#Single-Channel Gate Driver

[futureelectronic1527]

Power Integrations: Digital Programmable Single Channel Gate Driver Boards

https://www.futureelectronics.com/m/power-integrations . Power Integrations’ 1SP0635 Digital programmable single-channel, plug-and-play gate driver boards feature telemetry data reporting for predictive maintenance and lifetime modelling. They enhance observability, control and reliability for applications like rail traction inverters, power grids and medium-voltage drives. https://youtu.be/GNa7ZipTEQE

[goodlucktai]

i’ve been afraid of changing

tmnt 2k7 pairing: mikey & donnie, mikey & april, mikey & woody word count: 4575 pre-movie

well, i’ve been afraid of changing ’cause i’ve built my life around you but time makes you bolder even children get older and i’m getting older too

read on ao3

x

Mikey hates his job.

He thinks it for the first time on a Saturday evening when he’s lugging his catering equipment back to his van, sore all over and with a headache pounding away at the base of his skull, miserable and hungry and with another party to look forward to tomorrow morning.

He shuts the back doors, leans his forehead against one of the dusty rear windows, and thinks I hate my job.

He doesn’t know where the thought comes from. Maybe he’s just tired. Maybe he’d feel better after he got some dinner and played a few rounds of Mario Kart and clocked an hour of kitty therapy with Dr Klunk, PhD. Maybe it’s not a big deal. If he’s learned any one thing from daytime TV, it’s that everyone hates their job.

But it’s the first time Mikey’s ever hated anything about his life. He’s always had his brothers. He’s always been taken care of. He’s always had a home he loved running to at the end of the day. Sure, he didn’t get to play in the sun when he was little, or go to those cool fusion restaurants downtown that April liked, or hit up the movies or the skatepark without enough planning and subterfuge beforehand that the whole thing felt more like the Invasion of Normandy than a fun night out. But his childhood was a happy one. And for awhile he’d had this crazy idea that happiness wasn’t something you were supposed to outgrow.

But now Raph is mean and reclusive. And Donnie is short-tempered and too busy for anything besides his computer. And Leo is still gone. And Mikey hates his job.

He climbs into his van and just sits in the driver’s seat for a minute. He didn’t wear his headset today, because Donnie hasn’t used their private channel in weeks anyway, so what’s the point. There isn’t a familiar little voice in his ear telling him to get a move on, Mike. Don’t stay up there too long. It isn’t safe. Come home. Which is good. He doesn’t want to go home.

He thinks maybe he hates it there.

x

The thing is, Mikey is halfway to Rupert’s to pick up a pie for his birthday, when it occurs to him that he should be upset that his brothers forgot. He actually stops short, halfway down a fire escape, letting that percolate in his brain for a minute.

He should be disappointed or annoyed or hurt, right? But he’s not any of those things. He’s not even sad.

He hasn’t seen Raph in like three days. Donnie had breakfast with Mikey this morning, but the older turtle had shadows under his eyes, and this pale, brittle way about him that Mikey clocked as a migraine and a chronic lack of sleep, so he immediately curbed his own energy and made a mental note to leave his brother alone.

Their birthdays are stupid, made-up things anyway. Dates they picked for each other when they were little, and marked on a big calendar that Splinter hung outside the dojo. Leo’s was a couple months ago, and that night Donnie and Raph got into a screaming fight about—Mikey doesn’t even know what.

Maybe they’ve outgrown birthdays. Maybe Mikey’s going to outgrow every single good thing about his entire life until there’s nothing left but a job he hates doing and a home he never wants to go back to.

Woody is waiting for him out behind the pizzeria. There’s a private drive back there for delivery trucks but the gate is locked at all other times. The building behind Rupert’s is vacant, its windows boarded up. It’s a safe spot for Mikey to venture out of the shadow into the warm, flickering light of the kitchen where it pours from the door Woody has propped open.

His human friend is sitting on an upturned plastic vegetable crate, and smiles automatically when he sees Mikey.

“Hey, amigo,” Woody says, offering his fist for a bump. “Bingo—”

It’s such instant relief to be around somebody who wants Mikey around. He didn’t even realize how much tension he was carrying until he exhales and a bunch of muscles in his back and shoulders go loose and suddenly it’s a little easier to hold his head up.

He grins back and completes the fist bump. “—bongo!”

Woody is still on the clock, but it’s a slow night, and his sister Darcy is running things up front. Mikey met her by accident last year when he was hanging out with Woody in the prep kitchen after close and neither of them were paying attention to the footsteps thumping down the stairs from the second-floor apartment. He’s never told his brothers about that because they’ll probably kill him. Besides, Darcy’s cool.

They head inside, kicking the door shut behind them. The packed heat of the pizza ovens and the heady smell of garlic and oregano and basil is so familiar it brings a rush of comfort.

Mikey stays for hours. They cook pizzas and break-and-bake cookies and a very wonky attempt at a birthday cake in one of the ovens. He goes home with a bag full of leftovers and a meticulously-wrapped present from Darcy that she refused to let him open in front of her. Before he left, Woody hugged him so thoroughly that the warmth of it stayed with Mikey for the entire journey underground.

It doesn’t last long after that.

“Where the hell’ve you been?” Raph barks at him by way of hello when Mikey is barely two steps through the door. There’s a big duffel on the floor next to him, so either he just got in or he’s on his way out.

Mikey should rise to this, he thinks. He should be full of festering hurt, disappointment, resentment. You forgot about my birthday and now you’re giving me shit over a non-existent curfew?

It wasn’t so long ago that he was willing to get right in Raph’s face when Raph was being especially antagonistic. Mikey doesn’t wear anger like his brothers do, but everyone has put on a jacket that didn’t really fit once or twice.

He used to goad and wheedle and harass his big brother into venting his feelings the only way he knew how. Tussles and shouting matches were a vehicle for Raph to express the parts of himself he wasn’t comfortable with talking about. Mikey knows that. And he knows that Raph is always angling for a fight these days because he has so much he needs to say to somebody.

But Mikey isn’t the person he needs. The person all three of them need. He couldn’t be even if he tried. He doesn’t want to try.

He hates his job and he hates being home and he’s beginning to hate how Raphael talks to him like they’re total strangers who made a bad first impression on each other and never managed to forget it.

“I was at Rupert’s,” Mikey says, walking past him. “If you needed something while I was out, you could have texted me. You still have my number, right?”

It takes the shape of a joke, the way he used to tease a good mood out of moments like this. He sets his bag on the table and roots through it, coming up with a tinfoil-covered pizza round. There’s a birthday cake underneath the foil, the sides uncertain and lopsided because it wasn’t big enough to bake to the edges of the round, the buttercream icing a little lumpy and way too rich.

It’s Mikey’s favorite thing in the whole world, because he and Woody laughed the entire time they made it, about a hundred different things, and somehow it tastes like laughter, like they managed to bake that in there with the butter and vanilla. It almost feels like it doesn’t belong in this kitchen. He puts it on the counter anyway.

“There’s dessert if you want it,” Mikey says, meeting Raph’s eyes from right across the room and about a thousand miles away. Raph is frowning at him, but the anger from a moment ago isn’t there anymore. Mikey doesn’t want to know what fresh new thing Raphael has to frown about, so he says goodnight and goes looking for his cat.

x

He cancels a gig. He doesn’t tell Donnie. He doesn’t get out of bed. No one comes looking for him. Everyone else is busy, everyone else is on track. Mikey can’t keep up.

x

Donnie corners him on some random Thursday. It’s been a few weeks since Mikey’s worked and a part of him has been dreading this confrontation. It was only a matter of time.

“We don’t need the money,” Mikey says. Because they don’t. Donnie has been seeding funds from untraceable backdoors into Fortune 500 companies for years. The jobs were Donnie’s idea to keep them busy, back when sensei first forbade them from doing ninja stuff while Leo was gone. “What does it matter if I quit?”

“It’s not about money, it’s about responsibility. If you make a commitment, you stick to it,” Donnie grinds out. His voice is carefully measured, straining on the brink of losing his patience. For some reason, it’s rubbing Mikey wrong. It’s making him feel itchy and restless.

Responsibility. Commitment. What do his brothers know about keeping promises? About sticking to it? They’ve abandoned Mikey one after the other and now Donnie is lecturing him about responsibility and commitment.

“You can’t make me go,” Mikey blurts, too loud. “I won’t. I don’t want to.”

“Jesus,” Donnie mutters, rubbing his forehead. He’s already so fed-up with Mikey after like three seconds of conversation that Mikey can feel his eyes start to sting. “The last thing I want to do is fight with you, Mike. I thought you liked Cowabunga Carl.”

It’s not fair. Donnie’s so smart. He’s tired and overworked and unhappy, but he’s smart. How can he get this one thing so wrong? How can he not know Mikey as well as he used to, like all of those years of being each other’s best friends and co-conspirators and secret-keepers from where they were relegated to the “B Team” aren’t as intrinsic and important and fundamental to him as they are to Mikey? How can he look at Mikey, right in the face, and not understand him at all?

Something breaks.

“I hate it!” Mikey screams. His chest is full of heat and air and nothing he can dig his hands into and ground himself in, just emptiness and panic. “I hate my job, I hate going up there by myself, I hate driving in rush hour traffic, I hate being around strangers who wouldn’t want anything to do with me if they found out I was a freak of nature, I hate the kids when they scream and run around because it makes me feel like I’m in danger even though I know that’s stupid! I hate all of it, I hate going out there and I hate coming back here, and I hate that none of you love me anymore! I hate you!”

There would be a ringing silence in the lair, if not for the way Mikey’s chest is heaving as he gulps for air. He’s crying, but he can still see the way Donnie’s face has gone slack and sickly white with horror, the way he’s looking at Mikey like he’s a fucking alien creature in the living room that Donnie has no idea how to communicate with. They don’t know each other anymore.

“Mikey,” Donnie whispers.

Mikey takes a shaky step back, then another. That burst of too much feeling has left him, deserted him, and now he’s reeling from the lack of it.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” he says hoarsely. “I didn’t mean it. I love you.”

Donnie’s hands catch him before he can move another inch.

“Please don’t go, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Hey, look at me.” Those same hands let go of Mikey’s arms and cup his face, framing it carefully and keeping him still. Donnie moves into his line of sight, his eyes round and full, mouth pressed into a wobbling line. “I love you, too. Of course I love you. I’m here. I never should have—I never should have let you think I was anywhere else. I’m right here, okay? Don’t go.”

His hands move again, pulling Mikey into an embrace so tight it almost hurts.

“I don’t hate you,” Mikey sobs. He can’t believe he said that. He can’t believe he knew how to say those words in that order.

“Mikey, I know,” Donnie replies. His voice is all thick and watery, and he presses one hand to the back of Mikey’s head, and holds onto him like he’s terrified Mikey is going to vanish into thin air. “You don’t have a hateful bone in your body. You’re the last good thing I have.”

x

When April and Casey show up a few hours later, Mikey isn’t surprised when they make a beeline for the sofa. He freaked Donnie out pretty majorly, it’s only natural he’d call his best friends for support or advice.

What does surprise Mikey is that Casey only trades a speaking look with Donatello before tugging on Mikey’s mask tails playfully and then heading in the direction of Raph’s bedroom like a man on a mission. April, meanwhile, plants herself on the arm of the sofa on Mikey’s side and wraps her arm around his shoulders.

“I don’t know about Casey, but I’m here for one reason and one reason only,” she confides in him. “To make Donnie watch this bootleg of RENT that I just downloaded from a potentially malicious website. You in?”

Donnie makes a disgruntled support technician sound.

Mikey beams up at her. She’s so cool. She’s one of the best people he knows. She isn’t his friend like she’s Donnie’s and Leo’s, but she’s his big sister in a way they can’t claim. The way she cares about him hasn’t changed a smidge from day one.

“Donnie needs more culture in his life,” Mikey says. “And he’s totally gonna cry during the I’ll Cover You reprise. I’m in, times like, a billion.”

April smiles back at him and takes his face in her hand. She thumbs at his cheek like she can still see the tear tracks there from earlier but she doesn’t say anything about any of that.

She just says, “Good, ‘cause we brought enough Thai food to feed a ninja army.”

Splinter emerges from his rooms, drawn into the open atrium by the sound of their voices. Or maybe he’s in on this, too, because he doesn’t seem at all surprised by April and her formidable arsenal of takeout bags. His dark eyes are gentle as he greets her. He pats Donnie on the arm as he passes by, and tugs on the ends of Mikey’s mask tails in that affectionate way all of Mikey’s relatives do, the way Casey just did a minute ago, and then settles into his recliner.

His presence nearby is like a balm. It always is. Even though he sent Leo away, and saddled Donnie with the mantle of leadership that was never his to carry in the interim, and Mikey is sort of unhappy with him somewhere in the back of his mind, he’s still their dad. He still makes the world make a little more sense, just by being there.

They’re twenty minutes into RENT before Casey reappears, and he’s got Raph with him. Casey accepts a heaping container of green curry and rice from April, gives his red-banded best friend a truly evil look, and pointedly takes a seat in an armchair.

There’s a spot left on the sofa on Donnie’s other side, or in the other chair. Raphael, to his credit, only waffles about it for a moment before he sinks onto the couch. Mikey feels Donnie’s whole body go stiff with tension, but neither of them break into their usual song-and-dance routine—maybe in part because April is absolutely willing to take them down with extreme prejudice if they start a fight right now. Maybe because they don’t actually want to.

“What is this shit, anyway?” Raph mutters.

“Theater,” Mikey, April and Casey say at the same time—only Casey sounds significantly less enthusiastic than his little brother and his fiance both do.

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” Mikey adds. “Twenty bucks says you’ll have one of the songs stuck in your head tomorrow.”

“You’re on, brat,” Raphael says.

For a minute, they might as well be fifteen years old again, before they started getting tugged in different directions, before Leo’s absence drove a wedge between them that honestly feels like nursing a knife between the ribs.  

Raph turns his head, golden eyes darting past Donnie to look at Mikey sidelong. Mikey finds himself thinking that it’s absolutely crazy he could have ever found anything about Raphael unfamiliar. That’s his brother. No matter what else changes, that’s always going to be true.

So Mikey sticks his tongue out at him. Surprise, relief, and good humor run through Raph’s expression one after the other, and they all settle into a comfortable scowl.

“Pass me that chicken satay before I come over there and take it from you,” he demands.

Donnie snatches one of the skewers off the plate as it changes hands in front of him and smugly says, “Taxes.”

“I’ll show you taxes—”

“Okay, boys, I love the bonding going on here, but talk through Light My Candle and see what happens,” April interjects pleasantly.

Raph and Donnie shut right up. Casey snorts and mutters “cowards” under his breath. Mikey leans against his sister and bites into an eggroll so he doesn’t say something really embarrassing about how much he’s missed family movie night.

Splinter watches them more than he watches the musical. Like something about the rowdy, reactive audience they make is more precious and compelling than anything Broadway could ever have to offer.

x

Donnie works about half as much as he used to, and drags Mikey into his lab with him the rest of the time. Sometimes they tinker and talk, other times Donnie starts, like, solving world hunger or the energy crisis, and Mikey parks himself on the loveseat and watches a movie.

He started out with headphones and a laptop, but then Donnie scolded him for trying to loop him out of Legally Blonde. Now they project movies onto the wall so Donnie can watch while he works, and Mikey can make silly commentary, and it feels like they’re friends again.

Mikey doesn’t hate being at home so much anymore.

“But Donnie can’t babysit me forever,” Mikey confides in Woody sometime later. They’re in the kitchen at Rupert’s, after closing time, and Mikey is helping him shut the place down. Right now he’s doing the books in the broom closet of a back office while Mikey hangs over the back of his computer chair and idly swings himself back and forth, the ever-important moral support. “He hates his job, but he has to have something productive to do or he’ll go crazy. That’s why we started working in the first place. I need to figure something out, too. Not Cowabunga Carl. Something I won’t—hate.”

“Donnie’s a genius, right?” Woody asks abruptly. “He has like two actual PhDs that he got just for fun?” 

“Oh, yeah,” Mikey says. 

“Call me crazy, Mikester, but maybe he’d be happier if he found a job that played to his strengths.” 

Woody shuffles receipts around on the desk until he finds the computer mouse and then Googles “new york remote jobs phd graduate” and gets hundreds of results with buzz words like “researcher” and “scientist” and “engineer” that make more sense in relation to Mikey’s polymath brother than entry level tech support. Mikey reads over his shoulder with wide eyes. 

“Look, NYU is hiring. He won’t even need a teaching degree to work at the university.”

“E-mail that to me,” Mikey demands.

He feels full of purpose. He imagines Donnie as a professor, explaining any number of impossibly complicated subjects to his students the way he’s been happy to explain things to Mikey since they were toddlers discovering the world together. He imagines Donnie brainstorming with colleagues whose minds are as bright as his.

Mikey wants it for him so badly he’s annoyed with himself for not coming up with this idea a year and a half ago.

Woody is watching Mikey in that careful sideways manner that makes Mikey think there’s something else he wants to say.

“You know,” the human settles on, “I’m kind of hurt.”

Mikey is a ninja, and more than that, he’s the youngest of four dynamic, explosive personalities, so he’s good at sussing out tones. Woody is clearly joking, so Mikey tips his head, more curious than anything.

“What’d I do to you?”

“You left me hangin’, amigo. You quit that catering gig—which was the right call—but now you’re sending your resume everywhere but here.” He shakes his head, mock-solemn. Mikey is staring at him.

“I don’t have a resume.”

“It’s a figure of speech.”

“Rupert’s is hiring?”

“You see anybody else back here, bud?” Woody’s smiling at him. “Uncle Rupert cooks days, I cook nights. But nights are significantly busier, and sometimes my uncle comes back in to help me out. He’s gonna work himself into an early grave at this rate. We’ve been looking to add onto the night crew for months.”

Mikey feels like the world just tilted off its axis. He glances around at the kitchen he knows so well, the place he spends all his free time, because it’s where his best friend works. He thinks of how often he helps Woody knead dough, prep gallons and gallons of sauce, box up orders. The countless evening hours they spend drinking cream soda and eating cheesy breadsticks or Chinese from across the street and watching cable TV on the crappy plasma mounted on the wall.

He thinks of doing all of that as a job. He would love it. He didn’t know he could have a job that he loved.

“Really?” he says quietly.

Woody laughs at whatever his face looks like. He gets up and shoves open the order window and bellows, “Darce, take that Help Wanted sign out of the window! And text Uncle Rupert! Mike’s on board.”

“Thank GOD,” Darcy shouts back, and audibly stomps all the way across the tiny lobby to rip their handmade paper sign down.

“Uncle Rupert’ll love you,” Woody confides in Mikey, dropping back into his seat. “I mean, he loves you already. We talk about you enough at home. He doesn’t know you’re a turtle, but I don’t think it’ll be a big deal. You’re way more normal than that one delivery guy who drops off the produce order every Tuesday in a glittery tux, and Rupert keeps him around.”

“That guy’s so weird,” Mikey says, and he’s sort of crying, but he’s laughing at the same time.

x

A little over two years after Leo left New York, April followed a ghost story through a South American jungle and managed to track down the familiar boy behind it. She did her best to convince him to come home, because missing him was like missing a limb.

She told him about Donnie lecturing on half a dozen different topics at NYU, and Raph getting hooked on musical theater, and Casey sneaking Mikey into Comic Con in a DIY Bowser costume just to get an exclusive variant cover edition of the new Silver Sentry comic and how extremely grounded they both were for that.

She didn’t say they’re lost without you, because she didn’t think that was true anymore. But if she knew her friend as well as she thought she did—as well as she used to—then it should be enough just to tell him that his brothers needed him. They missed him. They loved him, and he wasn’t there.

Mikey hears all of this firsthand, about eleven and a half hours later, when April’s plane touches down at LaGuardia and she calls the lair the second she’s allowed to turn her cellphone back on.

He and Donnie are just getting in at around three in the morning, because Mikey is a tiny bit drunk. Rupert hauled down a case of craft beer after closing time and Darcy goaded everyone into a drinking contest and Mikey discovered that a mutagen-reinforced metabolism has nothing on a family of Irish-Americans. Woody called Donnie, and Donnie agreed to come pick Mikey up, and Darcy sat on Mikey’s carapace until his brother got there, because none of them wanted him wandering the sewers and getting lost.

Everyone worries about him a little more than they used to. But the Dirkins clan sent him off with waves and laughter, and Donnie was smiling crookedly as he guided Mikey’s clumsy limbs down a manhole ladder, and all of it made Mikey feel cared-for. It reminded him of being younger, being taken care of.

By the time they get home, Mikey’s burned through the fun parts of too much alcohol and now he has a pounding headache. Donnie points him toward a chair at the kitchen table and starts rummaging around in the fridge for the coconut water he keeps on hand for Casey and Raph when they’re in a similar state.

And then April calls the repurposed payphone that serves as their landline and says she found Leo, and Mikey’s heart jumps right into his throat.

“He said he wasn’t coming back, but you should have seen the look on his face,” April says. She sounds croaky and exhausted from her exploits and the red-eye flight, but her voice is still full of care and hope and optimism. “He’s homesick. He misses you guys so much. He doesn’t want to be out there anymore.”

Mikey wants to ask her how she knows for sure. He wants to beg for some kind of impossible guarantee. But he can hear Casey in the background of her call, probably waiting at the arrivals gate to take her home, so instead he says, “Thanks, Apricot. Thank you. Get home safe, okay? Tell Case I said ‘or else’.”

“You bet, honey. I’ll see you later.”

Donnie couldn’t hear the other half of the conversation, even with his freaky ninja hearing, but he knows how to read Mikey’s expression like a book. He’s holding a glass of that fancy water like he’s forgotten it’s in his hand, and his clever eyes are narrow and darting across his little brother’s face.

“What is it?” he asks as soon as Mikey hangs the phone up. “Is everything okay?”

Mikey doesn’t answer right away. He’s still processing.

The truth is, Leo has always had the same number one priority. Before his father’s expectations, before his duty as the eldest son, before his own wants and goals and secret childhood wishes, he had one thing he always put first.

If his brothers need him, he’ll drop everything. He’ll run to them, wherever they are.

Maybe that's still true. Maybe Mikey still knows how to believe in that.

So he looks up at Donnie and says, “I think so.” He even really means it.

[diabolus1exmachina]

Ferrari Monza SP1 (1 of 499). 

In an age of increasingly capable hypercars—not just in terms of outright performance, but of comfort, usability, and practicality—Ferrari’s utterly outrageous Monza SP1 stands alone, sacrificing all semblance of rationality at the altar of driving experience. Along with its two-seater SP2 stablemate, the Monza is an unfettered celebration of both design and performance.The Monza SP1 is the first in a series of limited-edition Icona concepts by Ferrari that married cutting-edge styling and technology with inspiration from the marque’s world-class back catalogue—in this case drawing from the 750 Monza racer of the 1950s. Just 499 examples of both SP1 and two-seat SP2 were produced, each destined for the collections of Maranello’s most cherished clientele. A striking reimagining of the racing barchettas of old, the Monza’s taut coachwork is both muscular and pure, with clean, uncluttered flanks and a bonnet line that flows seamlessly to the rear of the car. Its low silhouette is punctuated only by the aerodynamic hump that shrouds the driver’s seat. There isn’t even a windscreen; instead, Ferrari engineers developed a “Virtual Wind Shield” that channels accelerated air ahead of the instrument panel, deflecting air flow in a protective bubble around the driver.

The structure, meanwhile, is a master work in carbon fibre, with a chassis tub so stiff that it enabled not only the fitment of outrageous scissor doors, but also a single-piece front clam shell that opens to reveal the SP1’s impressive 6.5-litre V-12 engine. Derived from the 812 Superfast, along with its seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox and four-wheel steering, the Tipo F140 GC became the most powerful naturally aspirated engine to leave the gates of Maranello, thanks to a combination of optimised inlet ducts and a remapped ECU. The modifications bumped total output to 798 horsepower with 530 pound-feet of torque, ensuring the Monza could reach 100 km/h in just 2.9 seconds, with a quoted top speed—no doubt delivered with tongue firmly in cheek—'in excess of 299 km/h’.

[f1]

Tsunoda reveals the 'key' areas he is looking to improve upon in 2023

Yuki Tsunoda says he feels “much stronger” in 2023 compared to his first two years in the sport - revealing he has improved both physically and mentally – although the Japanese racer also earmarked the areas he is keen to improve upon going forward. Tsunoda has made a bright start to the season, despite scoring just a solitary point so far this year after finishing 10th in Melbourne. He narrowly missed out on top-10 finishes in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as he finished in P11 in both races. WATCH: Alonso vs Hamilton in the pits, Red Bull’s ‘wing-gate’, and Monza madness – 10 times F1 qualifying got heated On AlphaTauri’s YouTube channel, Tsunoda was asked where he felt stronger compared to years gone by. He said: “The place I feel much stronger compared to previous years will be situation controlling, I know now how to survive or to adapt to any situation. “Even [when] the worse things happen or the things I didn’t expect, I know now how to handle it. First year especially, I didn’t have any experience in Formula 1. Most of the things were new and, especially from Formula 2 to Formula 1, it’s a really big step. “Of course, the car, the environment, everything is a big difference. But now I know how to relax or the places I have to focus properly. Those kinds of mental things I feel much different. Tsunoda's says he feels stronger this year compared to previous seasons “Even training, of course. I was doing training in Formula 3, Formula 2, but I would say how I think about training, and how I approach the training session, is a little bit different mentality than in Formula 3 and Formula 2.” He added: “I felt Formula 1 is really physically demanding. While it was one of my big limitations in my first year in Formula 1 in 2021 - those things I learned from other drivers but also learned from myself - and I think in the end those kinds of things have improved a lot. So, I’m pretty happy with my shape now.” READ MORE: De Vries says experience of racing in other categories can be of 'value' to AlphaTauri Tsunoda was also asked where he felt he could improve going forward. While he says he can still improve physically, he also pointed to his “consistency” as one of the areas he was determined to progress in as he looks to stamp out the “unnecessary” crashes he had last year. “Of course, physical," he continued. "I think the physical thing is almost unlimited. You can train as much as you want, the more you have strength. It’s better. Also, a bit more consistency in terms of race pace." Tsunoda is looking to get rid of the some of the crashes he had last season “Last year if I look back, I had a couple of crashes that were unnecessary. There was potential to score points, and I lost that. I feel like last year, in a situation where the team needed every single point especially because we were struggling in the pace, [and] those things hurt a lot in the end. TECH TUESDAY: 0.3s per lap and a sign of things to come – AlphaTauri's latest floor upgrades analysed “In the end we finished P9 in the team championship, but we were definitely far away from where we expected and where we wanted. Definitely consistency is one of the keys that I want to improve this year. “Other than that, I am pretty happy, like I said, about my shape and how I progressed through the season. From last year I think I have pretty good confidence that I can continue that momentum and be a good driver." via Formula 1 News https://www.formula1.com

[lovechip-semiconductor]

Analog Devices HMCAD1511TR Comprehensive Guide

Analog Devices HMCAD1511 High Speed Multi-Mode 8-Bit 30 MSPS to 1 GSPS A/D Converter

General Description

The HMCAD1511 is a versatile high performance low power analog-to-digital converter (ADC), utilizing time-interleaving to increase sampling rate. Integrated Cross Point Switches activate the input selected by the user.

In single channel mode, one of the four inputs can be selected as a valid input to the single ADC channel. In dual channel mode, any two of the four inputs can be selected to each ADC channel. In quad channel mode, any input can be assigned to any ADC channel.

An internal, low jitter and programmable clock divider makes it possible to use a single clock source for all operational modes.

The HMCAD1511 is based on a proprietary structure, and employs internal reference circuitry, a serial control interface and serial LVDS/RSDS output data. Data and frame synchronization clocks are supplied for data capture at the receiver. Internal 1 to 50X digital coarse gain with ENOB > 7.5 up to 16X gain, allows digital implementation of oscilloscope gain settings. Internal digital fine gain can be set separately for each ADC to calibrate for gain errors.

Various modes and configuration settings can be applied to the ADC through the serial control interface (SPI). Each channel can be powered down independently and data format can be selected through this interface. A full chip idle mode can be set by a single external pin. Register settings determine the exact function of this pin.

HMCAD1511 is designed to easily interface with Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) from several vendors.

Key Features and Specifications

Multi-Mode Operation:

· Single Channel Mode: Maximum sampling rate of 1000 MSPS

· Dual Channel Mode: Maximum sampling rate of 500 MSPS

· Quad Channel Mode: Maximum sampling rate of 250 MSPS

Performance Highlights:

· Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR): Up to 49.8 dB in single channel mode

· Power Dissipation: Ultra-low at 710 mW including I/O at 1000 MSPS

· Start-Up Time: 0.5 µs from sleep and 15 µs from power down

Integration and Control:

· Integrated cross-point switches (MUX array) for flexible input selection

· Internal low jitter programmable clock divider

· Digital gain control from 1X to 50X with no missing codes up to 32X

· Serial LVDS/RSDS output for high-speed data transfer

Power and Environmental Specifications:

· Operating Voltage: 1.8V supply voltage

· Logic Levels: 1.7–3.6V CMOS logic on control interface pins

· Operating Temperature: -40°C to 85°C

Compatible Electronic Component Series

To maximize the functionality and performance of the HMCAD1511TR, it is essential to pair it with compatible electronic components. Here are five recommended series:

1. Texas Instruments THS4500 Series (Differential Amplifiers) · Category: Differential Amplifiers

· Parameter Values: Gain bandwidth: 2 GHz, Slew rate: 4200 V/µs, Supply voltage: 5V

· Application Scenarios: Ideal for interfacing with high-speed ADCs in communications systems

· Recommended Models: THS4503, THS4508

2. Analog Devices AD8138 Series (Differential Drivers) · Category: Differential Drivers

· Parameter Values: Bandwidth: 270 MHz, Slew rate: 1400 V/µs, Supply voltage: ±5V

· Application Scenarios: Suitable for high-speed data acquisition systems and ADC driver applications

· Recommended Models: AD8138, AD8139

3. Linear Technology (Analog Devices) LT6200 Series (Operational Amplifiers) · Category: Operational Amplifiers

· Parameter Values: Gain bandwidth: 165 MHz, Slew rate: 500 V/µs, Supply voltage: 3V to 12.6V

· Application Scenarios: High-speed signal conditioning and ADC input buffering

· Recommended Models: LT6200–5, LT6200–10

4. Maxim Integrated MAX9644 Series (Voltage References) · Category: Voltage References

· Parameter Values: Output voltage: 1.25V, Initial accuracy: ±0.2%, Temperature coefficient: 10 ppm/°C

· Application Scenarios: Provides stable reference voltage for high-precision ADCs

· Recommended Models: MAX9644, MAX6071

5. Microchip Technology MCP6V2X Series (Instrumentation Amplifiers) · Category: Instrumentation Amplifiers

· Parameter Values: Gain bandwidth: 1.3 MHz, Slew rate: 0.4 V/µs, Supply voltage: 1.8V to 6V

· Application Scenarios: Precision measurement systems and sensor signal conditioning

· Recommended Models: MCP6V27, MCP6V28

[laughteristhebestmedivine]

This is for anyone who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, has ever lived in Atlanta, has ever visited Atlanta, ever plans to visit Atlanta, knows anyone who already lives in Atlanta, or knows anyone who has ever heard of Atlanta.

Atlanta is composed mostly of one-way streets. The only way to get out of downtown Atlanta is to turn around and start over when you reach Greenville, South Carolina.

It generally takes about an Hour, to an Hour and a Half to get to Atlanta, from Atlanta.

There is no real Rapid-Transit or Mass-Transit system in Atlanta. There’s something called MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) that doesn’t cover all of Metro Atlanta, and that’s neither “Rapid” nor “Mass”. It’s more of an “Afterthought-last-chance-of-getting-someplace-Transit”

Carpooling rarely happens.

Atlantans love their cars as much as their privacy. There are High Occupancy Vehicle lanes that had to be converted to toll lanes because there weren’t enough 2 or more passenger cars to make it worthwhile.

People have been ticketed for having blow up toys in the passenger seat and dolls in car seats just to try and fake carpooling.

All directions start with, "Go down Peachtree" and include the phrase, "When you see the Waffle House." except for Cobb County, where all directions begin with, "Go to the Big Chicken" (Including GPS directions).

Peachtree Street has no beginning and no end and is not to be confused with:

Peachtree Circle

Peachtree Place

Peachtree Lane

Peachtree Road

Peachtree Parkway

Peachtree Run

Peachtree Terrace

Peachtree Avenue

Peachtree Commons

Peachtree Battle

Peachtree Corners

New Peachtree

Old Peachtree

West Peachtree

Peachtree-Dunwoody

Peachtree-Chamblee

Peachtree Industrial Boulevard

Or any of the 30+ additional streets that have Peachtree in their names.

Atlantans only know their way to work and their way home. If you ask anyone for directions, they will always send you down

Peachtree.

Atlanta is the home of Coca-Cola. Coke's all they drink here so don't ask for any other soft drink unless it's made by Coca-Cola. Even if you want something other than a Coca-Cola, it's still called Coke.

EXCEPT Atlantans never say “Co-ca Co-la”, nor “At-lan-ta”.

You drink a “Cocola in Atlanna “

The gates at Atlanta 's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport are about 32 miles away from the Main Concourse, so wear sneakers and pack a lunch.

The 8 a.m. rush hour is from 6:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

The 5 p.m. rush hour is from 3:00 p.m. to 7:30 pm.

All remaining hours are the lunch rush hour.

Friday's rush hour starts Thursday afternoon and lasts through 2 a.m. Saturday.

Red Lights and Stop Signs in Atlanta aren't treated as LAW. They're more like suggestions.

If the Light has been red for a while, you probably should stop, but if it's only about to turn red, speed up - You Can Make It!

And a STOP sign is treated as a "Slow-down-just-enough-to-make-sure-there's-not-a-cop" Sign.

Only a native can pronounce Ponce De Leon Avenue, so do not attempt the Spanish pronunciation. People will simply tilt their heads to the right and stare at you. The Atlanta pronunciation is "pawntz duh LEE-awn."

And yes, they have a street named simply, "Boulevard."

The falling of one raindrop causes all drivers to immediately forget all traffic rules. If a single snowflake falls, the city is paralyzed for three days and it's on all the channels as a news flash every 15 minutes for a week. Overnight, all grocery stores will be sold out of milk, bread, bottled water, toilet paper, and beer.

I-285, the loop that encircles Atlanta, has a posted speed limit of 55-65 mph but you have to maintain 80 mph just to keep from getting run over and is known to truckers as "The Watermelon 500."

And 285 has wonderful directional signs that advise towns like “Augusta, Greenville, Chattanooga, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Macon” depending which part of the Circle of Hell you are trying to enter. BUT, 285 does NOT take you to any of those cities. It merely points you in a general direction that might lead you there eventually on other highways.

Hell, 285 won’t even take you to Atlanta. Just ask Pascual Perez.

Don't believe the directional markers on highways: I-285 is marked "East" and "West" but you may be going North or South. The locals identify the direction by referring to the "Inner Loop" and the "Outer Loop ." If you travel on Hwy 92 North, you will actually be going southeast.

Never buy a ladder or mattress in Atlanta. Just go to one of the interstates and you will soon find one in the middle of the road.

The last thing you want to do is give another driver the finger, unless your car is armored, your trigger finger is itchy, and your AR-15 has a full magazine.

Possums and armadillos are flat animals that sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air.

There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in Georgia .

There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in Georgia.

If it grows, it sticks. If it crawls, it bites.

If you notice a vine trying to wrap itself around your leg, you have about 20 seconds to escape, before you are completely captured and covered with Kudzu.

It's not a shopping cart, it's a buggy.

"Fixinto" is one word (I'm fixinto go to the store) - also can be pronounced "Fixinta".

Sweet Tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're 2 years old.

Source: Facebook

[agnisystechnology]

Improving Design Productivity and Quality with Specification Automation

Designing semiconductor devices has always been a distinct specialty of engineering, but today’s designers face immeasurably greater challenges. A typical system-on-chip (SoC) design has billions of transistors, thousands of intellectual property (IP) blocks, hundreds of I/O channels, and dozens of embedded processors. Chip designers need all the help they can get.

Three Keys for Faster, Better Design

Assistance comes in three forms: abstraction, automation, and reuse. Virtually all chip design today occurs at the register transfer level (RTL), enabling much greater productivity than manually crafting gates or transistors. This level of abstraction is therefore much more efficient, making it possible for a single designer to create entire IP blocks or even subsystems.

RTL design is also amenable to automation; generating gate-level netlists automatically via logic synthesis is part of what makes the design process so efficient and productive. Just about every aspect of the test insertion, power management, layout, and signoff flow that follows RTL design is automated as well. Without this approach, modern SoCs simply would not be possible.

The third form of assistance is design reuse. Especially for standard IP blocks and interfaces, there is no value-add in reinventing the wheel by designing from scratch. EDA vendors and dedicated IP providers offer a huge range of reusable designs, most in RTL form. Designers often need this IP to be configurable and customizable, so it may come from a generator rather than as a fixed design.

Register Automation Is the Foundation

All three forms of designer assistance come together in specification automation, starting with the registers in the design. SoCs typically have a huge number of addressable (memory-mapped) registers defined by the chip specifications. These registers form the hardware-software interface (HSI) by which the embedded software and system drivers control the operation of the hardware.

Manually writing RTL code for all these registers is tedious and error-prone. Fortunately, the Agnisys IDesignSpec™ Suite makes it easy to automatically generate the register RTL design. Using the IDesignSpec GDI interactive tool or the IDS-Batch™ CLI Batch Tool, designers create their RTL files at the push of a button every time the register specification changes. 

These tools accept many register and memory specification formats, including spreadsheets, SystemRDL, IP-XCAT, and the Portable Stimulus Standard (PSS). Designers can specify many widely used special register types, including indirect, indexed, read-only/write-only, alias, lock, shadow, FIFO, buffer, interrupt, counter, paged, virtual, external, and read/write pairs. 

Registers are just one part of a chip that can be specified abstractly and generated automatically, fostering reuse and improving quality of results (QoR) with proven design IP. Another example is interfaces to standard buses such as APB, AHB, AHB-Lite, AXI4, AXI4-Lite, TileLink, Avalon, and Wishbone. The RTL design generated by IDesignSpec Suite includes any interfaces requested.

Any necessary clock-domain-crossing (CDC) logic across asynchronous clock boundaries is also included in the generated design. For safety-critical chip applications, designers can request that safety mechanisms such as parity, error-correcting code (ECC), cyclic redundancy check (CRC), and triple module redundancy (TMR) logic be included as well.

Most chips contain standard design elements such as AES, DMA, GPIO, I2C, I2S, PIC, PWM, SPI, Timer, and UART. Designers specify these blocks with many degrees of configuration and customization, and the Agnisys IDS-IPGen™ design tool generates the RTL design code. IDS-IPGen also generates finite state machines (FSMs) and other design elements for custom IP blocks.

Automating SoC Assembly

As noted earlier, SoCs contain thousands of standard and custom IP blocks. All of these must be connected together into the top-level chip design. Like register design, manually writing the RTL code for this stage is a tedious and error-prone process. Block inputs and outputs change many times over the course of a project, and updating the top-level RTL code by hand is extremely inefficient.

The Agnisys IDS-Integrate™ design tool, another part of the IDesignSpec Suite, automates the chip assembly process. Designers specify the desired hookup using a simple but powerful format that includes wildcards to handle buses and collections of signals with similar names. IDS-Integrate automatically generates the complete top-level RTL design.

For IP blocks with standard buses, IDS-Integrate automatically generates any required aggregators, bridges, and multiplexors, including them in the top-level RTL design. For example:

AHB interfaces on two IP blocks can be aggregated into a single bus

An AHB-to-APB bridge can connect IP using AHB and IP using APB

With the burden on SoC designers growing all the time, they need to specify at the highest possible level of abstraction, take advantage of automation, and reuse whenever possible. The specification automation capabilities of the Agnisys IDesignSpec Suite provide all three forms of designer assistance, providing the industry’s most complete solution.

Designers no longer have to hand-write RTL code for registers, memories, standard bus interfaces, aggregators, and bridges, CDC logic, safety mechanisms, custom IP elements, standard IP blocks, and top-level design. Abstract specification and automation improves productivity; reuse of proven IP improves quality of results. 

Customization and configuration options ensure that designers do not have to sacrifice any flexibility to achieve these benefits. Many other project teams—verification, validation, embedded software, bringup, and documentation—also benefit from specification automation. The reasons to select Agnisys as a design partner are truly compelling.

[lanshengic]

Infineon launches new 62 mm package CoolSiC product portfolio to help achieve higher efficiency and power density

【Lansheng Technology News】Infineon Technologies AG recently announced the addition of new industry-standard packaging products to its CoolSiC 1200 V and 2000 V MOSFET module series. It uses a mature 62 mm device half-bridge topology design and is based on the newly launched enhancement-mode M1H silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET technology. This package enables SiC to be used in mid-power applications above 250 kW, where the power density of traditional IGBT silicon technology has reached its limit. Compared with traditional 62mm IGBT modules, its application scope has now expanded to solar energy, servers, energy storage, electric vehicle charging piles, traction, commercial induction cookers and power conversion systems.

Enhanced M1H technology can significantly widen the gate voltage window, even at high switching frequencies, without any restrictions, ensuring high gate reliability against induced voltage spikes caused by drivers and layout. Additionally, extremely low switching and transmission losses minimize cooling requirements. Combined with high reverse voltage, these semiconductor devices also meet another requirement of modern system design. With Infineon's CoolSiCTM chip technology, the converter design can become more efficient and the power rating of a single inverter can be further increased, thereby reducing the overall system cost.

Featuring a copper base plate and threaded interface, the package features a highly robust mechanical design that increases system availability, lowers service costs and reduces downtime costs. Excellent reliability is achieved through strong thermal cycling capabilities and a continuous operating junction temperature (Tvjop) of 150°C. Its symmetrical internal package design enables the upper and lower switches to have the same switching conditions. Optional pre-applied thermal interface material (TIM) is available to further enhance the module’s thermal performance.

Lansheng Technology Limited, which is a spot stock distributor of many well-known brands, we have price advantage of the first-hand spot channel, and have technical supports.

Our main brands: STMicroelectronics, Toshiba, Microchip, Vishay, Marvell, ON Semiconductor, AOS, DIODES, Murata, Samsung, Hyundai/Hynix, Xilinx, Micron, Infinone, Texas Instruments, ADI, Maxim Integrated, NXP, etc

To learn more about our products, services, and capabilities, please visit our website at http://www.lanshengic.com

[travel197207]

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[prajwalseo]

Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Market Analysis Geography Trends, Demand

New Jersey, United States – The Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Market is the title of another report delivered by IBI. The paper goes through significant development techniques, drivers, potential open doors, key fragments, Porter’s Five Forces examination, and the cutthroat scene exhaustively. This exploration can assist with promoting players, and financial backers; VPs, partners, and new participants get a superior comprehension of the business and figure out what moves to make to acquire an upper hand.

The Worldwide Nuclear Grade Gate Valves market size is estimated to be worth USD million in 2023 and is forecast to a readjusted size of USD million by 2030 with a healthy CAGR during the review period. It also shows the importance of the Nuclear Grade Gate Valves market main players in the sector, including their business overviews, financial summaries, and SWOT assessments.

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The Major Players Covered in this Report: Analytik Jena GmbH, Bio-Rad, Thermo Fisher Scientific, NIPPON Genetics, Molarray, Biobase Biodusty, Applied Biosystems, Agilent, Biosan, Sansure, Seegene Inc, Azure Cielo, Roche Life Science

This study also covers company profiling, specifications and product picture, sales, market share, and contact information of various regional, international, and local vendors of Global Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Market. The market proposition is frequently developing ahead with the rise in scientific innovation and M&A activities in the industry. Additionally, many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new merchant applicants in the market are finding it hard to compete with international vendors based on reliability, quality, and modernism in technology.

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The segments and sub-section of Nuclear Grade Gate Valves market is shown below:

The Study is segmented by the following Product/Service Type:

Single Channel

Dual Channel

Multi-channel

Major applications/end-users industry are as follows:

Clinical Medical Testing

Biomedicine

Food

Other

Regional Analysis for Global Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Market:

• APAC (Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, India, and the Rest of APAC; the Rest of APAC is further segmented into Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka)

• Europe (Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Rest of Europe; Rest of Europe is further segmented into Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania)

• North America (U.S., Canada, and Mexico)

• South America (Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Rest of South America)

• MEA (Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa)

Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year – 2017-2023E

Base year – 2022

Forecast period – 2023 to 2030

Moreover, it will also include the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, a detailed analysis of the competitive landscape, and product services of key players.

Key takeaways from the Global Nuclear Grade Gate Valves market report:

Detailed consideration of Nuclear Grade Gate Valves market-particular drivers, Trends, constraints, Restraints, Opportunities, and major micro markets.

Comprehensive valuation of all prospects and threats in the

In-depth study of industry strategies for growth of the Nuclear Grade Gate Valves market-leading players.

Nuclear Grade Gate Valves market latest innovations and major procedures.

Favorable dip inside Vigorous high-tech and market latest trends remarkable the Market.

Conclusive study about the growth conspiracy of Nuclear Grade Gate Valves market for forthcoming years.

Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Market Study guarantees you to remain/stay advised higher than your competition. With Structured tables and figures examining the Nuclear Grade Gate Valves, the research document provides you with a leading product, submarkets, revenue size, and forecast for 2030. Comparatively, it also classifies emerging as well as leaders in the industry.

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Detailed TOC of Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Market Research Report:

Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Introduction and Market Overview

Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Market, by Application

Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Industry Chain Analysis

Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Market, by Type

Industry Manufacture, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2017-2023E)

Industry Value by Region (2017-2023E)

Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Market Status and SWOT Analysis by Regions

Major Region of Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Market

Global Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Sales

Global Nuclear Grade Gate Valves Revenue & market share

Major Companies List

[tombeane-blog]

The Writer's Strike - Part One

“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and, accepting both of them.”

George Orwell - "1984"

I've been mentally trying to organize three possible blogs - "Quantum Computing", "The Girl From Ipanema" and, "Artificial Intelligence versus The Three Stooges".

But something keeps interrupting these conflicting trains of thought because this writer's strike ticks me off.   

First: The unjust way we are programmed to care or not care about this, that, or the other.

Second: It is ultimately a losing cause i.e, trying to stop progress in order to protect jobs.  

Capitalism finds it's way forward no matter how much they try to destroy it.

Obviously, the sooner I transfer this organically grown homemade crapiola about this strike from my brain to yours, the sooner I can get back to more more important projects.

Yep, The Hollywood Writer's Strike and the quazillionaire movie stars who march bravely alongside their brothers in arms for a half hour on the weekend.

If Hollywood and the T.V. Industry stay on strike for even a quarter or a third of an eon, what is the downside?

Is it having more time for reading, watching old movies, learning a hobby, going outside, spending time with family and friends, traveling around or listening to Pink Floyd?

Don't get me wrong.  I feel sad for anyone who loses their livelihood through no fault of their own.  

I weep much less for those who voluntarily walk out just to get more money.  And I have none tears for those making millions of dollars while virtual signaling that it is all about standing up for the common man.  

As usual this is all about the money - no matter what they say.

I know, you know and he/she/them know that some of these striking writers make a metric ton of money and own gated homes overlooking the Pacific Ocean. 

We also know that not one single out of work blue collar Bud Light truck driver owns one of those houses.  

Even further, the writers chose to strike without caring about the thousands of poor working minionites forced into the unemployment line with them.

Who deserves our sympathy more?

And how do we as a society choose who to weep for?  Or is it not us that chooses?

It seems many of the ones who get the sympathy are the ones that are part of a favored group.  Trust me, there are few groups more favored than Hollywood elites.

After all, they tell us how to vote, when to wear masks, and who is allowed on social media.

"Oh no! The guy who wrote that genius dialog for those twelve Fast and Furious movies is out of a job! - For God's Sake, Somebody Please Help Them!"

"What's that? A Bud Light driver lost his job as a result?  And he had a wife and three kids and just bought a house?"(cue the cricket sounds...)

Maybe it is simply about the money.

Inner city deaths by gangs and child thugs kill thousands every year and more thousands die on the streets poisoned by Chinese Fentanyl.

"Hey babe, would you change the channel please. This is depressing"

Religious zealots crash into a building, killing some 3,000 people and America goes to war and spends billions upon billions of dollars and loses even more American lives.  "U.S.A.!  U.S.A.!"

No Americans died in Ukraine but there we are still - spending billions upon billions - a lot of it going to U.S. weapons manufacturers - while humongous problems plague every city and town in the U.S.

Thousands of these deaths or thousands of those deaths.  Those we should care about.  These we shouldn't.

Who is manipulating us?  This is worth saying twice.  Who is manipulating us?

We are told to choose who to sympathize with, who to reward or what we care about based on what?  Which is more newsworthy and attracts eyeballs? Which produces the most clicks?  Which produces revenue?  Or just which more closely aligns with the reigning ideological bent?

I just can't generate any sympathy for the Hollywood actors/writers and their overseers who preach to us about how to live our lives, who to love, who to hate and who to care about.  And they push Hate America and sewer trash on children - and are now crying for more money and guarantees of future revenue streams.

So who do we choose - voluntarily striking writers and Hollywood glitterati?  Or involuntarily out of work truck drivers, camera operators, grips, sound technicians, makeup artists, nearby restaurants and catering crews, et al, who are also out of work.

"You there on the right thrown into the unemployment line - sorry about that."

"You there on the left who walked out on your jobs - the nation is here to help."

But, they also say it's really about A.I. taking away their jobs...

[otherworldlygate]

The other day I was going to post something here about my eleventy billion fics that are in progress, but I got lost in my rambling and posted instead about how much I love outlining.

Feel free to read that as a precursor to this post, if you want, but it's not necessary. I just find the path my writing has taken to be...interesting. After my success in finishing two 'fics in 2023 (both hovering around the 100k mark), I find it absolutely insane that all of my earlier attempts at outlining over the years fell flat on their metaphorical faces but out of absolutely nowhere in 2023 I pulled two of them out of thin air and not only finished the outlines, but finished the stories, too.

Anyway, this post is actually about all of the stories I’ve been toying with over the last year+ because I really don’t have anyone else to discuss them with and sometimes talking about things helps me sort them in my head.

I’ll start with the stories that are either shorter, or aren’t developed enough to talk about at length, but which I still feel deserve some kind of nod because they’ve taken up space in my mind and, uh, in most cases, discord channels.

Princess? Fantasy? Period Drama? AU: Colette is a noblewoman/princess from a poor family who has to marry someone from a much larger/richer family/situation so that her family can retain its title, and her family finds her a suitable match far, far away from where she grew up. Escorting her on this journey to this far-away alliance are the usual cast members, starting (of course) with her childhood best friend Lloyd, her governess Miss Sage, and Miss Sage’s younger brother (and Colette’s other close friend), Genis. Very camp humor/romance.

Virginia and/or Kloitz going through the Otherworldly Gate with Raine and Genis. I’m sure this has been done before, but I wonder how this would have gone.

I have several modern day AU concepts floating around, but one I rejected from ColloydWeek2023 because the concepts I had for it are honestly just…the canon events in a more modern setting, complete with all of the horrible tragedies…and all I could think about was how there was no point in putting the characters through the same wringer they’ve already been through; they’re wrung out!! Hell, some of the modern tragedies are even worse than what the canon gives us. In the canon Alicia’s death was at least more or less to save her; sure, Regal killed her…but nothing that happened to her was in any way his fault. However, in this modern story, the closest I could get to the guilt he suffers in the canon ended up being that they were driving somewhere in inclement weather and got into a terrible accident that took Alicia’s life (while he survived). This gives him such terrible ptsd/anxiety about driving that he can’t get behind the wheel anymore without having a panic attack. I did the same thing for Anna, too, though Kratos and Anna were hit by a drunk driver, instead. I do think it’s a great parallel to match the canon tone mostly, but when it was every single character done in this way, it was honestly just…way too much.

There floats in my veins a story where Regal’s parents are alive, though never the same story at the same time. I like the idea that his mother isn’t dead (she just divorced his father) and Regal could connect with her in the post-game (if he’s not too ashamed of himself to try). As far as his father goes, his dad was such a scumbag that I genuinely wonder how different the canon events would have been with him alive. For example, I doubt Regal would have been in a position to notice Alicia if he wasn’t bearing the weight of so much responsibility, but even if he did start to get friendly with her, his father + George would have put a swift stop to it. I don’t know, things I like to think about.

One World AU: vision of Aselia where Mithos died instead of Martel, or where Martel did die but of something more natural (illness, for example). This is a completely open concept idea and I’m sure it’s been done, but with no baseline or structure for the world (other than being at constant war or something), I’m sort of at a loss where to begin with this. If Martel had a long life, it'd be cool to imagine her being like...a revered figure still--like a Saint.

Had this deeply amusing concept for a story that takes place 5-10 years into the post-game where, during the reconstruction efforts in Palmacosta, Regal ends up helping and then adopting a group of siblings (ages 3 to 13) who were left homeless with the death of their parents in/after the destruction of the city. Despite his good intentions he gets in over his head a little bit with this and recruits Raine to help him hire a tutor for the kids since he trusts her opinion. Yeah, I have a thing about adoption don’t @ me.

Werewolf AU: This is sitting hard on the back burner, not due to lack of ideas, but uh…due to too many ideas. Yep. First of all, the concept of Alicia having been turned…and then Regal has to fight her off (and kill her) only to get bitten in the process himself? Top shelf material. But then again, the concept of this being a secret Raine and Genis are hiding? Also…pretty top tier. (As is the image of her as a giant white wolf trying to protect a smaller Wolfie Genis.) So then I was like?? Both? Both is good? And thought it’d be kind of funny if Genis and Raine were just born this way and Regal was turned, and what those differences might mean. And hey, if Raine and Genis are half-elves, does elven blood affect the transformation in some way? Does it help a person keep their sanity? And after allll that I still didn’t have, you know, a story. So.

You might be thinking, that’s a lot of random ideas…and you’d be right. It is. But I have more. Because I always have more.

So now we’ve reached the part of this post where I talk about the stories I’ve actually started to plan out in detail. And fortunately for all of us (all -3 people still reading, anyway) these works in progress have names.

-

Swallow the Ground: this is the sequel to Break Open the Sky. An “informant” comes forward to Zelos and Count Alaric in Meltokio with historical records from Sybak’s Imperial Research Academy that have them seeking out Regal’s assistance to see the whole place shut down. However, a job like that requires a certain…delicate patience, lest the wrong people get wind of their intentions and either destroy the evidence before it can be used as proof, or lash out with malicious intent. While this is going on, Raine and Regal’s slow romance continues. Raine struggles with her asexuality, fearing it will ruin her relationship with Regal the way it ruined her only previous relationship. This story gets a few shades darker than BOtS and features a larger cast with multiple points of view. I have this one almost entirely outlined.

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Weal and Woe: this is the Declining!Tethe’alla fic, and my biggest issue with this one is, once again, so many ideas that it becomes difficult to settle on just one. I can’t even decide on a style to write the story in! On one hand, a multi-PoV novel would be so deeply fun, but it would also be incredibly limiting in terms of the stories being told and what order they have to be told in. On the other hand, a series (like Sapphose did) could be a lot more freeing. Or maybe some combination of the two of them would be the ideal middle ground: where there exists one main story and then…side stories. Anyway, I have a lot of feelings about this sort of story. Rather, I have opinions about how to go about planning and writing something like this. I personally feel that, if I’m going to spend time writing some kind of “what-if” story, especially if I’m going to invest hundreds of hours of my time into it, it better offer me (and my readers!) something the canon doesn’t. I don’t want to see the exact same plotline from the game rehashed in reverse. That’s boring and uninspired.

Even if the plot of the story is largely “the same as in canon but in reverse” or even “similar to canon but in reverse” I don’t mind too much…because the nature of the split worlds kind of lends itself to the same resolution no matter what (reuniting the worlds). But if that’s the case, it means the character arcs need to be different to give me the separation and new experience I’m looking for.

To that end, Seles is the current Chosen in this story. Zelos is the former Chosen; the title was transferred to his sister shortly after her birth and while he has mixed feelings about this and is not particularly close to his sister, he joins her on her journey…fully aware of what will happen to her. Their mothers are both alive.

Sheena is considered a hero of Mizuho due to her having formed a pact to save her village from famine; her presence is requested on this journey due to her summoning skill and her familiarity with one of the temples.

Thanks to some Renegade Interference in Sylvarant, Colette—and soon after, Lloyd—learn about the existence of Tethe’alla and the state of the worlds, and decide to offer their assistance to the cause, heading to Tethe’alla to try to meet up with their Chosen to get their cooperation.

Genis has spent his entire remembered life in Sybak, and believes Raine is his mother—a lie Raine told to keep them from being separated when they arrived. As they grew older, separation came for them anyway. Genis was heralded a prodigy mage while Raine was locked away and labeled dangerous.

With massive debt on his shoulders, Count Bryant takes his own life the day before his son, Regal, is set to return home from his final year of schooling. Regal inherits both the substantial family debt and the sunk Lezareno Company. A few days later that debt is collected—and the Desians take Regal and the Lezareno employees prisoner.

Presea’s story stays much the same, but due to Tethe'alla's crumbling economy, Alicia never leaves Ozette and has to watch her older sister stop aging.

-

In Shapes That Renew: this story is loosely based on an RP I did with a friend back in 2011. Regal pays Raine a visit in Asgard where she is doing research on the Balacruf Dynasty. After a couple of days of catching up and listening to Raine’s endless theories about the Mausoleum’s role in society at that time, he agrees to accompany her there to see if any of her theories can be proved. But while they’re poking around in the mausoleum, the building collapses in on them—and traps them inside with no real hope of rescue. I’ve gotten the outline of this one very far, but the real struggle here is figuring out where this story could end while still being a satisfying read.

-

Love Is the Crooked Thing: Regal confesses to Raine immediately after the events of the game, and she turns him down. They agree not to let this ruin their friendship and, over the next years, write to one as a way to maintain their friendship. Ten years post-game, Regal invites Raine to meet up with him in Meltokio since he’ll be in town for a few weeks for a seasonal event, and it’s been years since he saw her in person last. She agrees, and they catch up a bit, only for her to realize he’s struggling—not under the pressure of his job or charity work, but under the expectation society is placing on him to marry. It’s gotten steadily worse over the last few years with every conversation turning toward so-and-so’s Very Accomplished Daughter, and having just turned 44, he’s dreading all of the parties and events he’s socially obligated to attend. After a little back-and-forth, Raine agrees to attend with him to give him some peace of mind…and thus, a fake-dating scheme is adopted. I have this outlined and the first chapter written.

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Waiting for the Roses to Bloom. Raine very suddenly appears in Altamira with one goal in mind: studying Regal Bryant—or, more accurately, his ability to heal—like a bug. Regal assumes there is more to her sudden appearance on his island than what she is admitting to, but doesn’t push the matter—instead offering her rooms in his family home where she can work. They grow closer as they try to make sense of how his ability to heal works, spending time in the gardens and walking along the beach while they talk, but just when they get close to a breakthrough…Raine’s health starts to fail. I have this largely outlined, including a general idea of how it will end.

-

Keeping the Stars Apart (duology of two stories, one called “Whatever a Moon Has Always Meant” and the other titled, “Whatever a Sun Will Always Sing”). This is a modern (ish?) AU where Raine is a romance author who writes under a pseudonym. When the story starts, she is on her way to a large conference/convention event in Altamira to speak about workplace safety and worker rights. It’s a 12-hour flight and she’s managed with some satisfaction to get the window seat…only to find at boarding that the middle seat belongs to an absolute giant of a man whose name, she finds out a little while later, is Regal.

He pulls out a book to read and quietly keeps to himself to her relief. Partway through the flight, he finishes his current book, and swaps it out with another one—which Raine recognizes instantly as being her most recently published book. They get to talking a little bit about what they’re both reading and by the time she has to ask to be let by to use the bathroom, she’s not dreading it so much. And by the time the plane lands and they go their separate ways, they’re on terms Raine would consider friendly.

In Altamira, she’s just checking in at the hotel when she runs into Regal again, and stops to talk to him while she waits for the crowd to thin out so that she can take the elevator without wanting to die. As it turns out, there was a mistake with his room and it ended up being double-booked—and the other party was already settled in. Or at least, that’s what the hotel is claiming. After a little more discussion about the conference they’re both in town to attend, and the fact that every hotel and motel and rented room in the city has been booked months in advance, meaning he’s unlikely to find anything suitable, Raine takes a leap of faith and offers to share her room—having no idea he’s the son of the Lezareno Company president. Lots of fun in this one where she tries to sneakily get his opinions on her latest novel only for him to actively criticize it (but she finds herself kind of fascinated with his takes, since they’re well thought out). And other things. Just a fun story. I have the first “book” outlined.

-

So now if you’re like, “That was a lot of stuff, Manna,” the answer is: yes, it absolutely is a lot of stuff. My brain is so active and so busy and so ANNOYING with the amount of things it wants me to think about and consider all the time that I can’t actually figure out what I want to write next.

Anyway, feel free to comment or send me asks about any of these stories if you’re intrigued or want more information or whatever. Maybe it’ll spark something in my brain that will make me finish my (mostly completed) outlines and then start writing.

I do fully realize that maybe 1.5 people care about what I may or may not write for our beloved but very small fandom, but eh, I'll talk about it here anyway.

Fortunately for all of you it's late here, so you're spared...for now. But not forever.

[sweetwolfcupcake]

Allurement: Falling Apart

Yandere Namjoon x Reader

Even though the rest of the day had been smooth-sailing on the professional front, Namjoon could sense the lingering confusion and hesitancy on her part. She seemed to be brooding when she was not busy with her nose dipped in work. Namjoon himself had been feeling uneasy. It was supposed to be all saccharine-incarnate and fluff-filled for both of them. But there had been sprinkles of bitterness already. And what he really feared now, was her reaction to discovering the truth.

No, he needed to make up to her, he needed the morning to be ebbed away in some unknown cervixes of her mind. So he sent her home, instead of requesting her to stay back with him. In fact, he did not stay back in his office either, instead, he took a taxi straight to his favourite outlet for the best accessory and jewellery, the brand provided with as exclusive and limited edition ranges as it was known among his circle.

The manager personally assisted him, he was a Kim after all. The range of bracelets produced before him belonged to the season's limited edition. He liked a white-gold bracelet, it was thin, with tiny diamonds delicately lined over it, sweet, subtle and beautiful, but no less in worth, it was the bracelet that described her best in his eyes.

"Pack this one for me please, and have a tiny note attached to it."

"Sir, would you like to write the note yourself? or do we attach something from the collection?" asked the manager as he gestured the staff members to get to packing, pastel paper with silk ribbons around, that would be perfect.

"Actually, yes, please hand me the paper, I would like to write the note myself." Namjoon decided after a brief thought, the manager smiled at him before a tiny card was presented to him.

Namjoon fiddled with the pen, trying to decide what to write, what could make her heart leap and her cheeks turn crimson at the same time? He wanted to make her feel special, exclusive. He wanted her to know that she meant the world, the universe to him. The obnoxious tune of a news channel distracted him. Annoyed, he looked up, ready to request the volume to be toned down, but his words dried up in his mouth as his eyes fell on the screen

'CEO and Heir to the Kim Group of Companies, has announced his engagement with Choi Ara, eldest daughter and potential heir of 'Ulysses Corporation', owned by...'

The rest of the words, even the world around him was blank as he felt his blood rushing, for a moment, he thought he was unable to feel a single thing, not even physically. His eyes moved away from the screen for once, the staff members throwing him knowing glances, especially when he had bought the expensive bracelet. As if the next moment was a jolt that set him free, the pen dropped from his hands before he sprinted out of the building.

Catching a taxi down the street, he hopped in and handed the driver the money surpassing the original ride-rates and voiced out the address "Drive as fast as you can, it's urgent, quick." the taxi driver nodded and the vehicle was off in no time, speeding towards his penthouse.

Namjoon's breathing was ragged, he could hear the erratic beating of his heart, his mind was clouded with agitation. So much so that the ringing of his phone almost made him jump on his seat. It was Choi Ara.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you announce our engagement like that, without consulting me?" he could hear her annoyance seeping through the call.

"It was not me. I have no idea how this got leaked."

"What? Namjoon, it's all over the news, and there is no news leak, it is an official announcement, look into the headlines closely, it's even trending on social sites now." her words made him frown, and he realised that indeed, it was an official announcement. And it would not take a genius to connect the dots

"It's my father." he muttered through barely-contained grinding of his teeth "I will call you later," he hung up as soon as he realised that the taxi had arrived at the gates of his penthouse.

Without another word, he tucked the phone inside his pocket and flung the door of the vehicle open before jogging inside, not even paying heed to the security guard who greeted him while he swooshed past the man. He threw the entrance door open as he slowed down at the sight of (Y/N). And his worst fears took the shape of reality in front of his eyes. The TV was switched on, the familiar, obnoxious sound of the news channel was blaring into the otherwise silent house with the headlines of his engagement with Choi Ara flashing on the screen. And there stood (Y/N), frozen in front of the screen.

"Jagi?" he could not bring his voice to be louder than a whisper, but she seemed to have become aware of his presence already, as she turned to look at him with tears tracing her cheeks.

And the world around Namjoon began to crumble.

****

Taglist(Kindly remind me later if I missed anyone)- @whatpageisthis @amoc94 @theresa-nam-nam-me @dearbambideer @casualminiaturetimemachine @njrwifey @kpopisnicee @illnevertrustmyselfagain @potterbrooke @luvaffaire @bighitfics @mochimochipie @vixenwerr @minshookie29 @sepulcry @omgsuperstarg @rkive-diary @nananalifeisdynamite @sumzysworld @waterdemon11 @joonswolf @control-trol-trol

[sfb123]

Sapere Aude - Part 13

Book: The Royal Heir

Pairing: King Liam Rys x Queen Riley Brooks

All characters belong to Pixelberry.

Catch Up Here

If you’re new to Sapere Aude, please click the link above to start from the beginning. There’s so much going on right now that you’ll be way too confused to start from this point. Plus, there are some major bombshells that won’t be as fun if you read this and get a bunch of spoilers.

Series Description: I developed a theory of what I think will happen in TRH Book 4, and I was encouraged by some very lovely people to turn my theory into a fic, so here it is. Basically, Riley is recruited to join the Via Imperii, this series will follow her as she joins them to try and bring them down from the inside, and all of the drama and bombshells she learns along the way. Sapere Aude is Latin for “dare to know” it seemed like an appropriate title.

Rating: PG-13 Adult language, discussions of death, conspiracy, blackmail, and other adult themes.

Trigger Warning: There is a brief moment of physical abuse, it’s not much, but I definitely wanted to mention it and give a fair warning. 

Warning: The Royal Heir Book 3 Spoilers all over the place.

Disclaimer: I have no current affiliation with any other Via Imperii themed stories. Any claims that I have pre-read anything are false.

Word Count: 2,383

A/N: I know you’ve all been on the edge of your seats wondering what was going to happen, the answer is a lot. This is a pretty big chapter. I hope you enjoy!

Thanks to my pre-reading babes, @jessiembruno & @txemrn. And to @twinkleallnight for my lovely moodboard! 

Tags: Listed below, hit me up to be added or removed.

“Um...actually, it’s about the queen. Your majesty, you need to come with me, and we need to send some additional guards along with us.”

Liam’s face paled at Thomas’s words. “Where is my wife, Thomas?” He kept his voice quiet, so that he wouldn’t upset his daughter but his tone was stern and authoritative. 

“I believe she is at the old Fierro estate, and time may be of the essence.” 

“Li, go. We’re all here, we can take care of Eleanor.” Drake chimed in. 

Liam nodded. “Bastien, please send as many guards as you can immediately, and prepare the car for us. Thomas, go with him and tell him everything you know so that we can fill the team in.” Both men bowed and quickly exited the room. Liam walked over to Eleanor, sitting in the chair next to her. “Eleanor, I need to step out and pick up mommy, ok? Your auntie and uncles will be here to play with you until we get back.”

“Can I come with you?” She asked hopefully.

Liam took a deep breath before answering her. “I’m sorry princess, but I need to go by myself. But you have a very important job here. Since Valtoria is your home, you need to host our guests. Being a hostess is something you will need to do a lot when you become queen, so this will be wonderful practice. Do you think you’re up for it?”

She nodded her head rapidly. “Yes daddy, I will be the best hostess!”

“Good. Now go with Uncle Drake, and mommy and I will see you when we get home.” He pulled her into a hug, kissing her cheek as they pulled apart. 

Eleanor ran to Drake, taking his hand and pulling him toward the door. “C’mon Uncle Drake, I’m the hostess.” Drake chuckled before looking back at Liam and giving him a reassuring nod.

Liam waited a few moments to make sure that Drake and Eleanor were out of his path before rushing out of the room and toward the front entrance. The car was waiting for him, Bastien holding the back door open for Liam to enter. He jumped in and Bastien shut the door behind him, quickly jumping into the driver's seat. The SUV’s wheels squealed as it rushed toward the gates.

“How far out are the guards?” Liam asked. 

“We had a team training not too far from the estate, they should be arriving shortly. They have been briefed.” Bastien replied, looking at Liam through the rearview mirror. 

“Excellent. Would someone care to brief me now? Where is my wife?” Liam commanded. 

Bastien looked over at Thomas, who was seated next to him. “Thomas, please explain to his majesty the current situation.”

Thomas took a deep breath, his hands nervously balling into fists. “Of course. You see sir, there is an organization, the Via-”

Liam pinched the bridge of his nose, interrupting Thomas. “Thomas, please spare me. I know about the Via Imperii, Riley has been telling me about the meetings, the plans, everything.”

“Everything?” There was a slight crack in Thomas’s voice as he looked back at Liam. If she had told him everything, Liam knew who he was.

“Yes Thomas, everything, including our relationship. Right now, that is the last thing I am concerned with. I need you to tell me what they are doing to Riley, and what we need to do to get her out.”

“Unfortunately, I do not know much. I’m sure you were made aware of the conflict between her majesty and Lord Neville. Well it appears that he and Mara have lured her to the estate under the guise of a meeting with our chapter president. I don’t know what they are planning to do from there.” 

Liam’s jaw clenched as he ran a hand through his hair. “Bastien, remind me again why we didn’t dismiss Mara after her charge, the queen, my wife, was kidnapped at our wedding? It seems like grounds for termination to me.”

“She went through a thorough re-training process, and passed all of the associated tests. It was determined that she was able to adequately perform her duties.” Bastien replied. 

“Adequate is not acceptable for protecting the life of a Queen. We need exceptional as the bare minimum. She should have never been cleared to return to such a high profile duty. We will be having a meeting immediately to review protocol and standards.” The mixture of concern and rage swirling inside of Liam was becoming overwhelming, he was having trouble thinking straight. He turned to look out the window, taking deep breaths to regain some level of composure. 

***

“Since rational discussion is not going to be an option here, I guess we’re going to have to go to plan b, elimination.” Neville said to Mara as they sat across from each other, Riley tied to the chair at the head of the table. 

Riley laughed. “Sure, elimination. I bet that will work out great for you. It’s super easy to just make a reigning queen disappear.”

“We have been successful in doing it with two out of the last four queens. What do you think makes you so special?” Neville turned his attention to Riley, genuinely curious to know her reasons. 

“Well first of all, Eleanor was in on the plan, so she doesn’t count, so it’s actually one out of four. And second, I’m sure Liam and the rest of the guards, the loyal ones,” she looked poignantly at Mara, “are on their way. I’ve been gone long enough that Liam has definitely already had them ping the location of my phone.”

Mara pulled a phone out of her pocket and waved it in front of Riley with a smug grin on her face. “It has been powered off since I pulled it from your pocket as you were getting into the car.” She placed it on the table and slid it toward Riley.

“Any more smart remarks?” Neville asked, standing from his seat. He approached Riley, taking her face in his hand and leaning in close. “The fairytale is over Riley, and the ending isn’t quite as happy as you thought.”

Riley could feel her nerves starting to take over. Yes, Liam would be missing her right now, but how was he going to find her? She felt her heart rate increase, trying to keep her composure. She had been through this before. For as much as she hated Anton, she had to give him credit, he was much better at this than Neville was. If she could survive that, she could figure out a way out of this. 

She thought back to that night at the abandoned castle, she needed to channel that version of herself again. And she certainly couldn’t let Neville know he was getting to her. “What happened? You couldn’t find a woman to kiss you out of being a frog faced asshole? Or you did and it just didn’t work?”

“That’s enough!” the back of Neville’s hand abruptly met with Riley’s face, the force of the impact almost knocking the chair over. She moved her jaw back and forth several times, trying to assess the damage as best she could with her hands tied behind her back. “Mara, do we have anything to gag her with?” 

Before she could answer, there was a knock at the door. Neville and Mara looked at each other in confusion, nobody else knew about the plan. “Well?” Neville raised his hands in frustration. “You’re the security guard, go assess the damn threat!”

Mara jumped to her feet and opened the door to find Eleanor on the other side. “Ah Mara, I heard you and Queen Riley had stopped by, I’m so glad I was able to catch you.” She didn’t wait for Mara to respond before brushing past her and entering the room. “Lord Neville, I didn’t know you would be using one of our meeting rooms today. You didn’t clear it through the proper channels. What have we got here?” Eleanor walked straight past Neville and went right to Riley. She took in her appearance, noticing a red mark on her cheek and a small trail of blood running down her face. Her eyes were watering, but she hadn’t shed a single tear. Eleanor was impressed by the strength she was showing under these circumstances. She gave Riley a subtle wink before taking a seat and motioning for Mara and Neville to do the same. “Now, should we talk about where you plan to take things from here, considering you clearly haven’t thought this scheme all the way through?” 

“We’re going to do what this organization has done for years, eliminate the threat. Maybe we will be more successful in the king’s next social season, and get a cooperative queen in place.” Neville replied.

Riley took a shaky breath, but the idea of her being taken away from her family was too much for her to bear. The tears she had been holding back broke free, and she began sobbing. Eleanor walked back over to Riley and knelt down in front of her. “It’s alright dear, you aren’t going anywhere.” She placed a comforting hand on her shoulder before standing and turning her attention back to her captors. “Are you insane? Do you have any idea how much time and careful planning goes into enacting an elimination plan? You can’t just decide to kill the queen and expect that everything will go off without a hitch!”

As if on cue, the door burst open and several members of the King’s Guard entered with their weapons drawn. Mara immediately drew her weapon and aimed it at Neville. “Hands in the air, Lord Vancoeur.”

“Drop the weapon Mara.” One of the guards commanded.

Mara continued acting as if she was assisting in the rescue efforts, ignoring the guard’s warning. “I’m glad you guys got here, I was having trouble calling for backup to save the -”

A loud pop filled the room, Riley flinched, keeping her eyes closed for a moment. When she opened them, she saw Mara laying on the ground in a pool of blood as two guards rushed Neville and took him into custody. Two more pulled Eleanor away from Riley and forced her hands behind her back. “Stop!” Riley ordered, causing both guards to look up. “She is not a part of this, she was here rescuing me. Let her go.” The guards complied, and Eleanor went back to Riley’s side, quickly undoing the fastenings that bound her to the chair. As soon as she was free, Riley stood and rubbed each of her wrists before raising a hand to her face, gently placing it on the spot that Neville had hit, and moved her jaw back and forth a couple more times. She looked at Eleanor, her eyes welling up again. “You...you saved me.”

“Of course, dear. I told you I wouldn’t let them take you away from your family.” Riley wrapped her arms around Eleanor and pulled her into a hug. Eleanor could hear her hitched breathing and knew she had begun to cry. “It’s ok Riley, you’re safe now. Let’s go get you cleaned up.”

***

Liam was lost in his thoughts, watching the scenery go by as they neared the estate. The sound of Thomas’s phone ringing took him out of his thoughts. He quickly moved his attention to the front of the car, listening intently to Thomas’s answers to the person on the other end. They were simple, one word answers, and he was unable to read any kind of emotion in his voice. “Well?” Liam said, before Thomas had even fully moved the phone away from his ear. “Is Riley ok?” The seconds it took to get his response felt like an eternity for Liam. 

“Yes your majesty, Riley is safe. Lord Vancoeur has been taken into custody, and Mara was killed. Queen Riley is safe and awaiting our arrival.” 

Liam breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in his seat. He was glad she was safe, but he needed to get there. He needed to see it for himself, to hold her, to kiss her. He needed to get her home where he could protect her. 

The car pulled up to the front of the estate, and before it could come to a complete stop, Liam had jumped out and ran to the door. He burst into the estate frantically sticking his head into every doorway looking for her. Finally, he approached a large sitting area with a fireplace running, and there she was, silently watching the flames dance. “Riley? Love?”

Riley blinked a couple of times before turning and meeting Liam’s gaze. “Liam…” her voice was barely above a whisper as she slowly stood to greet him. 

He rushed to her, immediately pulling her into his arms. He held her tightly as he kissed the top of her head. He pulled back, taking her face in his hands. The pressure of his touch on her still tender cheek made her wince in pain. Liam removed his hands and examined her face. “Riley, who did this to you?” He tried to keep calm, not wanting to cause her any more stress or pain.

“Stupid fucking Neville. I made some frog prince joke and he decided to heckle me with the back of his hand.” 

Liam clenched his jaw, and took a deep breath. He would deal with Neville, but for now, he needed to be with his wife. “Riley, I am so sorry that you had to go through this. I should never have let you do this. It could have been so much worse.”

She placed her hand on his cheek, he noticed the marks on her wrist from the restraints, and turned his head to kiss them softly. “But it’s not, because Eleanor, your mother, saved me.”

“My...why would she do that?”

“Because I couldn’t let you lose her.” A lump formed in Liam’s throat at the sound of the voice behind him. He hadn’t heard it in years, but he had never forgotten it. He turned around and as soon as they locked eyes, he felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. “Hello, Liam.”

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[imagintheworldaway]

Used Pt 2

Anonymous said: Hello i loved your post “used” with Harry and i just wanted to know if you are planning a part 2 in the future?!?

Anonymous said: Loved your most recent imagine of Harry! Can you plzzzzz make a part 2 of used, where she’s a bad B and becomes even more successful and she’s better off without him? Thank you!

A/N I loved that you guys loved the first one! I went through a few different ideas / endings for this one and I think I'm happy with the outcome! warning it is a long one so strap in!

Used Pt 1 can be found here

Requests are open!

That night at Harrys apartment felt like a life time ago. The breakup wasn’t messy as neither of us addressed it really, I archived all of my posts of him and he had done the same for me and that was about it. It didn’t take the fans to catch on but what can you expect, they know more about me than I do. it had been almost 6 months to the date, not that I was counting or anything but I honestly felt like Harry was my soulmate at the time. Oh how love can blind you. 

The past few months I had submerged myself into my channel and my fans. I had done an array of meet and greets and was interacting more with them, and honestly my love for YouTube was restored and I felt like a whole new person. I had had a full make over and due to this my channel had grown immensely and I had hit 50 million subscribers, a huge achievement which I never though would happen. it was amazing to see the amount of support I was gaining from my fans and how much I had grown, from a naive teenager to a young adult. I had received an overwhelming amount of support from my friends. When Harry and I broke up they tried not to take sides but It was evident that that couldn’t last forever and I was ok with that. 

I had just finished a meeting with my manager at her office. With my new look and attitude brands seemed to swarm at me and I was gaining so many new opportunities it was kind of crazy. It was like I was a completely different person and it seemed to be working in furthering my career. I got in my Uber and made my way to my new apartment, after the break up I felt like starting a new was best and so I moved into my new multi million apartment in knightsbridge. It was nice to be in an area by myself as it meant that I had more privacy and was able to truly live my best single life. Plus a tour of new apartment left many of my friends in awe, and honestly I loved that I could show off all my hard work. 

I thanked my Uber driver and made my way to my apartment, once inside I collapsed on my sofa and kicked off my heels, which I was still getting used to in all honesty. Having changed from living in baggy jumpers and old trainers was a bit of a shock but I loved wearing my more out there wardrobe, with tighter clothes and higher heels, my makeup always done to perfection, I always felt like people had their eye on me and I felt amazing.  My change in personality and look hadn’t gone unnoticed either, although they didn’t say anything I could tell my friends liked my new attitude, after wallowing in self pity for a few months I think they’re happy that I’m back and stronger than what I was before. 

I still thought about Harry from time to time. How I not so secretly still had one of his jumpers and when I was alone id wear it, just to feel his embrace once more. When we had initially broken up it took him less than two days to send Freezy round my apartment to drop off my box of things and to request his stuff back. I know Freezy felt bad but what choice did he have if Harry wanted to erase me from his life then so be it. More fool him, I had grown so much and if he was truly clout chasing then he should’ve stuck around a little longer. 

I woke up to my doorbell ringing. I must’ve fallen asleep on the sofa. I stretched a little when the doorbell kept ringing. “Jeez I’m coming” I mumbled to myself. I pressed the array of buttons for who ever it was to get through the front gate and after a few minutes I opened the door to reveal Talia. “Have you been sleeping?” She giggled at me as she walked into my apartment, propping herself up on one of my breakfast stools. “Hmm, oh yh, busy day” I laughed closing the door and standing the other side of the breakfast bar looking up at her. 

“Soooooo” I edged her to start talking. “Oh right sorry, your release party, Simon was pestering me to ask you if a certain arsehole could come?” She said the last part in a sheepish tone. Fuck, my release party I completely forgot, I had had so much on my plate that I forgot I was opening a club and releasing my own line of spirits. I stood up looking at Talia with a confused look “why the hell would I invite my ex to my release party?”. I reached up and grabbed two wine glasses pouring us each a glass of rosé. Passing over a glass to Talia as she pondered her reply. “Honestly I said the same but apparently all the lads feel bad as everyone we know is invited except for him” she swirled her glass of wine and took a sip as I copied her mentioned. In all fairness it was rude that I invited everyone but him, plus it was going to be the event to beat, and I had a few spaces on the guest list. “T, I don’t know” I shrugged at her sighing. “If I was you id tell him to stick it where-“ Talia started before I cut her off “I know, I know, it does seem a little harsh, I have invited so many people and, well, you know what fuck it, I’ll get my manager to add him to the list if you let him know” I decided. Talia looked gobsmacked, I had never seen her this speechless in our lives. “Are you sure, he’s a dick like you really don’t have to” she said cocking an eyebrow at me. “Look its not fair, plus there’s going to be hundreds of people there and the likelihood of us actually interacting are practically 0” I stated. Which was true, there was going to be just about the whole British YouTube community there, as well as some celebrities and journalists, and I would have my team around me at all times so the chance of him even getting near me is slim. 

That night Talia and I had gotten wasted, watching movies and just have a nice little girly night. However, right now I was shaking in my heels. My hair and makeup had been done to perfection and I was in a body hugging dress which showed off all of my curves perfectly. I looked almost like a model that’s how good I looked. I of Course was going to be the last to arrive at the venue, I needed everyone to be chatting with flutes of complimentary champagne when I entered so all attention was on me, as conceited as this sounds my publicists and manager had worked months for this to run as perfect as possible. I arrived at the venue and I could hear the music from outside “you ready?” My manager, Lucy asked. I nodded my head and made my way through the back entrance. I stood behind the stage door with a mic in one hand and a bottle of my own vodka in another. “Deep breaths, you’ll smash it” Lucy smiled at me, I just nodded and plastered on a smile, I heard the music die down a little and the door opened and I made my way on stage. An eruption of applause and cheering began from my friends and guests. I smiled taking it all in for a moment before I raised the mic to my mouth. 

“Thank you all so much for being here today and supporting me in my new business venture. If you would have told me a year ago that this is where I would be I would have laughed. These past few months I’ve grown more than I ever have, my channel, my business and more importantly myself. I can’t thank you all enough for the continuous love and support, without you guys or my fans I wouldn’t be where I am today. So id like you to all enjoy a complimentary glass of my new Vodka and enjoy yourselves. Because tonight is about friends and loved ones. So let’s get wasted!!!” I recited my speech cheering at the end. I got a mass amount of applause and cheers and I smiled looking over the crowd. I could see all my friends together happy, the way it should be and I smiled until I saw him, he actually came. My smile faltered slightly and my breath hitched in my throat. I quickly shook it off and made my way to the stairs, exiting the stage. I was quickly engulfed in a mass of hugs and bodies, people I knew and some I didn’t all congratulating me. 

I had done it I had made it and all on my own. 

After about half an hour I made it over to my closest group of friends. They all cheered when I went over and I did a mock curtsey, careful not to reveal too much. I got handed a glass of something and started polite conversation. “We’re all so proud of you” Gee gushed “you’ve done so well I can’t believe that you are basically the most sought after name at the moment” freya added. “ I couldn’t have done it without you guys” I smiled. “Oh shut up little miss humble” Ethan who had clearly had a bit much to drink already. “You’re  the queen of UK YouTube, you have your own empire going and you built it all yourself” he grinned at me before smothering me in a hug. “You need to be in more of our vids then maybe we’d be doing just as well as you” Simon commented earning a laugh from the group. “Here’s to Y/N the baddest bitch I know” Talia toasted and everyone joined in. I smiled as we fell into polite chatter. “I’m just nipping outside” I informed my friends smiling at them before making my way to the balcony. I leant over the edge and smiled, nothing could ruin my life right now. I thought to myself. That was until I heard footsteps approach me from behind and the body heat of someone I could recognise in an instant next to me. “Before you say anything I’m here to congratulate you” Harry said. I kept my gaze forward, not wanted tears that I didn’t know still existed for him to spill. “I’m so proud of you, honestly I am, so are my family, they miss you, I miss you” I turned my body and met Harrys gaze. I studied his face, he had bags under his eyes and the usual scruff on his beard was longer than he usually kept it, his hair was also scruffy, not scruffy like usual but tangled and unkept. He was wearing smart trousers and a nice button up shirt, no blazer, Harry hated formal clothes. “Thank you” was all I was able to say as I smiled at him. “You know, with every day that goes by someone reminds me how I fucked up and should have kept a death grip on you, that you were the best part of me and now I’m just some boring kid who plays Fifa” I half chuckled at the end. I felt sorry for him, it seemed that I had grown and succeeded and that Harry had stayed stagnant in his life. “Harry, I, I don’t know what you want me to say” I looked at him with sorry eyes, I think maybe I still loved him, but I had been doing so well without him I just I didn’t know whether I wanted to kiss him or kill him. “No I, I get that, I was a dick. I was in a rut and I took it out on you. And well honestly seeing you do so well without me just shows how I was holding you back. I’m proud of you, I’m happy for you, honestly I am bear, sorry Y/N” we had made eye contact at this point. So many memories came flooding back to me. Our first kiss, our first date, the nights we spent talking about what we wanted to name our children, and how we wanted to have a house in Guernsey and one in London. How we were going to grow old together and never let the other go. 

I broke my gaze when I heard Lucy call my name. I took a deep breath. “I loved you harry, with all my heart, with all my being and I was willing to stay and love you no matter what. I think I still do love you. But right now I need to focus on me, my empire has only just started and I don’t want us to back peddle. The only way for me is forward no mater if you’re there with me or not.” I spilled my heart out to Harry before I heard Lucy call me name again. “Sorry” was all I could say before I headed back inside. I wiped a stray tear from my eye and took one last look at harry, I had left him so broken. But now was time to put me first Y/N is number one in my life and as much as I wanted to fall back into my old self I couldn’t. I had made promises and shown that after heartbreak you can build and make yourself stronger than before. And I was not about to throw it all away.