#2.3 is gonna be peak

[ironunderstands]

These Aventurine, Topaz and Jade comparisons are getting out of hand…

As much as I adore both of them, I think it’s very disingenuous to compare Aventurine and Topaz’s lore and be like “but they are the same!!!! If people like Aventurine and dislike Topaz that’s just misogyny!!! and like… no?

Topaz’s whole thing is that she doesn’t know the extent of the IPC’s evil, and believes that what she’s doing is genuinely the right thing to do. Even if she never had a choice in joining the IPC, she (incorrectly) believes what they did to her and her planet is justified, logical and moral, and for those reasons she stands with them. Part of this is likely IPC brainwashing, as she was probably very young when she became an indentured servant to them, and someone living on a planet on the brink of destruction would likely view anyone who stepped up to save them as heroes (imo the IPC likely waited for the point of no return to establish contact so her people had no other choice to except).

However Topaz got best end of the proverbial stick, her planet and its people were deemed useful by the IPC, and didn’t fight back, even if in the end they were still exploited.

Unfortunately, we have seen through Boothill, Belabog and Aventurine what happens when that isn’t the case.

Boothill’s planet got bombed and people genocided because they had a resource useful to the IPC, but were unwilling to cooperate with them or hand over their home, so the IPC decided to eradicate them.

Belabog had a debt owed to the IPC that was ridiculously high and very unfair to expect them to pay back, and had Topaz not convinced the higher ups to give them some time (which she got demoted for), the IPC would have taken Belabog by force

That leaves us with Aventurine, whose story is in no way on the same level of bad as Topaz’s. Unlike her, he has witnessed and experienced firsthand the truly awful shit the IPC can do.

They took custody of Sigonia and promised to offer the Avgin aid in their fight against the Katacans, at the very least protect them from harm. (Sidenote, since the IPC held control over Sigonia, they should have stopped the fighting in the first place). However, they simply stood by and did nothing, resulting in the deaths of around 6,000 Avgin, with around 3,000 went missing (or injured, I don’t remember, either way it’s bad).

But wait! It gets worse! Aventurine when he was still known as Kakavasha referred to the IPC as “the men in black/the men in black suits”, and his first master says he bought Aventurine from “the men in black/the men in black suits”, likely mocking the way he referred to them. Therefore THE IPC TOOK PART AND LIKELY EVEN CREATED A FUCKING SLAVE TRADE IN SIGONIA

Look being made into an indentured servant isn’t fun, but idk personally I’d take that any day of the week OVER BEING ENSLAVED

That’s not even to mention how horrible of a reputation Sigonian’s have in the galaxy, one likely spread by/resulting from the IPC themselves, as at least on Aventurines planet they do not have the mobility to make a name for themselves. (Honestly it’s a mini theory of mine that Aventurines scam is what partly contributed to this reputation, and his status as a slave is something the IPC conveniently left out in their broadcast about it-)

But, you might be saying, didn’t Aventurine have a choice to join the masked fools and leave the IPC, isn’t he free now? And to that I say, it’s complicated.

Considering the amount of suicidal shit Aventurine has done while being part of the IPC, he clearly hasn’t been having a fun time as a member of one, so why does he stick around, especially with the Fools invite? Even if he was a slave, does that absolve him of the crimes he’s committing now? What could justify his actions?

Revenge, plan and simple.

This is going to delve into some spoiler territory for the end of the Penacony 2.2 quest, something which I didn’t feel like mentioning earlier because I’m sorry but everyone and their mother already knows Boothill’s lore. Now, let’s get into it.

Aventurine accepts Jades offer to join the IPC, and when he becomes a Stoneheart, the first thing he asks about is the fate of the Avgin, to which he then learns that besides him, they are all dead. You see, from birth Kakavasha was pushed onto a pedestal as the savior of the Avgin, but now that there are no more Avgin to save, his primary motivator in becoming a Stoneheart (beyond not being enslaved anymore) is gone.

So what does he do now?

Simple, try to kill the motherfuckers behind it.

That’s why he takes on such risky gambles still, and why he wagers and wants Diamond to promote him to rank p46. The higher Aventurine gets the closer he gets to his goal of taking down the IPC for good.

Which is why his meeting with Boothill is so meaningful. I think Boothill is going to “kidnap” him and together they are gonna take down the wicked bitch that is Oswaldo Schneider for his literal crimes against humanity.

Mark my words, an IPC downfall is going to happen, and I think Topaz, Aventurine, Boothill and Ratio are going to be at the forefront of it.

However, Topaz and Ratio (and by extension the rest of the galaxy) have to learn/realize the true horrors of the IPC (although I can sense Ratio doesn’t really like them, and he’s learned a lot from Aventurine, I doubt he knows the full extent of the situation or is in any way happy about it). Therefore? Topaz mental breakdown arc? Ratio lore? PLEASE??!? The IP3 compliment one another so well and god I can’t wait for that to come to fruition.

I really want to see a Topaz and Ratio centered story leading up to an IPC smackdown, and I think we are gonna learn a lot more about how shitty they are in the later half of 2.2 and in 2.3 when the interlude and Jades release arrive.

As for the aforementioned Jade, she’s gonna need a Aventurine squared amount of trauma or reasoning behind her actions to seem in any way sympathetic, because right now she just seems like an evil bitch (in a semi good way, I will always respect the commitment to the bit) who loves her job and would make Machiavelli weep over how hard her ends are trying to justify her means.

[crowandmousewritingco]

Pairing: Santi x Frankie x Benny x trans!reader (its poly folks!)

Word Count: 2.3 k

Rating: R (theres so much smut guys)

Summary: Finally your feelings for each other come out one night.

Author: Mod Mouse

Warnings: Cursing, use of petnames, male terms for genitalia, and just so much gay sex (18+ MDNI)

You could blame the alcohol. You could blame the years of pent up crushes and longing. But something stirred in your little group tonight. It started with a few drinks watching a shitty movie in your living room, but soon you all confessed your attractions to each other. 

And that’s how you found yourself slowly riding Benny’s cock as Frankie tasted Santi’s dick with long licks. The headboard steadying you as you bounced in Benny’s lap, enjoying how it hit all the right places inside you. His strong hands gripped your hips as he pressed his face into your chest. Your skin muffled the loud moans emanating from his plump lips. 

“Fuck you make him sound so pretty,” Santi moaned and you turned your head. A mewl escaped your lips as you watched Frankie expertly swallow Santi down to his base. His adam's apple bopped as his throat adjusted to Sant’s thick cock. 

Drool ran down the side of Frankie’s cheek as he kept his eyes on Santi. 

Benny peaked over your shoulder to take in the scene too. The sight caused his dick to twitch inside of you, making you wiggle your hips . You smirked and tangled your fingers in his messy hair giving it a gentle tug. Benny whimpered at the action and gazed up at you with his puppy dog eyes. 

“Does that sight turn you on Benny? Seeing your best friend take a cock so well?” You asked as you rocked your hips back and forth. Benny was quick to nod and nuzzled his face into your neck peppering it with kisses. “Good, cause it turns me on too.” 

You turned your head towards Santi again and you clenched when you saw both of their eyes set on you. Frankie nuzzled against Santi’s thigh as he slowly stroked Santi’s cock. 

“Fuck let’s give them a show, Benny” You softly commanded and gently pushed Benny against the headboard. Balancing yourself on his shoulders, you lifted your hips just enough for his tip to stay inside you before slamming back down to the hilt. 

Benny squeezed his eyes shut as you bounced on his cock not leaving any time to breathe. “Fuck fuck fuck I’m gonna,” He panted and babbled as you slammed down on his cock again. This was enough for him to finish deep inside of you coating your insides with his cum. Frantically you stroked your own cock searching from your high as you didn’t let up on your movements. It didn’t take long for you to find your climax and you squeezed around Benny leaning into his chest for support. 

Gently Benny wrapped his arms around you grounding yourself against his skin. You panted as your orgasm subsided, the sound of Benny’s heartbeat grounding you. It took you a moment before you slid off of Benny’s softening cock nuzzling into his side. When you glanced back over at the pair, you blushed. 

The show you had put on for them had quite the effect on the men. Cum painted Frankie’s flushed cheeks and a darking puddle gathering under him. Evidence for both of their orgasms.

 Benny smirked and gently kissed your shoulder. “Damn cutie, they seemed to like what we showed them.” 

“That does seem to be the case.” You smiled gently caressing random shapes into Benny’s chest. 

Frankie rolled his eyes at your comments and crawled his way over to the two of you. Slowly he leaned over and kissed Benny’s lip. Benny closed his eyes and kissed him back with a gentle lovingness. The younger man broke off a bit to lap up Santi’s cum from Frankie’s cheek. “It tastes so good.” 

Santi smirked as he stroked his cock back to full hardness. “Want a taste for yourself?” Benny licked his lips, his cock stirring to life once again and kissed Frankie once more before crawling to the edge of the bed. He kneeled in front of Santi like the obedient boy he was. 

You smiled enjoying the view as Frankie gently nuzzled his nose into your cheek. The softness comforted you and you pulled him in for a slow and gentle kiss. Wet sounds filled the room once again as you heard Benny take Santi’s cock into his mouth. Santi’s grunts sent electric shocks down to your cock. 

“I wanna taste Benny on you. Why don’t you lay back and let me clean you.” Frankie mumbled against your skin. 

“Please.” You begged. 

Slowly Frankie kissed down your body, taking his time showing you how much he loves your body. He wasn’t the only one who waited a long time for this, and by god were you all going to enjoy this. 

With each kiss he inched lower and lower down your torso keeping eye contact with you as he descended closer to your cock. You whine softly, dragging your fingers through his dark curls. “Frankie, don't tease me.” 

“Oh and your little show wasn’t teasing?” He smirked as he kissed just above your cock. 

“Okay but you were teasing me with that mouth of yours.” You playfully argued.

“Let me show you how I can tease with this tongue.” He chuckled before licking a long trail from your hole to your cock. He moaned as the taste of Benny’s cum mixed with the taste of your arrousal. You moaned and pulled gently at his hair. “Taste divine mi vida.” 

“Fuck Frankie.” You moaned caressing his stubbled cheek. 

Frankie chuckled and began to lick and suck at your cock with more fervor as if your dick was his last meal. His eyes never left yours as you ground your hips in his nose looking for more stimulation. The hook of his nose made for a perfect grounding point. 

Santi playfully smacked Frankie’s ass as he thrusted into Benny’s mouth. “He has such a good mouth on him.” You groaned in agreement as the heat in your stomach grew and grew. 

As if he knew where precisely to lick, you came against his tongue pressing your slit into his face. Whimpers escaped your lips as you rode his nose through your high, thighs pressing against his ears.

A chuckle came from the other side of the room. “If you don’t stop you might suffocate him.” 

Frankie smirked from between your legs. Gently he pried them apart as you panted. “You say that as if it's a bad thing.” 

You giggled. “As much as that sounds fun, I would hate for you to leave.” Your fingers pushed his sweaty curls from his forehead. 

Frankie gently laid on top of you, his lips glistening with your arousal. He kissed your cheek and whispered. “And I would hate to have missed that handsome hole of yours.” 

A shiver shook your body and you drew Frankie in for a long time tasting yourself on his lips. 

“You’ll get the chance now Cat.” Santi playfully tapped Frankie’s ass. “I want you inside him and Benny in that perky ass of yours.” Santi gently squeezed Benny’s neck, earning a moan from the man. “And I will fuck your ass.” Santi commanding presence from the army seeping into the bedroom. 

“Shit,” All three of you cursed as the dominance of Santi sent you all into a horny state. You were all quick to obey his command as the three of you lined up. 

“How would you like me Frankie?” You asked gently cupping Franki’s cheek. 

“I wanna watch that handsome face cum around my cock,” He moaned and pecked your lips in a quick kiss. 

A hand gently caressed Frankie’s cheek before someone dipped a finger inside of his ring of muscles. Frankie moans against your lips as Benny’s thrusted his fingers preparing him. Soon Benny’s moans join the serenade of sex as Santi did the same to Benny’s ass. You broke the kiss to watch the scene as Santi’s fingers opened Benny up. The sight was downright sinful as your little group prepared each other for such dubarchery. 

“Such a pretty sight you all make together,” Santi praised, leaning down to kiss Benny’s shoulder. Benny turned and nuzzled his cheek into Santi’s skin. Every touch with them was so tender and yet so careful. Careful that this was just some dream that would end at any moment. Delicate that after tonight everything would go back to the same way of life. But a hopeful part of you knew that couldn’t happen. 

After ample preparation on all sides, Santi slid his fingers out with a pop. “Now let’s see what sounds we can get out of you.” 

Frankie kissed you once more as he positioned his cock on your hole. With gentle thrusts, he pushed as all the way in with a moan. You gripped his shoulders as you adjusted to his size taking him in slowly. While Benny was longer than the pilot, Frankie was thicker than his best friend, and you were feeling it. Frankie leaned down to kiss you shoulder and whisper praises into your flushed skin. “Such a good boy you. You’re taking me so well.” 

His praises were cut off as Frankie moaned into your neck as Benny slid inside of him with the slow push of his hips. Just like Frankie did with you, Benny peppered his shoulders with his kisses. “Fuck you feel so good Cat.” Benny moaned as he rutted against Frankie, loving the way the older man squeezed around him. 

“I can’t be having you have all the fun.” Santi teased as he tapped his cock against Benny’s ass. He couldn’t wait any longer and soon he was buried to the hilt inside Benny.  

Santi glanced down the line of the moaning train. “Fuck all of you make such a pretty sight,” He praised lightly smacking Benny’s ass. “Should’ve been doing this long ago.” Santi thrusted into Benny causing all three of you to moan at the friction. 

“Such a tease.” You whined. 

Santi quirked his eyebrow. “Oh, how about this then?” Without warning he quickly thrusted faster into Benny, snapping his hips forward.

You threw your head back onto the pillows as Frankie’s cock rubbed at your walls. “Shit.” The friction of everything sent your head spinning. Thank god you didn’t have neighbors because the slap of skin alone was enough to alert them of your evening activities. 

Santi smirked as he continued his pace. Benny quickly went back to babbling, wrapping his arms around Frankie’s waist as he thrusted into his best friend. All Frankie could do was hold on tight as Santi’s movements thrusted him in and out of your hole. 

You wanted to drag this moment out forever. The way Santi’s eyes scrunched as Benny thrust back into him. The way Benny wrapped his arms around Frankie’s torso teasing his cock with playful thrusts. And the way Frankie leaned back to kiss Benny with such a gentleness. 

But your body had other thoughts. With all the friction and moaning, it wasn’t long until the chain reaction of orgasms started. It started as Benny, who couldn’t hold it in any longer erratically thrusted into Frankie as he was chasing his high. 

As he buried himself in Frankie, Frankie sped up his thrusts cumming inside you in quick bursts leaving you coated for the second time that night. Which then caused you to clench around his cock as you ground your hips together in wet slaps. The heat in your stomach bubbling over with waves of need. 

The whole scene of his longtime friends cumming together sent Santi over the edge and with one more snap of his hips, Santi spilled inside Benny with a low groan. 

The room was filled with the sounds of panting as everyone came back to reality. Everyone stayed close, reassuring each other with gentle caresses and kisses. Santi was the first to pull out, leaving Benny whimpering with the lack of friction. Frankie pulled out next, sighing as he watched his cum leak out of your hole. “Fuck that’s such a good sight.” 

Benny stayed inside Frankie letting himself enjoy the touch. Frankie smiled and kissed his cheek. “Ben, you gotta pull out. I gotta grab the washcloths.” 

“But you feel so nice.” He pouted, nuzzling his nose into Frankie’s graying hair. 

Santi chuckled and tapped Benny’s ass. “I’ll get it.” He kissed Benny’s head before disappearing into the bathroom. 

Carefully you guided the stuck pair down to the bed, curling into Frankie’s chest. It wasn’t long before soft snores came from Benny’s mouth, his soft cock falling out of Frankie’s ass. You chuckled softly. “We did wear him out.” 

“True but he also should still have the youth energy about him.” Santi retorted as he stepped out of the bathroom with a wet rag. Carefully he helped clean everyone up, making sure no cum was left over. He tossed the rag aside, something he would deal with in the morning. He curled in the other side of you, sandwiching you between Frankie and himself. 

Everyone was quiet for a moment except for the soft snores coming from Benny. You were just enjoying what they had all been waiting for. The emotions for each finally seeing the light of day. You broke the silence “I really wanna keep doing this. I-I really like you guys. And not just in some bro way. I-I” You whispered gently while playing with Santi’s hair. 

“We know mi vida. Cause we feel the same way. We can take whatever this is as slow as we want.” Frankie reassured you. 

“Me too. It…it will take me a while to adjust.” Santi admitted and you kissed his hair gently. 

Frankie leaned over and nuzzled his nose into your neck tenderly. “We aren’t going anywhere.” He planted a kiss on Santi’s head. 

“I’ve waited too long for this though.” Santi replied, nuzzling under your chin. 

“Then let’s not have it stop,” You whispered, kissing both of their foreheads. Hums of approval emitted from the two men. It wasn’t long until the group slowly drifted off to sleep, the feeling of deep affection fueling your sweet dream that night.

```````

All Works Taglist

@for-a-longlongtime @romanarose

Pedro Character Taglist

@littlemisspascal @burntheedges

@carusolikey @thebeldroramscal

@morallyinept @lady-bess

@pedrostories @rivnedell

@pascalsanctuary @readingiskeepingmegoing

@jessthebaker

credit:@inklore

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Talking about 2.0 IN RELATION to 2.1 and 2.2 (rewatching again since 2.3 should be announced soon? Idk when but yeah)

(Not Global Friendly)

Again spoilers for all currently out CN servers and major spoilers for 2.2 and 2.0

(Once 2.3 teasers drop I will be doing predictions and speculations again - yippee)

People who say Nala's personality did a 180 from 2.0 to 2.1 onwards I dont see, knowing who she is in 2.2 does give greater context to her introduction.

Immediately when she is released she sounds dejected, not seductive. Realising whoever took her out only needed her services (was Eternity a member of Team TK? She was in the Foundation to take it but Matilda didnt recognise her, then again with loads of arcanists joining I wouldn't be surprised no one knows everyone other than Vertin and Sonetto.

Nala's first two lines sound dejected and almost as if reading off of a script, tired even (shes around 100 years old right? How long in the robot I wonder?). Then afterwards she switches into the facade of Mata Hari, the woman who did gather information from officals and acted as a spy, and more importantly NOT Nana Hari. Nala depended on her sister until she was executed so probably saw how her sister acted so here attempts to emulate it at the end of 2.0.

(If I would to give an example, it would be if Marian tried to emulate Schneider's personality and quirks)

(Will we see her boss form at some point? 2.2 looked like a part one so Im assuming both Nala and Lopera are gonna make an appearance in the next story chapter by 2.5)

The real Nala does peak out at points in 2.0, being initially released and the very awkward struggle to communicate with the Manus drummer (we know they are people turned into monsters by the Manus masks so does this mean they retain some part of themselves with the mask?). She completely drops the act by 2.1 - wet cat vibes that might rival Windsong's lol.

Summary - There wasn't a 180 in Nala's character, it was her attempting to emulate her sister, Mata Hari. The quick change in 2.1 was just Nala realising that it was pointless to keep up that act. (Also shes very codependent, its not just a Vertin thing, 2.1 shows she was dependent on Ms Grace as well, now with Vertin since Argus probably just torments her for fun)

[mmacleanfilm]

Film Form: Shoot Days

Here are my sound reports from the day of shooting:

Sound report:

001 - 4.3 s1 t1 - G - might have peaked in the shouting - lavs fine. Could take levels down slightly - but was nice. 002 - 4.3 s1 t2 - G truck in background 003 - 4.3 - G 3 armed now not before 004 - X 005 - 4.2 s1 t5 - G probably best 006 - 4.5 s1 t1 - G but pillow stepping sound 007 - 4.5 s1 t2 - G - might need to get the shouting again. 008 - 4.5 s1 t3 - G 009 - 4.5 s1 t4 - G 010 - 4.4a s1 t1 - G 011 - 4.4a s1 t2 - G 012 - 4.4a s1 t3 - G - peaking on shout for all. 013 - 4.4b s1 t1 - G (nice gulp picked up) 014 - 4.4b s1 t2 - G 015 - 4.2 s1 t1 - G 016 - 4.2 s1 t2 - G crisp dialogue 🤌 017 - 4.2 s1 t3 - G G G 018 - 4.2 s2 t1 - VNice - big space before action - setting focus - 4 minute take 019 - 4.2 s2 t2 - Noice 020 - 4.1 s1 t1 - X 021 - 4.1 s1 t2 - X 022 - 4.1 s1 t3 - X 023 - 4.1 s1 t4 - G 024 - 4.1 s1 t5 - G 025 - 4.1 s1 t6 - G 026 - 4.1 s1 t7 - G 027 - room tone - living room 028 - s1.3 s1 t1 - too loud 029 1.3 - t2 better 030 - 1.3 s1 t3- G 031 - 1.3 s1 t4 - best for levels - toned down shouting - use lav 2 or boom not Alan’s lav. 032 - 1.5 s1 t1 - G 033 - 1.5 s1 t2 - G 034 1.5 s1 t3 - G 035 - 1.5 s1 t4 - G maybe a slight but loud - gonna take boom gain down to 35/30 036 - 1.5 s1 t5 - G 037 - 1.5 s1 t6 - Very nice 038 - 1.5 s1 t7 - two takes but slate the same. 039 - 1.4 s1 t1 - G but loud 040 - 1.4 s1 t2 - G but loud shout 041 - 1.4 s1 t3 - G 042 - 6.1 s1 t1 - G 043/42 ? 044 - 6.1 s1 t2 -G 045 - 6.1 s1 t3 - lot of background noise 046 - 6.1 s1 t4 - G 047 - 6.1 s1 t5 - behind the door not in room - different perspective. For flooding in sound. 048 -? 049 - ? 050 - 1.6 s1 t1 - G no lav on Alan 051 - 1.6 s1 t2 - G 052 - 1.6 s1 t3 - G 053 - 1.2 s1 t1 - G 054 - 1.2 s1 t2 - quiet 055 - 1.2 s1 t3 - G 056 - 3.2 s1 t1 - G levels slightly low 057 - 3.2 s1 t2 - G 058 - 3.2 s1 t3 - G 059 - 3.2 s1 t4 - G 060 - close up of alarm ringing 061 - 3.2 s1 t5 - G siren :) 062 - 3.1 s1 t1 - Good but light starting to tick 063 - 3.1 s1 t2 - G 064 - 1.1 s1 t1 - G 065 - 1.1 s1 t2 - G ball sounds 066 - X 067 - 5.1 s1 t1 - G 068 - 5.1 s1 t2 - G 069 - 5.1 s1 t3 - G 070 - 5.1 s1 t4 - G 071 - 5.1 s1 t5 - G 072 - room tone Lucas bedroom

Second day:

001 - 2.2 s1 t1 - G bring William up 002 - 2.2 s2 t2 - Better maybe bring Oscar down (to 30 - lav 3) 003 - 2.2 s3 t3 - G 004 - 2.2 s4 t4 - G 005 - 2.6 s5 t1 - G maybe take Williams up again? 006 - 2.3 s6 t1 - G 007 - 2.3 s7 t2 - G 008 - 2.3 s8 t3 - G 009 - 2.4 s9 t1 - G 010 - 2.4 s10 t2 - G 011 - 2.4 s11 t3 - G 012 - 2.4 s12 t4 - G 014 - 2.5 s13 t1 - G 015 - 2.5 s14 t2 - G 016 - 2.5 s15 t3 - X card changed 017 - 2.5 s15 t3 - G maybe take Oscar’s lav down 018 - 2.5 s16 t4 - X 019 - 2.5 s17 t5 - VG - peaked at the end - big shout 020 - 2.7 s18 t1 - G 021 - 2.7 s19 t2 - G but stomach rumble 022 - 2.7 s20 t4? - G nice pigeon flying 023 - 2.8 s21 t1 - noice 024 - 2.8 s22 t2 - X bus 025 - 2.8 s23 t3 - X 026 - 2.8 s24 t4 - X 027 - 2.8 s26 t6 - G 028 - 2.9 s27 t1 - G 029 - 2.9 s28 t2 - VG 030 - 2.1 s29 t1 - G but giggling 031 - 2.1 s30 t2 - G 032 - 2.1 s31 t3 - G but didn’t record skate being read - clap in though 033 - master s31 t1 - G 034 - master s32 t2 - G 035 - 14 s33 t1 - headphones off 036 - 85 master s34 t1 - X 037 - 85 master s35 t2 - G 038 - 85 master s36 t3 - G 039 - 85 master s37 t4 - G 040 - room tone

Here are some BTS photographs from on set:

It was a great shoot!

[omamervt]

Of course Twitch's motivations for doing this are pretty obvious. They could set whatever standard they wanted for getting a monetized channel and I mean, what are you gonna do? Stream on YouTube? lol. But if you are distracted by meaningless, arbitrary stats designed to be discouraging, you're gonna miss the obvious.

My best stream so far got 10 unique viewers, 3 follows while I was live, and 8 chatters (7, actually, since one was Stream Elements). It only averaged 1.9 views. Which is wild, because it peaked at 4 viewers active in chat at one time, two of whom were there basically the whole stream, and one of whom was there from the halfway point.

But let's compare to other platforms I've also used real quick. Podcast analytics count something as a download if someone they are reasonably certain isn't a bot hit the "download" button. YouTube counts a view after someone has watched 30 seconds of your video, even if it's 4 hours long, and the better their retention, the more YouTube values it when deciding whether to promote your video to someone else.

Twitch also tracks how many people watched, and for how long - how else are they gonna know the precise moment someone un-focused the tab to stop counting them toward your average views?

I can tell you though, everyone who was active in chat was active for a minimum of 15 minutes, some were for a full hour, one guy was for 2.

If I had 7 out of 10 people with 15-minute retention on a 4-hour YouTube video (my average stream length) who all left even just ONE comment? YouTube would see that as 70% customer satisfaction and push my video to literally everyone.

I'm lucky if LiteralCatPod gets one person to start a conversation with me on email/socials every month, and it only earns a collective ~$7/mo on Patreon. Ratings aren't nonexistent but we've had like, 4 of them in ~2.3 years, and only one 1-sentence review. And with an audience somewhere between 40 and 60 people, that's actually an insanely high amount of engagement. It sounds small because we're small-scale. But if we had 7 people reach out and comment on a single episode of the show in some way? It'd be unprecedented, and again, our small audience is already very engaged!

And for another frame of reference, I've heard several marketers say that the conversion rate they expect off most of their campaigns is 2%. Look at their budget, their production value, the amount of market research data they're sitting on. 2%. on this one stream I had less than a fraction of that and pulled 70% engagement and 30% conversion. I'm doing FINE, Twitch!

The thing that sucks about livestreaming, especially on Twitch, is that they have you chasing metrics that don't really represent how well you're doing during your stream in order to get monetized.

In order to get monetized on Twitch, which also is how you gain access to some of the basic user experience tools like channel points, polls, ability to accept bits/subs, custom emotes, and, oh yeah, LIVE ENCODING, which allows your audience to set the video resolution to match what their home internet can handle, you need to achieve 3 goals. And seriously, they're all pretty meaningless metrics for success.

First and foremost, they want you to reach 50 followers. At the time I reached 50 followers, I was still only getting like 1.5 average views/stream. It was really just a hurdle to clear as I worked toward Twitch's arbitrary standard for success. Just because someone follows you doesn't mean you'll ever see them in your stream again. It's not like a follow on YouTube, where they can watch at their leisure, or a (good) social media site, where they'll see posts from the people they're following in sequential order. If they miss you live, that's it, they missed it. Even if they watch you stream a couple hours later, Twitch doesn't reward you for that.

Second, they want you to stream for a certain number of hours over 30 days, and for a certain number of days. It's a fairly low number for basic affiliate status, just 8 hours/month, to be spread out over a minimum of 7 days. But one of the fastest-growing Vtubers I'm following is a cooking streamer who only goes live for about 2 hours/day, maybe 4 days/week. Granted, that's 32 hours/month, and more than enough to reach Partner status, plus this guy is collaborating with people from Vshojo to Hololive nearly every month, but still, when people talk about streaming being a full-time job there's an expectation that putting more time in is better, but from making published content like my podcast, I can tell you that having structure and quality typically wins out over quantity. Someone could go live once a month and still be super popular because of their YouTube videos, for instance.

And finally, the most difficult goal to achieve, the average of 3 viewers per stream. This is... again, a pointless model that says very little about how well you're doing as a small streamer, because it requires you to ignore that Twitch places basically no value on a Live View, which is the thing that's actually most comparable to a view on YouTube or another publishing platform. A live view is basically the view that gets counted when someone watches your stream for a set period of time. On YouTube, this is the number you're supposed to care about. It holds the most value. On Twitch, however, a view is only valuable if the person sticks around for the whole stream, which is rarely realistic. I could stream for 5 hours and have 10 people stop by for half an hour each, then leave as the next person joins, and Twitch would still say my average view count was 1 viewer. Do you understand why that's not useful when 10 people stuck around for 30 minutes, watching you do your live show? YouTube would call that an engaged audience. Most podcast analytics standards I've seen would have said those people listened to the episode.

All that to say idk, maybe it's not as bad as you think and if you fail to see any noticeable progress toward reaching partner after getting affiliate, it could just be you're learning the wrong lessons from the reward incentives.

[etherealxwitch]

Safe Word

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Reader

Summary: After a long day at work you just want to relax but the night has something else in store for you.

Warnings: SMUT (MINORS DNI), angst, some fluff at the end, oral (f receiving), fingering (f receiving), dirty talk, hair pulling, choking, unprotected sex, creampie, breeding kink, use of safe word, eddie feeling guilty, comforting

WC: 2.3

(first thing writing something like this, hope you enjoy!)

Remember to reblog and support the author!

It was a rough day at work and all you wanted to do was come home and relax. You were overworked and every part of your body was so sore. That all changed once you plopped on Eddie’s living room couch and he walked in with a mischievous smile plastered on his face. 

“Hey, baby.” He sat beside you and put your legs in your lap, rubbing them softly. “I’ve got a little idea for us.” 

Even though you were tired, your interest peaked. “Oh, an idea?” You sat up closer to him, your head resting on his broad shoulder. “Are you gonna tell me or keep me guessing?” The look he gave you sent a chill down your spine, his eyes were growing darker by the second. 

“Well,” his fingers traced up your thighs, barely grazing where they met your hips, “I watched porn earlier and..”

Eddie’s voice trailed off, almost as if he didn’t want to say what was on his mind. “I-I wanna get you to squirt for me.”

You choked on air, your face immediately becoming heated. All the things he could have possibly said and you would have never guessed that it would be this. By the time you had barely nodded, just taking in his words, Eddie had already thrown you over his shoulders. “Eddie! Put me down.” You gently smacked his back as he just laughed at you. 

His hand came down and smacked your ass, making you whimper just a bit. “I saw you nod, it’s fair game now.” Eddie laid you down on his bed, hovering over you for a moment? “Are you positive you want to try this? I won’t hold it against you if you decide not to.”

Thinking about it for a quick second, you nodded again. “I’m sure, Eddie.” Your hand came up to cup his cheek before you leaned up and pressed a kiss to his soft and plump lips. “I trust you, and if this is something you want to do then so do I.” 

Quickly, his lips pressed back to yours, peppering kisses across your cheeks and then working down to your neck. You leaned your neck to the side, giving him more access as you brought your hands up to tangle in his curls. You gave them a tug and smirked to yourself when you heard a groan and his breath fanned across your neck. 

“I promise to make you feel so good,” Eddie nibbles along your neck, leaving small hickeys here and there. “Just want you to be nothing but a mess for me.”

“I’m always a mess for you,” you gave him a small wink when he looked up at you. “Just your mess.”

Eddie’s cold hands slipped under your shirt, earning him a small gasp. He pulled his lips away long enough to slip the shirt over your head, but once off, his lips were right back to attacking your skin. They trailed kisses down your neck to your boobs, nibbling over the soft skin. His thumb traced over your clothed nipple, smirking to himself as he got harder with each small touch. You were already putty in his hands and you were sure he was going to have his way with you. 

When you arched forward, Eddie’s hands snaked behind your back and reached for the clasp of your bra. “Let’s get this off you, yeah?” He quickly went to work, easily undoing the clasp and sliding the straps down your shoulders, his lips following them. “Look at you,” his tongue poked out and swiped over one of your hardened nipples. “Just so ready for me, aren’t you?”

You ran your fingers through his hair, tugging just a bit. “So ready, Eddie.” Your hips wiggle against his leg more, dousing a small whimper to escape you. “Want you to make me squirt, Eddie.” 

”I’ll do just that, baby,” his fingers popped the button of your pants before pulling them and your panties down your legs in one swift mood. His eyes found your soaked pussy, watching just how glistening wet you really were. “Fuck, I’m going to devour every bit of you.”

The second his tongue swiped across your swollen clit, his name left your lips. His plump lips wrapped around and suckled at it, making an obscene sound as he did so. “That’s it, baby.” Eddie pinned your legs back, your thighs resting against your boobs, “make those pretty noises for me.” 

This new position allowed him to pump his tongue in and out of you so deeply, you could already feel your first orgasm of the night building up. “Oh my god, yes.” You bucked your hips against his tongue as he pulled it out and flattened it against your clit. “P-please don’t stop.”

Eddie didn’t answer you, instead he sucked on your clit more; harder than the time before. He shook his head side to side, gently pulling and nibbling at it. Your body couldn’t take it any longer and before you knew it, you were cumming against his tongue. “Y-yes!.” You ground your hips, riding out your orgasm for as long as you could before Eddie pulled his face away, it being covered in nothing but your cum and his spit.

“Hope you don’t think we’re done yet,” Eddie stood up from the bed and stripped himself of his clothes. His hard cock sprung up and made a wet sound, precum leaking from the slit. “We’re gonna make you cum until you’re squirting all over this bed.”

You barely had time to recover from the first orgasm before you felt the hard tip of Eddie’s cock rub against your clit. “You ready?” All you had to do was nod your head before Eddie was slowly sliding in, giving you a chance to feel every part of his throbbing cock inside your very soaked pussy. “God, such a perfect pussy for me. Isn’t that right, baby?”

“Uhuh, it’s your perfect pussy.” You looked down at where the two of you were connected, his cock sliding in and out of your pussy at the right pace.

Eddie’s rough hands grabbed at your hips, his thumbs running over the soft skin before pulling you against his cock. Each thrust of his hips meeting yours was sending his cock into your g-spot repeatedly. Your mind goes to mush between his thrusts and dirty talk. 

The sound of skin slapping and wetness could be heard echoing off the walls of the small room, adding to the pleasure just a bit. “Yeah, you hear that, baby?” His thumb finds your clit, rubbing at it in time with his thrusts. “That’s all you.”

You reach down and squeeze your boobs together, pulling and pinching your sensitive nipples. “Feels s-so good, Eddie.” The words you spoke came out barely coherent, you were too focused on the pleasure. You were already so close, your second orgasm quickly creeping up on you. “Wanna cum on your cock, please!”

“Let me hear you beg better than that,” his hand ran up your body, stopping to get a good grip on your neck. “And maybe I’ll think about it.” He smirked down at you, knowing that you could beg a lot better than you already have. 

“Eddie, god, please! I’ll do anything you want, I promise.” To make matters worse, Eddie’s thumb had added more pressure to your clit, adding to the pleasure inside you. “Baby… please.” 

“Anything? C’mon baby, cum all over my cock.” 

That was all you needed to hear. Your thighs shook around Eddie as your second orgasm tore through every nerve of your body. A silent moan left you as Eddie fucked you through the orgasm, the squelching sound between you two growing louder by the second. 

“That’s it, cream on my cock, baby.” Eddie’s hips slowly stilled as your body began to recover and stop shaking. He pulled out long enough to flip you over and slide right back into you. “Your cum is making it even more easy to slide so deep inside you.”

Your head fell against the pillows below you and Eddie didn’t like that. He raked your hand through your hair and pulled your head up by your hair, “no, no. I wanna hear those moans, baby.” His hips smacked into yours rough, his heavy balls slapping against your clit. 

“E-Eddie, yes. Right fucking there.” 

“Yeah? Right here?” Eddie thrusted again right into your g-spot causing your body to jolt. “Keep clenching around my cock, baby. You’re gonna make me cum.” His body leaned over yours, his tongue licking up your spine. “Want me to cum in your pussy? Want me to fill you full and get you pregnant?” Eddie moved your hair from your face and kissed your neck. 

“Oh, f-fuck yes! Please cum in me.” Your hips bucked back against Eddie’s cock and clenched around him. He groaned right by your ear, your body shaking in response. “Want it to leak out of me.” You whined, feeling his cock start to pulse inside you. 

“I-I’m cumming, shit.” Eddie’s one hand on your hip gripped at you harder, sure enough to leave bruises for you to see tomorrow morning. “Cum with me baby, I know you want to.” 

Eddie’s hand left your hair and found your clit, rubbing at a vigorous pace before he felt you clench around his cock. You felt yourself cum around it, your body going limp and falling forward against the mattress. “H-holy fuck.”

When Eddie pulled out, you could feel your mixed cum drip out of you and down your shaking thighs. “Look at that, just a leaking little slut.” He kissed the globe of your ass before shoving the cum back in with two of his fingers. “Don’t want this going to waste, do we?”

Your whole body was sensitive, every nerve on your body felt like it was on fire. 

“I know you got more in you, baby.” Eddie’s free hand smacked against your ass. You yelped in pleasure and Eddie took that opportunity to slide another finger inside your pussy, crooking them perfectly. “Want you to squirt for me, baby. Want you to give me everything you got.” 

Each thrust of your body quickly turned from pleasure to something else. You felt bubbling up inside your stomach, but instead of the feeling to cum it was becoming painful. You tried your hardest to push it to the back of your mind, but when Eddie added his thumb to the mix, you had to let out a gasp. 

“I-I can’t,” you pushed away a little, but Eddie only finger fucked you harder. 

Eddie tutted at you, smacking at your clit with your other hand. “I know you can, just let go for me.” 

You shook your head, gripping the sheets below you. The pain became way too much to handle and before you could realize what was happening, you blurred out your safe word. “R-red, red!”

Eddie stopped his movements, quickly pulling his fingers out of you and away from your body. The whole room went quiet, so quiet that you could hear a pen drop from the other side of the room. Tears pricked out of your eyes and slowly fell down your cheeks and Eddie’s face immediately softened. You could see the fear in his eyes; the fear that he hurt you. 

“Baby, I-, fuck.” He moved from the bottom of the bed to sit beside you, pulling your body flush against his. “I’m so fucking sorry, I just thought..” 

Eddie tried to rub your thigh soothingly, but you scooted away. Any touch head your pussy was too much for you, your whole body feeling off. 

“I just wanted to try something new and I-,” Eddie tried his best to apologize but he felt so bad that he didn’t have any idea of what to say. “Do you need anything? I can get you some water, or? Are you okay? Do you need me to leave?” He went to get out of the bed, but you reached a shaky hand from him, beckoning him to stay in bed with you. “I’ll stay, okay?”  

Eddie’s mind was rushing a mile a minute. He never thought this would happen and he felt so stupid for pushing too far. He knew that he should’ve never brought up squirting to you because now you were too overstimulated. Eddie never meant for this to happen. 

You nuzzled your head against Eddie’s chest and sniffled, wiping the stray tears away. “Baby, I’m so fucking sorry.” He rubbed your head and kissed your cheek, wiping some tears that you missed. 

“No, no. I’m sorry, I should’ve kept going or-,” Eddie immediately stopped you, shaking his head. This wasn’t your fault and he wasn’t about to have you apologize for something that he did. 

“God, no. This is far from your fault, you did nothing wrong, okay?” He pulled away to look into your eyes, looking for an answer that you understood. “Never think that this was your fault, I pushed too far.” 

Eddie’s fingers traced shapes against your skin as he felt you heart slow to a normal rate against his chest. You had finally calmed down and he was thankful that you did. He wouldn’t be able to leave with himself if he actually hurt you or pushed you away too far. 

“Maybe next time we take it slow?” You wrapped your hand around his and played with his rings absentmindedly. “Neither of us take the blame for this and learn from this?” When you looked into Eddie’s eyes, you saw a bit of hope behind him. You didn’t want him to think that you two would never have sex again or anything, you just needed some time. 

“I love you so fucking much,” he kissed your forehead and pulled a cover over the both of you. “I’m still so sorry… I’m just glad you spoke up. Don’t want you to ever feel like you have to endure anything for me.” 

You gave him a soft smile, your body finally feeling normal again. “I love you too, Eddie.”

tagging: @onehotgreasymechanic @dixontardis @thefreakofhawkins86 @hellfire-isnt-it @wroteclassicaly @magnoliabutters @corrodedcorpsess @trashmouth-richie @sherrylyn628

[thehumanarkle]

I posted 284 times in 2021

86 posts created (30%)

198 posts reblogged (70%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 2.3 posts.

I added 310 tags in 2021

#reblogged - 194 posts

#arkle studios - 27 posts

#asked and answered - 27 posts

#shameless cashgrab - 12 posts

#youtube videos - 11 posts

#incorrect quotes - 10 posts

#america - 8 posts

#youtube - 7 posts

#star trek online - 7 posts

#tier ranking - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#the bill we got should've been bigger but considering what we usually get from the hypercaptialists in d.c. this is actually pretty decent

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

See the full post

11 notes • Posted 2021-08-07 22:11:10 GMT

#4

Oh, I am so there.

14 notes • Posted 2021-06-22 01:41:16 GMT

#3

I’ve complained about ableism on the Left, but this video addresses it better than I probably ever could.

This comment on the video in particular stuck out to me.

As an autistic and mentally ill leftist these are definitely things I’ve been thinking about for a while. The peak moment for me was around a year ago when this clip was going viral on leftist twitter of a dsa meeting in which someone literally just asked for basic accommodations to their sensory issues. the almost universal response from the online left was that it was “cringe” and “embarrassing” and “making us look bad”. I remember in specific one very grossly, explicitly ableist comment like “you can’t even handle people clapping but sure, you’re gonna start a revolution.”

Reminds me of when Rose Twitter attacked a wheelchair user for the crime of reporting the Uber driver who endangered her life by ditching her on the side of the road. She got called a grifter, bourgeois, and all sorts of garbage. Additionally, many of them seemed to operate under the delusion that people just won’t need wheelchairs anymore once we abolish capitalism.

Not how that works, broski, but okay.

17 notes • Posted 2021-05-24 16:16:37 GMT

#2

I am totally on board with Star Trek Online’s trans flag Tribble.

336 notes • Posted 2021-06-22 18:02:14 GMT

#1

Screenshot from Twitter. Text reads;

“August 30th: It’s Mary Shelley’s birthday. Celebrate by creating something you can’t control. Bonus points if it wants to kill you.”

675 notes • Posted 2021-08-30 14:42:47 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[the-faultofdaedalus]

I posted 1,900 times in 2021

584 posts created (31%)

1316 posts reblogged (69%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 2.3 posts.

I added 167 tags in 2021

#anonymous - 27 posts

#yes - 24 posts

#yeah - 22 posts

#my art - 17 posts

#12 type a/b/o - 14 posts

#oc stuffs - 14 posts

#lmao - 13 posts

#yy’vae - 12 posts

#i love this - 12 posts

#them - 12 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i just think its very fun and sexy to give the fave characters all of the mental health issues. and all of the physical ones. faves get diag

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

the expo wasn’t a party it wasn’t an “ego trip” it was a year-long science fair that was intended to be running for longer than tony was gonna be alive.

he didn’t decide to get it running again for him. he set it up for the first time since howard died so that it would be easier for someone to find his replacement.

261 notes • Posted 2021-08-06 05:41:55 GMT

#4

peak MIT tonyrhodey is both of them aggressively trying to go dad-mode on the other

274 notes • Posted 2021-04-19 19:21:58 GMT

#3

ok but the fact that weeping angels have such a sophisticated defence system (the quantum locking thing) indicates that they NEED that protection, which suggests that on wherever their home world is, they’re prey to at least SOME other organism

and the concept of something that hunts weeping angels... horrifying

292 notes • Posted 2021-05-19 18:05:53 GMT

#2

bc i love weirdly literal fantasy theologies: a god is a living being, the physical inorganic world is the tissues of that god, living things are basically gut bacteria. angels are functions of the immune system

294 notes • Posted 2021-08-12 22:25:09 GMT

#1

I had a dream that the king and the queen of a small country had a daughter. They needed a son, a first-born son, so in secret, without telling anyone of their child’s gender, they travelled to the nearby woods that were rumoured to house a witch.

They made a deal with that witch. They wanted a son, and they got one. A son, one made out of clay and wood, flexible enough to grow but sturdy enough to withstand its destined path, enchanted to look like a human child. The witch asked for only one thing, and that was for their daughter.

They left the girl readily.

79227 notes • Posted 2021-03-07 03:36:13 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[whenyouknowyouknow]

GOLDEN music video analysis

First of all, DISCLAIMER: These are merely the things that I noticed and what I think they could mean. I do not claim that these are H’s brain childs.

Second of all I might have written some stuff double, but I really wanted to publish this before TPWK drops. So YAY to that.

Third of all. Sorry this is really long ^^* Now lets start.

The two main parts that I noticed about the MV:

there is a shit ton of cuts

there are 7 different characters

Let’s have a look at the later first

THE CHARACTERS

In order of appearance

1. The Runner

1.1. clothes

white oversized shirt

half unbuttoned

shorts in soft sand and red colours, one of a kind feedsack shorts (hybrid seeds)

white (but dirty) canvas shoes with soft pink and white laces

gold cross necklace

1.2. symbolism

lots of skin visible through shorts, half-open shirt and shirt being half see-through = openness

canvas shoes are well worn and dirty = steadiness/consistency and loyalty/devotion

shorts: genuine hybrid seeds (Hybrid seeds are bred for higher yield and better resistance against pests and disease. Their seeds will not produce the same plant as the parent)

colours:

white - associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, virginity, perfection

beige - neutral, calm, relaxing

pale pink - soothing

1.3. behaviour

main protagonist

runs after the camera

looks at the camera nearly all the time

Smiles/sings along/runs hard

chases camera, sometimes under strain but most often running with it

He is the thread that leads through the MV (appears a lot in the beginning, gets strewn in until the end, is the first and the last)

only one not wearing pearls

1.4. special moments

“I know you were way too (camera changes from full-frontal to frog perspective to show the bright sky) bright for me”

“loving you’s the antidote, golden” (greets away from camera)

2:35 not running (during the 28 goldens) ruffling hair and looking around as if uncertain how to proceed, “Because I’m so golden” turns and runs away from the camera, “You’re so golden” camera switches back to frontal

Gonna put the rest under the break because this thing got massive and long

2. Suited Up

2.1. clothes

light blue/turquoise blazer

shirt striped white and soft blue

tartan flares

white lace gloves (not always)

white (but dirty) canvas shoes with soft pink and white laces

gold cross necklace, light blue&white bead necklace (Millefiori+Freshwater pearls)

2.2. symbolism

patterned trousers - giving balance to the monochrome jacket, the pattern is very small, you have to look close to see it properly

striped shirt - two contrasting colours, stripes were historically used for outcasts and people that needed to be contained (servants, jesters, prostitutes, ...) in this case the contrast is low (white and light blue) and not always right away visible

non-formal suit, no tie, top buttons are open to reveal jewelry, sometimes with lace gloves - hides most of himself but not in an uptied way. There is a playfulness about it with the top buttons undone and the lace gloves that do cover his hands but also not. He plays peek-a-boo with how much he reveals

canvas shoes are well worn and dirty = steadiness/consistency and loyalty/devotion

Colours:

light blue - serenity, stability, inspiration, wisdom, calming, reliability but also sadness

white - associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, virginity, perfection

brown - reliability, elegance, security, healing, home, grounding, foundations, stability, warmth, honesty

2.3. behaviour

goofy and expressive

lots of dad dancing and acting out musical parts

very flirty

   2.4. special moments

gloves: in the beginning and the gesturing along with the chimes

no gloves: dorky dancing and car hood flirting

“Of who I am and all I’ve ever known” dorky dancing

hides his hands when he flirts with the camera while singing “I don’t want to be alone” 

grinning dancing, camera twirls around him, he twirls and lands on a car hood, flirting with both people inside (they are not distinguishable), his foot is raised up coquettishly, pan around to his face, he smiles broadly

3. Car Driver

3.1. clothes

shirt striped white and light blue

lace gloves

light blue&white bead necklace (Millefiori+Freshwater pearls)

3.2. symbolism

the jacket is gone, leaving the striped shirt in full view

shirt not buttoned up

lace gloves - protection vs being open, purity vs debauchery

separated from camera through windshield - distancing himself from the onlooker

Colours:

light blue - serenity, stability, inspiration, wisdom, calming, reliability but also sadness

white - associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, virginity, perfection

3.3. behaviour

does not smile

sings and seems mostly neutral and concentrated on driving

3.4. special moments

“take me back to the light” in tunnel, hard cut to outside tunnel, hard cut to inside tunnel emerging from tunnel

last line: “I don’t want to be alone”

4. Waterboy

4.1. clothes

swim shorts striped blue/off-white

gold cross necklace, blue beads necklace (Millefiori necklace+Freshwater pearls)

4.2. symbolism

lots of skin, open hands stretched out towards camera - very open

barefoot - innocence/childhood, freedom from real-life requirements

switch from light blue to a stronger blue (necklace and shorts) - emphasize on that colour

Colours:

blue - serenity, stability, inspiration, wisdom, calming, reliability but also sadness

white - associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, virginity, perfection

4.3. behaviour

only one depicted in 3 different ways (1. outside of water filmed from inside water, 2. inside water filmed from inside the water, 3. inside water filmed from outside the water)

outside of water: squatting, facing the camera, strong gestures and mimic, slightly crazy

inside the water: diving, sinking, floating, often with eyes shut

Water is used as something to either hide in (camera) or be surrounded with (H)

4.4. special moments

first appearance: “I don’t want to be alone” reaches for and sings to the camera (which is under water and peaking out) “I don’t want to be alone” dives into the water

“I can feel it take a hold” under water, only eyes above waterline and out of view from the camera

“out of my head” starts shaking his head crazily “and I know that you’re scared because hearts get broken” camera sinks deeper under water, when it’s under, H hits the water

“I know that you’re scared because I’m so OPEN” hits the water

5. Fishermans Hat

5.1. clothes

yellow fisherman’s hat

Cross necklace, white bead necklace (Millefiori+Freshwater pearls)

long flared trousers beige with blue flower print

brown belt

white (but dirty) canvas shoes with soft pink and white laces

5.2. symbolism

first appearance of yellow, only hints of blue in the fine flower print

upper body naked, lower body completely covered - ambivalence between showing and not showing but very clearly divided. Covered parts are not guessable bc even the form is hidden

Colours:

yellow - most luminous colour, stands for happiness, optimism, enlightenment, creativity, sunshine but also betrayal and cowardice

blue - serenity, stability, inspiration, wisdom, calming, reliability but also sadness

5.3. behaviour

either pressing his lips together or mouthing along to the instrumentals

swaying to the music

stands on various places on the shore rocks in different distances

lots of cuts

5.4. special moments

only appears during the 28 goldens and the following “Because I’m so open”

only once turned away from the camera 2:38 (extremely short cut, only visible if slowed down to the max)

6. Crystal ball

6.1. clothes

nail polish gold/silver

white beret with black bow/trim

Cross necklace, white bead necklace (Millefiori+Freshwater pearls)

6.2. symbolism

only clothing is the hat, crystal ball is center - technically very open but what you see is upside down and distorted

he holds the crystal ball himself - the distortion and turning upside down of what we see is in his hands

Colours:

white - associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, virginity, perfection

6.3. behaviour

being upside down

sings along

only fast cuts to him

6.4. special moments

first appearance after “Because hearts get broken”

last appearance “I know that you’re scared because I’m so open” (analysis of that part in the extras)

7. Reflection

7.1. clothes

swim shorts

7.2. symbolism

the person itself is only seen in contour and upside down - no real information and lots of distortion and distraction (upside down, reflection on the water, tinted red and yellow, clouds and stones mix into the picture)

Colours:

yellow - most luminous colour, stands for happiness, optimism, enlightenment, creativity, sunshine but also betrayal and cowardice

blue - serenity, stability, inspiration, wisdom, calming, reliability but also sadness

red - love, lust, sexuality, sensitivity, romance, joy, strength, leadership, courage, anger, danger, malice, wrath, determination

7.3. behaviour

this could be the 4th version of the Water Boy but as there are so many differences I put him extra

we only ever see the dark reflection of him

always upside down

dances in swaying motions

7.4. special moments

the whole composition looks a bit like an eye

appears 3 times during the 28 goldens

Constants in all roles are:

silver and golden nail polish

Both stand for wealth

silver additionally stands for kindness, psychic abilities and is believed to be the mirror to the soul, helping us to see ourselves as others see us

gold associated with illumination, love, compassion, courage, magic and wisdom but also sparkle and glamour

golden cross necklace

pearls (and Millefiori beads in light blue or blue)

only the Runner doesn’t wear them (it’s not clear for the Reflection but based on the shorts I’d say the styling is the same as for the Waterboy)we all know how H is wearing pearls now basically everywhere so him wearing them in the MV is no surprise

Pearls are said to attract wealth and luck, offer protection, balance karma, strengthen relationships, symbolize purity, generosity, integrity, loyalty, used for purifying wate

The millefioriare glas beads that depict flowers. Flowers symbolize fertility, health, flourishing

these necklaces are pretty and colour coordinated to the outfits but they also seem to be a blessing

when there are shoes it’s white (but dirty) canvas shoes with soft pink and white laces

which can stand for steadiness/consistency and loyalty/devotion

Main themes

a journey that starts in a tunnel and ends on a open road, both (beginning and ending) are unprovoked

conflict between openness and secrecy, how much is shown and how much of that is the reality?

Now to the cuts

The editing of the video is brilliant and hides so many little tidbits that I fear that I have seen only half of them (I meantioned the most noticable ones in the Roles), so here goes nothing

There are 156 cuts

The highest concentration of cuts is during the 28 goldens until “Because I’m so open.”

The biggest cluster of cuts is at 2:43 (7 cuts) and 2:44 (6 cuts) “Because I’m so open”

All cuts visualized

Runner - skin tone

Suited Up - royal blue

Car Driver: Tunnel - dark red, Outside - sky blue

Waterboy: Outside - pale green, Under Water - dark green, In Water - bluish green

Crystal Ball - brown

Fishermans Hat - yellow

Reflection - purple

The last dark red cut should be morphing into a sky blue (just couldn’t figure out how to do that)

The lead up to the climax starts shortly after the first appearence of the crystal ball (5th row from the bottom)

the 28 Goldens start with the Suited Up blue in the same row

All appearences of the Fichermans Hat are only during the 28 Goldens and in the climax

Now let’s talk about the climax

the 28 Goldens end with the last appearence of the Reflection (purple)

The following 5 seconds are the climax

Cristal ball “I know” Suited up (full body, looking to the right, lips pressed together, steps forward)

“That you’re scared” Runner (stands,looks at camera, hands on hips)

“Be” Suited Up (portrait, looks at camera, slightly upwards)

“cause” Suited Up (portrait, looks at camera, slightly downward)

“I” Crystal ball

“‘m”

Suited Up (portrait, looks at camera slightly downwards)

Waterboy (in water, head above, hands strechted out to a V)

Fishermans Hat (half body, raising arms, head tilted to the right)

“so” Crystal ball (lowering the Crystal ball)

“o”

Waterboy (in water, head above, hands slowly sinking, moving head backwards as if cheering)

Crystal ball (without Crystal ball, comes into focus)

Waterboy (in water, head above, moving head backwards as if cheering, wave rolls into the focus, Waterboy not visible)

Crystal ball (without Crystal ball)

Crystal ball (super short flicker, with Crystal ball again)

“pen” Waterboy (outside water, hits the water)

Runner (turnes away from camera and runs away)

So what is the story? At first it might look as if all the different characters are random and the MV only being about a nice summer day, singing about a love and not having an underlying story but when we look deeper there is a lot to unpack.

When we look at the distribution of how much time each character got and when which character was the focus it becomes clear that the Runner is the main protagonist. He is the one that starts us off, carries us through and brings it to the end. He quite literally runs us through the MV. He is the red thread tying it all together. He is also the only one not wearing pearls, which sets him apart from all the characters but also from H himself.

Looking at the other characters he is one of only two that actually smile. But while the Suited up character is, well... suited up, literally hiding most parts of himself from the viewer, even going as far as wearing gloves, the Runner is wearing loose clothes, short or see through and not buttoned up. He is showing quite a lot of himself and he is not self conscious about it or coquettish or anything really because he is focusing on running. Pulling us through the music video by running towards us(?), the camera, really. He is also not chasing. There are parts where he pushes himself to run faster but it’s never a chase. Always running with the camera.

The only time he breaks the pattern is during the instrumental part, the 28 Goldens, where he stops running, looking around as if questioning where to go. He picks back up running directly after the climax “I know that you’re scared because I’m so open” but this time he runs away from the camera as if choosing a different path. Because maybe he doesn’t want the other to be scared and choses to go back or maybe he wasn’t actually open and wants to change that by retracing his steps. But with the next cut to him he is again running towards the camera. It’s not clear if anything changed and then he just stops running. The camera getting further away from him. He looks on, there are no sad feelings.

Of all the other characters only one shows no signs of hiding anything.

Suited up is dorky, expressive and flirty while also playing with the contrasts of a full suit but a not fully buttoned shirt, with lace gloves that hide him but also give peeks of him, with hiding his hands behind his back while flashing his dimpled smile. He looks genuine, he probably is ... to some extent. There are parts of himself that he doesn’t show but he is charming about it. Playing with it.

The Driver hides behind his windshield, also wearing the lace gloves but he is not charming or even smiling. He drives. Somewhere. He definitely drives from the dark tunnel into the light while singing “take me back to the light” and he ends his appearances with the words “I don’t want to be alone”. He shows us his vulnerable side by telling us his hopes but there is no deep connection, he keeps a distance.

The Fishermans hat seems open and for a certain part he is, a bare chest with all his history etched into his skin is quite clearly open. But his lower body is so effectively covered, we can’t even see the exact shape of his legs due to the trousers cut, or if he is even wearing any shoes. that it feels like a statement of “yes you can see part of me but the other part I keep absolutely hidden.” He keeps his lips well pressed together. Jumping closer and further back again with each cut. Making it hard to place him or foresee what to expect next.

The Crystal ball is a study in hiding. Yes the part of the body we see is naked and seems very open, but it’s also upside down and distorted by the ball that he holds himself. And even the part of the climax where he lowers the ball to reveal himself ends in a short flicker of the ball being back, distortion in place. That is the last appearance of this character.

The Reflection is by far the most mysterious. We don’t see anything of him except for his outline. He is a reflection in a pond, distorted and tinted by the other reflections and the stones under water as well as the whole scene being tinted by red and orange. There is no way to get any real information from that one.

And then there is the Waterboy. The one in just swim shorts. The one pulling faces at something, someone, in the water. The one talking directly to the camera “and I know that you’re scared because hearts get broken” while the camera sinks lower. The one jumping into the water “I don’t want to be alone” and “I can feel it take a hold” while being under water. There is no clarification who he is talking too/about but it is clear that he wants to be close and closer. Wants to surround himself with it. This openness is especially stark as every other side character is a version of hiding in some way or the other.

The clash of all those characters hiding, distorting, playing peek-a-boo with how much they reveal and how much of their personality is reality and that one honest open character that wants someone so much that he is diving for them. Disregarding all the other characters because he is the one that scares the other by being open.

And still the last side character making an appearance is the one suited up, he smiles and is charming, flirting with people that can’t be seen, we can see them waving and really they could be anyone that wants his attention. He twirls, drapes himself over the hood of their car, letting his dimples pop, delicately placing his chin in his hand and raising his foot. It’s the longest continuous scene in the music video and is followed only by the Runner stopping to run, ending his part of escorting us through the story.

[thechosenburrito]

Intro to Love: 2.2-The Midnight Ghost

Word Count: 1,296

Description:

Xochi and Sarah investigate a scream for help and learn more than they bargained for.

Author’s Note:

Yes!  I’m officially all caught up!  Enjoy and get ready for the next chapter coming out this week!

Previous Chapter: 2.1-The Last of the Simple Days

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Xochi pushed the door to her room open and flicked on the lights.

"Sorry for the mess."

She quickly started packing her backpack with some extra clothes while Sarah peeked around her room.  She spotted a few pictures on the wall of Xochi in a marching uniform with her arm around a girl with blond hair.

"Ooooh, you were a band kid?" Sarah asked, pointing at the picture.

Xochi pulled the picture and a few others off the wall, flipping through them and showing them to Sarah.

"Heh, yeah. Definitely a band kid.  It was a lot of fun going to contests and football games.   It's kinda funny... I was at a football game when...you know...the incident," Xochi trailed off a bit. "Everything changed that day."

She sighed and stuck the pictures back on the wall.

"I was walking back to my car after work," Sarah said flatly.  "They asked if anyone wanted to stay another hour for extra cash and I said yeah.  Probably should've just gone home that day!"

Sarah chuckled a bit.

Xochi swung her bag over her shoulder.

"Ok, I got everything.  Let's get going."

Xochi turned out the lights and she and Sarah made their way outside.  The sun was already starting to set as they headed to Sarah's dorm. Xochi could barely understand what was happening.  Over the course of a weekend, she'd gone from only have one friend to having two, potentially three but for the life of her, she could not get a read on if Carson was just being friendly or actually wanted to be friends.  If she was a gambling man she'd probably go with the former.  Sarah seemed different somehow, maybe more genuine.  Could it really be possible that Sarah wanted to be friends?  If she was just being nice, would she really just let her spend the night even though they barely knew each other?  Xochi, of course, did consider the possibility that Sarah was secretly some kind of murder and she was about to get her own episode on a crime drama, but it was too late.

"Ok, we're here.  Let's drop off our stuff and grab dinner really quick!" Sarah was beaming.  "Let's go!  I'm starving!"

The two made their way toward the entrance of the building when they heard a scream.

"SOMEONE HELP!"

Sarah and Xochi shared a glance before bolting off in the direction of the scream.  Xochi's lungs burned as she desperately looked around at all the buildings.  She heard a door slam shut and stopped dead in her tracks.  She spotted a building, the math building, with a light still on, despite every building closing early on Sundays.

"Sarah look! Over there!" she yelled, pointing at the building.

They ran over and tried the handle.

"Shit. It's locked,"  Sarah said through gritted teeth.

Xochi pressed her hands to the glass on the door to look inside.  The lights were only on in the hallway right in front of them.

"Hmmm..."

Xochi backpedaled a bit and looked up at the windows on the upper floors.

"Up there!  On the third floor!  There's a light on!"

Sarah tried the door again, swearing under her breath.

"Hold on!  We don't even know if she's in there!" Xochi said, running back to the door.

Sarah reached into her pocket and started trying to pick the lock with a bobby pin.  Xochi looked around for anyone watching them.

"We can definitely get arrested for this!  We should get help!"

Sarah kept fiddling with the bobby pin and groaned after hearing it snap in the door.  She sighed.

"We are the help!  Who's gonna believe us if we tell them?" she said, digging around in her backpack.

It was Xochi's turn to sigh.  She did one last look around before stepping up to the door.

"Then let's get inside."

Xochi placed her hand on the door and took a deep breath.  Her hand passed through the door to the other side and felt for a handle.  She bit her lip and. It was a push door.  Xochi took another deep breath and stepped straight through the door.  She looked around, the hallway was completely empty.  She turned around and pushed the door open for Sarah.

"Hurry, let's go!" Xochi whispered.

"Good thing you're here!"  Sarah beamed.

They jogged down the hallway.  The only other lights were coming from the stairwell.  They climbed the stairs at a slightly slower pace.  Xochi wished more than ever that she'd brought her inhaler instead of leaving it in her room.   They got to the third floor and that it was completely dark except for a single lit room at the end of the hallway.

Sarah carefully shut the door behind them and motioned for them to move forward.  They crept slowly toward the open door.  Xochi started hearing voices coming from the room, a male and a female.

"...too risky...caught..."

"It's fine..."

They got closer.

"...they could trace it back to us!"

"If you're going to keep complaining you can leave...but not without paying your share."

Xochi heard the sound of a shoe scuffing against the linoleum floor, sending a squeak echoing through the hallway.  She looked back at Sarah to see that she looked ghostly pale.  The voices in the room went completely silent and Xochi heard footsteps heading towards the edge of the hallway.  She turned around and grabbed Sarah by the hand.  Xochi started concentrated on her breathing and watched as a girl stepped out of the room.  She was a whole head taller than Xochi and very muscular.  She scanned the hallway in front of her.  She took a few steps forward, getting closer and closer to Xochi.  Xochi felt Sarah squeezing her hand as the girl step so close to them that she was only a foot away from them.  She squinted a bit, taking one last hard look right through Xochi's head.

"Looks like nothing!" she yelled, turning around and heading back towards the room.

Xochi took a shaky breath.

"Hello!" She called.  "Is anyone there?"

Sarah had a death grip on Xochi's hand.

"Someone's here!"  The girl yelled.  "Let's go!"

She booked it down the hallways right past Xochi and Sarah.  They both saw a scrawny figure chase after her with laptop and notebook tucked under his arm.  He seemed to be just a bit shorter than Xochi with choppy black hair and square glasses.  Xochi didn't move until they were both in the stairwell and the door closed behind them.  The second it shut, Xochi let out a deep breath and collapsed against the wall.

"...I'm officially ...spent..." Xochi managed, trying to catch her breath.

"Holy shit!  That was amazing!" Sarah said helping Xochi back up.

They headed inside the still-lit room.  It was a small lecture hall with a few small desks and a large one at the front with a whiteboard.

"Damn," Sarah muttered. "No one else is here."

"Let's look around, maybe they left something behind," Xochi said, checking under some of the desks.

"Do you really think they had anything to do with the scream we heard?  They really just seemed like some nerds who snuck in here to study," Sarah replied, making her way towards the front desk.

"I mean,  the door was locked when we got here.  The building's supposed to be closed anyways."  Xochi stood up.  "Nothing over here."

Xochi helped Sarah peek around the desk.

"Look at this!"  Sarah stood up holding a bit of paper.  "These guys dropped a sticky note."

Xochi walked over and peaked at the note.

"It's just a list of names," Xochi said.  She started reading off the list of names.

"Emmaline Stanely, Miranda Rodriguez,  Devon Pride..."

Xochi felt her throat tighten and her stomach sink.

"...Carson Williams."

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Next Chapter: 2.3 -  The End is Near

a/n:

Uh oh!  Carson is in trouble.  Hope it works out for him.  Anyways, new chapter coming out this week! Hopefully on Saturday.  Also, if any of you guys have any ideas for getting support for my work please let me know.  I’ve heard of Ko-fi but don’t know much about it.

[gumnut-logic]

We’ll Be Home For Christmas 3.1

Title: We’ll be home for Christmas

Day Three - If not for the courage of the fearless crew – Part 1 Prologue | 1.1 | 1.2 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.3

Author: Gumnut

23 - 27 Dec 2019

Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS

Rating: Teen

Summary: The boys can’t fly home for Christmas, so they have to find another way.

Word count: 3823

Spoilers & warnings: language and so, so much fluff. Science!Gordon. Artist!Virgil, Minor various ships, mostly background.

Timeline: Christmas Season 3, I have also kinda ignored the main storyline of Season 3. The boys needed a break, so I gave them one. Post season 3B, before Season 3C cos we haven’t seen it yet.

Author’s note: For @scattergraph. This is my 2019 TAG Secret Santa fic :D I hope you enjoy it.

Please note that I am not a scientist, only an artist with mad librarian skillz. I may have stretched a few facts in places here, for which I apologise, though I did research a hell of a lot to get this written (at one point I was only writing one or two lines before I had to research another fact…it was a very long process). I hope you enjoy it anyway. :D

Many thanks to @vegetacide and @scribbles97 for cheering me on and their wonderful support through this craziness. And to @onereyofstarlight for geeking out with me over the setting.

Disclaimer: Mine? You’ve got to be kidding. Money? Don’t have any, don’t bother.

-o-o-o-

 Day Three - If not for the courage of the fearless crew

 When Virgil woke late the next morning, the yacht was already in motion. He sighed as he crawled out of bed, body groaning the entire way.

Stumbling into the living area, he didn’t even have to look for the coffee. John simply met him halfway and handed him a mug.

He inhaled it. The hot beverage ran down his throat and within minutes his brain was beginning to boot.

A hand landed on John’s shoulder in honest gratitude. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Okay, so that grin was a little smug, but the coffee was worth it. That and it was a novelty to have John for breakfast at any time. He squeezed his brother’s shoulder, blaming not enough caffeine for the sudden soppy.

His brother frowned at him. “How are you feeling?”

Okay, that fixed the soppy. He rolled his eyes. “I’m fine.”

The frown turned into a smirk. “Sure. Would you like some eggs? I hid the last of the bacon from Alan, so there is some if you like.”

The soppy returned. You’d think he was on drugs or something. Must be the sea air. “Thanks, John.”

His brother peered at him a little more before ushering him to sit down and busying himself in the kitchenette. It wasn’t long before the tantalising smell of bacon sizzling wafted through the living area.

“Hey! I thought we were out of bacon!” Alan was not impressed as he strode in, game console in hand. “You lied to me!”

John snorted as he placed the plate full of bacon and eggs in front of Virgil along with a glass of orange juice. “So, you would have eaten Virgil’s share?” The arched eyebrow was challenging.

“Nooo.”

“Sure, Alan.” John turned around and walked back into the kitchen obviously not believing his brother.

Alan sat down across from Virgil. “I wouldn’t, honest, Virg.”

Perhaps his littlest brother’s brain was not connected to his hand because Virgil had to slap it away from his plate almost immediately. “Sure, Alan.”

The bacon was good and the eggs just right. Mouth full, “John, this is divine.”

The snort from the kitchenette was loud, but the only comment he received in reply.

Virgil slapped Alan’s hand away again and glared at him. “So, who’s winning the game.”

Alan was immediately distracted. “I was, but then John pulled a stunt with a rogue asteroid, which I’m not entirely sure was legal...” His voice rose specifically in the direction of the kitchenette.

“Game allowed it.”

“Yeah, well, I PM’d the developers and they knew nothing about it!”

“Gregory never remembers what he programs. The guy does it in his sleep half the time.”

“Hah! Grez is totally cool. He said you’re a stick in the mud.”

John wandered back into the room wiping his hands on a tea towel. “Gregory is also a card-carrying member of the Flat Earth society.”

A snort from Alan. “So?”

“The man has been to space, Al. He designs video games, set in space. Explain the logic behind that?”

“Denial? Imagination? A little too much college night life?”

John threw the towel back into the kitchen. “All of the above. So, yeah, game allows it, it’s legal.”

“Well, I’m gonna whip your ass in the void between galaxies. Gonna stoke my ship with engines only you can dream of.”

Taking a seat at the end of the table, John did not appear concerned in the slightest. “Hey, Virgil, would you like to assist me in developing a fictional intergalactic drive.”

An arched eyebrow as he munched on bacon and glanced between the two of them. “Hmmm, sure.”

“Hey! No fair. No engineering brothers allowed. If you get Virgil, I get Brains.”

John grinned. “Go for it. International Rescue could do with one of those.”

Virgil snorted. He loved Brains like a brother, but the man did not know the difference between reality and fiction. Postulate an idea such as this, give him a few hours and he’d have a working theory. Let him go, and he’d build it. The game would be forgotten the moment Alan mentioned the concept.

“You suck.”

“Just using the tools at hand, Alan.”

Virgil blinked. “You just called me a tool.”

John shrugged and opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a string of profanity from their captain up on the bridge. The boat suddenly accelerated, swerving to port, and Virgil had to grab the remains of his breakfast as it tried to slide off the table.

A frowning Scott strode through the room. A worried glance at Virgil and John, he took the most direct route towards the bridge and disappeared. Alan dropped his console onto the lounge and darted after him.

At higher speeds, the boat began to bounce off the wave peaks. Virgil decided that staying put was probably in his best interests and apparently John agreed as he reached out and gently grabbed Virgil’s arm.

“I’m okay.”

“Just making sure.”

He didn’t bother responding to that.

Wherever the boat was going, apparently it got there quickly because it wasn’t at full acceleration for long and it slowed quickly to a stop, her hull wallowing in the water at the sudden lack of forward momentum.

As Virgil pushed himself to his feet, he glared at the hand wrapped around his bicep. John didn’t let go.

“If you fall on your face on my watch, Scott will kill me.”

“I’m fine.”

His brother still didn’t let go. This was ridiculous.

But apparently smother was in the Tracy genetic code, because John held onto him the entire way up to the bridge. Only to find it locked down and empty.

All three brothers were out on the bow of the boat.

He could hear Gordon swearing from here. What the hell had his brother all riled up?

It took his slow way onto the bow - those steps still hurt, damn it - for him to find out.

“It’s caught in her mouth. Goddamnit!”

“Hey, hey, Gordon. We can help her. Tell us what we need to do.” Scott’s voice was tense. Virgil read it clearly as pissed, but needing to calm a brother and fix a problem before blowing a circuit.

What the hell had happened?

“Gordon?”

His fish brother shot distraught eyes in his direction. “We’ve got a humpback calf caught in a gill net. A fucking illegal gill net. Here. I’m gonna string the bastards up and Mel is gonna skin them alive!”

Gordon stormed past Virgil and John, heading towards the back of the boat, thumbing his comms. “Mel, you got your ears on?”

Virgil turned to look out across the surface of the ocean and sure enough a single dark buoy appeared just off to port about fifty metres away. To his horror there was a weak whale spout just as his eyes focussed on the spot.

Scott strode past and gently clasped his shoulder, his eyes bleak before following Gordon aft. Alan hurried after him.

A glance at John found his brother’s professional facade well in place. Gordon could be heard yelling over his comms from the other end of the boat.

The whale breached again.

Shit.

-o-o-o-

Scott followed his little brother as he stormed down the length of his yacht.

“Mel, what the hell do you mean this isn’t the first time.”

“Don’t get me wrong, Gordon, I’m as angry as you, but these assholes know what they are doing. I’ve had the coast guard out here sixteen times in the last year and they haven’t managed to catch one of them. We’ve lost turtles, sunfish, rays and earlier in the season a humpback died of its injuries. We can’t locate the nets. They don’t appear on our scanners.”

“Well, they appear on mine and I’m not putting up with this crap.”

“Any help is appreciated, Gordon. If I knew you’d be able to detect them, I would have called you in earlier. If you can give us the locations, it would be much appreciated.”

“I’ll get John on it immediately. In the meantime, we have an injured calf and a distressed mother to attend to.”

“Do you want me down there?”

His brother paused a moment and dragged in a calming breath. “I’ll do an assessment. If I need help, I’ll call Kayo to come get you.”

“Keep me in the loop, Thunderfish. Play it safe. Mamma Humpback is going to be anxious.” A pause. “Sorry your vacation has been interrupted.”

“Screw my vacation. We’re gonna get these bastards.” Scott didn’t think he had ever seen his brother so angry. It was understandable. “Speak to you soon. A Little Lightning out.”

Gordon immediately turned to Scott. “We have a situation.”

Scott let his head drop just a little in acknowledgment. “Yes, we do. This is yours, Thunderbird Four. Tell me what you need.”

-o-o-o-

With the power of TB5 they discovered an intricate network of netting just to the west of the Kermadecs, trailing intermittently down their full length. To regular sensors they were invisible, but to IR sensors they were a flicker. A flicker John was able to focus on and bring up a clear picture.

Gordon, now dressed in his IR uniform, swore a bluestreak at how many nets were actually out there. John put him through to WASP Command and Gordon gave a very colourful report to the regional commander, who just happened to be a former squad mate of his. Her response was more formal, but no less colourful.

With tight expressions, Gordon, Scott and Alan climbed into the inflatable dingy and rowed their way out to the beleaguered cetacean. Gordon used the effort to push his anger into the oars. He couldn’t afford to have his thoughts clouded by the bastards who had done this.

Sensors told him the calf had a net caught in its mouth and wrapped around its right pectoral fin. The fine mesh hung down its left side, dangling into the depths where it had caught on a snag. The chances of it catching right there were ridiculously small, the waters so deep between the islands. But the net was hundreds of metres long, weighted, and, even tangled, it reached down far enough to snag itself on a submerged pile of rock.

Hell, he was going to need Four to get down that deep to get the net out of the water.

If the calf had been snagged while diving, she wouldn’t have been able to surface to breathe and would have drowned.

Bastards!

Scott darted a glance at Gordon. The aquanaut held his gaze. His eldest brother was dressed in an IR wetsuit. It was startling to see him out of his familiar uniform. Gone was his flight baldric and in its place, yellow slashed across his blue, visibility more the priority underwater. The only concessions to his commander rank were his shoulder patches and twin silver-grey bands on that yellow baldric. Alan was dressed similarly, but where Scott sported silver, Alan sported red. Neither had their helmets on.

Gordon had only mentioned the suits to Scott when preparing for this venture because he had hoped to enjoy some recreational diving. Their suits were far above average equipment, so why not use the best to have a little fun?

Scott had rolled his eyes, but five wetsuits had been thrown into their luggage. They had supposed to be used for sharing his world with his brothers.

Gordon swore under his breath again and tugged at the oars angrily.

“We’ll fix this.” Scott’s voice was calm, ever the commander when on duty. And on duty they were.

When he got his hands on those assholes...

“A Little Lightning to Inflatable. Mother Humpback is on the move towards you.” John had been tracking her frantic circles around her calf.

Gordon dropped the oars and grabbed his scanner. Sure enough, the worried behemoth was angling in towards them. She posed a serious threat despite their benign intentions.

“Roger that, A Little Lightning.”

The inflatable stilled in the water, three pairs of eyes stared out across the surface.

“Be quiet. Here she comes.”

Not twenty metres away, the mother surfaced, her spout spraying them all with angry water. Her huge mass coasted just under the surface and beelined to her daughter.

Gordon’s heart lurched at the distressed groans she made as she nuzzled her trapped calf.

“I’m going in.” He shoved his helmet on.

Scott caught his arm. “Are you sure that is wise?”

He caught his brother’s worried eyes. “You are just going to have to trust me. I know what I am doing.”

A bitten lip, but Scott nodded once and let him go.

Gordon slipped quietly over the edge of the inflatable and into the water.

-o-o-o-

Virgil stood on the bridge of A Little Lightning and swallowed hard. It was frustrating to be caught unable to do anything, but in this kind of situation, it wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling.

Usually, though, he was hovering in Two far above the surface.

John stood beside him, a mission hologram projecting from his tablet, his hands playing the portable controls as smoothly as Virgil played his piano. Eos spoke up quietly, relaying reports from WASP as the organisation swooped in on the illegal fishing organisation somewhere off to the west. His brothers’ vitals danced in one corner, the readout from the sensors and the now deployed sensor buoy hung beside them.

Virgil could only watch.

“Gordon, approach with extreme care. The mother is emitting infrasound, beyond our hearing. She is very distressed.” John’s voice was sharp, but calm as the sensors traced the sound pattern in the air before him.

Whispered. “FAB, John. I can feel it. She may be calling for help. Silence on comms.”

And Virgil realised he could feel it, too. A rumble in his bones, a wail so deep it could only be felt, not heard.

He closed his eyes.

He felt her shift octaves, the sound pulsing, her thrum desperate. It vibrated at the edge of his sensory perception, slipping in and out, barely felt in his body tissues, his fingertips, the sensitive incisions in his gut.

“Virgil? You okay?”

John’s soft voice startled him, throwing him out of focus. “What?”

He received a copper frown for his efforts. “You’re pale.”

“I’m fine.”

Green eyes narrowed, but his brother didn’t comment further. He returned to his holograms, bringing up a satellite lifesign read of the area.

“We’re receiving a reply.” John frowned. “Another. Several. Locating sources. Eos, give me a narrow frequency band and pinpoint.” The AI didn’t answer but several dots appeared on the satellite view. John waved a hand and zoomed in on a cluster in the Southern Ocean. The view focussed and cleared and Virgil was again amazed at Brains’ skill as the surface of the ocean appeared and a pod of whales was defined. They were all travelling in a south-easterly direction.

Over two thousand kilometres from the mother and calf. John zoomed out again and scanned for a closer answer. He found one but it was still fifteen hundred kilometres distant. Far too far away to return to help the distraught mother.

But then another signal came in, this one only three hundred kilometres away to the south-east. John narrowed in on the location, only to find another mother and calf.

“Is that the mother and calf we encountered two days ago?” The subjects of his painting.

“More than likely. Gordon did say it was very late in the season. The humpback whales migrate from tropical waters north-west to south-east across the Kermadec Ridge on their way to feeding grounds near Antarctica during spring. That places the nets in the optimal position to do the most damage.”

Virgil stared at the kilometres of lines denoting the position of so many illegal fishing nets.”

“Do you think WASP will be able to stop this?” His voice came out parched and cold, an echo of the anger building inside.

“They will do their best. Gordon won’t rest, you know that. I’ve also asked Penny to investigate. This impinges on Tracy Industries’ ecological interests so I have contacted the board.” His lips thinned. “We will find those responsible.”

The lines taunted him. How many? How many lives had been taken moments before sanctuary?

“Virgil?”

The mother shifted octaves again and he found himself closing his eyes.

A hand landed on his arm. Soft. “Virgil?”

He startled. John’s turquoise eyes were frowning at him again.

“She’s terrified.”

“Gordon will free her calf.”

“She doesn’t know that.”

Her thrum was in his bones, vibrating his very soul.

And then the calf cried out.

-o-o-o-

Gordon had always felt small beside his brothers, but floating next to a leviathan of the open ocean there was no comparison.

The mother humpback was nuzzling her calf, a mixture of chirps and groans vibrated through the water accompanied by the modulating infrasound, screaming fear across the Pacific.

Knowledge of cetaceans scrolled through Gordon’s mind, but instinct was yelling at him.

Never get between a mother and her baby.

But the baby was in pain and her mother was unable to help her.

He could.

He edged closer, ever quiet, calm.

Mamma shifted in his direction, her great head swinging around and tossing him about in the resultant wake. Gordon caught himself and took the opportunity to slip in even closer.

C’mon, beautiful, I don’t mean you any harm. I’m here to help.

He reached out and touched the calf’s flank.

The calf shifted away, crying out and her mother propelled herself forward towards Gordon.

He darted backwards, holding up a hand. “Hey, hey, I’m here to help.” She couldn’t understand the words, but perhaps the intent?

A groan wrapped around him, followed by a click.

“Gordon!” Scott’s voice echoed about his helmet.

And into the water around him.

Shit.

He scrambled backwards as Mamma reacted. Surging forward she nudged him hard enough to force him to the surface. “Woah!” He got a brief glimpse of Scott gesticulating at him from the inflatable, obviously agitated and then everything was bubbles.

He lost orientation for a moment and just settled for swimming away from the chaos.

“Goddamnit, Gordon, answer me!”

“Shut up, Scott. I’ve got this! Silence on comms!”

He dove.

Deep.

He relied on his suit to keep his body pressure static as he propelled himself fifty metres straight down.

Sunlight flickered turquoise and disappeared into the depths.

Mamma didn’t follow.

Gordon hovered there a moment, looking up at the silhouettes of the two whales and the dingy far above. Mamma returned to nuzzling her calf, her pectoral fins churning the water into bubbles with the smallest movements.

Okay, Gords, you’ve got this. Gentle, calm and persistent.

He began his ascent.

-o-o-o-

Virgil tensed as his brother was thrown from the water only to disappear and dive down deep.

Gordon’s snarl across comms at Scott was acid.

The mother’s call shifted an octave to the point Virgil could almost hear the clear C, F, and G notes hanging in the air.

Three hundred kilometres away, the second mother and calf answered and turned around.

Virgil stared at the dots on John’s map as they slowly began moving towards them. It would take them a good chunk of the day and night to reach the distressed calf, but the other mother was answering the call.

John’s monitor sketched out the answer, far below human hearing and far too distant to be felt.

A complicated, pulsating aria of sound.

It wove around the mother’s distress call, each note dancing with its partner, an answer in form as well as content.

Staring at the readout, he found himself humming the notes, switching cadence, following the thread.

The rumble in his throat spoke counterpoint to the song in his bones. It completed. It felt...reassuring.

“Virgil?”

“What?!” He blinked. Shocked at his own outburst as John took a step back, Virgil drew in a shaky breath. “Sorry.”

John’s voice was quiet. “What is it?”

Virgil stared at his brother, then back at the sensor buoy’s holographic display showing Gordon swimming up the water column. “Can we transmit sound into the water?”

It was John’s turn to blink. “Of course.”

“At infrasound levels?”

John pulled up the buoy’s specs and Virgil knew the answer before his brother could vocalise it.

“Wait there.”

He had an idea.

-o-o-o-

The sight of the abrasions on the side of the calf’s mouth physically hurt Gordon. He swam up slowly beside the calf on the other side from its mother. He kept quiet but made sure the calf knew he was there.

It edged closer to its mother.

“Hey, beautiful. I’m not going to hurt you.”

She whined, her sonics vibrating through him.

Mamma growled in the way only a mamma whale could and, blowing spray up into the air, drew in breath and dove.

She slipped below her daughter and targeted Gordon.

Oh shit.

He flung himself to the left and down. He could manoeuvre easily around her, but...

...her tail swung and he was caught in a rush of wake, bubbles and the need to avoid the whacking she was trying to give him.

“Okay, I get the message. But Mom, you’re going to have to back off or your baby is going to die.” The calf could last only so long before exhaustion and predators put an end to her struggles.

Mamma swam around in a tight circle and for a moment one of her great eyes caught his, her intelligence and fear glaring at him through the turquoise light.

His external mic picked up a single note.

What?

The note shifted and became more of a wail, cut off and was silent.

Mamma whale was still staring at him.

Another note. Again it was modulated, but this time his brother’s voice accompanied it, Virgil’s raw baritone holding the note for a few seconds before shifting down his range to another note. His keyboard, for there was no doubt that Virgil had his keyboard with him, emitted a series of low moans.

Gordon shivered.

His brother was playing infrasonic, he could feel it, no doubt using the transmitter on the buoy.

Mamma was still staring at him.

He could give his brother all the points for effort, but there had yet to be a case where humans could communicate with whales. Many had tried. Most were ignored. The most success had been achieved with touch, which is what Gordon was attempting to do.

If he could get close enough without having his head handed to him.

Virgil shifted from single notes to a more complex weaving of sounds, combining his voice with the keyboard in a way he had never quite heard from his brother.

Mamma blinked.

Clicked three times.

And let off a wail of sound that tore at his heart.

Virgil answered.

-o-o-o-

End Day Three, Part One

Day Three, Part Two

[gokul2181]

RR vs SRH Live Score: Rajasthan Royals lose Stokes and Samson quickly | Cricket News

New Post has been published on https://jordarnews.in/rr-vs-srh-live-score-rajasthan-royals-lose-stokes-and-samson-quickly-cricket-news/

RR vs SRH Live Score: Rajasthan Royals lose Stokes and Samson quickly | Cricket News

RR vs SRH: Live Blog | Live Scorecard * Bowling change: Shahbaz Nadeem comes into the attack 13 overs: RR 90/3 A wicket and just four runs off Rashid Khan in the over. Good one for Hyderabad. 12.1 overs: OUT! Rashid Khan cleans up Ben Stokes for 30. RR 86/3 BOWLED! Stokes’ struggling innings came to an end as he missed the ball entirely and it ricocheted off his pad onto the stumps. Stokes departed after scoring 30 off 32 balls which included just two fours. Two wickets in four balls will clearly have a big impact on Rajasthan’s total especially when the two were the set batsmen. Two new batsmen in the middle now. 12 overs: RR 86/2 Good finish to the over from Jason Holder, after conceding nine runs in his first three balls the tall West Indian took a wicket and bowled three dots. 11.4 overs: OUT! Jason Holder cleans up Sanju Samson for 36. RR 86/2 Big Wicket. Samson was looking to up the ante but he had just hit a big six in the previous delivery. This time Holder bowled a slow off-cutter and it castled the top of his stumps. Samson played a good knock tonight after a while, scoring 36 off 26 balls with the help of a six and three fours. He also added 56 runs for the second wicket with Ben Stokes. 11.3 overs: SIX! Sanju Samson (36*) smacks Jason Holder over deep mid-wciket for his second maximum. RR 86/1 * 50-run partnership between Ben Stokes (30*) and Sanju Samson (30*) – RR 80/1 in 11.2 overs 11 overs: RR 77/1 Brilliant over from Vijay Shankar at this stage, when batsmen are looking to up the ante with wickets in hand. Just three runs off it. 10 overs: RR 74/1 Another tidy over from Rashid Khan, six runs off it without a boundary. Time-Out! 9 overs: RR 68/1 11 runs off T Natarajan’s over as Sanju Samson (28* off 20) started it with a four over mid-wicket. Samson looked in good touch today. 8 overs: RR 57/1 DROPPED! Ben Stokes (19*) got a life off the final delivery as Vijay Shankar dropped a running catch at deep mid-wicket. Rashid Khan was the unlucky bowler. The spinner though started with a tidy over, conceding just four runs in it. * More bowling change: Rashid Khan comes into the attack 7 overs: RR 53/1 Good start from T Natarajan too as he gave away just six runs in it without conceding a boundary. * 50 comes up for RR in 6.3 overs – 51/1 * Change from both ends: T Natarajan comes into the attack 6 overs: RR 47/1 End of Powerplay. Good start from Vijay Shankar, gave away just four singles in it. * Bowling change: Vijay Shankar comes into the attack 5 overs: RR 43/1 10 runs off Sandeep Sharma over as Sanju Samson (10*) smacked two consecutive fours in it. 4.5 overs: FOURS! Sanju Samson (10*) also opens his boundary count with back-to-back fours off Sandeep Sharma. Two classy boundaries from a class batsman. RR 43/1 4 overs: RR 33/1 The over started with back-to-back fours, but Jason Holder ran Robin Uthappa out with a direct hit at non-striker’s end. Rajasthan scored 11 runs off the over though. 3.3 overs: OUT! Robin Uthappa run out for 19. RR 30/1 What just happened? Uthappa went too far down after the ball cramped Ben Stokes and fell near his off stump. Jason Holder picked the ball on his follow through and turned back to hit the stumps at non-striker’s end. Uthapa could not return in time and was nowhere near his crease. A promising start came to an abrupt end for Rajasthan opener. Uthappa hit a six and two fours in his 13-ball cameo. 3.2 overs: FOURS! Ben Stokes (11*) opens his boundary count with back-to-back fours off Jason Holder. RR 30/0 3 overs: RR 22/0 After hitting a six early in the over, Robin Uthappa (19*) charged out to smack a confident four towards long-on off the final delivery of Sandeep Sharma’s over. 13 runs came off it. Good one for Rajasthan. 2.3 overs: SIX! Robin Uthappa (14*) smacks Sandeep Sharma over square leg for the first maximum of the night. RR 16/0 2 overs: RR 8/0 Jason Holder started his spell with four straight dot balls, but was hit for a four off the last delivery by Robin Uthappa (8*). Six runs from the over. * Jason Holder to share the new ball with Sandeep Sharma 1 over: RR 3/0 Good, tidy start from Sandeep Sharma, gave away just three singles in it. Here we go…Ben Stokes and Robin Uthappa to start the RR innings. Sandeep Sharma with the ball for SRH. Uthappa on the strike. Playing XIs: Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow (w), Priyam Garg, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan Rajasthan Royals: Ben Stokes, Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson (w), Steve Smith (c), Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Ankit Rajpoot, Kartik Tyagi TOSS | Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner wins toss, opts to bowl against Rajasthan Royals in Dubai Captains at the toss: Steve Smith: “The wickets are getting older and older, slowing down late in the game. I was looking to bat. Not anymore, you get used to it (playing against Warner). We have been playing IPL for a long time now. It’s part of the world. We are fortunate to be involved in such a great tournament. It was a good win the other night (against CSK). Our bowlers did an outstanding job and Jos was playing on a different wicket. We are heading in the right direction, playing good cricket for large chunks of the game. We need to close it out. You got to play well to make it to the finals and you need to peak at the right time. We are getting some right form together and hopefully we can put on a good show tonight. Same team.” David Warner:“We are gonna bowl. I don’t think too much is going to change. The last game here, it held up a bit more in the first half of the game. It came on quite nice in the back end. We just have to wait and see. It’s alright, we get another game today (when he was told that his team hasn’t been successful while chasing). He’s (KW) done something to his quad, that’s unfortunate. We have the big man Holder coming in. Nadeem is in for Thampi. It’s been tough not to include him (Holder) in the team before. Things have changed and we have to try something different. I am always nice and calm. After a couple of losses, I was a bit edgy, now have had time to relax and gather my thoughts. It’s quite difficult in the bubble. For us, it’s about coming out and putting our best foot forward.”

#SRH have won the toss and they will bowl first against #RR.#Dream11IPL https://t.co/JaM0cnBQt3

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) 1603373775000

LATEST NEWS | Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Kane Williamson has been ruled out due to injury Pitch Report: “It’s a great surface, it’s the same surface that they played on the last game. The groundsman has done a fantastic job. There’s a bit of grass on top, but it’s dry and hard underneath. The teams won’t be too worried about it. This pitch, under lights, has quickened up a little bit. Little bit of dew settling in, not heavy to notice, but quickening up the pitch enough for the batsmen to have enough pace to execute their strokes and maybe making the outfield little bit faster. It’s not a bad thing to chase. If you are batting first and if you are not getting the pace off the pitch, don’t fight in. Settle in, rotate strike and pick your areas against the poor balls.” – Kumar Sangakkara Hello and welcome to the live coverage of Match 40 of the Indian Premier League 2020 between Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Dubai. STATS THAT MATTER * SRH haven’t won a game while chasing this season, losing on all four occasions * Since his two back-to-back fifties at the start of the season, Sanju Samson has only scored 77 runs in eight innings, at an average of 9.6.

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[gamerscenters-blog]

The review of Xbox One X vs PS4 Pro 2020 PS4 Pro has been out for about a yr now, and the Xbox One X has simply sooner or later been released, and that ability its officially time for Xbox One X versus PlayStation 4 Pro.- [Narrator] Sony. More than a brand, a standard. In this blog, you’re all going to experience new things and the future. (electronic music)To start with, let’s take an in-depth look at the hardware of every one of these systems and what it’s going to cost you, starting with the Xbox One X.Youre getting an eight-core processor that’s clocked at 2.3 gigahertz.

Now, as for the bodily construct of these systems, despite the reality that the One Xis the more effective of the two, it’s additionally the smaller as well. They’re, in general, the identical as far as the width and peak go. The One X is perhaps just a hair taller and little much less wide.

But where you absolutely see the depth of the difference of the systems, where the PS4 has this variety of square design on the top, which makes it a lot larger and have a tons better footprint on your shelf. In these ports, there’s are not but a lot of similarities going on here.

They both provide three USB ports, with the PS4 Pro having two in the front, one in the back, the Xbox One X doing the flip of that. They’re each giving you an ethernet port and an optical out as well.

The One X has a couple of different options on the pinnacle of that, however, with an HDMI-in and IR port. Anthen for the looks, honestly, I type of assume that each of these systems is truly kind of milddowngrades from their slim versions. In my opinion, slim consoles just look better.

But when we’re talking about just these two in opposition to each other, I gotta give the appears to the Xbox One X.

It’s just smaller. It’s sleeker. I like the type of simply clean container monolith design that it was to go on. The PS4, on the different hand, while the triple stack is the type of grown on me, still now not my favourite.

Now, of course, the huge questions when it comes to this two system, is which of them is gonna provide you with the better4K gaming experience, ’cause, after all, that’s the entire factor for this .5 generation that we’ve been getting over the predecessors. And the two systems have taken very one-of-a-kind methods to this.

Now, obviously, as I stated until now with the specs, the Xbox One X is a lot extra powerful system, and that’s due to the fact it’s approaching it just brute forces its way into getting native 4K in its games.

Xbox One X vs PS4 Pro 4k Gaming

So, for massive first-party titles like Gears of War 4or Forza 7, you are seeing native, real 4K resolution, while some different games, or some of the more taxing two like Quantum Break, we stated Quantum Leap, are exhibiting at 4K, but get much near and then upscaled to it and the difference.

Now, on the different hand, the PlayStation 4is absolutely reliant on this idea of the usage of upscaling. Even their very own large first-party games like Horizon Zero Dawn don’t show in native 4K, but as an alternative make use of what’s called checkerboard upscaling, a technique that, while not as true as 4K, gets quite very close, where depending on the size of your TVand how away you sit from it, honestly, the difference is nearly indistinguishable.

Now, matters get a little murkier when it comes to 3rd parties, cause there’s usually that fear that rather of inserting that greater work to make certain the One X gets a higher version and is the usage of all the resources, they’ll rather just make one Pro version that’ll work simply as well on the PS4 Pro and One X, and thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

A lot of games out right now are showing honestly better versions Games on the One X and the PS4 Pro.

Some of them are very famous and close margins, but others are very large. For instance, The Evil Within 2 is a PS4 game, that on the Xbox One X, is strolling at a native decision of 1800p, while the PS4 Pro version is only at 1280p. Now, for reference, if you don’t know, the technical time period for 4K is 2160p, so, the Xbox One model is much, tons closer to that.

So, for the money, the PS4 Pro is giving you an awesome 4K like experience for a lot of their games, that for most of you isn’t going to matter in a regular entertainment setup. But if you’re searching for true, proper 4Kand getting the very best resolution possible in each single and multiplayer game, the Microsoft One X is the winner here.

So it truly is how the 4K gaming experience works up between these two systems, however what about everything? What about the regular consumer experience between the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro? Well, to be honest, lower back when these buildings first launched, I truly preferred the consumer outing on the PS4, however as time has long gone by, Xbox has put a lot of work into upgrading lot of their UI and services, to make, what I think is now a greater system.

Starting with the UI, for instance, while I anticipate PS4s is a little greater intuitive, Microsoft, as quickly as you get the dangle for it, is really, simply good. You have the most important page ideal here where you see all the modern games you have been playing. You can go down to your pins, showing a record that you have picked specifically, that you can go back to on each and every event you want.

Going once more up, you can go to Mixer, neighbourhood stuff, entertainment for things like TV and movies, or the store to purchase more video games and DLC. And if you ever want to go to your list of video games you already have, you truly hit the Xbox button, go proper here, bam, all the video games you have installed, or all the video games you’ve owned that you can install later on.

Just overall, it is such a pinnacle notch experience once you get the hold of it. Meanwhile, on the PS4, as I stated earlier, things are a bit greater intuitive at first, but its’ also extra limiting. On the essential menu, you have this most necessary line right here that has all the unique hooked up games and apps that you have, along with updates and the store

And going up above, you ought to come across the total issue else, like buddies list, notifications, messages, settings, all that applicable stuff. The trouble is, is that it’s no longer true that handy to in reality locate control over the place you desire matters to be. All the video games and apps they have listed here are primarily based on what you most currently launched.

You can prepare them into subfolders like this, which makes it a little cleaner, but ultimately, things are continuously transferring around based on what you’re beginning up when, which certainly receives tense overtime.

Compared to the Xbox, where you’re in a position to barring troubles bounce between distinct menus and now not constantly have to go to this predominant one, and then find out your way to remarkable subsections. It virtually gets a little tiresome. It’s flawlessly usable, but at the supply up of the day, comparing it to Xbox One X, it’s absolutely a little larger clunky.

 Where there are, of course, differences between these systems, there’s a complete lot they have in common as some distance as the ordinary customer journey goes. For instance, multimedia. They both offer a lot of the large identify apps like Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, HBO Go, YouTube, and for some special ones like Netflix, they every provide 4K and HDR video support.

Offers And desig

They also both offer Spotify for music, something that was once at the beginning one-of-a-kind to Sony but made its way to the Xbox greater recently. They every enable you to move to Twitch, they both have sort of faux broadcast that we have seen in the TV options like PS Vue in the PS4 and Sling TV on the Xbox One.

And as some distance as their memberships go, they’re basically the equal thinking now, where they have the equal price, they both permit you to play video games online, and they each grant you a small handful of free video games every month. start seeing some distinction again, though, with some of the increased special services on each system.

For instance, on PS4, you can get PlayStation Now, a carrier that permits you circulation play games over the web with a big catalogue of PS3 and some PS4 titles, which acts as a variety of the backwards well-suited option for the PS4. The factor is, is it lets you circulate play video games for a monthly fee.

On the special hand, with Xbox, you’ve obtained Xbox Game Pass and EA access, two separate choices that additionally cost a month-to-month fee, but on the other hand of having to go with the flow play over the internet, which can sometimes be a truly massive problem for those of you with worse net connections, you just set up the games and play them appropriate in your system, which leads to a lot higher experience, but every one of them has catalogues that is an accurate deal smaller than PS Nows.

There’s also a difference in phrases of what variety of additional gaming options you have on these systems. For instance, the Xbox One is pushed very hardon it having actual, full-blown backwards compatibility, offering the conceivable to play 360and even some unique Xbox games on your Xbox One.

Now, it’s now not the full catalogue for each of these systems, but the listing is persevering with to grow with a very large extent of 360 video games reachable proper now,  and more unique Xbox games planned for the near future. On the one-of-a-kind hand, with the PlayStation, you don’t have any real backwards compatibility.

I mean, we have pushed that you people can now play PS3 games through PlayStation Now, and there are some select PS2 games that you can purchase digitally, but neither of these enables you to honestly put the disc in your gadget and play them as the Xbox One does. On the different hand, something that PS4 does provide that the Xbox One doesn’t have at all is VR gaming with their personal headset, the PS VR.

Xbox One X vs PS4 Pro VR

Given the list of video games on this is not gigantic, however, if VR gaming is some problem that you are in fact interested in getting into, it is presently something you can only find on the PS4 as some distance as console gaming goes.

Another exceptional advantage of the PS4 Pro properly really worth citing is even as every machine allow you to a long way flung play on a PC, the PS4 Pro has the greater option of the remote taking section in on the PS4, giving you a way play your PS4 video games handheld. So, so a long way matters are searching out exceedingly awesome on the Xbox One X.

I mean, it sold the more wonderful hardware, splendid updates to the purchaser experiences, some gorgeous services, but there is one huge wall the device is nevertheless going for walks into and it is one of the defining things about this generation, and it’s recreation exclusivity. I mean, without a doubt seem to be at 2017 on its own, you can list all the massive title Xbox One exclusives one hand; Super Lucky’s Tale, Halo Wars 2, Forza 7, Cuphead, and soon, PlayerUnknowns Battlegroundswill at least is consoled extraordinary to them.

Meanwhile, on the PS4 you’ve offered Nioh, NieR Automata, Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, GT Sport, Pyre, Hellblade, a new Uncharted, so many higher video games that I cant even surely document them all right now, that absolutely dwarfs the list in comparison.

This is not to say that the one-of-a-kind of the Xbox One has are always worse, it is honestly that there is no longer as many of them. So, possibilities are if you are looking for increased games that’ll cater to your tastes, Sony is gonna give you greater options. Now, you can moreover love Gears of War, Halo, and no longer care about Uncharted or any of the games on the PlayStation.

Great But for those of you definitely looking out for the most choices, Sony is winning that market challenging suitable now. You know, returned when this era started, there used to be a lot of favour in PS4s camp.

Specifications and Price

It had the greater hardware, they had greater exclusives, and simply ordinary the sales supported that it was the extra prevalent console. But as a result, Xbox has been struggling enamel and nail to grant better software and accelerated lately higher hardware, and as a result, honestly, if software program libraries had been the unique same, Id have to say the One X is, in fact, the higher system. But inside the context of what games are available, and what you can grab, at a minimize price thing, the PS4 Pro is a very tempting offer.

You know, if you are the shape of individual that simply likes to play massive name, triple-A video games that are available on every platform, the One X is honestly the secure choice, however, if you prefer to have as many video games available at your disposal, with only one console, the PS4 Pro then once more has a large advantage.

You’re getting a GPU that’s capable of six teraflops,12 gigabytes of RAM, and a 1 terabyte difficult drive, all at the fee of $500.

Meanwhile, on the PS4 Pro,you’re nevertheless getting an eight-core processor, but its clocked at 2.1 GHz, a GPU that’s solely successful of 4.2 TFS. You’re getting eight gigs of RAM, plus one additional gig of a slower RAM type, so it just provides a little extra power, and you’re still getting a one terabyte challenging drive. So, overall, across the board, the PS4 is virtually the weaker of the two systems, but this does come at the benefit of it being more lower-priced system at $400.

[localbizlift]

The drunken HQ Trivia finale before it shut down was insane

“Not gonna lie. This f*cking sucks. This is the last HQ ever!” yelled host Matt Richards . And it just got crazier from there.The farewell game of HQ Trivia before it shut down last night was a beautiful disaster. The hosts cursed, sprayed champagne, threatened to defecate on the homes of trolls in the chat window, and begged for new jobs. Imagine Jeopardy but Trebek is hyped-up and blacked-out.

Yesterday HQ Trivia ran out of money, laid off its 25 employees, and shut down. It was in talks to be acquired, but the buyer pulled out last minute and investors weren’t willing to pour any money into the sagging game show. It had paid out $6 million in prizes from its $15 million-plus in venture capital since launching in late 2017.

HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through

But HQ was in steady decline since February 2018 when it peaked at over 2.3 million concurrent players to just tens of thousands recently. The games grew repetitive, prize money was split between too many winners, co-founder Colin Kroll passed away, original host and quiz daddy Scott Rogowsky was let go, the startup’s staff failed in an attempt to mutiny and oust the CEO, and layoffs ensued. You can read how it all went down here.

But rather than wither away, the momentary cultural phenemenon went out with a bang. “Should HQ trivia shut down? No? Yes? Or f*ck no!” Richards cackled.

You can watch the final show here, and we’ve laid out some of Richards’ and co-host Anna Roisman’s choicest quotes from HQ’s last game:

“If you just got here, this is HQ Trivia. It’s a live mobile gameshow. We’re gonna read about 34 questions and then you’re gonna win about 2 cents and you’re gonna fucking loooooove it” -Roisman

“This $5 prize is coming out of my own pocket. We ran out of money. We just kept giving it away. We gave it all to the players, to you, you loyal HQties” -Richards

“Take this time now to buy some extra lives. You never know when you’re going to need them. I wish we had an extra life for the company. I’m sorry. I f*cking can’t. I’m gonna cry. My dogs eat $200 worth of food a day. My dogs are gonna starve” -Richards

“Why are we shutting down? I don’t know. Ask our investors. What am I going to do with my fish tank? I think our investors ran out of money” -Richards

“Who likes healthy snacks! That’s why the investors stopped giving us money, because there wasn’t any f*cking snacks in this b*tch. We were snackless. Who the fuck can work in a place without snacks!” -Richards

“I met a couple who told me HQ is part of their foreplay” -Richards

“Who’s going to miss the HQ chat? I’m going to miss all those people telling me I don’t have eyebrows or to do the Carlton” -Richards

“Maybe we should close every night. These are the nicest f*cking comments I’ve ever seen. Wow, you’re finally telling me I look hot. I tried for a year and a half -Roisman

[Reading comments] “‘Won’t miss you at all, good riddance'” -Roisman. “Who said that? Let’s find that mothef*cker and sh*t on his porch” -Richards

“Hire everyone! All the people who don’t have jobs they f*cking rock!” -Richards

[While doing a headstand] “Someone hire me! I’m f*cking talented” -Roisman

“We should have unionized a long time ago” -Richards

[To his girlfriend] “Hello baby! I don’t got a job, you still love me?” -Richards

“We bought this giant bottle of champagne for when we hit 3 million players” -Richards (HQ never got there)

[Shakening up the champagne and opening it to a disappointing trickle] “It wasn’t as big as I thought it was gonna be” -Richards. “That’s what she said. It was anti-climactic” -Roisman. “Much like this episode” -Richards. “Much like this app” -Roisman

“They gave me like two double shots of tequila” -Richards, on why he was drunk

Then things really went off the rails at 41 minutes in, cued up here:

[Upon a bunch of people getting a question wrong] “Y’all fucking fucked up!  You are dumb! I’m kidding, you’re not dumb. You fucked up. It happens” -Richards

[Reading the final question together] “What does Subway call it’s employees? Ham hands, sandwich artists, or beef sculptors?”

“520 people are splitting $5. Send me your Venmo requests and I’ll send you your fraction of a penny” -Richards

Farewell, HQ Trivia, you glorious beast.

Mutiny at HQ Trivia fails to oust CEO

HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through

[un-enfant-immature]

The drunken HQ Trivia finale before it shut down was insane

“Not gonna lie. This f*cking sucks. This is the last HQ ever!” yelled host Matt Richards . And it just got crazier from there.The farewell game of HQ Trivia before it shut down last night was a beautiful disaster. The hosts cursed, sprayed champagne, threatened to defecate on the homes of trolls in the chat window, and begged for new jobs. Imagine Jeopardy but Trebek is hyped-up and blacked-out.

Yesterday HQ Trivia ran out of money, laid off its 25 employees, and shut down. It was in talks to be acquired, but the buyer pulled out last minute and investors weren’t willing to pour any money into the sagging game show. It had paid out $6 million in prizes from its $15 million-plus in venture capital since launching in late 2017.

HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through

But HQ was in steady decline since February 2018 when it peaked at over 2.3 million concurrent players to just tens of thousands recently. The games grew repetitive, prize money was split between too many winners, co-founder Colin Kroll passed away, original host and quiz daddy Scott Rogowsky was let go, the startup’s staff failed in an attempt to mutiny and oust the CEO, and layoffs ensued. You can read how it all went down here.

But rather than wither away, the momentary cultural phenemenon went out with a bang. “Should HQ trivia shut down? No? Yes? Or f*ck no!” Richards cackled.

You can watch the final show here, and we’ve laid out some of Richards’ and co-host Anna Roisman’s choicest quotes from HQ’s last game:

“If you just got here, this is HQ Trivia. It’s a live mobile gameshow. We’re gonna read about 34 questions and then you’re gonna win about 2 cents and you’re gonna fucking loooooove it” -Roisman

“This $5 prize is coming out of my own pocket. We ran out of money. We just kept giving it away. We gave it all to the players, to you, you loyal HQties” -Richards

“Take this time now to buy some extra lives. You never know when you’re going to need them. I wish we had an extra life for the company. I’m sorry. I f*cking can’t. I’m gonna cry. My dogs eat $200 worth of food a day. My dogs are gonna starve” -Richards

“Why are we shutting down? I don’t know. Ask our investors. What am I going to do with my fish tank? I think our investors ran out of money” -Richards

“Who likes healthy snacks! That’s why the investors stopped giving us money, because there wasn’t any f*cking snacks in this b*tch. We were snackless. Who the fuck can work in a place without snacks!” -Richards

“I met a couple who told me HQ is part of their foreplay” -Richards

“Who’s going to miss the HQ chat? I’m going to miss all those people telling me I don’t have eyebrows or to do the Carlton” -Richards

“Maybe we should close every night. These are the nicest f*cking comments I’ve ever seen. Wow, you’re finally telling me I look hot. I tried for a year and a half -Roisman

[Reading comments] “‘Won’t miss you at all, good riddance'” -Roisman. “Who said that? Let’s find that mothef*cker and sh*t on his porch” -Richards

“Hire everyone! All the people who don’t have jobs they f*cking rock!” -Richards

[While doing a headstand] “Someone hire me! I’m f*cking talented” -Roisman

“We should have unionized a long time ago” -Richards

[To his girlfriend] “Hello baby! I don’t got a job, you still love me?” -Richards

“We bought this giant bottle of champagne for when we hit 3 million players” -Richards (HQ never got there)

[Shakening up the champagne and opening it to a disappointing trickle] “It wasn’t as big as I thought it was gonna be” -Richards. “That’s what she said. It was anti-climactic” -Roisman. “Much like this episode” -Richards. “Much like this app” -Roisman

“They gave me like two double shots of tequila” -Richards, on why he was drunk

Then things really went off the rails at 41 minutes in, cued up here:

[Upon a bunch of people getting a question wrong] “Y’all fucking fucked up!  You are dumb! I’m kidding, you’re not dumb. You fucked up. It happens” -Richards

[Reading the final question together] “What does Subway call it’s employees? Ham hands, sandwich artists, or beef sculptors?”

“520 people are splitting $5. Send me your Venmo requests and I’ll send you your fraction of a penny” -Richards

Farewell, HQ Trivia, you glorious beast.

Mutiny at HQ Trivia fails to oust CEO

HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through

[pmsocialmedia]

The drunken HQ Trivia finale before it shut down was insane

“Not gonna lie. This f*cking sucks. This is the last HQ ever!” yelled host Matt Richards . And it just got crazier from there.The farewell game of HQ Trivia before it shut down last night was a beautiful disaster. The hosts cursed, sprayed champagne, threatened to defecate on the homes of trolls in the chat window, and begged for new jobs. Imagine Jeopardy but Trebek is hyped-up and blacked-out.

Yesterday HQ Trivia ran out of money, laid off its 25 employees, and shut down. It was in talks to be acquired, but the buyer pulled out last minute and investors weren’t willing to pour any money into the sagging game show. It had paid out $6 million in prizes from its $15 million-plus in venture capital since launching in late 2017.

HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through

But HQ was in steady decline since February 2018 when it peaked at over 2.3 million concurrent players to just tens of thousands recently. The games grew repetitive, prize money was split between too many winners, co-founder Colin Kroll passed away, original host and quiz daddy Scott Rogowsky was let go, the startup’s staff failed in an attempt to mutiny and oust the CEO, and layoffs ensued. You can read how it all went down here.

But rather than wither away, the momentary cultural phenemenon went out with a bang. “Should HQ trivia shut down? No? Yes? Or f*ck no!” Richards cackled.

You can watch the final show here, and we’ve laid out some of Richards’ and co-host Anna Roisman’s choicest quotes from HQ’s last game:

“If you just got here, this is HQ Trivia. It’s a live mobile gameshow. We’re gonna read about 34 questions and then you’re gonna win about 2 cents and you’re gonna fucking loooooove it” -Roisman

“This $5 prize is coming out of my own pocket. We ran out of money. We just kept giving it away. We gave it all to the players, to you, you loyal HQties” -Richards

“Take this time now to buy some extra lives. You never know when you’re going to need them. I wish we had an extra life for the company. I’m sorry. I f*cking can’t. I’m gonna cry. My dogs eat $200 worth of food a day. My dogs are gonna starve” -Richards

“Why are we shutting down? I don’t know. Ask our investors. What am I going to do with my fish tank? I think our investors ran out of money” -Richards

“Who likes healthy snacks! That’s why the investors stopped giving us money, because there wasn’t any f*cking snacks in this b*tch. We were snackless. Who the fuck can work in a place without snacks!” -Richards

“I met a couple who told me HQ is part of their foreplay” -Richards

“Who’s going to miss the HQ chat? I’m going to miss all those people telling me I don’t have eyebrows or to do the Carlton” -Richards

“Maybe we should close every night. These are the nicest f*cking comments I’ve ever seen. Wow, you’re finally telling me I look hot. I tried for a year and a half -Roisman

[Reading comments] “‘Won’t miss you at all, good riddance'” -Roisman. “Who said that? Let’s find that mothef*cker and sh*t on his porch” -Richards

“Hire everyone! All the people who don’t have jobs they f*cking rock!” -Richards

[While doing a headstand] “Someone hire me! I’m f*cking talented” -Roisman

“We should have unionized a long time ago” -Richards

[To his girlfriend] “Hello baby! I don’t got a job, you still love me?” -Richards

“We bought this giant bottle of champagne for when we hit 3 million players” -Richards (HQ never got there)

[Shakening up the champagne and opening it to a disappointing trickle] “It wasn’t as big as I thought it was gonna be” -Richards. “That’s what she said. It was anti-climactic” -Roisman. “Much like this episode” -Richards. “Much like this app” -Roisman

“They gave me like two double shots of tequila” -Richards, on why he was drunk

Then things really went off the rails at 41 minutes in, cued up here:

[Upon a bunch of people getting a question wrong] “Y’all fucking fucked up!  You are dumb! I’m kidding, you’re not dumb. You fucked up. It happens” -Richards

[Reading the final question together] “What does Subway call it’s employees? Ham hands, sandwich artists, or beef sculptors?”

“520 people are splitting $5. Send me your Venmo requests and I’ll send you your fraction of a penny” -Richards

Farewell, HQ Trivia, you glorious beast.

Mutiny at HQ Trivia fails to oust CEO

HQ Trivia shuts down after acquisition falls through

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