#its time to loop this 50 times today

[liveyun]

𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐃 ; KSJ

title. white sand

pairing. kim seokjin x female oc/reader

genre. angst, exes au

warnings. mentions of broken marriage, arguments, panic attacks, hurt/comfort, missing communication in a relationship ; divorce ; non descriptive smut, allusions to miscarriage ; surprise ending?

wc. 3.3k+

listen to : playlist

masterlist | taglist

The sky is gloomy today.

Do you want to turn a river in its bed,

Or plant a barren wilderness with wheat?

Warm water ripples underneath your feet, giving you a feeling of you being still alive. That certain feeling of your stomach churning never leaves you, as you inhale a deep breath. This wasn't new to you, at least you knowing that wasn't. Your heart throbbing with pain each time whenever you see colors swirling around your life, but not you. Everything felt blank, everyday was an endless loop.

Your thoughts never ran twice before committing anything, resulting in indiscretion.

You didn't know why you'd visit the beach once in the year when the water felt bizzare to your skin; but at least this feeling of your feet sinking in the soft wet sand, the feeling of the cold breeze soothing your skin calms down your racing thoughts.

If you can meet with triumph and failure

And treat those two impostors just the same

Triumph. You weren't sure of when you met triumph, but failure, for sure was met by you. Failure is the secret ingredient to your success, they say, but when you actually fail, there aren't many who still stand by their quote.

The bubbling pot of jealousy inside, being compared to others, despised, accused of being a traitor, these all were some things which you craved to forget, but some things can't be just forgotten, can they really be?

If you can bear to hear the truth they've spoken

That you stepped right in trap for fools. But when?

They get buried inside your own self, in one such deep crests inside your heart that when even a glance is spared over, your whole self falls into an endless slumber of contriteness. Was it fair to lead on in this way? Pity for others, harassment for your own self. The truth is factual, you have heard it by your own self, and you are ready to accept it all. It itself might hurt but all these things, at least have an honesty within that you haven't been through unfair means to provide you a bittersweet nostalgia.

They say that success and failures are like the two faces of a coin. They're both an outcome of luck with a probable chance of 50-50 for each. Hard work does not always bring success, no matter how hard you put in your efforts.

But they also say that to keep a drowning relationship afloat, you have to put in effort.

It hit you hard when you’d realized that the risk of risking it all can also mean losing everything you've ever had in your life.

It hits you even harder when you remember how the decade old moon pendant still rests peacefully between your clavicles, against the resonating of your heart. You'd wanted to throw that away in the vast ocean, wanting the hues of the blues carry your pain, the memories to a place far, far away from you.

But you never had the heart to part away with something so close to your heart.

It's the seventh year you're seeing the imprints of your feet on the dunes of the damp sand on the same day, every year.

It's the seventh year you're walking alone on the beach with no sounds of squeaky giggles tingling your ears.

You wonder if the pendant still holds the tiny pieces of paper between its leaves which have both of your initials imprinted, or it's faded away like your footprints on the sand with each wave hitting the coast. Like how the castles you'd build together did.

4th December.

Your heart beats like crazy within your ribcage when your fingers feel the gentle surface of the white pendant, a relic which once was the reason for your smile blooming like lilies in a pond. But now, it only reminds you of your failure— your failure to keep your relationship afloat. Of your broken connection.

It's the seventh year you're reminded once again that it's truly over.

It's the seventh year you've realized that you're no longer together with your childhood friend whom you'd married.

It's the seventh year you've realized that maybe you've died. Maybe a part of you has, because till death do us part did not do any justice to you. To your best friend, your husband— ex husband.

It's the seventh year you're living without him, as many would say that you're doing completely fine, maybe only you know that a part of you never has ever stopped yearning.

Never stopped loving him.

You take off the pendant from your neck, gently unfolding the metallic celestial halves. The white paper in both of the tiny compartments unveiled bold, black scrawls with tiny hearts surrounding them.

KSJ ♡ YN

You feel the pain right in your chest, spiraling up your lungs to down your stomach till you could no longer breathe properly.

It's not a vague memory in your mind the day he gifted you the pendant. The event replays in your head like it's yesterday, when you were both young adults with warmth glowing in your faces, in your hearts, surrounding each other with the blanket of love. You still remember how young he looked with flushed cheeks and eyes twinkling under the moonlight, half squeaking, half laughing at some lame joke. His warm, big hand enveloped yours as you two walked to the waves in this same beach, feet sinking to the white sand glowing in the night.

You still remember how Seokjin had made a note of how warm the water was in comparison to the weather, and you'd make a note of how the tips of his ears were a shade of crimson.

You still remember when he had handed you the pendant, smiling so brightly, saying that he's forever grateful to the moon for blessing him, and you still remember the freshness of his breath as his lips touched yours for the first time ever.

You still remember how scared you two were. Having discovered your love for eachother after pining like idiots, you knew you had a lot of talking to do. You still remember how hot his lips felt on your skin, promising you words of affirmation that you both got this.

You still remember how delicate he was at that night of your first time together, how gently he made love to you, and how he coaxed releases after releases from you, gently kissing your heated flesh with each stroke to your skin. How he'd turned to mush after you'd touched him back with the same passion, with the same desire.

You still remember his teary face when you'd met him at the altar, when you'd exchanged your vows of eternal love and fidelity. You still remember how different the kiss you'd both shared felt to be, almost like a seal to your newfound journey.

You still remember how happy you two were. You two had promised that you'd got this together.

You feel your eyes stinging with tears amidst the bitter smile that hangs loosely on your lips, because you still remember the first time when things got hard. Really hard. You still remember the shaking of his dark pupils like an autumn leaf hanging on the tree, quivering with guilt suppressed anger when he saw you flinch. He had yelled at you, for the first time ever. He stroked your back with flurries of apologies as he kissed you to sleep that day.

You remember how any squabbles were silenced without any communication gradually and how any quarrel would be slept on without any apologies from either of you.

Despite the slowly forming gap between you two, he'd still make sure to have prepared breakfast for you when you'd wake up late. How he'd still prepare the vase every two days with your favorite flowers. How he'd pull you closer to his broad chest, lulling you to sleep, or occasionally telling you about his days.

You still remember how slowly the arguments turned to sleepless nights with a fidgeting heart and a choking stomach. How everything was so gradual that it took you time to realize that it was happening, and you'd taken it for granted.

How the loud voices of you both threatened to blow off the ceiling, and how your eyes hurt after crying yourself to sleep. How dark the bags under his eyes seemed every morning. How scared you were when you realized that he was no longer behind you, let alone stroking your back when you were bawling your eyes out as he used to do earlier.

How you'd wake up to an empty side of your bed, how your texts went unanswered most of the time. How every day after work you'd return to an empty home, flowers withered and dead on vases and everything picking up layers of dust.

How you'd fall asleep with untouched food on the table when he'd return back to home late from work. How you'd no longer smell the piping hot food everyday when you'd woken up. You would wake up to the same, empty place, knowing that he had been there, but he left without even sparing a glance.

You'd also miss how Seokjin would return to home with a throbbing guilt in his heart, never putting off the blame in his heart which accused him for everything which has been happening in your marriage.

How his heart would shatter to pieces each time after a quarrel, realizing the situation. How heartbreaking your sobs were behind the closed rooms or the running showers.

But he'd never got to apologize, because a part of him wanted that to come from you too. He'd wonder at times if you thought the same.

You still remember the lone happiness which bloomed inside you after so long when you'd seen two lines on the pregnancy stick after days of throwing up in the morning. How you'd thought that maybe, maybe this could fix everything between you two. Everything which you weren't ready for, but were thrown onto. Everything which you didn't know existed between you two, but was clearly visible day after day. You were positive that it definitely would.

How fucking selfish of you.

You still remember his absence and his ignorance when you were so excited to let him know about the happy news. You still remember the piercing fight which took place when he returned from his three month long business trip. You vaguely remember how you'd cry for him at nights to hold you, trashing beside the empty bed, how you'd throw up and clutch yourself to sleep. How the doctor had already warned you of your difficult pregnancy and to avoid mental stress as much as you can.

You vaguely remember how he'd asked you why do you look so pale. You barely remember the panic, the pain when the conversation flowed to another fight, now you yelling at him. He'd screamed at you that you were a burden to him.

You faintly remember the agonizing pain at your lower abdomen, strong enough to blur your vision and strangle you down to the ground where he'd cried your name as you fell down, and everything had blacked out.

But you actually remember the look on the doctor's face when she told it out loud.

And even clearer, the look on Seokjin’s face.

You don't really want to remember everything else which happened after that. Your friends had taken you home, away from him, suggesting that it's for the best. Some of them had already warned you beforehand when things had started to fall gradually and they emphasized their surmise of the situation.

You don't want to remember anything else which happened after that. You don't want to remember how you'd know that his company had gone completely bankrupt, and how he'd tried his best to save it.

You don't want to remember the time when you'd sent him the divorce papers and the look on his face, ignoring his thin frame, dark bags underneath his eyes which seemed devoid of any light in them, at all.

You don't want to remember all the times he came back to you, called you, texted you endlessly and begged forgiveness for everything he'd done to you but not even once to come back to him.

Maybe he knew already that you wouldn't.

You don't want to remember the time when you'd gone to your once shared apartment to get back your stuff. It felt. . .empty and devoid of any life, your once warm home staring at your face with a cold air around it, partially suffocating you from all the memories you'd created together. Whether they were the happy ones, or the terrible ones.

You'd purposefully ignored the vase of fresh flowers greeting you or all the furniture being spotlessly free of any dust. You'd ignored how your heartstring tugged at you when you'd see that his clothes are still with your own in the closet and how the bed was changed into the bedsheets which you'd bought at the beginning of your honeymoon.

But you couldn't refrain yourself from stepping into his study. Maybe it was because you were sure that you wouldn't be seeing him anymore, and the court would be the last place and time when you'd see him. Maybe because there was a part inside of you which wanted you to hang on for him. Hang on for you, but you'd ignored that, suppressing the voice inside you.

You absolutely don't want to remember whatever you'd seen there anymore. Whether it was the unfinished yarn you'd knitted to a poorly made mass during those three months knitted to an almost finished sweater, or the photos of you both framed on the shelves where you'd previously seen trophies of his youth camping on.

From small kids grinning ear to ear to adolescent teens with awkward poses to full grown adults and your last photo you'd taken together at Ilsan a year ago then as a couple. Each of them rested one beside another and other memories which were caught in small handicrafts you'd thrifted during your small visits to nearby towns in your early teens.

Because that only makes you fall into the endless pit of guilt, again and again, realizing that you'd never heard his part of the story. Your initial anger had always refrained you from thinking that way, but you'd know that despite everything, every effort you two had put into your marriage, had been in vain. You remember how pale, dull, thin and silent he'd seemed at the day of your divorce. He'd just a thin jacket on his frame regardless of the freezing cold outside with heavy bags underneath his eyes. He'd acknowledged your presence with a slow, long stare of his dim, puffy eyes, a small single nod of his head. You'd ignored how much it hurt to see Seokjin like that, but you'd instead decided to move forward, no matter how painful it was.

You remember the silence from his side when the judge had asked him questions about the reasons why your marriage broke down to pieces. You'd held your breath in your chest which already hurt with the constant throbbing.

He'd answered with a voice that you couldn't recognise from the person you'd known for more than half of your life.

“I wasn't there for her when she needed me the most.”

The judge had asked again, why'd he give up. If he knows, shouldn't he be trying to make it up to you? His answer, perhaps, had shocked the judge, too.

“Once a knot gets tied between a thread, the knot forever remains, no matter how much you try to untangle it.”

The actual last time you saw Seokjin was after you two were divorced, sitting beside each other, having signed on the papers which officially meant that you two no longer were married to each other. Your heart felt numb with the pain and your eyes were devoid of any moisture, having exhausted them all within the painful months you'd spent alone with the memories haunting you.

You hadn't looked up at him, and you knew he didn't, too, and you didn't want to. You'd seen his fingers twitch on the paper where he held his pen, close to yours own, but made no further move. You'd itched to say something to him which you didn't know if you should've, but you'd kept quiet all the while.

You'd heard his tiny please forgive me,if you can the last time before you exited the court, but also from the place where you'd relished your memories, a souvenir to your old love.

You close the pendant with a snap.

It's the same day you divorced your ex husband.

4th December.

It's his thirty-first birthday, too.

As the waves crawl gently towards the white sand of the coast, you exhale in the breath you were holding in. You run your thumb on the craters like designs on the outside of the golden pendant, silently feeling the burden inside your chest now being a bit lighter.

You don't know if you've truly moved on, but the bitterness in the memories doesn't really feel bitter to you. At times they overwhelm you, but it's not intense.

You wonder if Seokjin is doing well.

We were taken from the ore-bed

And melted in the furnace pit—

We were cast and hammered to design,

We were cut and filed to fit.

You don't like nostalgia, but sometimes it reminds you that failure and struggle are the components who develop your character. If anything, it reminds you that mistakes were made and consequences were beared, but it also leaves you with a tingling curiosity inside. Is Seokjin living in the same city? Is he..is he celebrating his birthday today?

Birthdays for him were fun. Birthdays with him were fun.

You don't know. You guess it wasn't really within your imagination to imagine what it would be like for him. You just hope and wish he's doing okay. You hope he has healed well, or is healing well.

You stand up, your pendant still clutched in between your palms, no longer feeling the weight it carried for you, from you throughout the years of your life.

The weather begins to get chillier as the sun slowly makes its way away from the face of the world.

The low rustle of the waves and the slow whoosh of the wind tells you that it's time to leave.

Exhaling a breath you didn't know you were holding on, you turn to exit the beach. A simple smile spreads on your lips when you suddenly feel the pendant slip away from your slightly sweaty palms to the sand underneath.

You bend down to pick it up, and your hands brush against another hand which doesn't belong to you.

A warm one, and an oddly familiar,big one.

A pair of warm, curious pupils, twinkling within the dark pools of coffee hidden underneath tresses of dark hair greets you.

You look up.

“Seokjin?”

His eyes are wide and shaking slightly by the time you both stand up, your hands dangerously close to his which clasps the pendant within. He looks healthier, fuller and he's gained some much needed weight over the years. He's dressed in a white tee and black shorts, and you notice that he's let his hair grow. His cheeks have a flush which you'd notice was new to you. If anything, he looked handsomely young, as if he'd aged back.

Walk down the white sand just to watch his lonely footprints get washed away by the currents. He's trying not to fall back to the habits which tore himself away from him, but he's never been truly free from the guilt which pokes his chest in every aspect of his life.

When he saw you seated on the edge of the coast when he was out to visit the beach that meant the most to him, he couldn't believe his eyes. Every year on his birthday he'd visit the beach in the evening with a selfish hope in his heart, which he knew wasn't rational at any cost.

He used to sit on the coast the whole night, feeling the moon soothe away the burning memories of you. Hoping he'd ever find you, but always in vain. Hoping he could apologize for everything he's done except uttering a small sorry like a fucking coward.

The beach would always remind him of you.

Your hair is shorter than how he saw it the last time. Your cheeks are fuller, and your eyes have their light returned back to their places. You sat there in the same silence which he did at a distance, refusing the rational part of him which told him that it's wrong. He'd promised himself that he'd go away before you'd get up, and you seemed lost in thoughts as he took you in. Even if you two weren't together anymore, he was happy. Genuinely happy to see you okay. After everything you'd gone through. He knew, he was by no means rightful to ever look at you even, because he knew ever since then that you don't need him anymore.

Even if he tried, he could never stop loving you. Trying to be a better man everyday, wishing he could stop time and go back, knowing it's impossible. Everyday he'd wished he could. . . .

Now you're looking at him, and he doesn't know what to say. How to talk. You looked peaceful. You looked happy. You—

But when he'd seen the pendant he'd thought you wouldn't have it with you anymore, he lost it.

“Seokjin?” Fuck. This is the second time you've called him, but he doesn't find the crease in between your eyebrows as he'd expected to. You're rather smiling, a sight which he finds his heart racing miles at.

You don't wait for his response.

“Happy birthday.”

a/n : happy birthday to our silly moon prince~ hope you liked this one which i actually managed to finish in the brink of time ong

don't be sad, he's coming back soon home! :D as always, reblogs and feedbacks are always appreciated 🌙🌹

#bts fics #seokjin x you #seokjin x reader #bts x reader #bts x you #bts x oc #bts fanfiction #seokjin smut #seokjin angst #bts smut #bts angst #bts fluff #seokjin fluff #bts fanfic #seokjin scenarios #bts scenarios #bts imagines #seokjin imagine #kim seokjin x you #kim seokjin x reader #kim seokjin fanfic #kim seokjin fic #bts x fem!reader

[yana125]

So a new preview came out today. For episode 11. With different visuals and music. Instead of an episode 12 preview.

Original:

New:

Why make a new preview for the previous episode? Why upload it the day before the preview of the next episode? Will there be even a preview for the last episode? Or maybe...

Bang Brave Bang Bravern enters its Endless Eight era

I have never watched Haruhi Suzumiya, but here's the retelling of what the Endless Eight is (the very same video where I learnt about this):

The same episode was aired for eight weeks with very little differences until in the 8th Endless Eight episode one of the characters broke the loop with saying that he still had to do his homework.

Smith is already stuck in a stable time loop. That was a funny theory until it turned out to be true. Why not put Isami in a Groundhog Day loop Endless Eight style that only he can break by admitting one thing?

It's gay love. He needs to confess. He has to say it back. And also he still needs to find out that Smith is Bravern.

So my prediction is that episode 12 is episode 11 again, but since it's a speedrun because why not give 24 or 50 episodes to this anime HUH???!!! the loops will happen within one episode. This idea could very well turn out to be false if we'll get an episode 12 preview, but this is Bang Brave Bang Bravern. As the full version of the opening says: 'BREAK DOWN! Smash through theories!'

#bang brave bang bravern #bravern spoilers #Youtube

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Hard Rock Essentials 2000 Hard Rock / Blues-Rock / Arena Rock / Hair Metal / Pop-Metal / Heavy Metal / Adult-Oriented Rock / Progressive Rock / Pop-Rock

God, classic rock really has to be the most over-entitled and over-represented type of music in America, man. I mean, can you think of any other non-contemporary stuff that has a radio station solely dedicated to it in virtually every nook and cranny of this country? It's pretty obvious why it's managed to own so much radio real estate over the years, though—because it's pure catnip for nostalgic white boomers—but if you zoom all the way out and think about all of the music that's come and gone since the 50s, there's really no justifiable reason for this stuff to get so much more airtime than any other type of music from the past. I mean, classic rock is fine for what it is, but it's definitely not leaps and bounds better than everything else.

Take a song like Foreigner's "Hot Blooded," for instance, which is just one of multiple tracks to appear on this triple-disc compilation of so-called Hard Rock Essentials here that happens to deal with the complex subject matter of, *checks notes*, being extremely horny. "Hot Blooded" was a hit in its day, sure, but so were literally tens of thousands of other songs too. And I guess, at the end of the day, I just don't really understand why this song, and so many other ones that are featured on this comp as well, has earned its keep as a fixture of constant classic rock radio rotation. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, is "Hot Blooded" really all that remarkable of a song, so much so, that we need to keep continuously hearing it on our radios year after year? No way!

But, folks, I have to admit that it is actually far too late for me on this front. I am by no means a boomer, but I was, at one point, part of another segment that, like clockwork, fell prey to classic rock radio too: the insufferable tweenage boy subset who grew exasperated with the mindlessness of his own generation's contemporary top 40 fare and decided that "Smoke On the Water" and other songs of its ilk were actually the best shit in the world. Little did we know at the time, and some of us still refuse to see it, that a lot of this shit was actually every bit just as dumb as the stuff that we were trying to so actively avoid. God, how embarrassing.

But I really just cannot help it at this point. As much sense as I've tried to make at the top of this post, I really did have a substantial classic rock phase, and now that shit is just hard-coded into my own DNA. Quiet Riot's "Cum On the Feel the Noize" is not a song that deserves to ever be heard by anyone ever again—it's so fucking bad!—but God damnit, I can't stifle the smile that starts to plant itself on my face whenever that stupid thing comes on. And it's much the same for the vast majority of the other tracks that are on this comp too.

So, while Hard Rock Essentials might be revered as a biblical classic rock sampling for both a certain type of tweenage boy and white boomer alike, for me, personally, it's nothing but security blanket rock. This is music that served me well years ago, and I've clearly outgrown it too, but there are also times when I just love to go back and swaddle myself in it as well 😊. And if I'm with someone who swears by this kinda stuff, I'm obviously gonna fully rock out to it with them too, but then maybe, afterwards, I can make their heads explode with a piece of Philadelphia shoegaze from 1996 that only has 26 YouTube views 🤯.

And I'm not gonna really get too much into it here, but we also really need to have some kind of deep reckoning with this whole propped-up and closed-looped classic rock industry that serves itself with all these nearly identical radio station playlists, cheaply produced TV countdown shows, and countless 'greatest of all time' lists on tons of different websites. I'm not trying to do conspiratorial tin foil hattery, but this whole apparatus really needs to have a stick thrown into its spokes, because it's been dominant as an unchallenged authority on classic rock for far too long. Rather than yet another spin of "Rock You Like a Hurricane," a much more thorough exploration of this vast expanse is indeed possible; I can promise you that.

Highlights:

CD1:

Ted Nugent - "Cat Scratch Fever" Great White - "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" Kansas - "Carry On Wayward Son" Quiet Riot - "Cum On Feel the Noise" Warrant - "Heaven" Judas Priest - "You've Got Another Thing Coming" Loverboy - "Lovin' Every Minute of It" Blue Öyster Cult - "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" Scandal - "The Warrior" Living Colour - "Cult of Personality" Mountain - "Mississippi Queen" Argent - "Hold Your Head Up"

CD2:

Foreigner - "Hot Blooded" Bad Company - "Feel Like Makin' Love" INXS - "Need You Tonight" Damn Yankees - "High Enough" Ratt - "Round and Round" Skid Row - "I Remember You" Black Sabbath - "Heaven and Hell" The Doobie Brothers - "China Grove" White Lion - "Wait" April Wine - "Just Between You and Me" Twisted Sister - "We're Not Gonna Take It"

CD3:

Whitesnake - "Is This Love" Golden Earring - "Radar Love" Joe Walsh - "Rocky Mountain Way" Scorpions - "Rock You Like a Hurricane" The Allman Brothers Band - "Whipping Post" Uriah Heep - "Easy Livin'"

#hard rock #blues rock #rock #arena rock #hair metal #heavy metal #metal #progressive rock #prog rock #prog #pop metal #metal pop #pop rock #pop #classic rock #classic pop #music #60s #60s music #60's #60's music #70s #70s music #70's #70's music #80s #80s music #80's #80's music #90s

[logorrhea5mip]

I wish i had 20% of the creativity my brain displays when dreaming while mildly sick.

To give an example:

A young man, dressed in informal baggy clothing stands with a microphone on a hill overlooking a city. (he is, at the same time, both me and Tom Scott, as is normal in dreams)

"As an infrastructure reporter, you might wonder what im doing here in Iceland, which certainly isn't well known for grand engineering projects not advanced technology"

"After the GEA project was ratified, the local economy expectedly crashed, and Iceland needed a new path towards its promised, prosperous future. The PIP, almost nonexistent before the crisis, quickly rose in power and became the dominant party that would define the 40s in this country. While their legacy is controversial, it's biggest physical relic isn't. And it is right behind me."

At the center of the large metropolis, a peculiar structure rises. The upper part of it is a half kilometer wide and slightly more tall ellipse of road, reinforced with a mess of jutting steel pillars and I-beams, almost as if someone had too much of them and needed to stick them somewhere.

The lower half of the structure stands on a U shaped building, which looks like many residential towers haphazardly stuck together, with the shortest ones in the middle and tallest ones on the sides. The roofs of the buildings are connected to the steel mess above them, which in turn holds the road.

"Sincere the highly specialized materials used for Loop construction aren't domestically produced here, and it would be to costly to import them, the project leaders decided on an approach that would utilize the domestic metal industry, resulting in an effective but unorthodox looking design."

"And while the Reykjavik Loop isn't as tall as the Dubai Circuit, as technically complex as the Double Loops of Berlin, nor as important to the sport as the Loop of San Francisco, it is more than enough for this often forgotten corner of the world."

"And it truly is, a wonder to behold"

So, this is all form a single dream i had. And while this isn't the best writing or world building ever, one has to appreciate it's volume. To list it all out:

In the mid to late 2030s, a UN project (GeoEngineering of the Atmosphere) suddenly stopped most of the acute effects of climate change.

Northern countries, where real estate was highly sough after as climate refugees flooded the less affected parts of the world, experienced a serious economic downturn as their safe haven status suddenly disappeared.

This caused a shift in Icelandic politics which got a public infrastructure and large projects focused party into power(seemingly controversial in the late 50s which appears to be the present), who built The Loop.

Loop racing is a(physically impossible, dream physics is like that often) motor sport, seemingly very popular "today", where drivers race around the Loop many times.

The whole look of the Reykjavik Loop is certainly unique in that way that dream architecture often is.

Remember, all of this came from 3 minutes of random neuron activity.

And meanwhile, conscious me can decide on a surname for my DnD character for 20 minutes.

#dreams #not a reblog #ramblings #iceland #unreality #architecture #weird dreams #random thoughts #long posts

[lemondoddle]

where i work did an event today where you could dress silly if you wanted to and of COURSE i wanted to i live and breathe dressing for a theme but let me say it was downright Fascinating taking in the complete lack of acknowledgement in my appearance from customers. for context this is what i was wearing:

[I.D. two photos. the first is a mirror showcasing my outfit consisting of a large red cowboy hat, black face mask, black choker and fake costume teeth on a necklace, a white shirt with a fish and text reading "ask me about langlieria smalingi!" various chunky rings and a squishmallow and dinosaur pop it attached to the belt loops of my pants. the second photo is a closeup of one of the rings, a large three dimensional sloth hugging my finger. end I.D.]

not pictured are my goncharov boots, also if you are curious about the fish its an extinct species the relative of someone i know discovered and the person i know made shirts to celebrate

here's some things i noticed about wearing this at work:

despite the fact that i was wearing a women's fitted t-shirt i felt Very gender, i think it was the cowboy hat i always feel good in it, that combined with the jangling of all my various baubles

in my four hour shift i interacted with at the very least 50 people and received three total comments on my outfit

two of them were complimenting my sloth ring

the third complimented my cowboy hat

other than that, absolutely nothing. not really even stares though i wasnt paying too close attention to that

i did also bring a backup hat just in case this one wouldnt fly, it was a finn adventure time hat which weirdly made the outfit much more cohesive

i was one of the only people dressed up which i expected but it is still very funny. imagine walking through an entire store of normal employees and finding me at the service desk. and you Had to talk to me i was the only one there tonight

also i was literally awarded employee of the month yesterday in front of a group of my coworkers. and then i did this

no one asked me about the fish :( tho i partially blame my lanyard obscuring my shirt

anyways. yeehaw.

#lane speaks #im sure there were people who walked away and went 'what the fuck was that person wearing' but not One question or concern said to me lol #and one coworker asked if there was a theme #nope just random shit thrown on me #and like this isnt a hot topic or whatever its a very boomer poppulated place which was even funnier

[mayra-quijotescx]

Made it to and from the gallery on public transportation today, proving to myself It Can Be Done and I am a Strong and Independent Possum Who Need Not Get In A Car.

And I am satisfied with the knowledge that I can do this and it's only (i know, i know) like 2.5-3 hours out of that day.

but good lord.

(whining under the readmore)

Every step of the journey felt like a goddamn song by Muse from the aughts with how unsubtly and copiously it beat me around the ears with how profoundly shitty our society is.

first of all, we have a 7-mile trip taking an hour and 15 minutes each way in a major city. Even in other parts of the US, that's rightly regarded as absurd. Local Route is once every 30 minutes and mandatory to reach Trolley, on which I spent most of my journey, and from Trolley I had a fifteen-minute walk through one of the most desolate neighborhoods within the Loop to reach Gallery.

METRO has a $1.25 fare expectation of riders (having a Q Card helps because then you can stretch that fare across multiple buses instead of having to dump change at every bus you get on.) It also wastes an exorbitant amount of its budget (probably more than it gets from the fares itself, though I can't prove it) on hiring fare inspectors, whose sole purpose is to swan about on our laughably tiny trolley network harassing anyone who looks poor to make sure they paid before getting on the trolley, and to write them $75 tickets if they didn't. (I carry an extra Q Card in case this happens in front of me, and have had to intervene in such a way three times in the last year. And I don't go outside much.) Coming and going, there were three hanging about in each trolley car I was in, so I felt like I had to be vigilant the whole time.

By the time I reached [Trolley drop off point] on the towards-gallery part of the trip, I was glad for the 15-minute walk ahead of me because it meant I could clear my mind from what was a very loud trip... until the walk took me from the bail bondsman mini-district into the area directly around Gallery, which is getting flipped up into a dumping ground for new real estate investment properties despite having no nearby grocery stores, no immediate-vicinity bus routes, one food place (costly brunch joint that may or may not be a side hustle of Close Proximity Bail Bond Office #2), and downright fuckall else. There's a hastily-kludged bike line if that sweetens the deal, which I walked in for the final stretch due to the sidewalklessness of it all.

There are a couple of other gallery/studios embedded amid the runaway construction of Generic Luxury Apartment Block No One Can Afford #8953-8957, and one mostly built Generic Luxury Apartment Block No One Can Afford, lazily named "The Artist" after the class of people least likely to be able to make rent there. Lest one accuse it of being a mere unoriginal clone of 50 other similar giant boxes found in the turbogentrified Greater Heights/Montrose area, there's a small piece of genuine vintage railroad track installed out front between the sidewalk and the pothole-studded road. The piece of track leads to nowhere and connects nothing. It's too obvious to write a poem about.

I would be hopeful that all this runaway development would at least bring more people to the vicinity of Gallery and the nearby studios, but again, these look like additions to the investment/tax dodge portfolio for some rich jackoff who's like as not to have never set foot in Houston, not places that real people are going to be able to live in.

Anyway, I'm home safe, and was at least able to immediately launch myself into the shower after sweating buckets from 30 minutes of walking around in 75F weather in February, which I won't dwell on because I might get fully seized by a climate doom spiral if I do : )

#who else up staring into the abyss

[forfuckssakejim]

🎶🍷

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

i do actually! sometimes in my authors note i'll even divulge what song was playing or if a song inspired it (uh, hence a certain series thats purely to document my insanity with said artist) Like for example in Work Song i just so happening to be listening to that song by Hozier so it became my title since I was stuck. A few are from Hozier or Halsey songs. a few random ones like, uh, Billy Joel and Panic. But usually I just shuffle my playlist and i can get anything from today back up to like, the 50's or 40's. From pop and rap to metal and country. If anyone ever joins me on my discord streams i usually play music while I write and you can hear for yourself just how crazy my music taste is.

🍷 Do you drink and write?

a few times! or i write after drinking. mostly the later. I think i've even said in the notes or in tags 'sorry if this doesnt make sense ive had too much to drink' or something along those lines. hmm, let me see if i can find one. Oh! There's this one! that was inspired by a crazy week at work, my birthday weekend (cuz im a spoiled brat who has two birthdays and its considered a national holiday in my family) so i was def drunk and just channeling Bones as I wrote this: You Can Make Me Drink in which Jim talks about his and Spock's more personal life and Bones just wants to drink.

#ask #anon #HOLY SHIT SINCE WHEN CAN WE EDIT REBLOGS #WHAT THE FUCK WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN #THIS IS SORCERY #anyways

[glacecakes]

Whumptober Day 4: Hiding Injuries

S3A Sasha and Grime have a talk about self preservation after a mission gone wrong.

Hello happy whumptober I'm just going to be smacking Sasha around for a few days don't mind me These are gonna be pretty short since I uh... procrastinated and literally just finished this with 50 minutes to spare on day 4. And they may be late. Rip. I tried. So uh fun fact this one is based on something that actually happened to me! I had this weird pain in my neck and then all of a sudden i couldn't move for like 4 hours. The human body is whack.

Canon typical violence ahoy, nothing too crazy! 

-

It should have been a simple mission. Get in, steal the supplies, get out. But it’s never that simple, because if there is a god out there, it hates Sasha with a passion.

How long has she been training these frogs into an elite fighting force? A month, two months? Maybe more… time has lost most meaning. Wake up, train, go on missions, plan, sleep. Her days were never the same but always the same sort of goals or challenges, more fires for her to put out, more recruits to train, more sleepless nights of stress.

Today is no exception. Even before amphibia, she was never one for coffee, but now that she’s been living in a warzone for a while, she can’t help but miss the stuff. How else is she supposed to constantly be on her a-game? Rest? Relaxation? Pffft, no one has time for that! Not when King Andrias is building a robot army to destroy her home that she misses so desperately and has hurt and maimed and used the girls she loves so much like her own it hurts-

Ahem. Anyway.

They’re still getting the hang of things, still learning the ins-and-outs of Andrias’ fortresses, so the ones that aren’t cookie-cutter repeats of previous maps always throw them for a loop. This one is a factory that has a few extra security measures… she doesn’t want to give her group the credit of being the reason for beefed up security, she’s not that egotistical. One of the frogs’ slippery legs slides across a laser beam, something they’d never seen before. It’s unsurprising how they jump (ha) at the alarms that blare, totally confused as to how they’ve been caught. But Sasha doesn’t wait, doesn’t hesitate, grabbing the one (Wally…? Waldo?) and ducking him under her arm as she dodges a hailfire of turrets. The red hot lazers sear at her back, the heat so intense she can feel it even as she dodges.

She sets Willy down. “Stay here.” she advises. “I’ll turn off the alarms.”

“Yes ma’am!” He salutes, dead eye snapping open just briefly before shutting. He should probably try and pin it open, having depth perception would really help in the fight.

With a grunt, she turns back to the robots that have flooded the room. This part comes naturally to her, the slicing and dicing of steel, the ache in her muscles a familiar companion. A robot flies down from the ceiling, its wings buzzing angrily as its eyes narrow in on her. She throws her sword perfectly, stabbing it right in the chest. It goes down in a blaze of glory and takes out a few more robots along the way. Her sword burns in her hand from sizzling wires, but she pulls it out with a flourish, slicing through robots that rain bullets faster than she can even blink. She’s never going back to cheerleading, she thinks bemusedly. This is way more satisfying.

Finally, blissfully, the last robot goes down. She steps back, satisfied. The frog gives her a thumbs up. She can’t help but return it with a faint smile. These folk, despite their kindness, have a powerful warrior spirit that she can’t help but admire. They’re a lot like Marcy, in a way.

“Quite a show, miss!” The frog (Dolly…?) hops over. “Now let’s get the grub and get outta here!”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” She agrees. These facilities are never fun, a stark contrast to the Amphibia she’s been used to. The frog turns around, and Sasha does as well, but her ears perk up at the faintest of hums. It’s a noise that they wouldn’t know; the sound of a fan whirring in a machine overheating.

She whips around to see the last robot, the one with a gaping hole in its chest, with eyes glowing and a final blast prepped in its arm cannon. “Get down!” She cries, running for her companion and tackling him to the ground. But not before a large blast of heat rockets through her shoulder, just grazing her neck and nearly hitting her ear. It cuts a clean line through her once pristine hair, now a ratted mess that lays dead on the floor.

Well. That’s one way to get a haircut.

The frog groans, before he comes to his senses and gasps. “Oh my gosh! Are you alright?” his hands hover, almost afraid to touch what he fears is a nasty burn.

Sasha blinks. Then she snaps her fingers. “Wally! That’s your name!”

-

The walk back to their snail is slow. Even by snail standards.

For some reason, her body just isn’t moving properly. It’s like everything is stuck in honey, her brain, her limbs, all of it. The world is slowing like a clock in desperate need of a wind up. But she chalks it up to adrenaline, and asks Wally to drive them back, which he does. She takes up residency on the back of the shell, half splayed out, with her front draped over the chair. Now that she’s not moving, now that she’s still, the slowness of the world begins to fade out, and something else takes its place: pain. A throbbing, searing pain that grows in intensity along her neck.

She remembers once, on what used to be the scariest day of her life, when she fell on her back at cheerleading. How she tried to get up, and a searing pain in her neck caused her strings to drop like a puppet. How all she could do was lie there and scream while the others got a teacher. She had to be carried to the nurse’s office, where she was diagnosed with a seized up muscle and given muscle relaxants. At the time, she’d been so scared she’d managed to paralyze herself, but now it seems almost silly.

Now it feels way more real.

Anytime the snail so much as runs over a pebble she can feel it. She can feel her spine literally burning from the inside out, there’s no other explanation. She managed to get stung by some bug and now there’s bug eggs eating her nerves or something. That sounds like an Amphibia thing, why not?  But when she asks this of Wally, he goes “Ew, that’s disgusting! No we don’t have that!” and grumbles about how barbaric Earth must be in comparison.

Well. That’s concerning.

Because if she wasn’t stung, what’s causing this pain?

The answer hits her as the snail crosses a bump, jostling her neck and pushing a specific spot that makes her see white briefly. As the spots dance in her eyes, she finally recognizes the pain not as a sprained muscle, but as a sharp, stabbing, even torn one.

The turret, duh. She must’ve been hit when it cut off her hair. Sure enough, when she places a trembling hand to the spot, and pulls back, her glove is now damper and redder than before. Grime was gonna lose it , he always did when she got hurt. Speak of the devil, the snail finally enters Wartwood, where she takes a deep breath and slowly slides herself off of the ride. As slow as she goes, it’s not enough to fight gravity, and she flops bonelessly onto the dirt.

“I’m good!” She calls.

She’s not good.

Wally is kind enough to help her up, but she brushes him off once her feet aren’t at risk of buckling like a newborn deer. She’s a hardened soldier, a mere scratch can’t keep her down! So what if it’s twinging on her nerves? She doesn’t stop, marching down into the reserves and into the catacombs without stopping. Because if she stops, she’ll fall all over again. She enters the planning room to see her toad friend staring at some maps.

“Captain,” she gives Grime a salute. “Mission success. We got the supplies.”

The toad runs a warty hand over his map. “Good. I expect a report on what went down in the morning.”

Silence. “Not now?” Sasha asks. “You don’t wanna hear about how I totally saved that frog’s little life?” She accentuates with a punch, flexing her muscles. No response, instead the other is too focused on his job. Ugh. Marcy and Anne would’ve laughed.

She turns around, short hair hissing in the wind. It swipes against the burn spot, and she can’t help but let out a tiny moan of pain. Her hand moves to clamp the wound, but stops last second.

Grime looks up. “Everything ok, lieutenant?”

“Peachy.” she grumbles. “I’m gonna go even out this hair cut.” and then maybe sleep for a century. That sounds nice. So nice, her body thinks, that it decides it can’t even wait for her to be in her room before giving out. There’s a pull on her neck muscle, and whoop, down she goes. And hey, she’s laying down, maybe she can take that nap now.

“Sasha!” Grime yells, quick to abandon his map and hover over the teen. “What on earth happened? Were you poisoned? Did little bugs crawl into your spine and eat you from the inside out?”

She can’t help but let out a ridiculous snort. “Knew those existed.” she mumbles. And the world turns black.

-

When Sasha finally comes to, she’s laying on her side. Which is weird for her, because normally she sleeps on her stomach. The only time she ever sleeps like this is when one of her girls is nearby, during their sleepovers… she reaches out instinctively for them.

She instead touches a wart.

Her eyes shoot open, and there’s Grime, looking both incredibly uncomfortable and like a disappointed parent. It’s a look she’s seen a few times, and it never fails to make her insides squirm. She’s seen it on her real parents way too often, and to see it on Grime just… reminds her too much of them sometimes. But like the good soldier she is, she swallows her nerves and stares at him head on.

“You didn’t tell me you got hurt.” He starts with, right out of the gate.

“To be fair, I didn’t know how bad it was.” She responds. With a grunt, she tries to sit up, but that same spasmy feeling returns and overrides her neck with pain, forcing her to fall back down. “God, human anatomy sucks. Do you guys have a weak spot like this?” Well, they are cold blooded, if that counts for a weakness. Nothing in biology class prepared her for the intimate knowledge of amphibian anatomy that is needed in a frog war. To think, the last day before leaving Earth was about frog dissection. If only they hadn’t ditched.

“Sasha.” Grime’s voice cuts through her brain’s rambling. “You’re deflecting.”

“Oh boy, pulling the first name,” she grins weakly. “I’m in trouble, huh?”

“Wally told me what happened. You threw yourself in harm's way!” He crosses his arms, nails clenching on his skin. “And then you just walked off as if you hadn’t been hit! You know better lieutenant!”

Sasha huffs. “Like I said, I didn’t actually feel it at first. It’s not that bad! I’m fine!”

Grime raises a brow. “How long have you been asleep, then?”

“Uh, half an hour?”

“12 hours.”

Oops.

Ok, so maybe she was a little more hurt than she realized. Head injuries do bleed a lot, and maybe she just needed to catch up on sleep! No biggie, she’s fine!

“Have you even noticed the other injuries?” he asks, and she starts.

“What?” Her eyes jump down, and sure enough, there’s gauze wrapped around her hand, and a few patches on her leg, who knows what her torso looks like. “When did that happen!?”

“Have you not been paying attention? You jumped into a pile of enemies for the little frog man! What if he hadn’t been there? What if you hadn’t made it back? What if-” He cuts himself off with an angry grunt. And… oh.

He’s crying.

“Grimes…” she breathes, struggling to sit up on one arm. “I’m sorry for scaring you, really. I swear, I just didn’t notice. Adrenaline and all that.”

He huffs. “You need to take better care of yourself if you want to be in one piece for your friends, lieutenant. I don’t want to have to tell them you threw yourself on a spear.”

Right… Anne and Marcy… friends. Is she still their friend? Do they still trust her? Can she still trust them? It must show on her face, because Grime gently pushes her back down onto the bed. It’s probably the gentlest he’s ever been in his entire life.

“Is this about proving yourself to them?” He asks, and she stiffens. “It is, isn’t it? Deep down.”

Damn, when did he become a therapist? “Maybe…” she admits. “I dunno, I feel like… I swore I’d protect Wartwood while Anne was gone, I want to prove to her that… that I’m worthy of being her friend. All I cared about was myself for so long, that I just… I needed to care for others the way she did, yknow?”

“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to change, Sasha. But throwing yourself in harm’s way isn’t the way to go about it.”

“I know,” she sighs. “I know.”

He pats her fondly, the faintest of smiles on his face. “Atta soldier. We need you alive and sharp. You’re not disposable, lieutenant. The townspeople, for as… dense as they are,” she snickers at his reluctance. “Are smart enough to look up to you. And they need their leader.”

She can’t help but smirk. “Getting sappy, are we Grimesy?”

“Just this once.” His grin is all teeth. “And only because no one will ever believe you.”

“Wh-!” She gasps. “Betrayal!”

“Have a good night!” He laughs, standing up and leaving. His laughter carries out into the hall, and it’s infectious, even from her drooping eyes.

Yeah, ok. “Night, Grimes.” She mumbles, laying back down. “And… thanks.”

#sasha waybright #amphibia spoilers #amphibia season 3 #amphibia #whumptober #whumptober 2022

[variousqueerthings]

MASH is making me think about time a lot and I don’t think my little brain can encompass it in a way that doesn’t just entail screaming at the opening “Korea 1950 100 years ago” which we’ll reach in less than 30 years, and in another 50 years MASH itself will be 100 years old and time within the show is an endless loop of actions given surrealism through repetition inside a seemingly ceaseless horror of a situation as the characters hope for an end to war generally, far closer to WWII than to Iraq but no-less honest about the dangers of relentless jingoistic patriotism, while the show is really a treatise against the then-current stationing of US troops in Vietnam (which would be affected by the Korean war, but the characters don’t know anything about that yet) a war which would end as they were filming, a show which would span over a decade of massive political change, (but the characters don’t know anything about that yet and we’ll never see them getting to know), and watching it today is a surrealist tragicomedy in itself as one war and conflict and invasion spirals into the next with as many thin justifications as always, time is answering so many of the show’s questions and changing its interaction with the audience -- the audience who watched it as kids in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, now, the audience who are watching as adults and ever more aware of the ability of a story to shift with time -- and alan alda is born in the same year as my dad who once told me about vague memories of bombs falling during the blitz as a young kid, which I am several generations removed from (I was born when my dad was 58), and I’m watching this show for the first time and everyone on it and playing the characters in it are alive for the first time, and then I try to really count the years between now and then and I can’t even do that, never mind several hundreds or thousands of years of human history, and one day these stories too will be considered ancient and given new context over and over again, and they’ll all be alive for the first time again

#MASH #im watching MASH #this isn't even all of it or phrased exactly how i mean it i just #alan alda makes me think about my dad a lot

[stargazerlillian]

“Day of the Paper Sun” (for Yoel)

Ballantine discovers a life-changing secret.

Serves as a written companion piece to these images.

Ballantine Ruggaboor belongs to @yoel-o-fellow

Content warning: Mild language, themes of family trauma, mentions of death, and a whole lot of angst.

——————–

August 31, 1982

The Ruggaboor Residence

Stoke-on-Trent, England

7:50 PM

One glance.

That was all it took for the war in her head to ignite once more. 

When Ballantine went rummaging through the drawers of her father’s nightstand one golden evening, all she really expected to find amid all the bits and bobs was the pack of cigarettes he confiscated earlier.

What she did not expect to find was the missing piece of an incomplete puzzle that occupied its own little place in her mind for all her life.

This missing piece came in the form of a small bent black and white photograph found in an old shoebox, covered in dust, in the bottom drawer. On it was a young woman in bed, tenderly holding an eerily familiar dark-haired infant in her arms. She had flowing light hair, glasses, full lips, and a long pointed nose - just like her own. 

Written on it in the most elegant cursive writing were five simple words.

“I’ll always love you.

-Mum”

Ballantine instantly felt all of her insides plummet.

The woman in the picture... was her deceased mother. 

The one her father had been hiding away from her for over sixteen years.

The one he mercilessly killed in cold blood one cloudy late autumn night. 

And the infant in her arms… was her as a baby.

For several minutes, Ballantine could do nothing but stare at the photograph. The world around her seemed to freeze completely, not uttering a single sound. Even her breathing fell silent. 

This was her mother. Her actual mother. She had to be the most beautiful woman Ballantine had ever seen – far more beautiful than Glinda could ever be.

Her head swam as the reality contained in this artifact of her life began to sink in. If it weren’t for the fact that the date the picture was taken was written on the back, she wouldn’t have believed that what she was holding in her hands was the least bit authentic. 

But her moment of truth was far from over.

Also in the shoebox was a neatly tri-folded letter, written in the same cursive handwriting as the photograph. What it contained made Ballantine’s eyes widen and stomach tighten with every word.

“Dearest Sebastian,

This is the little one I first told you about all those months ago. She was born at 7:06 PM on the 6th of June, 1966, and weighs 3 kg. As of this letter, she is barely over a week old, and does not have a name. I’m leaving it up to you to decide on one for her.

The reason I have sent her to you is because you are my only hope in ensuring she is raised and cared for under the roof of a proper home. As much as I want to keep her, nurture her, and love her, the doctors at the ward say that I am in no condition to care for a newborn child - that my mind is ‘too unstable’ for such a task. So now, I am putting all my faith and trust in you. 

I don’t know when - or if - I’ll ever be well enough to be released back into society, but if that day ever comes, the first thing I will do is come visit you and the children. And perhaps, just perhaps - we can try to make things work out together - as a family.

In the meantime, all I ask of you is that you please take good care of my, no, OUR baby girl.

All my love,

Your lifelong companion, J.

P.S. Along with this letter, you will find enclosed a photograph of me with our daughter from earlier today. If I am not released by the time she comes of age, show it to her, and tell her that no matter what happens to me, I want her to know in her heart that I will always love her. Always and always. Even if I never get to see her grow up. Even if I never get to hear her voice. I will love her until the Earth’s skies fall dark forever, and even beyond that. For always, and always, and always.”

The words continued to play on an endless loop in her mind for what seemed like ages after her eyes crossed over the last sentence. By the time she finally had the strength to put the letter down, she found her knees trembling and heart racing.

These words sounded nothing like the woman her father described to her growing up. There was no way a mere “whore” could have written something like this.

These were the words of a woman who had so much to give, and so much to live for, only for all of it to be taken away from her by the cruel hands of fate.

She huffed and roughly turned around, barely pinching the photograph in her trembling fingers. An overwhelming wave of heat rose to her face, and the back of her eyes burned intensely as she at last came to a horrible conclusion.

Everything her father had said about her mother was a lie. Who she was, where she was, why she couldn’t be there with them – all of it had been a lie.

It hurt learning that her father lied to her face about her mother all her life. It hurt learning that her mother could have been her last chance at a decent family. It hurt learning that she was mentally ill and stuck in a sanitorium for years on end. It hurt learning that she loved her and never knew until this very moment.

But what truly hurt the most was that her mother referred to her father as her “dearest” and referred to herself as his “lifelong companion”.

This meant that she had known him for most, if not all of her life. She likely got to grow up and experience life in a time when her father was probably not so terrible. There was friendship, tenderness, vulnerability, and even love shared between them once. There had to be for Ballantine to even exist at all, let alone for her mother to trust her father enough to look after her.

And yet... he killed her.

He. Killed. Her.

In the shadow of the golden sun setting beyond the bedroom window, Ballantine tilted her head down and grit her teeth tightly as tears finally began to fall from the eyes her mother gave her. She wanted so much to scream, to cry, to unleash to the heavens all the pain she had been holding inside the past sixteen summers.

But out of her mouth, only one word managed to escape.

“Dammit...”

#The Ruggaboors #My writing #Fanfiction #Other's OCs #Ballantine Ruggaboor #Gifts for others #YoelOFellow

[ar-fmp]

15/03 - Development

Plans for today:

Alter some stuff on bout the tesla.

Bug fixes.

New enemy type (maybe)

Get upgrades to work with tesla

New UI / controls.

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

So to begin with I have increased the tesla's range by 50% and decreased the main collision damage from 4 to 3.

I have made it so the tesla can be upgraded, but only with the basic ones (+max health, +regeneration, -health, etc).

Something I noticed when testing this is that the middle button will sometimes not have text on it, while all the other will always have their text.

I have just finished making some tesla themed upgrades for the right button:

Destroy ALL Teslas. For each Tesla destroyed, gain 10 gold.

Increases the attack speed and the damage zone of current Teslas, but lose ALL current money.

Destroy ALL buildings.

I also fixed one of the upgrades where it was supposed to be a 50/50 chance, but it only went one way.

Now that the tesla feels more involved in my game, I am gonna start work on an extra bit of UI, so the player can choose what they want to place.

So far I have added the buttons to choose what to place albeit they don't do much at the moment. I also added some extra UI to replace the money counter; and even display the build price and money increase per second.

While I was play testing my game, I found out that there is a bug where the player can choose the same upgrade multiple times, resulting in something like this:

I chose the upgrade that makes the tesla shoot faster and have a larger radius about 7 times before clicking something else. Also I should think about capping stats before more things like this happen...

I tried making the buttons decided what gets placed down; however changing the variables casted from the Player Pawn in the HUD would not update the variable in my Player Pawn blueprint.

So I made the variables in my HUD widget blueprint so that the Player Pawn can cast to the HUD (which it's already doing to display the HUD) and get the variables from there. The rest is just my previous controller for placing plus an IF ELSE loop.

I have also added a way to delete buildings, just in case you have too many towers and aren't making enough money. It will also refund you a 20% of the current build price, just to make it more forgiving. I made it 20% because if the build price is like 30, and your getting refunded like 40; that's an easier way to exploit the refunds - but also if the build price is like 60 and your only getting 4 back; it's not very useful.

Major bug fix alert! After a few weeks trying to wrap my head around my the bullets would fall through the ground DESPITE the constraints preventing them from moving on the Z axis; I finally figured it out! I assumed it was the towers or their bullets which were at fault, but the spawner would spawn the enemies on a slightly random Z axis - causing the towers; who are always trying to look at an enemy; to shoot at them at a slight angle.

So I changed the blueprint to take the vector separately (as a double) so I could keep the Z axis the same, while still having a random XY axis.

And with that I have completed all of what I wanted to do today. Although I do have a fair bit of time left, so I am gonna make a new enemy type that is a lot stronger and a lot slower than the others. Taking inspiration from Clash Of Clans, I want this enemy to target the castle rather than any other buildings.

It was easier than I had expected to make the giant enemy (I just duplicated the normal enemy, made them bigger, gave them more health and damage, made them move slower and only target the castle). Spawning them wasn't too difficult either, I made it a one in eight chance that they will spawn instead of a normal enemy.

I have also changed how the tesla works, it will no longer damage enemies by hitting them with its main projectile; but can only hurt enemies with the radius around the projectile. I also gave it an other upgrade in the middle button where its damage is increased by 1. I have nerfed the normal enemy from doing 5 + wave number *2, to 5 + wave number.

I said in my previous blog post that I want the tesla to be more of a support defense, and at the moment - it's just lacking all round. So I made it stun enemies on hit:

I forgot about the giants...

There we go. The giants have a slight immunity to the tesla as it will damage and stun the normal enemies first, so I made the giants get stunned for longer.

I also changed the HUD a bit so it took up less of the screen.

There are now only 2 lines of text in the top left however the top line displays the current money, and the build price. Also the 4th button at the bottom does not do anything at the moment, I put it in for convenience later.

Here's a quick video of the gameplay so far:

I realized upon playing for the first time, it's quite difficult and kind of boring at the moment.

[arafatssss1267]

Spring for buyers?

Buyers, it is a purchasing method specifically for a group of people who have demands for quality of life.

The platform is based on helping consumers make decisions. ‍

The definition of this word is that first, it is a high-quality product, and second, it is valuable to consumers.

For our amateur bloggers or brands, I think HE Tuber there are two very important points. First, we must pay attention to the uniqueness of the product; second, we must pay attention to the quality of the product and what it can bring to consumers. value brought.

And from a platform perspective, it will use 50 billion traffic to support the growth of buyers.

2. Is the era of orange software weeding coming?

Here I can also tell you about a customer case of beauty makeup and personal care. There is already a single SPU for beauty makeup and personal care. The advertising investment for a closed-loop transaction on the Xiaohongshu site can reach 70,000-100,000 a day, and its ROI is also It can maintain its value above 1.2.

Xiaohongshu is no longer a platform that can only cultivate brands.

From an infrastructure perspective, similar to Lingxi Backend, which can help merchants better understand product opportunities, five more data service providers have been added.

This year Xiaohongshu has also been advocating the concept of “grass planting value”.

Now the backend of Zongcao Value has been opened to some whitelist customers. Direct customers of the platform can see such a backend.

3. Which tracks have opportunities?

Home decoration: Some time ago, we were invited by the Xiaohongshu platform to do a co-construction, which is aimed at the joint construction of the home decoration industry. The platform alone pulls out this industry, which must mean that this industry will have many opportunities in the future. of.

Clothing: There are huge opportunities in the clothing category.

Let me share a case with you, which is a very small brand in clothing, which specializes in breast stickers, nipple pasties, and strapless underwear.

On Xiaohongshu, the user does not simply say, I am traveling today, so I want to buy a bra patch. It will do a lot of research on the category, material, and comfort.

Traditional e-commerce platforms are unable to provide consumers with so much satisfaction, including the fact that everyone's requirements for clothing are getting higher and higher.

So in the clothing category, combined with Xiaohongshu live broadcast, including buyers, think about it, is this the biggest opportunity for the category?

Especially some functional clothing is actually very popular on Xiaohongshu, and consumers can also get the value of the product through the content.

4. Community VS Live Broadcast

Xiaohongshu Live Broadcast is a result, not a goal.

I found that Xiaohongshu’s live broadcast is different in several ways. First of all, it has very high requirements for merchants. It does not mean that if you are a merchant today, you can do Xiaohongshu live broadcast.

Xiaohongshu’s live broadcast is a dual-column push. How to attract consumers to click into the live broadcast room through a cover has very high requirements for merchants. ‍

Xiaohongshu live broadcast also has high requirements for anchors. ‍

Xiaohongshu Live is a combination of Chinese language questions and math questions.

Why do you say this?

After Dong Jie became popular, many people actually imitated her, but none of them became popular. Why?

Because Dong Jie’s eloquent talk is because she brings the filter of Leng Qingqiu, because her cultural heritage, her life experience, and her own experience of using it attract consumers, not because she has memorized the lines. and script.

So if today’s anchor doesn’t have Dong Jie’s experience and lifestyle, you won’t be able to impress consumers if you try to imitate him.

If merchants come to Xiaohongshu live broadcast to sell goods, I will advise the merchant not to do Xiaohongshu live broadcast. If the anchor comes to enjoy the live broadcast to get rich overnight, I will also advise my anchor not to do Xiaohongshu live broadcast. .

So what are you going for?

Xiaohongshu live broadcast is actually a value live broadcast.

What's the meaning? For the merchants themselves, it is a brand live broadcast, not an ROI live broadcast.

In this field, I need to explain to consumers why my bottle of facial cream costs 399 today? Where can its ingredients be traced?

Why is my glacier water placed at this altitude and not at that altitude?

It is more of a sharing of value that is eloquently told. If you, the consumer, after listening to my sharing, you think my facial cream is worth 399 yuan, then place an order.

If you think it’s not worth it, it doesn’t matter. I will tell you my brand story, so it may be more of a brand live broadcast for merchants.

Want to know if there are any bonuses to live streaming?

Yes, the platform has great support.

But does it mean that it will sell a lot of goods right away?

If you have this mentality, I would actually advise you to be cautious.

But to be honest, if we take a note today, you can only talk about a limited amount of notes, but in Xiaohongshu’s live broadcast room, you can put 20, 30, or 100 notes in your live broadcast room. At the same time, tell your consumers through the leverage of live broadcast traffic.

The commercialization and live broadcast of Xiaohongshu is a non-standard product, even customized for your brand. So if you can understand it, it will be very difficult for your peers and competitors to surpass you. of.

Xiaohongshu CMO Zhiheng said that time is the best barrier in Xiaohongshu.

5. Opportunities for brands this year‍‍‍‍‍

First of all, merchants can start opening stores on Xiaohongshu.

The closed loop of e-commerce must be a big opportunity, and now we have successful cases.

Secondly, everyone can start laying out the live broadcast section.

Dabo store is operated on behalf of others. This is a trading place. There are opportunities here.

Furthermore, there are also opportunities in the field of commercial grass-growing, which is what we call content plus investment streaming.

You must clearly set your goals at every stage.

In this case, we can also make better use of grass planting and brand value.

Taken together, there are two major sectors.

First, our traffic field must have a more refined layout and set refined goals for each stage;

Second, for trading venues, we must seize the dividend period of the platform and the time window when there are no good cases in the market to do research and build barriers to our own brand.

6. Are there opportunities for white cards?

Many home decoration brands, such as lighting brands, are actually white brands.

We have a brand called Yueying Lighting, including Hilton Lighting. They don’t invest in other platforms, only Xiaohongshu. But their e-commerce sales in a single month can basically sell for more than 4 million, a 0 to 1 product.

Our relatively good ROI can be 1:4 or more.

7. How should health care and other categories be arranged in Xiaohongshu?

In the field of health and wellness, what is actually tested is content ability.

When we put information flow, we can't say jian Fei.

But in Xiaohongshu, you can make a picture of a girl with a very fat waist, or a girl with a very thin waist. Then there is a tower in Guangzhou called Xiaomanyao, right?

Then I can say that the target ahead is a small waist.

At this time, consumers can probably understand it when they see it.

For functional products, the most important test is the trader and the content execution partner. His professional ability, insight, and substitution ability are very important.

8. Misunderstandings of brands doing Xiaohongshu‍

In fact, it still depends on brand recognition. Many brands may come to Xiaohongshu, and it is easy to fall into the misunderstanding of assessment indicators: What kind of results must I get immediately?

In addition, some brands will think that the more influencers there are, the better. They will also insist that the more my products and content are, the better?

Then some people will say, eh, I think if my content is popular, it is good, instead of going to the review section of this product.

There are also some brands that look at a single indicator, such as my interaction cost and interaction rate.

In fact, these single indicators are also pitfalls that brands often step on.

Generally speaking, brands do not need to pay too much attention to the quantity of my content, nor should they simply focus on a single indicator.

You need to turn Xiaohongshu from content to delivery to transactions into a whole chessboard, and even your entire marketing must be connected into a big chessboard. Then let’s look at the value of Xiaohongshu in your entire marketing system.

Xiaohongshu is not like other platforms. It is actually an important link in the entire marketing chain.

If you don't understand the uplink and downlink, and you fix the middle link, your bridge will actually not be connected.

For all brands, the first step is to make decisions before taking action, which means you have to figure it out first and then do it.

The second sentence is, wholeheartedly. After you have figured it out, make a decision and then take action. Once you really take action, do it wholeheartedly and don't question yourself.

#Film & Animation #Music #Pes & Animals #Sports

[skstraders]

Sugden ANV 50 Master Class

Contact: 9433001006, 9831163529.

email: [email protected].

Website: https://skstraders.net/

The Masterclass ANV-50 is a new integrated amplifier released to celebrate Sugden Audio’s fiftieth anniversary.

It is a unique design with many innovative features and specially developed audio circuits.

In 1967 Sugden released the world’s first solid state pure class A amplifier, the A21.  The ANV-50 promises to revisit this golden age of British audio engineering, with a design focused on the demands and preferences of today’s audio enthusiast and music lover.

The ANV-50 has at its heart, a pure class A amplifier and this is coupled to an advanced ‘ideal’ final output stage.  This unique two stage amplification system guarantees our signature pure class A sound, with the ability to drive the vast majority of loudspeaker systems.

The sophisticated final output stage features a comparator and correction circuit so that errors which could occur in the power output section due to varying loads and distortion, are corrected to match the output of the high impedance input amplifier.  Whilst maintaining the signal authenticity, it also increases the load stability and forces the output impedance to zero.  This special output stage with Sugden Error Correction has extremely low open loop output impedance with a resultant high damping factor at quite high frequencies. It also benefits from overall Current-Feedback.  

The power amplifier and pre-amplifier are fully DC coupled so there are no capacitors in the signal path to interfere with or deteriorate the sound quality. One of the key features of Sugden Class A amplifiers is the power supply.  Because they have a high standing current and power reserves, the output is always ready to act instantly to any signal.  This is unlike a conventional Class AB amplifier that waits to receive power through a transformer and a bridge rectifier.  The ANV-50 takes this one step further by using a 1 MHz switching power supply which acts instantly to deliver the power as the Pure Class A amplifier section is always on.

The power supplies are high current, fast and incredibly stable.  With a MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) of 100 years they are designed for longevity and reliability.

ANV-50

Facilities

Inputs                                     Five line level operated by relays

Outputs                                  One pre-out (variable), one tape out

                                               One pair of stereo multi-way binding posts

Volume Control                      Remote control (RC5 handset included)

Specifications

Line Input Sensitivity              110mV @ zero attenuation for full output

Power Output                         50 Watts into 8 Ohms both channels working

                                               100 Watts into 4 Ohms both channels working

Frequency Response            +/-1dB 12Hz-45kHz

Bandwidth                              8Hz-86kHz

Signal to Noise                       >85dB

Gross Weight  (packed)        11kgs

Dimensions                           143 x 430 x 370mm (hwd)

J E Sugden & Co Ltd, Heckmondwike,

The manufacturer reserves the right to change specifications without notice.

As the ANV-50 is an integrated amplifier it has an internal pre-amplifier, developed specifically for this               amplifier.  The circuit is a line drive design and uses the minimum number of components, all of which are high quality.  This provides a very open and natural sound and demonstrates that when carefully engineered, less can be more.

When the ANV-50 does not receive an input signal it has a very low power consumption of only 20 Watts, making it extremely efficient.  As the heatsinks are mounted internally with minimum contact to the outer case it only runs slightly warm to the touch.  

Loudspeaker matching with the ANV-50 should never be a problem.  With an output of 50 Watts into 8 Ohms that can double in to lower impedances, room size and loudspeaker sensitivity becomes less of an issue so a much larger range of loudspeakers can be enjoyed.

#Amplifier_Speaker. #Amplifier_price. #Amplifier_circuit #Power_amplifier #Amplifier_components #Linear_amplifier #Amplifier_module #Amplifire_for_speaker #Amplifire_and_speaker #Amplifire_and_Subwoofer

[learndispatch]

Solutions to overcome the issues with empty miles in truck dispatching

Today, we will discuss the best solutions to minimize logistic costs by reducing empty miles in truck dispatching. It is also an essential consideration for improving environmental impact.

Every country's economy is highly dependent on the logistics and transportation industry. This has made truck dispatchers the major driving force in the world economy. A large part of the goods and service freight depend on road transportation. However, sometimes, truck dispatchers travel without cargo.

So, their trailer moves without any load, which is known as empty miles. It risks significant fuel, time, and income loss if not included in the cost. Joining a training for truck dispatchers course will give you insights into how to smartly allocate empty miles. There are some strategies to consider for reducing empty miles and reducing money loss and environmental impact.

Key ways to minimize empty miles occurrence

Ø  Proper planning for continuous move

The major problem with empty miles is the financial loss as you run the empty truck. Empty miles in truck dispatching also indicate running a not fully loaded truck to collect and deliver shipments costs that match fuel, truck maintenance, and driver expenses of the fully loaded truck. So, whether it is to collect the load or deliver the shipment, the truck should be full in both directions.

This requires proper planning for the continuous movement of the cargo. Hence, the carriers should combine low and heavy traffic lanes to construct closed-loop routes. In this way, the shipper can save money for each mile as the carrier uses empty miles.

Ø  Load optimization

Truck dispatchers can integrate partial loads, lower the number of vehicles, and integrate shipments from various suppliers to increase payload through mergers and partnerships. It minimizes any transportation waste, such as empty miles in truck dispatching. Learn about various ways to package the loads considering their height or density to save mileage.

Ø  On-time pick-up and delivery

Its always best to keep the load pick-up location distance between 50 to 100 miles. They have a low risk of cancellations. But if the distance goes over 100 miles, make sure its cost rate is attractive and meet your load cancellation policy to compensate for lost workdays. The training for truck dispatchers course can help you to learn the on-time pick-up and delivery practice to align the shipments with customer's schedules. It avoids any unnecessary trips.

Bottom Line

Truck dispatchers should regularly analyze their transportation operations to identify can avoid empty miles. A truck dispatcher training course can give you insights into various trends and patterns to keep track of empty miles. It will help you make informative strategies to reduce the chance of having your trailer empty on the road for a long time. With that said, let's wrap up this discussion. See you next time to learn more about the truck dispatching career.

#training for truck dispatchers

[mywingstopsurvey1]

Mywingstopsurvey – Win $50 Gift Card – Wingstop Survey

In today's competitive market, customer satisfaction and feedback play a pivotal role in shaping the success of businesses. Recognizing the value of listening to their customers, Wingstop, a popular fast-casual restaurant chain renowned for its flavorful wings, has implemented a robust feedback program called MyWingstopSurvey.

This innovative initiative empowers customers to share their experiences, voice their opinions, and contribute to the continuous improvement of Wingstop's offerings and overall dining experience. Let's dive deeper into the world of MyWingstopSurvey and explore its significance in elevating the Wingstop experience.

Collecting Valuable Insights: MyWingstopSurvey serves as a powerful tool for Wingstop to gather valuable insights directly from its customers. Through a thoughtfully designed questionnaire, participants can provide feedback on various aspects of their dining experience, such as food quality, menu variety, customer service, and overall satisfaction. By collecting this feedback, Wingstop gains a deeper understanding of customer preferences, identifies areas for improvement, and uncovers opportunities to enhance their offerings.

Engaging and Convenient: The survey's online format ensures convenient participation for customers. Participants can access the survey through their preferred devices, including smartphones, tablets, or computers, making it accessible to a wide range of customers. Wingstop also integrates the survey with its online ordering platform, allowing customers to provide feedback seamlessly after completing their orders. This integration further enhances engagement and encourages customers to share their opinions while their dining experience is still fresh in their minds.

Timely and Actionable Feedback: One of the key strengths of MyWingstopSurvey lies in its ability to provide timely and actionable feedback. Wingstop encourages customers to complete the survey promptly, ensuring that feedback is collected while it is most relevant. This proactive approach enables Wingstop to address specific concerns, make informed decisions, and implement necessary improvements promptly. By actively responding to customer feedback, Wingstop demonstrates its commitment to delivering an exceptional dining experience.

Incentives and Rewards: To further motivate participation, MyWingstopSurvey often offers incentives or rewards to participants. These rewards can include discounts, coupons, or special offers that customers can redeem during their future visits to Wingstop. By providing these incentives, Wingstop expresses its gratitude to customers for taking the time to share their feedback and encourages continued engagement in the survey.

Continuous Improvement and Innovation: MyWingstopSurvey is not a static program; instead, it evolves and improves over time. Wingstop actively seeks feedback from participants on their survey experience, ensuring that the questionnaire remains user-friendly, relevant, and engaging. The company also explores innovative approaches, such as incorporating new question formats, interactive elements, or gamification techniques, to make the survey experience even more enjoyable for customers. This commitment to continuous improvement and innovation ensures that MyWingstopSurvey remains a valuable feedback mechanism for both Wingstop and its customers.

Conclusion:

MyWingstopSurvey stands as a testament to Wingstop's dedication to customer satisfaction and continuous improvement. By actively listening to their customers and valuing their opinions, Wingstop creates a virtuous feedback loop that fosters positive change and elevates the overall dining experience. The insights gathered through MyWingstopSurvey enable Wingstop to refine its offerings, enhance customer service, and maintain its position as a beloved destination for wing enthusiasts. As Wingstop continues to evolve, MyWingstopSurvey will remain a vital tool in shaping its future success, driven by the power of customer feedback.

#priyanka chopra