#000+ total views

[themodernage2001]

Untitled by emily kendall Via Flickr: may 1st the strokes concert +5 explored september 14th, #331

[whitechocolate]

EXO SUMMER CONCEPT 2023 vision board 🥺 miami vice !

[37sommz]

000.⠀⠀NOW PLAYING: long live [1.5k, angst]. ✼. view: masterlist⠀⸻⠀join the taglist⠀⸻⠀request. ✼. synopsis: michaela says goodbye. ✼. notes: totally heartbroken for daniel. for all he's done for this sport, he truly deserved so much more than what he got. enchanté, daniel. ✼. warnings: daniel's last race, crying. not proofread, but when do i ever?

✼.⠀SEPTEMBER 22, 2024 — marina bay, singapore

Michaela gripped the steering wheel of her Aston Martin as she rounded the streets of Marina Bay. The roar of the engine filled her ears as she sped through the tight turns of the track, the city lights of Singapore blurring into a dizzying spray of color beyond the tire barriers. The air held anticipation and the smell of an uneasy question. She had heard the whispers all weekend, the murmurs that danced just out of earshot. Daniel Ricciardo, the man who had practically become part of her family, might not be in the paddock much longer. Her heart raced, not just from the exhilaration of the race, but from the thought of losing a piece of her world.

The checkered flag dropped, and she pulled into the pit lane. The chaos of the grandstands and the flashing lights of cameras were a harsh, ironic contrast to the turmoil storming within her. She stepped out of the car, forcing a smile for the cameras as she went through the motions of the post-race interviews. She had done well, finishing 5th to Fernando's 4th, but the success felt hollow. Her thoughts remained with Daniel, who had just completed his final lap for the Bulls. She had avoided him all weekend, the weight of his potential departure too much to bear. But now, as the race concluded and the tension began to ease, she knew she had to see him.

Michaela walked to Daniel's side of the RB garage, her heart thumping like the British engine she had just left behind in her own garage. She pushed open the door and found him surrounded by his team, sharing a bittersweet moment. His eyes met hers and she saw the unshed tears glittering underneath the fluorescent lights. He tried to flash his signature grin, but it faltered, and she knew the truth had sunk in for both of them. The laughter lines around his eyes didn't hide the pain. He was saying his goodbyes, and she had missed most of it.

As the last of the well-wishers left, Daniel turned to his car, running a hand over its gleaming carbon fiber bodywork. She approached him tentatively, her eyes brimming with tears she hadn't realized she'd been holding back. He looked at her, his own eyes red and glassy.

"Hey, kid," he said, his voice thick with emotion.

She took a step closer, feeling the warmth of the engine's last breath radiating off the car.

"Couldn't stay away, huh?" He tried to laugh, but it came out as a choked sob.

Michaela's own tears spilled over, tracing paths down her cheeks. "Daniel, I'm so sorry," she whispered, reaching out to lay a hand on his shoulder.

He leaned into her touch, his eyes never leaving the car that had been his life for so many seasons. "It's alright, Mick. It's just racing, right?" Even in his most vulnerable moment, Daniel couldn't fight the instinct to comfort the girl he had watched grow into a woman.

Michaela felt the warmth of his voice wrap around her like a familiar blanket, but the words didn't bring the relief she sought.

 "No, it's not just racing," she said, her voice trembling. "You've been there for me, through all the tough times, the crashes, the doubt, the fights to be taken seriously in this sport." She swallowed hard, her eyes searching his for understanding. "You've been my rock, my inspiration. You can't just leave. Not like this."

Daniel turned to face her, his smile sad but earnest. "Mick, you know this isn't the end. I'll still be around, driving Courie crazy.” 

The reference to Michaela’s sister, Daniel’s girlfriend—his Courie—stuck watching the race from her lab in Sydney only brought a knot to Michaela’s stomach. Michaela had spoken briefly to her sister before the race, Courtney had been inconsolable over the phone, pushed beyond guilt that she couldn’t be by her boyfriend’s side to help shoulder the emotions during the last race of his Formula 1 career.

“And you," he continued, pointing at her, "You're gonna kill it out there without me."

Michaela couldn't hold back anymore. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace, feeling the coarse fabric of his fireproofs and the solidity of his frame. He hugged her back, his own arms enveloping her in a comforting warmth she hadn't realized she needed. They stood there for a moment, two friends sharing the weight of a career's crossroads, their hearts beating in sync with the rhythm of the cooling engines around them.

"Thank you," she murmured into his shoulder. "For everything."

"You can thank me when you win a championship," Daniel said, his voice breaking despite himself.

Michaela pulled back, wiping at her eyes. "It should've been you first," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "You should've been a champion." Her tears continue to fall, her cheeks stained by the path they leave on her skin.

"Maybe, but don't worry about me," Daniel said, his eyes glistening. "You still have your whole career ahead of you."

Michaela nodded, her vision blurred by the tears. "I know, but it won't be the same without you."

The silence grew heavy in the garage, punctuated only by the occasional clang of tools being packed away. The reality of Daniel's departure was setting in, a stark reminder of the fleeting nature of their sport.

"You know, I never thought I'd be leaving like this," Daniel said, his gaze still on the car. "But I guess that's how it goes when you get too attached to the ride."

Michaela nodded, her throat tight. "It's not fair," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "You're one of the best out there."

"Life's not about fair," Daniel replied, his hand coming up to ruffle her hair, a gesture that brought a ghost of a smile to her face. "But it's about making the most of what you've got. And I guess I've gotta get a new thing now."

Michaela stepped back, taking in the sight of her friend, his shoulders slumped and his usual vibrant spirit dulled by the shadow of his uncertain farewell. She felt a pang of anger at the unfairness of it all. Daniel had given so much to Formula 1, and yet, it seemed to be discarding him as if a worn-out tire. But she knew better than to let her the weight of her emotions sweep her up, not here, not now. She took a deep breath, straightening her spine.

"You're right," she said, her voice steady despite the tremble in her chest. "We've got to make the most of it. And you," she poked his arm gently, "Have got more to give, more to show the world. Whatever's next, you'll shine just like you always do."

Daniel offered a weak smile, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. "Thanks, Mick." He paused, taking in the sight of the emptying garage, his team packing up the last of his gear.

"I just thought I'd be here for a little longer, you know? When I left Red Bull for Renault I thought that my time was next, that I was gonna be the one on the top step for once. Then McLaren called and I fuckin'—" He choked back further tears. "I felt like that was it. But when it never came I just..."

He trailed off, the heartbroken look in his eyes drawing Michaela deeper into her melancholy. Michaela nodded solemnly, understanding the ache in his words. "You're so much more than that, Daniel. You brought your joy to so many people. I know for sure that you've got so much left to give. And you will, in whatever you do next." She took a deep breath, trying to compose herself.

"You've taught me so much," she continued, her voice cracking. "How to keep pushing when everything is useless and I feel like giving up. How to laugh when the world is against your joy. How to be a better driver to my team and a better person to the people I love. I wouldn't still be here if it weren't for you. So, thank you Daniel. So, so much."

"You're going to be okay, you hear me?" He said, his voice gruff with emotion. "You're going to be more than okay."

Michaela nodded, trying to hold onto his words like a lifeline in the storm of her feelings. Daniel took a step back and wiped his own eyes with the back of his hand. "But for now," he said, his voice firming up, "Let's go grab a drink. You know, to celebrate the end of an era and all that fuzzy shit."

They laughed through their tears, a bit of the old familiar banter slipping back in. They walked out of the garage together, leaving the echoes of their past successes and heartaches behind. The paddock was alive with the sounds of teams breaking down and preparing for the next race. 

Yet, for them, the world had slowed down to an unwilling crawl.

✼. taglist:⠀feel free to send in an ask/comment to join the taglist <3

@cha-hot @certifiedlesbianbaddie @nichmeddar

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@sunfairyy

[jealousmartini]

KPOP DR INTRODUCTION

Old opening intro:

" Don't freak out! We are O.M.G! "

New opening intro:

" 6 friends and a dream! We are O.M.G "

╭╔═════════════♱═════════════╗

[ # 000 :: O.M.G's ORIGIN STORY ] small print

O.M.G, is an originally animated six-member girl group created in late 2013 by Lucia Martinez, or better known as "Keisha" from her character in O.M.G, under her youtube channel "Envious Martini" accompanied by her 5 other girlfriends for fun. They would post a lot of vlogs, grwm (get ready with me's), mukbangs, reaction/commentary, and livestreams, of course, none of these posts were ever serious. And a lot of their videos would be clipped to be used as memes that would instantly catch fire, and their faces would soon be very recognisable. In fact It wouldnt even take long for O.M.G to earn a lot of attention from Korean and Western K-POP fans when "Molly (claimed song!! playboi carti)", which is a scrap unreleased track by the way, would randomly go viral at 2.3 million views on youtube and Envious martini would begin to grow a humble following of 430K followers for their music, art and shitposts.

All music production, concepts, and choreography were created by Keisha with the help of the 5 girls behind the scenes. For example, in order for Keisha to be able to animate the choreography, the girls would make dance routines together, figuring out positions and record it for Keisha to take as reference. This also went for vocals and rapping. All girls played their parts accordingly to how they felt comfortable and were suitable to each member. And then it would be in mid-June of 2014 that the girls would decide to bring Keisha's art to life and replace the characters of O.M.G with themselves.

And in 2015, after being invited to many interviews and talk shows and entering many survival shows and competitions, it would be one competition show in particular, held by JYP which O.M.G would win, where they would officially be adopted under JYP entertainment and debut as a JYP girl group in the same year. But it wasn't until 2016 after much debate surrounding the group that O.M.G. was finally recognised and accepted as a KPOP group.

[ # 001 :: ALBUMS ]

[ disclaimer!! claimed songs are highlighted, and said songs most likely sound slightly different in my dr because of personal taste.]

Core genres :: KPOP, EDM, JERSEY CLUB, POP-ROCK, SYNTH, ELECTRO-POP, CONTEMPORARY R&B

Core aesthetics/concepts :: GIRL CRUSH, Chaotic academia core, Y2K, Girl-next-door

Themes :: Teenage years/Nostalgia, Self discovery, Love/self love, Random stuff

(2013) Mini album 1 :: Superstitious

Tracklist :: "track no.1", "track no.2", "track no.3"

(2014) Mini album 2 :: Lawfully Wedded Wives

Tracklist :: "What's your number", "Molly", "Greedy hearts", "girls never die", "heaven sent", "kinda miss you rn"

(2015) Debut Album :: Oh My Gosh

Tracklist :: "OMG", "Magnetic", "Ditto", "Lucky girl syndrome", "Dalla Dalla", "Woo! Ah!", "ETA"

Debut song :: Ditto

(2016) 1st Single :: Princess Sickness

(2017) 2nd Album :: New Region

Tracklist :: "La di da", "Supernova", "Crush", "life on Mars" , "JOYRIDE",

(2017) 3rd Album :: GINXED

Tracklist :: "Girls on wings", "LOOP", "Serotonin", "WOW", "Bitternes, the disease", "Yes, and?", "Charmed", "LOVE DIVE", "Accendio"

(2019) 4th Album :: Hopscotch

Tracklist :: "Six of em", "1 on 1", "Now what", "Super mario", "Jersey Girls", "Sir mix a lot", more to come...

(2019) 5th Album :: Joyride

Tracklist :: "Insidious", "It's my turn now", "Trance", "met her on the internet", more to come...

(2021) 6th Album :: TOTALLY MAXED OUT

Tracklist :: "I'm your magical girl", more to more...

[ # 002 :: SOLO PROJECTS ]

(2019) Debut Solo Single :: "Make way"

(2021) 1st Solo mini Collection :: Come again?

Tracklist :: "It's my turn now", "He ate my heart", "WTF?"

(2023) 4th Solo Single :: "My Chemical Romance feat. Megan the Stallion"

(2024) 5th Solo Single :: "ABCD feat. NAYEON"

(2024) 6th Solo Single :: "Boohoo"

(2024) 7th Solo Single :: "New Woman feat. CHAE KYUNG"

╰╚═════════════♱═════════════╝

╭╔═════════════♱═════════════╗

[ # 000 :: BASIC INFO ]

Date of DR :: ??/04/2017

Name :: Lucia R. Martinez

korean birthname :: Hwang Chae-Kyung

adopted name :: Lovely adopted surname

nicknames :: Kyu, Kyungie, Keish/Keesh, Chae-Bae, Vivi

Stage name :: Keisha/Kyu

Title names :: THAT girl, Mother Rabbit, Millionaire Maknae, KPOP's Princess, KPOP's Darling, KPOP's first Black Idol, KPOP'S secret ACE, KPOP's curly head, KPOP's BEYONCE

Positions :: Producer, Main/lead singer, main dancer, sub rapper, visuals, maknae, center maybe??

Date of birth : 20 / 06 / 1997

Age :: 19

Hobbies :: Music production, drawing, dancing, singing, baking, gaming

Languages :: English, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin Chinese

Ethnicity :: half puerto rican, half korean

Representative animal :: red panda / puppy / Bunny (I can't choose rn guys)

Representative colour :: orange

Representative dessert :: cookies and brownies

Fanbase name :: charmings

Training period :: ?? months

Company :: JYP

Group representative colours :: Blue and Pink

Brands :: Vivian Westwood, Diesel, Juicy Couture

[ # 001 :: FUN FACTS ]

She is older than Jungkook by 4 months. He knows this but still chooses to not use honorifics sometimes.

She is close friends with NAYEON, Sana, Chaeyoung, YOONGI, JIMIN, JUNGKOOK, Namjoon, J-hope, TAEHYUNG, Jin, BANGCHAN, Felix, Hyunjin, YUNA, Jennie, Jisoo, Tsuyu, WONYOUNG, YUJIN,

No one knows this yet but she has a crush on 6 of the idols listed and 2 of the highlighted names are part of the six, the other 4 are not

The red panda is her animal representative because there was a video circulating of her dressed up as a mascot for her highschool as a red panda and break-dancing

Speaking of dancing, she has mastered multiple dancing styles like house, vogue, street dancing, belly dancing, Jazz, Latin, Club, Jersey and Freestyle. She's got her own signature groove 💃🏾 🕺

She is the first kpop idol to be the ambassador for Vivian Westwood, Juicy Couture and Diesel

[ # 002 :: CONTROVERSIES AND SCANDALS ]

Next post...

∘₊ ✧───────────────────✧₊∘

[hometoursandotherstuff]

This home looks like a combination Tudor/Castle, but it's an Equestrian Estate and an Elizabethan style manor house with 2 caretaker homes, a carriage house with groom's quarters, a yoga studio, a 12, 000 sq. ft. stable, greenhouse and more. Built in 1860 in Pawling, New York, it has 17bds, 9.5ba., and a total of 43 rooms. $6.5M.

The grand entrance. Does the Samurai warrior convey?

Wow, look at the stone walls and wood carvings.

It's very classic- a sitting room with rich wood paneled walls, beamed ceilings and leaded glass windows.

Wow, this is some dining room with an interesting fireplace, wainscoting, and ceiling. That's a table for 14. Geez.

Beautiful huge sun porch with views of the grounds.

Don't know what this little sitting area is, but it sure is fancy.

Gets more modern in here.

This is cute, a little sunroom.

Like the kitchen- look at the old water heater in the corner and the vintage stove. This is such a classic vintage French country kitchen, I wonder if they'll leave the map of France.

The primary bedroom has a full size sitting room.

This bedroom has a full-size living room and a dining alcove.

Looks like all the bedrooms have sitting areas.

Like the ceilings in the upper floor bedrooms. So cozy.

Nice family room. Love the castle look.

Look at this, it has a chapel.

Nice billiard room with built-in seating, book shelves and a fireplace.

This is the children's wing with creepy circus murals on the hallway walls.

Love the vintage baths.

They have antique cars in carriage house.

Must be the stables.

The barn and horse buildings look like they need some work.

The property is 25.5 acres. Actually $6.5M isn't that bad for all of this.

[covid-safer-hotties]

US State Restrictions and Excess COVID-19 Pandemic Deaths - Published July 26, 2024

Key Points Question How did state restrictions affect the number of excess COVID-19 pandemic deaths?

Findings This cross-sectional analysis including all 50 US states plus the District of Columbia found that if all states had imposed COVID-19 restrictions similar to those used in the 10 most (least) restrictive states, excess deaths would have been an estimated 10% to 21% lower (13%-17% higher) than the 1.18 million that actually occurred during the 2-year period analyzed. Behavior changes were associated with 49% to 79% of this overall difference.

Meaning These findings indicate that collectively, stringent COVID-19 restrictions were associated with substantial decreases in excess deaths during the pandemic.

Abstract Importance Despite considerable prior research, it remains unclear whether and by how much state COVID-19−related restrictions affected the number of pandemic deaths in the US.

Objective To determine how state restrictions were associated with excess COVID-19 deaths over a 2-year analysis period.

Design, Setting, and Participants This was a cross-sectional study using state-level mortality and population data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2020 to 2022 compared with baseline data for 2017 to 2019. Data included the total US population, with separate estimates for younger than 45 years, 45 to 64 years, 65 to 84 years, and 85 years or older used to construct age-standardized measures. Age-standardized excess mortality rates and ratios for July 2020 to June 2022 were calculated and compared with prepandemic baseline rates. Excess death rates and ratios were then regressed on single or multiple restrictions, while controlling for excess death rates or ratios, from March 2020 to June 2020. Estimated values of the dependent variables were calculated for packages of weak vs strong state restrictions. Behavioral changes were investigated as a potential mechanism for the overall effects. Data analyses were performed from October 1, 2023, to June 13, 2024.

Exposures Age and cause of death.

Main Outcomes Excess deaths, age-standardized excess death rates per 100 000, and excess death ratios.

Results Mask requirements and vaccine mandates were negatively associated with excess deaths, prohibitions on vaccine or mask mandates were positively associated with death rates, and activity limitations were mostly not associated with death rates. If all states had imposed restrictions similar to those used in the 10 most restrictive states, excess deaths would have been an estimated 10% to 21% lower than the 1.18 million that actually occurred during the 2-year analysis period; conversely, the estimates suggest counterfactual increases of 13% to 17% if all states had restrictions similar to those in the 10 least-restrictive states. The estimated strong vs weak state restriction difference was 271 000 to 447 000 deaths, with behavior changes associated with 49% to 79% of the overall disparity.

Conclusions and Relevance This cross-sectional study indicates that stringent COVID-19 restrictions, as a group, were associated with substantial decreases in pandemic mortality, with behavior changes plausibly serving as an important explanatory mechanism. These findings do not support the views that COVID-19 restrictions were ineffective. However, not all restrictions were equally effective; some, such as school closings, likely provided minimal benefit while imposing substantial cost.

Proven by statistics: Masks save lives. Distance work saves lives. Remote options save lives.

[shinakazami1]

Shina's TSP Out of Bounds Adventures - EMPLOYEE DATABASE COUNT

THIS POST BROKE 9 TIMES I AM CLOSE TO BEING DONE but tbh it was so silly, feeling like I have a thin foil hat with 'theory master' written on it

I have explored a bit of the game out of bounds and I know its been done before but I still want to share some stuff so I want to focus on this particular screen I found in the normal ver of the Museum (I think it sometimes shows in other ones in Parable), focusing on the 'total employee in x' lines MORE UNDER THE CUT

TOTAL EMPLOYEE IN OFFICE: [2]

We know the first one is Stanley

The other one has no number and no status. It is possible the system being off just cannot tell the mysterious employee, their data might be corrupted or sth else idk, I'm rewriting this for 9th time My theories: a) Narrator: makes the most sense, might not have a number associated with himself but has power over Parable, seems to have internet access (mentions of Steam, reviews, Twitter), his status being left unknown might be due to his computer working but not being connected to the system b) Settings Person/TK/432: people yelled at me that it shouldn't be the case cus they got fired (look below) but: - 432 sorta evaporated likewise - as the Settings Person, being able to keep the game on rolling, they seem to have overall some control over the game - they used to be an employee but since they now aren't human, it is possible the system deleted their files but still sees them Other options: Curator, other Stanley, dead rat, Mariella

TOTAL EMPLOYEE IN DATABASE [604]

There are in total 599 numbered screens - since two are fired

Fired ones: 104 - view on 432's desk; 601 - view on 434's

There is also blackened ones, 097 and 098 but these might also just not work

There are also 4 whitened screens with no numbers (look above next to fired and here) - I do not know if I should coun them in anything since no "employee" is written on them. However, meetings room and stairs often show up as diff employees so I do think they deserve a mention

we also have 2 special employees - Pirate and Clippy.

Pirate is just a view on 427's desk (we have a few diff camera views throughout this whole thing but I have no energy to show every one now)

Clippy, 104 - fired, and 234 all show 432's desk. It might repeat more times but I think that's quite good to mention

We also have a 000 employee that doesn't have a special screen

We also have two errors: 028 (which is sideways) and 528

So to summarise and try to make sense out of that:

Computer screen says there are 604 employees

The room, however, has 601 (603 if you include Pirate and Clippy) employee screens 595 normal employees; 2 fired - 104, 601; 2 errors - 028, 528; 2 blackened - 097, 098

3 special ones - Pirate, Clippy and 000

4 white screens without numbers

My suggestions: a) 603 in total (601 with fired ones+ Pirate and Clippy) + 000 - prob the easiest b) Delete 2 fired ones (599 left), add 4 whitened out and Pirate - since 432 is already fired, we shouldn't count back Clippy c) 595 normal + 2 blackened + 3 specials + 4 whites d) 594 ( since 432 is already fired), count Pirate, Clippy, 2 blackened, 2 errors and 4 whites

I'm so done

[82mitsu]

{18Trip} <PROLOGUE SIDE-A: Still blank> 000-A07 Down memory lane

A translation of 18TRIP's PROLOGUE SIDE-A by 82mitsu. ENG proofreading by sasaranurude.

Headband boy: Anyway anyways, bet you can shoot the most craziest exciting footage of HAMA if you go up to the observation deck! I wanna do that so baaad~!

Kaede: You haven’t been there? To the Sky Garden.

Headband boy: Haven’t you heard? Right now it’s like, if you don't pass that strict annual income check you won’t get in, y’know? A total no go for normal people~

Kaede: That’s just ridiculous…

Headband boy: Back in the day anyone could hitch a ride up top with just 1000 yen, yeah? Shoulda grabbed my chance right there and then! What a waste!

Kaede: Yeah… still, my pocket money as an elementary schooler didn’t cut it last time I went, so I didn’t end up making it to the observation deck in the end.

Headband boy: No way. Gotta be stupidly disappointing, that right there.

Kaede: That’s why, instead, I went to a different place… If I remember right, there’s a building somewhere where you can get a view of HAMA’s port from the rooftop…

Kaede: …Huh? Where did I see that from again… It’s not coming back to me…!

Kaede: (That’s the place where Kafka might be right now, too…)

Headband boy: ……

Headband boy: Say say, what did it look like?

Kaede: Look like… you mean the view from the building?

Headband boy: Yup yup. Whatever was ‘round there will do. If ya tell me, I might be able to guess where that building is?

Kaede: Eh! Seriously!?

Headband boy: For sure! I’m like, aiming to become the best movie director in the whole universe! Which makes me the number one walking encyclopedia of all the cosmos when it comes to locations in HAMA!

Kaede: (Walking encyclopedia aside…) 

Kaede: Thank you! I’ll do my best to remember, and I’m so glad you’re helping me out!

Headband boy: Okies~! But, in exchange you gotta help me with filming. Next time, get everything on film properly, capiche?

Kaede: Ahaha… As long as it’s not in a location that will cause issues for other people, I’ll help out whenever.

Headband boy: Hell to the yeah! Pinky promise!

Headband boy: So? What kinda stuff was there?

Kaede: Let’s see… I’m pretty sure that building had a bento place on the first floor…

Kaede: It’s already evening…

Kafka: …

Kaede: Kafka, aren’t you tired?

Kafka: …I’m tired.

Kaede: Eh? Are you okay!?

Kaede: (Right… Kafka sat down right in front of that building.)

Kaede: Kafka, are you hungry? Wanna buy a bento?

Kafka: I’m fine.

Kaede: Then… a sip from your flask?

Kafka: Don’t need to.

Kaede: Kafka…

Kaede: (I was clueless about what I should do… and then I—)

Kaede: (I pulled on Kafka’s hand, took him up the stairs on the side of that bento place…)

Kaede: Aah… this is the place. Still the same as back then…

Kaede: (That also reminds me—eventually, I found out that Sakujiro-san had been following us from the shadows the entire time that day.) 

Kaede: (But, it’s without a doubt that going on a trip together with Kafka, experiencing that feeling of how a trip broadens your horizons for the first time… That made me fall in love with HAMA.)

Kaede: (This feeling of wanting to go far and beyond to make someone smile, just like when I was putting together this guide—it didn’t come to mind during any of my recent jobs…)

Kaede: Haha… these stairs, feels like it only takes a few steps when looking at them now. And yet back then, it was as if they stretched out higher, further.  

Kaede: (At that time too, I grasped onto the sightseeing guide as I did today… with the other hand holding Kafka’s firmly. I, no matter what it took…)

Kaede: I wanted to make Kafka smile.

Kaede: (That me from back then, is the same as… no, it’s the opposite, isn’t it.)

Kaede: (The memories of Kafka from that day, wanting to give “hospitality” to make someone smile, are what made me  the kind of person I am today. Isn’t that right—)

Kaede: —Kafka.

<<previous chapter / next chapter>>

prologue directory: A01 / A02 / A03 / A04 / A05 / A06 / A07 (x) / A08

[leothil]

Introduction to TV ratings

Hi! I know a lot of us in the 9-1-1 fandom have started looking more closely at episode ratings this past year, but every time I see them posted I also see a lot of comments from people being unsure what the numbers really mean. I'm someone who first got introduced to tv ratings from being involved in the pro wrestling fandom and learned a lot about them through osmosis, so I thought I could make a small informative post explaining the main concepts and why tv ratings matter!

What I'll cover below:

What are tv ratings?

What exactly are they reporting?

How do I know what the numbers mean?

Are the numbers any good?

Let's dive in!

What are tv ratings?

Tv ratings, or Nielsen ratings, is an audience measurement system operated by Nielsen Media Research that tries to figure out the audience size and composition for tv programs in the USA. The Nielsen company has been measuring this since the 1950's, and their ratings is the currency that drives business between advertisers and broadcasters. To simplify it, the higher the rating a program gets, the more the broadcaster can charge the advertisers and agencies for broadcasting their ads to the audience during that program.

The data collection methods have varied over the years, but right now they're using Portable People Meters and track data from DVR:s. Since 2017 they're also tracking data on Hulu and YoutubeTV, and select programs on Netflix. It is an approximation, since they (naturally) aren't getting the full data from every single tv in the country, but they are good enough (and trusted enough) that their reported metrics are what's considered official.

So what exactly are they reporting?

A couple of different things! The most interesting numbers are total viewers, demographic shares, and demographic ratings. According to Nielsen they also track "gender, race, ethnicity, income, education, occupation, etc." but those are usually not reported as openly as the aforementioned three numbers and are mostly used by advertisers.

Sites like Tvline, Tvseriesfinale and Showbuzzdaily often report daily ratings very quickly after Nielsen releases them. The Fast Nationals are usually what gets the most attention, since they're released the morning after, but they're time period ratings, which means it only measured what was watched during primetime. The more accurate Official Nationals are released later the day after, and are program ratings. So if a program was moved from its usual slot for some reason, the fast nationals will still count the original time slot towards its ratings, while the official nationals will count the slot it actually aired in.

There are also C3 and C7 ratings (live viewing + DVR three/seven days after the airing), but they are seen much more seldom and are largely a fighting point between networks (who want to get paid for more days) and advertisers (who only want to pay for live viewings).

How do I know what the numbers mean?

Let's dive into that! I'll use tables from Tvseriesfinale and Showbuzzdaily with ratings for Monday March 20th (the air date of 9-1-1 S6E12) as my examples.

Here's how Tvseriesfinale reports the ratings, they're using the fast nationals (or "fast affiliate ratings"). The %change is compared to last aired episode of the same show. If you're wondering how the demo change can be positive while the number of viewers change is negative, I'll get to that in a minute.

And here's Showbuzzdaily, they report Live+Same Day which include live viewership + DVR views from the same day (which should be the same as fast nationals, but sometimes varies a bit). You can see that they colour code according to how far above/below the average rating of the night a program placed in different ratings categories.

Now for what the different columns mean:

Viewers (mil) or Persons 2+ (000s): the total number of viewers, in millions, who watched the program. So here Tvseriesfinale reports that 4.3 million people watched 9-1-1, and Showbuzzdaily reports that 4.413 million people did.

18-49 demo and Sales Demo Ratings Adults 18-49: These are the numbers that everyone is really looking at! The demo rating means proportion of a certain group (in this case adults 18-49) that are watching a particular show. In other words, this is the percentage of all adults aged 18-49 in the United States that were watching the show. So a 0.6 (or 0.59) rating for 9-1-1 means that 0.6% (or 0.59%) out of all people aged 18-49 were watching 9-1-1. This is the money demo, this is the number all advertisers and networks are looking at. Persons 18-49 is considered the most lucrative demographic, so the more people in that group your show can draw, the better for the network since they then can ask for more money from the advertisers. Persons 18-49 are considered to be the group to best target advertisements towards for a variety of reasons (disposable income and interest towards buying new things being two of them).

As you can see above, Showbuzzdaily also reports the demo numbers for Adults 18-34 and Adults 25-54. Some advertisers are more interested in these demographics, but overall 18-49 is still the most popular demographic. As you can see, the audiences skew older for all programs. I believe the general consensus is that younger people (<35-year-olds) watch much less tv than older generations, and these numbers support that. This is also why total viewers and demo ratings can have different %change - the 18-49 demo rating cuts off a relatively large part of the audience.

Demographic shares: While the ratings are based on percentage of all people in a demographic, the shares are based on percentage of the number of people who were actually watching TV at that time. So a 6.0 in Women 18-49 means that of all women aged 18-49 watching TV at 8PM, 6% chose to watch 9-1-1.

So... are the numbers any good?

That depends on what you're looking at. TV ratings as a whole have been dropping steadily for many years now, so trying to compare ratings to even, say, five years ago can be hard. For example: in the late 90's, pro wrestling regularly pulled in ratings of 5.0 and higher (I'll put a few below as an example), but those same shows would now be ecstatic if they managed to get above a 1.0 rating; their regular numbers the past year (for the big shows RAW, Smackdown and Dynamite) have mostly hovered around 0.4-0.7.

The first number is the demo rating

For the best overview, it's best to compare ratings for a certain show to the ratings of other shows on air, and I believe that's what the networks are doing as well. In that context, 9-1-1 is doing very well, as it regularly ends up near the top for scripted shows, even when looking at all shows over a week. The average rating for S6 so far is 0.63, which is lower than the average rating of 0.76 for S5 (which in turn was lower than the average rating of 1.05 for S4 and so forth). The ratings consistently dropping year over year are a concern for the industry at large, and it's pretty clear streaming services have played a big role in causing this, but I find it hard to believe tv networks would consider stopping producing shows for live tv anytime soon.

And that's it! If something still feels unclear, feel free to drop me a message and I'll do my best to answer any questions! If you want to dive a bit deeper into the different metrics, I recommend this page on Showbuzzdaily, and if you want to look at ratings from previous seasons, Tvseriesfinale's 911 ratings tag is a good place to find articles summarizing both individual episode ratings and ratings for a whole season.

[captainfluffytheragdoll]

Huskerdust overview: Hazbin Hotel's worst kept secret or best set up?

Heya folks! Fluffz here. Finally, y'all are getting somethin' other than crappy art lol. Today I'd like to share my opinions on Huskerdust, Hazbin Hotel's third most famous ship. It's a slash ship between Husker and Angel Dust, both of which are common fan favourites. I myself am a big-time Huskerduster(...?), but lately I gave it some thought, and after crawling around on the web for a bit, found out that this ship may not be as simple as we all thought.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT TO CALL OUT OR MAKE FUN OF ANY INDIVIDUALS, JUST TO SHOW WHAT I'VE SEEN SO FAR.

First off, why do fans ship Huskerdust? According to the Shipping Wiki, "The ship became popular due to the attraction Angel demonstrated towards Husk early on, and it exploded in popularity after the episode “Masquerade” where fans realized how much Husk and Angel related to each other, and subsequently the genuine bond they formed in the song “Loser, Baby”". As the episodes went on, some might even notice Angel and Husk getting closer. For any hellbent shipper, this is usually more than enough to insist that this ship is canonical. It will and it shall be canonical, just you try and change my mind. On the other hand, there are also people who don't ship Huskerdust or even understand why others do.

How could there be such a difference in opinions, with one side demanding Huskerdust to be true throughout everything, and the other not understanding or even acknowledging anything? Well, it's all a matter of perspective. That said, let's look at both point of views.

Hazbin Hotel's worst kept secret?

I've heard quite a few people calling Huskerdust "Hazbin Hotel's worst kept secret", saying the ship was provided little to no coverage, and wouldn't be a surprise if it became canonical next episode. If Huskerdust is to be canonical, it was, indeed, not very well hidden. Again, it would be totally unexpected to those who don't understand it. If we were all expecting it and then it happened, would that be a surprise to you? Here's why Huskerdust could actually become canonical:

No better couple than the ones who understand each other.

As mentioned before, Huskerdust reached it's peak popularity after fans saw how similar Husk and Angel are and how they understand each other. Husk listens to Angel about his problems, and the latter knows Husk has undergone similar things. After that, the two seem to form a mutual bond.

You don't have to be perfect.

Angel doesn't have to uphold his "perfect" façade in front of Husk, since he already knows everything Angel goes through. In future, we might see Angel open up some more, allowing more growth in the two's relationship. Both of them know what it's like to be chained up, and understand each other's situation.

Respect's important!

As some fans might have noticed, after "Masquerade", Angel never displayed any ahem... sexual attraction towards Husk, and is respective of his personal space. Also, he doesn't keep his façade up and isn't fake with him. On top of that, fans might also have noticed how before episode 4, Husk would immediately recoil from any physical touch with Angel. After the aforementioned episode, Husk doesn't seem to mind coming into physical contact with Angel, even when the latter pulls him and Sir Pentious into a hug.

It's already confirmed?!

Aw hail naw, did I miss something?! Don't worry, it hasn't been well confirmed yet, but lots of people have been saying so. Howza bout we check it out?

:000 WHAT- AJFGDSGBEIRSH *gasps for air* *ahem, please give me a moment-*

Yes, well... ehe there you have it. Again, I'm not saying Huskerdust has been confirmed, but the official Hazbin Hotel accounts have been dropping hints now and then.

They could help each other heal.

If you think about it, Husk and Angel have both experienced the pain of being "owned", and pretty much bonded over it too. In future episodes, we might even see both of them turn to the other for comfort.

You're priceless.

Vivziepop stated "Although Angel is very protective of his actual feelings, what he would like, deep down, is a solid relationship built on respect, with someone who values him and wants to be with him." Husk isn't a very open person, but is very close with chosen people. Sounds like a match.

Someone special, huh?

Vivziepop has confirmed that Angel Dust will have a love interest in the series. Give it some thought, in our currently known characters, who is most likely to be of Angel's interest? If it's not Husk, we'll probably be seeing new characters. Also, Vivz says "Husk and Angel Dust's relationship is one that will develop over the course of the series". Despite no further details were given, it's likely it might be romantic.

Or is it Hazbin Hotel's best set up?

Now that I think about it, I have almost never seen anyone acknowledge how Huskerdust may very well be a set up. Either shippers blindly insist on it, or neglect it altogether (not everyone is like this, I'm talking about the extremes). No one seems to give it any thought, that, perhaps, our beloved ship is just falsehoods. Let's see why Huskerdust may very well not be canon.

They're just friends.

Vivziepop currently describes Husk and Angel as "Best friends", and quite a few people who don't ship Huskerdust say "I want them to remain friends." Oh well, everyone needs a good chap or two on their side.

They need time to heal.

Both Angel and Husk need time to heal after their trauma, and some time to figure things out. A relationship might not be very feasible right now.

Goodbye, then.

Now that it's been proven that sinners can redeem themselves and go to heaven, maybe, just maybe, Angel could too. After all, that's why he's at the hotel. But remember the club scene in episode 6? Husk says he "ain't the one trying to get into Heaven". Husk seemingly has no intention of being redeemed, and if Angel does, he'd be most likely leaving Husk behind.

They're both in a tight spot.

Angel and Husk are both "owned" by Over lords, having made deals with them for different reasons. Angel may only have to deal with Valentino during work hours, but Alastor is at the hotel with Husk. It would be hard to maintain a relationship while they're both pulled apart and used.

Is that how it ends?

According to Vivzie, Angel will experience heartbreak in the series, possibly meaning his relationship with Husk may not last, due to various reasons. (Poor dude can't catch a break...)

We'll figure it out.

As I said before, Husk and Angel need some time to figure things out. They have to heal a little before they can open up some more. One thing's for sure, they'll be by each other's side.

Aaalright, that's about all I have to say, whatdy'all think? Do you ship Huskerdust or not? Lmk in the comments! I, personally, ship Huskerdust, but I'd be fine if they're just friends :). I really look forward to their relationship growing and season two in general. Writing all that took me a good few hours so I'd appreciate a like, reblog or some nice words <3. No pressure ofc. Tysm to anyone who liked, reblogged or left some nice words 😀. Be sure to let me know your thoughts, and as always... peace, Fluffz out. ✌

[subiysu-chan]

Dark Fantasy

I decided to add to my main capital a good production of fungiculture, (because it cannot otherwise sustain a 600 000 urbain population with only 11 farming villages surrounding of 920 total). Probably Paris mushrooms, although it's not necessarely consistant with the tech level (although, it was already a year-round crop for Paris in the XVIIIth century). I think the simpliest way to solve this issue is to add domesticated cattails to their typical crops, and add add 9 more villages, which would still have a rather unsustainable farmer to non-farmer ratio, but because of imports, it would even out the amount of food the capital is getting. The eastern side of the province have some good wetlands, which tend to have demographic blackholes prior to modern medicine and a food production.

I think that, with four harvests per year plus the mushroom growing, plus imports, would allow the capital city to have all the food it needs.

The province of Penbre has a surface area of about 110 , 344 km from bird's eye view, which is on the smaller side, but it doesn't take the difference of elevation and the various hypothenuses this creates. I changed it to have 20 farming villages, creating a population of very roughly 601 000 individuals, a denity of around 5.4 inhabitents per square kilometer, most concentrated around the rivers with an almost empty back country. The region is well-known for it's production of clay, salt and wool. Because it is a capital, it's upper class creates a demand for the most beautiful pottery and tablewear the world has to offer in a booming bone porcelaine, earthwork and faïence artisanal production. Most houses are built out of stone with terracotta flooring in the city, but some walls of the particularly wealthy prefering brick and plaster, and out of wood and beaten earth in the country side, although some are made out of brick.

Being a capital city near the coast line, it benefits from many imports that trickle down to the villages.

The mountain with the square has an undergrowd Drow and fay city, and the lake houses also a fay population.

The local cuisine is comprised of soft-tasting bread with a nutty or sour undertone, birch-sap products of various kinds, butter, broths, broth-based sauces, stews, freshwater vegetables, cheeses, nuts (cedar and hazel) and cranberry wine. Because of the mer population off the coast, access to many sea-products is more diffecult, but freshwater mussles, crayfishes and carps are an important part of the diet, as well as some salt-water fishes, crabs and oysters. However, the most frequent meats are pork and pigeon. A particular cultivar of domesticated cattails and humidity-tolerant peas are cultivated locally, as well as small radishes. Shallots and rowan are the main condiments.

In the capital, due to the amount of imports, they add buckwheat, honey, wheat, rye, apples, grapes, blueberries, tea and coffee to their diet.

The province of Penbre would be surrounded by those of : Yaune to the East, Aulbec to the South and Lanye to the North. Lanye is the Northern Limit fo the country, but further east is the province of Lennes and further south is the province of Avalbre. Those compromise the entirety of the North-West region.

[stalkedbytrains]

Beneath the Electric Sky

Chain One: Preload

Sequence One: Specialization

The city's atmospheric regulators were working overtime, venting steam from deep underground. The entire city was bathed in steam and fog as the city tried to deal with the never-ending climate crisis and the still active half-life fallout.

It made the building the sniper was surveilling hard to pick out, but it also hid her from view. Not that she needed a lot of help to remain undetected.

Synthia was having a hard time with the building and that was even before the winds started blowing across the Pacific strongly enough to bring in some of the radiation from overseas.

The targets she had been sent after were based in a building that was harder to get into than The Collection she was a part of. They had a small army of personnel that all had advanced combat training, what appeared to be some kind of complicated employee tracking system that hunted and killed anyone that was in the building without permission.

Then there was the suspicion of extremely illegal technology and gene splicing.

The assassin that Synthia was after was employed by these people so getting at the organization itself and whatever bullshit they did to make their assassin borderline uncatchable was in there, and it was Synthia's job to get it. She also had a score to settle with the assassin.

Synthia had tracked him down, got ahead of him, and instead of having a halfway civilized conversation he shot Synthia three times with Teflon coated rounds which would have killed her pretty quickly (but painfully) if she had been totally human.

The real problem with this stupid building and this stupid company and their stupid assassin was that they were protected by an EM field. The powerful electromagnets would fry anything with a circuit that got in without proper protection or authorization. Which meant that Synthia would die. Her systems would shutdown and she'd basically suffocate as her heart slowly gave up. She'd die trapped within her body, no matter how state-of-the-art it was.

She could attempt to drop in from above but there were no nearby buildings in which to do it quietly. Unless she dropped in from the air, and while it had been a very long time since her last HALO jump, she could probably manage it. But she couldn't rule out the chance that there was an EM field on top of the building, which could be a problem. However, such a field would only be a problem if she could hit the target of a single building from 30,000 feet up. Synthia was good, she was even extremely good, but she wasn't that good.

Of course she could just storm the building. Blow up the EM generators with a couple of smart rockets or even just break out the magnetic accelerator rifle that she is only allowed under special circumstances, but that would give her away instantly and take away any chance of recovering information or the assassin intact or mostly intact.

This was going to require an inside man, and this goddamn cult was extremely picky about who they let into their premises. That was a skill set that Synthia did not have.

Stealth, insertion, infiltration, sniping? All of those she was one of the best in the world at. But those skills wouldn't get her in there without getting noticed immediately.

She was going to have to call in a ringer.

Hopefully the bosses would let her choose the ringer, because she knew the perfect guy for the job. And he was local.

[000]

At the tiny two room headquarters that Synthia had in the city, she had spent the better part of ten minutes laying out the assault on the building and why it was such a difficult pain.

"What about a HALO jump? Get in over their defenses?" Seth asked.

Seth was nominally her partner but he acted more like a boss.

"I can't tell if there is any defenses on the roof, the weather has been absolute shit the last few days and there's no sign of it getting any better in the next few days, and I don't want to give them anymore lead time since they know we're coming. Besides HALO jumps are fine, but we're talking about hitting the courtyard of a building, which is not necessarily the easiest thing to hit when falling at terminal velocity."

Seth rubbed his beard. "Yeah, and there's no good way in?"

"Not unless you can see something. And I can't lie my way in, since they know what we look like since the fucking debacle with the cops."

He gave Synthia a hard look.

"You can't even remotely blame that fucking bullshit on me," Synthia snapped. "We have strict orders to bring in the assassin if we can and the cops came in guns blazing absolutely burning that bridge as evidenced by him shooting me three times!"

"So what do you suggest? A tactical nuke?"

Synthia didn't even feign a laugh at the jab. "We need an inside man, but, again this cult is paranoid so their members are scrutinized within an inch of their lives. We need someone else to get inside and turn off the EM field long enough for me to get inside."

"What do you suggest? There's no other Collection agents on this coast. You want to get some outside help? You?"

"I have friends."

"That you haven't gotten killed or killed yourself?"

"Io has known me for a very long time. He's a great con man, he's in this city right now, and he has the added benefit of being almost completely human. If he does get caught in the EM field, he's not gonna just die like I will. Like you would."

Seth frowned. "Fine. We don't have many other options and we need this wrapped up quickly. But if this goes sideways even a little bit, I'm torching this friend of yours."

Synthia sneered at Seth in response.

"You know where to find him?"

"I have a pretty good idea."

[010]

There was a black tie party happening at the penthouse of the extremely wealthy socialite and minor celebrity Mason Filmont. The man had a penchant for buying rare and expensive per-singularity technology, and he was both stupid and an asshole, which was Io's favorite target.

Sneaking into the party was extremely easy. It was a party, there was a certain expectation of people coming and going.

Io could have made his way into the party as just a guest, but that wouldn't have got him nearly as close to some of the tech he wanted to steal as he would have liked. So he spent the last few weeks charming his way into the inner circle of Mason.

It was tiring to be sure, and the sex wasn't good either which was a criminal crime, but it was all about to pay off.

"You know I'm worried about all of these gang killings."

A snippet of party conversation caught Io totally off guard. He couldn't quite place it, but there was a familiarity with the voice that spoke. He whipped around and saw a tall but almost tragically slim redheaded woman in an ill fitting black dress.

She saw him turned and raised her glass of champagne at him.

There was something so familiar about the stance, about the hungry and tired look that told him that this woman hadn't slept properly in a long time but the sharp blue eyes told him that he was being hunted by an apex predator.

Io stopped in his tracks and turned to face the woman and the person she was talking to.

"Hey there River," Io said, slipping his hand across the waist of the person he was actively scamming. "Who are you talking to?"

The woman smiled a smile, that put Io very ill at ease. That smile said that she had pulled on over on him.

"Name's Synthia," she said as she held out a hand to shake Io's.

The grip was almost crushing, but it didn't seem to be a deliberate power move, and was instead something that came from her unnatural strength.

"Synthia, pleasure. I'm-"

"Io. I know. We've met before."

"Oh, you two know each other?" River said with a bemused look.

"Oh yes," Synthia said. "But I'd be surprised if Io remembers me. We haven't seen each other in years."

Io's stomach dropped out as she said that. It was the voice, the hair, and the eyes that did it. Nothing else was the same.

"Synthia. Yeah. I haven't seen you in a real long time. Last time I saw you was when you were looking for a particular gun."

Synthia rolled her eyes. "I mean, yes, but we've communicated since then. You helped me find some people. Shame what happened to them."

"You-" Io started but Synthia shook her head just a little bit, a fraction of a movement. "Yes. You're right, how silly of me to forget. How have you been?"

"Lots of changes," she said, indicating to herself. "Lots. But I'm doing well. Some aspects could be better. The job is something of a pain."

"You still in the military?" Io asked.

River had gotten bored by this point and kissed Io. "I'm going to go back to the party, you two have fun."

Once he was gone, Io dropped the smile.

"What the fuck?" he whispered.

"New job," she explained. "Like top secret shit, so careful what you say and what you ask. They're listening."

"And so you thought you'd just drop in on your old friend Io for shits and giggles?"

"I mean, I've been keeping tabs. You seem to be doing good."

"I'm alive," he said. "I thought you were dead, or gone, spirited away to some black site prison."

"You're not half wrong there."

"Fucking hell," Io said, cutting himself off from saying the name he remembered Synthia using. "What's up? Why are you coming back to me now? Am I fucked? Am I being black-bagged?"

"No," Synthia said. "I'm just in a severe problem right now and need a favor."

"Of course, why didn't that occur to me sooner. I'm on a job, a very delicate one, and I'm really close to closing it."

"You're going to what? Steal Mason's cybertruck? That ugly fucking thing?"

"Yes, but that's not the goal. I was going to use it as a getaway vehicle for a bit. I mean it's a legendarily bad truck, and Mason has a fully restored 2025 model. I want to drive it so bad. But I was going to steal some stuff, a couple of art pieces to sell, and some old videogame stuff for myself. Then drive out in the truck."

Synthia nodded. "I'm impressed. A step up from the shit you pulled back in the day."

"You're being weirdly coy."

"They don't know a lot about me before I joined the military, and I aim to keep it that way."

"Then you contacting me is..."

"Very serious."

"What's up?"

"You know those murders everyone is concerned with?" Synthia asked.

"Yeah, some dude is killing gang leaders."

"And about a hundred other people. Ranging from war criminals to CEO's and randomly some random dude in an apartment complex."

Io took a deep breath. "That's a lot of dead people. You know I'm not a fan of that."

"Well the problem is that it is one dude."

"Hasn't this only been going on for like a week? He's killed more than a hundred people in less than a week?"

"Yeah."

"Fuck. How do you think I can possibly help you?"

"This guy has some illegal tech I'm going to rip out of him. And he shot me three times and tried to kill me."

Io hung his head, resting it on the metal railing of the nearby stairs. He knew what that meant. Synthia, whatever she was calling herself now, would never let that stand.

"The thing is I know where his headquarters is, and the cult that is supporting him."

"There's a cult too?" Io whined.

"Yeah."

"Motherfucker."

"It's more religious fanaticism and shit and not like the people sacrificing kind."

"I'm really dreading when you get to the point where you ask me to do something."

"I just need you to open the door."

Io looked at Synthia incredulously. She really was almost entirely different. The person that Io knew from twenty odd years back was still in there, and this conversation, brief as it had been, they really were the same person.

"The entire area is surrounded by EM fields and guards and turrets and extreme paranoia of the religious fanatics. They know me because their assassin failed to kill me, so I can't get in. I can't even get close or I'm gonna die."

Io shuddered. "You really went down that route?"

Synthia shrugged. "Yeah, it gave me the body I always wanted. Cost me a lot in other ways. But still worth it."

"I love tech, just having it be inside me grosses me out."

"The other reason I'm here. You won't instantly die if you screw up like I will."

"How badly does this need to be done tonight?" Io asked as he looked longingly at the rich person's very easily stolen things.

"Badly. We've got a very small window to strike before they realize we're on to them and move and if they move we're never getting to the assassin."

"Why not?" Io complained, even know Synthia knew he was coming with her.

"I'm fairly certain the assassin can teleport. So this is our one and only opportunity."

"Fuck me," Io said. "Let's go, but I hope you can at least pay me for this."

"The company has deep pockets."

"Goddamnit," Io moaned as they went to leave the party. "Don't tell me I'm actually doing work for The Company Company."

"The CIA? Those fucks? Oh hell no."

Io heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank fuck. They are really the worst."

"Yeah and they've put out hits on me like three times," Synthia said as she led Io to the car she had waiting out front.

As they climbed into the car Io turned to Synthia and said, "So I have two questions for you."

"Shoot."

"Pronouns?"

"She and her," Synthia replied instantly.

"Good, good," Io said. "Honestly I've never cared much for the whole pronoun game so whatever works for you works for me. But it might just save time to use he and him for me."

Synthia pulled away from the party with dangerous speed. "Sounds just like you. What's the other question?"

"Lorelei know you're alive?"

Synthia swore. "No."

buy me a kofi

[kairunatic]

OOF it looks Like habbit is in a bit of a trouble

Apperantly some Scammer was using someone else's credit card to buy stones and packs from AE they spent a total of 300 000 yen basically 3000 dollars

This post gain 5 mil views and its literally trending right now

Luckily Habbit is currently resolving this issues and responded immediately

Man what a Bad way for AE to get notice this is just sad

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

ESO telescope captures the most detailed infrared map ever of our Milky Way

Astronomers have published a gigantic infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects ― the most detailed one ever made. Using the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope, the team monitored the central regions of our Galaxy over more than 13 years. At 500 terabytes of data, this is the largest observational project ever carried out with an ESO telescope.

“We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our Galaxy forever,” says Dante Minniti, an astrophysicist at Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile who led the overall project.

This record-breaking map comprises 200 000 images taken by ESO’s VISTA ― the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy. Located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, the telescope’s main purpose is to map large areas of the sky. The team used VISTA’s infrared camera VIRCAM, which can peer through the dust and gas that permeates our galaxy. It is therefore able to see the radiation from the Milky Way’s most hidden places, opening a unique window onto our galactic surroundings.

This gigantic dataset [1] covers an area of the sky equivalent to 8600 full moons, and contains about 10 times more objects than a previous map released by the same team back in 2012. It includes newborn stars, which are often embedded in dusty cocoons, and globular clusters –– dense groups of millions of the oldest stars in the Milky Way. Observing infrared light means VISTA can also spot very cold objects, which glow at these wavelengths, like brown dwarfs (‘failed’ stars that do not have sustained nuclear fusion) or free-floating planets that don’t orbit a star.

The observations began in 2010 and ended in the first half of 2023, spanning a total of 420 nights. By observing each patch of the sky many times, the team was able to not only determine the locations of these objects, but also track how they move and whether their brightness changes. They charted stars whose luminosity changes periodically that can be used as cosmic rulers for measuring distances [2]. This has given us an accurate 3D view of the inner regions of the Milky Way, which were previously hidden by dust. The researchers also tracked hypervelocity stars — fast-moving stars catapulted from the central region of the Milky Way after a close encounter with the supermassive black hole lurking there.

The new map contains data gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey [3] and its companion project, the VVV eXtended (VVVX) survey. “The project was a monumental effort, made possible because we were surrounded by a great team,” says Roberto Saito, an astrophysicist at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil and lead author of the paper published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics on the completion of the project.

The VVV and VVVX surveys have already led to more than 300 scientific articles. With the surveys now complete, the scientific exploration of the gathered data will continue for decades to come. Meanwhile, ESO’s Paranal Observatory is being prepared for the future: VISTA will be updated with its new instrument 4MOST and ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) will receive its MOONS instrument. Together, they will provide spectra of millions of the objects surveyed here, with countless discoveries to be expected.

Notes

[1] The dataset is too large to release as a single image, but the processed data and objects catalogue can be accessed in the ESO Science Portal.

[2] One way to measure the distance to a star is by comparing how bright it appears as seen from Earth to how intrinsically bright it is; but the latter is often unknown. Certain types of stars change their brightness periodically, and there is a very strong connection between how quickly they do this and how intrinsically luminous they are. Measuring these fluctuations allows astronomers to work out how luminous these stars are, and therefore how far away they lie. 

[3] Vía Láctea is the Latin name for the Milky Way.

TOP IMAGE: This collage highlights a small selection of regions of the Milky Way imaged as part of the most detailed infrared map ever of our galaxy. Here we see, from left to right and top to bottom: NGC 3576, NGC 6357, Messier 17, NGC 6188, Messier 22 and NGC 3603. All of them are clouds of gas and dust where stars are forming, except Messier 22, which is a very dense group of old stars. The images were captured with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) and its infrared camera VIRCAM. The gigantic map to which these images belong contains 1.5 billion objects. The data were gathered over the course of 13 years as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV eXtended survey (VVVX).Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

CENTRE IMAGE: This image shows a detailed infrared view of Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula or Swan Nebula, a stellar nursery located about 5500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. This image is part of a record-breaking infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects. ESO’s VISTA ― the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy ― captured the images with its infrared camera VIRCAM. The data were gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV eXtended survey (VVVX).Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

LOWER IMAGE: This is an infrared image of NGC 6188, also known as the Firebird nebula, located about 4100 light-years away in the constellation Ara. This gas cloud harbours a cluster of young stars called NGC 6193. The image was captured by ESO’s VISTA ― the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy ― with its infrared camera VIRCAM. The image is part of a giant infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects. The data for this map were gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV eXtended survey (VVVX).Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

BOTTOM IMAGE: This image from ESO’s VISTA telescope captures a celestial landscape of vast, glowing clouds of gas and tendrils of dust surrounding hot young stars. This infrared view reveals the stellar nursery known as NGC 6357 in a new light. It was taken as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey, which is currently scanning the Milky Way in a bid to map our galaxy’s structure and explain how it formed.Credit:ESO/VVV Survey/D. Minniti. Acknowledgement: Ignacio Toledo

[marimayscarlett]

Would you rather cross The Wall into the west with Sven Kruspe or cross the ocean into New York with Richard Zee Kay?

Hello 👋

First of all, thank you anon(s) for sending me these interesting/unhinged/sometimes really hard to decide-comparisons, a format I never expected in my inbox but which I welcome with open arms 😌

For this case, we have a young Sven in the end of the 1980's and a Richard in his 30s in the beginning of the 2000's:

Normally, I would look at this in an humouristic way, but I think this time, given the topic, I'm choosing a more serious approach. Firstly because both times Richard practically fled something/tried to get away from something and in one instance really endangered his own life and secondly because I have experiences in my family with crossing the Wall from the GDR into the BRD and find it hard to joke about. My grandfather practically was forced to flee quite early on since he was caught listening to western radio (that's why the song "Radio" holds a very deep meaning to me) and another relative of mine fled the GDR in the 1980's. Both instances seemed to have been quite risky and resulted in numerous consequences.

Richard, back then maybe still Sven, must've felt so vulnerable, unsafe and even more disillusioned than he already was after he was imprisoned by the Stasi for several days and then decided to leave. It's not an easy made decision to attempt an escape across the Wall. The Stasi back then persecuted not only refugees directly at the border while they tried to flee, they even persecuted the ones which planned an escape or tried to help others escape. Only the suspicion by the Stasi was sufficient to observe these people day and night.

Over 300 people died directly at the Wall and over 71 000 people were sentenced for "Republikflucht", for the crime of trying to leave the country [source]. So Richard back then put himself at risk for 1. planning his escape and 2. going through with it and 3. risking consequences back home, since sometimes even the families of the ones who left were observed even closer by the Stasi if the attempt was successful. So I'm really glad that everything worked out for him despite it being a surely very stressful time, plus it being timewise so close to the fall of the Wall.

Richard leaving for New York after the Mutter disaster was also an "escape" but with a different motivation and clearly different circumstances. It was more "official" so to speak, he needed to get away from Berlin (which he viewed as destructive and as a "drug city") and needed to put some distance between him and the rest of the band. Plus, he saw New York as a chance for him to stay artistically challenged since he viewed New York as "the worlds biggest drama". So I see this escape to New York as a more voluntary decision for him to get new experiences and impression, in contrast to the escape from the GDR, which was a breakout from an authoritarian regime to hopefully find a life more worth living on the other side.

So all in all, it surely would've been more comfortable to accompany Richard to the US if I'm being totally honest here 👀

[frozenearthwife]

How popular is RWBY on Crunchyroll?

We all know that view numbers are key when it comes to media. Good or bad ratings doesn't matter THAT much; even bad ratings can get a show renewed if it results in a lot of views.

RWBY V9 is locked behind a Premium CR subscription and needs all the views it can get in order to be greenlit for V10 and beyond.

So how is V9 faring so far; can we figure it out?

Here is some stupid maths because I have a weird interest in statistics.

(Spoiler: I'd say it seems like RWBY is doing pretty good on Crunchyroll, according to this stupid math.)

Some data

On CR there is no way for us to see actual view numbers, but we do have some other numbers to work with and make assumptions off of.

Per August 2021 CR had 5 million paying subscribers. It's fair to assume this number may have grown, since it has only been growing since the start. Number of Crunchyroll subscribers 2012-2021 | Statista

Between January and March 2020 the most watched anime on CR was Attack on Titan. Crunchyroll shares viewership data January through March 2020 | Neon Sakura

If we look at Youtube we can see the amount of views per video, as well as how many likes the video has. I haven't used dislikes in this scenario, but chose videos that fairly surely has way more likes than dislikes. Based on the astounding amount of 8 totally random Youtube videos, ranging from 55000 to 18 000 000 views, there is an average of 6% thumbs up compared to the amount of views. (Side note: None of the videos had more than 8% thumbs up compared to the amount of views, EXCEPT RWBY V1 EP1 which has 15% thumbs up compared to the amount of views.)

This indicates that A) Giving a thumbs up is rather rare and/or B) One person will view the video many times, but can only leave one thumbs up.

Either way, there is way more views than thumbs up, and we'll assume this trend carries over to CR as well.

Calculating episode views on CR

If we look at RWBY volume 9, episode 2, it has 2700 thumbs up per 28th February 2023.

If we assume the same average we found on Youtube is correct for Crunchyroll too, that means 2700/6*100 = at least 45000 views of this episode, since its release on Saturday (that's four days ago).

Episode 1, which released 10 days ago, has 4200 thumbs up. Using the same maths, we can assume the episode has been viewed at least 70 000 times since its release.

Side note, S1 EP1 of RWBY has 3100 thumbs up on CR, which would mean at least 51666 viewings on CR since its release there in 2013. Seeing as this episode of RWBY also aired for free on Youtube and has 16 million views on Youtube, it's a bit hard to compare this episode to anything else using only CR as a source.

Show rating

RWBY as a show has 6200 ratings on CR per 28th February. Being a nerd, I've checked every day since V9 released and observed that the amount of ratings has increased by about 100 every single day (before V9 there were about 4800 ratings or something).

This means more people are watching and rating the show on CR now.

Comparison with other shows on CR

Attack on Titan has 98100 ratings on CR.

In other words, RWBY has about 6% the number of ratings as AOT. No surprise there, RWBY is a freaking webshow that has also been airing for free on other platforms for a long time.

But how much do these show ratings count? We don't know. We must assume that the amount of actual episode viewings are more important.

If we compare episodes then:

S1 EP1 of AOT released in 2013 on Crunchyroll. It has 20 300 thumbs up, which using this stupid math would equal at least 338 333 views. That's about 270 000 more views than V9 EP1 of RWBY. And this AOT episode released 10 years ago. Does it also have 16 million views on other platforms, like RWBY V1 EP1 has? Quite possibly.

Let's compare RWBY to another, newer anime: Trigun stampede. Trigun EP1 aired on January 7th, 2023. EP1 has 1700 thumbs up. That's already far less than RWBY V9 EP1 (which has 4200), despite the fact that the show itself has 12400 ratings compared to RWBYs 6100.

You'd assume a show with more show ratings would have a higher view count than shows with less show ratings. But what does it mean then, when the actual episode has such a big difference in the number of thumbs up?

We can assume some things without knowing for sure: 1) Maybe RWBY fans more often rate both the show AND the episodes (not just the show). 2) Maybe RWBY fans rate single episodes more often than Trigun fans in general. 3) The amount of ratings on RWBY as a show is climbing, which means more people are watching and rating it on CR now that V9 is airing there exclusively. This would include long-term fans who usually watched it on RTs site and thus never left a rating on CR before now. This could indicate that the amount of show ratings for RWBY is artificially small on CR, and will become more realistic as V9 progresses.

Again though, the amount of show ratings might not matter that much compared to actual episode views. 5) I know nothing about Trigun. Or Crunchyroll's statistics...

Conclusion

RWBY is at the very least garnering more views than before on CR, with increasing amount of show ratings, and a good number of thumbs up per episode which can at the very least give us an indication of amount of views according to this stupid math. And compared to a show like Trigun, it actually seems to be getting more views per episode (according to the amount of thumbs up) so...

I'd say it seems like RWBY is doing pretty good on Crunchyroll?

According to this stupid math.

My god I spent so long on this holy fuck why in the actual hell

EDIT: I forgot to add that these numbers EXCLUDES Asia, since they cannot use Crunchyroll (most people don't have a VPN). We have no idea how many people watches RWBY in Asia, but considering it got its own freaking Japanese dub and an original anime... well. A lot. So wherever RWBY V9 will air for Asia, it will boost these numbers significally.