#to choose humanity is something which must happen in company

[jazz-my-soul]

Lucifer ( A VERY LONG READ)

Honestly, i feel like Lucifer made a huge impact on me and i like the idea of his characther.

However, i would like to talk more about him.

Firstly, he has six wings especially "red wings", so that mean's that he must be a Seraphim. I can be very wrong with that, since i'm not sure myself however, we do need to keep in mind that Seraphim's are the being's closest to god itself (however, the question if god exists in hazbin hotel's universe is still uncertain, or perhaps there is a council of Seraphim's or something similar to it, we don't know even know if Lucifer siblings will be present (however that does depend on which version of Lucifer we are going for). He has been described as a trickster and a dreamer, he has fallen in love deeply with Lilith and they gave the apple of knowledge to Eve and they were punished for their sin's and casted into hell itself.

That being said, they are some people that theorized that Lucifer's true form is a six winged duck, which i do believe is wrong because we do see him turn into an a snake when he gives an apple to Eve (and his demonic apperance also resembles a snake (aka eyes, his tounge). In some scenes with Al, he also growel's and you can kinda hear hissing. I would also like to say that i don't believe that Lucifer and Lilith are divorced, poor guy is just depressed because his wife dissapeared into the thin air, and he MAYBE is afraid that she left him (but it was pointed out that Lucifer and Lilith are madly in love with each other). Issue more araises that he already became depressed when heaven made his dream's into a mockery. He was literally hell-bound into giving humanity free will and because he broke the rule and gave Eve an apple of knowledge, he was casted out into hell where he would see what would become of his dream. His world overpopulated by sinner's who are psyhopath's, sex addicts, abusers, most of the time, well very bad people. That already crushed his spirits and of course, with him and his followers (aka other sins) being twisted and turned into demonic version of themselfs, his only hope and pride were his daughter and his wife. That is the only thing which made him happy, and his daughter loved his little projects, i believe he makes ducks because his little daughter smiled when she saw one.

I don't know how much of the intro of the first epizode was true(as much as i would like to believe that the story which Lucifer told Charlie was true (and perhaps, there is truth in it but there are also white lies in it as well, we know nothing about Eve and what happened to her, Lilith face was in a shadow in a flashback and we do have to acceot that he is after all a sin of pride itself). We do know that Lucifer know's more about heaven but that being said, he is also the sin of the pride. As much, he is a goofy and loving dad, his pride is the reason why he lost contact with his daughter. He is to afraid to make the first move and too prideful to admit that he need's company and that he is lonely and is extremly desperate to be part of Charlie's life. Ever since his wife left somewhere (and i feel like she probably told him that she will be gone for a while, or she left him a message) it still hurted him and he most likely didn't know how to approach Charlie, so he locked himself and created and hoarded ducks. He also avoided meeting with the Adam and send Charlie in his place, you could feel that he loves her and everytime when he chooses the wrong dialog and his daughter get's hurt or little bit angry at him, he feel's so small and hopeless. A popular and ongoing theory is that Al is chained to Lilith, and i do believe that is true. Perhaps he is send there to protect the hotel and keep eye on Charlie (either he lost the fight or failed manipilation against Liltih, or they both made a deal wtih each other (he protect's the hotel and keep's an eye on Charlie and in the return he keep's his power or gain's something more). Also Lucifer's and Al's dad battle was very fun to watch. Of course, it hurted his pride to see that Charlie already found somebody who was that close to her and managed to replace his role of a father to Charlie, however, i personally don't believe that Al see's Charlie as his daughter (he MIGHT bond with her more into later seasons but he called her his wannabe daughter and gave himself the role of the parent, because he KNOW'S which words sting Lucifer's prideful soul and Lucifer also know's how to rile up Alistor when he called him an "Hazbin" and when he was smug about the fact that Al was in the end of the day, just a other psyhopatic sinner and he poked Charlie around with that information, basically telling her "I told you so".

(Also i love these card's, kinda forgot to mention how menacing and (kinda cute) Lucifer is, it is kinda suprising to me how through the epizode's he really manage's to look like an angel and a demon in the same time, he either look's soft or sharp and both at the same time).

Some people pointed out that the last song was a bit rushed and didn't really felt earned for them both to reconnect with each other but i didn't hated it. I do agree that the epizode's felt a bit rushed, it is hard to have a normal healthy season when there is only 8 epizode's (i do hope they will be more in later seasons, or that perhaps they will be 40 mins long, instead of 24 mins). And i do understans the points of it being rushed and i do agree that it does feel rushed, perhaps i feel like we needed more time to see their bond to make it more impactful but again perhaps they were on the time crunch but i did liked the dialog between them. Luficer was so desperate to finally be with his daughter and when Charlie told him "Why dosen't my own father believe in me", it just crushed him. I don't think Charlie got manipulated by Al for 100% but i do feel like, she really felt like a daughter who just wanted that her father didn't pointed that what she is trying to do will lead in faliure, because she wanted to make her parents dream come true. With them talking with each other and seeing just how desperate Lucifer is to protect her and is afraid of losing her but at the same time he does really see her for a person who she became to be. Also another mystery is how be is still able to have an contact with heaven, he clearly has some connection because heaven ALLOWED Charlie to go there so even if Lucifer isn't allowed to come, there are still some angel's who are willing to hear him out or accept his request. Either that be his sibiling's, perhaps his father, maybe friends?.

Charlie is also tehnically an half angel as well, so i do feel like she actually will need to flaunt that fact as well to heaven. I do hope that we see more of Lucifer later on. I was just so suprised by how well he is voice acted as well. I did had my doubts when i heard an sneak peak of the song but listening to the song, the voice actor's vocal range, he is a perfect fit. Also a small thing which i would also like to see, is that we will probably see Lucifer be more intimidating, but i feel like he only does that to the people who hurt Charlie or who just cross his line but again, love him. I want to see more of him and his relationshop with Charlie and Lilith!.

Perhaps, IF WE MIGHT SEE Lucifer and heaven (aka Sera, his siblings, other ange's (if he has them) and such being in good graces again (which will take SEASON'S for it to even be possible). I would like that they call him by his real name which is Samael (because that was his original name).

Sorry for the long post but as being said, i just loved his characther. I remember when people theorized what kind of father he will be and it was very different then it actually became.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel lucifer #Hazbin hot Charlie #Hazbin hotel Lilith #hazbin alastor

[unknownmusing]

Baldur's Gate - Halsin x Astarion Fanfic: 'Always there to Travel the Same Path which One Walks' - Prologue 1 to 3 (Act 1) (Spawn Astarion and Ascended Astarion Route)

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Note:

Spawn Astarion and Ascended Route will start with same prologue then it will be separate chapters as rest of fic progresses to represent both routes

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Notes:

A Baldur's Gate: Halsin x Astarion fic inspired by the game Baldur Gate 3 and watching ongoing playthrough of it on Youtube

Slight canon diverge with some made up Background stuff for Astarion and other characters

WIP mode as use the wiki fandom and playthroughs to get idea of characters

Title refers to how Astarion and Halsin join up with the rest of the *company ( *will be introduced in later on chapters) but also travel a path together which leads to something more.

Starts off with Astarion's P.O.V

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Prologue - 'A Pale Elf in a Grove' (1 of 3)

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Location - Emerald Grove, Western Heartlands, West Faerun - Approaching Early Morning

Astarion's P.O.V:

"Is Halsin a fool?!!! Why has he brought this 'thing' here!!!?"

"I do not know….it greatly concerns….Archdruid Halsin!!!… We…..yes…..we understand…."

Voices.

Whispering amongst themselves before going silent, footsteps fading into the distance of somewhere which smells moist, lush and fresh - like it's not been tainted by any pollutants - and movement of something large, warm and furry choosing to lay down beside me.

Why couldn't I remember what had happened? What even had happened? Had I been attacked by someone or something?

Those questions remain swirling around my aching head - like I been hit by something very heavy and large - that it is difficult to even force myself to wake up so can check my surroudings, only sink into deeper sleep like I'm being made to do it to help me heal. So different when my Master Cazador treated me - his more of punishment so cruel, unkind and harsh it border on machositic that he didn't really care how many times he hurt me.

I must have whimpered because a soft chuffing noise comes from the large, warm furry thing beside me with wet snout nudging me to force me to roll onto my side to face into a warm furry belly and chest of what scenting register is in fact bear at least I think it is. I want to wake, I need to wake.

But the drowiness is settling in so fast, a soothing calming wave washing over me that find myself relaxing for the first time in centuries, allowing myself to fall asleep against the warmth of the large bear beside me.

TIME SKIP

"Hnngh…..Gaahhh!!!?" It is the sensation of sunlight from above burning it's way up my exposed arm which forces me very rudely awake from the deep, healing slumber I had been placed under trying to get up when realise a large, muscular arm - human?…. No….scenting the air…..again….a Wood Elf - is over my waist effectively trapping me against a very muscular, large and naked Wood elf bearing a tattoo mark on one side of his face and horredenous, but oddly enough appealing scars from no doubt from being attacked on his face as well.

Concerned about promixity of our bodies, I shuffle my lower half backwards away from the Wood elf's groin area only to give out a yelp when the large hand which has been around my waist immediatly yanks me flush against the large, muscular chest forcing me to place both my hands on it - or more accurately on top of the Wood Elf's pecs on both their dusky hued nipples to my embarassment even though this unnamed Wood elf does look like a fine specimen.

The sudden hiss of sunlight touching my exposed skin causes me to thrash soon in their grip, managing to wriggle free to quickly roll over to the shadows.

Collapsing slump up against a base for a statue of a wolf carved from stone, I wince at the stinging ache from the sun-burn on my arm hoping my healing factor kicks in, only to notice the wood elf has woken up looking straight at me.

"It's alright, I won't harm you." the wood elf says, voice so deep, husky and soothing it sends a strange shiver through me at the sametime that luring scent of his sweet, smelling blood reaches me.

It is so tempting, I don't realise I prowled out of the shadows into a shaft of sunlight until I'm scrambling back into them cursing myself with my fangs unsheathing themselves, steam still rising from the sun-burnt wounds until finally wisping away and bits of my burnt skin turned to ash to flutter to the ground

"I…need you….to stay just there…" I warn them, only for them to ignore my warning coming over to kneel down in front of me taking hold of my wrist to pull my arm out straight investigating the damage, seeing when I turn my face to one side to wince with eyes slipping shut or peeking open slightly to watch what he's doing.

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Notes:

Title refers how unexpected emotions begin to form in Astarion that he's not used to and how he loses control to them and Halsin the same.

Third part will deal with introducing the Leader of the Party and their background, plus the start of the Mindflyer attack then moving into Act 1

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Prologue (2 of 3) - 'Losing Control to Unexpected Emotions Rising within One'

Location - Emerald Grove, Western Heartlands, West Faerun - Early Morning

Astarion's P.O.V:

Halsin – as the Druid or Archdruid to be precise of Emerald Grove is called – is an enigma of a Wood Elf, with most of his time discussing about Nature, protecting the Grove and in his spare time doing mostly mundane things which some to admit were interesting to know about:

his whittling of little carvings of animals so detailed it actually fascinated me to watch from afar doing his work; seeing him resist the temptation of honeyed treats being sold by travelling merchants that couldn’t resist haggling with them to include more of new variations every-time they came back to just watch his eyes sparkle and pretend he’s not drooling over them and finally, seeing him in his bear form allowing children to ride on his back.

Looking over to where he’s discussing something highly important with another Druid – a female Half-elf called Jaheira, who keeps on flicking her gaze over to me wariness showing in her eyes - probably about myself.

Deciding not to hang around, I keep myself to the large grove's shadows, avoiding the spots of sunlight to head to the extensive cave-system of the Emerald Grove.

Within the cave-system, I make my way down towards the halfling merchant - Arron - located nearby a Altar busy checking his wares he's ascertained from his travels.

He stiffens though, ears twitching side to side then turns his gaze to look at me leaning up against a rock pillar in the shadows causing him to give out a ‘Tch, it’s you’ turning to face me where crosses his arms over his chest.

“I told you already, Pale Elf, if you want to sample my wares find out who’s pickpocketing around here.” Arron states, forcing me to raise an eyebrow because it sounds like he's accusing me of being the one doing it.

"And you think I have something to do with it. Heh, I would not resort myself to such lowly act." I state back, slipping myself away deciding I need to go hunting to distract myself from the mutiple heartbeats that head up to the main entrance.

Reaching where the gate is, I stop myself just in time.

The sun has risen at it's highest peak meaning the gate area is completely flooded with light leaving no shadows for me to use to reach it.

Choosing to lean up against a pillar, I find myself looking over at it trying to ascertain whether make a dash for it or wait until nightfall to go hunting for Prey.

Tilting my head backwards, my mind floods to fact I've not felt any sense of my Master Cazador trying to will me back to the Lair where I took lured Prey - most ended up dead and flung into giant pit, others turned in Spawn like me or completely disappeared that even asking would have risked the ire of him so never asked.

"You seem lost in thought, silver-tongue." the disdaining, dripping tone of the female druidess half-elf Jaheira reaches my ears, I lower my head down un-leaning myself from the pillar I brush past her quickly refusing to even acknowledge when find myself suddenly yanked backwards by a glowing tendril of energy straight into large area of sunlight I'd been trying to avoid.

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“Jaheira, what have….you done…!!!?”

“You are too soft, Halsin. We cannot trust this, silver-tongue. You must have noticed how ‘it’ avoids the shadows!!!”

“That I already know. It doesn’t mean you act irrational by doing what you did.”

Shuddering into wakefulness, the first thing to reach my nostrils is the scent of wildflowers – a mixture of so many it takes time to list – with my eyes fluttering open to reveal I’m lying naked in a on a bed of vines and wildflowers entwined together in a cocoon with no sunlight penetrating it.

My acute hearing had picked up Halsin berating until finally blessed silence with me having to use my Predator senses to see how many heat signatures are outside of the healing cocoon – only one – with a gap appearing to reveal the large, wood elf.

Realising he may see the circular scar on my back, I try to move myself only for so much agony to shoot through my body I curl into myself with my bandaged hands wrapping around my bandaged waist shaking so much at it.

“Hgnnnhh…..shit…..shit…..”

Cursing under my breath, biting my bottom lip along with his large hands rolling me onto my back – checking me over – until finally a soothing healing wave from both his hands spreads over me. He is leaning over me in the process, I find myself eying the throbbing, pulsing vein in his neck that pumps his lifeforce within his body.

“Is something wrong?” He asks me, so suddenly I don’t know how to give a proper answer to him which may convince him I'm just appreciating his body and not his blood flowing in his veins.

"I…..umm…may I taste…." I begin to ask, only for him to sit back resting his hands on his lap finishing my sentence. "…to taste my blood." it makes me scramble upwards needing to leave only for him to take hold of me turning my chin to force my face into the crook of his neck.

"Drink."

A command, but not a forced, soft and gentle with myself fully turning in his arms to rest up against his large, muscular chest slipping my hand up cradle the back of his head to tilt his head backwards by his soft, hazel brown locks.

Fangs unsheathing themselves, I sink them straight in hearing him give out a stiffening grunt at it knowing he will react to the venom which will give a numbness and pleasured feeling to the Prey being subdued.

All is quiet, except for occasional soft grunts coming from each-time I take a sip of his blood until finally his large arms are pushing me back seeing how drunk I've become on the taste on it - a blush rising on my cheeks, lips coated still in some of it, that it is so addicting it is feat in me trying to avoid going back for more.

Instead, moving myself over him and placing one hand on his chest to push him down to lay flat on his back noting his hazel brown eyes ringed with gold looking up at mine. Putting my hands either side of his head, I bend down my head down to rest my forehead against his wondering should I do it, licking my lips.

“Thank you.” I tell him, finding weird saying it because I’m not used to saying it – I been ingrained in Master Cazador’s rules and have already broken one – before sealing my lips over his, feeling him stiffening underneath me only to respond with soft, equal fervour it is something part of me wants and other is rebelling at it.

I try to pull away, but he pulls me back into devouring my mouth with his own – lips changing position each-time to deepen the kissing between us both, his tongue flicking across them begging admittance so allow for it to happen.

My whole body quivers up against him.

The sensation of his large hands wrapping around my body, one cradling the back of my head and other resting on my back with his warm, moist tongue entwining with mine inside and outside my mouth makes me want to pull away from him.

Managing to release my lips from his, I gasp breathlessly with my face turned to one side willing myself to calm down - use the seductive techniques I use for Prey to take back to Cazador on him.

“Astarion…..look at me.” Halsin says, voice husky with arousal making me turn my face to look up at him seeing how affected he is – his pupils dilated, lips still swollen from our kissing and no doubt his aroused below – then continues to speak. “I…. don’t whether I can control myself in what happens next.”

Bringing both my hands up to cup his cheeks, looking up into those hazel brown eyes ringed gold I realise what is happening to me - I'm losing control to unexpected emotions rising up within me.

And it is frightening me.

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Notes:

Connected to Prologue (2 of 3) - 'Losing Control to Unexpected Emotions Rising within One'

Introducing Asdalen - a drow elf with Dark Urge Origins and also Halsin's Half-brother (more will be explained about that later in further one chapters) and Lesia, his adopted fae child; Asdalen will be the main leader of the party and romance partner will be Gale.

What happens to Astarion and Halsin will be told in flashback.

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Prologue (3 of 3) - 'When an Unexpected Event Separates Those Close to Others'

Location - Baldur's Gate, Sword Coast, Western Heartlands - 'Whispering Weave' Tavern near the Harbour - Approaching Mid-Morning 

12 DAYS LATER

Making my way through the streets of Baldur's Gate towards the 'Whispering Weave' Tavern, I keep an eye on Lesia who is running ahead - her wispy fae form so different from the various Baldurians and other travellers walking back and forth - of me.

My mind is thinking about my half-brother Halsin - an Archdruid of the Emerald Grove located in the Western Heartlands, Western Faerun - knowing it's been quite some time we have met up to discuss things or even talk properly.

Approaching the Tavern, which is near the Harbour, I see two people are walking down towards it - though one of them seems to be keeping mostly to the shadows I notice and the other I recognise is Halsin, who spotting me goes to say something when I finally reach the both of them only to bite his bottom lip which his companion notices before flicking his gaze over to me.

Lesia, spotting Halsin runs up to him to greet him and hold out her little hands to be lifted up by him.

I wait to see whether he will do it, part of me - an unknown, uncontrolled side whispers, 'Kill them both' and other horrendous things - and the more rational side - though don't know how long it will last - knows he can't deny her.

Finally, he bends down to lift her up, surprising his silvery white-haired companion beside him that approach though still with caution because it's been quite some time since seen him.

"Hello, little one." Halsin says, smiling softly with his companion - keeping to the shadows - admiring in their own way until finally turns their gaze to me.

Behind the white-bone mask I wear to cover my face a strange, prickling sense that I'm being analysed by a Predator hits me.

My own unknown Predator's senses soon wanting to confront back and tear their throat out.

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Astarion’s P.O.V:

Coming back to Baldur’s Gate after twelve days, I know at some point Cazador will send out my ‘siblings’ to collect me but he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to do so as myself and Halsin walk through the marketplace close to the Harbour.

Stopping in the shadows of archway, Halsin turns to face me when sees I seem to be not my usual self – my body tone is showing wariness – so brings a hand up to cup my cheek to reassure me everything is alright with him being here for me.

Immediately resting my forehead against his, hands moving to rest own on his large, muscular chest it makes me realise the twelve days and nights we’ve shared together – his soft, breathless kisses he will give me; reassuring me when nightmares overwhelmed and finally, making sure my bloodthirst is sated – it has felt like freedom.

“I…don’t want to leave you….just yet….” I admit, knowing we must go our separate ways with him heading back to the Emerald Grove and myself back to my ‘prison’ kissing him soon on the lips where he uses his other hand to pull me flush up against him.

Around us the noises of the Harbour and the Marketplace reach my ears – Market stallers shouting out the wares; dock workers heading up and down ramps on ships delivering various goods back and forth and Baldurians going about their daily lives – but I’m not listening to it, just relaxing to kiss my ‘Mate’ is giving me.

Finally pulling back from it, licking my lips at his taste, I smile softly up to him slipping one hand down to clasp my fingers with his, while we soon begin to make our way to the Tavern called 'Whispering Weave' to share a last moment drink before going our separate ways.

Discovering that Halsin had a ‘brother’ of some kind is unexpected, because he never mentioned anything about having a family until now so meeting them – who wears long black thief clothing with hood included, plus bone-white mask hiding their face – along with a little fae child called Lesia, it is taking me some time to try and make sense of them.

I can tell they are like me almost – a Predator fighting their own instincts to attack the presence of another Predator in front of them.

Deciding to introduce myself is the better option of being silent and not saying anything to them.

“You have a beautiful child.” I comment, making them turn their gaze to me.

Body language still showing signs of wariness but relaxing enough to respond back to me.

“She’s….Thank you…Umm…” they begin to say, allowing me to introduce myself. “…Astarion Ancunin, a pleasure to meet you…”

“Asdalen.” They nonchalantly reply, causing Halsin to lower the little one wanting to say something but closes his month instead like he knows it may not help the both of them.

Torn between the awkwardness I’m sensing rising between them both, I decide to relieve it by deciding to say something which is mundane yet helps "I'm famished. How about we all get a bite to eat and all have a good chat together. Maybe even hear some of your lute music, Asdalen.' clapping both my hands together seeing how Lesia jumps up and down at hearing the words 'bite to eat' pulling her adopted father's sleeve.

Halsin having composed himself, slips his arm around my waist to pull me against his side and giving me a certain look of 'I didn't know you had an interest in music' it makes my chest ache at the look he gives me. The sudden thought is that I want to know everything about him - how he become Archdruid, what was his childhood like, how did he find out about his brother - and his brother.

Repair what feels like a fragile relationship between them which could easily be broken anytime.

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Location - Baldur's Gate, Sword Coast, Western Heartlands - 'Whispering Weave' Tavern near the Harbour - Mid-Morning

Asdalen’s P.O.V:

“Have you been travelling far?”

“Only to certain areas. There’s been some places refusing travellers entry.”

Drunken laughter, chatter and clinking of mugs fills the air with myself and Lesia sitting with Halsin and Astarion in an alcove at the far back of the Tavern where Astarion sitting next to my half-brother is asking me about my travels.

Most of what I tell him is about how on my travels where noticed Missing Poster had been appearing a lot; some places were wary of new travellers due to whispers about raise of Cultists and more monsters beginning to appear in certain areas.

“I see. To admit, I’ve not noticed….that kind of thing due….” Astarion begins to say only tail off, taking a sip of the wine he’s ordered with Halsin moving a hand to place it over his – squeezing it lightly to reassure the pale, High elf who gives weak smile.

‘You’ve been hiding in the shadows for too long.’ I state internally, not saying it out loud lest the Gur Hunters sitting only a few feet away from where we’re sitting overhear and come over to investigate.

Halsin, is happy. A soft, warm glow Lesia describes it to me in silent communication which reassures my brother will be alright in the relationship he has with Astarion leaving me to think of one person who I miss the most – Gale Dekarios, my lover and chosen Mate.

Where is he now?

Is he coping?

Has he returned to Waterdeep?

“Bard, do you play?” A new voice asks of me, leaving the internal questions in my head unanswered, so turn my face to the source seeing a figure wearing fine refine stands there indicating to the lute in the holder on my back.

“I play, yes. It depends on the crowd though and what they would like to hear.” I reply, seeing the newcomer raise one delicate eyebrow in amusement at it. “And you…. what would you like to hear?” asking them a question back to them.

“Me?! Well, let’s see…” They reply, bringing one hand up to tap their chin in deep thought until give small smirk at me. “How about an original composition. I believe this one should suffice ‘Beautiful Voice of the Past’ for you, Bard.”

A violent visible shudder goes through me, Astarion placing his hand on my arm to pull me back down into my seat – I hadn’t realised I had stood up to confront the newcomer – my mind torn in how they knew about the song – a song I composed only for Gale and no-one else – and who played it.

“I don’t play it for crowds.” I whisper under my breath, voice breaking with so much emotion I get back up with Lesia sensing I need to leave allowing me to pick her up.

Politely excusing myself when brush past the newcomer, I weave through the patrons and tables to reach the main Tavern door or would have if it hadn’t been for sudden explosion sending myself and her still in my arms flying backwards over the Tavern bar into the alcohol drink-rack hard.

Followed by tinkling noise of smashed apart bottles of wine, beer and brandy to name a few.

The wooden shelf collapses under my weight, forcing my body to fall to the floor in wounded, bleeding heap of a mess with Lesia beginning to whimper in my arms – her little fae body fading in and out focus due to being very frightened of what is happening – seeing the blurred image of the Tavern patrons running out in all directions only to be cruelly snatched up by what appear to be Mindflyers.

Another explosion rocks the tavern, sending shockwaves through the floorboards which begin to crack and splinter in all directions – sending shards of wood flying in all directions – feeling below me the wooden floor give out on myself with Lesia being wrenched out of my arms by something leaving me to fall into the blackness of the underground cellar.

The faint roars of my Brother’s Wildshape, Lesia crying out my name again and again reach me with Astarion lunging himself towards the collapsed hole made by the falling floorboards to grab hold of my wrist trying in vain to pull me back up – even though I can see he’s struggling due the wounds he’s ascertained.

“Asdalen, quick…..give me your other hand before the next wave hits!!!? It seems to be full-scaled attack on Baldur’s Gate!!!? We need….NO!!!! GET THE HELL AWAY ME…!!!!?” He cries out, only to panic heavily looking over at something or someone I cannot see due to my disadvantaged angle.

A fast, but to me blurred, inky-black shadow speeds it's over to him in such a blink of an eye to knock him over to the other side, leaving me with nothing to grab hold onto to help pull me back up to safety.

Falling for quite some time, I finally reach the bottom of what turns out to be the underground lower cellar for the Tavern with sickening, bone-crunching thud – worse agony than what my own people, the Drows have done to me – it shatters everything instantly, finding myself going limp at it immediatly.

So, this is how I die?

Separated from my half-brother who just met again?

I never got to even tell him…..everything……

Halsin…..Astarion……Lesia…

My thoughts wander in my head, my body is lying shattered beyond compare and any chance of moving is not probable with how serious my injuries are from the shards of glass embedded in it and large wood splinters.

My blood can distantly feel is pooling out from underneath my body or over it to trickle off it to cover the cobbled stones of the cellar in various array of crimson petals.

The unknown, uncontrolled side seems to be gleefully laughing in my head at the demise – death by falling, shattering every bone in my body and allowing my lifeforce to drain away.

It's the last thing I hear before blackness swoops in dark like raven’s wings and I remember nothing thereafter.

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#baldur gate 3 #astarion x halsin #emotional angst #slow-burn romance #canon divergence #Halsin saves Astarion #Astarion has trust issues #Falling in love #wip mode #Confessing about secrets #Prologue - 1 to 3 #fic snippet #Part 1 of 'Baldur's Gate: Halsin x Astarion Fic - 'Always there to Travel the Same Path which One Walks' - (1 of ?) #pictures sourced from various sources #Spawn Astarion and Ascended Astarion Routes both have same prologue (1 of ?) #Chapters will be either tagged Ascended Astarion Route or Spawn Astarion Route as fic progresses #additional tags to be added #Part 1 of 'Love like Leaves on a Tree in Dappled Sunlight' #Part 1 of 'One's Baldur's Gate Fic Collection'

[incarnateirony]

Looking over my boss' review of my performance the other day and I honestly kinda wanna good cry

Only person in the center with a 100% case sub rate.

Notes on my unusual linguistic style, both general structure and ability to adjust it to almost any chatter

Notes on my save rate, which is different than a sub rate, but except, oh wait, no it fucking isn't. (Really I lost one but due to how it happened it statistically does not appear as a failure, not that the center counts it as failures as there's almost no expectation on rate, but *I* consider it failure. But really, they were already gone. They just needed a witness. And a psychopomp).

highest positive case resolution vs PSAP response, highest save to lowest involuntary calls

"Ability to understand issues unspoken by clients." only way she could summarize me accidentally mindreading the one motherfucker right before the review kSJDFKSDJFSKDJFSKDJF

Notes on exceptional understanding of psychology, was asked if I had a phd or something, no, and I sure as shit ain't explaining why. "Must be a natural gift" mhmyeah.

me out here saving lives doing advanced hermetic psychobending and shadow work full time 40 hours a week on government pay while [redacted redacted redacted] social media and I STILL have this dumb slut chasing me trying to pretend she can do the same shit while selling her 9.99 miss cleo pendants writ in motherfuckin octopese oh my god SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

Jesus fuck, one of us is saving lost souls, literally, lost on the path, and facing and walking with death every single day to do it, while giving him tribute of an entire company he can pull the strings and fuck around with and the hands on deck at it to do what is needed. The other is scamming people in anime jibberish and grooming her bf into thinking hermes looks like her ex and basically fetish roleplaying as me, and keeps pretending it's All Fair Play.

Maybe you wouldn't be such a vacant brained slut if you'd actually read even a single fucking book he tried to get you to read in two decades. You might even be able to channel your own joke one day, dumb bitch. Then again, humor requires a personality, and you refuse to develop an identity of your own beyond "fat bitch eats candy, tries to do everything ex did with negative IQ understanding, spews anime octopus jibberish as wisdom, malds that only her 3 cult members are dumb enough to believe in her magic shit, even 14 year olds know better". So.

Shealyn, I don't know how to explain this, but You Are Not Me. It's become increasingly obvious you are choosing to disassociate from reality at this point, but You Are Not Me. I am Aaron, you are not. I am the quarter century hermetic student, you are not. I am the one in the walls of every area you hold sacred online whether you understand and accept that or not, you are not. I am the one taking actual measurable actions that have literal statistics as results, you are not. You are a woman who could only steal an inside joke without understanding she cursed herself to octopus jibberish, and your quality and reliability has not improved since. Like you can't even design your own characters, you have to copy mine. You literally have zero identity of your own and objectively refuse to build one, just mimic everyone around you and play games.

You. Have. No. Identity. Like it's not even an insult to call you empty. You are literally vacant. You believe in nothing for real, you know nothing for real, you identify with nothing for real, you understand nothing for real, it's just a big fucking void of you trying to masquerade as a human shaped object copying everyone around you. Get a fucking identity. That is literally Hermes 101, you retard. What Is Your Identity. It can't be me. I'm not sure why you keep getting that fucked up. It can't be me, it can't be me and a friend's inside joke, it can't be him, it can't be throwing yourself away to channel whenever you're bored. You are literally the biggest retard I've ever met pretending to channel him while spewing shit directly contrary to every religious doctrine from him ever but just conveniently what you want to hear. And see, since apparently it's MY FUCKING FACE STILL.

GET. YOUR. OWN. IDENTITY. OR. DIE. ALREADY.

Avoiding the truth and drawing more broken circles won't fix it. Doubling down is your only personality trait, right into the fucking empty ass pit. Like you have (1) personality feature and it's being irredeemably retarded and bound for the void since you love surrendering yourself. That's what that feeling you've been having at night, behind your blog posts where you pretend to be happy, is coming from. That's why you're ripping out your hair, Shealyn. It's because you literally lack a personality or identity. And you know, we're all soul stuff. Your identity is the only thing that makes you who you are in the soul stuff. People like you? Who can't commit? You think they last out there? People who don't know who they are, what they want, and would rather be anywhere or anyone else? Or do you think, maybe, the same mindset just absolves them of having to think. Permanently. Scrape off any dirt your old personality leaves on it and try to make a NOT abominable human being out of the space vacated.

That feeling you have at night is your void, Shea. Deal with it, stop trying to fill it with me. At best you're begging we subsume you in the afterlife as some weird sub aspect of OURSELVES and like, ew. We eat healthier than that, no. Do not want. Like I'm all down for finishing my apotheosis but if my first person in personal paradise was Shealyn Rachel Bonds I'd commit godly suicide to return to earth and start over again just to avoid her.

Maybe that's why I'm here. I did some fucked up god shit at some point and someone decided to curse me with the Shealyn Bonds experience in a mortal life, or I killed my godly self trying to get away from her after Pompeii. Cuz she truly do be doing the stalker bs. It's funny because in RP, she was always aware "wow! These women are psycho and all think he's in love with them! Why can't they see he wants them to go away?" meanwhile he's beating her with a wifflebat, assailing her with seventeen forms of media, smashing her spider and telling her to die in a cosmic fire and she's like HM WONDER WHO THATS FOR.

Maybe reincarnation is less a punishment thing and more the gods dumping out the trashcan to get people like her off their lawn. "[sigh] Nemesis, Hermes' elephantine stalker is humping the window again--" "Goddamnit we JUST got those smudges off from her greasy cheeks last time. TO THE VICTORIAN ERA WITH YOU"

[meams4u]

Ok it's becoming unavoidable.

The 2010s internet business model is failed, and it's very likely taking tumblr down with it. The good parts of this site are going to die.

There is an inherent disconnect between the best product/service and the most profitable product/service. However the assumption of correlation AND causation between these is at the core of capitalism.

I explain.

Booyah.

The business model which drives tumblr's decision making is the same as drove nearly all sites in the 2010s. There was so much reliable investor money, that sites could fully fund their costs and expand wildly without ever making a profit, or ever charging their users for a service. Their goal was the long game, offer something fun for free, get people hooked, become necessary for daily life; that if they could capture enough of a userbase, then that MUST be profitable at some point. How could a site with 50mil daily users not make money, right?

Well, there was enough money flowing in to prevent those questions from ever being seriously asked. Which is unfortunate, because the answer is no. YouTube, despite massive use, omnipresence, and so so many ads, doesn't make money. Gmail doesn't make money. They painted themselves into a corner by being free, and people are used to that. The status quo was always unsustainable. Employees cost money. Servers cost money. These bills were paid by willing investors in the past, but with little more userbase to conquer, what's bringing them in? Now websites are scrambling to maintain the cash flow necessary to stay alive, let alone improve.

Gmail, YouTube, Discord, Twitch all have mega profitable services bankrolling them for the sake of surveillance, but tumblr doesn't have that (neither do Reddit, Uber/Lyft, or Snapchat). Various buyers (Yahoo and others) have dumped cash on tumblr occasionally, but that's not going to keep happening. So what's the plan? Cutting costs will only guarantee a slow death and nonfunctioning website (Twitter). So tumblr must either increase revenue or fire everyone and shut down the site. I cannot stress enough that the status quo of a functioning website for free, cannot exist without someone dumping money on it.

Now finally I get to the main point 🎉

Have you ever spent hours mindlessly scrolling some app, bored the whole time, and at the end you feel like shit? According to our current system, this is your favorite app which you like using the most. Have you ever had a meaningful connection on a forum or witnessed perfect comedic timing in a reblog chain? Well unless you chose to spend hours experiencing these beautiful moments (oxymoron), then the system will interpret your enjoyment of those websites as far less. That is considered a bad website. The only metric currently used is eyeball time. This metric does not reflect user satisfaction.

This metric is used because it's a simple conversion from eyeballs to ad views to income. So eyeball time becomes the goal and social media sites become optimized towards quick-seratonin-hit addiction and features that trap rather than convincing user to choose to spend their time on a site. Why isn't the latter a good enough option? Because happy people don't choose to spend their days looking at ads.

And that's the heart of the issue. Humans are not happy when they're generating max profit. Capitalism is never satisfied with profit alone, it demands the greatest possible profit. And therefore capitalism demands systems which make us unhappy. This is tragically at the core of capitalism; the idea that consumer choice will direct companies to produce the best product. That the product which wins out must therefore be the best for consumers. But it's not true. It has never been true. It's why cigarette companies succeed while companies that make long-lasting cars fail.

Tumblr, with its features that encourage user interaction and discourage influencer culture, is more enjoyable and less profitable. Can they find a workforce of engineers who are just as talented and hard working as the Facebook engineers, but accept much lower salaries? Probably not. So what do they do? I expect they make things worse on purpose, and eek out some kind of survival. Remember the porn ban?

#mine #philosophy #tumblr

[iviarellereads]

Fugitive Telemetry, Chapter 3

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one!)

In which someone wants to display their cake and eat it too, sort of.

Murderbot isn't surprised to have been more or less kicked out of the investigation. StatSec still don't want it there, and they're not going to change their minds so easily, no matter what Mensah says.

As a demonstration of this, MB goes into the other restriction imposed on it by the negotiations with Indah: it must broadcast a feed ID, and stop concealing its presence. MB really, really didn't want to have a feed ID, because either it lists all the human markers, like a name other people can use and a gender, or it lists a local feed address,(1) indicating that it's just a bot.

Neither of these is MB's ideal(2) but it understands why Indah thinks it's not that big of a deal. And, maybe choosing something basic to broadcast would have been worth it to get out of that meeting. It chose to broadcast a name of "SecUnit" and a gender of "not applicable". It's not sure what Indah did afterward, but Mensah and Pin-Lee sought comfort in their own ways.

Two days later, someone sent a photo of MB to a news stream on the station, identifying it as the rogue SecUnit from the corporate rumours. The photo was not taken from security footage, more likely from a capture camera in an augmented human given the angle. And, it was taken after its memory repair incident, given the location and the company it was in. Supposedly, nobody in StatSec sent it to the news feed, but MB isn't buying it.

After that, Mensah gave it the two boxes of intel drones. Indah objected, but Mensah said it was necessary for MB's mental health.(3) MB is pretty sure she'd already ordered the drones as the bribe from the end of the Home short story, though it wouldn't put it past her to use the drones for both that and telling Indah to fuck off.

In the present, such as it is, MB does have things to do other than the investigation. Like visit Bharadwaj again, as they've started research for her documentary, and she wants to see MB regularly for more meetings and interviews. It finds talking to her comforting. It's also bene helping Ratthi with data analysis for his reports, and he's been suggesting MB could do that as a job for other researchers. MB thinks that would be boring, though, at least with anyone except Ratthi, who is excited about MB's reports and invites it to go watch live performances at the theater on the station.(4)

Still, it can't help but want the intel for the investigation, so that it can figure out if it needs to worry about GrayCris on this or not. It could've done quite a lot before StatSec even got Medical down there to scan the body, if it still had systems access. It's not likely to be a GrayCris incident, but there's so much MB doesn't know about what happened, and it hates acknowledging that.(5)

MB's train of thought finally comes to a slow point thinking about how the dead human would need housing of some sort. It doesn't have systems access to find what it needs, but it might have another way. It goes to the transient block, as the most likely place they were staying. It sends a ping, and receives an answer 1.2 seconds later, probably taking so long because of startlement. MB enters the hostel, and finds a restocking bot. The bot follows MB as it walks in, a behaviour programmed for human comfort rather than practicality since it has visual sensors all over.

(I don’t know why bot behaviors that are useless except to comfort humans annoy me so much.) (Okay, maybe I do. They built us, right? So didn’t they know how this type of bot took in visual data? It’s not like sensors and scanners just popped up randomly on its body without humans putting them there.)

The bot first greets MB as a human, but MB says it doesn't have to pretend it's human, and they have a more programmatical exchange where MB asks the bot to identify the victim. The human supervisor asks if everything's alright, but both the bot (who the human calls "Tellus") and MB confirm they're just talking. The supervisor is clearly uncomfortable, but returns to their business.

MB knows it makes humans particularly uncomfortable, because humans like neat categories like "human" and "bot", and MB is both and neither. And, the "free" bot guardian system is like a magnet for humans who like to be patronizing(6) which compounds both their reactions to MB and its annoyance with them.

At any rate, Tellus helps MB identify the victim, and to narrow down the number of potential rooms they might have been staying in by sharing only rooms where the occupant left before the time of death and hasn't returned. Tellus is concerned about occupant privacy, but invites MB to come on an unscheduled maintenance inspection of unoccupied rooms as long as it deems MB's item search not in violation of it. MB offers that it only needs to look at clothing, on a hunch, seeking to match what the victim was found wearing.

Together, they do find a scarf that MB determines matches the clothes in material and pattern, and it assembles a report for StatSec with images of the scarf as well as the location of the room and the feed ID associated with it. It sends the report to StatSec tagged for attention by Indah and Tural, so it's not ignored, as well as to Tellus so it knows what's up when StatSec come to ask questions.

MB signals that it's ready to leave, and Tellus accompanies it back to the lobby, but as it goes to help clients, it asks MB about its next action. MB still doesn't have enough information, so signals "task complete", but Tellus suggests querying the arrival data before the victim, if he is Lutran, arrived at the hostel two days ago.

I didn’t respond because I don’t need a critique from a “free” bot(7) and I couldn’t access the arrivals data without Station Security’s permission anyway, and fuck that. Huh, I just thought of another way to do it. It was annoying that the “free” bot was right, but I needed to go to the transit ring.

MB finds a chair near another plant biome and sits. It wants to identify the ship Lutran came in on, but doesn't want to hack the system. It promised it wouldn't, and StatSec will do just that with permission as soon as they read its report. But, asking for information worked once, why not twice?

So, MB slips into the feed, and queries the available transports. It's tedious, and it can't be backburnered to watch media. But, after 57% of the transports in dock, it finds an anomaly: a cargo-and-human transport that responds, not with a protocol, but a salutation. When MB queries it further, it starts spewing error codes.

MB assembles its drones and makes its way toward the malfunctioning transport. The weapons scanners detect it but stand down, and MB knows the system will probably alert StatSec of its whereabouts. At least one human recognizes what MB is, a SecUnit, and watches it closely. It hates being ID'd so quickly after all the work it did to blend in, even growing out its hair.

Still, nine minutes later it's at the transport in question, and there's an urgency to its transmissions. It needs to get onboard, but it can't give StatSec any room to fuck it over. Mensah and Pin-Lee, its first choices, are in separate meetings, and several of the other team members are on-planet, Bharadwaj visiting family, Arada and Overse preparing for the survey they've got planned next,(8) and Volescu having retired.

That left me with the human most likely to want to drop everything and come watch me break into a damaged transport and the human also most likely to come watch me break into a damaged transport but only so he could argue with me about it. So I called both of them.(9)

=====

(1) See, I feel like this kinda backs me up that the local feed address isn't what Art used as MB's passcode, because it's not something unknowable to humans. Yes, it implies that it's not actively broadcasting that address, but (2) The mortifying ordeal of being perceived is Murderbot's worst fear. Its "Murderbot" name is private, even though its friends know it, they know not to use it. It's not quite a dead name, it still thinks of itself as that name, but at the risk of projecting a little of my bias and interpretation onto it, I think it (fairly) fears what people will think of it if it admits that it still sees itself as a killing machine, when it's not even really ready to think about what that means for itself. I have a feeling if the series ever ends, it will end with MB setting aside that name and choosing a new one. But, for now, this is where I think MB wants to do the thing in my chapter tagline. It wants to be a person, but it doesn't want to do person things or be perceived as a person. We're six books in and we've only just begun to scratch the surface of its issues. I'm just as grateful it fell in with Preservation, a whole society that, once they understand its intentions, is absolutely primed to help and support it in whatever it needs. (3) It's not even a lie, it's much more comfortable looking through drones than with its own eyes. Being cut off to just itself is limiting in a way it's not accustomed to. Totally justified. (4) For all that he was a little overbearing in his attempts to be helpful in the first book, Ratthi and MB have become real buds. I love it. (5) One of the most relatable things it's ever thought. (6) At least on Preservation it's just people who have a patronizing streak, and not… well, guardianship over adult humans has been in the news a lot lately and I have my own set of emotions about it and the sort of people it attracts. (7) As much as it complains about human biases toward it, MB has its own biases toward both humans-in-general and bots. (8) Hey look, Network Effect setup. (9) Who does that leave? Who's coming to "help"? From those not named, I'm guessing Ratthi and Gurathin respectively. MB has so little faith in the latter.

#the murderbot diaries #murderbot diaries #fugitive telemetry #murderbot #secunit #indah (murderbot) #tural (murderbot) #ayda mensah #pin lee

[slushanddusk]

DSMP as TMA Fears

Saw a lot of people do this and I decided hey, why not have a go at it myself!  Multiple options for some people, final decision next to the name.

Tommy - The Lonely Exile is what sticks out most to me about this, he was just alone for so long.  He thrives on human contact and socializing, so The Lonely might not be a good fit for him if he actually was meant to be thriving.  But I could see him getting taken by The Lonely while in exile.  I don’t see any other easy option for Tommy.

Tubbo - The Extinction Not fully because of the nukes, but that does play its part in my choice here.  Tubbo is also terrified of failure and messing up, which is exactly what happens when he’s president of L’manburg.  The destruction he is powerless to stop leads to the absolute decimation of L’manburg.  I could also see Tubbo as The Corruption, which plays into his affinity for bees.  He’d never be alone and have the company and love he’s been seeking for.

Ranboo - The Spiral The Spiral deals with a lot of themes about madness, losing control, hallucinations, and similar things.  This is so related to what Ranboo experiences- the hallucinations of Dream’s voice in his panic rooms, the worry that he’s going insane and doing things he can’t remember while he’s Enderwalking.  It’s so Spiral.

Wilbur - The Desolation I wholeheartedly agree with putting Wilbur down as The Desolation.  He’s incredibly self destructive and he destroys his relationships during his exile spiral.  He was happy with the destruction he caused after the 16th.  Although The Spiral is tempting for various reasons.

Dream - The Web It’s not really a surprise that Dream would be an avatar of The Web.  He’s manipulative, and despite there being other characters that are manipulative (namely Wilbur), Dream is probably the most controlling out of them all.  He needs that control and it terrified of losing it.  Everything he does is some sort of plan, even when he gets put in the prison it’s revealed that he asked Punz to betray him and that he knew he would be let out by Techno in the future.  Everything he does is part of that bigger play for control- even if in the end, it fails.

Sapnap - The Desolation I’m not sure Sapnap really could become an avatar of The Desolation- he may just care about his friends too much for that.  But I’m totally tunnel vision on the arson here.  He loves arson!  He is just one to set things on fire.

George - The Lonely He’s almost always alone, never in the conflict or important events.  During the 16th he was isolated from everyone else building a house in peace.  He’s scared that he will be alone and is constantly dreaming of his friends leaving him out.  He doesn’t realize he’s isolating himself by sleeping so much, and even puts his fear onto others by making them scared that he will abandon them.  Example of that being George not showing up to the elections with Quackity, abandoning his friend when he needed it.  Other than that, something VERY convincing would be that he’s tormented by The Spiral.  How else can you explain his crazy dreams?  They’re a product of The Spiral- I swear.

Techno - The Slaughter I’m a bit on the fence about this and The Hunt, but if I had to choose it would be The Slaughter.  He isn’t all about mindless killing like The Slaughter is, but I don’t know if The Hunt fits him much more.  The most Slaughter thing about him must be related to how he acted during the Festival before the 16th- how as soon as he got a taste of blood from executing Tubbo, he turned on the rest of the crowd as well with a murderous hunger.

Philza - The End Phil completely fits The End.  I don’t have a very detailed reason for this alignment other than the fact that he’s a passive person who only acts when it’s the right time.  He is always calm, wise beyond his years, and doesn’t act violent except when it’s deemed to be the correct time.  End avatars are often passive, and the only time that comes to mind where Phil is fighting a lot is Doomsday.  His crows are even considered to be a sign of death.  Other than this, I absolutely adore him as an avatar of The Vast.  I think he’s at least touched by it, if not somehow having a stronger connection.  Mostly related to his wings and the vast emptiness of the End dimension he has connections to.

Quackity - The Stranger Quackity is a struggle who I’ve redone a few times now, but I’ve decided on him being an avatar of The Stranger who is touched by The Hunt.  He is very Hunt-driven, especially with his absolute “Us vs Them” mentality- seen most clearly in The Butcher Army when they hunted down Techno to execute him.  He has severe Flesh tendencies as well with the way he brutally tortures Dream and how he acts throughout the Butcher Army arc.  He still is very tied to The Hunt though, even if it’s simply in the way he thinks.  Besides that, he’s an avatar of The Stranger due to his uncanny “almost human but clearly not” vibe.  Imagine his face as a mask and the scar is just a crack in it.

Karl - The Eye Karl may be the most complicated character in this post, simply because I’ve decided to dive deeper into his lore than I was willing to do while originally making these alignments.  Karl is an avatar of The Eye- travelling and watching these stories of the past and future unfold before him, but he doesn’t do anything to change it.  Unrelated to The Eye, we bring in the other aspects of his time travelling- The Inbetween and The Other Side, which relate to The Spiral and The Lonely.  Other aspects of his time travelling and the emptiness of these strange dimensions he’s trapped in are reminiscent of both The Spiral and The Lonely.  Karl himself is a very Spiral-like character, with even his appearance giving a chaotic and colourful Spiral vibe.  The memory loss he’s afflicted with and him forgetting his fiancé was so Lonely it hurts.  Put simply, an avatar of The Eye tormented by The Spiral and The Lonely.

Niki - The Spiral Feels like we have quite a few Spiral related people in here!  Niki feels like she would be tormented by The Spiral while she’s in her library.  She self-isolated, started sleepwalking, and became extremely self destructive.  She even started hallucinating from insomnia.  Another one for Niki is The Desolation, which may just be me fixating on her burning of the L’mantree and the way her isolation and downfall is incredibly self-destructive.

Eret - The Lonely Eret seems like he may be a good option for The Lonely, since he has been referred to before as “The Lonely King” or titles of that sort.  Eret is actually a fairly lonely person, after they betrayed L’manburg they were shunned by their former friends and in reality had been manipulated by Dream into becoming King in a land where that role held no real power.  My only other idea for Eret would be under The Eye.  It’s not the most creative, though I did need somewhere to put them.  I think her role as historian for the SMP played into this a fair amount.

Fundy - The Lonely I think the fear that fits Fundy the most is The Lonely- and he is often alone.  Fundy is manipulated into joining Las Nevadas and previously when he tries to relate to Ranboo and share his point of view, he is yelled at and told that he doesn’t understand.  He’s isolated in a cabin in the woods after he leaves the SMP until he’s dragged in the casino, where in reality he is still alone.  Everything he does is a call for attention because he is so ignored.  Other than this, I have many other reasons for various fears, starting with The Spiral.  A lot of people on the SMP tend to have strange experiences related to sleep, and Fundy is yet another one of them.  He has nightmares that he can’t control that predicts a horrible future of destruction and fear which could be related to something like The Extinction as well, but I link them to torment caused by The Spiral.  Maybe he’d even be related to The Eye because of the prophetic quality to the Dreams. The Hunt calls me because of his animal features, but he doesn’t really fit it except for his role in the Butcher Army.

BBH - The Corruption I don’t know how he couldn’t be an avatar of The Corruption with the Egg quite literally being like a weed spreading across the server and him being its closest servant.  The Red Banquet was some sort of ritual to bring forth The Corruption but it didn’t work because other avatars showed up and ruined it.  Besides The Corruption, Bad gives off very strong vibes of The Dark.

Hannah - The Corruption With her relationship with plants involved I feel like The Corruption makes a lot of sense, as well as her secret alliance with The Eggpire and heavily under the influence of the Egg.  The Egg was feeding off the people around it almost like an embodiment of The Corruption itself, and I can’t see how it wouldn’t be something related to The Corruption.

Ponk - The Corruption Ponk was extremely involved with The Egg plot.  He is corrupted by the Egg and in my mind that’s still a direct manifestation of The Corruption.  There’s really not much else that can be said about him except for a connection to The Flesh.  He’s probably touched by it, mostly because of what happened with Sam cutting off his arm.

Purpled - The Hunt Like Philza, this one doesn’t have a full explanation.  Purpled fits The Hunt in a strange way, especially due to the fact that he is a mercenary.  He silently plots against Quackity for a long time before he pins him down and threatens him for information.  When Quackity can’t give him what he wants, Purpled kills Quackity’s best friend.  Absolutely ruthless.  He fits some sort of murder entity especially because that’s his whole job, and a mercenary needs to hunt down their target. Punz - The Hunt Like Purpled, he’s a mercenary, a hitman.  He was touched by The Corruption during the Egg plot but never fully became an avatar of it.  He seems like one of the most human, so I don’t think he would even be a full avatar.  He is likely touched by the Hunt as well, but not fully taken by it.

Slimecicle - The Stranger Somewhat close with The Flesh, I think The Stranger really fits Slimecicle.  He looks so human but is clearly not, and the shapeshifting, lack of bones, and overall slime features are very Stranger seeming.  He also is very reminiscent of the episode in TMA where there are a bunch of Stranger “students” learning how the body works because they aren’t actually human.  That’s just Slimecicle.  However, slight Eye vibes due to how he’s watched the server for years and knows so much of the history despite not physically being there to interact with.  That also gives off Stranger energy though.

Skeppy - The Spiral So many characters have been The Spiral but I swear it makes sense for Skeppy.  He makes crazy mazes and watches people suffer and fail.  He tricks them into doing what he wants and entering his strange builds where the entire thing has actually been a prank so that he can laugh at them the whole time.  He likes messing with people and their perceptions, pretending things haven’t happened and gaslighting people just for fun.  He’s so Spiral it isn’t even a competition at this point.  Touched by The Corruption due to the Egg plot.

Jack Manifold - The End Tell me it doesn’t make sense for mans to be an End avatar when he literally crawled out of hell after he lost all his lives.  He’s definitely touched by The Slaughter or something upon his return from the afterlife, as he returns set on revenge with nothing else in his mind.  He starts lashing out and gets extremely violent and plots to kill Tommy because he believes that he’s been wronged.  He fits the angry and violent portion of The Slaughter, but no way could he have gotten out of the afterlife without being an End avatar, so that’s my justification.

Awesamdude - The Buried Sam is so incredibly Buried it’s amazing.  He fits the definition in more ways than one.  He’s pressured and suffocated by his job as Warden- so much so that he even starts to lose himself and his morals.  Other than that, the prison itself fits as a domain of The Buried.  It’s suffocating and a trap, no way to get out and pressing in around you.

Foolish - The End I don’t know that much about Foolish I’m not gonna lie, but relating to him being a totem of undying and the vagueness of when he said he “used to be a totem of death”.  He’s also quite passive, as is the nature of End avatars.

Antfrost - The Hunt Ant has a very good way of making others fear the chase.  During the Egg arc he hunted down people and tried to find people to lure back to the Egg so he could trap them.  His species being a cat is also interesting because Hunters tend to have animalistic tendencies or characteristics, and cats are also predators.  During the Egg arc he is influenced by The Corruption.

Schlatt - The Web Schlatt is an extremely manipulative character.  He loves power, exiling those who oppose him from his country and belittling anyone else who threatens his control.  He manipulates Fundy and punishes Niki for standing up to him, trying his best to take away any power that others may have against him.  He knows how to cause chaos and deliberately does- he even got Dream onto his side with the book (an artefact of the End). He drinks himself to death instead of letting the enemy kill him, ripping away their last shreds of control.  Addiction itself is also a mark of The Web, something that’s extremely present in Schlatt.  He does have some Eye tendencies, an example being how he knows that Tubbo is a spy, but he still uses that information to further manipulate and pull along his victims.

Puffy - The Slaughter Puffy has some very striking Slaughter qualities to her.  Despite her violence not being entirely unmotivated, it is unexpected and unpredictable.  She herself is discomforted by this type of violence, but when Foolish is killed in front of her, she reacts like no one was expecting and with a murderous rage.  She tries to restrain herself from violence, so it builds up inside of her and releases in extremes.  Upon finding out Ponk is involved with the Egg, she burns down his house.  Her violent reactions scare even herself.  Other than this she was touched by The Corruption, though it didn’t get a complete hold on her.

DreamXD - The Eye He knows everything, watches everything, and is a literal god.  What more do you want from me?  He’s almost like a physical manifestation of The Ceaseless Watcher itself.  He does still act like The Spiral when related to George’s dreams and the way DreamXD seem to gaslight and manipulates him.

Drista - The Stranger Drista has a very Stranger vibe to her.  Of course the mask she wears and how she only shows up sometimes and has a very mysterious vibe.  The Stranger is also the antithesis to The Eye, which creates a sort of balance between DreamXD and Drista.

#i don't personally watch or follow the dream smp anymore #but i have no one else to assign to fears right now #philza #tommy #tubbo #ranboo #karl #quackity #sapnap #niki nihachu #eret #fundy #bbh #hannahxxrose #purpled #slimecicle #skeppy #jack manifold #awesamdude #foolish #dreamsmp analysis #tma au #dsmp tma #tma dsmp #dream smp #the magnus archives #tma

[gamerwoo]

Current WIPs

Main Masterlist

**Please note that this only lists series and not any oneshots!!

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

-Tales from the Pack [seventeen x reader | ongoing]

The adventures of werewolf!Seventeen as they try to cope with finding their mates, and try their best to stay hidden from the eyes of the humans who want them dead.

-Imprinted [seventeen x reader | ongoing]

How the thirteen boys met their mates in a modern day world where werewolves must try to blend in with society but keep their secret hidden.

-The Lovers Playlist [hansol x female reader | ongoing]

music has always been a big part of you. it’s the background to every moment in your life, and you keep different cassettes of the playlists you create for significant moments. the following playlist is one curated as you follow this new path. but when you reach the end, which playlist will you choose to play next?

-Color Theory [seventeen x female reader | ongoing but slow updates]

Can the wish to be the soulmate of another overpower fate? That’s the question your best friend constantly proposes at the mention of your soulmate who has many flags to match the color of your pendant. You’ve always dismissed her whenever she told you to forget about your soulmate, because how could you? He’s the person you’re destined to be with. But one day, you find that your red pendant to indicate you’ve found your soulmate has suddenly turned white again.

-Oh, Positive [junhui x female reader | on hold]

As a vampire hunter, your job is pretty self-explanatory. But sometimes, the enemy has to become your ally, and that’s exactly what happens when you’re ordered to track down Jun. To stop the coven of vampires that’re bringing up the death toll in Tokyo, you have to work with the thing you’re trained to kill – assuming the two of you don’t kill each other in the process.

-Catch 17 [seventeen x female reader | on indefinite hold]

A rumor sparks a lie that has you caught between a rock and a hard place. If you come clean, you could be let go from the company, and ruin your reputation forever. But if you play along, you’d be pretending to be someone you’re not, lying to yourself and the whole world. As Junhui puts it: a catch 17.

-Achilles [wonwoo x female reader | on indefinite hold]

As humanity’s strongest soldier, Wonwoo is the best of the best with zero weaknesses. But when the female titan betrays the scouts and runs away to Marley, Seungcheol decides to enlist the help of you: one of the people aboard the Marleyan ship sent out to sabotage them. And it’s then that Wonwoo discovers his one weakness that might just be his downfall.

-Bubblegum [chan x female reader | drafting/outlining]

Lee Chan couldn’t care less about most people or things, let alone you. But something draws him to you, claiming it’s only going to last for the night. However, being less experienced in this field, you’re persistent and curious and eager to explore more, which Chan wasn’t expecting. So maybe your little escapades will last longer than one night...

-Imprinted [stray kids x reader | ongoing]

Following a pack of eight werewolves as they try to find their mates while balancing life and keeping the fact they’re werewolves a secret.

-Age-Restricted [hyunjin x reader | ongoing]

You think it’s luck when the new family you nanny for is so stupid rich that they rent you a fancy new apartment just so you can live closer to them. You think it’s luck when the guy across the hall is the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen in your entire life and makes an effort to talk to you. But that’s just about where your luck runs out, because Hyunjin is more out of your league than you could ever imagine, and you’re just some hopeless virgin who never had good luck in the first place.

-In This Universe And The Next [stray kids x reader | drafting/outlining]

After being rescued by a strange boy who claims he can keep you safe, you and 5 other human experiments who have managed to escape the lab you’d been trapped in your entire life have to decide if you can trust this group of 8 boys who run this ‘safe haven’. But finding true safety is much more complicated than they thought, and some of the boys aren’t all that they seem...

-Toss Up [changbin x reader | drafting/outlining]

After seeing you at one of his baseball games, Changbin has finally imprinted and is looking for any way to see you again. There’s just one problem: you already have a girlfriend. Oh, and he got sucked into being on the cheer squad.

-The Heartbreak Tapes [chan x reader x hyunjin | drafting/outlining]

A love triangle played out in a series of tapes. Which tape will you choose to play next?

-Westfield Apartments [yoongi x female reader | ongoing]

Every apartment building is a little strange, whether it be the residents or the history behind the building. But when Yoongi moves into Westfield Apartments, he finds that both his neighbors and the building itself are more than a little strange.

-Star Crossed [junmyeon x female reader | on indefinite hold]

Every werewolf has a mate, so it’s not like Junmyeon didn’t expect to imprint one day. He just didn’t expect to imprint on the girl who had not only broken into his home to steal from him, but was also trained to kill him.

-The Pack Next Door [ateez x reader | on indefinite hold]

Hongjoong and his friends have lived peacefully in town without anyone finding out their secret: they’re a pack of werewolves. It’s just a matter of keeping it that way while they try to navigate life, act normal, and hopefully find their mates along the way.

[iclick-blogs]

Benefits of Corporate Photoshoot For Your Business

The process of taking pictures that companies and corporations can use for internal communications, advertising, or promotional purposes is known as corporate photography. Your original appearance might not matter in the business world, but your presentation definitely does. 🙂 Establishing trust and fostering positive connections with individuals in your sector starts with your presentation.

In the digital society we live in today, first impression is everything. It's likely that this initial impression happens online, not during your in-person meeting, when the client or potential employer searches you up. There's only one first impression, and it happens right away. If you have a high-quality corporate photo shoot, you can be sure that people will have a positive first impression of you whether they choose to look you up on LinkedIn, or in a website, or in other social media.

Because the corporate world is so competitive, you need high-quality corporate photo shooting if you want to stand out from the crowd when you apply even for a job also. Getting a professional photo taken is one of the most important things you can do to set yourself apart from others. A superb business headshot should show you looking your best, have a good resolution, and be aesthetically beautiful. It will make you more noticeable.

Uses of Corporate Headshots and Portraits

For usage on websites, business cards, and other materials, companies frequently need high-quality headshots of their staff members and employer. It's essential for establishing connections with people in the business sector. Consumers are curious about the appearance of the person they are doing business with you. A corporate headshot photo can help set the correct tone, particularly in situations where face-to-face interactions are not possible. Before they meet you in person, they can learn a little something about you from your corporate headshot. A high-quality photo will communicate professionalism, friendliness, and approachability, which will facilitate a good connection.

You want to project a sense of thoughtfulness, reliability, and confidence in your corporate shoot. People must sense your personality and determine whether you will be able to do their business.

Are you serious about your career? Show it. You will go above and beyond if you value developing your profession and yourself enough. Employers and clients will also take note. Corporate photoshoots communicate to prospective employers or clients your commitment to your work. You send the message that you will put in a lot of effort and be proud of every corporate undertaking by investing in your career and yourself.

Uses of Corporate photoshoot The corporate photoshoot covers a broad spectrum of topics, such as Business Events: To capture the moment and promote upcoming events, photography coverage of conferences, seminars, trade exhibits, and other business events is important. Architecture and Interiors: Business branding, marketing, and facility promotion are all accomplished via photographs of offices, buildings, and interior design. Product photography: For e-commerce websites, catalogs, and advertising campaigns, high-quality pictures of products are essential.

Executive Portraits: Press releases, annual reports, and other corporate communications frequently feature photos of executives and other important individuals.

Corporate Branding: The development and upkeep of a company's visual identity and brand image depend heavily on photography.

Corporate Lifestyle: Taking pictures of workers in action, in collaborative settings, and informally can help to humanize a brand and communicate its culture. Stock photography: Certain businesses may require generic photographs for publications, websites, and presentations. These images can be made especially for them or purchased from stock photography sources.

When selecting the best corporate photoshoot, businesses frequently seek out experts with relevant experience who can meet their unique requirements and provide photos that complement their messaging and brand identity.

Corporate photo shoot becoming more important in Singapore because of the country's dynamic business environment and the demand for high-quality photos for marketing and branding. The venue of the photo session may vary based on the company's tastes and branding, and may include the office building, outdoor spaces, or rented studios. It's imperative to work with a talented photographer that specializes in corporate photoshoot Singapore to produce more quality images for businesses. They ought to have prior expertise taking group images, business imagery, and expert headshots. Working with a photographer who is familiar with Singaporean business culture and can customize the shoot to the company's exact requirements is an important thing to keep in mind when organizing a corporate shoot in Singapore.

#corporate photo shoot #corporate photo shooting #corporate photoshoots #corporate photo #corporate photoshoot singapore #photography corporate #corporate shoot #corporate portrait photography singapore #cheap corporate photoshoot #best corporate photoshoot #corporate shoot singapore #professional corporate photoshoot

[anthonybialy]

Oh, That’s Rich

Contrary to popular belief, there are a few forbidden crimes left in America.  Lying about losing an election is the most prominent one even if there’s no law against it.  Don’t you dare try using a gas stove, felon.  And the most fiendish villains get rich.  Nobody is creating much of anything, and the best hope in this worst scenario is that idleness is by design.  Interdictors of commercial activity didn’t do this by accident, right?

The only present offense is earning.  Commit justice by taking lucre from targeted villains who commit the unforgivable sin of making what people desire.  Fair profiteers copy the government and take.

The presumption that the best thieves become CEOs is an excuse for not working hard.  Avoid a life of criminality by half-assing an entry-level job.  This useless planet contains a finite amount of jewels, so don’t even bother competing to pocket them.  The race to solve the treasure map where those who filled their pockets shoved aside the underprivileged makes us all losers, I say to applause.  Items and services that can be created seem like un unfair advantage for those who are good at things.

Contempt for diabolical humans who offer products others buy voluntarily is how Democrats express their ability to distinguish between right and wrong.  Endless jobs created as a byproduct just mean having to go to work instead of waiting for the glorious dole.  Employment is not the goal in itself, which is evil to liberals.  You’re supposed to provide work as a company’s purpose, not pursue icky profits.  Truly benevolent CEOs would pay poets to write sonnets about butterflies instead of completing some mundanely profitable tasks.

You can shop elsewhere.  Democrats seem confused about their options to the point where they confiscate them from everyone else.  The lack of respect for others who are capable of making decisions must be spread by coercion in that archetypical liberal style.

Conglomerate barons possess the audacity to address needs.  Reality is a cruel capitalist that makes us hand over something for stuff, services, or work.  Choose among many for the ultimate in misery, according to enlightened progressive who want to kindly eliminate all choices but the lousiest.

It’s one thing to have nothing to sell and another to presume nobody else does, either.  A lack of empathy comes naturally to those who feel help must be mandated.  Contempt for anyone paid is a natural side effect.  One can only become that wealthy by thievery, we’re assured regarding stores that seem to attract customers without force.

Scowling at a billionaire while presuming there’s a string of unsolved felonies covered up by paying a small percentage in bribes requires presently unfound evidence.  Deciding based on information runs counter to trusting authorities to offer relief.  This is no time to stop genuflecting to Anthony Fauci.

You can get any product you want on your doorstep within a few hours if traffic’s not bad.  Hoping it’s an Amazon truck and not a post office vehicle provides the only apprehension.  Trying to think of any instance when government has provided something of higher quality quicker than a private entity is unfair, as they still must compete until that icky reality is declared illegal.

The actual villains are rich politicians.  There’s no way to get wealthy honestly as a public servant.  It’s no wonder crime has been decriminalized in an era of being ruled by thieves who use the sheen of legality to grift for our benefit.  Making everyone affluent by communalizing wealth surely requires a finder’s fee.

Demonizers of successful enterprise overseers can’t explain why, say, Nancy Pelosi possesses a fortune that seems beyond what she could have saved on a humble representative’s salary. I’m just jealous.  She’s really amazing at picking stocks that she just happens to oversee.  Her career’s just getting started.  Now’s the time to really let her have power for your protection, if your means their and protection means profit.

As for the CEO of this thriving outfit, Joe Biden is the prototypical grifter if you don’t believe he’s capable of serving as an example.  Overreaching to use ensuing power for personal enrichment is the hobby of public warriors who keep you safe from life’s vagaries.  The embodiment of selfless responsibility just happens to include domain over you and everything you might want to decide.

Politicians should be sharing efficiency apartments.  Arguing about when the Murphy bed should be deployed would be a fitting use of debate skills.  Guilting you for not surrendering more treasure to be frittered buying votes would be dropped to the bottom of their priority list as a bonus.

Accusing others of what they do isn’t merely the lamest distraction ever: the simpleton’s technique also informs all of Democratic policy.  Everyone else is as fecklessly reckless, right?  Legal distrust of entrepreneurs who meet the needs of others is the same reason they don’t trust others with guns, presume donating freely to charity is a foreign notion, and can only pile up cash upon maneuvering oneself into a position of public trust.

The baked-in notion that wealth is created by government and greedily hoarded by ruthless industrialists is compensation for uselessness.  Conducting struggle sessions for those who profit through mutual free will has created as much productivity as anticipated.  Very consistent thinkers who think of employment and purchasing as exploitation are busy mercifully redistributing what they deem parceled incorrectly.  Statist henchmen figure you can’t perform any complicated task like choosing or spending.

You can’t dissent, of course, as our very survival depends upon cooperation.  Autonomy would mean using money willingly, which would drive our poor government out of business.  A process that demotivates everyone involved will finally allow us to prosper without working.  Pesky independent humans are fools to decide otherwise.

#wealth #free market #earning #capitalism #business #economy #class warfare

[paper-star-ships]

-hugs- 🖤 as for questions, are there any funny animal images that make you think of specific f/os? what songs have you been listening to that make you think of them/story stuff with them? any silly au thoughts? and silly thoughts in general? what are your f/os fav fruits/vegetables and what are their least favorite? any reasons as to why? if they went to the beach, what would they all be doing? what sort of biome/environment would you see them living in? if you could put them in a time period that wasn’t the one they were in now, what would it be? (feel free to pick and choose questions 🖤🫂)

what songs have you been listening to that make you think of them/story stuff with them?

I've been listening to a lot of AJR's new album, and Hole In The Bottom Of My Brain is a Pleck song to me now <3 (all their songs about trying to be happy/not understanding your purpose/having adhd are Pleck coded also btw; that includes Next Up Forever, Turning Out parts 1, 2, and 3, and Way Less Sad <3<3). Touchy Feely Fool is about me and Deacon btw... I am the touchy feely fool!!! I think there is a vibe early in our relationship where he gets annoyed that I care so much (it's the end of the world!! It's dangerous to care about things that much!!!) and I'm legit like If I could Not Care I WOULD But Alas I Have Fragile Heart Disease and Must Help Everyone </3 😔💅✨ aaaaaaand Steve's Going To London is starting to remind me of the Tenth Doctor 🥺🌠✨💅 maybe it's just me being self indulgent (or the fact that both AJR and the Tenth Doctor are adhd-coded to me...) but I think he'd LOVE AJR in that way he sometimes gets excited about the human race being so delightfully human. Like he listens to Steve's Going To London or Turning Out (all parts) or Maybe Man and he's like Wow.... this is the Human Experience!!! So beautiful :')

any silly au thoughts? and silly thoughts in general?

Me and Rosie discovered Lethal Company recently and (because we are genius's with PHD's in Silly Studies) immediately were like "what is Deacon and Boozer were here wouldn't that be something" and I've been brain rotting about it for quite some time now. My brain is a lore machine too so I'm coming up with all these concepts about what happened to the majority of the human race and why The Company is in charge of everyone left, and why they need these (clearly human) artifacts so badly... it's the perfect amount of danger/action and trauma bonding + a dash of that roommate-type beat cause we all live in the same tiny little spaceship with a four-layered bunk bed <3

and you KNOW I'm thinking "what if I was hurt by one of the Horrors thus creating a situation in which Deacon is too worried to care about the fact that it's suddenly Very Obvious how he feels abt me" + "maybe it doesn't matter actually cause the medicine/venom/fever is making me loopy enough that he's really hoping I don't remember how caring he's being (I do remember tho. I do <3)"

if you could put them in a time period that wasn’t the one they were in now, what would it be?

I wanna put Pleck in the late 90s/early 2000s... give him slap bracelets and silly bands!!! Let him stay up watching nickelodeon!!! He is watching reruns of Full House :') He is enjoying ring pops and pizza rolls <3 He is enjoying having a landline in the house again <3

#m.memorie🖤 #rom.paper stars✨ #rom.the biker and the baker🏍 #Anyway thank you so much for the ask mem <3<3 #It means a lot :'] #rom.hands held through time💙

[chloesunit4]

Changing sizes:

However, it is not as simple as just increasing the size. The answer appears simple: simply create more samples and sizes for production. To the untrained eye, this may appear simple: Can you scale the design up or down? However, it is not so straightforward from a technological sense. "It's challenging to expand sizing this far up and down," says Alex Waldman, Universal Standard's co-founder and design director. "That is the primary reason why many brands are hesitant to take the risk." "Designers need to go back to the drawing board to make good clothes above a size 12," Chan agrees. It is helpful to break down the design process to understand why.

Designers take straight-size garment measurements from a model who wears a size 4 or 6. A design is then graded down (to a size 0 or 2) or up (to a size 10 or 12). Designers must repeat the procedure for higher sizes, this time utilising a size 18 model and grading up or down. (Otherwise, the scale of the clothing would be incorrect. Consider five-foot-long sleeves, for example.) Importantly, says Chan, there are no shortcuts in this process. "My size 18 fit model laughs when she talks about brands that think they can grade up into plus sizes," she adds. "You'll need new patterns, new fit models, additional fittings, different grading—the list goes on and on., Furthermore, in certain cases, changing sizes necessitates basic structural alterations to a garment. McCharen-Tran of Chromat uses the example of a swimsuit top with an underwire that joins both cups. "We couldn't find an underwire manufacturer that made up to 40G when we went to produce it," she explains. "So we had to cancel the style and design something similar with two separated cups." Adding new sizes, whether for samples or production, incurs additional expenditures. Different equipment and looms are required, as well as more pattern-making, more fit models, and the ability to design for a wide range of forms. "I think the majority of designers simply cannot—or do not want to—invest in expanding sizing," Chan adds. "It's not cheap!" says the narrator. Choosing inclusive scaling — or not -can come down to a matter of resources, including financial, human, and logistical resources. McCharen-Tran acknowledges the challenges, but adds that developing a collection for any size is difficult. "Sample sizing tends to be an excuse that other designers cite as a reason why they don't feature a range of sizes in their runway shows," she explains. "We know that the designer has the authority to pick the size in which their collection is prototyped. The issue is one of priorities: "Do you think producing more sizes is a priority for you?" (Note that Chromat's statement "Sample Size" shirt is available in sizes S to 3XL.)

Havard referencing:

Caitlyn Terra. (2023). Plus size, large sizes or size inclusive? This is what's going on in the plus-size fashion market. [Online]. Fashion United. Last Updated: 12 April 2023. Available at: https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/plus-size-large-sizes-or-size-inclusive-this-is-what-s-going-o [Accessed 26 August 2023].

[yujofficial]

Cybersecurity may be Complex, the Solutions need not be

Cybersecurity is a complex domain

Hardly a day goes by without reading news about a data breach or a malware attack. The proportions of these incidents have grown so much that from attacking databases of banks, money laundering we are now reading news about nations possibly using online intrusion in their geopolitical battles. With these proliferating threats across the web, and the need to go digital in today’s world has company executives and leaders hunting for methods to safeguard the IT infrastructure.

Cybersecurity products provide help to businesses in several ways such as:

Cybersecurity products and solutions may be robust but, it is essential that the users of these products understand the system and perform the primary functions efficiently. The users must understand and comply with the fundamental data security principles like choosing strong passwords, being wary of attachments in email, and backing up data, etc.

One of the major causes of cybersecurity attacks is attributed to human deficiency in using these products. Deficiencies can be in the form of limited understanding of the products’ capabilities, hard to find features/functions, and difficult to perform tasks, forcing humans to commit irreversible errors. Such human errors could be minimized in the future by using AI in cybersecurity products, but AI cybersecurity is in its infancy, so until AI becomes a robust solution, humans will have to make critical decisions.

They must get the measure of the information displayed on the dashboards and take appropriate actions right away. The information about threats, critical alerts, analytics of multiple devices — these and many other fragments of information is necessary to be viewed and assessed. This is no easy feet. The user can easily feel overwhelmed and face loss of productivity due to delays in response.

Impact of user experience design

We believe people don’t buy products, they buy experiences. User experience design can help one enhance the experience of cybersecurity products with the data-driven approach. UX is at the intersection of technology and business, applying design thinking can help bridge the gap.

Cybersecurity has risen to be a necessity in this digital age. Network Security is paramount within any organisation. Cybersecurity being a complex, adaptive system, the user feels restricted resulting in a non-enthusiastic outlook towards cybersecurity. Here are some of the ways in which UX can help –

– Minimise human error

To err is human, and when humans engage with user interfaces withholding complex information, errors happen. UX can pre-empt these patterns and design to prevent the human error.

– Improve discoverability and comprehension

UX considers the users’ mental models, knowledge base and capabilities to design better and understandable workflows that not only appear seamless but also reduce onboarding and/or training costs.

– Improved product usage

UX can help businesses create products that have been designed keeping in their attributes and journey in mind. This facilitates improved usage with increase the users’ efficiency.

– Bringing in New Customers

Competitive costs, better features and enhanced user experience can become your differentiating points to increase new customer database.

– User Adoption

Our seamless UX design solutions ensure higher User Adoption, reducing time & efforts on user training

– Building Trust

A well crafted user experience coupled with user behaviour analytics data strengthens customer satisfaction, helps build confidence in the products and increase customer lifetime value in the long run.

User experience design is a decisive force in the success of security solutions

Hassle-free, fairly non-restrictive experience and seamless integration with users’ workflow should be the fundamental objective of design. It is all about transforming cybersecurity solutions into something radically simple. The effectiveness of cybersecurity products depends on the users’ ability and willingness to use it.

– Pro-tip: Adopt strategies for efficient integration and intelligent information management. User-sensitive approaches to enhance the product experiences, to generate Brand preference among customers will help businesses reap the rewards.

Amplify your brand presence with the best UX design studio that truly aligns your needs with those of your consumers! Get in touch with us at YUJ Designs, today!

#uxcompany #uxdesigncompany #UXDesign

[adamsmith078]

How Online GCSE Science Tutor Can Help You?

United Tuition Group GCSE science tutor takes the time to assess your starting point and then develop a personalised program to help you achieve your goals. The lessons focus on your weaknesses and build confidence to achieve your goals. Furthermore, assignments also push students into areas they already feel comfortable with, encouraging continuous improvement and the development of positive study habits.

Why Should you Need to Study Sciences?

Science is an integral part of everyday life, and science classes help students develop the skills they need to thrive in this fast-paced world. Science helps us understand how humans fit into the bigger picture of the universe around us. Moreover, it is also a separate topic where you can explore why things happen the way they do. It offers students the opportunity to learn something new every day. 

Science is a broad term that can be divided into more specific fields, including biology, chemistry, physics, agriculture, computer science, engineering, cosmology, etc. Studying general science allows students to familiarise themselves with the respective areas and can help them decide which size they would like to deepen later in their studies.

Why Choose UTG Science Tutoring?

They only employ 4% of the teachers that apply to United Tuition Group, and they are all professional and experienced teachers at the school and university levels. Many have graduated from top universities and institutions in the UK, the US and worldwide. They all have earned a doctorate, master's, bachelors or diploma degree in their chosen field. Moreover, because they set their prices through an auction system, they are more competitive than many tutoring companies.

Their online and home courses are stable and fun. It features an interactive whiteboard, and students can always access lecture recordings. UTG takes care of all the coordination, planning, payment and administration. Furthermore, they take care of the support organisation and let the students focus on their studies.

How Do Private Lessons Work At UTG?

You can find a professional science tutor in the following ways:

1. Use the Find Teacher feature to compose a message that describes your needs and requirements. You can choose the subject, level, price and knowledge.

2. Find your perfect GCSE science tutor from their wide range of qualified professors and teachers. Once you've filtered your search results with Find a Tutor, with the best options for your needs. You can see offers and reviews and contact your tutor before planning your lessons.

3. Having 1-1 lessons online. Furthermore, you can do it whenever and wherever you are; it's also all online!

4. Review the lessons later to get all the missing information at your own pace and convenience.

Does It Matter If You Have a Science Teacher Near Me?

No, no! Everything is also done online besides home tuition, whenever and wherever you are. You must choose your ideal mentor and communicate with them to arrange the best time.

Who Will Be My GCSE science tutor?

It's all up to you. Furthermore, you have a vast selection of experienced GCSE science tutors. You can browse profiles, check student responses and offers, qualifications and experiences, and experiences and online lessons. Next, message your favourite science tutors to see if they match your level and learning style. When you get an answer, chat with your Zoom webcam, then select the person you want to help and arrange a start time for the science class, all from the comfort of your home!

[vegi1]

What Vegetarian Means (Definition & Terms)

The main topic of today’s article is individuals that have chosen the vegetarian diet to maintain their health and protest against something severe.

Further, in the article on the vegi1 site, we will discuss the culture of Vegetarianism and all of the terms that this particular diet has.

So, if you are ready, let’s get into the article and get to know the vegetarian world better.

As we said, there are numerous food diets worldwide, but the ones that interest us the most are the vegetarian and vegan diets, which we will discuss further.

When we say a specific person is vegetarian, we mean that they prefer products and consumables that are animal-cruelty free.

This is why most people choose a vegetarian diet; let us elaborate.

It has been a long period since most nations worldwide have been using animals for many factors, such as cosmetic tests and non-human activities; in other words, these animals are exposed to animal cruelty.

Therefore to protest against these companies and organizations, some individuals chose to deny every consumable produced as the result of animal-cruelty activities.

When you are calling yourself a vegetarian, and you are new to this culture, you have to know several facts, some of them are rumors that we will expose, but some are true:

Some people mention that being a vegetarian means that you won’t get essential nutrition included in the meat:

· These words are trustworthy and false simultaneously; there were times when people didn’t understand that they could gain a lot of vitamins and minerals by consuming only green products.

And they can gain the rest from artificial consumables.

For example, suppose you don’t have a crucial need for milk as a vegan. In that case, you can always use almond or walnut milk instead of cow milk or eat artificial meat infused with keratin and minerals that you need, which are made from the greens inside the artificial heart.

The second topic that we have to talk about is that you won’t have any energy because you are not feeding on meat:

· We have to say that when you consume greens, your body will be healthier and if you get all the minerals and vitamins needed, you can be as fresh as a cucumber. However, you must remember that there are alternatives if this incident happens.

For instance, you can always have coffee in your vegetarian diet because coffee beans are plants meaning vegetarians can consume them.

The vitamins that most fruits and vegetables contain can keep you up during the day, and our recommendation is to drink at least one smoothie every day to maintain your energy levels.

Eventually, every word regarding the need for milk and meat is untrue.

And the other rumor was that the B12 vitamin could only be consumed via animal-based food. Still, as we moved forward, science discovered that vegans do not need animal products to consume this vitamin.

The next subject that interests us is the definition of Vegetarianism ; let us elaborate once more:

· Some people imagine being vegetarian is an option, and some think it has its roots in your genes. However, both of them can be correct.

Some people are sensitive to specific consumables; for example, a lactose intolerant person can never drink milk because their body would react badly to it.

However, some people, on the other hand, choose not to drink milk because they believe that the cows or other animals that produce milk are not enjoying this process and you should not be doing it.

So, we can understand that Vegetarianism is both an option and a mandatory situation.

As you can see, being a full-on vegetarian in the 21st century means avoiding special consumables and eating specific ingredients.

Ultimately, we stand behind the fact that so much animal cruelty is happening worldwide, and we must do something about it because it is unacceptable.

But overall, we think being a vegetarian is a personal choice, and we should not judge anyone because of their food diet because we have to know the whole story to do that.

[wsuknovak]

2/26

Before I even talk about the chapter and what stuck out to me to connect a quote I must say seeing the list which this quote is from made me shocked.

“Women cannot: drive, be bishops, be trusted, speak in church 

Women should not: have rights, vote, work, box 

Women should: stay at home, be slaves, be in the kitchen, not speak in church 

Women need to: be put in their places, know their place, be controlled, be disciplined”

Seeing this just reminds me that this honestly still happens in this modern generation. 

After reading, my understanding is that search engines are affected by men’s opinions. Opinions being extremely sexual that you can't even search up something harmless like a certain demographic of women with it not being porn is extremely toxic. For our society, sex sells is a literal thing.

Vocab: 

Algorithms : Common examples include: the recipe for baking a cake, the method we use to solve a long division problem, the process of doing laundry, It's used to solve things

big data : A lot of data in a group

allegedly “neutral” or “objective” algorithms : Not google that's for sure~

unregulated Internet: Internet without any rules to stay safe

algorithmic oppression : An algorithm that chooses privilege

search as a mirror to human beliefs : whatever you view as right will be shown

Google search results : Biased

search is a symbiotic process : “Search is a symbiotic process that both informs and is informed in part by users. Halavais suggests that every user of a search engine should know how the system works, how information is collected, aggregated, and accessed”

black feminist perspective : “The impetus for my work comes from theorizing Internet search results from a Black feminist perspective; that is, I ask questions about the structure and results of web searches from the standpoint of a Black woman—a standpoint that drives me to ask different questions than have been previously posed about how Google Search works”

labortainment  : “when users consent to freely give away their labor and personal data for the use of Google and its products, resulting in incredible profit for the company”

paid advertising : To push a product you must pay for others to see it

legitimation of information : Fact checking is needed in our world today

AdWords: “Google’s advertising tool or optimization product is AdWords. AdWords allows anyone to advertise on Google’s search pages and is highly customizable

Search Engine Optimization:”They were clearly aware from the beginning of the potential for “gaming” the system by advertising companies or commercial interests, a legitimated process now known as “search engine optimization,” to drive ads or sites to the top of a results list for a query, since clicks on web links can be profitable, as are purchases gained by being vetted as “the best” by virtue of placement on the first page of PageRank. T”

Google Search as a public resource: Its free and the most used but its very biased unless the place of news is unbiased (hopefully) Cybertopia: Social media world but in real life

[potted-dandelions]

When it came to COVID vaccines, we all used our gut instinct whether we took them or not. It didn't have to be rational to be the right decision, or the wrong one.

It is in human nature to assume that practicality and rationality go hand in hand, and it feels correct since we tend to do impractical things for irrational reasons. But sometimes it's rational to do impractical things—we call this rationalizing—and sometimes it's practical to do irrational things. We saw numerous examples during the pandemic, but it's useful to look just at vaccination rates because people used a broad mix of reasoning, both good and bad, to decide whether to take what turned out to be a mislabeled product, the mRNA COVID vaccines.

Notably, the definition of the word 'vaccine' was adjusted after Moderna and Pfizer wanted to sell their products with that designation attached to it. People generally trust vaccines so giving their products that name helped to win public trust for an entirely new class of drug. The trick has always been to associate mRNA drug technology with proven treatments that use altogether different chemistry.

We ought to be willing to admit that the old definition of the word 'vaccine' was just clever marketing wank because the fact is that no vaccine has ever prevented infection. They simply accelerate immune response so infections, when they do happen, never grow out of control. The new vaccine definition is just as clever, admitting that infections are not preventable so as to lower expectations without totally discouraging consumers.

So a drug which offers mere prevention against a severe viral infection, not necessarily one which reduces infection rates, is now called a vaccine. But what about herd immunity? We who took our chances with the vaccine hoped to prevent ourselves from transmitting the virus to others. But today it's widely known that mRNA COVID vaccines are insufficient to lower COVID's reproduction number below 1.0, meaning herd immunity is impossible to achieve with mRNA vaccines alone. This was always the case, it's just a question of when did our betters realize it.

Initially, mRNA vaccine makers had loads of confirmation bias to tell them their products would shorten the pandemic but the only way to know for sure was for everybody to take it, and somewhere in the back of their collective mind they understood this. Cue the vaccine mandates. A mandate exists to make people do something they wouldn't necessarily choose to do on their own. Modifying incentive structures is a time-tested and proven way to manipulate human behavior, and threatening to take away somebody's livelihood is a powerful incentive. It's also tyranny.

Pharmaceuticals marketed a fancy new drug by calling it a vaccine so we would want it, and when it turned out that only 2/3rds of us did, they lobbied the Biden administration to make the remaining 1/3rd take it just to prove something to themselves and the world at large. Sure, they were motivated by profit, but even profit motivated companies avoid doing evil if for no other reason than to protect their public image. Really, they needed to know if 100% vaccination was possible, practical, or effective because it had never been achieved before.

So, pharmaceuticals irrationally convinced themselves that forcing life-saving drugs upon the public would be appreciated. After all, the evil of depriving us of our agency was counterbalanced by the good of shortening the pandemic, and life trumps liberty, at least in their minds.

But at the end of the day, people will exercise their personal agency unabated by government mandate, and damn the consequences. That may have sounded irrational before the Supreme Court weighed in and struck down the broadest vaccine mandate a year ago, but its perfectly practical to go with your gut feeling regarding your health.

The gut is, after all, an important part of the human immune system. It must destroy harmful microorganisms while allowing helpful gut flora to flourish within limits. Its 'brain,' the enteric nervous system, isn't involved in cognition but it does inform your decision making. Without a prefrontal cortex, the gut's enteric nervous system is incapable of rationality but by the same token it is also incapable of irrationality. The gut only deals in hard facts and practicalities, what works and what doesn't, what makes you healthy and what makes you sick.

Operating on gut instinct isn't always rational, but the law of natural selection has improved its odds of success beyond what random chance allows, and your statistically unlikely existence is proof of that. You are the product of countless generations who threw the dice and won. Sometimes your gut is wrong, but it never lies to you. You can't always believe it, but you can always trust it. So if it tells you not to use mRNA drugs, take its advice with a grain of salt but take it seriously. Its wise admonitions are informed by millions of years of evolution.

Gut instinct is practical in ways our rational minds may never comprehend, but it exists for one specific purpose: to promote healthy consumption habits. (Incidentally, our senses of taste and smell and our eyes' color sensitivity all serve that same purpose by identifying poison.) So when you get vaccinated and then feel sick a few minutes or hours later, that's your gut telling you that you've ingested poison. Trust it. And then remind yourself that all medicines are poison depending on the dose, and all poisons are medicine depending on the illness.

mRNA drug technology is amazing. Trying to cure COVID with it was amazingly stupid. And mandating its use was simply evil, if for no other reason than it has turned the public against the most promising potential cure for cancer we've ever seen. And it's all down to patent law.

Although the forthcoming cancer cure will be patentable on its own, the mRNA/lipid nanoparticle suite of technologies it will employ has been undergoing research for decades now and patent protection only lasts up to 20 years. For practical reasons, the COVID vaccine was rushed to market. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna had to have known from the very start that curing coronavirus was a fool's errand. Scientists have tried for decades, especially after the SARS pandemic, but it mutates so rapidly that no vaccine maker can keep up, not even seasonal flu vaccine makers.

Nothing was rational about using mRNA to attempt a coronavirus vaccine but the pharmaceuticals were motivated by practicality, not rationality, so they did it anyway. Simple government corruption did the rest; nothing else kills rationality like having fuck you money in your pocket. Despite it all, I hope mRNA technology flourishes. I hope it does make cancer curable and I hope people learn to trust it. But if our trust is gone forever, the pharmaceuticals and our governments can only blame themselves. No force can overcome irrational practicality except irrational practicality itself.

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