weight than males. Horses that are not yet adults will have weights that are proportional to their age and height. A fun fact about Arabians is that they have 3 fewer bones in their bodies than other breeds of horses.

They have one less rib and one fewer vertebrae in the back and the tail. Due to this, the Arabian has a unique bone structure. The missing vertebrae is credited for the arched tail and short back that is telling of the Arabian breed. The missing rib is often said to be the reason for their strength and endurance in running long distances.

Arabian Horse Colors

Another defining feature that can help to differentiate between different breeds of horses is their colorations. A horse’s color can set it apart from other breeds and can help you to determine whether or not the horse in question is an Arabian.

Arabian horses can come in chestnut, gray, bay, or black. Black is one of the least common colors of Arabian horse, though a famous black Arabian is The Black Stallion who is the star of the novel and movie Black Beauty. Half of the Arabians out there are gray horses, and chestnut and bay Arabians are about the same number.

Arabians may also come in roan, though this is not as common as the other colors that we have mentioned above. Roan is when a horse has white hairs that are evenly mixed in with darker hairs— roan Arabians are pretty rare. Purebred Arabians can have white markings on their head, as well as stockings or socks on their legs. All of the horses will have dark skin bases, but light skin bases underneath their white markings.

Arabian Horse Temperament

The temperament of a breed of horse is also important. Their temperament can have an effect on what equestrian discipline they are best in, for example. Different breeds of horse will usually have similar temperament traits, though the exact temperament of a horse still comes down to the individual level. Arabian horses are known for being a gentle, calm breed.

The horses were bred by the Bedouins and shared tents with them and their families. Arabians have a reputation for being high string, but they are actually gentle, calm, and friendly.

In addition to this, they are very intelligent and will bond closely to their owners or handlers, as they are also a very loyal breed. The Arabian horse was considered to be a gift from God.

Arabian Horse Care

Arabian horses do not have a particularly difficult care regime, at least not compared to other horses. They are no more high maintenance than other horse breeds. If your Arabian has its diet, shelter, social, health, and grooming requirements met, then it will be able to thrive.

We will go over these different care requirements in more detail further in the article. Like most other breeds of horses, the Arabian has an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years old if healthy and properly cared for. Things such as the horse’s workload, genetics, and diet will affect this lifespan.

Arabian Horse Diet and Nutrition

First, we come to the diet of the Arabian breed.

The most important is forage.

Forage is the name for a combination of grass, water, and hay. All breeds of horse require good quality forage, which will be a source of fiber for their growth and maintenance, as well as help with a horse’s digestive health.

Hay can be a part of the horse’s diet, but should be tested to understand its nutritional value. It is also better to give horses smaller meals and do so at a higher frequency instead. Grain can be another part of a horse’s diet, and many horses eat grain, including the Arabian breed.

Grain is another thing that should be fed to your horse carefully, though, so that the nutritional requirements of the horse’s diet are met, but health problems from too much grain are avoided. Stick to grains that are low carbohydrates and low glycemic index. Another thing to note is that the Arabian breed is not going to eat as much as other breeds of horse, due to this breed’s smaller size.

Arabian Horse Health Issues

Every breed of horse does have a few common health issues or complications, and the Arabian horse is no different. These are often due to improper diet or nutrition. Some of these health issues may include laminitis, colic, and metabolic issues. Luckily, these issues can be prevented by owners providing their horses with the proper diet and nutrition.

This includes avoiding high carbohydrate and glycemic index grains, maintaining the healthy weight of the horse, and also maintaining a consistent amount of feed for the horse. The common genetic problems of the Arabian horse breed are few, but can be dangerous. First is one that causes lethargy and death in Arabian foals.

Another of these issues causes neurological problems, and there is also a lethal coat color dilution in foals that is called “lavender foals”. The final genetic issue in Arabian horses is compression and cracking of the cervical cord. Luckily, there is testing available for all four of these genetic issues.

Arabian Horse Grooming

Grooming is important to a horse’s health, and this is certainly no different for the Arabian horse. Your Arabian should be groomed daily, and this is not only important for their health, but can be great for bonding with your Arabian horse as well. The social aspect of grooming can help the two of you strengthen your bond! First, use a curry comb to groom your Arabian.

Curry combs stimulate the hair and skin of the horse with both their stiff and soft brush options. Then, you should work on cleaning your Arabian hooves, and make sure to do this daily, too. Regular farrier care is also important for your horse and its hooves.

When it comes to the mane and tail of an Arabian horse, you should pick through them, rather than brush them, and give them patient and gentle care. This will help to maintain the mane and tail’s full, lush look.

Arabian Horse History

As we mentioned previously, the Arabian is one of the first domesticated horses, and in fact, is one of the first domesticated animals! Over the thousands of years that the breed has been domesticated, there are many historical happenings, such as wars, travel, and exploration. We will go over more of this further in the article!

Records show that the Bedouin tribes from the Arabian peninsula were the ones who domesticated Arabian horses. The lineage of the horses can be traced all the way back to 3000 BC. Not only were the horses considered to be a status symbol, but they were also family and a form of currency!

Arabian Horse Origin

So, where did the Arabian horses originate, anyway? This is a breed that hails from the Middle East and from the desert. The desert has a climate where only the strongest are able to survive, and there is limited water and nutrition to be found. The Bedouin lineage can be traced all the way back 4500 years, which proves that the Arabian is the oldest purebred breed of horse.

Before the Bedouin records, the Arabian breed is unknown, so it is not clear how the Arabian horse appears in Egyptian art, too. Arabians were first bred as war horses so that the Bedouins could ride fast horses and raid neighbouring tribes.

Arabian Horse Historic Development

The selective breeding of the Arabian horse breed was taken very seriously by the Bedouin people. They carefully guarded the purebred Arabian’s bloodlines and passed down the breeding programs through generations of their family members.

They bred the horses to be as fast as possible since their purpose was warfare. Selective breeding involved breeding for the highest levels of stamina and endurance. It was common for the Bedouins to hold races and contests to prove the superiority of their horses.

On raids, they would often steal the other tribe’s horses, especially if the horses were known to have amazing bloodlines. The Arabian horse began to expand outside of the Middle East. It was used to then develop and strengthen other breeds of horses since the breed has many favorable characteristics and traits.

Famous Arabian Horses

There are many notable Arabian horses throughout history and records. Arabians have been movie stars, have founded new breeds of horse, and have carried military leads, as they were a breed primarily meant to be warhorses. There are even Arabians that are sports mascots, like Thunder of the Denver Broncos football team. We will go over some of these famous and notable Arabians below.

Cass Ole

Cass Ole is the star of an equestrian film that we all know, at least by name— even if we have not watched the movie. Cass Ole was the horse in The Black Stallion, as well as in the sequel, The Black Stallion Returns. The Black Stallion is one of the highest-rated horse movies of all time! Cass Ole, the Arabian horse, was born in Texas in 1969. Prior to the films, he also had a successful show career and was the sire of 130 foals.

Godolphin Arabian

Another famous Arabian horse is Godolphin Arabian. This horse was one of three horses that are credited with founding the Thoroughbred horse breed, the other two being Darley Arabian and Byerly Turk. Godolphin Arabian was born in Yemen and then presented as a gift to the king of France. Later, the horse was shipped to England. Godolphin Arabaian was known for creating foals that have a lot of speed.

Marengo

Napoleon Bonaparte, the famous French military leader, rode an Arabian horse. His was an Arabian stallion named Marengo. Marengo was imported for Napoleon from Egypt, and was a brave and loyal partner. He was injured and wounded eight times in battle, and yet he never threw his rider, Napoleon, off of his back. After the French lost the Battle of Waterloo, Marengo entered a new profession— he was exported to England and stood there at stud.

Arabian Horse Legends

Arabian horses were thought to be gifts from God and have a long, complex history. After all, the breed dates back all the way to 3000 BC, and can even be seen in Egyptian art. This is plenty of time for myths and legends to be created surrounding the Arabisn horse breed, and we will go over some of these myths below!

Creation Legend

First, we have the creation legend. This is the one that says these horses were a gift from God. In the legend, God took a handful of the south wind and blew on it to create the Arabian horses. Success is said to be in their forelock, wealth on their back, and treasures on their flank.

Loyalty Legend

Another Arabian horse legend regards loyalty. Muhammed was a spiritual leader who said that he brought his herd of horses to an oasis. When the horses ran to drink, he called them back, and only five mares obeyed him. Those five mares became the founders of the first breed strains, as well as becoming the favorites of Muhammed.

Stamina Legend

One of the Bedouin chiefs was named Ahmed. In the stamina legend, he was riding his pregnant mare when an enemy tribe began to give chase. They shot him, and he slumped over on his horse, who carried him all the way home. A bloody mark remained on the horse, and when she gave birth that night, her foal was born with the same mark on his shoulder. Arabian horses with that blood mark are believed to be rare living legends.

Modern Arabian Horses

The Arabian horse is one of the most popular horses on the planet, and with good reason! The bloodlines of the Arabian horse can also be found in just about any other breed of horse. It is a breed found in more than 62 countries across the globe, where breeding continues as well. These days, there are six major types of Arabian horses. These six types are as follows— the Russian, Polish, Egyptian, Spanish, Crabbet, and Shagya. The Egyptian type is the one that is considered to be the purest of the six.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the Arabian horse so special?

The Arabian breed of horse is one that has a special brand of respect, in part due to its status as being one of the oldest breeds of horse. In fact, the Arabian is one of the oldest of any domesticated animals! They are known for having graceful movement and athletic endurance. The Arabian comes from the Middle East, originally, and this means that the horse is able to thrive in arid environments that are hot and dry. Plus, on top of all of this, they are a gorgeous horse.

How much do Arabian horses cost?

The price of an Arabian horse can vary greatly. This is true for other breeds of horses, and other domesticated animals in general. The cost of an animal will depend on some factors such as its purpose or its bloodline. The Arabian is a particularly distinguished breed of horse, recognizable for its natural beauty, gracefulness, and fantastic athletic endurance.

The dollar amount, then, is going to be priced accordingly! This is not going to be a cheap breed of horse to get your hands on. The cost of an Arabian horse can easily range between $5,000 and $30,000. If you are after a stallion, an Arabian with a rare bloodline to its name, or a competing Arabian participating in very high-level competitions, then the cost can come all the way up to $150,000!

Are Arabian horses friendly?

Arabian horses are beautiful and graceful, but another reason that they have such a reputation is that they are one of the oldest domesticated animals. As they have been domesticated for several thousands of years, they have grown well accustomed to humans and can work very well with us, as long as they are being treated well and kindly.

In fact, this goes further than simply a tolerance of humans. Arabian horses are very friendly with humans and enjoy pleasing their owners, so they do strive to do so! Since Arabians are so friendly to humans, their foals are not easily startled by sudden noises as you can see in many other breeds of horses.

Why are Arabian horses so strong?

The Arabian horse is a breed that is graceful and beautiful to boot. Some people may assume that this is not a strong breed of horse because they have small and refined bodies. Those who have worked with an Arabian, though, know that this is not true! Arabian horses are a very strong breed and are actually surprisingly strong when given their size and stature.

They may seem that they are stronger than they should be able to be. This largely comes down to the bone density of the horse. Arabian horses have a greater bone density than other horses, as well as sound feet, short cannons, and a broad, short back. All of these different features come together and contribute to the surprising strength of the Arabian breed of horse.

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digitalbillboards2 · 2 years

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What You Need to Know About PPI for Billboards

Have you ever wondered how many pixels per inch (PPI) are necessary to create a billboard? The answer depends on the size of the billboard and the viewing distance. The larger the billboard, the fewer pixels per inch it needs in order to be clearly visible from a distance. In this blog post, we will discuss what you need to know about PPI for billboards and how this affects your design choices.

Understanding PPI for Billboards

Pixel density is measured in dots or pixels per inch (PPI). This indicates how much information is packed into a certain area. Generally speaking, higher PPI means more detail and better image quality. For example, a small poster may have a pixel density of 200-300 PPI, while an HD television has a pixel density of up to 1000 PPI. When it comes to Backlit Billboard, you don’t need as high of a pixel density because they are viewed from farther away than other forms of advertising media such as print or online ads.

Calculating Your Digital Billboard's PPI Requirements

When calculating your billboard's PPI requirements, there are two main factors you should consider – size and viewing distance. For example, if your billboard is 10 feet by 24 feet at 50 feet away from where people are standing, then each square foot would require approximately 4-6 PPIs in order for it to look clear and not blurry or grainy when viewed from that distance. If your billboard is 20 feet by 48 feet at 100 feet away from where people are standing, then each square foot would require approximately 2-4 PPIs in order for it to look clear from that distance. These numbers can vary depending on additional factors such as lighting conditions and ambient noise levels in the environment around the billboard.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, calculating your digital billboard's PPI requirements will depend on its size and viewing distance from potential viewers. Generally speaking, larger billboards with farther viewing distances will require fewer PPIs than smaller billboards with closer viewing distances in order for them to be clearly visible. With all this information in mind, you can now make informed decisions regarding how many PPIs your digital billboard needs in order to effectively advertise your Hurricane Frames product or service!

#Backlit Billboard #Hurricane Frames #Billboard Frame For Sale

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eun-gealach · 2 years

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Made myself one of these bad boys last minute. Come attack me if ya want!

https://artfight.net/~iLikeToDraw24

#my art #art fight #team bloom #go team bloom whooo!!#we may be smaller in numbers by about 1000 people #but i believe in us!#art fight 2022

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felassan · 4 years

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Dragon Age development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

Some really tasty factoids here.

Cut for length.

Dragon Age: Origins

The continent of Thedas was at one point going to be named Pelledia, a name initially floated by James Ohlen

“Qunari” was a temporary name that ended up unintentionally sticking, much like “Thedas”

Mary Kirby wrote the Landsmeet. To this day, nobody understands how it works, except possibly her. If she’s “really really drunk” she can explain how it works. There’s as many words in it as Sten’s entire conversations put together

Concept art for Thedosian art - as in in-world art - draws heavily on Renaissance-era portraiture, the Art Nouveau movement, religious styles and media like stained glass, and favorite pieces from the golden age of illustrations in the early 20th century

Andrastianism in-world (art-wise) is depicted in wildly different methods depending on who in-world made the art in question. “One religion, 3 different lenses”. There’s the Chantry take, the Orlesian take and the Fereldan take; each with its own different interpretations, different mediums and different stories

The stained glass images were drawn by Nick Thornborrow for DAI, to decorate religious spaces in that game “and beyond”

irl Viking art influenced Ferelden

Greek and Italian art influenced Orlais

The book also had other insights into and anecdotes from the development of DAO, but I’ve transcribed them recently as they’re essentially the stories DG has recently been relating on the awesome Summerfall Studios DAO playthrough Twitch streams. (On those streams he provides dev commentary while Liam Esler plays through DA. The ones with DG are currently once every two weeks. Check them out! Here’s a calendar where you can check when the next one is) Instead of repeating myself I’ll just provide the link to the first transcript. From there you can navigate to the subsequent parts. Note these streams are ongoing. At this point I will also point you to a related post which is cliff notes of the Dragon Age chapter in Jason Schreier’s book Blood Sweat and Pixels.

Dragon Age II

DAO had the longest development period in BioWare history. In contrast DA2 had the shortest

Initially DA2 was going to be an expansion to DAO. A few months in EA said “Yeah, expansions like these don’t sell very well, so let’s make it a sequel.” So it suddenly became DA2 and they had to make it even bigger, although they still only had 1.5 years of time in which to do this

Production of DA2 officially lasted only 9 months, and at the time the team was still supporting live content for DAO! They finished development that January after the design team crunched all the way through the holiday period that year. Then it went to cert 9 times

The limited time they had is why the story takes place mostly in and around 1 city, and over 7 years (so it was temporal, rather than over physical distance, because a more expansive world would have taken more irl time to make)

They had no time to review even the main plot. Mike Laidlaw pitched the idea of 3 stories taking place at different points in the PC’s life, tied together by Varric’s recollections of events. DG rolled with this and made 1 presentation on the idea. This presentation was then approved and off they went

As they were writing DG realized that there was going to be no oversight and that everything was going to be a ‘first draft’. “Because nobody had time.” He sat down with the writers and said “Look, here’s the conditions we’re working under. A lot of what we’re putting out is gonna be raw. We’re not going to get the editing we need. We’re not going to get the kind of iteration we need. So I’m going to trust you all to do your best work.”

Looking back, DG has mixed feelings on DA2. “A lot of corners were cut. The public perception was that it was smaller than DAO. That’s a sin on its own.”

Despite this he thinks DA2 has some of the best writing in the series, especially character-wise. The DA2 chars are his favorite

The pace with which production progressed may in some ways have helped. “When we do a lot of revision, we often file away [as in buff off] some of the good writing as well. Somehow DA2′s whirlwind process resulted in some really good writing”

The pace meant chars landed on the writers in various stages of completion. For example Isabela was fairly defined due to appearing in DAO. In contrast Varric at the start was just that single piece of widely-shown concept art

Varric was conceived as a storyteller not a fighter. His skills are talking and bullshitting. Hence the question became, so what does this guy do in combat? The direction was to make him as different as possible to Oghren, so not a warrior. He couldn’t be a dual-wielding rogue in order to differentiate him from Bela. But you can’t really picture this guy with a bow. “For a dwarf, it would probably be a crossbow. We didn’t have crossbows, or we only had crossbows for the darkspawn. And they were part of the models. We didn’t have a separate crossbow that was equip-able by the chars. They had to like, crop one off a darkspawn and remodel it. And that became Bianca” (quote: Mary Kirby)

“Dwarven mages are exceedingly rare.” [???]

If DAO was a classic fantasy painting, DA2 was a screenshot from a Kurosawa film or a northern Renaissance painting. (Here Matt Rhodes was commenting on art style)

John Epler: “In any one of our games, there’s a 95% chance that if you turn the camera away from what it’s looking at, you’ll see all kinds of janky stuff. The moment we know the camera is no longer facing someone, we no longer care what happens to them. We will teleport people around. We will jump people around. We will literally have someone walk off screen and then we will shift them 1000 meters down, because we’re fixing some bug.” John also talked about this camera stuff in a recent charity Twitch stream for Gamers For Groceries. There’s a writeup of that stream here

Designing Kirkwall pushed concept artists to the limits of visual storytelling, because it has a long history that they wanted to be present. It was once the hub of Tevinter’s slave empire, so it needed to look brutal and harsh, but it also then needed to feel reclaimed, evolved, and with elements of contemporary Free Marches culture

The initial plan was for DA titles to be distinguished by subtitles not numbers, so that each experience could stand on its own rather than feel like a sequel or continuation. (My note: New PCs in each entry make sense then when you consider this and other factoids we know like how DA is the story of the world not of any one PC). Later, DA2′s name was made DA2 in a bid to more clearly connect the game to its predecessor. For DAI they returned to the original naming convention. (My note: so I’d reckon they’d be continuing the subtitle naming convention for DA4)

DA2 was initially code-named “Nug Storm”, strictly internally

The Cancelled DA2 Expansion - Exalted March

This was a precursor to DAI

It was meant to bridge the gap between DA2 and DAI

It focused on the fallout from Kirkwall’s explosion, with Cory serving as the villain

Meredith’s red lyrium statue was basically going to infest Kirkwall and it would end up [with what would end up] the red templars taking over Kirkwall and essentially being Cory’s army

To stop him Hawke would have recruited various factions, including Bela’s Felicisima Armada and the Qunari at Estwatch, forcing Hawke to split loyalties and risk relationships in the process

It was meant to bring DA2′s story to an end and end in Varric’s death. DG was very happy with this because all of DA2 is Varric’s tale. The expansion was supposed to start at the moment Cassandra’s interrogation of him ended in the present. “And we finished off the story with Varric having this heroic death.” It tied things up and would have broken many fan hearts, something BioWare writers notoriously enjoy. But between a transition to the new Frostbite engine and the scope of DAI, the decision was made to cancel EM, work any hard-to-lose concepts into DAI, and in the process save Varric’s life. DG has talked about the Varric dying thing before

Concept art for EM explored new areas previously not depicted in the DA universe, with costumes that reflected next steps for familiar chars. Varric was going to war, what would he have worn? With Anders, if he survived DA2, the plan was to present a redeemed Warden

A char that vaguely resembled Sera in DAI was first concepted for EM. This fact was mentioned near this concept art (see the female elf) and this concept art of Bethany with the blond bob

The writers sketched out plans to end it with Hawke having the option to marry their LI. This included alternate ceremonies for party members like Bethany and Sebastian if the player opted not to wed. There was even a wedding dress made for Hawke. This asset made it into DAI (Sera and Cullen’s weddings in Trespasser). The dress can also be seen in DAI during an ambient NPC wedding after completing a chain of war table missions

The destruction of a Chantry was explored in concept art as it might have happened in EM. This idea ended up carrying over to the beginning of DAI. (My note: Lol, the idea that DA2 could have had 2 Chantries being destroyed in it 😆)

World of Thedas

Sheryl Chee and Mary Kirby started with “a disgusting little dish called fluffy mackerel pudding”. In the middle of DAO’s busy dev period one of them (they can’t remember who) found a recipe online for this, scanned in from a 70s cookbook. “I don’t understand why it was fluffy. Why would you want fluffy mackerel pudding?” MK says. “We loved it so much we included it in a DAO codex.”

This led them to create more food for Thedas, full recipes included, like a Fereldan turnip and barley stew from MK and SC’s Starkhaven fish and egg pie. The fish pie became Sebastian’s favorite. “To me it made sense for it to be fish pie because a lot of the Free Marches are on the coast”, SC says, “It was something that was popular in medieval times, so I thought, let’s make a fish pie! I looked at medieval recipes and I concocted a fish pie which I fed to my partner, and he was like ‘This is not terrible’”

For WoT the whole studio was asked to contribute family recipes which might have a place in Thedas. SC adapted these to fit in one Thedosian culture or another, including a beloved banana bread that localization producer Melanie Fleming would regularly bake to keep the DA team motivated. “Melanie’s banana bread got us through Inquisition”

DAI

It says part of DAI takes place in or near the border with Nevarra [???]

This game was aimed to be bigger than DA2 and even DAO in every conceivable way

The first hour had to do a lot of heavy lifting, tying together the events of DAO and DA2 while introducing a new PC, new followers etc in the aftermath of the big attack. DG rewrote it 7 times then Lukas Kristjanson did 2 more passes

DG: “Our problem is always that our endings are so important, but we leave them to last, when we have no time. I kept pushing on DAI: ‘Can we work on the ending now? Can we work on the ending now? Can we do it early on?’ Because I knew exactly what it was going to be. But despite the fact that it kept getting scheduled, whenever the schedule started falling behind, it kept getting pushed back... so, of course, it got left til last again.”

“The reveal of the story’s real antagonist, Solas, a follower until the end, when he betrayed the player”. “Solas’ story remains a main thread in Inquisition’s long-awaited follow-up” [these aren’t DG quotes, just bits of general text]

Over the course of development they had 8 full-time writers and 4 editors working on it. Other writers joined later to help wrangle what ended up being close to 1 million words of dialogue and unspoken text. While many teams moved to a more open concept style of work for DAI, the writers remained tucked away in their own room, a choice DG says was necessary, given how much they talked. All the talking had a purpose ofc as if someone hit a bump or wall in their writing they would open the problem up to the room

As writing on a project like DAI progresses, the writers grow punchier and weirder things make it into the game. This is especially the case towards the end of a project (they get tired, burned out)

Banter and codexes require less ‘buy-in’ (DG has talked about this concept a few times on the Twitch streams) from other designers. DG liked to leave banter for last as a reward because it was fun. Banter begins as lists of topics for 2 followers to discuss. These may progress over time or be one off exchanges. One banter script can balloon to well over 10k words. “The banter was always huge because we were always like, laughing, and really at that point, our fields of fucks were rather barren, so we would just do whatever”

The bog unicorn happened pretty much by accident. It was designed by Matt Rhodes and was one of his fav things to design. They needed horse variations and he had already designed an undead variant which was a bog mummy [bog body]. irl these are preserved in a much different way to traditional mummies. When someone dies in a bog their skin turns black and raisin-like. The examples we know of tend to have bright red hair for whatever reason. It’s a very striking look and MR wanted to do a horse version of this as he thought it’d be neat. 5 mins before the review meeting for it he had a big ‘Aha!’ moment, quickly looked up a rusty old Viking sword, and photoshopped it through its skull like that was how it died. “And I was like, ‘I just made a unicorn. Alright, in it goes!’” It got approved. “So we built the thing. It fit. It told a little story”

With the irl Inquisition longsword, one of the objects they tested its cleaving ability on was a plush version of Leliana’s nug Schmooples

The concept art team explored a wide variety of visuals for the Inquisitor’s signature mark. It needed to look powerful and raw but couldn’t look like a horrific wound. In some cases, as cool as the idea looked on paper, they just weren’t technically feasible, especially as they had to be able to fit on any number of different bodies

Bug report: “Endlessly spawning mounts! At one point during development, Inquisitors could summon a new horse every time they whistled, allowing them to amass a near infinite number of eager steeds that faithfully followed them across Thedas. “You could go charging across levels and they’d all gallop behind you,” Jen Cheverie says, “It was beautiful.” Trotting into town became an epic horse siege as a tidal wave of mounts enveloped the streets. Jen called it her Army of Ponies”

The giants came from DA Week, an internal period when devs can pursue different individual creative projects that in some way benefit DA. They also had a board game from one of these that they were going to put in but they didn’t have time. It’s referenced though. It was dwarven chess

Josie’s outfit is made of gold silk and patterned velvet, with leather at her waist. She carries “an ornate ledger” and she has “an ornamented collar sitting around her neck, finished by a brilliant red ruby, like a drop of Antivan wine in a sunbeam”

Iron Bull’s armor is leather. His loose pantaloons and leather boots give him agility to charge

On DAI in particular, concept artists took special care to make sure costumes would be realistic, at least in a practical ‘this obeys the laws of physics and textiles’ sense. “While on Inquisition, we thought about cosplay from a concept art perspective. Given how incredible a lot of [cosplays] are, I now am not worried about them. In fact in some cases in the future I want to throw them curveballs like, ‘All right, you clever bastards. Let’s see if you can do this!’”

2 geese that nested on the office building and had chicks were named Ganders and Arishonk (it wasn’t known who was the mom or the dad). Other possible names were Carver Honke, Bethany Honke, Urdnot Pecks, Quackwall, Cassandra Pentagoose, the Iron Bill, Shepbird, Garroose, Admiral Quackett, Scout Honking, HChick-47 and Darth Malgoose

Bug report: “The surprising adventures of Ser Noodles!” DAI was the first time the series had a mount feature, meaning this had a lot of bugs. A lot of the teams’ favorite bugs were to do with the mounts. There was a period of time where the Inquisitor’s horse seemed to lose all bone and muscle in its legs. They had a week or so where all quadruped legs were broken. It was a bit noticeable in things like nugs and other small beasties but the horse was insanely obvious. “The first time we summoned the horse [for this] and started running around, the entire QA exploration room just exploded with laughter.” Its legs flapped around like cooked fettucine, leading testers to lovingly nickname it Ser Noodles. At galloping speeds the legs almost looked like helicopter blades, especially when footage was set to classic pieces such as Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries

For DAI the artists were asked questions like “What would Morrigan wear to a formal ball? Can Cassandra pull off a jaunty hat?”

On DAI storyboarding became the norm. John Epler: “Cinematic design for the longest time was the Wild West. It was ‘here’s a bunch of content, now do it however you want’, which resulted in some successes and some failures.” Storyboarding gave designers a consistent visual blueprint based on ideas from designers, writers and concept artists

Quote from a storyboard by Nick Thornborrow (the Inquisitor going into the party at the end of basegame sequence): “Until Corypheus revealed himself they could not see the single hand behind the chaos. A magister and a darkspawn combined. The ultimate evil. So evil. Eviler than puppy-killers and egg farts combined.”

A general note on concept art:

In the early stages of any project, before the concept artists are aware of any writing, they like to just draw what they think cool story moments could be. It’s not unusual for the team to then be inspired by these and fold them into the game as the project progresses

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

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atthebell-moved · 2 years

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heya op from the karlnapity number 1 post, i want to hear the theories you have as to why it got so popular it would sound interesting!

oh wow did not expect anyone to actually want to hear about this. thanks for asking!

so first thing, in terms of numbers on this: when i initially looked at this, i guessed at popular poly ships and figured out from this that karnapity was big; this time, i used @/toastystats' analysis from may 2021 to figure out big poly ships and then cross referenced their current numbers with karlnapity's-- they're ahead by at least 1000 works from the (presumed) next biggest poly ship, Bucky/Steve/Tony from the MCU.

This is super impressive! DSMP on AO3 has been one of the fastest growing fandoms in the last couple of years (toasty has stats about that as well, as does @/ao3-anonymous who does weekly fandom growth stats) and has absolutely exploded in terms of amount of works, though it's a bit hard to quantify due to only receiving its own fandom tag recently. Still, competing with the MCU, BTS, & BNHA, to name a few fandoms, is impressive as it's still such a new fandom compared to how long they've been around and been able to gather works.

In regard to why I think Karlnapity is popular, and to compare it to other popular poly ships, I think there's a few factors. In no particular order:

#1 - This one's easy. DSMP is hugely popular right now, and Karlnapity is one of a few significant canon ships in the world of the server. Other big ships (DNF, tntduo, beeduo, etc.) have less canonical status or are in some way fraught with RPF issues.

#2 - The ship is M/M/M. If you look at the stats I link above from toasty, M/M/M by far dominates poly ships, with F/M/M a ways behind. As you probably know, ships involving women tend to be far less popular, and vice versa.

#3 - This is where we get into my actual juicy analysis. The biggest reason I think Karlnapity is huge is it's canonical status, which is BY FAR what distinguishes it from other poly ships.

Below is a list of the biggest poly ships, as of May 2021 (again, from toasty, linked above). Obviously Karlnapity has shot up in terms of stats, but this provides us with a solid basis for other poly ships.

Most of the other popular poly ships are non-canonical ships, with the basis of the ship being people want ot3s and there's three central characters in these pieces of media (Bucky/Steve/Tony, Castiel/Dean/Sam, Poe/Finn/Rey, Hermione/Harry/Ron). For BTS, it's a similar situation but instead of three main characters the band has 7 members.

The two ships that are canonical/semi-canonical (depending on your interpretation of things like word of god and possible retconning) are Karlnapity and Hardison/Parker/Eliot. I'll start with the latter; feel free to skip this paragraph if you don't want to read through me talking about Leverage.

If you're not a Leverage fan, you probably are not familiar with this OT3 and may be confused about its popularity considering it is a MUCH smaller fandom than the other ones (only ~9k total fics). Hardison/Parker/Eliot is also the #1 ship in the Leverage fandom tag, whereas the rest of these are generally quite a bit further down in the ship tags. The reason for this is that the relationship dynamic on the show is very intimate, I would say a majority of leverage fans ship the ot3 without question, AND the creators have on multiple occasions encouraged and endorsed the ship. Additionally, they have made the ship canonical (in a sense) by stating that the finale of the original show was meant to end with the three of them in a relationship, so they hold a semi-canonical, word of god status in that sense. However, for much of the show, only Hardison and Parker are explicitly dating and it is my understanding that in the recent revival that is still the case (haven't watched it yet, planning to soon). Still, it is far more canonical than most of the other ships on this list, which is why it's so high up despite being a smaller fandom, and this feeds into why I think Karlnapity is so popular.

Okay! Back to Karlnapity!

Karlnapity is the only ship on this list that has full, in-canon support for it being a romantic, polyamorous ship. That is, as you probably know, incredible rare in fandoms of this size. The three of them are romantically & phsyically affectionate (when they were together) and explicitly involved, which cannot be said for any other ship on the list above.

All this to say, the biggest reasons Karlnapity is so popular are that the fandom is hugely popular right now, the ship involves men, and the relationship is canon.

#karlnapity #ao3 rabbit holes #kinda #asks #sorry for taking so long to answer i went & did research and also wrote a whole long thing that i ended up taking out bc it wasnt relevant

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fffinnagain · 4 years

Photo

10 Years of Sherlock (TV) AO3 stats!

Sherlock fans, new and old, click below to read a long list of graphs and comments about our communities fanworks over the last 10 years. I scraped AO3 again and demonstrate that:

More creators are writing longer works in 2020

Readers engaged more as the fandom changed after S4

Top ten new tags per year for the last 10 years

And a lot more.

PS the code to gather this data and analyse it can be found way over here.

Activity over 10 years

The last 10 years in the BBC Sherlock fandom have been tumultuous, but this community persists, with engagement from new fans and continued creative output. To commemorate over a decade of squee, I’ve done another scrape of the fandom’s imprint on the Archive of Our Own and will share some insights from the numbers in these plots. A very late update on my post S4 snapshot from 2018.

Note: This analysis is of completed public fanworks only, about 101000 of the 122000 Sherlock (TV) works available at present. This is to remove the late WIP effect, which adds a bulge to the last few months, and out of respect to creators who wish to have their material reserved for other registered AO3 users.

The works are still coming

Counting the number of works posted per day, we can see the peaks associated with each series airing (in UK and US). After that, the number of works continues fairly evenly, 20-30 per day, plus seasonal peaks. This rate is continuing on without a hint of new canon in sight. So who is posting all this work?

Creator-waves, monthly output

Years ago I started plotting creator waves, basically I group fanwork producers by the year they first posted to the fandom and then count how many of this group are active in later time intervals. This lets us get a sense of how long people are contributing and whether new fans are getting the urge to create.

This plot of the Sherlock (TV) fanworks on AO3 shows the standard shape of plump participation in the first year of any given set of creators, followed by a slowly thinning tail as they because less active over time. Turnover is natural in fandoms, with most only posting a work or two within a fairly limited amount of time, while a precious few persist for years. The surprise for me here is that the ratio of new creators is higher in 2020 than it was in 2019. Maybe the excuse of lockdown encouraged more folks to take a turn at creating content.

Another way to look at the output of fan creators on AO3 is to see the total amount of words being shared across all fanworks. The total has been pretty close to 300-400k words per month since 2018! To get a sense of what that means per work, I also plotted the median number of words per fanwork in these monthly sets. The median in higher in the last year than it had been staying for a while.

Reader behaviour: Hits & Kudos & Comments

Fan creators are only part of the story. Stats on engagement are a bit trick to interpret, I’ve got some plots here that tell us something about how works have been engaged with over time.

The obvious first to consider is Hits. Above is the total number of Hits given to works published each month. This is the current totals, not a historical snapshot, so we have a very strong bias towards early works, what we might call the Classics Effect. Works that have been around longer have had the chance to be seen by more people, and in particular those works that become must-read classics in a fandom, extending their exposure through prominence in top ranked works and recommendations.

To cut down on the advantage of the classics, we can also consider median hits per work for each month. As most works get a lot attention when they are first posted and then fade out of sight, the median number of hits reflects instead the ratio of readers to creators, basically how many eyeballs are around to look at the latest work, regardless of status. The median plot shows how the hyper-visibility of the few work available before 2012, and then a more steady curve once the fandom had gotten established on the platform after Series 2. Amazingly, the hit rate for the median work was steady through the big bumps in activity with later series, a 1000 hits for median works between 2013 and 2018, followed by a slow decline. I’d expect the 2020 works to continue gaining for a few months yet, but the median is probably 50-60% of what is was when the show was in production.

Kudos counts and medians show a similar story to hits, but there is a dip down around 2013 for kudos reflects the frenzy of productivity that saw the fandom grow during the Series 2 hiatus. Readers were getting spoiled! From the airing of Series 3 (2014) until a year following Series 4 (2018), the median work received an even 60ish kudos and 1000 hits, a niche audience that decreased to 50/750 through 2018-2019. The numbers of 2020 suggest a smaller community of readers again, though these numbers may still rise a bit in the next few months before the median works are forgotten.

The statistic that tells a different story is Comments. Looking at the total comments counts, there isn’t a drop after Series 3 (2014). Instead, the fandom compensated for changing numbers with more feedback and discussion attached to works. This is reflected in the median comment rate as well, which shows seasonal variation but doesn’t really drop off until 2020.

It’s remarkable that without fresh canon we continue to have new creators contributing to the fandom, and while that may be outpacing the readership somewhat, the standard of engagement has been very high. One could say the fandom is chugging along quite nicely!

What about Tags

So, with all that turnover and shifting population, is there a change in the kinds of works being posted? We can look at tags, all tags and freeform tags, to see if there were any meaningful trends.

First up, I did a creator-wave like analysis of works just for tags, to see how tags continue to be used after being introduced. Unlike the creators, tags clearly persist for years. After 2015, it looks like the core tag set has been established, with very few tags persisting in usage per subsequent year.

This graph reports numbers over time that are not proportional to the number of works or creators active. Instead, works on AO3 have been getting more and more tags over the years, with the average steadily growing from 5 in 2011 to 15 in 2020, with freeform tags (not characters or ships) from 2 to 8.

To get a sense of fic and tagging culture changes over time, I counted the most popular NEW tags of each year (wave). Note: this analysis is using exact matches, not the networked associations of tag meanings wrangled into AO3 today, so some things that pop up aren’t new concepts but instead newly popular TAGs for whatever they represent.

2011: 2752 (First year, so all solid stuff, tags that continue to be popular forever)

Angst 323

Fluff 232

Humor 216

Hurt/Comfort 188

Romance 168

Friendship 168

Crossover 138

Crack 121

Alternate Universe 119

First Time 106

2012: 11637 (still early, first references to Series 2)

Fluff and Angst 145

Episode: s02e03 The Reichenbach Fall 97

Kid Sherlock 54

Puppies 50

Sad 48

Episode: s02e01 A Scandal in Belgravia 47

Mathematics 42

Season 2 spoilers 38

Omega Verse 38

Feels 38

2013: 16176 (Omegaverse nomenclature is growing, Top/Bottom terminology, new challenges)

Alpha Sherlock 65

Omega John 61

30 Day OTP Challenge 59

Tumblr: letswritesherlock 56

Top John 49

Sherlock Holmes Returns after Reichenbach 44

Bottom Sherlock 40

Reichenbach Angst 30

Don't copy work to another site 29

Age Regression/De-Aging 27

2014: 19256 (Mostly Series 3 related

Episode: s03e03 His Last Vow 249

Episode: s03e02 The Sign of Three 167

Post-His Last Vow 149

His Last Vow Spoilers 142

Sherlock Series 3 Spoilers 128

2000 AU 100

The Sign of Three Spoilers 74

Fatlock 72

Post-The Sign of Three 66

Post-Season/Series 03 57

2015: 14272 (New challenges, new prominent Sherlolly tags)

Chats 47

International Fanworks Day 2015 34

Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2015 27

S3 referenced 25

Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper Kissing 22

English Accent 22

Sound cloud 19

Eventual Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper 19

Protective John Watson 18

but not that kind of graphic 17

2016: 13517 (New stylistic tagging, TAB references, a lot of epilepsy?)

Slowwww burn 92

John Watson Loves Sherlock Holmes 37

Sherlock Holmes Loves John Watson 33

post-tab 30

JME 27

Post TAB 25

Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy 23

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2016 19

epileptic 19

fraternal love 17

2017: 15067 (Series 4 tags and challenges)

Episode: s04e02 The Lying Detective 133

Episode: s04e01 The Six Thatchers 93

Post TFP 73

Sherlock Series 4 Spoilers 69

Episode: s04e03 The Final Problem 60

Post-Episode: s04e02 The Lying Detective 55

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2017 50

Post S4 48

Sherstrade Month 2017 44

31 Days of Porn Challenge 2017 41

2018: 10733 (Lost of new challenges, seasonal and weekly)

Towel Day 2018 64

Mystrade Valentines Calendar 2018 25

Kinktober 2018 23

Pregnant Molly Hooper 23

Soft Smut Sunday 23

Tom Robbins 23

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2018 21

Inktober 2018 20

established universe 16

Always1895 16

2019: 7785 (More prompts, and character attitudes)

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2019 25

221B Autumn Challenge 21

A-Z Christmas Prompt 19

KatsJohnlockXmas2019 16

Whumptober 11

Poor Greg Lestrade 11

Kinktober 2019 10

Dissonance 10

John Watson is a Good Friend 9

Sleepy Sherlock Holmes 8

2020: 8074 (Not all COVID related, thank heavens)

Mystrade Monday 59

COVID-19 48

Coronavirus 46

Mystrade Monday Prompts 40

Whumptober 2020 36

warning for a covid-19 setting 33

Flufftober prompts 2020 24

Do Not Translate 24

they're all right they're just at home 23

Granada Sherlolly 21

A little note from looking across all freeform tags, not just the new ones, we see a curious pattern with regards to two actions: First Kiss and Anal Sex. They appear amongst the most common tags as of 2014, neck in neck for two years, than Anal Sex drops off the top ten in 2016. From there out, First Kiss stays in the top 5 from that point on, while anal sex appears at rank 9 from 2017-2019 and is gone again in 2020. This probably says something about the fandom, somehow.

Bravo for making it to the end and thank you for reading!

Questions/comments welcome.

#Fandom stats #Sherlock #AO3 #Graphs #python

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kenganparadise · 3 years

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Hi! first I wanted to say that I love your blog, I am very happy to see that there is content for this anime. Did I want to request some headcanons? Like, dating Raian. If you don't do headcanons, maybe a drabble of him introducing his s/o to his family.

I decided to write Raian’s S/O meeting his family for the first time!! I was feeling a little fluffy today! I hope you enjoy!! ❤️

Raian was actually in a very sour mood. He peeked behind the corner to see you checking yourself in the mirror again. You made sure all the wrinkles were out of your clothes and all the pieces of lint and pet hair were cleared away. You check your hair again. Fluffing it and trying to fix it. “UGHhhh. I already told you 1000 times- you look fuckin’ HOT.” Raian yelled from the other room. You paused in surprise then sighed. “I don’t want to look hot. I want to look respectable and.... honorable.” You say. You look down at your feet. There was a pit in your stomach. You were very nervous. But Nervous wasn’t a good word to describe how you were feeling. You and Raian have been dating for a long time. He’s met all your family and friends. You have yet to meet his. You had heard rumors and the legends of the Kure clan. A tight knit family of assassin, literally bred to kill. You just so happened to be dating the most powerful one. You heard of their selective breeding. You wondered if they’ll deem you good enough. You wondered if you’re good enough yourself. Raian noticed your mood dampen. You look smaller. He clicks his tongue. You sigh deeply as the thoughts swim in your head. What if they didn’t like you? You jumped feeling strong arms wrap around your waist. Raian’s forehead was in the crook of your neck and shoulder. Your heart leaped at the affection. This.... was very very very rare. Raian barely ever reciprocated your affection, let anyone be the first to act. Your breath catches in your throat. You know he’ll never say the words out loud, but this was enough comfort. Raian sunk his teeth lightly into your skin. It didn’t hurt, but it was enough to leave a small mark. He pulled away from you then. Maybe he was feeling sheepish. “Come on! We don’t want to keep those fuckers waiting.” He snarls over his shoulder. You miss the feeling of his warm arms around you, but it was enough to leave a smile on your face. You followed behind him.

The journey to Kure village was mostly silent, apart from Raian complaining a little here and there. Stepping into the village was nerve wracking. So many people with black scleras, you knew the majority were assassin. Some of them gave glances to Raian. He seemed bored- almost like he didn’t want to be here. “Raian?” You look at him. “What?” He replies not even looking your way. “Can I hold your hand?” You ask in your sweetest voice. “Fuck no.” His reply was a little quicker than you’d like it to be. “Come on Please.” You bat your eyelashes. “Fuck. No.” “Pleaseeee Raian.” You beg sweetly again. He growls under his breath. “Fuck no. I don’t want the fuckers thinking I’ve gone soft to something.” His nose curls at the thought “I’ll make it up to you later~” you purr. His ears perk up a little. His lips twitch into a Frown. “Fuck. Only for a little bit.” He agrees begrudgingly. He takes your hand roughly into his. You’ve got a goofy grin on your face and Raian is feeling completely and utterly embarrassed and slightly humiliated. Unbeknownst to you.... deep down in Raian’s heart he feels warmth. If eyes weren’t on you already they definitely were now. It made you even more nervous. Everywhere you looked black eyes were stuck on you, People whispered amongst themselves. You’re anxious now. You tried to catch whispers and the mutterings but you weren’t able to. “Hey! Bro!!” You heard from behind you. You spin around to see a young woman running towards you. “I heard you arrived! I’ve been looking all over for you!” She chuckles and catches her breath. She’s a petite you’ll girl with short black hair. she looks straight at you. “You! You must be Y/N!” Her face beams. “Oh! Yes-“ you’re cut off by the woman bear hugging you. You gasp and awkwardly return the hug. She takes your hands in hers. “You have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to meeting you!” She says with a smile. “I’m Fusui! I’m Raian’s sister!” She beams. You knew Raian had a sister, he’s talked (complained) about her before. Now here she was standing before you. “I’ll walk with you guys to Erioh!” She says with a smile. You intertwine your fingers with his again. Raian clicks his tongue. Fusui had a gleam in her eyes watching the two of you. Fusui struck up a conversation with you while you walked. She was kind, and genuinely excited to be talking to you. The three of you walked past a building. There more people called for your attention. You looked to see three strong looking men. They introduced themselves politely, Hollis, reiichi, and Horio. You noticed there was a stark difference between Raian and the other Kure members. They were polite and quite kind to you. Most of them were actually excited to meet you. After a brief conversation with the three men you decided to make your way to the main building. Erioh was there- the head of the Kure clan. You were the most nervous to meet him.

Heading into the palace-like building your heart started skipping beats. Raian and Fusui lead you through the building to the room where the head of the Kure was. He was sitting at a table alone with tea. He looked up at you from his teacup. “Hello, you must be Y/N.” He spoke calmly, with a small kind smile. You nodded. “It’s very night to meet you.” You reply. Erioh motions you to sit next to him. You and Fusui join him at the table. Raian goes and sits on the far side of the room, away from the conversation. Erioh pours a cup of tea for you and Fusui. “What do you do for work, Y/N?” He begins. He asks you question after question, about your family, hobbies, even your political beliefs. You can’t help but feel as though you’re being interrogated, the only thing that helped was Fusui lightening the mood with her quips. You were nervous, but answered truthfully. You hoped your answers would suffice. You heard the door open behind you. “Hi grandpa!” A young girl walked in. “Oh hello Karla my dear!” He says. His mood significantly changes. She sits down at an empty space next to you. “Karla this is Y/N, they are Raian’s mate... his remarkably better half!” Fusui jokes. Karla’s attention turns to you. “Oh wow! So when are you guys getting married!!” She says beaming. You nearly choke. Raian does as well behind you. “How many babies are you gonna make?” She radiates with wonder. “Now now Karla, those may not be questions Y/N wants to give to a stranger.” Erioh chuckles. You laugh awkwardly, not knowing what to say. You downed the rest of your teacup. Then you felt a presence behind you. “I’m tired as fuck of this. We’re going home.” Raian said gruffly. Fusui sighed and stood with you. “It was very nice meeting you, Y/N. I hope to see you again soon.” Erioh says with a tender smile. “Bye bye Y/N!” Karla says waving. Fusui walks out with you but Raian hesitates a moment. He knew Erioh had something to say. “You’ve found a good one... don’t lose them.” Erioh says as Raian huffs and walks away. “Shut the fuck up gramps.” Raian growls, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Fusui walks with you out of Kure village. The two of you laugh together, you’ve felt a bond grow between you two. You end up exchanging numbers. You hugged her again goodbye, promising to call. Then you and Raian left. The journey back was once again quiet. But you felt an overwhelming feeling of relief. Raian’s family had welcomed you. They too, we’re finally relieved to meet the only person who was able to tame the devil himself. Your name will go down in Kure history.

#kure raian

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incarnateirony · 4 years

Note

So if deancaswedding is the blue hump and theirlovewasreal is the pink hump, what is the little green hump? (Also, when u said Neilson accounts 1 for 1000, do u mean 1000 tweets =1 person in the metrics or every 1 tweet is counted as 1000 ppl?)

That was Charmed.

No, 1000 to 1 means that Nielsen generally takes a tweet as worth 1000 viewers, it’s the super streamlined version of it.

Think of it like this, last Thursday by the end of the night, Walker had like 16.7K tweets or something once they all trickled in within hours. Walker had about 1.7Million viewers. 16.7K x 1000 = about 1.7M give or take.

It’s a rough art, not an absolute law or anything. But you’ll find it generally translates pretty well, because in a way it also ends up being their online advertising too for more viewership. *jazz hands*

So by standard of about 50K tweets x 1000 you’ve got about 50 million. Which... actually isn’t ridiculous, because SPN has dozens of millions of digital calls. I mean they’ve lost some of those millions since the finale (general reminder to stop streaming any CW show on any official/paid platform, including Netflix, CW, Amazon etc)

Reminder to continue to kick CW in the ass like that. You guys just saw your impact. You know what your reach was?

Twitter has about 30M accounts. Literally like 1/4 of all twitter saw that. 1/4 of the social media world had it in their eyes. AND FRANKLY MOST ACCOUNTS ARE IDLE, THERE’S ABOUT 8 MILLION ACTIVE ONES

Imagine if you guys found a way to get together--like we were trying, before bloggers with agendas tried to make everyone scatter by spreading profuse lies about smaller bloggers making efforts--and use that reach to let that many people know they should stop streaming on the CW/Netflix/Etc with a coordinated message? Imagine if you got half the social media world to drop it on its ass? More than already did?

Mind you SPN was considered at 77x franchiseability/trend/watch level compared to the average TV show (GOT was like 227 or some shit for an idea). Now SPN is down to 34x. Still high? Sure. Also dropped in half basically. Or more realistically lost about a third of its digital watching overall.

Get all their content hit like that. Don’t let it go back up. Coordinate with every GC and server you have and continue to kick them in the pants.

Also right now even if your friends won’t be in for the PERMANENT boycott haul, at least get them to immediately drop all watches in February, then in May, live or stream both. Just... convince them. They can catch up a month later. It’s a sweeps thing.

And it’s why the CW is gonna be in some shit because they weren’t expecting Walker to be clocking a low 0.21 THIS soon. It’s all they have until the end of February where they set up their big premieres for one day. Walker’s performance is their “highest” to try to cling on to 0.21 during sweeps to sell their ad space with everything else like 0.12-0.19. It’s why Jared’s also been popping on to livetweet--the digital side of sweeps.

What y’all just did was took one giant titanic shit all over their star product’s value level and that’s why they’re salty and spamming inboxes.

I’ve said it before--the only group I haven’t been able to vertically scale meaningful impact into the GA are the wincel-brand bronlies. The only time my SPN ratings were off was when I tried to vertically integrate their impact/protest of tombstone into the audience the same way as everyone else was integrated for influence/ad response/impact and guess what--I under-speculated Tombstone by about 0.04 points, which was the value I had given them by scaling up (as opposed to something like a realistic 0.01 impact lol-- less really.)

You can, for example, scale them up into the current Walker show-- but you can only scale up the interest as “Jared invested fans watching for Jared, mostly women, mostly 35-49”, and generally not “rolls themselves up in tinfoil and lives in spn_goss spreading conspiracies and hates Misha Collins and Destiel”. So sure. They’re probably, in that essence, giving Walker about 0.04. That’s a 0.04 they’ll probably never lose for that reason. But they have to worry about like 0.28 other points in the 25-54 age demographic, or the 18-34 just bottoming out (it’s already down to 0.09, even with the two dem overlaps).

Those same numbers made them furious because I pointed out at that time, Cas himself gave a 0.03 boost and Destiel advertisement per episode gave an extra 0.03 boost, based not only episode to episode but season averages--I ran charts based on it and completely removed special episodes like Scoobynatural so they couldn’t cry that was the reason.

The same people calling you a minority or wtfever are the same dipshits that episodes bounce UP every time they boycott because they can’t even make a dip. There’s like like 400-- 200 of them that are casual level antis, 150 strongly opinionated but really just still vaguely out there, and like 40-50 core noisemakers.

There are literally. Millions. of Destiel fans in the GA. This idea of a monolithic, completely DeanCas blind GA that hates all’y’all? Completely made up. Certain people just profit off of keeping the myth alive: antis that want you to have to take them or their arguments seriously; blogs that want you to argue for certain points or had certain demands they wanted to feed you to “convince” the GA of anything. Like sure there’s homophobes in the world but they won’t just stop being assholes at a magic landmark I promise, if events haven’t proven that yet. But every single census has put y’all in the majority, ratings scaling has put y’all in the majority, the fact that you can trend things at the drop of a hat WITHOUT official support keeps you in the majority (when’s the last national trend you saw for J2-Only fuckbuckets that didn’t involve something like Walker livetweeting for Walker to push up numbers? That’s right, never.)

If I had a ring of infinite wishing, I’d wish everyone looked critically at this information and then had an awakening that this underdog idea of Destiel Vision magically stopping in fandom spaces when MOST OF YOU CAME INTO FANDOM SPACES BECAUSE YOU SAW DESTIEL IN THE SHOW, and this GA that unilaterally hates you-- like

Guys-- what do you think it means that even with a bunch of Destiel fans still streaming or rewatching, that even with all of that, SPN has dropped viewing/streaming tiers and lost more than half its franchiseability rating since that ending? Really?

Again: now imagine if you convinced all your friends to do the same, spread the same, trend the same.

Nuke the CW. All their shows.

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olivinesea · 4 years

Text

Off Souls, pt. 6

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

a/n: We made it! This is the first time I’ve ever tried to write anything with a storyline and I’m a little surprised it worked out tbh. If you enjoyed this at all you can thank @whump-town for patiently answering my 1000 questions. Thanks for letting me hurt you, buddies. Til next time! ✌🏼 ~4.9k

Plots and schemes.

Emily found him laying on top of his bed, staring at the ceiling, arms folded behind his head. He had showered as soon as he made it back into his dorm, turning the water as hot as it would go, attempting to burn away every part of the last few days. As he turned his face into the spray the water stung his cheek, split from his father's ring. He closed his eyes tightly and refused to cry. It was really a small price to pay to be back out in the world.

He dressed in sweats, thinking he was going to fall asleep from exhaustion, only to find himself studying the ceiling tiles. He had been trying to count the little holes and finding them frustratingly uneven. It was making him angry, an emotion he hadn’t felt since he took out all his rage in an unfair fight. During the endless thinking time of the last few days, he had concluded that the fight was, in fact, unfair. Kaden might have been a monster but he wasn’t really any better. Kaden had taken advantage of Emily because she was smaller, weaker and Hotch had done the same in turn. It was what his father did. The thought made his muscles tense and he jumped when Emily put a hand on his arm.

“Woah, sorry!” she said backing up, hands held in front of her.

He watched her from his new position, back pressed against the wall, knees pulled into his chest. She ran into the bed behind her and sat down, dropping her hands to twist nervously in her lap. His shoulders relaxed, though his face was still white.

“I knocked,” she said. “Sort of.” She picked at a thread in the fabric of the bedspread. “I definitely said your name.”

“It’s okay,” he finally found his voice. It was still rough after days of mostly silence.

She tilted her head and squinted. “What happened to your face?”

He covered the cut with his hand, as if that would somehow make the mark disappear. “I was in a fight, you may remember,” he muttered sullenly.

Emily was skeptical but she let it slide. She needed information. He was reluctant to go into detail but told her things were serious.

“But they let you out,” Emily protested.

Hotch sighed. “They’re still pressing charges. I’m just out until my hearing. Which probably won’t go well. There’s a lot of evidence against me.”

“That’s stupid.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “I messed up, Em. These are the consequences. It’s no more than what I deserve.”

She decided not to argue this point again. She could only repeat herself to a brick wall so many times before she started to question her own sanity. There had to be some way out of this. She refused to believe that out of the three people involved in this situation, Hotch was the one getting in trouble. At least let it be her. She had been the one who started this unfortunate cascade of dominoes.

“Can’t your dad help? Isn’t he like some important lawyer?”

Hotch looked upset again, avoiding her eyes, but then shrugged, “Probably.”

She raised her eyebrows, wanting more details. He ignored her.

“He said it would be easy.”

Hotch looked at her sharply. “What do you mean?”

Emily faltered. “When I called him, he said it would be easy to get you off because the other guy sounded like a moron.”

“When you what?”

It was her turn to avoid his eyes. She thought maybe his dad would have filled Hotch in on the details of how he’d known to be there. Apparently not.

“Emily. You called my father? To tell him I was in jail? For assaulting someone?” He began to sound hysterical.

She nodded, concerned by his reaction. “I didn’t know what else to do. Are you mad?”

He covered his face with both hands. He wasn’t sure how he hadn’t put that together. It would have been ridiculous to think his parents might have found out about his situation on their own. He just thought maybe the school had contacted them. No, he was not happy about being put in this position with his father but he wouldn’t let himself be mad at Emily. She didn’t know what this meant; how asking for a favor was unthinkable even before he found out his father was dying.

“Look,” he sighed, “just stay away from my dad. He’s not…he’s not a nice person.”

She frowned, “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, no it’s just—” he struggled to find the right words. “It’s going to be okay.”

Neither of them seemed convinced. He almost wanted to ask her to leave. There were far too many emotions tangled inside him and he worried he might say something he regretted. While he debated with himself, she cautiously moved over to sit next to him, tucking her legs beneath her and leaning against his shoulder. The pressure was comforting and he decided against sending her away. She slipped her hand into his and he closed his eyes.

“It’s going to be okay,” he repeated and it sounded a little better this time.

In the morning he met with father again. He took him to a coffee cart on campus. Public, he’d learned, was always better. Immediately Hotch noticed little things about his dad’s appearance he had overlooked the day before. How red his eyes were, the tiny blood vessels burst from too much coughing. The way his skull seemed unnaturally large for his body, even with the padding of a suit, something was visibly off. His father filled him in on his talks with the school. How he had convinced the disciplinary board to wait on results of the legal proceedings, the consequences to his school standing to be determined based on the outcome of that investigation. He barely paid attention, so mesmerized by the surreal feeling of sitting on a bench drinking coffee with his father.

Other than at the dinner table, which held its own dangers, he didn’t think there was ever a time he was sitting down with the man. He could remember being the one sitting, being towered over as he struggled to do his homework, numbers and letters swimming hopelessly on the page. He would try so hard not to cry because that always made it worse, the tears warping the shapes even more. He could also remember being the one standing. Shivering on the porch, banished for some long forgotten transgression, watching through the window as the rest of his family gathered in the living room. They always looked so perfect through the window, he could never blame them for the way he was treated. He brought it on himself and didn’t deserve to be a part of anything warm and good.

“Luckily, it appears that the person you attacked is an even bigger idiot than you.”

This new statement brought him out of his memories. He ignored the insult and tried to remain patient as he waited for his father to share whatever information he’d uncovered.

“It seems that Kaden Willits has two DUIs on his record already, not even twenty-one yet. He is currently on probation. I think that if we can press him in the right way, he will crawl back into his hole.” His father looked altogether too satisfied with himself.

Hotch felt the back of his neck start to itch. He rubbed it. “How are we going to do that?”

“Stop fidgeting. I think it’s perfectly obvious. We’ll send that friend of yours with a message. He can drop the charges or he will find himself facing some unpleasant realities.”

Hotch tightened his grip on his coffee cup, risking crushing it entirely. “I don’t want to involve her.”

“It doesn’t really matter what you want, does it?”

Hotch hung his head. Of course it didn’t, but he couldn’t let Emily be dragged into this. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his father’s hand move and flinched, hating how quickly he had fallen back into this role. But his father was only pulling a notepad and pen out of his jacket.

“Write her number down, I will call her later,” he sounded businesslike and cold.

Hotch didn’t move. He weighed his options. He could refuse. His father could probably find another way. It wouldn’t be good for him, he was sure, but if it kept Emily far away from his dad it would be worth it.

The notepad was pushed right under his nose. “Do it. Now.” There was a familiar warning edge to the words. Numerous unspecified threats threaded into a few syllables. Don’t make a scene, or else.

But Hotch wasn’t willing to give this one up. What, really, could the man do to him that he hadn’t already? He stood up, straightening the cuffs of his sweater, the coffee forgotten on the bench. He met his father’s astonished look as steadily as he could. “No.”

His father got up quickly, placing a hand on the back of the bench to offset the dizziness of the sudden movement. “What did you—“

“Find a different way.” He turned away, the fear was beginning to escape and he needed to leave before he lost his resolve. A hand gripped his forearm tightly. He turned back, looking slowly from the hand restraining him into his father’s face. He was so furious, Hotch wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t just strike him there in the middle of campus. He almost gave in, like he had hundreds of times before. Maybe I can try, maybe it will be different this time. Then he thought of Emily, disoriented at his door in the middle of the night, how he turned her away, how he failed her then and how he couldn't let it happen again. With a final surge of courage, he pulled his arm free and walked away.

He had made her promise to stay out of it, to leave this to him. In turn, he promised to cooperate with his dad, to do what he could to get out of this since (she insisted) he didn’t deserve it. She meant to stick to her promise. But she also couldn’t resist the urge to learn more about Hotch and his dad. The little glimpses weren’t enough and Emily’s curiosity got the better of her.

When he informed her he was meeting his dad that morning, that she should go to breakfast without him, she accepted without argument. She couldn’t help that he was leaving the building just in front of her, nor that he was too focused to notice her following a little ways behind. Her curiosity only grew as she watched them greet each other frostily. She didn’t like the way Hotch seemed to shrink into himself, barely looking up from the ground as they walked.

When they stopped, she stopped, finding a ledge to sit on where she would be out of Hotch’s line of sight. She was jealous of the coffee they bought and shifted a little, considering if she could make it through the ordering process at the cart without Hotch noticing. She watched them talk, or mostly it seemed like his dad spoke and he listened. She wished she could hear but she knew how unhappy Hotch would be to discover her lurking.

So she waited, studying how so many of Hotch’s mannerisms were mirrored in his father. Or, rather, it was the other way around. She was deep into her meditation on this phenomenon when Hotch suddenly stood up. She scrambled up too, looking for somewhere to hide, afraid he would catch her spying. There was a building behind her and she ran up the steps to dip into the shadows of the doorway. She got there just in time to watch Hotch walk away as his father looked on. Neither one looked pleased and she wanted to know what she had missed. They were supposed to be discussing strategies and this did not look like a good sign.

She waited for Hotch to get a little farther away, far enough that he wasn’t likely to double back. Then she did something she knew she shouldn’t. She just couldn’t help it. She approached his father, now sitting heavily on the bench again, pinching the bridge of his nose like Hotch did when he had a headache or he was deeply irritated. She shook off the eerie feeling of familiarity.

“Excuse me?” she tried not to sound too tentative.

“What?” he snapped at her.

“Hi, I’m Emily.” She held out her hand awkwardly, trying to seem braver than she felt. When he didn’t react she added, “I called you. About Aaron.” She barely remembered to use his given name.

He smiled at her and it was frightening. She could imagine Hotch in twenty years, if life took away all his laughter and kindness, this was what he would look like. She was still too young to think about the future in anything but abstracts but she prayed that wouldn’t be the way things turned out.

“I was hoping to speak to you, Ms.—“ he paused, clearly expecting her to provide this forgotten detail.

“Prentiss.” She was distracted by the coldness of his hand as he shook hers. She inspected it to make sure it was really skin she touched.

“Yes, of course. Well, I was going to call you later but since you are here now,” he gestured that she should sit down in the unoccupied space. She was wary of him but accepted. She was interested to find out why he wanted to talk to her and badly wanted to help if she could.

He frowned as he looks her over, clearly unimpressed with her casual appearance. All exposed knees and elbows, bitten fingernails and a messy bun. He was not surprised this was a person who would get his son into trouble, nor was he surprised at his son’s poor taste. It was too late to undo that now, but he believed he could make use of her. Her weaknesses were obvious and he had no hesitations about manipulating them to get what he wanted.

“You got my son arrested,” his tone was not outwardly hostile but her throat closed at the accusation. She shook her head.

“No? Isn’t that what you told me? That this is your fault?” The questions almost sounded friendly.

“No!” she said hastily. “I mean it is my fault, kind of. He was just looking out for me and things got…carried away.” That was the most generous description of what happened that she could think of.

“Why would he need to attack someone to ‘look out’ for you?”

She swallowed, feeling as if she had stepped into a trap. She had been as vague as she could on the phone, only giving the most general details of how Hotch had ended up knocking someone out. Mr. Hotchner stared at her, his patience edged with a clear expectation that his questions were answered.

“Well, the other guy, Kaden, he did something. To me. He hurt me.”

“This is when Aaron attacked him?”

She shook her head again. “No, it was awhile ago.”

“That is not protection, that is revenge. I’m not sure I will be able to argue he was defending you if it wasn’t an immediate threat.” He allowed himself to sound a little worried and was pleased to see her start to chew on a fingernail. The habit disgusted him but it was such an easy indication of how a person was feeling. He wanted her feeling guilty, vulnerable to the request he planned to make.

“But it was really bad. The thing that he did.” She didn’t want to say it, hoped he wouldn’t make her spell it out.

“How bad can it be? You seem fine. My son is fine. The only person actually hurt here is Mr. Willits.” He watched her crumble.

“He’s the guilty one, he’s the one who should be in jail,” she insisted. She couldn’t understand why she was having to convince Hotch’s father. Surely he knew his own son would never hurt someone else without a good reason.

“What is he guilty of? You’re going to need to be more specific if you want to help Aaron out of this.”

She leaned forward and gripped the edge of the bench with both hands, digging her nails into the weathered slats. She did want to help, she’d do anything to help. She gritted her teeth. “He raped me.”

“And you have proof?”

She looked up at him, startled. He looked back at her evenly.

“Generally, you need proof to successfully back up a claim like that. Eyewitnesses, medical records, police reports.” He sounded almost bored but inside he was enjoying twisting the knife. He knew there wasn’t any proof. What a stupid girl. He was somehow even more disappointed in his son now.

“No,” she whispered. “There’s nothing like that.”

He frowned sternly, seeming to review the facts. “This does not look good for Aaron I’m afraid. Even if you were to testify that Mr. Willits attacked you—where did this happen?”

“At a party,” she sounded miserable.

He raised his eyebrows and continued, “That he attacked you at a party, awhile ago. I don’t know that would even help at all.”

“Please! There has to be something you could do?” She was still hopeful that this man, unkind as he was turning out to be, would be able to fix this.

He shook his head sadly, “No, I’m not sure there is.” He paused, watching her shoulders slump, her foot swinging beneath her like an unmannered child. “Unless…”

She looked at him again, eyes bright. He had her exactly where he wanted her.

“Well, if Mr. Willits were to drop the charges, it is unlikely the case would continue. Prosecutors don’t usually waste their time on college fights.”

“Why would he do that?” she asked, puzzled.

“While you do not have any proof to back up your allegations, the man is no saint. I believe if you were to go remind him of his precarious position he would fold rather quickly.”

His words stung but she grabbed onto the little bit of hope he dangled. “What if he doesn’t listen to me?”

“I have something prepared for that scenario as well. When you go speak with him, you’ll need to take this with you,” he pulled two vials of clear liquid out of his pocket. “You’ll need to find somewhere discreet to place them before you leave.”

She stared at the vials, unable to process what he was asking her to do. He pressed them into her hand. She automatically closed her fingers around them, the glass warming in her palm.

“What…what is it?”

“I wonder you don’t recognize it. It’s GHB. Maybe you should study it for your future reference.” He was no longer pretending to be friendly. He knew she would do this, really he’d known since he’d heard the panic in her voice when he first threatened to hang up on her. Now he had put the plan in motion, all he had to do was wait.

Emily felt hollow, knowing she has been tricked somehow and knowing she couldn’t back out. She wanted to get away from this evil pretending to be a father but she couldn’t move. All she could do was stare at her closed fist, feeling as if its contents are burning far hotter than the heat they derived from her body.

Mr. Hotchner stood up, buttoning his suit jacket. “Good day, Ms. Prentiss. Make sure you take care of that soon, there’s no time to waste.” He walked away, congratulating himself.

She was nervous. More than nervous, she was terrified. She considered having a drink. Nothing excessive, just enough so that her hands stopped shaking, enough that she could see through the buzzing around her eyes. She wrapped her hand around the two damning objects in her pocket. She had kept them in there since Mr. Hotchner gave them to her. Too afraid to let them out of her sight but looking at them doesn’t make her feel any better. She feared she would break them.

She studied herself in the mirror, searching for strength. It was now or never. She had been avoiding Hotch since she got back to the dorm and he was going to notice soon. She didn’t think she could hide the fact that she’d spoken with his dad and she knew he wouldn’t let her do what she needed to do. He wouldn’t understand that she didn’t have a choice. If there were other ways out of this, she’d missed them all and now this was the only path. She could do it. She could be strong.

Fuck it, she dug around in her desk drawer until she came up with a tiny bottle of bourbon, the kind passed out on airplanes. She drank it quickly, ignoring the burn in favor of the sweet weight that settled around her shoulders, smothering the buzzing of her nerves. Not giving herself time to think, she headed out, running down the stairs rather than pause to wait for the elevator. She found that once she had some momentum, it was easier to ignore all the doubts, to see only the clarity of the plan.

As she got closer, the fear tried to creep back, slowing her steps. She clenched her fists and pushed forward. There were people hanging around the front, not quite a party though they were trending towards one. Only a couple more beers and they could very easily be persuaded into transitioning to something louder, rowdier. She didn’t see him among these porch dwellers and they barely noticed as she slipped in the front door.

Inside was more of the same, though the place was cleaner than the other times she’d been here. Apparently someone did clear out the empty cups and cans at some point between evenings. He was also not in here, a fact that was simultaneously helpful and worrying. She’d need to get to his room to plant the drugs but that was absolutely the last place she wanted to be, alone, with him. She climbed the stairs of the courtyard, repeating to herself the lines she’d come up with. Though the doors were identical, she remembered exactly which one was his. It was partially open. Perhaps he wasn’t even home, maybe she could just do what she needed to and leave. Forget the threats and skip to getting him in trouble. No such luck. She could see his back from the doorway, sitting at his desk, bent over some work. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open all the way. He turned when he heard her, his face ugly and swollen.

“What the hell do you want?”

She couldn’t speak, all the fear and the shock overtaking her.

He laughed sourly. “You like?” He waved at the black and purple bruising as he swiveled his chair to face her straight on. “Your friend is going to fucking regret it when he finds out how popular he is in prison.”

The mention of Hotch was all she needed to spark her to action. “Listen, asshole,” she spoke louder than she meant to, rage ignited and curling upwards through her chest. “You are going to drop the charges and leave us the fuck alone.”

He was too shocked to react for a second then he really started laughing. So much so that he was out of breath. She stomped her foot, which she knew was petulant but she wanted his attention, wanted him to hear exactly what she had to say.

“You’re insane,” he said.

“I’m not. You will, or else.”

Suddenly he was up, standing close to her. “Or else what?” His voice was low, his hand wrapped around the back of her neck. Then, just as quickly, he was bent over, gasping for breath. She had punched him with all her weight, just below the sternum.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” she hissed.

He looked up at her from his half standing position, somehow still smirking. She wanted to rip his face off.

“Okay, I’ll play. What’s the ‘or else’?” he said once he caught his breath.

“You are on probation,” she said calmly, walking further into the room, taking advantage of the space created when she’d hit him. She kept herself between him and the door.

“Yes?” He was suspicious, this was not common information. His parents had paid a lot of money to make that trouble go away, though after the second DUI they couldn’t quite pay to get rid of it entirely.

“If you don’t drop the charges, your probation officer is going to hear some stories about what you’ve been up to recently.” She spoke slowly as she ran her fingers across the desktop.

Fully recovered now, he snorted and folded his arms across his chest. “What, you think they care what slutty college girls have to say?”

She stopped her idle tour of his room and looked at him. She shrugged a shoulder. “They might.”

He shook his head. “No one is going to believe you. No one.”

“Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.” She turned to walk back to the door, hands in her pockets. “But, you want to know what I know?”

“Please, I’m dying to hear it.” He was sarcastic but, though he would never admit it, this had him a little worried. Her calm was unnerving, the shift in power inexplicable but impossible to ignore.

She stopped at the doorway, her glare a knife that carved straight through him, “If you did it to me, you’ve done it to others. Once people start asking questions, it’s only a matter of time before they find something on you. You’re not as smart as you think you are.”

She forced herself not to run down the stairs, not to look like she was fleeing the scene of a crime. The adrenaline spiked in her chest as she walked out the front door. She couldn’t stop from smiling, a ferocious expression that would have caused anyone who saw it to be concerned.

On Thursday Emily dragged Hotch outside. She told him he’d been scowling at the wall so much the paint was going to start peeling. That there was no point in sitting inside worrying. That he should just trust his dad to take care of it. The look he gave her when she said that would have stripped an entire house-worth of paint. She pointedly ignored it and pulled his hand until he reluctantly got out of bed and put on his shoes. She chattered to him about what she wanted to eat. He wasn’t really listening, assuming she would lead them wherever it was she wanted to go. He felt his phone ringing and pulled it out. He froze when he saw his father’s name flashing. They hadn’t talked since he rejected the man’s horrible plan. He almost convinced himself that his dad had changed his mind about helping and left him to fend for himself. Emily, who hadn't noticed that he stopped at first, looked behind her and saw his distressed expression.

“Who is it?”

“My father,” he replied dully. He didn’t know if he should answer. It might be safer to let him take it out on his voicemail, to listen to whatever horrible things he had to say with a buffer.

“Maybe he’s heard something?” she said encouragingly.

He made a noise of half-hearted agreement and pressed his lips together before answering.

“They’ve dropped the charges,” his father didn’t even wait for a greeting.

“Oh,” Hotch wasn’t sure he could believe it. “How did you…” he trailed off, not sure he actually wanted the answer to that question.

“You are welcome,” he said, dismissing the partial question.

Hotch stumbled to thank him, apologizing at the same time. He didn’t know how to feel, what to say.

“Never, ever call me for something like this again,” he continued severely. Hotch started to promise that he wouldn’t before he got cut off. “I will disown you rather than be involved in your delinquency.”

Hotch was silent.

“Do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir.”

The line went dead without any further exchange. He looked at Emily who was watching him closely. The show of breezy unconcern she had been putting on earlier dropped completely. Her dark eyes were intense and questioning.

“They dropped the charges?” It came out as a question, he was still so surprised.

She shrieked as she rushed at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his chest. He barely registered it through the shock. They stood there, blocking the path, letting the news sink in. He slowly allowed himself to believe what he’d just been told: that things were going to be ok, things can be good again. She peeled away from him, talking about celebrating and towing him along by the hand. As they passed a trashcan she pulled something from her pocket and tossed it in without breaking their stride. She squeezed his hand and he looked down at her, a big dumb smile on his face.

#Criminal Minds #emily prentiss #aaron hotchner #college hotchniss #cm fanfiction

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