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savebatsartedition · 2 months

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Happy Birthday Hiccup Horrendous Hadock the Third!

I've never really had a chance to celebrate this little guy's birthday, so I went ALL out! (Are you kidding me? 10 year anniversary year of How to Train Your Dragon 2, year of the dragon, AND a leap year?? There was no way I was missing it.)

So, as a little gift I made two things for him! :D

How to Throw a Birthday Party - A short oneshot set after the ending of the final book in the series. (Under the cut or in the link right there. 2,088 words.)

PISTA TOMA - Httyd books meme - I've been wanting to make one of these memes for a while, and I have had no luck in figuring out characters to make it with, so if the above fluff fic didn't suite you, enjoy a little bit of vague angst. ...in animation meme form. (Youtube video below, but if you want to see the scratch version, possibly to remix, the link to that will be in the description.)

youtube

Notes: If there are any canon inconsistencies, it’s because I haven’t read one of these books in a little under a year lol.

I did try to write it like it was really a How To Train Your Dragon book though. :3 It’s really fun to try to do haha.

Hiccup yawned and stretched in his bed, feeling the Woodensfang and Toothless' warm wings flicker against his side as the little green dragon grumbled something half asleep about the mean master waking him up. Light gently glowed from the doorway into the main room in the hut, and for a moment Hiccup felt quite like going right back to sleep.

He rolled back into his pillow, planting his face right down in the soft fabric and feathers and hissing out another yawn in a failed effort to suppress it. At his side Toothless also hissed, and as Hiccup did his best to get back to sleep (in his tiredness, he was entirely unaware of how much his movements were disturbing Toothless), the little dragon’s bright green eyes snapped open to stare angrily at the back of Hiccup's head.

“ Mean Hiccup! ” Toothless all but yelled, causing Hiccup to jump up in alarm as if he had been shot, “ T-t-Toothless was JUST getting to bed! ”

Hiccup nearly fell backwards out of the bed as Toothless headbutted him in the shoulder, his little gossamer wings flickering in the dark morning air as wisps of smoke rose from his toothless mouth.

Holding his shoulder, Hiccup regained his balance and began to apologize to Toothless. It seemed that even after achieving relative peace after the Dragon Rebelion, there wasn't much he could do about Toothless' attitude.

Hiccup chuckled and swung his feet over the edge of the bed, fumbling for his helmet (just a regular old Hooligan helmet, that pretentious bloodstained crown would never again touch his fiery hair if he could do anything to help it) before placing the familiar weight on his head.

As Hiccup adjusted the helmet in the reflections on a shield that had apparently been put in his room with him, Toothless flapped up onto his shoulder, seeming to have forgotten all about being tired as the distant scent of breakfast reached his little warty nose.

“ W-w-ill Toothless get some of that fish downstairs? ” Toothless asked, starting directly into Hiccup's eyes even as Hiccup focused on his reflection, “ T-toothless KNOWS there's food downstairs ,” he placed a claw over his heart, “ Toothless can s-s- SMELL it, ”

Hiccup laughed and finished readjusting his helmet. (It was surprisingly difficult to get it to intentionally miss covering his dragon mark.) “ Yes Toothless, ” he said in dragonese, which was the language dragons and hopefully humans spoke to each other in, “ I'm sure you can have the fish, ”

Toothless whooped in joy and jumped into the air, turning a little summersault before landing on Hiccup's helmet. (Which very quickly titled out of the position the boy king had so carefully put it in.) Hiccup sighed and reached up to pet the small dragon. Things had gone back to normal so easily, it was almost as if they had never even changed in the first place.

“ T-toothless is the best lost thing, after all, ” Toothless all but crowed, turning circles on Hiccup's helmet as he headed out of the bedroom and into the main room of the makeshift hut the vikings had set up. (Though he was sure to grab his sword along the way, just in case. Vikings worked fast, as the hut proved, and even if they were in a state of peace, he had no proof they would stay that way for very long, no matter how much he wanted them too.)

“ Yes Toothless, ” Hiccup replied back absentmindedly, skirting around the sleeping forms of his mother and father and past the empty rolls where he knew some other Viking royalty had been put to sleep, “ Yes you were, ”

He hadn't thought about it when he was in his room, but he was pretty sure that Fishlegs and Camicazi had been missing from their own blankets when he had woken up.

Quietly he slid open the front door, careful to shush Toothless until it was closed again in case he started yelling again. (He had seen his mother twist in her sleep when Toothless had last crowed.)

“ Do you think Toothless will get to have c-cod?! ” Toothless asked excitedly, “ T-toothless is in the mood for cod! ”

“ Does it smell like cod? ” Hiccup asked him, reaching up to pick up the little dragon (and also to fix his helmet, again), " If it smells like cod you can probably have cod, ”

"Or tuna," Toothless said thoughtfully, "Toothless ALSO in the mood for tuna..."

It was a shockingly warm day out for the season, but Hiccup still shivered as a chilly ocean breeze flew past him. Toothless didn't seem to mind it so much, but he didn't argue as Hiccup placed him back on the soft fur of the vest over his shoulder.

Hiccup followed the scent as Toothless struggled to place it, though he was also somewhat unsure of what it could be, he was hungry. Maybe it wasn't smart to be walking around camp as a newly crowned King of the Wilderwest all by his lonesome, especially when he was still fairly bruised, but he didn't care. He was hungry, and he was still tired, and maybe he wasn't thinking quite straight.

He turned a corner between the tents, and suddenly the source of the smell was within his reach.

A campfire, with a large pot presumably containing many kinds of fish hung over it, sat at the center of a small clearing in the tents and huts, but that wasn't even why his heart suddenly glowed.

“Fishlegs!” he called, waving to his friend as Toothless crowed and leapt off his shoulder, aiming straight for a pile of delicious fat fish that had not yet been added to the stew, “Camicazi!”

His two friends waved back at him, grinning wide grins, but they weren't the only ones around the campfire.

“We were going to invite your parents,” Camicazi told him, elbowing him in the side good-naturedly, her mood dragon Stormfly winding around her legs like a very long, very purple cat as she wished Hiccup a good morning, “But they were dead asleep and we didn't want to wake them,”

”Hey Hiccup!“ Fishlegs grinned at him, though he looked somewhat ill (which Hiccup guessed probably stemmed from the fact that a very sleepy looking Barbra the Barbarian was sitting and chatting with some of Camicazi's Bog Burglar friends.) ”Good morning for fish, right?“

Hiccup shrugged and smiled. (Though he certainly agreed with Fishlegs, he didn't want to insult the shivering shape of his friend's vegetarian hunting dragon Horrorcow, who had once again found her place as a large lump under Fishlegs’ vest.) ”Good morning to see you guys!“

”Hiccup!“ called a voice that Hiccup recognized as Thuggory the Meathead, ”Are you gonna ask Toothless to wait until everything is done cooking or are we starting right away?!“

Hiccup turned to see the tall Viking Heir struggling with Toothless, who was eating a humongous tuna that Thuggory seemed to have been right about to dump into the stew.

”Oh Toothless!“ Hiccup called, racing over to his snickering friend and taking him (complete with the fish larger than he was) into his arms, ” Don't you want to wait until all the cooking has been done? “ He said, continuing in Dragonese.

Toothless giggled and continued chowing down. Clearly he preferred the taste of nice raw fish. (Hiccup couldn't say he agreed, but he was glad that Toothless seemed to be subdued for a second or two.)

Hiccup placed the tuna and dragon on the floor together, trying to ignore the loud sounds of chewing that floated up from them as he reached out a hand to shake Thuggory's hand. To his surprise, the Meathead heir laughed and drew him into a hug instead.

Hiccup nearly choked as he was lifted into the air, his feet dangling for a couple of seconds as Thuggory greeted him, before he was set back down.

”It's great to see you again Hiccup,“ Thuggory explained, ”Especially after all that cool stuff you did back there,“

”Good to see you again too,“ Hiccup laughed, though he didn't really like the constant references to the battles of the Dragon Rebelion, ”Just doing what a friend of dragons has to do,“

”Hiccup!“ called Camicazi, catching up with him. (Though Fishlegs lagged a few steps behind, not so secretly making eyes at Barbra, who was now hissing at her cat Fearless and showing the Bog Burglars how sharp the claws of the little animal were.) ”Hey!“

Hiccup turned to her, though he was momentarily distracted by the sight of several Hooligan boys sitting together on a large rock. He had missed them more than he had expected in the time he'd been gone, it seemed, because even the sight of Dogsbreath (who was laughing with Clueless about something for a change) put a smile on his face.

“Yeah?” he asked, shooting Speedyfist a smile, “What is it?”

“Aren't you going to ask why we're all here now?!” he asked, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him. Even though she was a head or so shorter than him, Hiccup thought she could look extremely intimidating if she chose to.

“Um,” Hiccup thought for a second, but, still groggy from sleep, he had nothing. “Breakfast?” He asked, giving her a pained smile as she slapped a hand to her face and sighed. (*”Boys,“*)

”It's for your birthday!“ Fishlegs said, finally stumbling over to the group.

“My what?” Hiccup asked, completely blindsided by that answer. Hadn't his birthday been quite a while back now?

”You only get one once every four years,“ Camicazi pointed out, speaking slowly and patiently as if she really believed he was as stupid as she pretended she thought he was, ”and we felt bad that you missed it, so we wanted to throw a celebration!“

“My- ah!” Hiccup yelped as Toothless' sharp claws dug into his leg, he seemed to have had his fill of the fat tuna, “What- Thank you-“

Thuggory slapped him on the back, laughing again. ”It's what dragon markers do, eh?“

Fishlegs nodded, and even Horrorcow stuck her head out from under his vest for a second to speak. ” I do wish we had considered vegetarians before planning the meal, “ she said politely, ” do you happen to have any carrots? “

Hiccup frowned and stuck his hands into his pocket, he always carried a slice of carrot precisely for this purpose. ” In fact I do Horrorcow! “ He grinned, holding it out to the sad looking hunting dragon, ” enjoy! “

She thanked him and immediately began chomping into the orange vegetable. Hiccup smiled, to his tired mind, the interaction hadn't seemed odd at all, but as Camicazi spluttered into laughter and Fishlegs blinked at him in confusion, Hiccup began to realize that it might have sounded a bit odd to those that didn't understand dragonese.

“I should start teaching you guys dragonese,” he mused, scratching Toothless between his horns as he turned to look at the mess of fish guys he had left on the sandy rocks below them. (And on Hiccup's boots it seemed.)

“You're just not gonna address that?!” Camicazi half shrieked, half laughed, nearly doubled over at the force of her laughter, “You just had a carrot in your pocket? Why?!”

Hiccup brushed a strand or two of hair out of his eye and, in a fake offended voice, told her that he cared about his friends enough to do so if the friend in question called for it.

This caused her to howl with laughter again, and this time Hiccup couldn't help but join in. This all felt strangely comfortable, for some reason. From the small circle of closer friends that were giggling with (and at) him, to the gaggles of Hooligan boys and Bog Burglar girls on opposite sides of the fire, to the random smattering of hunting and riding dragons that had decided to stay with their humans, this felt nice.

“Thank you all,” Hiccup murmured, still scratching a now purring Toothless and Thuggory began to call that the stew was done, “It really means a lot that you would do this for me,”

“ And for m-me! ” Toothless said, yelping happily and jumping into the air as the covering once again came off the large pot, which he seemed to have just realized was the perfect heat for a dragon such as himself, “ T-toothless loves fish baths! ”

And it was all Hiccup could do to warn Thuggory that he was about to half to fish a very happy little dragon out of their food.

#httyd books #httyd #writing #animation #hiccup horrendous haddock the 3rd #toothless #Thuggory the meathead #snotface snotlout #fishlegs no name #camicazi #horrorcow #implied death #eyestrain #video #Youtube

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indieyuugure · 10 months

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Hi indie!

First I wanna tell a good news to you！Your comics have received many praises in my country！Fans here just like,super crazy，keep screaming,can't wait for the updates LoL.Thank you again for authorizing me to translate them!

Next, It's my own question,the treatment effect that Leo gave Mikey exceeded my expectations,which cured his burns and enabled him to carry 2012!Leo.I mean,In original series the treatment magic(I forget its name）was not as good as that...Is it because Leo's ninpo enhances its power？

Omg! I’m so glad people are liking it! *^v^* thank you again so much for translating it for me and making it available to people in your country! You’re awesome! :D

So Healing Hands(that’s the name of the healing magic) is…not exactly explained very well in the the 2012 tv show. It only shows up in one episode, “The Deadly Venom” (ep18 s3) and it’s power varies a lot in intensity.

The first time it’s seen, Splinter uses it on his broken leg, although it would seem all it does is numb the pain. He teaches Healing Hands to Leo and that’s the one he uses throughout the episode. However there are two known mantras. “Healing Hands” and “The Venom Mantra” Leo only learns Healing Hands until the last 5 minutes of the episode where he has to help Splinter heal Casey and his brothers who got hit with Karai’s venom.

So it’s never explained why exactly when Splinter uses Healing Hands, it barely does anything, whereas when Leo uses it, it’s able to counter an extremely toxic venom and heal snake bite wounds in seconds. Now the obvious reason is because plot, but that’s not very helpful for making a concrete canon logic. So I decided it was linked to how much energy you give it! Splinter didn’t want to feel exhausted after cause he wanted to keep sparingly with his son, so he gave it just enough to make it stop hurting, Leo was fine giving up every last bit of energy, cause I mean if it didn’t work he, his brother and Casey were gonna die, so he gave it everything.

In my comic I show it exactly that way. I imagine it works by condensing energy into the palms of your hands and directing it onto wounds to heal them. I never really thought to connect it to ninpo, but one thing I have had in mind with the Rise universe is that magic is easier to access and wield; The laws of the universe aren’t fighting against you so it’s much easier to use magic there. Though I guess you could throw a wrench in that and say that “well when Leo used healing hands on Mikey, they were in the 2012 universe.” Yes that is true, but it also took everything he had to heal him and almost immediately passed out afterwards. I suppose you could also say that learning to use his ninpo has taught him how to use magic easier, essentially making Healing hands more efficient/effective.

But in the end I really don’t know. TMNT 2012, while it has it’s shining moments, it’s also riddled with plot holes, canon inconsistencies and random details that are only relevant for one episode. Again, idk I’m just trying to make sense of this stuff here lol XD

Good question! :]

PS. I’m realizing now that the way I depicted “Healing Hands” is suspiciously similar to Healing Water in ATLA :\ whoops. Lol

#tmnt #rise of the parallel #ninja turtles #q&a

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thebibliomancer · 7 months

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Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #43: VISION QUEST

April, 1989

To rescue the VISION!

Fingers crossed!

Everyone looks grimly serious about rescuing their kidnapped good pal Vision. Except Tigra who just looks thrilled to be having a fun day out.

Can't believe that this part of VisionQuest is titled VISION QUEST. That's a decision.

Last time on West Coast Avengers: John Byrne took over the book and jumped it forward to a new context with no explanation. Tigra, Dr Pym, and Wasp rejoined the team alongside Hawkeye, Wonder Man, Vision, and Scarlet Witch. Except Vision got kidnapped and unpersoned out of the Avengers' records while they were distracted fighting a fake Ultron. It looks like the kidnapping was an inside job and whoops look who showed up: inexplicably smug Mockingbird, Hawkeye's wife who quit the team and the marriage when he got mad she manslaughtered a cowboy who did a sex crime.

He immediately lunges at her, maybe to just throw hands, but Wonder Man holds him back and goes c'mon dude lets get the context here.

Hawkeye: "Blow it out your ear, Wonder Man. Why shouldn't this be just what it seems? Why shouldn't we just accept the fact that we've been sold out... by my wife!!" Mockingbird: "That's what I've always liked best about you, Hawk. You always look for the logical answer in every situation."

Mockingbird is notably less smug now, more serious. There will be a handwave for her inconsistent attitude later.

The rest of the West Coast Avengers are willing to hear out Mockingbird so Hawkeye settles down into a pout.

Mockingbird admits that she let in the people who uploaded the virus into the Avengers' computer systems and that she's the one who "choreographed" Vision's kidnapping.

But in her defense, she's very sorry.

Hawkeye starts shouting again but Wanda cuts him off. She wants more context. Like now.

Mockingbird: "The only thing I can say is... I've been had!" Hawkeye: "'HAD??'"

TIME FOR FLASHBACK

Mockingbird's casual angrily lounging around outfit is a good look for her. Simmering daisy dukes.

Anyway, a guy claiming to be SHIELD special operative Frank Hampton knocks on her door to call her in to duty.

Mockingbird has been seething on the couch for so long that she's out of the loop and didn't know that SHIELD was defunct at this time. I think the Nick Fury vs SHIELD book finally got released? But point being, this ruse only worked because Mockingbird was behind the times.

Because special operative Frank Hampton went all out in this SHIELD ruse. Flying cars and smelling like what Mockingbird remembers SHIELD agents smell like.

Special operative Frank Hampton brings Mockingbird to Cameron Brock, the head of a special SHIELD project called Vigilance.

And Vigilance Project Head Cameron Brock tells Mockingbird this is about the time Vision tried to take over the world, took control of every major computer system, and seized America's nuclear arsenal.

Vision was under the influence of alien computers at the time and supposedly it could never happen again. But Vigilance was formed to make absolutely, completely sure it never happens again.

As long as Vision was retired from superheroics and "playing house with the Scarlet Witch", Vigilance wasn't worried. But now that Vision has joined an Avengers team again, that puts him in contact with the Avengers' computer systems which connect to so many other different systems.

So Vigilance has had their Vision alert level raised because Hawkeye had a big argument with his wife that broke up the team, causing Vision and Scarlet Witch to join the team out of pity so it wouldn't just be Hawkeye and Wonder Man sitting by themselves.

Good fucking job, Hawkeye.

I do like that there was a recent instigating factor and that Vigilance didn't just decided to get around to getting Vision after that world takeover thing.

(Lotta exposition in this issue. Probably a really good sign that this new direction requires walls of text to pivot to.)

Anyway. Vigilance Project Head Cameron Brock tells Mockingbird that they're keeping a watch on what Vision does every day but they want to be extra, super-prepared and need Mockingbird's help.

Cameron Brock: "You are in the unique position of having been both a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative and an Avenger. S.H.I.E.L.D. now wishes to make use of the knowledge you have gleaned as a member of that team toh elp in the creation of an emergency plan. A plan to guard against the eventuality of the Vision once more attempting to gain global mastery. We need your help to work out all the necessary elements involved in penetrating Avengers Compound and seizing the Vision."

Hawkeye gives her shit for agreeing to come up with anti-Vision contingencies but she argues in her defense that it was just supposed to be a contingency plan IN CASE Vision did a big whoopsie again.

And in terms of loyalty, she still saw herself as loyal to SHIELD and thought she was working for SHIELD.

So, anyway, with Mockingbird's inside knowledge of Avengers security and passwords (YOU NEVER CHANGED THEM, HAWKEYE??? FUCKS SAKE), Mockingbird kludged together a plan for a small team to infiltrate the compound and kidnap Vision without tripping any security.

(I'm super not sure how a group of normal people later explicitly stated to be kinda incompetent managed to kidnap Vision without making any kind of ruckus, especially since it was also established that Vision doesn't sleep, just lays in bed and stares at the ceiling. These two plot details do not gel well.)

Vigilance Project Head Cameron Brock tells her she did a very good job, A++, better than they could have hoped. And the job is very definitely done now, be proud.

Mockingbird is a perfectionist though and she decides to tweak the plan a couple days later but finds that someone else has already added their own tweaks.

The fake Ultron scenario to distract the Avengers while one team uploaded the virus into the computers and another team grabbed Vision.

Another new detail that Mockingbird didn't put in her original plan was that the team that grabbed Vision would put a posthypnotic suggestion in Wanda's brain so that she'd stand around uselessly flashbacking while everyone else contributed.

Its not bad character writing! It was hypnosis!

Mockingbird went and yelled at Vigilance Project Head Cameron Brock that the new additions were stupid and bad and could hurt the Avengers.

And the posthypnotic thingie could lead to disaster if the real Ultron attacked because it would definitely apply to the real Ultron because if Wanda could tell the difference, it would ruin the point.

Vigilance Project Head Cameron Brock listened very carefully to Mockingbird's concerns and then said 'get arrested, dingus' and sent goons after her.

Fighting goons is what Mockingbird does best and these dudes weren't trained up to SHIELD standards. But Vigilance Project Head Cameron Brock shot her in the back with a stun laser when she was distracted because Mockingbird can only be so competent or else the plot won't work.

When Mockingbird wakes up, it's in a maximum security cell that she recognized as TOTALLY KGB!

VIGILANCE IS ACTUALLY A RUSSIAN PROJECT, WHAAAAAAT??

This reveal makes Tigra growl like a cat because she's succumbing to cat instincts again, everyone, make sure you don't forget that she's succumbing to cat instincts.

Also, Russians make her mad.

Specifically, Kraven the Hunter. But probably also the whole country.

Nobody comments on Tigra going r-rrrrrOAWWR-RR-ing and Mockingbird just continues on with the exposition.

Mockingbird figures that the reasons she was originally given for why Vigilance wanted anti-Vision plans still apply to the Russians. Vision got into Russian computer systems too and probably got access to sensitive data the Russians don't want out in the wild.

OR - suggests Hank Pym - the Russians want the American data that Vision may have learned at that same time.

Either or!

If this information wasn't cleared out of his noodle, he could be like an espionage pinata. Just whack him until state secrets fall out.

Of course, I don't see any reason why Vision would keep that information. If his brain worked like a computer. WHICH IT DOESN'T.

Wonder Man asks why Mockingbird didn't come to the Avengers sooner and she admits she only escaped two hours ago.

She pulled the ol' pretend to be dead so the guard comes in the cell so she can kick him in the face.

Although, she did detour to grab her superhero uniform instead of going right to the Avengers.

Uh. That might have been a bad detour to make. Since she wound up arriving too late to help. And, y'know, CALLING AHEAD MAY HAVE BEEN A GOOD IDEA.

But nobody points those two things out. So I won't dwell on how this plot only holds together if you close your eyes and believe in it.

Scarlet Witch asks what the fuck was up with Mockingbird's attitude when she first arrived? Y'know, that smug 'ooops, did I betray the team, lol' attitude.

And Mockingbird says its because she was embarrassed at having been fooled by Vigilance and also Hawkeye still pisses her the fuck off.

Phew, weird character moment handwaved.

Also, despite Mockingbird saying she let the people in to kidnap Vision and wipe the computers, she was locked up at the time. So she's only responsible in a very indirect way.

Feels like the story is trying to walk a tightrope where Mockingbird did a whoopsie but not too directly.

It kinda works! But we're using a lot of words words words to keep balance.

Hank Pym says that they really don't need to super interrogate Mockingbird's story right now when time might be a factor.

If even a lot of her story is true, the important thing is for her to take them to the Vigilance base so they can find Vision or get a lead to find Vision.

So the West Coast Avengers minus Vision plus special guest Mockingbird take off in their QUINJET.

Mockingbird: "Wanda... I... I don't think there are enough ways I can say how truly sorry I am that this has happened. We've been friends, you and I, and now..." Scarlet Witch: "Now I am forced by circumstances to reconsider our friendship, Mockingbird. Even though I believe you when you say you were duped into assisting with the kidnapping of my husband... The fact remains that you were willing to assist in the formulation of the plan which made that kidnapping possible. And although I may understand your reasons, there is no way I can ever condone them."

This conversation is slightly too wordy for an emotional moment.

Also, were Mockingbird and Scarlet Witch friends? I think they interacted once. Granted, that one time they were stuck in jail together and Mockingbird came clean about her cowboy manslaughter so there's a lot of emotion tied into that one moment.

But I don't think the two had a whole lot of interaction beyond that.

When Mockingbird started moving in Avengers' circles, she started on the West Coast team while Wanda was still on the East Coast. And then Wanda and Vision retired.

I guess they were work acquaintance friends, kinda. Same job, same venn diagram of friends?

Anyway, they arrive at Vigilance HQ. An abandoned factory complex scheduled for demolition. A perfect place to set up a secret project.

Wasp suggests that the Quinjet make a low pass so she can slip out wasp-sized and reconnoiter the facility. Which current pilot Hank Pym agrees to do.

Hawkeye: "Hey, do you mind, Wasp? In case you've forgotten, I'm the one who's supposed to be West Coast chairman! I'll decide what we should do!" Wasp: "All right, Clint. What do you suggest?" Hawkeye: "Er... Well... yeah... I guess if we make a slow pass at five hundred feet an' you shrink all the way down to wasp size..." Wasp: "Good plan!"

Oof.

This is what Clint was worried about when Wasp was just guest starring. She's used to leading so he was worried she'd just trample all over him and take over.

She didn't, when she was guest starring. But now that she's joined the team off-panel, she seems to be doing it.

Say, why did she join off-panel? Will we ever learn?

Wasp does the thing she said she'd do and flies into the facility through an air vent.

Since she still has her antenna from that adventure in Hungary, she communicates with some ants to help her search.

Her antformation sources point her towards a big door labelled with a big 31 but its too tightly sealed for her to have a look inside.

Some dudes show up so she moves on to explore more of the facility.

They spot her but she's bug sized and they think she's just a bug.

But them noticing her makes her notice that these guys are super not Russian, despite Mockingbird being super convinced that Vigilance was a KGB operation.

The plot thickens.

(If its not KGB I really do wonder what the point of the fakeout was? The story shifts from 'it was SHIELD! No it was the KGB! No it wasn't!' in such a short time.)

Wasp finds the cell block that Mockingbird probably totally escaped from. There's some guards chatting about some old man they have locked up.

One of the guards says he doesn't see the point keeping an old man locked up in such miserable conditions but the other says this keeps him from going to the Avengers.

Wasp is intrigued and flies through the little sliding window thing on the door and finds DUN DUN DUN

OH MY GOSH CAN IT BE?

YES, THE REVEAL IS BEING HELD UNTIL NEXT TIME. BUT IT SURE WILL STARTLE THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!

Although Wasp is stuck in plot limbo until next time, the rest of the cast continues on.

Up in the circling Quinjet, Scarlet Witch starts having expository flashbacks again.

That post-hypnotic suggestion really fucked up her brain.

So in flashback land, Vision joined the Avengers. And then Scarlet Witch met him when she was a captive of Arkon, that dude who has movies about him that have nothing to do with anything he's ever done but seem to be Conan-esque plots even though Conan is a real dude who has also visited the Marvel universe.

Marvel is a weird place.

Vision and Scarlet Witch started feeling feelings for each other but avoided confronting those feelings as they worked together as Avengers and saved the Earth so much a lot.

But then the Celestial Madonna thing happened.

SCARLET WITCH REMEMBERS IT A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY THAN HOW IT WENT DOWN.

In her mind, the three finalists for Celestial Madonna was herself, Mantis, and Moondragon.

This is incorrect. Moondragon didn't enter the plot until after the fact. The third candidate was Agatha Harkness.

And given that the key and only characteristic of the Celestial Madonna was that she would give birth to a destiny child, it is incredibly funny that Agatha Harkness was considered a possible candidate.

Anyway.

The plot unfolds, Mantis turned out to be the Celestial Madonna. And for some reason, Vision's entire secret backstory was revealed in the middle of Mantis' big story arc.

You know, that whole thing where Ultron kidnapped Dr Phineas Horton to rebuid the dead robot Human Torch into the alive synthezoid Vision because Ultron is a big dumbo who couldn't do it on his own.

A baffling plot point in retrospect considering. But the plot point that was given.

Now that Vision had a real past and knew where he came from (even though he had been pretty sure Ultron had built him so he had known where he had come from so again, pretty baffling plot point), he felt like a real boy enough to ask Scarlet Witch to marry him.

And she accepted.

And then they had to share their special day with Mantis getting arranged marriaged to a tree puppeting around a corpse.

Wanda is actually pretty fond of her wedding day, in a kind of 'the 70s were wild' way.

Mantis and Cotati Swordsman ascended to a higher plane of existence except we recently learned that nuh uh. And Vision and Scarlet Witch continued their Avengers lives but as man and wife.

They found that Quicksilver was a huge dick about it, refusing to give his blessing or even interact with them without yelling about wrong love.

And some suicide bombers tried to blow up Vision about robots taking all the good women, or something.

But the marriage was happy.

The two eventually wanted kids and since magic is awesome, Vision was able to dry hump twins into Wanda since she was channeling an entire mountain of magic at the time.

The narration says it was the power to warp probabilities. But at the time, it was definitely also a shit ton of magic.

All this expository flashbackery is really trying to adjust things and pretend they were always some kind of way.

It could be honest mistakes but why flashback this much if you're not trying to set some kind of record some kind of straight?

Speaking of magical babies that are totally real, the scene changes back to the West Coast Avengers Compound for a page to show the governess Wanda hired to watch her kids when she's doing Avengers stuff.

The woman, Helen Bach, puts Billy and Tommy into the bath and manages to racism about Vision all at the same time.

Multi-tasking.

Miss Bach: "Come along now, boys. You let Miss Bach get you ready for a nice new day. It looks as if your mommy and daddy have already gone out. Such a lovely couple. But what dangerous lives they lead! Still, I wouldn't like to think what sort of a world this would be without the Avengers. You're both very lucky to have such wonderful people as your parents... Although, I suppose your daddy isn't quite people, is he?"

Geez, fuck you, lady.

In minor fairness, she goes on to say that her brother-in-law said Scarlet Witch should be arrested and Vision impounded for Wanda basically marrying an appliance. And Miss Bach calls that a silly opinion.

So she's not completely awful.

John Byrne might be though. Because he shares the opinion that Vision is little better than an appliance. But that's a topic for later.

Anyway, Miss Bach takes her eyes off the kids for five seconds to fetch a towel. And when she turns back to the bathtub SHE SEES SOMETHING SO SHOCKING THAT IT HAS TO WAIT UNTIL NEXT ISSUE!

DUN DUN DUN!

Back over at the plot, the Quinjet is still circling and then the secret Vigilance base starts firing on them.

Hank Pym is aghast.

A secret KGB operation opening fire on American soil is basically a declaration of war.

Since Wasp is stuck in 'tune in next time' limbo, she hasn't told the Avengers this probably isn't the KGB, actually.

Wonder Man decides to show the Vigilance base how dumb it was to take the first shot.

He jumps out of the Quinjet and plummets towards the base, CRUMPing one of the big laser cannons on impact and ripping a huge chunk off the roof to open a way in.

Inside the base, Vigilance Project Head Cameron Brock yells, asking who authorized shooting the plasma guns at the Avengers.

Except, that was kinda on him. By Brock's own order, they were programmed to fire on any aircraft that makes more than three passes over the base in a certain time frame. Anyone that's hanging out above the very secret base, basically.

Vigilance Project Head Cameron Brock yells some more because OBVIOUSLY, an exception should have been made for the Avengers!

Cameron Brock: "That's not just any aircraft! That's an Avengers Quinjet -- and the whole point of this covert masquerade was to avoid directly engaging the Avengers!" Wonder Man, casually leaning against the wall: "... If we can't get engaged, will we still be able to see each other on weekends?"

Oh, you!

The rest of the West Coast Avengers plus special guest land the Quinjet to storm the building rather than wait for Wasp or Wonder Man to come back.

Hank Pym commands Mockingbird to lead the charge since she knows the building.

She runs right into some dude with a machine gun but he stops to quip "Say 'good night,' Gracie" and that quip time gives Scarlet Witch the chance to alter probability so all the bullets in the gun turn out to be duds.

The guy pulls the trigger to no effect and Mockingbird kicks his face in the face.

Mockingbird: "'Good night,' Gracie..."

Past dude with a machine gun, the West Coast Avengers find a big locked door.

This is a huge obstacle, clearly. Sure, Hank could shrink the door or grow a tool to take care of it. Tigra could just rip through it. And Scarlet Witch could turn it into bubbles with a gesture, probably. But the important thing is that this is something Hawkeye can handle.

And he's felt so superfluous in this issue.

So he just goes ahead and takes the W for himself.

WITH HIS DOOR PIERCING BUZZSAW ARROW.

Dr Pym: "Nice work, Hawkeye. But now we're going to need to split up if we're to search this place efficiently." Hawkeye: Well that was fun. I was in charge again for about half a second there.

Hm. Now that Hawkeye is complaining internally about it, I am noticing a certain.

Monica Rambeau-esque leadership undermining going on for Hawkeye.

Hank Pym is making all the leadership decisions and Hawkeye is relegated to awkwardly telling people to do something they've already decided to do.

It's not a leadership challenge. Hawkeye is actively being undermined as leader.

I feel like his time in charge is coming to a close. And shot in the dark: the guy that's already acting like he's in charge will wind up in charge.

If that happens, I don't mind conceptually. We're 43 issues in and the Avengers have always had a more fluid leadership than the X-Men or Fantastic Four. Maybe it is time for some one else to take over.

The way it's being written is pretty ham-fisted though. There's something coming up that's a pretty natural reason for Hawkeye to quit his leadership role and it doesn't require him being made a weak leader in the run-up.

Some offense intended, Hank Pym taking over is maybe the most boring option. He's had his chance multiple times.

Scarlet Witch would be my preference but I'm not sure yet how this all is going to shake out for her, except vague knowledge that it won't be great.

Hmm. Wonder Man maybe? He wanted to be leader a while ago but he got over that immature arrogance. So what if he actually did become leader now that he's not agitating for it? Could be interesting.

Anyway.

Hawkeye and the dude that's going to steal his job head off in one direction, Tigra in another, and Scarlet Witch and Mockingbird in the third.

Scarlet Witch explicitly chooses to pair up with Mockingbird because she thinks her knowledge of the base gives her the best chance of finding Vision.

The two women find one of the "techno-squad boys" and Mockingbird puts him in a chokehold and demands he tell them where Vision is.

Also, the guy has a British accent and Mockingbird demands he drop it. I guess because she still thinks this place is super Russian.

The guy: "Not bloody likely!"

He's probably actually British? Or, the comic-book version of British where they talk like no British person does?

The guy refuses to talk so Mockingbird casually mentions that as an ex-SHIELD agent, she knows fifty-seven ways to kill a dude and all but one of them hurt like hell.

Then she tortures him a little off-panel where we can't see it.

The guy spills the beans that Vision is in Section 31. News that Mockingbird reacts to with some alarm. She demands and gets the passcode as Osiris, which she reacts to with MORE alarm.

She runs off towards Section 31, yelling that they may be too late.

When she and Scarlet Wanda arrive at Section 31 (the big locked door Wasp couldn't get into, btw), Mockingbird warns her that what they find may not be pretty.

Understatement.

MASSIVE. Understatement.

Do you know your Egyptian mythology? Remember what happened to Osiris?

Mockingbird: "You... wanted to find your husband, Wanda..."

Mockingbird: "There he is...!!"

There was definitely a gentler way to do that reveal, Bobbi.

Geez.

If this was meat instead of synthezoid parts, you couldn't print it.

Follow @essential-avengers because I'm not happy and you're probably not either. Like, reblog, and comment. I like feedback. Join me in yelling BYRRRRNE while shaking a fist skyward.

#avengers #essential avengers #west coast avengers #Vigilance #THE RUSSIANS or maybe not who knows #Hank Pym #Dr Pym #Hawkeye #Mockingbird #Tigra #Wonder Man #the Wasp #the Vision #he's around #Scarlet Witch #has a really bad day #prejudiced governess

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mysticstronomy · 1 year

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WHAT IS THE TEMPORAL PARADOX ??

Blog#246

Saturday, November 19th, 2022

Welcome back,

The concept of traveling into the past becomes a bit murky the second causality rears its head. Cause comes before effect, at least in this universe, which manages to muck up even the best-laid time traveling plans.

For starters, if you traveled back in time 200 years, you'd emerge in a time before you were born. Think about that for a second. In the flow of time, the effect (you) would exist before the cause (your birth).

To better understand what we're dealing with here, consider the famous grandfather paradox. You're a time-traveling assassin, and your target just happens to be your own grandfather. So you pop through the nearest wormhole and walk up to a spry 18-year-old version of your father's father. You raise your laser blaster, but just what happens when you pull the trigger?

Think about it. You haven't been born yet. Neither has your father. If you kill your own grandfather in the past, he'll never have a son. That son will never have you, and you'll never happen to take that job as a time-traveling assassin. You wouldn't exist to pull the trigger, thus negating the entire string of events. We call this an inconsistent causal loop.

On the other hand, we have to consider the idea of a consistent causal loop. While equally thought-provoking, this theoretical model of time travel is paradox free. According to physicist Paul Davies, such a loop might play out like this: A math professor travels into the future and steals a groundbreaking math theorem. The professor then gives the theorem to a promising student. Then, that promising student grows up to be the very person from whom the professor stole the theorem to begin with.

Then there's the post-selected model of time travel, which involves distorted probability close to any paradoxical situation [source: Sanders]. What does this mean? Well, put yourself in the shoes of the time-traveling assassin again. This time travel model would make your grandfather virtually death proof. You can pull the trigger, but the laser will malfunction. Perhaps a bird will poop at just the right moment, but some quantum fluctuation will occur to prevent a paradoxical situation from taking place.

But then there's another possibility: The quantum theory that the future or past you travel into might just be a parallel universe. Think of it as a separate sandbox: You can build or destroy all the castles you want in it, but it doesn't affect your home sandbox in the slightest. So if the past you travel into exists in a separate timeline, killing your grandfather in cold blood is no big whoop. Of course, this might mean that every time jaunt would land you in a new parallel universe and you might never return to your original sandbox.

Confused yet? Welcome to the world of time travel.

Originally published on

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022)

"WILL WE EVER COLONIZE OTHER PLANETS??"

#astronomy #outer space #alternate universe #astrophysics #spacecraft #universe #white universe #space #parallel universe #astrophotography

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kerubimcrepin · 3 months

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Hii!! I just wanna say that I love your content and I'm so glad to see some actual movement in the Dofus fandom. I've binged read all of your episode analysis in one sitting cause I genuinely enjoy them sm. I hope you don't mind the question, but when would you say that Kerubim finds out/is told that he's a demigod? I don't know if it's mentioned somewhere but I'm unable to find it and I've been wondering about it for a really long time. Sorry for the long ask and if there are any mistakes, English isn't my first language 🙏 And thank you again for your content, it's amazing.

Thank you so much for enjoying my blog :D

I think that it's quite likely that Kerubim found out some time in the orphanage, judging from The Wheel of Destiny #8 Kerubim Crepin:

and the somewhat dubious, somewhat timeline-ambiguous source of that Kerubim chapter in the Lance Dur comic.

Unless some other thing retcons/changes this (Krosmoz lore being Krosmoz lore, inconsistencies and retcons are to be expected), I would say this is the closest we have to an answer, as far as I know.

(I suppose this pretty much makes 90% of his Ecaflip stories a yet another instance of him Omitting Important Stuff. Whoops. But considering the fact that this is information that would probably change how people think about him, I get why he Would Not Talk about that. Even in the Dofus MMO, you have to do a couple of quests for him, before he goes "I am a demigod. Just so you know. I don't like to advertise this, but I do need your help to get a gift for my father.")

(PS: It's okay to make mistakes. English isn't my first language either, so I won't be surprised if somewhere in this blog, there are world's most insane typos.) (I know like 1 post here that has an absolutely deranged typo bc I wrote it at 2AM. No, I won't say which.)

#ro liveblogs dofus #non liveblog posts #asks

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tooaverageofagamer · 5 months

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REVIEW: Little Nightmares - Tarsier Studios

Release Date: April 28 2017 Available: PC, PS4, XBOX One, Nintendo Switch, ISO, Android. Genre: Horror, Creepy, Puzzle, Platformer, Adventure, Survival Review Length: Long (~2.8K words) Review Spoilers: Major, but not detailed --------------------------------------

Story:

Little Nightmares is the first instalment of the Little Nightmares series.

Little Nightmares is set on what seems to be a large boat or underwater barge known as 'The Maw', which your little, yellow-coated, lighter-wielding protagonist, 'Six', weaves and scurries her way through to find a way out after having a nightmare about a beautiful woman in a kimono who is wearing a mask.

'The Maw' consists of different areas that Six has to find her way through by solving puzzles and avoiding warped creatures. The Prison, The Lair, The Kitchen, The Guests Area and The Ladies' Quarters are the areas where the different chapters take place, each coming with their own bosses to sneak by and overcome.

Gameplay:

To note, I played through the whole of Little Nightmares with a keyboard and mouse. I'm unsure if it was the keyboard controls, my bad average gaming skills or the game, but I found the controls terribly janky to work with and I found myself dying very stupidly often. Which led to some funny moments, but it did become frustrating at some points. So that's a short note before I get into things so you can see from my POV why I might sound off-putting towards the game. Another thing I might complain about is the camera angles in some areas were a little odd, especially when you crawl from one room to another. But once I got used to it, I like to think I overcame it.

Anyways, the game begins in The Prison, where it seems that other small children are kept in cages, where it is shadowed by a long-armed figure, who is hinted at throughout this chapter.

The first few puzzles in this chapter I found to be confusing, then again I am not the best at puzzles so I did struggle with solutions all throughout this playthrough. A lot of the puzzles didn't have obvious solutions, especially in the darker areas where things might not be as highlighted or as out of place with the environment. There are climbing hints throughout some of the chapters shown by little black handprints and smears, but they seem to be inconsistent.

The first bigger puzzle which I was really feeling dumb after was the electrified gates. I got through the first gate after shutting the power off and was trying to figure out how to get past the second one in the toy room by finding a switch or something. Pretty sure I was stuck for about 10 minutes before figuring out you can go back to the first toilet room and then you just have to keep running after switching off the switch as it turns off both gates, not just the first one - whoops. I also think I did encounter a glitch here where I did switch off the gates, but the first one was still electrified and I died touching it - whoops x2.

During this chapter, there is a side room that shows a camera that hints at a later chapter, which I think is a nice touch but also shows a darker side that someone will always be watching wherever little Six is going.

There are two puzzles that involve a lit-up eye security light that causes our protagonist (and previous escapees) to turn into statues. I enjoyed this concept. I liked how in the second puzzle involving this there is a wheelie bin that moves with the swaying of the barge, to remind you that you are on one still as you might have gotten used to the constantly swaying camera at this point.

When walking into the room with the sleeping children, I did encounter a weird glitch when the door slammed me back out of the room, but then respawned me back into the room before the long-armed man arrived. Not a big deal, just thought it was funny.

Once you escape The Prison, The Lair is the next chapter where you soon find yourself captured by The Janitor (who I didn't know was a janitor until I looked it up and I thought he was some sort of deli man or butcher because what sort of janitor just chops meat?) after a few short puzzles and you must escape the cage he has trapped you in to continue your adventure.

Since The Janitor is blind, any running or creaking floorboards will alert him. I've always enjoyed the idea of blinded characters who can only hear you to find you (such as the Moth Priests from Oblivion) so I did enjoy The Janitor sections a lot. It did take me a few times to figure out that the creaking floorboards did actually trigger him as I thought it was just ambience, but besides that, I enjoyed the first encounter with this character.

After escaping The Janitor in the first section you're dropped into a room full of shoes, and as you shuffle your way from one suitcase platform to another, what has been dubbed the 'Shoe Monster' tries to catch you. Once you pass this area it is never seen again, so just a random encounter, which some might say adds to the creepy. This is another area though where I found the climbing to be odd as trying to get onto the platforms was a struggle and I kept getting caught a few times.

A little bit after the shoe room, you'll spot the room you were originally captured in which I thought was a nice detail that Six is circling around the area and then ends up in an elevator after a short chase with The Janitor. Once out of the elevators, you end up in what seems to be a room with nothing but a box of toys. I was stuck here for a little bit trying to find a way out until I pushed the box around a bit and just fell through the floorboard. I felt like there was zero hinting that that was the solution, but again, I am bad at puzzles.

After another few run-ins with the janitor, trying to create distractions to get by him and continue. You have one last fight with him as you try to escape The Lair through an elevator. A cage stops the elevator doors from fully shutting and as you try to avoid his arms that stick through the gap to capture you, you must yank at the cage bars to finally shut the door and chop off the janitor's arms.

Had another dumb moment during this fight and I thought I was just an 'avoid for a certain amount of time' thing. I was waiting for the cage to collapse and got caught about 3 times before I tried to actually interact with the cage and saw that the bars could be pulled out. Again, zero indication this needed to happen, but I didn't dwell on it too much.

Then began the start of The Kitchen chapter where you encounter a chef character, chopping away at meat in a kitchen. You might have already seen this character already if you looked at the cameras back in The Lair. You make your way to the end of the kitchen to discover a locked door. You then make your way up a shelf and into the kitchen rafters where you end up in a sort of living quarters and discover that there is a second chef asleep in a shared room where you also find a key for the locked door. The Twin Chefs are the bosses you must avoid in this chapter now.

At this point, you may take notice that the people you're up against are actually wearing some sort of skin mask or suits as you can catch glimpses of The Twin Chefs lifting their masks to itch their real faces underneath. This might get you thinking about the lore of the world a bit more and its darker appearances.

Avoiding The Twin Chefs throughout this chapter is easy enough honestly. You might get caught a few times trying to set up the distractions or if they start looking under the tables you're hiding under, but you'd always know when they've discovered you by their monkey-like screeches before chasing you down. In the pot-washing area of The Kitchen, you must switch a lever to change the direction of the meat hooks flow, you then climb the top of the central stack of plates and grab on. Once you've been shaken off the hook the first time, a short chase ensues. I struggled at this chase a few times, as the twin that smashes through the door, knocks over items which were thrown about randomly each time it happens and sometimes hit me which in turn stopped or slowed my running. Then my timing for the final hook catch was off a few times, which caused me to fall to my death - whoops x3

After being shaken off your final hook grab, you then begin Chapter 4 with a glimpse of giant cogs churning and hearing seagulls calling. You gain your first glimpse of the outside of the barge, with its guests piling onto the barge and into The Guest Area.

You then reenter the ship, catching closer-up views of The Guests and the mysterious woman you dreamed about at the beginning of the game. You then find yourself in what seems to be Japanese-styled restaurants or eating areas. With the guests stuffing their faces with mostly raw meats (we love salmonella). You are seen by one of the guests as you go through the rooms, and a small chase begins. The first time I encountered this guest, I was under his table. He threw the table and then proceeded to body slam me, which I then laughed about for 5 minutes before I could proceed to play the game - whoops x4.

Anyways, you then get away and then have to make your way through the top of a table full of The Guests, avoiding their grubby hands. More mini-chases occur with The Guests before you find yourself in living quarters, confronted again by one of The Chef Twins. Smashing the mirror allows you access to the rafters to make your way to the elevator. There are not many puzzles in this chapter, more of avoiding, running and hiding.

Once up the elevator and make your way into the next room, sliding paper screen doors begin to open and what I think is the most terrifying thing I have ever encountered, a mob of The Guests begin to chase you in one big scrambling pile. You get away nearly by swinging over a gap.

You encounter the mysterious lady again getting into an elevator, and once she has left, you enter the same elevator up to the final chapter.

The Lady's Quarters is the final area in the game. I find it one of the most unsettling areas, the ticking clocks, the mysterious singing and just the overall eerie quietness. You follow the sound of the singing upstairs and make your way into a room where The Lady is seen singing in front of a smashed mirror. You sneak your way past her and into a bedroom, where a white vase you can smash is on a bedside table. As soon as you smash this vase to get the key inside, the singing stops. The strong silence really begins to set in.

You head downstairs again to unlock the door, and upon entering, the door slams behind you and a chase with The Lady begins. Once escaped, you find yourself in a room full of the mannequins you have been seeing throughout the area, throwing you off and making you anxious if one of them is her. You run across this room and into a side room with the only unbroken mirror you have seen in the area so far on top of a drawer. Grabbing this mirror and going back into the last room, you glimpse The Lady in the centre of the room and as you approach, she disappears and the final boss begins.

The Lady is easy to defeat, running towards the lights and pointing the mirror in her direction. What really gets you during this fight is your nerves. Trying to figure out where she is coming from next, scrambling to pick up the mirror after dropping it. It was intense. Hands were very sweaty afterwards. The Lady's ghostly face that appears during this battle is really both beautiful and terrifying.

Once defeated, Six makes her way out of the barge.

Throughout the story, you are subjected to your own questioning about Six's true powers. As her hunger pangs lead her to kill a rat, gnome and The Lady then proceeds to absorb some sort of life force from The Guests as she walks out of the barge. This is never really answered in the game as the story concludes with Six shown sitting outside of the barge entrance.

Throughout all the chapters, there are lamps and candles you light, which I thought were being used as checkpoints since a save symbol popped up once you lit them, but apparently, they're just collectables, so I was very confused when I died and ended up nowhere near a lamp, especially if I closed the game and came back later to a point further back than I was.

Art Style/Music:

Little Nightmares is a real mixed bag when it comes to the art directive. I've seen inspiration or comparisons to LIMBO, INSIDE, Coraline and Spirited Away. I personally feel some Alice in Wonder Land and Roald Dahl vibes in some areas, especially with the character designs. I loved the insight through the concept art you can unlock as you go through the game.

The environments really make you feel like a small trapped child just trying to escape. The pan-outs to show off the surroundings really let you take in the vast expansion of The Maw and what else it could have had to offer if our protagonist went a different route.

The soundtrack is similar throughout most of the game, but all the ambient noises and the sounds from characters really make the game unsettling, it doesn't have to rely on the soundtrack too much. The sound design is honestly the real gold in this game. The rumbling and creaking you hear can be felt all throughout the barge. Even the little things such as The Janitor's teeth grinding or Six's coat getting water dripped on it. The developers really went all out with the game's ambience and small sound details.

The Little Nightmares soundtrack can be found on Spotify.

Final Comments:

To start, apologies for all the complaining and WAY too long yappin' review.

Anyways, compared to other games that came out in 2017, Little Nightmares felt a little unpolished. I’ll possibly replay the game again with a controller and see if I go a bit better with that, but I feel like a game should be accessible to many forms of play and I just felt DUMB playing the game with these controls at some points, then again, could be more me being actually bad at games than the game. I did watch a couple of different playthroughs on YouTube to see if I was the only one or not. I did see a couple of people struggling in the same areas and having the same thought processes as me, which made me feel a bit better about things, but no one really commented on the controls themselves.

I’ve also seen a few people have conversations online if Little Nightmares is considered an Indie game or not. I personally, very lightly, wouldn’t. I would consider an indie game to be developed by less than 10 people, maybe 15 people max. But Tarsier Studios had about 20+ working on the game at the time, so I would personally hold them to a higher standard, but I also kinda don’t so much since this would be considered their first (I think) fully developed game. And now with about 77 employed (and hiring currently according to their website – so check that out if you’re into it!) I wouldn’t consider them Indie now and wouldn’t consider Little Nightmares II (review soonish?) to be an Indie game either.

Continuing on, the pop-up prompts like to sprint or that you can swing on objects didn't pop up for me the first times they were available [which I saw a few other YouTube play-throughs experience and comment on] only after I failed a few times, which I thought was odd. The game was trying not the be hand-holdy I guess, but I feel like it hindered my experience when first playing the game.

Besides the jank controls, I enjoyed the art directive. I enjoy the disturbing-looking characters and the damp eeriness of the whole environment, even places that are meant to be homely. Knowing you’re on a boat throughout the whole game before you even see the outside of it really hits the helplessness vibes. The art style really makes this game more than anything.

Stroy-wise, you are left clueless throughout the whole thing besides just playing it. You know your goal is to escape, but how did you end up there in the first place? Why do people look the way they do? How do lighters that small exist? I'm going to say that its just all part of 'the vibes'. Being clueless and wandering around in a warped world.

Anyway, I would recommend this game if you enjoy creepy or unsettling directives with little story or if you enjoy puzzle and platformer games. I might not recommend it to people who aren't too familiar with the game and it might not be the best game for a first-time experience, but give it a go if you wish!

I haven't gotten around to playing the 'Secrets of the Maw' DLC yet, but I will soon and might update this to include that review also, or just make a separate post and link to the DLC review here.

Cheers,

The Average Gamer

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

If you want to chat or discuss more about games, feel free to PM or Ask me!

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plantcrazy · 2 years

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Progress Update 22/10/22 & 100,000 Words

Hello people,

I've had a bit of writer's block (which is probably how I ended up resurrecting my old Among Us fic last month), but I've shuffled the chapter order (not the uploaded stuff, don't worry ^^) and that's helped a lot.

I've got a couple of persisting problems I'm working on, but the main one I wanted to discuss is the Toppat Killer.

See, in the original version of the story, they had an important role in how Reginald went from Right-Hand to Leader, however, I've managed to write it out of the story with the introduction of Carol & Macbeth's storyline (I still have no idea how they've hijacked the second half of the story, lol).

So, I don't know what to do with the storyline because I can't change Ch.7 due to the other effects the Killer has. I can't put the storyline back in as it will completely derail everything given the plot changes. I've tried putting a bullet in the killer's head too (to remove them that way), but... I felt cheated when I re-read it. Like they should have had more to their story than prodding Reginald with a stick.

I'm still trying to figure this out, so um... I'm open to suggestions. The ask box is always open in general, but if anyone's got any ideas, I'm all ears :)

The main reason I bring it up my problem is that I can't upload Ch.22 (Lunch brake) until I figure it out. Chapter 17 is also delayed right now. The plot is fine, content is fine, it's just Wallace's voice isn't clear to me. I think there's some inconsistency I need to sort out before you guys can have it. I'd rather delay a chapter and get it right, then give you something I'm not 100% with and have to re-write and then expect you to waste your time to re-read it as well *cough, cough* Checkmate *cough, cough*.

Current Chapter status:

⭐️Uploaded - ✅Done - 🖊✅ To re-edit - 🖊 Writting - 📚To Do

100,000 Words

WHOOP, WHOOP! I hit a major mile stone and 54,000 of that is already uploaded, its crazy huh ^^

So funnily enough, I've acutally editied Ch.36 since hitting 100,000 words and the last 100 words to 100,000 is completly differen now ^^;

I've had a think on it, and I'll leave you with the updated version and original for fun!

------

ORIGINAL

Reginald looked up to check for Macbeth who sat on the edge of the bed with his head down quiet. If Reginald had to guess, no-one had told him the full extent of his condition. “Macbeth?” The head of Transportation looked up greeting Reginald with pale grey eyes. “Mmmh?” He mumbled. Reginald fell silent too, unsure what he could even say, but he tried. “W-what happened to you?” If it was to do with Welsh, Reginald somehow doubted it was by natural causes. “Y-you look like cough shit,” Macbeth forced a smile, but gave up no sooner than it appeared.

UPDATED

He turned his back on Ethan and trudged over to Macbeth who had slid down to sit on the ground with his head resting against his knees. Asides from the occasional muffled cough, he was quiet. “Macbeth?” The Head of Transportation looked up greeting Reginald with non-green eyes. “Mmmh?” Reginald fell silent too, unsure what he could even say. He instead slid down next to him. “Y-you look like cough shit,” Macbeth forced a smile, but gave up no sooner than it appeared. He glared with what little energy he had at Ethan, “Friend huh?” “…” Macbeth coughed some more, then wheezed, “Shit friend.”

#100000 words #update #lost children of the ccc #henry stickmim collection #henry stickmin

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ezdotjpg · 2 years

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I hope someone hasnt asked you this already, but how do you decide what types of scars to put on characters/where to put them? I have a hard time deciding on where to put scars and it seems like i keep recycling the same ones, mostly on the face, and could use some tips honestly. I know it helps to think about how the character got those scars in the first place but its still hard to place them in unique and interesting ways like you do

(Also if you want to talk about some of your choices for placement/shapes/types of scars on your link designs, that would be cool to read about, im especially curious about your reasoning behind the scar on mirror's cheek)

this is not at all a helpful answer, but it's honestly just.....vibes. I've actually been terribly inconsistent w the placement of their scars, at least the ones not on the face, which is something im trying to get better about with these updates lol. I just sort of put them wherever i feel like they should go.....

for a more helpful answer, yeah a lot of it is informed by some vague sense of what made the scar. Beyond that the focus is on making interesting shapes. letting go of the constraints of what an actual scar would realistically look like helps, though I do still look up real scars from time to time if I'm trying to go for something specific (which, yeah, can come up with some gruesome images, so be careful). I think of it as sort of a graphic design and layout problem instead? balancing clear skin with scarred skin. it's helpful to zoom out and look at the whole figure to see what kind of color blocking you're creating. Is any of that helpful lol?

for some rambling abt bonus links scars (and big general TW for discussions of injury):

Mirror's scar is half of a glasgow smile, which is typically a cut from the corner of the mouth to the ear on both sides, causing a permanent "smile" (full disclosure, first place I saw this idea was in Circuit Breaker by liketolaugh, though theirs is both sides.) My vague backstory is that Yuga gave it to him in the Eastern Palace, though Mirror fought him off before he could do the other half.

the scar on Loft's arm is a Lichtenberg figure, from Demise's lightning. It's also sort of the mark of getting that power from Demise. It is such a pain to draw KSHKF. Looking at some of my other refs, he's got a stab wound scar on his stomach that I'm deciding now is from the first battle with Ghirahim

the scar on Wolf's neck is from the final battle with Ganon, where he very narrowly avoiding getting his head hacked off. The scar on his arm is from his arm being severed and then reattached when Ilia gets captured at the ordon spring (a la the manga). He has some general claw mark scars on his other arm, chest and left shoulder.

slate has a lot of scars, a lot more than I've shown in any of his refs so far, but not all of them are actually from Before. For example, the scar on his chin and under his right eye are new. The one on his chin is from eating shit shield surfing, same reason his front tooth is slightly chipped (tho I don't think I've drawn that, whoops.) The one under his eye is probably a lucky swipe from the first Yiga traveler he encountered, would've lost his eye if his reflexes weren't so good. I know generally old scars are white and new scars are more reddish but I just sort of......ignore that for aesthetic purposes. Also top surgery scars!

besides the scar on his eye, I like to give wake this little scar on his lip. He's probably had it since he was a kid. I Am So Fond Of It. Generally his hands are pretty scarred up from a lot of pulling on ropes and idk. general pirate shenanigans. also has top surgery scars.

mini's hands are also scarred up from a) smithing and b) climbing things with the grip ring and no gloves. The idea for the scar on his shoulder is that it's a bite mark he got from something while he was minish sized, tho I should probably make it a bit bigger knowing that.

Spirit most definitely has a wolfos bite scar somewhere on his person, though I haven't drawn it

War has a burn scar from Volga that I currently have placed on his side, though I might actually put it somewhere else. idk yet. And also generally a lot more scars.

ok i have rambled enough

wait also a note on potions and why links still have scars: i like to kind of nerf the effectiveness of potions, because it's no fun otherwise. Potions don't necessarily "magically" heal outright, they just speed up the body's natural healing by a LOT. So, there's still scars, and the potential for ur average red potion to not be much help to a patient in dire condition.

#askdotjpg #bonuslinksdotjpg #bonus mirror #bonus wolf #bonus loft #bonus mini #bonus war #bonus spirit #bonus slate #bonus lore #tw: injury #bonus links #bonuslinks

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ducktracy · 3 years

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The bread post about Daffy’s characterization is really interesting. That undercurrent of bitterness could serve as bridge for Screwball Daffy and the dreaded Greedy Daffy. I feel a Unifying Daffy Theory is hard to pin down because of his wide array of characterization, but a sliding scale of “hoo-hoo” vs “you think you’re better than me?!” might be part of the key?

*cracks my knuckles so hard they break* asking about daffy’s characterization is the worst thing you can do to me because i can, will, and HAVE blabbed about him for hours. LET’S SEE HERE

daffy is genuinely one of the most varied characters in animation history. not even talking about the slide from totally crazy to egomaniac--he changes every short. there are certainly eras that can be used as blankets: crazy daffy of the ‘30s, passionate daffy of the ‘40s, egomaniac of the ‘50s, bitter bastard of the ‘60s, etc, but even then, the daffy in a 1944 frank tashlin cartoon will vary wildly from the daffy in a 1944 chuck jones cartoon.

you’re absolutely right, he IS hard to pin down. he’s constantly moving and changing, and not just physically either. he’s constantly contradicting himself. maybe not on a large or noticeable scale, but enough to make me say “hey, daffy often tries to make friends with his enemies as we see here, but here he DOESN’T. these cartoons are directed by the same director and are only 2 years apart. what gives?” or “daffy is the only character who doesn’t break the fourth wall consistently as the punchline. oop, hold that thought, he just did it here as a joke. so inconsistent.”

i’m being incredibly vague right now trying to answer this because i’ve spent so much time trying to dissect him and write about him that my brain doesn’t know where to start with this ask. it gives me too much joy. so SORRY FOR GOING IN CIRCLES i have a lot i want to say but don’t know how to articulate it.

i think, yeah, in the grand scheme of things, a sliding scale is the easiest way to go, but is frustrating at the same time because he contradicts himself so much. daffy was relatively sane as early as... hm, 1941-1942, and started calming down as early as 1938. he still whoops and hollers and bounces on his head, and would do so as far into the ‘60s cartoons, but he can very clearly think and act for himself and is at least aware of his role as a performer, but “screwball daffy” rolls off the tongue much easier than “passionate daffy who feels all of his emotions at once and is incredibly emotional rather than fully insane but he’s still a bit crazy at the same time”. he’s such a hard character to pin down because he has so many layers.

even in his screwball/passionate/whatever-you-wanna-call-em-days, he has a tendency to be bitter, even if he’s just playing around. like, for example here, he’s definitely putting up an act, but for a guy who rarely ever causes porky real harm and withstands all of his blows, even in moments where he SHOULD, mocking his stutter like that (which isn’t as often of an occurrence as one may think) is pretty cold. or you have this, with daffy ranting and raving about his integrity (or lack thereof) and instantly dropping everything to gleefully remark that the hotel manager looks like a dick tracy character. he’s so wildly inconsistent.

back in october, i challenged myself to delve into daffy’s character and dissect as much as i could to educate myself and others, and it was difficult because of how contradictory of a character he is! here’s some random blurbs that assert that.

now i’m just slapping a ton of screenshots on here for the sake of doing so, but you get the gist. i’ve done my research LOL.

he’s just so HARD to mark down because he’s constantly changing and acting a certain way. yeah, he has overarching themes, but he constantly makes and breaks his own rules and it’s hard to judge. but, at the same time, i like how this lack of being defined makes him feel more humane and less of a stock character... which is saying something since he pioneered the whole genre of wacky cartoon characters.

i seriously could talk about this for hours but i know i’ve already derailed enough and got off track, but i agree with you SO much. daffy is such an interesting case and as frustrating as it is that he seems to be constantly at odds with himself, it makes him that much more interesting

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nxtheromoved · 3 years

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𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐀 𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐀

Thinking about Calpernia and the Tranquil, and I was wondering how she could tolerate her Venatori killing them off to make Oculara when one of the driving pillars of her character is her desire to see people freed from their oppression. It’s not something I had thought about before because the Oculara were never something I associated with Calpernia, but they were created by the Venatori and thus Calpernia should be tied to their existence, right? So I started looking into it, and I’ve come to the conclusion that, no, I honestly don’t think Calpernia tolerated the creation of the Oculara; I don’t even think she was aware of their existence. And here are my reasons why.

1. Who is responsible for the creation/placement of the Oculara?

Alexius. The codices referring to the Oculara place Alexius as the person in charge of their creation and distribution. Not to mention the fact that the Oculara are created in Redcliffe itself and not imported from Tevinter. As Alexius is a known innovator when it comes to magic, it’s feasible he came to this knowledge himself (or directly from Corypheus) and was not given this information by Calpernia. Nothing regarding the Oculara mentions Calpernia at any point, as far as I’m aware.

2. Wouldn’t Calpernia know about it anyway, even if she was not involved directly?

No. As it turns out and is particularly evidenced by her rival quest in DAI, there are many things about the Venatori and Corypheus that Calpernia does not know. The version of the Venatori that Calpernia believes she is leading is a carefully constructed illusion to keep her dedicated to the cause she believes in. Corypheus has done this on purpose. If she knew what he was really using the Venatori for, what he really had planned, she would want no part in it, as evidenced by the option to talk her into betraying Corypheus at the Temple of Mythal.

Moreso, Alexius did not answer to Calpernia. His direct superior was Corypheus himself. I don’t even recall him mentioning Calpernia (if he did the whoops my mistake), and all indications given were that Alexius was in charge of the Venatori in the south, regardless of Calpernia’s positioning as the overall leader of the group. It would have been very easy for the activities of the southern Venatori to be kept from Calpernia given that most of her updates would come from reports where information could be easily omitted, and it is something that Corypheus would certainly find most beneficial if he wants Calpernia to continue believing that their goals are aligned when they are most certainly not.

3. Even if she didn’t know at first, wouldn’t Calpernia find out eventually after Alexius is gone and the southern Venatori are under her direct command?

No. As mentioned, Corypheus maintained a tight control over what information reached Calpernia’s ears. Even after Alexius is gone and she takes direct control over the Venatori in the south, the Oculara have already been placed. Calpernia’s involvement at that point is not with the distribution of the Oculara, but with the shards. With what we know, it’s reasonable to believe that the shards, to her knowledge, were merely found due to disruptions caused by the Breach that revealed their location. The most that Calpernia has to know if she is involved is that these shards are related to an elven temple that Corypheus seeks and that her people should be actively engaged in finding them for the sake of the Elder One. She does not need to be told how the shards are found, as she, the elusive leader of the Venatori, will never be the one to hunt for them. That’s grunt work, and there are better things worthy of her time.

In conclusion, Calpernia does not know about the Oculara or how they are made, and she would not approve if she did know.

At most she knows about the shards, but that’s it. Unless I’m missing something in Inquisition that proves that she does know (which is likely because Inquisition has so much dialogue that I did not feel like digging through it all), this is my answer as to why she allows her Venatori to engage in a practice that directly conflicts with one of her core beliefs: she doesn’t.

If it was a conscious choice by b*oware to distance Calpernia from the Oculara plotline for this reason, then okay that’s nice. It makes sense if you rationalize it as Corypheus purposefully keeping this from her, and I’m okay with that answer.

Or it could all just be a big plot hole and they genuinely forgot about it or chose to ignore the moral dilemma and character inconsistency this would present so they could have a massive glowy skull scavenger hunt side-quest. That’s probably what really happened tbh.

#[calpernia ; about]#repost from my old blog

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takethetrain · 2 years

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I read your fanfic and I think it's one of the best I've ever read it's so good and u do an amazing job dude

Searched u up on Tumbler and wanted to ask somethin people know mermaids exist but not that they have legs right? Bt if Alastair was with Charles on land so other mermaids could do it too so what prevents people to tell this secret and why is that such a big deal?

Keep going u are awesome 💥

OMG HI!! WELCOME!!! I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this, I think it came thru when I was super deep in school stress & dead to everything else — but I just found it in my inbox and I gotta say it made me smile so much. I love ur energy :))

First of all, THANK U SO MUCH. As for the questions…I think I’ve been a tad inconsistent about whether people know merfolk exist (this is one of those perils of worldbuilding-as-you-go) because I’m pretty sure at the beginning Thomas says people think they’re a myth but then no one seems particularly surprised to learn they’re real (when it comes to light that the Navy’s killing them) and also you gotta wonder how on earth people would go on not believing in merfolk given that sea monsters are verifiably real from the beginning. Whoops. We’ll just say they’ve always been seen as real but also, like, vaguely legendary in the popular imagination…kind of like celebrities.

Of course that analogy only makes sense if celebrities routinely went undercover among us regular folk at risk to their own safety, which brings me to ur second question. Which has two parts I think? For the first: merfolk work together to keep the secret safe just like shadowhunters keep their identity secret from mundanes. Sometimes mundanes find out via personal connections, like Simon with Clary, but overall it’s kept under wraps enough that the mundane community remains ignorant on the whole. If certain sub-communities of humans find out about merfolk being able to grow legs, the hope is that the news won’t travel—and if it does, that it won’t be believed widely enough to cause any real trouble. This is obviously easier to achieve in the 1700s when news can’t travel very fast & there’s no such thing as photo/video evidence of anything.

For the second part: it would be a big deal because merfolk have no place in any human laws, which means nobody can be seriously punished for harming or mistreating them. One hopes that most humans wouldn’t take advantage of this, but it’s not that simple. The Navy now have incentive to hurt them in this particular case, and even besides that I can personally imagine a lot of things that could go wrong if humans learned that merfolk are more accessible to them than they previously thought — we all know people are generally not great at handling issues of difference. Elaborating too much on this would risk making merfolk into an allegory for legitimately oppressed groups (there’s a right and a wrong way to do this: on one hand, a really great and long history of marginalized sci fi/fantasy authors exploring otherness via species difference; on the other hand, a poc’s bullying-trauma being given less weight & importance than a white cishet boy being bullied for his golden eyes.) but even without elaborating I think you probably understand what I mean. The solution to this would ostensibly be including merfolk in policy (which Christopher proposes, bless his heart) but that would be a very long process to achieve everywhere and still wouldn’t guarantee fair treatment, so, it’s a risky situation overall.

Does any of that make any sense at all?? This is so long :,) thank you for asking, u r wonderful!! Pls let me know if more questions come up <3

#songs from the shore #sfts asks #worldbuilding #anti cc #if u squint

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uncloseted · 3 years

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my mom believes in homeopathy and i don't know what to do. our town homeopath died not so long ago so she won't be recommending him to people anymore, but she still believes in the system. apparently he cured my brother's hyperthyroidism and my nephew's alopecia. she says that he went to tons of real doctors and the only thing that worked was homeopathy. that left me speechless. im still skeptical but how do you explain that? and if it's a placebo but it works, then why shouldn't we use it?

This answer is going to be a long one, so I apologize in advance. Apologies also for how long this has taken for me to write and publish. As always, I want to make sure that I answer every part of this question with thought, care, and sources. To make it easier to navigate, I'm going to add headers for each section. What are Homeopathic "Remedies"? The first thing I want to do is clarify what homeopathic "remedies" actually are and what the theory behind homeopathy is. Often, I think we imagine that homeopathy is just herbalism- using "natural" plants as "medicine". By itself, doing that is kind of a dubious approach to treating illness, but it can be at least somewhat effective. It's important to understand that that's not what homeopathy is. Homeopathy is an alternative "medicine" practice created in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann as a reaction to the mainstream medicine of the late 18th century. Hahnemann's homeopathy is based on the doctrine that "like cures like"- that a disease can be cured by a substance that produces similar symptoms to that disease in healthy people. In order to prevent those symptoms from occurring as a result of the "remedy", homeopathy also subscribes to something called the “law of minimum dose”—the notion that the lower the dose of the medication, the greater its effectiveness. This is inconsistent with what science knows about dose-response relationships, where the effect of a dose is reliant on the concentration of the active ingredient. Many homeopathic products are so diluted that no molecules of the original active ingredient remain. Modern advocates of homeopathy have suggested that water "remembers" the substances mixed in it, and transmits the effect of those substances when it's consumed. This isn't consistent with our scientific understanding of matter. Homeopathy also traditionally includes the concept of "miasms" as the "infectious principle" behind illnesses (including illnesses like epilepsy, cancer, deafness, and cataracts). Miasms are a negative force (imagined to be kind of like a cloud or fog) that serve no purpose other than to make humans miserable and ultimately kill them. Traditionally, homeopaths believe that individual symptoms should not be alleviated, since it will only drive the miasm deeper and the miasm will "manifest itself as diseases of the internal organs". They believe that in order to cure illness, the miasm must be removed from the "vital force". The concept of miasms have become less popular in modern times, but there are still homeopaths who base their practice around it. It's important to know that none of these ideas are backed by the scientific method, nor have they been shown to be effective when subjected to the scientific method. That said, you can kind of see concepts in homeopathy that are 18th century explanations for phenomena that are real. For example, "like cures like" and "law of minimum dose" is actually kind of how vaccines work: you give a very small bit ("a minimum dose") of a disease-causing microorganism or an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism ("like cures like"), which trains the body's immune system to recognize that agent as a threat. Another example is airborne infectious diseases. It is possible to get certain illnesses (such as COVID-19, measles, chickenpox, the flu, and norovirus) if you encounter a "miasm" (what we now call droplets of an airborne infectious disease). The problem with homeopathy is that it's not the 18th century anymore. Science has moved on from using "like cures like" and "miasms" as explanations for illness. We know that "like cures like" is not an effective treatment for every illness, and we know that not all illnesses are "miasms" (airborne). We have a better grasp of things like genetics, viruses, infections, and environmental factors that allow us to more effectively understand what causes illnesses and how to provide effective, reliable treatments for those illnesses. What's the Harm? Problems with Homeopathic "Remedies" Moving on, I want to start with

your last question first. If homeopathic "remedies" are a placebo and they work, why shouldn't we use them? What's the harm? There are three main problems with using homeopathic "remedies" that I want to discuss. The first and most important answer is just that they don't work. I'll do a deeper dive on the evidence against homeopathic "remedies" and why homeopathic "remedies" don't work in a second, but for now, just know that the first problem is that homeopathy can't fix the health problems people are looking to solve. The placebo effect is pretty limited in its scope; it generally works for subjective, patient-reported outcomes such as pain and nausea, but it doesn't usually affect the actual disease. For example, when the placebo effect is used to treat insomnia, patients perceive that they've slept better, but it doesn't actually improve the amount of time it takes a person to fall asleep. The second problem is that homeopathic "remedies" aren't always harmless. While they're generally "unlikely to provoke severe adverse reactions", there have been cases of those "remedies" being taken off of the market because they've caused serious symptoms such as seizures. In the US, homeopathic "remedies" aren't overseen by the FDA in the same what that medications are. As a result, there's no assurance that the substance you think you're getting is what you're actually getting. Frequently, "remedies" are a waste of money because they don't have enough of the active ingredient to work at all. This is especially true if the product you're getting is a "dilution", which intentionally gets rid of the molecules of the original material as a result of the "law of minimum dose", but it can even be true of things like nutritional supplements that you can buy at CVS or Walmart. In the US, there's no group tasked with objectively testing the claims made by companies that sell "remedies", and there's no group making sure that "remedies" don't have ingredients in them that are unsafe. Belladonna, arsenic, and poison ivy have been found at detectable levels in homeopathic "remedies", and cases of arsenic poisoning in particular have occurred. But because homeopathic products are marketed as if they're "drugs", many people assume they wouldn't be allowed to be sold if they weren't good, if they didn't work, or if they were advertising falsely, and so they keep buying them. If you see an individual homeopath, this problem is compounded. "Homeopath" is not a protected term in the US, meaning that anyone can claim to be one. In turn, this means that there's no licensing board that oversees their work, no professional association or government agency that keeps them accountable for their mistakes, and no educational credentials that they need to begin practicing. Your local homeopath may have no background in biology, medicine, chemistry, pharmacology, or even homeopathic or alternative medicine practices. They can literally just be a person, one who you're trusting to cure your ailments and to not accidentally poison you in the process. The last issue I want to bring up is that homeopathy is often (although not always) viewed as being an acceptable replacement for evidence-backed medicine. This means that often, people who see a homeopath aren't seeing a medical doctor, and their symptoms aren't being treated by evidence-based medicine. By not taking an evidence-based approach to intervening in illness, outcomes are significantly worsened, especially for serious, life-threatening conditions such as cancer. Patients have died as a result of opting to take a homeopathic approach to illness instead of receiving proper treatment for diseases that could have been easily managed by evidence-backed medicine. This becomes an even bigger problem when it comes to public health issues. People who view homeopathy as being equal to or better than evidence-backed medicine are more likely to be anti-vaxxers and to not vaccinate their children. Reductions in vaccination rates have led to resurgences of diseases that had previously

been close to elimination. The US has seen a resurgence of whooping cough, measles, and tetanus as a result of anti-vax sentiment. Those resurgences directly endanger people who cannot be vaccinated due to chronic health issues, people with allergies to ingredients in vaccines, and people who cannot choose to be vaccinated, such as children. How Effective Are Homeopathic "Remedies"? Next, let's talk about studies that look into the efficacy of homeopathic "remedies". Government level reviews of homeopathic "remedies" have been conducted by the UK, Australia, and the European Academies' Science Advisory Council. The UK's study found that there was "no compelling evidence of effect". Australia conducted a meta-analysis of 1800 papers, and found that "there were no health conditions for which there was reliable evidence that homeopathy was effective." EASAC found that there was a lack of evidence that homeopathic products are effective, and raised concerns about quality control. Additionally, there have been systemic reviews and meta-analyses of the efficacy of homeopathic "remedies" from doctors, universities, and medical researchers. In 2005, The Lancet (one of the world's oldest, best-known, and respected medical journals) published a meta-analysis looking at the efficacy of homeopathy. Basically, that means that they looked at data from 110 homeopathy trials. These trials were included in the study because they had a completely randomized set of patients who don't know whether they were getting a "homeopathic treatment" or a placebo pill. This type of "blinded" study allows researchers to see how effective the intervention (in this case, a homeopathic "treatment") actually is. Their findings were, "compatible with the notion that the clinical effects of homeopathy are placebo effects". Meta-analyses have also been conducted on the application of homeopathy for individual diseases, including cancer, ADHD, asthma, insomnia, fibromyalgia, dementia, IBS, osteoarthritis, migraines, ecchymosis and edema, and dermatological conditions, and all have found the same result. The UK's NHS, the American Medical Association, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, the National Health Service and Medical Research Council of Australia, the World Health Organization, the American College of Medical Toxicology, the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and even the acting deputy director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine have all come out against the use of homeopathy, saying that there's "no good quality evidence that homeopathy is effective as treatment for any health condition", recommending that no one use homeopathic "treatments" for disease or as a preventative health measure, and noting that there is evidence that using these treatments can produce harm and indirect health risks. But it Seems Like it Works! What Else Could Have Happened? In terms of what happened with your brother's hyperthyroidism and your nephew's alopecia, I'm perfectly happy to admit that I have no idea. I don't know what the homeopath gave them or what else they were taking or what else they were doing during that period of time that might have changed their health status. I can offer you some hypotheses (and I will in a second), but I don't know, and that's okay. What I do know about is the current state of research on homeopathic "remedies" overall, and how it holds up when subjected to the scientific method. There are a few common culprits for why homeopathy may seem to work. I'm going to go over those now, and then I'll dig into some theories for what may have happened with your brother and nephew. These culprits include:

Placebo effect- we talked about this one earlier, but essentially, if people believe that a "treatment" will work, they're also more likely to believe the "treatment" worked after taking it. As a result, they will report feeling better on subjective measures such as pain.

Natural healing- with time, the body can sometimes heal itself without medical assistance. This is most common for things like viruses.

Therapeutic effect of consultation- care, concern, and reassurance from a compassionate caregiver can have a positive impact on the patient's assessment of their well-being, even if objective assessments of their well-being stay the same.

Regression towards the mean- many conditions and diseases are cyclical. The patient may notice a decrease in symptoms that they attribute to homeopathic "remedies", but are actually just a result of moving to a different stage of the disease cycle.

Cessation of unpleasant treatment- a homeopath may suggest that patients stop receiving medical treatment. Medical treatments can sometimes have unpleasant side effects, and so halting those treatments can make the patient feel better in the short term. The patient attributes the decrease in symptoms to the homeopathic "remedy" but it's actually that they stopped taking a medication that has side effects. In the short term, this feels good, but in the long term it is destructive because the disease isn't being treated.

Non-homeopathic treatment- the patient is also receiving medical care, and the medical care is responsible for the decrease in symptoms, not the homeopathic "remedy".

Unrecognized treatments- an unrelated food, exercise, environmental agent, treatment for a different ailment, etc. is also treating the patient's medical condition and is responsible for the decrease in symptoms.

For alopecia areata (hair loss in patches on the scalp), spontaneous remission is actually more common than you might expect. In most cases that begin with a small number of patches of hair loss, hair grows back after a few months to a year. It's possible that your nephew's hair just... grew back, especially if time had passed. It's also possible your nephew's parents were treating his alopecia other ways (minoxidil, contact immunotherapy, corticosteroids, a gluten free diet if the alopecia was associated with celiac disease) and just didn't tell you or your mum. Hyperthyroidism is a bit more difficult to guess at. It could be that your brother's medical doctors switched him to a different medication that did work or changed his dosage. If you're sure that's not it, it could be that he switched his diet to one that's low iodine and low in caffeine. Research suggests that, although a low iodine diet cannot cure hyperthyroidism, it can reduce or alleviate the symptoms in some people. If your brother went vegetarian, vegan, or stopped eating fish, that could be the culprit. If he stopped taking a multivitamin that contains iodine, that could be it. If he started eating a ton of foods high in goitrogens (soy, cassava, cabbage, cauliflower), that could also contribute to what happened, since goitrogens interfere with the uptake of iodine in the thyroid. It's also possible he was misdiagnosed, but if it's true that he went to "tons of real doctors", that seems fairly unlikely. Again, all of these are just guesses for the purpose of illustrating what confounding factors may have been present. I think the bottom line with stories like these are that you're hearing them secondhand. You don't know how many doctors your nephew or brother saw, or the quality of those doctors, or what they diagnosed, or what they prescribed, or how many different lifestyle changes they tried. You don't know what the homeopath prescribed them, or if they took it. You're hearing a story of miracles through the mouth of a believer, and that can make it difficult to know what is and isn't true (in a medically accurate kind of way). It's possible that your mum's homeopath has stumbled upon a treatment for alopecia and one for hyperthyroidism that work better than traditional medicine. I hope that's true. We can always use better treatments, especially for difficult-to-cure conditions like alopecia. But I think it's more likely that there's just some piece of information you weren't given. What do I do? Getting to your original question, there's not a ton of evidence-backed research (that I could find, at least) for how to change people's minds about homeopathy, but there is data on changing people's minds with regard to vaccines, and I think using those tactics may work in both cases. What to do about your mum's beliefs in homeopathy depend on where those beliefs come from, how entrenched they are, and how it's impacting her life. If she's just someone who tries lifestyle changes and supplements from CVS first before going to a doctor and if she believes in vaccination, homeopathy is a waste of time and money, but it's probably not too big of a problem. In that case, it may not be worth pushing her about it, especially if she hasn't found a new homeopath after her old one passed away. If she's anti-vax and/or refuses to see medical doctors, that's a bigger problem, and it's worth having a conversation about. Changing her views is likely to take time, so be prepared to have at least a few conversations about these topics. And be prepared to step away from the conversation and resume it at a later time if it becomes too contentious. Start by asking her about her fears with regard to evidence-backed medicine. Do your best to be curious rather than judgmental in those conversations and to be a good listener. Respect is the most important tool in changing a person's mind, so try not to interrupt, be dismissive, or combat her beliefs off the bat. Affirm her right to have questions (but not the validity of the actual concern), and

try to say positive things about her in the conversation (for example, "I can see you really want to do everything you can to keep yourself healthy and safe"). Focus on her feelings, not facts. By trying to understand where she's coming from, you can begin to understand where her hesitations are and how those fears might be remedied. For example, a lot of people who believe in homeopathy do so in part because they feel like homeopathic practitioners listen to them, respect them, and care about them more than medical doctors do. They've usually had a bad experience with medical doctors. Knowing where her fears lie gives you a better idea of what she needs in a medical context, and can help you figure out how to dispel misconceptions she has about medicine or find alternatives that actually work. In the case of feeling like medical doctors don't respect her, you may be able to help your mum find a medical doctor who will spend longer with her and really listen to what she has to say. You can try asking her follow-up questions that allow her to investigate her own beliefs. For example, you might try asking about Hahnemann's ideas of "like cures like", "the law of minimum dose" or "water memory" and see how she reacts. Many people, even those who use homeopathic "remedies", don't know the principles that it's based on, and will eventually express skepticism when asked to explain them. It's tempting to try and combat pseudoscience with facts, but studies suggest that presenting facts makes people more likely to cling to their original beliefs. It's better to let people investigate their beliefs on their own through asking the right questions. You might also try this technique. Ask her how likely she would be to see a medical doctor/get a vaccine, on a scale of 0-10. If she says 1 or 0, this strategy isn't going to work. But if she says 2 or 3, then you can ask her why she's not a 0. Why is she not fully saying she won't see a medical doctor or get a vaccine? This forces her to explain what she thinks the positives of medical doctors/vaccinations are. Now you're on the same side; you both think there are some positives to the medical profession. Reinforce those ideas when you talk to her. From there, you can ask what would make her more likely to see a medical doctor/get a vaccine, and when she answers, you can point to the places where those things exist in the medical field. If nothing else works, you could try finding ways to make evidence-based medicine and vaccination compatible with her beliefs. Perhaps you could try using the language of homeopathy to explain medical issues and their treatments. For example, with COVID, it might work to tell her that COVID is a miasm, and that researchers used "like cures like" and the “law of minimum dose” to create a vaccine to remove the miasm from the "vital force". All of that is technically true, at least in a sense. It's just not the language scientists would use to describe what happens. To Sum It Up The medical establishment definitely has issues it needs to work on. The lack of compassionate, respectful care in many medical settings is a real problem, and it has real consequences. There are some situations in which a placebo is a potentially valid approach to treatment. But the answer is not to encourage homeopathy. It's to do more research, develop better drugs, and change the ways that doctors interact with their patients. Homeopathy doesn't work, and it does potentially have harmful side effects, both on a personal and societal level. The way we can combat homeopathy is to be curious and respectful, to help people identify and work through their concerns, and to offer them solutions to their medical problems that take those concerns into account.

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theoddhumie · 4 years

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Okay, the "Humans are Space Aussies" thing is really cool. So I wanted to contribute somehow. So here goes.

When you find an unknown signal that has originated from the most dangerous deathworld in the galaxy what will you do? Any sane Xyylan would report that to their higher ups and carry on with their duty. But then some crazy fraggin' idiot decides to investigate this rock of death with water on it, and finds humans. Well, thank the stars he didn't actually contact them. They were registered as "The most dangerous sentient galactic superpredators" and their was starsystem quarantined, meaning that no ships could enter it. But then some bigger IDIOTS from another galaxy, the Settra as they called themselves, decided to invade our galaxy. And after hacking our database, can you guess which system they chose to attack first? Can, can you guess? Can you fathom a guess? YES they attacked the fraggin Sol system! Where this so called Earth is! And then, turns out that the most weapons that civilised galaxy used are ineffective against them! Whoop-de-fraggin-doo. Not even the heavy kinetic handcanon that is designed to punch holes in the carbon plating! (polymers similar to plastic) And after that the human that was shot gets up, their clothes torn and their soft tissues damaged a bit or as they say "bruised" and tear these Settran matriarchfraggers apart! With their bare hands! Then they reverse engineered the Settran technologies. These sorry spineless fools didn't know what they released upon this galaxy! They could only sit tight in theirs and shake their mandibles in hopes that humans won't come after them. But surprisingly, humans did not contact any of us. They did not venture far away from from their part of the galaxy seemingly taking their time and colonising nearby planets that were barely useful for us. The Grand Council calmed down a bit and everything was back to normal. But everything changed when the Queelan attacked. They glassed our planets and the Council did not do anything, because "galactic warfare laws" and it meant that Queelan didn't do anything wrong, as long as other species that belong to the Council are not involved. We pleaded, we we prayed for someone to stop the culling of Xyylan. And guess who responded to our pleas? When our home starsystem was besieged suddenly a giant armada of black ships arrived. These ships started to decimate the Queelan armada with unknown projectile based weapons, missiles and lasers. When they landed, unknown tall specimens clad in suits that were covering their whole bodies, their faces were hidden behind black glass came out from their dropships . When they used bio-scanner, only one word appeared on its holo screens :

Humans.

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Terminology explaination :

Deathworld - a world that is barely inhabitable (by alien standards) , yet has life on it. Such worlds have : fatal weather conditions, inconsistent climate, active tectonic plate movements that cause disasters (volcanoes, earthquakes) , high moon activity, holstile fauna, poisonous flora, high sun radiation, dangerous microorganisms.

_________________________________________

So, you see where this is going? Earth was ignored for so long, because no sentient species in the galaxy believed that sentient creatures were able to perform this amount of tasks to merely survive.

Most deathworlds have a half of these dangers, BUT NOT FRAGGIN ALL OF THEM!

Species I mentioned :

Xyylan and Queelan are really closely related to each other, essentially being a subspecies of the same race, but their history made them view each others as enemies.

Xyylan are bipedal, short reptile like race with six limbs (two legs, four arms) . Their heads look reminiscent to iguanas head, but their eyes are round and with little to no sclera (when first met humans thought that they were high). The spines on their head are like hair to us humans, but males have longer spines that are pointed upwards and females have softer spines that lie on either side of their heads. Xyylan have tails that help them with balance because their legs are quite short. Their scale color ranges from dark yellow with green patterns on their back to dark blue with red patterns on their back. These colors mean alot in their society and their hierarchy is based on them, but if a green scaled Xyylan wants to a warrior and a red scaled Xyylan wants to be an engineer no one will forbid them from doing so. They have a matriarchal monarchy meaning that Xyylan Conglomerate is ruled by a Queen.

Queelan on the other hand are more snake like, but they still have four hands like their "cousins" and same goofy eyes, their color scheme is not so different except that the patterns on their back are sharp, almost lightning like. Their heads do not have spines, but they are shaped like that of a cobra and have the same "cape" as the earthen ones. Xyylan rulers are the strongest of their kind, that were able to survive through the gruelling trial of surviving on a deathworld nearby their starsystem, if more then one survived, then they will be forced to duel to death with meelee weapons of their choosing.

(I am not a native English speaker, so please cut me some slack. And also I am on phone.)

#humans are space orcs #space australia #humans are amazing #humans are space oddities #humans are space fae #humans are weird #humans are space australians #earth is a deathworld

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saladejin · 4 years

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Call An Uber? | 03

BTS x Reader | idolverse au, uber driver!Reader, translator!Reader | Fluff, flirting, super slow burn, angst and hurt/comfort, mature themes and eventual smut

Summary: Your normal life with a normal, yet inconsistent job gets drastically changed when your dreams come true. Sounds boring right?

What happens when all of this occurs, but you’re still doing something you love AND getting a large sum for it? Now there’s something to think about, and it’s definitely not what you’re thinking.

Warnings: Might seem a little too unrealistic, whoops...

Word Count: 2.5k

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My pen glided across the paper with ease, and I couldn’t help but smile when my signature looked back at me from the page on the table.

Reading through the three folders of fresh information had taken nearly an hour and a half to finish, but I only had myself to blame for that. I always took way too long to analyse everything I was getting myself into, never one to take massive risks when it came down to business.

I knew I would never refuse this deal though.

It had been a week since the ‘fateful’ encounter. The spontaneous incident in which my entire world had forever changed, and the evidence sat right in front of me on the very table my knees knocked lightly against in anticipation. The same table situated in the main Bighit Entertainment building itself.

“Well shit, I knew I recognised the car!”

A familiar voice broke me from my trance, and I flicked my eyes upwards to see a very excitable Jungkook jogging towards me. His face was split into a somewhat shy grin, and I could immediately see how the corners of his eyes crinkled in joy as he finally reached my side.

To my shock, the surprises didn’t stop there, and I watched as six other very familiar people followed in their youngest member’s stead. The sliding doors to the company’s building finally slid shut, and so did my mind as the sudden nerves took hold.

“Hello noona, what a surprise! What brings you here?” Jungkook queried as he stood beside the couch where I was seated. I stopped my eyes from flickering over to where the other members of Bangtan were standing a few meters behind and smiled warmly at the younger boy.

“You probably thought you’d seen the last of me, right? It’s a bit of a long story, and all of you are probably busy so I won’t keep you.” I swallowed apprehensively as my eyes tore from his widened ones to gaze further behind. All of them were here, in the same proximity as me.

Controlling my breathing was a priority, sorry Kook.

I looked up again when someone made a loud noise of recognition, and Jimin jolted forward with his eyes blowing wide cutely. All of them were in light, breathable active wear of sorts due to the heat, but the sight of Jimin’s exposed biceps in particular made me sweat profusely.

“(Y/n)-ssi? Wah, I knew Jungkook wouldn’t just go up to a random girl like that. How are you doing?”

I laughed as the maknae huffed at his elder’s words, and crossed one leg over the other to face them properly. Seeing as I’d met these two before, the going was a little less rough as it would have been if all seven of them had just jumped straight over.

“Nice to see you again Jimin-ssi. I’m doing amazing surprisingly, how about all of you?” The smile was natural, but I was surprised I could even keep a level tone when my emotions were positively storming beneath the surface.

I could see Hoseok and Seokjin exchanging curious murmurs with each other as they observed the interaction from afar, while Taehyung was animatedly questioning Namjoon much to the latter’s gradual irritation. Yoongi remained still, but he had tugged one of his earphones out to gather snippets of whatever was happening. He wasn’t glaring, but his thoughtful gaze speculated as it switched between me, the maknaes and eventually Namjoon instinctively.

“We’re great, just about to start daily practices, actually,” Jimin responded and returned my smile instantly. I nodded my head in understanding, my ruffled hair swinging into my eyes yet again. The amount of times I had run my hands through it in the past hour or so caused it to become messy, and it had been infuriating me more and more as time dragged on.

I caught Namjoon’s inquisitive gaze behind Jungkook’s shoulder when I flipped the straying hair away. The rapper tightly smiled before gracing me with a tiny courteous wave. It was easy to see he was just as curious as Jungkook had been about my presence in the Bighit building.

I waved back, and saw Taehyung joining into the silent exchange with his own doubly excited hand gestures. I couldn’t believe how instantly warm and friendly the boy already seemed in person.

“Are those the things you had to sign after…the other day?” Jungkook wondered aloud after looking back at his hyungs, then down to the sheets of paper sprawled on the table. My pen loudly tapped on the documents twice before I smirked.

“Nope, those were signed on the day. This’ll sound pretty straightforward, but I somehow got a job here.”

“You what?” Jungkook’s bulging eyes and slacked jaw made themselves known, and he exchanged surprised gazes with Jimin and Namjoon behind him before smiling widely. “That’s great noona, what will you even be doing?”

Namjoon, upon hearing the sudden shift in conversation, couldn’t douse his flames of curiosity any longer it seemed. He tentatively made his way over with his large hands stuffed deeply in the pockets of his shorts.

“What’s happening, kids?”

“(Y/n)-ssi just said she got a job here, that’s amazing,” Jimin gushed and I bowed in gratitude towards both him and Jungkook as they congratulated me. Namjoon’s eyes flashed with a few emotions before settling down. His eyebrows raising high before furrowing, then lifting high again as he nodded with a gentle smile appearing on his tanned face. I could understand if he was suspicious, as my entrance into the company had not been the most professional one out there.

“That’s great (Y/n). I guess you can let us know the details later, but for now, welcome to the Bighit family.” His dimpled grin and outstretched hand of welcoming and acceptance caused many feelings to swirl around within me. I was so truly blessed this fortnight, seeing as though I’d landed a brilliant job and met some of my favourite people in the process. Experiencing Namjoon’s kindness was just a sweet cherry on top.

“Ah, thank you so much. I know I’ll love being here,” I grasped his significantly larger palm and shook it confidently, relishing in the feeling of his slightly calloused hand engulfing my own. I knew I probably held his gaze for a heartbeat too long, but it didn’t remain. The moment was interrupted by some staff calling them from down the hallway.

Probably their choreographers.

“Oh, when will we see you again? You still didn’t mention what you’re doing,” Jungkook spluttered when the older members began traipsing away to follow the sound of the impatient voice. Taehyung looked back with a pout, and I pouted back light-heartedly to let him know I was just as eager as he was to finally meet. The others, including Namjoon, left with polite smiles and waves, obviously having their priorities straight unlike the two vocalists standing before me.

“I’m an interpreter now. And you two should seriously think about getting to practice.” I raised an eyebrow, craning my head to see where the others had disappeared to down the hall. Jimin at least had the sense to start making his way backwards, futilely tugging on Jungkook’s shirt. My suggestion had a delayed effect, but Jungkook finally bowed again before turning around to follow the blonde boy.

“Have fun, I’ll talk to you guys another time!” I called out and returned to my paperwork after hearing their hasty farewells.

My hands and face were tingling from all the interaction I had barely been able to comprehend. How was I not a stuttering mess whenever they acknowledged me? I’d always thought for sure something like that would be the case if I ever met them. Hell, whenever I thought about meeting them, it would always be at some kind of fan meeting where I would only get a few choice words to say…or rather rehearse.

With a sigh, I recalled how this situation had morphed into an integral part of my life, that part being my career. Even though I was only a mere Uber driver, it seemed pure luck had rained down upon me within the span of just two days. I must have cured diseases in my past life for these things to be granted to me so suddenly.

“If I said I was fluent in Spanish, would that help?”

The woman whipped her head around to gaze at me thoroughly, and I suddenly felt uncomfortable. Why had I just gone and boldly inserted myself into their predicament? Bighit was a large and successful company, they could figure something out for sure. Rescheduling to add another day wouldn’t even be a problem if the donor could stay in a hotel somewhere in the city, just for example.

Still, it’s not like I know the circumstances.

“Uh, Miss-” The woman stopped her awkward approach when Bang PD raised a hand suddenly. His smile turned in my direction, and I felt my shoulders relax when I was reminded yet again of his direct, but kind attitude.

“You’ve done us a great service already Miss (L/n) (F/n), we couldn’t trouble you further.”

I opened my mouth to respond when the loud ringtone of the woman echoed along the walls of the dormitory reception. She picked it up and I kept an eye on Bang PD’s face while he scanned over her. When her facial expression winced, Bang PD frowned deeply with a sharp exhale, and he turned back to me once she’d shaken her head at him. This obviously indicated something I’d missed, but it most likely meant whatever help they had tried to line up for themselves had failed.

“Well, it turns out we may need your help once more. Miss (F/n). I’m afraid I won’t be able to pay you as much as I already have.”

“Please, I seriously don’t need to be paid for this one. It’s on me.” I smiled and my keen, pointed gaze left no room for argument. The short man sighed and shook his head with a chuckle, looking at his assistant beside him before gesturing for me to follow them outside. “We’ll be heading to the actual Bighit building for this meeting, are you an experienced interpreter?”

The woman begrudgingly agreed with her boss’ plan and fell into step beside me. I wouldn’t be driving my own car out of here, but would be dropped back later apparently. I answered him as we all clambered into a transport van. “I’ve done some work with interpreting, and I have a bachelor’s degree of International Studies to support it. I earned that back in (Y/c).”

The woman’s eyes widened, and she exchanged a glance with her equally impressed boss before returning it to me. “So how many languages are you fluent in?”

“Five actually, that’s Korean, English, Spanish, (language choice 1) and (language choice 2). They’re at different levels of fluency, but I can definitely hold conversations in each.” I smiled, feeling proud of my achievements so far.

Yes, even though I was only a mere Uber driver, I still had big plans for my future. Hence why I was even travelling to Korea in the first place. It was to continue my studies and gain experience for various languages. I was planning to enrol into a famous university at some point during the next couple of years, and I was filled with overwhelming glee that I was going to receive some first-hand work experience with interpreting today. Only a couple of months into my travels!

“That is truly amazing, every company needs someone like you,” Bang PD spoke in awe, and I dipped my head to him in appreciation. The woman wrote something on her planning clipboard and then reached down to punch out a text to whomever had called her before.

“Say, how would you feel if I asked you to work for Bighit, Miss (Y/n)?”

His words shocked me to my very core, and I almost choked on my own saliva in response. The woman also balked at his words before an understanding and calculating expression appeared. She nodded slowly and then met my eyes with her strikingly serious ones.

“You would be such an asset, as our current interpreters are only numbered few. They don’t have the extent that you do either, and a wider range of languages means a wider range of opportunities. Boss, this is…” She trailed off and her hair whipped around with her head as she caught Bang’s chuckling grin.

“I know, why do you think I asked?”

My mind was reeling from the new turn of events. Working for Bighit? I was surely dreaming. This was something majority of fans wished for with their whole, open hearts. To be close to their favourite idols for most days of the week, and to see what goes on behind the scenes of the various shows and schedules.

How do I even wrap my brain around this?

“I-I would actually love to, but it’s not really that easy, right?” I stammered, my eyes blown wide and my heart erratically hitting my ribcage with every spoken syllable.

“No, there’ll be heaps of paperwork and necessary background checks, etcetera etcetera,” Bang PD began. “But I basically had an interview with you before. I would love to have you on our team, and I’m sure you’d love to be on ours.”

His smirk and chuckle was enough to have me burying my face into my hands in embarrassment. Heat was flaring up my neck, and I knew the tops of my ears weren’t dissimilar. “I know I’m a fan, but I promise it wouldn’t get in the way of anything.”

I laughed along with him, my emotions almost spilling out onto my cheeks as I fully revelled in what had happened.

I’m going to work for them? And in turn help the process of Bangtan’s success? Bloody hell what has even happened to my life?

The music industry had actually interested me as well during my teenage years, but getting to try both career pathways in one bundle was legitimately too good to even be true. My heart was fluttering.

“Yes, well, we’re going to see how you go in the meeting here, but from what I’ve already gathered you have very strong willpower and morals. I easily judge people when I meet them, and I can tell you put everything into what you do. You’re compassionate and make decisions quick and easy, as shown by how you rescued our little ones today. Without your help, they would have struggled, and with your help now, I know we can strive for larger goals in Bighit’s future. Additionally, that’s helping our artists strive for larger goals within their careers too.”

I closed my eyes, unable to stop the spread of inevitable happiness throughout my very being. Breathing deeply, I joined his gaze from across the car seat with a sparked confidence, and I saw the assistant even smile at me approvingly.

“I won’t let you down, Bang PD-nim.”

tagged: @l4life

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