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youreditingteam · 2 years

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Why Do You Need to Outsource Your Wedding/ Event Photographs

In the past few years, the Photography industry witnessed the dawn and mastery of mirrorless cameras and exponential advancements in software and computing power. Communicating as a person who started shooting on black and white film, repositioned to digital on a 6-megapixel camera, and now shoots exclusively only on mirrorless bodies. As any photographer can honestly declare that it’s never been easier to produce great quality photography.

By definition, a photographer is an artist. They construct elements that didn’t exist before. They see shoots as forming images of more than just a “photo,” more than just indicating the camera in the direction of the action and pressing the button.

We could claim that the art of photography ends as soon as the shutter closes. An assignment has been done, pick up jumpers and go home for toast. But that would be an artless, traditionalist, and romanticized point of view. Post-processing, whether in lightroom or by photo editor a huge part in the look of the final image. It’s another opportunity to strengthen your creative voice, refine something a little, and pull attention to the point of the image. Because after all, every image is taken for a reason, to get a message across, right? Well, I’d like to think so. Sometimes the message is just, ‘oh this looks nice’. But more often it goes much deeper.

If it is difficult to find someone who else edits your photos but you feel that you owe it to your clients to be 100% authentic, to own the final image, and say “You made this.” Then You must hire a truly trustworthy partner to outsource your photographs.

Top 5 Reasons to Start Outsourcing Photo

Editing is one of the considerably time-consuming factors of your post-wedding workflow. Every minute you consume editing is perhaps the time you aren’t devouring expanding your photography business.

For more explanations of why outsourcing photo editing is good for your business, read ahead!

You Shouldn’t Do It All -

Steve Jobs once said, “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” The validity is there’s not enough time to carry on every single task essential to run, expand, and maintain your photography business.

Technically emitting, you can execute all chores all by yourself, but it could bring up way too much of your time — and even count to your stress.

Professionals are Aces -

As a photographer, you have a distinctive photography style. That style helps you book clients and its benefits illustrate who you are as a photog.

As an artist and the creative concept behind your photography company, you can concentrate on shooting, lighting, posing, and everything that goes into grasping stunning photographs. An expert can focus on the technique behind color correction, qualifying you to have invariant images to give to your clients. Also, here at YourEditTeam, we perform with you to fit your unique photography style.

There Is So Broadly To Accomplish -

Photograph editing is a vital part of your assignment so that you can provide outstanding photos to your clients. But, there are so considerable stakes to editing shots. So the time consumed on image edits can be long and become very overwhelming for you. Let’s take a look at all that you might require to do while editing.

A. Edits

Now, however proficient you might be as a photographer, several things require concentration in the post-production phase. Below, we’ve listed most of them.

Shadows

Culling

White balance

Temperature

Tint

Exposure

Black points

White points

Contrast

Skin retouching

Cropping Highlights

Compressing images

Teeth whitening

Aspect ratios

Removing unwanted elements

Converting file types

Stylistic additions (vignetting, blurring, bokeh, etc.)

Research and development

Process improvements

Upgrades and replacements

Upkeep

B. Workflow

In addition to the standard image editing that requires to be done to your images, you have to consider workflow tasks you need to keep accomplishing to ensure your workflow is streamlined and prepared for editing.

C. Expenditure

Invest the extra money in calibrating systems and updating equipment. Other than this buy high-end editing software as well as hire an in-house editor specialist.

Wedding Clients Want Their Images Faster-

Turnaround time is a very crucial metric of your client’s happiness.

If you outsource your post-production assignment to a photo editing company like Youreditingteam, a fast turnaround time could help you eliminate anxiety and preserve an efficient workflow. That indicates your clients will be thrilled about obtaining their images sooner. The more satisfied your clients are, the more probable they will be to convey the photos to their loved ones in-person and via social media. They also recommend you to their business network, friends, and family. Even they leave a lustrous testimonial on your website or Google business page.

Loved Ones Want Your Time

Every hour you spend on your company is the time consumed away from the personal fortes you love to do with the ones you love. No point how much you adore your job, your health and well-being demand you grab some time off from your enterprise and its responsibilities.

Trust us, your personal life and loved ones will thank you and give you a thumbs up for trusting an expert.

What is a wedding/ event photography Photography Post Processing?

In certain, when an event project comes to photographing weddings, it’s about producing images of characters, moments, and emotions. Any event photographs will be hugely influential to people as they restart their journey through life.

In wedding and family photography, photographers spend time getting to know the people during photographing, how they interact with each other, and what their relationships are like.

Professional photographers have sponsored a lot already in terms of time, planning, observing, and building a connection with people. After that, they chose their lens, camera settings, background, etc. They have likely felt about 101 things before emitting the shutter.

Some people can edit your photos — the human approach is a massive plus when an image comes to editing. From distinguishing what works and what doesn’t, to being able to recognize distractions, to catching when an average or even slightly out-of-focus image might be a hidden gem.

Is it time to outsource Your photo?

Outsourcing your photographs to edit, helps you to improve by learning from your mistakes and evaluating your photography work.

Editing your photos will help you to become satisfactorily and prompter at photography. But also form extra components on your business service to increase its perceived value for the customer. One thing you love about photography is that you constantly discovering and aspiring to improve your work.

Many photographers say image editing is a very easy job to learn & that’s why they spend valuable time learning image editing and buying many AI software.

But for professionals, the edit is part of the journey of creativity and they want to outsource it to an expert hand. That’s why they focus on their artwork advancement & make their fame.

When does a photography company decide to outsource

There are more things a company can do if outsourcing photo editing jobs to specialists. The below items on the list may not necessarily be for an individual freelance photographer but the most important tasks that can help you get your business images in front of ideal clients.

To make sure you focus on the best tasks for your photography company, think back to what you receive in ROI from each to make your decisions.

Toiling On Your Brand

Develop a marketing campaign

Produce branding from Social Media

Introduce photographs to magazines

Bringing On New Business Opportunities

Rehearsal shooting techniques

Create New Revenue Streams

Attend photography conferences (online and in-person)

Grab a business course

Revamp your website

Utilizing Personal Time

Carry a new headshot projects

Prearrange more clients

Shoot more weddings-shoots

Form more albums and books

Maximize Earnings

Exercise in-person sales

Count associate photographers

Initiate a new business model

Network with merchants

Devising Remarkable Client Experiences

Marketing To Ideal Clients

Enclosing Hobbies

Buyer Referrals

Valuable Secrets For Outsourcing Your Photo Editing Needs

Let me tell you a Secrets: AI software can’t edit. They can’t notice a light switch that could easily be cropped out. They can’t split composition rules to produce a fascinating image.

The editing methodology can be a hugely ingenious part of the whole approach, and standing imaginative is what makes us YET, or rather, being Teamwork is what makes us creative photo editor experts. Our creative services separate us from auto robots editor software. We are able to feel your storyline, which also comes into photography, even during the editing process.

Find the best deal of 2022 for wedding/event photography post-production.

Keep in the sense that a proficient is an expert in the tasks you outsource to them; so this will in all probability guarantee quality and consistency for your photos.

Here at Your Editing Team, we touch with and chat with photographers & studio companies worldwide about their success stories after they outsource photography editing. All have replies & responses about the positive influence outsourcing has had on their businesses after they partnered with a professional photo editing services company (YourEditingTeam)

Visit our blog page:- YET Blogs

Source url:- https://sites.google.com/view/youreditingteam/home

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lemonadesoda · 2 years

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Linden got me thinking really hard about Alpine worldbuilding again so here's another ramble post (if there's repeats of previous stuff, welp *shrug*)

Water is drawn up from subterranean pipe systems. Each village center has a boiler that heats the water and transmits hot water to the homes that require it (not every house has running hot water!)

In Perilee, the boilermaster is Odaya, a nomad like Sembe. His work is kind of like Kamaji in Spirited Away! Each village also has its own boilermaster to maintain the plumbing system.

As mentioned before, rain is scarce at the higher altitudes. The chapters of Icarus occasionally make mention of a "sea of clouds" below the peaks, indicating a temperature inversion that prevents condensation above a certain altitude and restricting rain at villages like Perilee. Predominant water sources are from irrigation from the underground wells and humidity catchment from the air, like in the desert.

The majority of agriculture in the Alpine community cluster happens below the inversion in Resting, the previously-mentioned "base camp" town center. Smaller localized community farms/gardens are grown in the villages to augment the provisions from Resting, primarily using vertical gardening techniques and terracing.

The Alpine cluster is not the only set of settlements in the entire mountain range which is Long and runs many miles south down to the coast and connects with the island on which Mafia Town sits.

Gondola system is highly maintained, like on a daily basis. Obviously the transport of goods and labor is critical for maintaining normal lifestyle.

Fortnightly meetings happen between the village heads, typically to discuss inventory of provisions and the necessary amount of planting that needs to be done to replenish. Meals in all the settlements are produced using a mixture of preserved food and fresh food, the ratio between the two being determined by the current success of the crop and rate of consumption of the constantly shifting populations.

It's incredibly important culturally that everyone, traveler or resident, have their basic needs provided, so food consumption and production is very carefully tracked across all of the villages. Many nomads settled here because they vibed well with the fundamental values of the Alpine settlement.

Store caches are dug into the rock, often repurposed from preexisting ancient ones from the forerunner goat settlements who originally populated the mountains. There are several for each village and a larger centralized one in Resting.

Though the mountain range is not immediately coastal, it is close enough and large enough to the ocean to create a rain shadow. Hence, east of the range is the desert, and east of that are the bird nations where that arc of the story takes place and where the city with Dead Bird Studios is. In this story, it is called Twin Beaks City, because I like how it sounds, and multiple friends thought it was very funny.

This also implies that the prevailing winds are from the west at this latitude.

Subcon is a hearty trek southwest of the Alpine cluster, but loops around a curving coast line. I need to draw a shitty map some day. Anyways, there's no straight shot by foot!

The Nyakuza Metro city is called Nekodate, a pun on the port city of Hakodate in Hokkaido, Japan. As such, Nekodate is also a port city lying to the south of the Alpine cluster but still northeast of Subcon forest. The Metro is just the casual name of the city center as well as the transit system.

To the almost immediate west of Alpine is a small lake called the Star Fountain. Lemel lives here in an abandoned shack!

Okay this is long i will stop here

#life with Lemon #idk what to tag this tbh #worldbuilding #ahit hide and seek #ahit catching icarus #oc posting for my health and stuff #even though i only mention them once

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dwellordream · 3 years

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“This brings us to the most fundamental fact of rural life in the pre-modern world: the grain is harvested once a year, but the family eats every day. Of course that means the grain must be stored and only slowly consumed over the entire year (with some left over to be used as seed-grain in the following planting). That creates the first cycle in agricultural life: after the harvest, food is generally plentiful and prices for it are low (we’ll deal with the impact this has on trade and markets a little later). As the year goes on, food becomes scarcer and the prices for it rise as each family ‘eats down’ their stockpile.

That has more than just economic impacts because the family unit becomes more vulnerable as that food stockpile dwindles. Malnutrition brings on a host of other threats: elevated risk of death from injury or disease most notably. Repeated malnutrition also has devastating long-term effects on young children (a point we’ll come back to). Consequently, we see seasonal mortality patterns in agricultural communities which tend to follow harvest cycles; when the harvest is poor, the family starts to run low on food before the next harvest, which leads to rationing the remaining food, which leads to malnutrition. That malnutrition is not evenly distributed though: the working age adults need to be strong enough to bring in the next harvest when it comes (or to be doing additional non-farming labor to supplement the family), so the short rations are going to go to the children and the elderly.

Which in turn means that ‘lean’ years are marked by increased mortality especially among the children and the elderly, the former of which is how the rural population ‘regulates’ to its food production in the absence of modern birth control (but, as an aside: this doesn’t lead to pure Malthusian dynamics – a lot more influences the food production ceiling than just available land. You can have low-equilibrium or high-equilibrium systems, especially when looking at the availability of certain sorts of farming capital or access to trade at distance. I cannot stress this enough: Malthus was wrong; yes, interestingly, usefully wrong – but still wrong. The big plagues sometimes pointed to as evidence of Malthusian crises have as much if not more to do with rising trade interconnectedness than declining nutritional standards). This creates yearly cycles of plenty and vulnerability; we’ll talk about the strategies these fellows employ to avoid that problem in just a moment.

Next to that little cycle, we also have a ‘big’ cycle of generations. The ratio of labor-to-food-requirements varies as generations are born, age and die; it isn’t constant. The family is at its peak labor effectiveness at the point when the youngest generation is physically mature but hasn’t yet begun having children (the exact age-range there is going to vary by nuptial patterns, see below) and at its most vulnerable when the youngest generation is immature. By way of example, let’s imagine a family (I’m going to use Roman names because they make gender very clear, but this is a completely made-up family): we have Gaius (M, 45), his wife, Cornelia (39, F), his mother Tullia (64, F) and their children Gaius (21, M), Secundus (19, M), Julia1 (16, F) and Julia2 (14, F). That family has three male laborers, three female laborers (Tullia being in her twilight years, we don’t count), all effectively adults in that sense, against 7 mouths to feed.

But let’s fast-forward fifteen years. Gaius is now 60 and slowing down, Cornelia is 54; Tullia, we may assume has passed. But Gaius now 36 is married to Clodia (20, F; welcome to Roman marriage patterns), with two children Gaius (3, M) and Julia3 (1, F); Julia1 and Julia2 are married and now in different households and Secundus, recognizing that the family’s financial situation is never going to allow him to marry and set up a household has left for the Big City. So we now have the labor of two women and a man-and-a-half (since Gaius the Elder is quite old) against six mouths and the situation is likely to get worse in the following years as Gaius-the-Younger and Clodia have more children and Gaius-the-Elder gets older. The point of all of this is to note that just as risk and vulnerability peak and subside on a yearly basis in cycles, they also do this on a generational basis in cycles.

...Most modern folks think in terms of profit maximization; we take for granted that we will still be alive tomorrow and instead ask how we can maximize how much money we have then (this is, admittedly, a lot less true for the least fortunate among us). We thus tend to favor efficient systems, even if they are vulnerable. From this perspective, ancient farmers – as we’ll see – look very silly, but this is a trap, albeit one that even some very august ancient scholars have fallen into. These are not irrational, unthinking people; they are poor, not stupid – those are not the same things.

But because these households wobble on the edge of disaster continually, that changes the calculus. These small subsistence farmers generally seek to minimize risk, rather than maximize profits. After all, improving yields by 5% doesn’t mean much if everyone starves to death in the third year because of a tail-risk that wasn’t mitigated. Moreover, for most of these farmers, working harder and farming more generally doesn’t offer a route out of the small farming class – these societies typically lack that kind of mobility (and also generally lack the massive wealth-creation potential of industrial power which powers that kind of mobility). Consequently, there is little gain to taking risks and much to lose. So as we’ll see, these farmers generally sacrifice efficiency for greater margins of safety, every time.

Modern farms are built for efficiency – they typically focus on a single major crop (whatever brings the best returns for the land and market situation) because focusing on a single crop lets you maximize the value of equipment and minimize other costs. They rely on other businesses to provide everything else. Such farms tend to be geographically concentrated – all the fields together – to minimize transit time.

Subsistence farmers generally do not do this. Remember, the goal is not to maximize profit, but to avoid family destruction through starvation. If you only farm one crop (the ‘best’ one) and you get too little rain or too much, or the temperature is wrong – that crop fails and the family starves. But if you farm several different crops, that mitigates the risk of any particular crop failing due to climate conditions, or blight (for the Romans, the standard combination seems to have been a mix of wheat, barley and beans, often with grapes or olives besides; there might also be a small garden space. Orchards might double as grazing-space for a small herd of animals, like pigs). By switching up crops like this and farming a bit of everything, the family is less profitable (and less engaged with markets, more on that in a bit), but much safer because the climate conditions that cause one crop to fail may not impact the others.

...Likewise – as that example implies – our small farmers want to spread out their plots. And indeed, when you look at land-use maps of villages of subsistence farmers, what you often find is that each household farms many small plots which are geographically distributed (this is somewhat less true of the Romans, by the by). Farming, especially in the Mediterranean (but more generally as well) is very much a matter of micro-climates, especially when it comes to rainfall and moisture conditions (something that is less true on the vast flat of the American Great Plains, by the by). It is frequently the case that this side of the hill is dry while that side of the hill gets plenty of rain in a year and so on. Consequently, spreading plots out so that each family has say, a little bit of the valley, a little bit of the flat ground, a little bit of the hilly area, and so on shields each family from catastrophe is one of those micro-climates should completely fail (say, the valley floods, or the rain doesn’t fall and the hills are too dry for anything to grow).

...While some high-risk disasters are likely to strike an entire village at once (like a large raid or a general drought), most of the disasters that might befall one farming family (an essential worker being conscripted, harvest failure, robbery and so on) would just strike that one household. So farmers tended to build these reciprocal relationships with each other: I help you when things are bad for you, so you help me when things are bad for me. But those relationships don’t stop merely when there is a disaster, because – for the relationship to work – both parties need to spend the good times signalling their commitment to the relationship, so that they can trust that the social safety net will be there when they need it.

So what do our farmers do during a good harvest to prepare for a bad one? They banquet their neighbors, contribute to village festivals, marry off their sons and daughters with the best dowry they can manage, and try to pay back any favors they called in from friends recently. I stress these not merely because they are survival strategies (though they are) but because these sorts of activities end up (along with market days and the seasonal cycles) defining a great deal of life in these villages. But these events also built that social capital which can be ‘cashed out’ in an emergency. And they are a good survival strategy. Grain rots and money can be stolen, but your neighbor is far likelier to still be your neighbor in a year, especially because these relationships are (if maintained) almost always heritable and apply to entire households rather than individuals, making them able to endure deaths and the cycles of generations.”

- Bret Devereaux, “Bread, How Did They Make It? Part I: Farmers!”

#farming #history #bret devereaux #writing #ancient #medieval

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plant-lights-yr · 3 years

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The benefits of choosing Yaorong Technology LED plant lights

With the increase of agricultural productivity in China in recent years, greenhouses have developed rapidly. However, due to the low temperature in winter in the north and the short time of sunshine, they cannot meet the needs of crop growth. Although the temperature in the south is higher, there is a lot of rain in winter and spring. Days, there will also be insufficient sunshine, and domestic greenhouses generally need to be supplemented with light. In traditional agricultural production, ordinary electric light sources are generally used to supplement light and apply different covering materials and other agricultural technical measures, such as the use of monochromatic fluorescent lamps or colored plastic films, and changing the light environment to regulate the growth and development of plants in the facility cultivation environment . These measures have different degrees of problems. If the lack of analysis of specific spectral components leads to impure light quality processing, inconsistent light intensity, close to or even lower than the light compensation point of plants, the energy efficiency of the illumination light source is very low. Plant lights can solve these problems, and are especially suitable for artificial light-controlled plant facility cultivation environments.

One, The working principle and use of plant lights

When plants photosynthesize, they need red and blue light instead of green light. The light environment is one of the important physical environmental factors that are indispensable for the growth and development of plants. The LED plant light source is mainly based on the photosynthesis curve of the plant photosynthesis and the percentage of light absorbed by the photosynthetic pigment to determine the composition and ratio of light quality to provide plants Good light environment. At present, the mainstream plant lights are LED plant lights and fluorescent plant lights.

After application test, the wavelength of led plant light is very suitable for plant growth, flowering and fruiting. Generally, indoor plants and flowers will grow worse and worse with time. The main reason is the lack of sunlight. Illumination by LED lamps suitable for the required spectrum of plants can not only promote their growth, but also prolong the flowering period and improve the flowers. Quality. Mainly can be summarized into three points: 1) As a supplementary light, provide supplementary light for plants in the case of insufficient external light, and maintain sufficient light for plant growth.

2) Extend the light time. For mid-day and long-day plants, natural light cannot provide enough light time. Plant lights can extend the light time to achieve the best photoperiod of plants.

3) Use greenhouses or plant laboratories. Instead of natural light, it can promote the growth of plants.

two, Various performance comparisons

We use professional equipment to measure the luminous flux, luminous efficiency, and red, green, and blue light occupancy data of fluorescent plant lights and Yaorong Technology LED plant lights, and conduct specific comparison analysis. The specific comparison results are as follows.

2.1 Appearance comparison

We can see through the comparison of fluorescent lamp type plant lamp and Yaorong Branch LED type plant lamp that the shape of fluorescent lamp type plant lamp is ring, because only the downward emitted light can effectively illuminate the plant, so its effective light effect And the luminous flux is only about 50%.

2.2 Comparison of luminous flux and luminous efficiency

The luminous efficiency and luminous flux of the fluorescent lamp type plant lamp are slightly higher than that of the LED type plant lamp, but because only the downward emitted light can effectively illuminate the plant, the real luminous effect and luminous flux of the fluorescent lamp type plant lamp are only its own About 50% of it.

Through experiments comparing the luminous efficiency and luminous flux of the fluorescent lamp type plant lamp and the LED type plant lamp, it is obvious that the effect of the LED type plant lamp is better.

2.3 Comparison of the occupancy ratio and relative spectrum of red, green and blue light

It is found that the actual effect of Yaorong Technology’s LED plant light is better than that of the fluorescent plant light. We further compared the red, green and blue light occupancy ratio and spectrum diagram. The sum of the red and blue light required by the plant, the LED plant light occupancy rate is as high as 99.50. %, while the fluorescent lamp type plant lamp only accounts for 53.90%, and the fluorescent lamp type plant lamp also contains 46.10% of the green light Yaorong Technology LED plant lamp which is not needed for plant growth, has a better effect on plant growth.

The wavelengths of fluorescent lamp type plant lamps are very dispersed, so although all kinds of light are available, the occupation ratio is not concentrated, while the wavelength of Yaorong Technology LED plant lamps is very concentrated, and the light emitted is mostly red and blue light. The photosynthesis effect is better. Yaorong Technology LED plant lights can also be equipped with different proportions of color to light occupancy ratios according to different types of plants. Therefore, the effect of Yaorong Technology's LED plant light is better.

2.4 Comparison of other parameters

From the above comparison, it can be seen that the real effect of Yaorong Technology's LED plant lamp on the photosynthesis of plants is far superior to that of the fluorescent lamp plant lamp. The electric power and lifespan of the two kinds of plant lights have obvious advantages and disadvantages

The electrical power of Yaorong Technology’s LED plant lights is only 47.8% of that of fluorescent plant lamps, so it saves more electricity; the lifespan of Yaorong Technology’s LED plant lights is about 20 times that of fluorescent plant lights, which is more durable.

three, Concluding remarks This article introduces the two mainstream plant lights at present, which are fluorescent-type plant lights and LED-type plant lights. Through the comparison and analysis of their performance with professional measuring instruments, it is found that although the luminous efficiency and luminous flux of the fluorescent lamp type plant lamp are slightly higher than that of the LED type plant lamp, due to the shape of the fluorescent lamp type plant lamp, only the downward emitted light can be effectively irradiated For plants, therefore, the real luminous efficiency and luminous flux of the fluorescent lamp type plant lamp is only about 50% of its own, and the LED plant lamp of Yaorong Technology has a better effect. The sum of the red and blue light occupancy rate of Yaorong Technology's LED plant lamps is as high as 99.5%, while the fluorescent lamp type plant lamps account for only 53.9%, and the fluorescent lamp type plant lamp also contains 46.1% of the green light that is not needed for plant growth. Therefore, Yaorong The high-tech LED plant light has a better effect on plant growth. At the same time, Yaorong Technology LED plant lights have the characteristics of long life, small size and light weight. Yaorong Technology LED plant lights have better effects, are more conducive to the growth of plants, and are suitable for actual production.

www.86yr.com

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blarrghe · 3 years

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"Watching me while I sweat from exercising" for Dorianders because... of reasons? XD

Up on AO3 or uner the cut! (the formattinig is probably better on AO3 tumblr is the actual worst)

Befriending Magister Dorian Pavus continued to be the worst decision Anders had made since the one that had landed him in Tevinter in the first place. Not at the least because being friends with Magister Dorian Pavus was, on a scheduling level, practically impossible. It was almost maddening, how neither of them ever seemed to have any blighted free time. There was Dorian, very important and very busy, always rushing off to meetings or press events or fundraisers or galas, only available for a quick coffee or for trying to convince Anders to go out clubbing at two in the morning. Which, frankly, he had less than no interest in doing — for several reasons, only minimally to do with the fact that the music gave him a headache (the thought of standing by and watching Dorian dance and practice his smarmy lines on attractive club goers made up most of the rest of it). And then there was his own life, overflowing with unkempt medical notes and overdue bills, and a schedule packed with night shifts and on-call hours that made maintaining a regular sleep schedule impossible, never mind a social life. But despite all that, it was nice to have someone to talk to again. Someone passionate and revolutionary and witty and… just about as lonely as he was, so better not to go messing it up. Better to try to maintain this one terrible friendship — the only one he had that wasn't with a "work friend", or a cat. It was just a really difficult thing to do, between the unrepenting workdays and restless nights filled with dreams of his beautiful Maker-damned face.

Dorian, however, was remarkably good at being his friend. He always managed to make time. Drew it out of thin air, it seemed, conjured it up like magic between his press conferences and business trips. He had this impossibly serendipitous way of always seeming to send a text offering to meet for coffee right as Anders' break was coming up, and thanks to his own life of impossible hours he was always amenable to a spot of caffeine well into the evening. Other times, he'd offer up an address, saying "meet me here tonight if by the end of your shift you're still alive", and Anders would reply "doubtful", and then show up later anyway to the movie theater, or concert hall, or burlesque playhouse, only to fall asleep in his seat once the lights went down — which, at the burlesque playhouse at least, everyone seemed to find incredibly amusing.

Today, his shift would be finished at an uncommonly early hour, having started at one that was painfully so. And even though his work-to-sleep ratio for the week was currently hovering at around four to one, when a text came in from Dorian during his break that read simply, "lunch later? Meet me if you have an hour free." He cheerfully replied "I'm off at noon!" And decided to postpone his much-needed afternoon nap. Friends with Dorian, he smiled, terrible decision.

----

Anders did not work out. Whatever strength he had he came by naturally, by way of pushing hospital equipment around and running up and down stairs all day. His calves, as a result, were particularly firm, and he had defined, if skinny, biceps. His core was probably strong enough, what with the constant balancing act that was keeping up with his daily life, but if he had wanted abs he would probably have to do something about his diet; more protein, fewer sugary carbs, meals that weren't eaten while standing on a city bus. But a personal beauty routine had always been low on his priority list. If he was looking to impress someone, he usually tried to get his bad jokes and the somewhat trashy rebel-mage aesthetic (which he also came by naturally) to do the job for him. It was not, historically, the best strategy. But he also wasn't looking. Dorian, on the other hand, had beauty routines for his beauty routines. Apparently the way to make up for the sleeplessness of a busy life was to exercise regularly, drink exceptionally expensive vitamin concoctions (despite the fact that his friend, who was a doctor, had told him repeatedly that the vitamins in such quantities were oversaturated, contradictory, and essentially useless), and to apply a laundry list of products to one's skin and hair — that, at least, seemed to work.

And so it was that when Anders showed up at the designated spot, practically asleep on his feet and slouching eagerly off the bus towards the promise of an hour of good company and food, that he discovered that the place Dorian had instructed him to meet at was not a restaurant, or even a coffee shop, but a gym. A gym with wide glass windows facing the street, so that the gorgeous, obviously affluent, gym-membership-holders could sweat it out while on display for the benefit of all the less beautiful and less lucky passersby. Or perhaps it was the other way around, and rich people got a kick out of running in place for their health while watching working folk run breathlessly after the busses that pulled up to the dirty old bus shelter on the street outside. Anders didn't know, he didn't go to gyms. But Dorian did; he went to this gym. He paid an exorbitant membership fee and wore a tight t-shirt branded with the gym's logo while he ran himself sweaty on a treadmill, spraying fancy water into his mouth like he was advertising the stuff, and towelling himself off with the clean white towels provided while still running, panting with the efforts of his impressively athletic exertions. This, Anders discovered by staring at him as he did it, through the clear glass window from the street, his mouth falling open and throat going dry until Dorian spotted him, and he snapped his mouth shut while his cheeks went red. Dorian's cheeks were also red, a bead of sweat dripping down over one in a long glistening trail from his temple. He pressed some buttons on the treadmill, slowed down to a walk, smiled, and waved. Anders, like a dumbfounded puppet on a string, raised his hand and dropped it again, in some approximation of returning the greeting.

Ten minutes later, Dorian met Anders outside the door of the clean, white and minimalist setting of the gym's lobby with his regular (still tight) clothes on and his damp hair fragrant with some kind of rich, flower-infused cream.

"You got here faster than I expected, sorry you had to wait."

"Good bus timing," Anders shrugged, pointedly not looking at him. One intolerable sensation at a time, and he still smelled amazing.

"You know there's an app for the schedules, GPS tracking and everything." Dorian commented. Why he knew that, when he'd probably never taken public transportation in his life, Anders couldn't guess. But then, Dorian was infinitely more organized than he was; good with schedules. Anders, meanwhile, struggled to keep his own thoughts straight, never mind the kinds of itineraries that Dorian kept. So he just nodded along, certain that he would never remember to check, or even download, the recommended app.

Dorian led them up to the intersection, and pressed the button at the crosswalk, every simple movement somehow upright and deliberate. "So, lunch? I'm starving, there's a great place across the street."

Anders glanced back at the gleaming white and chrome of the gym, and the equally sleek boutiques to either side of it. He frowned, fingering the well-worn leather billfold in his pocket. "How great?" He asked, cautiously.

"Great as in healthy, all vegan food and local produce and the like." Dorian smirked at him, and Anders made the mistake of looking at it. He blushed, and frowned some more.

"Oh, great." He said, with very little enthusiasm. A twelve dollar salad and one of those ludicrous vitamin waters, just what he and his malnourished billfold needed.

"You're a doctor, you can't live on cup noodles and granola bars all the time. It sets a bad example." Dorian berated, lightly, in return.

"At least cup noodles have salt." Anders protested, "Maybe too much, but that's better than none at all. And you know organic is just a buzzword, not everything organic is healthier. And the hoops of getting branded "Organic" just make it harder for actual family owned farmers, who grow perfectly healthy crops, to market to sellers," he ranted about it, albeit halfheartedly, until Dorian sighed and shook his head.

"Which is why I said local, not organic. And I've been, I promise they use seasonings. You really think I'd debase myself by dining somewhere that didn't know how to properly use spice?"

Anders grunted, still disapproving.

"It's good, really. You'll like it there, they have cats."

"They have…?" Anders spun to watch Dorian, squinting in confusion at him as he brightened the world about him with another one of those obnoxiously perfect smiles.

"Cats, they're all very tame. You can sit with them while you eat or play with them afterwards. An endeavour of the local animal shelter to help encourage adoption, as I understand it." Dorian explained casually. Then the light changed and he set off walking. Anders followed, significantly less grumpily, though now his stomach was turning flips for an entirely different reason besides hunger.

Forget Kirkwall, actually. Befriending Dorian was, hands down, the absolute worst decision he’d ever made.

#dorianders #dorian x anders #my fic #my writing #modern au #dragon age fanfic #friends to lovers #mutual idiot pining #dorian #anders #what if we were

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basicsofislam · 4 years

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ISLAM 101: 5 PILLARS OF ISLAM: ALMS AND CHARITY: FIQH OF ZAKAT IN DETAIL:

WHO IS OBLIGED WITH ZAKAT

WHO IS LIABLE FOR ZAKAT?

Before collecting zakat from the obliged, it is essential to first ascertain who these individuals are. This requires certain prerequisites, like the knowledge of Islam, freedom, wealth, sanity, maturity—in addition to the requirements concerning wealth, namely ownership, augmentation, nisab, an elapse of a year and the exclusion of basic necessities.

Moreover, there are additional points pertaining to the collection of zakat that must crucially be observed. In sum, zakat must be requested strictly of those who are eligible, and eligibility demands certain requirements relating, in part, to the person in question, and in part, to the person’s wealth.

WHAT FEATURES MUST ONE POSSESS TO BE OBLIGED WITH ZAKAT?

These requirements can be encapsulated as follows: being a Muslim free of any constraints, possessing the ability to obtain basic needs, being free of debt, and having reached maturity, all of which demand a separate elucidation.

ISLAM

Before anyone, Islam addresses the believer, constructing its precepts on this solid foundation of belief. Therefore, as is the case with other responsibilities, the first requirement for zakat is being a Muslim. The requirement of those who have not accepted Islamic teachings but continue to live in Muslim lands is a simple tax, or jizya, identified by the government.

FREEDOM

Zakat has not been ordained compulsory on those enslaved or incarcerated; conversely, those in this situation are advised, firstly, to utilize their wealth, if they have any, to obtain their emancipation. From this perspective, slaves historically were not compelled with zakat, owing to their lack of physical freedom and their financial constraints.

BEING DEBT-FREE

Falling into debt, in normal circumstances, is something a Muslim should avoid, as it may involve entering the domain of subverting another’s personal rights. The Prophet (upon whom be peace) had conceded to perform the funeral prayer of a deceased Companion only after another Companion agreed to finance his outstanding debts.1 As the time and place of death of any one of us is unknown, the attitude of a wise Muslim would be to avoid, if possible, going into debt in the first place, as the hadith makes clear that dying while in debt can incur a difficulty for the community and a serious burden on our souls.

Critically, of course, Islam has never burdened man with obligations that exceed his capacity; contrarily, it has incessantly promulgated what is easy. This principle is also valid for zakat. Even though a person in debt may possess wealth which surpasses nisab, he is first advised to resolve his debts, and thus excused from zakat. People who find themselves in this position are, in fact, eligible to receive zakat, as testified by the Exalted Creator in the Qur’an.

SANITY-MATURITY

Maturity is the point where obligations start, and in effect, a child is not responsible until he or she reaches that phase. Perhaps some voluntary duties may be taken up for the sake of becoming accustomed to servanthood, although this does not imply an obligatory activity. The advice of the Noble Messenger, for example, is to accustom a child to salat (prayer) at the age of seven, and impart gentle words of encouragement if the child is still not offering salat at age ten. Yet again, the Messenger has pronounced that the pen (responsibility) has been lifted from a child until maturity, from a sleeper until he is awake, and from the insane until sane.2

WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE PROPERTY SUBJECT TO ZAKAT?

Offering zakat necessitates the prior fulfillment of some requirements pertaining to wealth. Thus, as mentioned above, a person is obliged only to pay zakat on the possessions that meet these terms—namely, a person must possess the entire ownership of the wealth; the wealth must be augmentable; it must have surpassed the set amount well above the basic necessities; and a full year must elapse since its attainment. This description needs to be elaborated further at this point.

OWNERSHIP

In calling upon those obliged to perform their duties of zakat, Islam does not want them to pay zakat on the wealth they are yet to possess, a demand that would indubitably inflict people with financial hardship. Wealth is generally obtained by virtue of legitimate methods like earnings, inheritance, mutual agreements, donations, and so forth; hence, a person can freely dispose of and orchestrate his wealth, and take full responsibility in doing so. This, in turn, verifies the full ownership of wealth and therefore, within this framework, whichever method may be used in attaining this wealth, the owner meeting the requirements of full ownership must unavoidably pay its zakat.

Should zakat be given on loans?

In a case where a person is the creditor, that is, he possesses money that is temporarily lent to somebody else, we are faced with two outcomes in ascertaining the necessity of zakat.

Firstly, if the money that is expected to be paid back is under guarantee, like a check or promissory note seen as certain repayment, then this wealth is virtually commensurable with the wealth at hand, and as a result, its zakat must immediately be paid. Given that the chances of repayment are doubtful or improbable, then the zakat on this money should be delayed until reimbursement takes place. When the repayment does take place, we are then faced with another two alternatives: some scholars believe that as well as not giving zakat for previous years, the current year’s should also be withheld, because in a sense, it resembles newly acquired wealth. The others, who approach the issue from the perspective of the rights of the poor, maintain that its zakat should still be offered. Insofar as caution is concerned, undoubtedly, the additional payment of the previous year’s zakatis more appropriate, both as a means of steering clear from breaching the rights of the poor, as well as taking a step towards attaining the pleasure of God.

AUGMENTATION

(THE INCREASE OF POSSESSIONS)

Islam does not necessitate zakat on property that by nature does not increase, though conversely, it targets augmentable possessions. Augmentation or nama denotes valuables that increase and attract revenue and earnings, and is classified into two: absolute augmentation and relative augmentation. Absolute augmentation is basically the increase of property or possessions through birth, reproduction, trade, or the like. Accordingly, animals or livestock, gold, silver and commercial merchandise fall under this category. Relative augmentation, on the other hand, is the wealth possessing possibilityof increase at the hand of its owner or agent. Irrespective of whether the owner increases it or not, he will effectively be asked for zakaton that wealth, owing to its potential. However, in Islam, if the property is lost or stolen, and the owner consequently becomes powerless in its management, then he is not obliged with zakat.

NISAB

(MINIMUM EXEMPTION LIMIT)

As mentioned earlier, nisab is the minimum extent which wealth must reach to become eligible for zakat. Zakat must imperatively be given of wealth that has realized that amount. As zakat is a critical means of social assistance, it would be meaningless and beyond its aim to either fail to implement such a measure or to demand everyone to pay from whatever trivial wealth they might possess.

Accordingly, the Prophet of Islam (upon whom be peace) has clearly identified the amount of nisab for each item. The nisab has been identified as 5 for camels, 30 for cattle, 40 for sheep, 8 5 grams for gold and 595 grams for silver. The nisab for commercial merchandise is established in concordance with gold and silver. As for agricultural harvest, the ratio is one- tenth for crops grown by rainwater or streams, or one-twentieth for crops grown through personal irrigation. For storable crops like wheat, barley and raisins, the nisab is 5 wasq (approximately 653 kg), and the prevalent conception is that no zakat is required for vegetables such as onions and lettuce. Abu Hanifa, however, maintains that regardless of theirnisab, all agricultural goods, more or less, are subject to zakat.

Insofar as minerals and marine products are concerned, they do not possess a specific requirement for nisab and therefore their zakat, at any rate, must be paid. Because we have thoroughly handled the matter of nisab in the chapters concerning the recipients of zakat, those who desire more information are advised to throw a glimpse there.

THE WEALTH MUST EXCEED BASIC NECESSITIES

Another prerequisite for zakat is that the wealth should surpass the amount needed for sustenance, which may vary depending on social, economical and current circumstances. Nonetheless, there are always aspects on which all can mutually agree on, enumerated by the Hanafi scholars as consisting of basic food items, clothing, housing, enough wealth to see to one’s debts, work utensils or apparatus, furniture, a means for travel—or, in today’s conditions, a car or books needed for education. Moreover, the needs of those who, in Islam, are required to be taken care of—such as children, spouse, parents etc.—are similarly allowed basic necessities which are not liable to calculations of zakat upon the person providing their care.

THE ELAPSE OF ONE YEAR

For one to become obliged with zakat, at least a year has to elapse on the earnings beginning from the date of their attainment. This elapse of a year, called hawalanu al-hawl in Islamic terminology, is calculated in reference to the lunar year. However, this requirement does not necessarily aim at all types of wealth: it does pertain to livestock, money and commercial merchandise; but it does not affect agricultural crops, fruit, minerals, treasure, honey and similar items.

Another aspect needs to be elaborated. A person who continues to acquire new wealth in addition to the base wealth which has reached nisab and is thus subject to zakat, no longer needs to wait for the elapse of a year on these possessions; on the contrary, these augmentations need to be progressively included in the base wealth and calculated accordingly. This point is overwhelmingly agreed upon for commercial merchandise and for the offspring of livestock, although there is a minor difference of opinion between the schools pertaining to increases in different types of livestock. The general consensus, however, is that under such circumstances, one must start anew; for instance, if a person owns camels equivalent to nisab, for which he is paying zakat, and acquires a further 30 cattle or 40 sheep, he would wait a year for these new acquisitions, and then pay their zakat, owing to the difference of type. However, if the person isdoing business with these animals, then without waiting for the elapse of a year, he must pay zakat on them. For this reason, if a person buys a further 100 sheep, for instance, in addition to the 40 sheep for which he is paying zakat, according to Abu Hanifa, he must provide zakat on 140 sheep without waiting for a year to elapse.

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eisenvulcanstein · 4 years

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Epilepsy is weird (and I learned something new about it)

Ok, so every now and then I post about epilepsy, specifically in parrots, because my African grey has epilepsy. Epilepsy is complicated, and difficult to treat, and there's a lot less info out there for pet owners, especially non-dog and non-cat owners. To recap, if anti seizure meds aren't working, try adding an anti-inflammatory med. Metacam is usually the first one vets go for, and it may work for you. It didn't work for us. Celebrex, the second try, did. There's research linking inflammation to refractory epilepsy, bipolar disorder, depression, and possibly other neurological disorders. I need to do a deep dive into the info and organize links for y'all, but in the meantime please Google it. It could help your pets, it could help you, it could help your child or someone else in your life.

If you notice that the skin around your pet's eyes suddenly turns blue or purple before seizures, that's constriction of the veins. My grey has that happen, it's bizarre, but epilepsy can affect literally any biological system. We use a vasodialator to manage it.

We also use three anti seizure meds: keppra, zonisamide, and gabapentin. As far as I know there are only two others that can be used on birds, phenobarb, and (maybe) potassium bromide. Potassium bromide tastes horrible, like really intense salt, and you have to limit salt intake in the diet because it counters the med's affects. It also did not work for us. Instant seizure every single dose. We don't know if the taste was so horrible it upset him so much he had a seizure, or if the med just reacted badly with his particular epilepsy. Pheno didn't work for us either, but it's the first med your vet will try and does frequently work.

For CBD, the way dosing in general for literally every med and supplement is worked out in the US is the company assumes the person taking it is 180 lbs. That's the standard. So, you divide the recommended dose of CBD by 180, then multiply that by your pet's weight. Sometimes you can stick with this dose perpetually. Sometimes you have to increase the dose by the original amount roughly every week. So if you start out giving 0.05 mL, and it turns out you need to increase the dose, you add another 0.05 mL to make 0.10 mL. The next week you add another 0.05 mL to make 0.15 mL, etc.

CBD doesn't always work. Sometimes it does nothing, sometimes it makes things worse, and sometimes it only works if you use THC as well. From what I've read online it's a 1:1 ratio of CBD to THC, but not if the CBD dose has to increase. In those cases from what I've seen you keep the THC the same and only increase the CBD. You can't overdose on CBD the way you can other meds, because CBD does not depress the respiratory system. However the dose will eventually get so high it's no longer financially feasible to maintain. If that happens the only solution I know of is to resensitize to it, aka stop taking it for a minimum of one month, preferably two. You don't need to wean off of it, but as the levels in the body drop the seizure activity will likely start to come back. Talk to your vet about a management strategy.

CBD and other oil based meds cause the crop to slow digestion. That's just what oil does to birds. Depending on how much oil your bird is given you may need to get a prescription for propulsid. The way you know you need it is that either big blobs of mucus just pour out of your bird's mouth, or their food does. They may throw it up, but with my bird the food just sort of flowed back out because the crop wasn't moving and there was no more room. Propulsid is usually a twice a day med, but we have to give it three times a day, once every 8 hours. DO NOT JUST GIVE A BIGGER DOSE.

The other thing about CBD and related meds is that they are immune suppressants, which means that your bird is going to get yeast infections, AND the gut bacteria will be thrown out of balance. You are going to need a bird probiotic. Give the recommended amount. If you give too much they get diarrhea. You will also need a prescription for nystatin. Symptoms of a yeast infection of the crop: voice change, reduced appetite, very sticky droppings that hang on to the underside, nausea and vomiting. And this brings us to the new thing I learned about epilepsy.

Nausea can trigger seizures. I don't know what the neurological mechanism behind nausea and vomiting is but part of it is apparently linked to my bird's seizure focus. The way I know that is we didn't tackle a yeast infection fast enough, he got nauseous, triggering a seizure cluster spanning two days. He had to be given a super strong anti nausea med to stop the vomiting, but even on it, every single sip of water triggered seizure activity. I could see his crop clenching and writhing every time, it was bizarre. He's doing much better now, but those were two terrible, heart breaking days. Stay on top of yeast infections. According to my vet they can be on nystatin pretty much forever if necessary, which we may end up doing instead of treating as needed.

Tl;dr anti-inflammatory meds can help, CBD can be helpful but does have side effects that need managing (see above), and nausea can trigger seizures. Also use a nose drop rescue med, not an oral one. It's safer.

Good luck, and good health. Stay calm, you can do this.

#epilepsy #seizures #epilepsy in birds #epilepsy in pets #managing epilepsy #im not a doctor this is not medical advice #its information and experience

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three-course-fillorian-feast · 5 years

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I saw on someone else's post that you offered to show them how to make gifs? I am super interested in making The Magicians gifs so I was wondering if you could teach me as well? Or even make a public post or tutorial or something? Thank you!!!!

Yeah, of course! There are a lot of ways to make gifs, some of them undoubtedly better than what I do. But, for me, I have a couple methods I generally use, one with Photoshop (when I want very specific control over the colors, composition, type styles, etc.), and the other with just a free tool (when I just want to make a gif that looks decent and not sink a ton of time into it).

I’ll go over the free tool method here; it’s more straightforward and limited, but wayyyy friendlier for someone just starting out. Also, again: it’s free. (But lemme know if you wanna talk Photoshop and I’m always happy to open that giant can of worms.)

One nice thing about gifs becoming the one true currency of the web is that a lot of gif-oriented sites have built gif-making tools in the past couple years and made them free and easy to use, so we can all become gif-producing worker bees, constantly toiling to keep up with the internet’s insatiable demand for gifs.

I use Gif Brewery 3 for mac, built by Gfycat. (There’s also Giphy’s GIF Capture which I’ve used a few times and didn’t hate.) So for the purposes of this tutorial, Step 0: Download and install Gif Brewery 3

So! Now let’s make a gif. Let’s say I want to make some gifs of Margo taking her throne as high king.

Step 1: Open Netflix in Google Chrome (i.e. not Safari because it blanks your screen if you try to record your screen while a video’s playing) or play a DVD on your computer, or pull up the scene you want on YouTube. Basically get a video of the scene you want playing on your computer screen in whatever fashion you prefer.

Step 2: Open Gif Brewery and select “Record Screen.” Resize the window that Gif Brewery then opens up so that it frames the video, hit record, and then play the part of the video you want to gif.

Step 3: When you’re done with video, click “Stop.” Gif Brewery will then open the video clip that you made in their interface. You can close your browser and the blue frame window. You can see the full clip you just recorded in Gif Brewery. Trim the extra bits off of the clip by dragging the green bar to define your start point and the red bar to define your end point.

Step 4: Resize! Tumblr’s main content box is 540 pixels wide. So if you’re making a gif that’s meant to be full width, you can size down to that width. Make sure “Maintain Aspect Ratio” is checked. (Now’s a good time to also crop if you want to, say, gif only Margo’s face without the space to her left and right.)

Step 5: So now we have something that’s the size and shape of a gif. If you want to add text, now’s a good time to do it. Use the “Text” button at the top of the window to open the Text box. Here you add your text, adjust the font weight, size, color, and border if you’re using one. I’m going to use a Billie Eilish lyric for this example because I’m cliche as hell.

If you’re making a standard-style gif with a text caption, you’ll use a bold san serif font like Helvetica, with a black border around it to make sure it’s readable, and then keeping it small and centered at the bottom of your gif, like so:

But! if you’re feeling Artsy, go nuts with your font choice and placement. Find a font that captures the tone your message and clip are conveying. You can find a wide range of free fonts on Google Fonts or good old DaFont. I want that badass Margo ‘tude, so I’m using a grungy font and Margo’s signature bright fuschia. Drag the text box to move and resize it until you’re happy with it.

Step 6: Time to fix your colors! Screen captured images basically always look more dark and muted than they should. The fix is to fuss and fuss and fuss and then fuss some more over the colors. Gif Brewery has limited color controls, but as I’ve learned, you can still spend an inordinate amount of time fussing over them. The Magicians makes this an especially good exercise in finding the limits of your patience because they’re always backlighting scenes in a way that blow out your brightness when you try to make even small edits. (Which is why I’m switching over to a different shot that’s easier to work with for this example. Margo’s hella backlit in our gif.)

Exposure Adjust: Increase exposure to make your brights brighter

Gamma Adjust: Increase gamma to make your darks richer

Saturation: Increase to make the colors as rich as they can be

Vibrance: I also like increasing vibrance for even more of a pop of color

Hue Adjust: their hue controls are funky, but you can make some minor adjustments if at this point your gif looks weirdly too red or yellow.

Play around until you find what looks good to your eye. For a gif that’s meant to look like it’s colored normally, watch out for things like: the whole thing looks too dark and you have to squint to see the details; you overbrightened and now the white is blown out and blinding; or you oversaturated so much things look pixely and glitchy.

Step 7: Open the Settings panel with the button at the top right. Time for more fussing to make sure the timing, frames, and settings are how you want them.

HERE’S THE THING: Tumblr does NOT let you upload gifs larger than 3mb. So everything you’re doing in this panel is a balancing game to keep your gif under 3mb without letting it look like trash. These are the settings you’ll fiddle with most often:

Speed is set to 100% by default. But you may want to slow it down, especially if your clip is only a couple seconds long. Slower means it’s easier to see the subtle changes in a character’s expressions and it makes the action look less jerky. The slower you set your speed, the more frames will be added to the gif, so keep an eye on that.

Frames per Second is what it sounds like. The lower you set this number, the fewer frames you’ll use, but the animation will look jerkier. You want enough frames per second that your animation looks as smooth as a hot knife sliding through butter. 12 is their default. I try to not go lower than 10. When I’m feeling particularly luxurious, I’ll set this to 15.

Color Count: Gifs can use as many as 256 colors and as few as 2, if you don’t care about your gif being an offense to nature. You can set it to the low 200s without compromising on quality, though, so that’s what I did here.

Step 8: Hit “Create” and wait an inordinate amount of time while your gif renders. When it finally, finally does, check the filesize on the bottom right. In the above gif, you’ll see my gif was 2.1mb. Perfect. So I can hit save and it’s done. But if it had said anything larger than 3mb, I’d have hit “Cancel” and then fiddled with the settings some more to get the number of frames down.

Alt-Step 6B: If I want to do anything fancier/artsy-ier/more unique than this kind of gif, this is when I’d usually crack open Photoshop. But there is some room for creativity within Gif Brewery. Let’s go back to Margo and look at some of our options:

In the Filters menu, you can see there are a number of bre-built Photo Effects to play with. Sometimes they look awesome; sometimes they look like trash. So experiment! There’s also rando filters like Halftone effects. And the Color Effects can give you options like adding a vignette, fading the colors to old-timey sepia tones, or creating a duotone like I ended up doing.

Have fun with it and look for effects that will support the tone you’re setting with clip and text you chose. So like for this Margo example, going black and white, or dark and heavy, etc. would not have been tonally consistent with the badass vibe I’m going for.

And I… think that’s it? At least to get started. Hopefully that helps, let me know if you have any questions! Or want to talk about anything beyond the basics. I’m always happy to dive into the specifics of how a particular effect was made, or how to add more advanced refinements.

#bookster-lover #tutorial #pls don't judge my gif-making abilities based on #the shitty gifs I had to make to capture my screen

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hempoilfrog32 · 4 years

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Hemp Has More Answers Than Questions

Unlike fossil fuels, biomass comes from living plants and that continue to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis. Hemp creates a lot of oxygen and takes large quantities of carbon out of the air. It is able to do this because of the height it grows usually 15 to 20 feet high. Hemp fields could be instrumental in the decrease of green house gases on the planet. When hemp is grown for biomass, carbon dioxide is taken in and metabolized by the plant, generating oxygen in the process. When the biomass is burned as fuel, the carbon dioxide is released back into the air. This maintains a carbon dioxide cycle. By comparison, burning fossil fuels puts carbon back into the air and provides no means of generating oxygen in the process thus disrupting the carbon dioxide cycle.

Hemp is the only plant capable of producing enough bio mass to provide an alternative to fossil fuels. Hemp could stop a multitude of damaging effects caused by fossil fuels, sulfur-based smog, acid rain, oil spills and strip mining.

Hemp is a high yield fiber crop, producing more bio mass per acre than most other crops. Hydro carbons in hemp can be produced into a low polluting, renewable alternative to fossil fuels that does not pollute the atmosphere. Bio diesel and ethanol are to alternative fuels that hemp is excellent for. These fuels can be made into pellets, gas, liquid gas greatly reducing our utilization of fossil fuels and nuclear power. Both fiber and seed can be used depending on what fuel is to be made.

Because hemp is rich with cellulose it is a great candidate to replace petroleum based plastics that are not bio degradable where as hemp oil plastics are, a mixture of recycled plastic with hemp oil are being used for injected molded products also resin made from hemp could one day be produced. BMW in an effort to make cars more recyclable is using hemp raw materials in their cars. Hemp is being used for insulation because of its high insulation factor, superior strength, its lighter, is more cost effective and biodegradable.

The highest quality paper is made from hemp, it does not yellow when acid free process is used, resist decomposition unlike paper made from trees. A piece of paper made from hemp was found that is 1500 years old. One acre of hemp can produce as much paper as four acre of trees. Hemp paper can be recycled more times than wood, hemp does not need to be bleached thus stopping the dumping of toxic chemicals into lakes, streams and rivers. Hemp would stop the cutting of forest; we would never have to cut down another tree for paper.My site hempoilfrog

Hemp is a healthy source of protein for pets, livestock and humans. A multitude of food products can be made from hemp seed and hemp seed has extraordinary nutritional value and are longer lasting and more digestible than soybean. The main protein in hemp seed is "edestin" (aids in digestion) which unlike soy bean does not need to be fermented or cooked to be digestible. Hemp seeds have all the essential and semi essential fatty acids in the right ratio required by humans. Hemp has a balance of three parts Omega-6 to Omega-3. Some of the other benefits of having all these Essential Fatty Acids in the diet include an increased metabolism, lower cholesterol, better digestion, general vigor, improved skin and hair condition, and a boosted immune system.

#hempoilfrog

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sandersmarvel-blog · 5 years

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whatdoyouthinkmyjobis · 5 years

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Hunters on the Hellmouth

masterlist

first chapter

previous chapter

AN: Originally, Hunters on the Hellmouth was 42 chapters, but I decided to cut the final chapter in two. Inspired by events in BTVS 7.21 “End of Days,” SPN 5.19 “Hammer of the Gods,” SPN 5.20 “The Devil You Know,” and SPN 5.21 “Two Minutes to Midnight.” Here’s a cheat sheet for keeping track of the Potentials. Warning: Character death.

Chapter 42: A Thing with Feathers

The flowers stung Bobby. In movies, the end of the world meant a barren wasteland of ash and rock, skeletal trees, failed crops. In reality -- both in Sunnydale and Sioux Falls -- nature plugged along without a care for who was living or dying. Dandelions mocked sidewalks. Manicured lawns turned into thickets. Honeysuckle and morning glories swallowed the houses.

Karen’s flower beds had never grown back though. One spring in a fit of guilt, Bobby had even tried to restore them, but his own personal Apocalypse was too complete for nature.

The new, modern building before him had several blacked out windows and overgrown flower beds. The vampires inside probably weren’t interested in gardening, yet they’d still shown more of a green thumb than Bobby. The question was: How many vampires could the building hold?

Robin Wood stroked his goatee. “We ran around eight hundred students, plus staff.”

“Give or take a massacre,” Buffy added.

Bobby snorted, half amused, half horrified. Sunnydale High: a school on a Devil’s Gate.

“That don’t mean anythin’.” Bobby adjusted his cap to keep the sun out of his eyes. “That’s all crowd control and student-teacher ratios. Question is, how much space do vampires need? And how much shit will they put up with for Lucifer?”

Bobby had been busy since his boys took off. He had a whole new world to learn about after all, and Giles, Willow and the rest and proved themselves virtual libraries of information.

Thankfully, the street went two ways. Bobby had experimented with a few of his own monster-hunting tricks from back home. The things he’d learned would be useful in the upcoming battle. Not to mention, the several houses they’d taken over needed constant repairs, and his construction and engineering experience far outstripped that of Xander Harris.

So it was that Bobby found himself seriously considering blowing up a high school. “If this seal is all the way down in the basement with as many twists and turns as you say, there’s no way we can bend the sunlight inside.” Xander’s plan. “Daylight lamps would be a fool’s gamble. Best plan is to either cut a hole in the roof or blow the whole damn thing up.”

“Might as well,” Robin sighed. “If the board ever reconvenes, I’m pretty sure they’re firing my ass.”

“There’s no way they can blame you for this,” said Buffy.

The principal offered her an unconvincing smile. “You underestimate the power of bureaucracy. Someone is going to have to take the fall for this. When you blew up the last school, they simultaneously blamed it on a gas leak, shoddy wiring, and ‘the poor leadership of Principal Snyder.’”

When you blew up the last school.

Bobby knew his first impressions of Buffy -- lovesick and worried -- weren’t her whole identity. When Dean had looked at her, love melted his features, erasing the hard edge years of hunting had cut into him. With each passing day, Bobby saw that Buffy was fearless. She was decisive. And unlike most hunters he knew, Buffy was overflowing with love and connections.

Bobby’s lips curled into a smile. If they could close this Devil’s Gate, if they could trap Lucifer and Michael, if they won, his boy could have a happily ever after.

Assuming Dean came back.

It was like riding a comet, teeth-rattling at speeds that threatened to peel skin from bone. When the Winchesters landed, rolling across the overgrown Sunnydale lawns, Cas was already glowing, fissures of pale blue light criss-crossing his skin.

“Run!” the angel warned.

The brothers bolted toward Buffy’s little white house, some of the Potentials already streaming out to greet them.

“Get back inside!” Dean screamed. “He’s gonna blow!”

Dean took the downstairs, Sam the up, where they yanked people to the floor, shouting, “Cover your ears! Don’t look!”

A blinding light filled the house. Dean squeezed his eyes shut. Then a boom rattled the house, cracking a few windows.

“Everybody okay?” Dean asked as he got up from the floor.

“They’re alive!”

“Sam and Dean are back!”

“They killed Death!”

Ellen barreled out of the kitchen, eyes already wet with tears. “Don't scare me like that, boy.” She squeezed Dean then smacked him in the chest. “I came back to life, and then you took off without a how-do-you-do.”

“Good to see you, too, Ellen. Sam’s upstairs if you wanna slap him around.”

She smiled slyly and dropped her voice to a whisper. “And what the hell is this about you of all people havin’ a girlfriend?”

“Speaking of, where’s Buffy?” he asked, looking around.

“Out doing her hero thing. She’s a catch.”

He grinned. “I know.”

The smile faded quickly, however, as Dean headed outside, hoping against hope that the explosion hadn’t meant what he knew it meant.

He didn’t get very far before the sight of her stopped him in his tracks. She was across the street, eyes locked on him. All blonde hair, attitude, and a winning smile.

Jo Harvelle.

She bounded over to him, her smile growing ever brighter with each step, but she stopped just short of his reach. “Hey.” Jo looked him up and down. “You’re alive!”

“Same to you,” he said, giving her a bear hug.

Before she let go, Dawn, Xander and several Potentials piled on. Sam was the center of a similar hive lead by Willow and Giles. It was good to be back in Sunnydale, back in the packed house, back around his chosen family.

But the trip had not been free. Dean, Sam, and a curious entourage headed down the street where a block of houses were leveled. Those nearby were peppered with shrapnel, the windows broken, shingles missing. In the middle of it all, a red spot stained the street.

Giles inspected the mess before asking the Winchesters in a soft voice, “Is that your angel friend?”

“Technically, no,” said Sam. He pursed his lips as he surveyed the remains. “Cas used all of his energy to bring us here and, I guess, had nothing left to maintain his vessel. That, uh, spot was Jimmy Novak. Cas is somewhere in the ether.”

“The pretty angel is dead?!” one of the Potentials wailed.

Pretty? “No,” Dean said, needing to hear himself say it, “Castiel is fine. He just doesn’t have a vessel anymore.”

“Not much ‘elp as angel dust though.” Spike, not a part of the warm welcome crew, had quietly joined the crowd around the stain in the street. Lower, so only Dean could hear, Spike added, “I’ll take care of this. You’ve dealt with enough bodies.”

“Thanks,” Dean said. It felt wrong somehow, though. His friend, Castiel, was fine. Dean knew that in his gut. Jimmy Novak was a stranger. Another stranger who’d died helping him fight the fight. “We can burn the remains. Give Jimmy a proper hunter’s funeral.”

“Whatever you want, mate.”

“What about the Trickster?” asked Ellen.

“Dead,” said Dean.

Lucifer had found a crack between worlds he could slip through, though not with a vessel. The markings on their ribs broken, the Winchesters had been easy to track. Cas had fixed their warding, but it was too late. Lucifer was there in some Indiana no-tell motel slaughtering gods and angels alike. Though they were no longer trackable, Dean had no doubt Lucifer would soon be returning to his new playground in search of them.

“But you did the thing, right?” asked Spike. “You went to Mordor to get the rings?”

Andrew held up a finger in protest. “That’s not how --”

“Shut up,” Spike said.

Dean plucked two rings from his pocket and tossed them to Giles. “Collected all four.”

Willow leaned in by Giles and inspected the rings. “Huh, I expected some more all-powerful pizazz,” she said to no one.

Giles dropped the rings in Willow’s outstretched hands. Her hand immediately sizzled. She screamed and dropped them. “Power’s definitely on,” she said through gritted teeth.

Giles picked up the rings in a handkerchief. “Gabriel’s plan was to get the rings, allowing us to reopen Lucifer’s cage, correct?”

The Winchesters nodded.

“What’s the lure for our trap?” he continued.

“That’s the million dollar, life-or-death question,” Sam replied.

Robin slowed his car when they turned onto Revello Drive, now ground zero for an explosion. A cluster of people gathered in the street around what must have caused the blast.

Buffy bolted before the car stopped.

He was there. Tall and handsome as ever, standing on the edge of whatever was going on. Joy welled up inside her. Buffy was too choked up to even call his name.

Dean looked up and ran to her, picking her up as she leapt into his arms. She wrapped her legs around him, his strong arms cradling her thighs as she planted a kiss on his beautiful mouth. In his arms, she felt like they doubled, tripled in size to contain all the feelings tripping from her lips to his. They grew until they were giants. They grew until the world shrank away, all worries, all demands, all destinies became less than grains of sand. Cradling his face in her hands, she tore herself away for air and got lost in his mossy green eyes.

“Hey Girly,” he said softly.

She kissed him again, drunk on the sweet sting of his whiskey mouth, until someone coughed loudly behind them.

“Okay, lovebirds, other people here,” said Bobby.

Dean set Buffy down, keeping one arm around her while pulling in Bobby for a three-way hug.

“Um, so what happened here?” she asked, noticing the red smear on the pavement for the first time.

“Cas blew his vessel,” Dean said, somberly.

“Oh God!” She covered her mouth in shock.

“But Cas is fine,” he added, hurriedly. “He’s fine.”

Bobby furrowed his brow at the mess. “We should pick up what we can. Give him a real hunter’s funeral.”

Dean nodded. “That’s what I said. Spike offered to deal with this.” He gestured at the spot.

That seemed odd for Spike, who Buffy spied milling on the edge of the circle looking every direction but theirs. Maybe he’d bonded some with the angel, but that seemed unlikely, too. It struck her that she didn’t know who he talked to lately. Her, yes. She thought she’d seen him talking with the Harvelle’s a few times. With Sam gone, was there anyone else Spike felt comfortable with?

She hadn’t noticed that the the crowd had started moving back toward her house. She leaned into Dean, taking in his gunpowder and leather scent, listening to his small talk with Bobby.

Then somebody screamed.

They group rushed over to a brick house, one of their several expanded homebases. On the sidewalk lay one of the girls, eyes burned in their sockets.

“Steph wanted to see an angel,” one of the girls said through tears.

“I got it!” Jo shooed away the rubber-neckers. “We'll do a service tonight before sunset. You all know the drill.”

“You need a hand?” Sam asked. The Winchesters had cleaned up every other body.

“Nah, you guys go. Tell your story. I'll catch up. Besides, she's from my house.” There was something stiff about Jo's smile.

No one else wanted to volunteer for body clean up, so the whole group left Jo and Spike to their grizzly task.

Two bodies -- one of which had basically turned to goo -- weren’t the most appetizing site; nonetheless, Andrew had just pulled the last pizzas from the oven when the Winchesters returned. Soon, the somber attitude of fresh deaths melted to a buzz of excitement as everyone waited for the Winchesters to stop eating and tell their story.

Buffy surveyed the options in the kitchen. “Is it all pepperoni?”

“It never goes bad!” Xander said around a mouth full.

Anya patted him on the shoulder. “Yes it does.”

“Can you let me have this?” he begged through a spray of food.

“Ellen, my new Jedi master, and I made them,” said Andrew. “She has dough powers. Anyway, I insisted on cheese. It’s in the living room.”

“SAM’S GOING TO TELL THE PESTILENCE STORY!” someone shouted from the dining room.

Buffy held still as a rush of people flowed around her. Once the crowd slowed, she ducked into the living room, where Dean sat at the study table with a plate full of pizza.

“First, you need to know about the Croatoan virus…” Sam began.

She sat beside Dean, hand on his leg, head on his shoulder. He leaned into her, their bodies humming. Buffy wanted to tell him a thousand things: how she’d killed Caleb, how Lucifer had invaded her dreams, how much her heart ached in his absence. Sitting beside him, a comfortable smile curling his lips, none of it felt pressing.

They listened to Sam in the other room, his bilious tale of swine flu bewitching the crowd. “So we’re on the floor, writhing with who knows how many illness, and --”

“Which illnesses?” Xander asked.

Sam mumbled and continued with the story.

“Did Pestilence give you an std?” Buffy whispered to Dean.

“Clean bill of health, I swear.” Dean took another bite of pizza.

“Dean!” the crowd in the dining room called.

“Everybody wants to hear the Death story,” Sam added.

Taking his hand in hers, Dean smiled at Buffy. Together, they walked toward the eager audience. “You tell it,” Dean said, grabbing a slice of cheese pizza.

Sam shook his head. “I wasn’t there. Besides, I already told the Pestilence story.”

“So cool,” said one of the Potentials, smiling and bobbing on her toes.

“Ew gross,” whined another, who had nonetheless pressed in with the rest to hear the story.

Grinning playfully, Buffy tilted her head to the side. “Did he have a robe and scythe, or was he more stylish?”

“Suit,” Dean replied. “So this big storm was brewing. We’re talkin’ black skies at noon. Hail. The whole nine. And it was about to wipe out Chicago.”

“Nooo, not my Chitown,” gasped Margo.

“Death was there...eating pizza.”

Several people put their slices down.

“Death likes pizza?” asked Maya, eyebrow raised in disbelief.

“Deep dish,” Dean replied.

“The only proper pizza,” added Margo.

“I didn’t even get a chance to use the weapon Gabriel gave me, but lucky me, Death ain’t a fan of having Lucifer yankin’ his chain. He gave me his ring and spared the city. Equal parts easy and terrifying.” Dean turned to Buffy and said in a clear voice, “He says, ‘Hello,’ by the way. Apparently Death’s a fan of your work.”

Buffy grinned. She wasn’t surprised Death knew her; their work was tied together. Creatures of the night spoke her name in a hushed whisper as if she could be right around the corner, but she was in a house full of naive children who had mutinied right before Dean had left. He wanted the audience to know she had Death’s respect.

“The end. Go frolic or stab things or whatever kids are into these days,” Dean said with a dismissive wave to the groans of the crowd. Leaning over Sam’s chair, he whispered, “Where’s the bag?”

Sam pointed to an army duffle by the stairs.

Turning back to Buffy, Dean asked “You wanna take a walk?”

Lacing her fingers with his, she replied, “I’d like that.”

Boyish glee shone from Dean’s face. “See ya, Sammy. Don’t wait up.”

Jo patted Steph’s cold body, wrapped in a sheet, and resting in the back of a hotwired pickup. “Was it worth it, kid?”

Slamming the tailgate shut, she noticed Buffy and Dean leaving the house hand in hand. She turned away. Down the street Spike was shoveling spades full of goo into a bucket. It looked like he was talking to himself. Deciding he needed company, Jo headed his way.

With nothing better to do than drive herself crazy over facing the Apocalypse again, Jo had bided her time in Sunnydale, getting to know its few remaining residents. Aside from goddess vessels, (Willow the Witch frankly freaked her out,) and goddess vessels-in-waiting, there were a few bonafide hunters in the mix.

First, there was the how-are-they-still-alive camp. Andrew, who mystifyingly claimed to be Buffy’s former arch nemesis, had promptly started following her mom around like a puppy. Then there was affable, goofy Xander and his indifferent-to-the-whole-thing ex Anya.

One the other hand, there were the more serious hunters. Giles was Sunnydale’s answer to the previously unthought question, “What if Bobby were refined?” Jo liked to listen to them talk shop. They were even funnier together when she kept their glasses topped. The son of a previous Slayer, Robin Wood reminded her most of hunters back home -- quiet, focused, reluctant to be with the group. Of course, he looked like a downright social butterfly next to Spike.

Spike -- a great fighter and keen researcher -- was doing that self-imposed hunter-in-exile thing. Keep people at arms length because their damage is special damage. At least that’s how it looked to Jo. Dawn had admitted, “He used to be a friend, but… he got ugly for a while. Evil. I know he’s changed, but the hurt is still there.”

Hurt or no hurt. Damage or no damage. It seemed to Jo that the whole crew should be using Spike’s skills better.

He did, however, talk to Jo. He was funny and sweet with this gentlemanly air under his rock and roll shell. They’d spent more than one evening joking over a bottle of wine, measuring their new life in sips. They were two creatures newly reborn, teetering on the edge of extinction.

Then there was the rumor that Spike was Buffy’s ex.

Spike was still talking to himself. “--let me teach it to you. It starts, ‘’ope is a thing with feathers.’ (See the irony?)” He sploshed another small piece of Cas’ vessel into the bucket.

“Maybe you need a wet vac?” Jo said.

He looked up at her, not even a hint of surprise on his face. “Thought you’d be a bit more broken up about your friend.”

“Castiel? I didn’t really know him,” she confessed. “I'm more of a poltergeist girl. This angel business is way above my pay grade.”

“Castiel was good, especially for a bleedin’ angel.” Spike stood and stretched, his white t-shirt popping up over his belt. “But this wasn’t Feathers, at least according to the Winchesters. Just the body. Angel’s in the wind.”

Spike surveyed his work. The street was still stained red, but at least the chunky bits were gone. He made a face at the contents of the bucket, then began to search the grass.

“I didn’t realize you ‘ad it so bad.” He shot her a glance, his mouth upturned into a knowing grin.

Jo felt her cheeks flushing hot. “Got what bad?”

“I saw you rush out of your ‘ouse, ‘ot and ‘eavy to see Dean Winchester again. I knew you ‘ad a crush, but not the ache.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said in a rush. She felt like he could see through her.

Spike cocked his head to the side. “Come now. We didn’t volunteer for body duty out respect for the dead. Warm corpses ‘ave more appeal right now than watching your ex in someone else’s arms.”

“Dean's just a friend.” Her voice modulated oddly to cover the lie.

Spike shrugged. “Tell yourself what you want, pet, but the pining will eat you alive.”

Jo pounced on the opportunity to turn the tables. “Like you pining for Buffy?”

“I'd like to think I'm past pining. Buffy needs me like the Titanic needs an iceberg.”

Jo bit back a laugh at his self-importance. What is it with men? “If you’re her iceberg, does that make Dean her James Cameron?”

“There was so much room on that bloody door!” Spike said with the earnestness of a true fan.

“Near! Far! Whereeeeeeeeever you are!” Jo sang loud and off-key.

“God dammit, woman!” Spike threw his spade into the grass. “Now you’ve given me the earworm!”

She laughed. On his own, Spike was easy to talk to. In fact, he was downright fun -- a rarity among hunters. His personality didn’t come through in the group.

A thought struck her. “So Spike, honest to God truth, why are you in Sunnydale? I mean, other than the Battle Royale.”

“I came for Buffy. I stayed for Buffy.” He said it with finality -- a giant red CASE CLOSED stamped on the file.

“Come on, man! She doesn't want you!” Heat rushed to Jo's face as soon as the harsh words tumbled out. “I mean, she doesn't seem to respect you. Even Xander is in charge of his own little goddess squad, and he's a joke of a hunter.”

“There’s the rub,” Spike whispered. He looked away from her, pretending to inspect something in the grass. “Couldn’t leave. Shouldn't stay.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” Jo wasn’t sure what she’d come there for. Commiseration? Hard to wallow in their shared left out status if she couldn’t even admit to her feelings. “Look, my nerves are kinda raw right now, and you stepped right on it. I’ve pined, yeah. A lot. Not school girl hearts on the notebook sort of pining, but thinking that maybe, just maybe…” She shrugged, and bit her lip. She wasn’t ready to expose her most private dreams about Dean Winchester.

“It’s one thing to meet Dean’s perfect superhero girlfriend. It’s another to see them together. Romance movie kisses and soaring music. Happy for them. Sad for me. I want to throw confetti in the the air and then set it the fuck on fire, you know?”

Spike nodded, a far away look on his face. “I know. God, I know.”

Body duty was usually a lonely affair. Spike liked that aspect. Time to think, or in this case, chat. He hadn’t anticipated Jo crashing the party though, and she could only be crashing for one reason. So he pushed aside thoughts of the world’s end and flipped over his lonely hearts club card.

“I know. God, I know.” After gently setting down his bucket of expired-vessel, Spike stared up at the sky. Jo stared with him.

He pressed his hands to his lips a couple times, longing for a cigarette. “Thing is, I feel new, like some wobbly-legged deer. I didn’t want to be in charge of things until I felt in charge of me. You’ve seen me on good days, but I used to be a monster.”

Jo’s face twinged a bit at the word monster. She probably thought he was being dramatic. No one had told her, then. Blessed innocence.

He continued, more to the wind than to her. “I did terrible things. Sometimes I loved it. Sometimes, the evil pushed me aside, but I was running the show more than I'd like to admit. They may hold grudges, but I hold all the guilt.”

“Hunters are champion guilt-swallowers,” she said. “Kind of our thing.”

“Been doing a lot of thinking. What does guilt make a man? An alcoholic husk? A paralyzed thing? So I ‘ave to let the guilt go. I may ‘ave done terrible things in my past, but I’m better than that now. I’m brave and I’m brilliant.” He smile at her. His decision was made, and he felt good.

Jo knocked him playfully with her elbow. “You know, alcoholic husk is a time-honored retirement plan for our lot back home. Assuming we live that long.”

Spike didn’t plan on living that long. He just needed to stay in control until the end. “Recently, I’ve been thinking about leaving. ‘aving Dean ‘ere makes me ��opeful, believe it or not. ‘e’s a git sometimes, but ‘e’ll look out for ‘er. She doesn't need me anymore.”

Hope was a thing riding in on a comet of Feathers. Spike didn’t think he needed a sign of such garish proportions. He knew what he needed to do.

“Make sure Dean gets that.” He pointed at the bucket. “Wants to do a proper send off.”

“Where are you going?” Jo asked as he started walking up the street.

“I’m going to ‘elp save the world.”

Buffy and Dean walked in silence, enjoying how their palms brushed together, the rhythm of their steps. She wanted to savor the moment -- walking beside him, the late morning sun drawing out the freckles scattered over his skin.

Once they turned a corner away from any prying eyes, she said, “I’m sorry about Castiel.”

Dean bit his lip, grief settling into his eyes. He stopped and drew her into his arms. Resting her head on his chest, she listened to the small hitches in his breathing as he processed the loss of his friend.

“He’ll be okay. Gotta keep reminding myself he’s not dead. He just has to find a vessel in a world without angel vessels.” Dean bit his lip, puzzling through his friend’s situation.

Buffy held him as tightly as she dared. “Where’s Gabriel? Why did Cas--”

“Gabriel’s dead. Long, trippy story. Cas, uh, he wanted to keep a promise.” Pain brimmed in his eyes.

“He wanted to bring you back to me,” she realized with horror and gratitude.

Dean nodded and resumed walking. The topic closed for now.

“How long was I gone?” he asked.

“Three weeks. How long was it for you?”

“Same.”

A knot in her stomach loosened. One of her many worries while he was gone was time passing faster for one of them, losing more years together.

“Things seem better with the girls,” he said.

Buffy shrugged. “They agreed I’m in charge.” “How generous.”

She’d thought a lot about the Potentials. Buffy had tried to be their Watcher, but that was too didactic. She’d tried to give them space, but that made her too aloof. Then she learned that she and all of the Slayers before her were prisons for a goddess.

Then it clicked.

Of course, Buffy had noticed how alienating power was. It bred controlling jealousy in others, as with the Watcher’s Council (and occasionally her friends). The Power made relationships difficult; most men were too delicate for her strength. The Power called for hard choices made quickly. The Power came with Duty, like an anchor around her neck, allowing her only the most narrow of paths: cut yourself off in order to save as many people as you can. It was the path nearly every Slayer had walked.

The Slayer was truly a golden cage everyone was scrambling to rule. A perfect prison.

She wondered if Hecate had shrieked the day Buffy decided to hang with Willow over Cordelia.

“They don’t have to like me,” she said. “They just have to follow me. I think we’re there. They’ve stopped second guessing me, at least.

“By the way, I’ve been staying at your place.” Buffy smiled at Dean, revelling in the comfort of him. “It was the closest I could get to you. My house just doesn’t feel like mine anymore, especially without you there.”

Dean kissed her hand. Her entire body buzzed with excitement.

They’d walked far enough to find themselves on the edge of the rich neighborhood. Dean let out a low whistle as they passed a starter mansion. “Forget your place or mine. We should have just moved over here.”

“Why not now?” she giggled, leading Dean by the hand into a gated pool.

They peeled back the pool cover before stripping. Her blouse, his button down. Her bra, his t-shirt. She paused before sliding off her pants to admire his broad shoulders, the way his powerful muscles rippled under his skin. He pushed down his jeans and boxers together, and she bit her lip to keep from moaning over his already stiffening length.

Dean dove in, a clean line of muscle and sex, only to bob up seconds later with a cry of excitement. “Woo! Colder than I expected.”

She dove in anyway, the chill shocking her. He was there, and she wanted to feel every inch of him against her, inside her. The most intimate they’d been in weeks was holding each other after she’d been possessed.

They swam toward each other, enjoying their weightlessness while their hands slowly explored each other’s bodies as if touching something rare and priceless. She wrapped her legs around his waist, happy with the familiar thickness of him between her thighs. Dean kissed her long and slow, gently sucking on the tip of her tongue, his fingers caressing her breasts. Each kiss felt like he was tugging on a string, unbinding her, setting her free.

His smile wide, he hoisted her up on the side of the pool and teasingly licked up her inner thigh. Clamping his arms around her legs, he buried his face in her. She could barely breathe as he traced circles with his tongue. Fingers twisted in his wet hair, she bucked against his mouth, her need increasing with each lap of his tongue. Soon, she arched her back and cried out as pleasure washed over her, wave after wave of missing him, of needing him. Her body still humming, she laid back in the sun.

Pushing himself up on the edge of the pool, Dean lay beside her, grinning, his arm draped over her stomach. “You look happy.”

Buffy sat up, pulling him with her. “I’m not done with you,” she purred as she pushed him onto a poolside chaise lounge.

Her body pulsed and pleaded to have him inside of her. She froze for just a second, the memory of the demon cackling that word -- baby -- reverberating in her brain.

“You okay?” Squinting at her, he shielded his eyes from the sun.

“Enjoying the view.”

She dropped to her knees. He could still fill her lungs, her hands, her mouth. Buffy placed her hands on his thighs, covering up his running list of the dead (a list soon to grow longer) tattooed there. Covering up the J. H.

Dean moaned softly as she took him in her mouth inch by inch. He grinned at her, his tongue caught between his teeth. She increased her pace, watching his lust-blown eyes until she stroked a shuddering oooo from his pink lips still glistening with her.

When they were both satisfied, Dean pulled her into his arms. They laid together on the lounge, the sun warming their skin, dreaming of an imaginary future. Buffy traced his tattoos with her fingers and idly tapped on his freckles. A pleased hum popped in her throat as he played with her hair.

“I was mulling over what you said the night before we left. You said the longer we’re together, the more you want.” Dean paused to kiss the top of her head. “I want that too, whatever shape it takes.”

Buffy propped herself up on her arm and looked him in the eye. His naive hope made her heart ache. Their future was too complicated. “But we can’t have that, Dean. When this is over, I go back to nightly patrols. Those are our nights out: killing vampires. The job hunt is going to start up again, and with that on my plate, I don’t think I can keep up with college. We don’t have the time for more.”

“Bullshit!” he said, his face pained. “The Watcher’s Council is dead, Girly. Who do you think makes the rules now?”

“I can’t abandon--”

“Who said anything about abandoning anything? The Council was in England, right? Now you got fifty plus girls in your house that need Watchers and training. You got Giles and Sam. I’m sure a few more will step up. Who says they have to go back to England? Who says the Potentials can’t get hands-on training doing patrols once a week? Who says all the fighting has to be on your shoulders all the time?”

It just sounded like more to handle. More to worry about. She’d been in such despair since the slaughter at the winery, she hadn’t thought about life after the Apocalypse. “Let’s lock up Lucifer, then plan for the future.”

Dean kissed her on the forehead. “Okay, darlin’. How about a present instead?”

He retrieved his duffel bag from where he’d dropped it by the gate. “Death said he was the one who reaped you both times. You wouldn’t leave the first time, when you drowned, but the second time you were happy to go.”

Anyone else would have deemed her suicidal to face death as she had, but Dean understood sacrifice.

“Anyway, he gave me something for you.” Dean unzipped his bag and pulled out a golden bow, the string fine like spider silk and glowing like silver, and a quiver of six golden arrows.

They were hers. Artemis’s. They were as familiar to her as her own reflection. The grip formed to her hand as if her hand had formed it. The tension on the string perfect.

Throwing Dean’s shirt over her nakedness, she dashed onto the front lawn. The former owners of a house at the end of the block had an affinity for yard decorations. Within a minute, she’d shot a fake deer, a small battalion of lawn gnomes. Seven shots, but there was still an arrow in her quiver. She pulled it out. One golden arrow in her hand, and one in the quiver. She raced to the end of the block to retrieve her arrows, and when she returned them to the quiver, there were six again.

Something inside her began to wake up.

next chapter

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lillayalightfoot-blog · 5 years

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Character Introduction

So my friend @lordagaming initially helped me to come up with the idea for the brothel, The Velvet Rose. We created it as a part of a DnD campaign that I was writing and it took root in my brain and came to be my current WIP.

But he created the character of Xander while I created Lillaya. So when I started working on this as a piece of writing, I asked him to fill out the character intro for Xander. Here it is at long last, a full intro to the complex and wonderful character of Xander!

Name: Xander No Surname that they can remember

Gender: Male

Age: Young adult in terms of Incubus ages, but actual age around 200. His exact age is unknown.

Marital Status: In a long-term relationship with Lillaya although is polysexual as is his nature.

Spouse: None

Hair: Human form – Medium brown-blonde hair, styled to look slightly messy but attractive. Though the hair colour, length and style can change depending on his client’s preference. Clean shaven unless a client prefers facial hair. Demon Form – Long black hair (halfway down back), messy, untamed. Clean shaven.

Eyes: Human Form – Piercing bright blue Demon Form – Completely white

General appearance: Human Form – Pale skin like someone who doesn’t really go outside. Wears long flowing robes, with some plain, yet elegant, linen trousers. Often doesn’t wear a shirt. Walks elegantly and with grace but with an overwhelming aura of confidence and power. Demon Form – Grey-purple skin, tattered bat like wings, long tail, various arcane and ancient looking tattoos

Origin: Unknown – often has fragmented dreams about what he assumes his life was like a while ago (which are often the source of how he learnt how to utilise his powers). His strong memories start with him waking on a road near a farm as a child. The local farmers then took him in as their own to help on the farm.

Height: 6’ 7”

Weight/Body Structure/Physical Faults: Extremely toned and well defined, not ‘big’ but his power to weight ratio is that of a professional athlete's. Very light on his feet. His back in demon form has marked with a lot of long faded scars due to the lashings received as a slave. Additionally, this means his wings have been slightly damaged, though they have been healing well.

Race/Species: Incubus

Parents/Elders/Guardians: Foster Parents– Asami and Kei, a happy farming couple. They were unable to have their own children and so welcomed the chance to adopt Xander as their own.

Siblings: Unknown

Children: None. He is not compatible with races other than fellow succubi and incubi. Were he to have any it would most definitely be with Lillaya.

Friends/Allies: Lillaya

Beliefs/Religion: He strongly believes that people like slavers, who treat others like work animals, should be treated like an injured animal themselves and be put down. He thinks that the concept of the major religion, the Faith of the Kiviara, is stupid. Why should a divine being be revered if it only helps a small few? As a child he worshiped the Kiviara, as his foster parents did but nothing good came from it and so he gave up.

Dreams/Life Goals: To see a world where people aren’t ruled by fear or servitude, where everyone should be free to live for themselves. To make sure others enjoy the life they have. To aid Lillaya in running and creating the world’s most successful brothel.

Hobbies: Singing. Playing instruments (Piano, Guitar, Harp and similar others).

Likes: Being the centre of attention. Having people confide in him.

Loves: Sex. Lillaya.

Dislikes: People who think that they are greater than others, either by birth or position. Everyone should be equal.

Fears: Not being able to help people he loves and consequently losing loved ones. Losing to the darker side of him.

Strengths: Organised. Charismatic. Loyal to those who he loves. Confident. Protective. Very open. Can speak most languages.

Weakness: Very open. Cannot tolerate when people abuse power or position and will make them pay for what they did. Can be impulsive. Relies on Lillaya to keep him calm so that the worst part of him doesn’t surface again.

Bad Habits: Speaks his mind without thinking the consequences through. Does not take being spoken down to well. If he gets too angry or otherwise strongly emotional he struggles to maintain his human form.

Normal Talents: Singing (Not nearly as talented as his counterpart Lillaya but good nonetheless). Multi-lingual. Eidetic memory (doesn’t forget anything he doesn’t want to). Excellent at reading people.

Supernatural Powers & Abilities: Able to see into the surface of most people’s minds- this helps him to be insightful and allows him to find out what people want. He can dig further into the mind of people but needs to spend time with them. Able to affect the mood of those around him. Due to natural stage presence and aura he can use his hypnotic ability very well on large crowds, but he is less effective on individuals. Can fly in demon form but not for nearly as long or as fast as Lillaya due to his damaged wings from his time as a slave.

Temperament: Quick to anger if pushed. Although usually sanguine.

Background: Xander woke up in the middle of a crop field with no memory of his life before that moment. It turned out that the field belonged to a happy couple unable to have their own children. They adopted him and cared for him and he helped on the farm as he grew up. Occasionally he had dreams that revealed to him his true demonic nature. He was practicing his demonic abilities away from the farm one day and, on his return to the farm, found guards beating his parents as they hadn’t provided enough tribute to the ruler of the region. Xander tried to help but was restrained and made to watch the guards punishing his parents. Eventually he snapped, and his demon form emerged. He hypnotised the guards into killing themselves, and then travelled to the ruler’s throne room where he convinced the guards there to kill the ruler. His foster parents still loved him for who he was, despite the clearly unpredictable nature of his demon side. But they agreed that it wasn’t safe for him to stay with them any longer and so they gave him what little supplies they could afford, and he left, heading in whichever direction seemed best. He was ambushed on the road by a group of slavers who were hunting magically gifted people. Surprised and unprepared, they got the better of him and took him to their camp. He had been there for a few weeks, recovering and was ready to make his escape attempt but that was when Lillaya was brought into the camp. He felt a connection to her and so remained to learn more about her. They found out they were of the same race, he an incubus and her a succubus, although she hadn’t learnt how to use her powers yet. The next 3 years were spent teaching her what he could and then learning and developing their abilities together. In that camp, they endured hell and came back stronger. When they were ready to escape, they had a bond stronger than anyone else in the world. After their escape from the camp, they lived on the street for a bit. This continued until they started to charge sexual favours for food and a place to live. This eventually lead to the founding of The Velvet Rose. The business is now so popular that Xander sends weekly amounts of money to his parents, occasionally seeing them when he can and if he can get away from work.

@unwriter-sc @intheeunder @hell-yeah-writing @izzynuggets

Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed from my tag list :)

#mywriting #oc #wip #the velvet rose #xander

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redscullyrevival · 5 years

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Kristie’s Favorite Anime of 2018

Here are the (overall) transcripts of my end of the year audio posts covering my favorite anime experiences of 2018. All audio can be located on podbean but tumblr is typically more receptive to the written word and I’m still learning how to do audio levels and editing; it makes sense if people rather read my goofy thoughts!

So starting from the bottom and working our way up to number one, here is my #1 top pick, my favorite anime of 2018!:

Megalo Box Directed by Yō Moriyama From TMS Entertainment

Megalo Box is the 50th anniversary project for Tomorrow's Joe which is a boxing manga written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Tetsuya Chiba. When it was published in 1968 Tomorrow's Joe really struck a cord with Japan's youth and the working class and the character of Joe has gone on to become a pop culture symbol of sacrifice and work, representative of the strength of the downtrodden and disenfranchised.

1968 was the start of many grass roots movements in Japan, that year alone saw hundreds of student protests against nuclear-power; US occupation; Vietnam, government and educational corruption; economic imbalance, it was a time of campus rebellions and smaller towns and prefectures pushing back against big companies, against societal standards of success and happiness, and it was done violently.

Tomorrow's Joe, a story about a wandering juvenile named Joe struggling in the slums of Tokyo who takes up boxing to survive, captured and expressed the frustrated feelings of the lower classes and dissatisfied student bodies in it's time. Every iteration of the story that's been told, four films three tv shows, has tried to adjust to contemporary emotions while maintaining it's core idea on fighting truth to power.

Megalo Box absolutely accomplishes this and hot damn it does it in a cool fucking way!

Megalo Box takes place in a futuristic setting but relies on telling it's story through the aesthetics and visual cues of the past. All the boxers wear "gear", a metal framework attached to their arms which makes their attacks more lethal, and there is a made up science and technology and blahblah it's futuristic! It's not high science fiction but it's not today and now. You get it.

Junk Dog is a young man in the megalo box illegal underground making money by throwing fights as directed to him by his partner Nanbu. Junk Dog is not satisfied with his existence. He's poor, doesn't have a name, doesn't have citizenship, doesn't have control over if he wants to win a fight or not. One night he comes across the leader of the Shirato Group who is the big company behind megalo boxing and they've just announced a open tournament called Megalonia where if you place in the rankings no matter what you'll get a shot at the belt. Junk Dog picks a fight with Shirato's bodyguard who happens to be of course a world class Megalo Boxer named Yuri - they don't get around to fighting but the encounter changes both of them and instills a transformative, and yeah I'm saying it I don't care, romantic rivalry within them and we go from there.

Nanbu and Junk Dog fake citizenship to enter the tournament, they find backing, help, and a tangled web of training, money, hardship, corruption, self perseverance and self preservation takes off.

This is a really good show. Every week my husband Lee and I were just - we were dying to get around to this show we needed that new episode BAD. There is so much that is good and enjoyable and engaging about this incredibly dense and layered sports anime, it's almost overwhelming to talk about. Who am I that I can explain in a mere 15 minutes what Megalo Box accomplishes and does so wonderfully, ya know?!

Megalo Box is a series that, as I briefly mentioned before, relies on a very distinct era of anime storytelling; this series looks and feels like something you found in the back of Blockbuster in their one row of anime.

Like, you'd find Meglao Box between the one of each VHS copies of Appleseed and Kite that every Blockbuster ever had - this series, very specifically, not only perfectly emulates and bottles the designs and animation strengths of popular anime from the late 80s to the late 90s (things like Wicked City, Bubblegum Crisis, Gunbuster, Evangelion, Trigun, and Cowboy Bebop) but Megalo Box successfully sells itself as that found gem, as that personal awe inspiring experience of being lucky enough to come across something, try it, and be blown away...

And I know that sounds kind of kooky, but I lived through that era of anime; Megalo Box's choices to de-rez it's footage, to add graininess, to do tightly cropped sequences as though the aspect ratio has been adjusted from an original format, is not lost on me or I imagine anyone who did the work trying to access anime before the days of DVDs, streaming, and simulcasts - here in the English speaking world and in Japan. That experience is more universal than one would assume; it's a nostalgic kick that visually defines this show and works magnificently well in creating shorthand world building. It's easy for me to get behind anything the show does because I already know this kind of show, which again I know sounds crazy or silly but I really believe that that's what Megalo Box was going for.

I 100% think anyone younger than me or not even an anime fan can pick up this series and be entertained and get really into it because, it's again, really good: But that doesn't mean the series isn't trying to recall a very particular time frame of storytelling trends and character work. This series is absolutely doing that and I'm bring it up because I want that to be highlighted and known, 'cause it's fantastic!

It is the visual presentation that carries the bulk of this series through it's more generic turns. We all know a boxing story, because it's always the same story, but Megalo Box utilizes it's biggest advantage over it's live action counter parts by injecting it's world with a visual coding that creates a new experience that feels familiar, that feels known, which doesn't hurt it's commonalities with other boxing stories but enhances them towards new personal spaces with it's audience. Which is, uhh, very cool.

Megalo Box is gripping from the very start, it builds and grows in it's layers of depth and character work, it can make you cry AND want to learn to throw a punch; the dance between the show and viewer is so good! Haha, I'm having a hard time explaining what I mean in this regard, but if you've experienced Megalo Box you know what I'm trying to say.

Megalo Box feels personal, it feels reflective of our hardest struggles, of anyone's fight. And that's the hallmark of the pop culture imprint of Tomorrow's Joe, of the strength and legacy of this franchise and why it's still making the rounds; it's an underdog story that moves beyond just wanting to see someone win but one that latches onto you and won't let go, Joe's wins become your wins and rooting for him creates a form of self belief. AND it looks and sounds cool as hell!

Megalo Box impressed me and delighted me every step of the way and by the time we got to that last episode - I can't even begin to explain the tension that was in my house! Lee and I just... After a while our engagement to the show became verbal. During a fight lee would mutter "Get up!" and I'd go "oh jesus" and we'd say stuff like "get him" be giving advice and like, that's pretty intense. To be so in it you're involuntarily responding in an attempt to direct events? That's not something that happens usually happens to me and it happen more and more as the episodes went on that by the end we were both very literally on the edge of our seats hands covering our faces as though in prayer.

So.

Megalo Box is it for me! It's the years winner, by total knock out.

#Megalo Box #Kristie’s Favorite Anime of 2018 #anime

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