#but they do require extensive management and socialization with other dogs

[milfordconroyiv]

Are Wolves Human-Friendly?

Wolves, with their striking appearance and enigmatic behavior, have fascinated humans for centuries. These majestic creatures are often depicted in folklore and popular media, sometimes as fearsome predators and other times as noble, misunderstood animals. This duality has led many to wonder: are wolves human-friendly?

Understanding Wolf Behavior

To answer this question, it’s important to understand wolf behavior and their natural instincts. Wolves are highly social animals that live in structured packs, which are essential for their survival. These packs have a complex hierarchy, with a clear alpha pair leading the group. Wolves rely on cooperation and strong social bonds within the pack for hunting, raising pups, and defending territory.

Wild Wolves and Humans

In the wild, wolves are generally wary of humans and tend to avoid contact whenever possible. This behavior is rooted in their natural instincts and experiences with human encroachment and hunting. While there have been rare cases of wolves attacking humans, these instances are extremely uncommon and usually occur under specific circumstances, such as a wolf being rabid or feeling threatened.

Wolves in Captivity

Wolves raised in captivity, such as those in wildlife sanctuaries or zoos, can become accustomed to human presence. These wolves may exhibit less fear and more curiosity towards humans compared to their wild counterparts. However, it’s crucial to remember that even captive wolves are not domesticated animals. They retain their wild instincts and can be unpredictable.

Can Wolves Become Pets?

Despite their allure, wolves are not suitable as pets. They require extensive space, social interaction, and a diet that mimics their natural prey. Moreover, their behavior can be challenging to manage for the average person. Wolf-dog hybrids, which are a cross between wolves and domestic dogs, also present significant challenges and are not recommended for most people.

Conservation and Coexistence

Wolves play a crucial role in maintaining healthy ecosystems by regulating prey populations and promoting biodiversity. Efforts to conserve wolf populations often involve education about their behavior and the importance of coexistence. Understanding wolves and respecting their natural habitats can help reduce human-wolf conflicts and ensure the survival of these magnificent animals.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1: Are wolves dangerous to humans?

Ans: Wolves are generally wary of humans and avoid contact. Attacks on humans are extremely rare and usually occur under unusual circumstances.

2: Can wolves be domesticated like dogs?

Ans: No, wolves are wild animals with instincts and behaviors that differ significantly from domestic dogs. They are not suitable as pets.

3: What should I do if I encounter a wolf in the wild?

Ans: If you encounter a wolf in the wild, remain calm and do not run. Make yourself look larger, make noise, and slowly back away. Wolves typically avoid humans and will likely retreat.

4: Are wolf-dog hybrids safer than pure wolves?

Ans: Wolf-dog hybrids can be unpredictable and challenging to care for. They may exhibit behaviors from both species, making them unsuitable for most pet owners.

5: How can I help with wolf conservation efforts?

Ans: Support conservation organizations, educate others about the importance of wolves in ecosystems, and advocate for policies that protect wolf habitats and promote coexistence.

Conclusion

while wolves are not inherently human-friendly, they are not the malevolent creatures often portrayed in myths. By understanding and respecting their natural behaviors and habitats, we can coexist peacefully with these remarkable animals.

[jcmarchi]

5+ Useful WordPress Plugins You Should Check Out in 2024

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5+ Useful WordPress Plugins You Should Check Out in 2024

WordPress’s immense popularity stems from its robust ecosystem of tools, ease of use, and flexibility. Themes and plugins are central to its versatility. Plugins, in particular, allow users to extend the functionality of their WordPress sites effectively.

Plugins are, in fact, indispensable for adding complex features to a site, eliminating the need for extensive coding or high development costs.

If the term plugin is new to you, you can think of it as an app or add-on for your website. The WordPress library, with over 50,000 plugins, offers extensive design capabilities, allowing you to unlock the full potential of WordPress itself.

A general understanding of what WordPress plugins can do and how they can leverage a website’s value and operational efficiency is key to successful website design and development.

In this collection, you’ll examine seven top WordPress plugins, each excelling in its specific area of functionality.

What You Need to Consider When Selecting a WordPress Plugin

Purpose & Requirements: Clearly define what you are looking for, e.g., SEO, social media integration, eCommerce capabilities, etc.

Plugin Ratings & Reviews: Make it a point to find out what other users experienced, e.g., excellent results, problems encountered, and the level of support received.

Compatibility: Make certain the plugin is compatible with the version of WordPress you are using and also compatible with themes or other plugins your website is using.

Update Frequency: Plugins should have been updated frequently enough to incorporate improvements, fix bugs, and remain compatible with WordPress.

Support & Documentation: Good documentation can help you troubleshoot issues and make the most of the plugin’s features. Robust customer support is also important.

Security: Choose plugins from developers that deliver high-quality, secure code.

Performance Impact Poorly coded plugins or those overloaded with extra features could slow down your site (and add to your design workflow).

Cost: Free is great if you are certain that that option meets your needs. It’s always a good idea to see if the extras a premium version offers will work to your advantage.

The Best WordPress Plugins in 2024 for Your Website Projects

1. Amelia – WordPress Booking Plugin for Appointments & Events

TL;DR: Amelia is the best choice for service-oriented businesses needing to automate and streamline their appointment booking operations.

Click the video to see this plugin in action.

Spas, fitness centers, photographic studios, and other service-oriented businesses can save time and money by installing Amelia’s capabilities while at the same time profiting from increased customer or client satisfaction. With Amelia, event and appointment booking can be managed at multiple locations from a single website platform.

Veterinarian services including dog-walking, vacation care, and other special services can also make excellent use of Amelia, Petcare template.

User Experience: “Amelia is a great booking tool that has a nice look and feel right out of the box. It is a bit overwhelming at first because of the many settings you have but the customer service support is great. I can’t recommend this plugin enough.”

Client Avgerage Grade: 4.8 on Capterra.

Types of Support Material: Discord Group, documentation, and YouTube videos.

View Amelia

2. wpDataTables – WordPress Table Plugin

TL;DR: wpDataTables’ ease of use and powerful data management features allow users to quickly create editable and responsive tables and charts.

Click the video to see this plugin in action.

The wpDataTables plugin has long been known for allowing users to work with massive amounts of complex data. Its new Multiple Database Connections functionality goes a step further by enabling users to simultaneously connect to diverse servers.

Users have the ability to create a virtually unlimited variety of tables and charts. This pricing table template, for example, features nine different formats ranging from simplistic to more complex. wpDataTables’ conditional formatting and other customization options provide a powerful means for highlighting critical data.

User Experience: “The support team helped resolve the compatibility issues with my theme. Really helpful and willing to go the extra way to ensure that the plugin works well in any environment.”

Client Avgerage Grade: 4.83/5.

Types of Support Material: Documentation and YouTube videos.

View wpDataTables

3. Classic Editor WordPress Plugin

TL;DR: The Classic Editor plugin restores the long-time favorite WordPress editor and “Edit Post” screen.

Click the video to see this plugin in action.

Classic Editor will continue to be supported for as long as it is needed. The plugin allows users to manage default editors or give users the ability to make changes on their own.

User Experience: “Thank you for this plugin. I deactivated it a few months ago, trying to get used to the block editor. A nightmare. No more! I have wasted enough time already in frustration, trying to figure out how to put it to use. Back to classic!”

Client Avgerage Grade: 4.9/5.

View Classic Editor

4. Slider Revolution – More Than Just a WordPress Slider

TL;DR: The Slider Revolution plugin is an excellent choice for anyone interested in creating animated sliders that range from engaging to jaw-dropping.

Click the video to see this plugin in action.

Slider Revolution’s top feature isn’t a single tool or function, it’s the many different ways it can be used to create sliders and web page content that will absolutely “wow” its visitors.

Designers or developers can upgrade a run-of-the-mill website to something special in minutes. Think of the last time you saw an advertisement for a Horsemanship training center: still images of happy-looking people on horseback. Now see what Slider Revolution can do with this Professional Training slider template.

Needless to say, Slider Revolution is ideal for one-page websites and portfolio websites.

User Experience: “Great plugin with some impressive features! Support reps are top notch all around and Abid was especially helpful.”

Client Avgerage Grade: 4.2/5 on Trustpilot.

Types of Support Material: Support manual and YouTube videos.

View Slider Revolution

5. LayerSlider – Best WordPress Slider Builder Plugin

TL;DR: LayerSlider is the best WordPress plugin for making creative sliders, slideshows, and popups.

Click the video to see this plugin in action.

LayerSlider enables its users to create a live connection between a site’s content and its visitors, whether the animated content is in a slider, a page section, a popup, or a banner for marketing purposes. Its highly customizable interface and advanced features were designed to make beginners and experts alike feel right at home.

The features and templates of LayerSlider provide a universal multi-purpose solution for all kinds of websites. “Fragrance Fantasy” for example, is a template tailored for salons and lifestyle blogs where perfume comes to life in a symphony of colors and scents. This and other templates can be easily customized by adding your own content.

Client Insight:“Super easy to use and the animations are just wow.”

Types of Support Material: Support manual, built-in help in LayerSlider’s Project Editor, direct email, and ticket system.

View LayerSlider

6. Essential Grid – WordPress Gallery Plugin

TL;DR: Essential Grid is an easy to work with WordPress Gallery Plugin for businesses and creatives looking for a way to create breathtaking galleries.

Click the video to see this plugin in action.

If you envision any gallery layout, you can create it with Essential Grid. If you can’t envision one, Essential Grid will also be able to help you.

All the tools you need are at your fingertips, plus you can use any of 50+ customizable templates designed to help you create an impressive gallery at a lightning-fast speed. Check out Essential Grids’ Dark Portfolio template with its impressive hover effects.

You can create as many skin variations as you want, choose masonry, cobbles, or any other type of layout, and mix and match the grids until you’re satisfied.

User Experience: “The tool is powerful and very well designed. The support team is incredibly fast, friendly and efficient! All the best to you!”

Client Avgerage Grade: 4.8/5 on Trustpilot.

Types of Support Material: YouTube videos and Support manual.

View Essential Grid

7. Brizy Website Builder

TL;DR: The expertly crafted Brizy WordPress website builder is great for those new to website building, but powerful enough for tech-savvy users as well.

Click the video to see this plugin in action.

Brizy is well suited for small businesses, freelancers, and agencies looking to launch a small to medium-sized website. Distinct PRO features for marketers include 3rd party tool integrations, popups, and membership features.

The design kit includes a collection of 500+ blocks designed to make it possible to create a website in minutes.

Brizy’s SAAS landing page template shows how easy website creation can be, especially when you have the needed content at your fingertips.

User Experience: “I’ve been using Brizy for a while now, and their support team is outstanding. Quick, knowledgeable, and always ready to help. They’ve made our website design experience a breeze. Highly recommend Brizy for their exceptional support and user-friendly platform.”

Client Avgerage Grade: 4.4/5 on Trustpilot/

Types of Support Material: Academy with Video Courses, Written DocumentationSupport Manual, Ticket Help-desk, YouTube videos & Facebook Group.

View Brizy

Choosing the Right WordPress Plugin

Choosing the right WordPress plugins for your website is crucial for maximizing its potential in terms of functionality and overall performance. Knowing upfront what you need in a plugin, checking its compatibility, and assessing user reviews are crucial to making the right acquisition. The plugins featured here offer robust solutions for various website requirements and represent the best in their respective niches.

Whether you choose Amelia’s all-inclusive booking system or wpDataTables’ powerful data management system or elect to take advantage of the WordPress Classic Editor, the Revolution Slider or LayerSlider dynamic content tools, or what Essential Grid and Brizy offer, you can appreciably improve your website’s functionality, user experience, or visual appeal.

Quick Recap

WP Plugin Summary Standout Feature Amelia The best plugin for service-oriented businesses needing to automate and streamline their appointment booking operations. Great selection of booking and appointment services. wpDataTables Powerful data management plugin for quickly creating editable and responsive tables and charts. A Multiple Database Connections capability. Classic Editor Classic Editor plugin restores the long-time favorite WordPress editor and “Edit Post” screen. Used to extend post screens and add old-style meta boxes. Slider Revolution Excellent plugin for creating animated sliders that range from engaging to jaw-dropping. The ability to add visual “wow” effects without having to rely on coding. LayerSlider The best WordPress plugin for making creative sliders, slideshows, and popups. Highly customizable interface. Essential Grid Easy to work with WordPress Gallery Plugin for businesses and creatives looking for a way to design breathtaking galleries. 50+ unique grid skins. Brizy The expertly crafted Brizy WordPress website builder is especially suited for use by non-technical users. Perfectly suited for non-techies.

Related Topics

[darkwood-sleddog]

Hi! I was wondering if you have experiences with siberian Husky vs malamute temperaments? My fiance really wants a husky (this would be several years in the future at least) but I've only ever owned herding breeds and she has only had terrier mixes and I'm not sure we could meet the exercise needs. We will be living in Montana and could potentially do some mushing with it, but we need a dog that will at least have a good off switch and tolerate being alone while we work.

My experience is that Siberian Huskies are a lot more high energy than the Alaskan Malamute, however they have a lot of pros as well: Siberians don’t experience same sex or even dog aggression at the rates Malamutes do, they are smaller and easier to transport/pick up if needed. They are a less serious dog in maturity, a bit more goofy.

The Alaskan Malamute has a more calm demeanor overall (Siberian was bred to be a race dog, while the Malamute was never that). They are less likely to climb fencing, but more likely to dig out than the Siberian.

It really depends what you are looking for, but my advice is this: any dog from a decent breeder can be taught to have a good off switch. My dogs are very enthusiastic about running in harness, but are also just as enthusiastic about laying around for 12+ hours a day doing nothing (Zombie especially). And I know Siberians that are similar! It’s the puppy stages that can be hard, but settling can be taught and enforced and is important!

I think having owned herding breeds and your fiance having owned terrier mixes you will be able to meet exercise needs just fine, my dogs are happy with a 1-2 mile walk a night when off from work or longer hikes. We even take entire days off walks in the off season because they cannot be bothered to rise from my floor (Sled breeds are opportunistic nappers). Coming from a terrier background your fiance will be used to dealing with stubborn dogs as well. 

I think the biggest challenge in getting a sled breed will be their less biddable nature, dealing with potential separation anxiety (they are pack animals, but early crate training and routine can help with this), and the difference in size & strength from your previous dogs. Siberians are smaller, but don’t discount this as lack of strength!

I highly recommend finding somewhere you can interact with both breeds and decide what the pros and cons of each are for you. Read the different standards and familiarize yourself with the difference in temperament. 

[augiepets]

Common mistakes we make while handling pets and how to avoid them

Making your pets feel at home

Adopting a pet is exciting, especially if you don’t have that much experience in handling pets. It opens a whole new world of love and care for an animal like no other.

Getting your first pet, and handling them for the first time, gives you a significant lifestyle change and comes with many challenges of its own.

They may make your life challenging if you don’t offer them with regular direction, consistent training, and enough exercise.

While having a furry buddy in your life is a delight, handling pet, also comes with a level of responsibility. Because animals cannot care for themselves, you are solely responsible for their health, happiness, and well-being.

It’s not always simple when it comes to handling pets to live their best life as a pet owner. Regardless of whether you have a dog or a cat, they may as well be considered one of your children, and you must undoubtedly spoil and care for them.

However, because your pet is so important to you, it must be in good health

Why pets need our care

Having a pet can be great for our health. Animals are always happy and lighthearted, and they always make us laugh.

Additionally, they teach us how to be kind and empathetic, to love unconditionally, and to enjoy life to the fullest. A dog in the right home is like an extension of the owner: they take care of their owner and care for each other.

If you have a dog, he becomes your partner, and you're not just a slave to your cellphone anymore. However, we also need to remember that we have to give our pets a chance to live their best lives. they require a lot of love and care.

If you don't provide them with constant guidance, consistent training, and sufficient exercise, with proper animal handling techniques they can make your life quite difficult and make it bad to describe your experience handling pets.

10 proper ways of handling pets

1. Trips to the vet/ Skipping regular checkups

Cats and dogs have adapted to disguise pain and sickness by putting on a brave front. Unfortunately, that implies that they're in agony when you discover something is wrong and can't disguise it any longer.

Your veterinarian is qualified to recognize the subtle signs of a disease or sickness. Minor symptoms, such as changes in breathing, heart rate, eyes, and even tiny swellings, can be detected during regular wellness checkups by your veterinarian. Veterinarian are pros in handling pet.

Veterinary checkups regularly can help your pet enjoy a long, healthy, and happy life. Annual or biannual checkups catch growing health concerns early and help you extend your pet's life with you.

Early identification and action allow your veterinarian to treat a disease in its early stages, then control it with medication or simple lifestyle modifications.

Your veterinarian can also provide you advice on how to assist you in handling pet in living the healthiest life possible and avoiding medical problems.

How to avoid: Schedule your calendar accordingly, to plan for vet visits. Make sure you're your pet's checkups are regular.

2. Not prioritizing training/ lack of physical exercise

Consult your veterinarian before beginning an exercise regimen for efficient handling pet.

Schedule an appointment with your veterinarian to determine how much and what sort of exercise your pet need.

Pets require exercise for a variety of reasons, in addition to the health benefits. It encourages them to expend energy, making it simpler for them (and you!) to get a good night's sleep.

Exercising a pet's brain can also be beneficial. That is why many animals like sports such as chasing a ball. Games allow them to exercise both their muscles and their minds.

Even indoor games provide pets with the daily dose of mental and physical simulation needed to keep themselves healthy.

How to avoid: Set some time aside every day to give your pets some exercise. Providing your pet with all your attention during this time will also increase your bonding and gets you closer to your beloved pet.

3. Avoiding socialization

One of the common mistakes dog owners make is not socialize their dogs enough. Dogs are very social animals. They know it when they receive love, and they are masters of reciprocating it back.

A dog who hasn't been exposed to good new experiences is more likely to be terrified of anything unfamiliar.

That garbage bag blowing in the air or the garden statuary at the edge of a neighbor's yard may be enough to make the dog flee.

Fear frequently masks aggression, so even if a reactive dog appears to be attacking in an aggressive manner, it's conceivable that the display is based on fear.

A dog who was never introduced to handling activities as a puppy is likely to be fearful of grooming since it never learned that a comb isn't a torture weapon.

That makes basic husbandry, like nail clipping and tooth brushing, challenging, if not impossible.

How to avoid: Dogs can only stay sociable if they are constantly introduced to new people.

Continued positive interactions with strangers reinforce the concept that strangers are good news in your dog's head.

Dogs can only stay sociable if they are constantly introduced to new people. Continued positive interactions with strangers reinforce the concept that strangers are good news in your dog's head.

Make an effort to avoid walking the same path every day. Allow your dog to explore a range of surroundings, including sidewalks and gravel roads.

This will give much-needed cerebral stimulation for your developing canine.

4. Not getting pet insurance

Life is unpredictable enough already, but when you have a pet, it just takes it to another level. Not having a pet insurance might make a huge hole in your wallet in the time emergency.

To properly engage yourself in handling pet. That is why it's always advised to be prepared. In fact, according to recent research1 from insurance market specialists Consumer Intelligence, more than half of pet owners think that not having insurance is too dangerous given the possible expenses of treatment.

Despite worries about the many plans offered and the terms and circumstances, 53 percent of those polled believe not ensuring their pet is too much of a worry.

Around two-fifths of pet insurance clients (41%) perceive plans to be perplexing.

How to avoid: Get a pet insurance with a trusted company as soon as possible. This gives you a plus when it comes to handling pet and your pet the advantage and courage to face any problems that may arise.

5. Overfeeding

When you overfeed your pet, there are both short- and long-term risks.

According to Banfield's Applied Research, one in every three cats and one in every four dogs is fat.

Heart disease, arthritis, and diabetes are all connected to these illnesses if their weight is not adequately managed.

As a dog owner, it is your obligation to keep track of your pet's health and responsibility in handling pet because it lacks the ability to reason. You want your pet's quality of life to be as good as possible, and you are free to seek professional pet health guidance.

They are unable to engage in physical activity, such as playing or exercising. As a result, you must do all possible to prevent them from being ill.

How to avoid: When it comes to food, a dog's size, age, exercise level, and medical problems should all be considered.

It's difficult to keep a dog's diet under control if they get a lot of goodies or eat your leftovers every day.

Dogs are opportunistic feeders, meaning they will eat more than they require if given the chance, viewing food as a valuable resource.

6. Overlooking TICKS

When it comes to handle how to handle a dog, one of the most important things we need to know about is ticks! Ticks usually lead to ear canal infestations can cause significant discomfort in both dogs and humans.

These ticks' toxins have the potential to paralyze you. There have been reports of secondary infections caused by larval screwworms.

Q fever, tularemia, Colorado tick fever, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever are all transmitted by Otobius megnini ticks.

Ticks may be found all over the world. Some tick species feed on specific animals, whereas others prey on a wide range of animals, including people.

Depending on the species, blood-sucking behavior differs. Ticks may go for months or even years without eating if the conditions are right.

How to avoid: Handling pets with ticks can be tricky, the most efficient approach to prevent tick exposure is to keep animals away from tick-infested regions.

Ticks prefer certain microhabitats, such as long grass or the transition between forested and lawned regions. Tick numbers are reduced when these microhabitats are destroyed.

Trimming plants and removing tall grass and weeds can help safeguard your animal. Ticks can be reduced partially by treating plants with insecticides.

7. Not spaying/neutering

When you get a pet, there is a procedure called Spaying/Neutering that is usually done to make your pets infertile. It helps to reduce the population of dogs and help you in properly handling pet.

India alone is said to have a stray dog population of 30- 40 million, and many of these dogs are not given proper treatment.

Male dogs' testicles (or gonads) are removed during neutering, a de-sexing surgery.

Castration refers to the removal of a male dog's testicles, whereas spaying refers to the sterilization of a female dog.

The ovaries and uterus of a female dog are removed in this procedure, which is known as an ovariohysterectomy.

Advantages:

· Spaying your female dog will prevent periods of her being in heat.

· Spaying your dog prevents your female canine from getting pregnant.

· Whether intentionally or accidentally, Breeding can become a significant financial and time-consuming burden for dog owners, which also comes with health risks and responsibilities.

· Paying your dog will eliminate the risk of your female dog developing cancer of her uterus, cancer of ovaries, or reproductive tract.

When these organs are removed, you will have fewer things to worry about regarding your dog's health.

8. Misinterpreting body language

Actions like tail wagging are usually interpreted as happiness. Unfortunately, it may not always be the case.

Sometimes dogs stiffen their tail and move it back and forth to show aggression. Similarly, dogs bare their teeth and growl when they're feeling aggressive, scared, or defensive, but it's also totally normal body language for them to express a play growl, too.

Eye contact might signify different things depending on the human and the dog, like in the prior case.

Humans should avoid making eye contact with puppies they have recently met as a general rule. This nonverbal communication might be regarded as a threat.

Dogs, on the other hand, are known to make eye contact with their owners when they wish to communicate.

They'll even look into the eyes of someone they trust with affection. Yawns aren't just for when dogs are sleepy.

Surprisingly, the reverse is true. When our dogs are worried, confused, or agitated, they frequently yawn.

They can also expand their jaws wide in anticipation of an exciting event, such as a stroll or a vehicle ride. When meeting new people, dogs yawn as a non-threatening soothing gesture.

How to avoid: Educate yourself! The very first step to buying/adopting a pet is educating yourself about behavioral patterns and basic dog handling techniques. The more you know, the better you get at handling pet. Its also very important to familiarize yourself with safety tools when handling animals.

9. Feeding your cats milk/only vegetarian food

Surprisingly enough, some cats, like people, have trouble digesting lactose, a milk sugar present in dairy.

This is because the only period in a cat's life when its body contains enough of the enzyme lactase to digest lactose effectively is when it is born and in its early years. This allows the cat to drink its mother's milk. Following that, lactase production decreases, potentially leading to increased digestive complications.

Cats, unlike humans, cannot thrive on a vegetarian diet. Humans are omnivores, meaning we can eat both meat and vegetables, but cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they must consume meat to survive (or at least thrive).

As a result, unlike humans, cats do not acquire much nourishment from veggies.

How to Avoid: Make sure your pet gets a balanced diet it is the most important step in handling pet. Canines need meat to survive. A good quality cat food will contain all the essential nutrients to feed your cat and keep it healthy.

10. Physically punishing pets

When you use punishment, it's simply to halt the conduct while you're around.

In fact, the pet may rapidly learn that when you are not around, the conduct does not result in punishment, and may fast learn to stop while you are present and resume when you are not.

Mild reprimand (pushing away, eye contact, talking to the dog) is interpreted by some pets as a kind of attention, reinforcing the undesired behavior.

Another major worry is that using physical punishment (striking, jabbing, pinning, rolling over, or seizing the pet's collar) may inflict unnecessary suffering and increase the pet's anxiety level when approached in the future in a similar fashion. It is one of the most common mistakes at pet.

How to avoid: Instead of penalizing what is undesired, training should focus on teaching the pet the desired reaction to get better at handling pet.

Distraction (such as a loud noise, hand clapping, or a "no") and redirection to a more acceptable activity is the greatest response if you observe your pet indulging in undesired behavior. Describe your experience handling pet.

Some concluding pointers

· Taking your pet regularly to the vet is necessary!

· A proper diet gives a healthy pet

· Learn more about the behavioral pattern before getting a pet

· Don't feed your adult cat milk

· Spaying/neutering your dog will give you and your dog a peaceful life.

How can Augie help you?

We have an ideal mix of Products and Services that can aid you in your efforts to take care of your pets. We work with different pets viz. Dogs / Cats / Other pets

You can reach out to us and we can aid you. Looking forward to working with you

Have a great Day Ahead!!

[bucket-fucker]

Animal Shelters and the misconceptions around them!!

I really, really need y’all to please stop assuming animal shelters are negligent and terrible torturous places for pets to live in.

There are plenty of privately owned shelters that, because they are not beholden to city and government funding, can afford to keep pets for as long as they need without euthanizing for space. These shelters work extremely hard to make sure pets get the medical, behavioral, and housing needs specific to each pet’s different personality, and they do extensive background checks on potential adopters to ensure that the pets they adopt out are going to good, safe homes.

I work in a shelter like this. It’s privately funded by generous donors, and therefore we can afford to control our animal intakes based on what space and capacity for care we have available. My shelter also has a well-funded, kind and dedicated behavioral team who work hard with pets individually to figure out what their needs are, what drives their behaviors, and modifies behaviors that harm the pet’s quality of life. They will postpone a pet’s adoption for months if that pet needs that extra time to get over fear, stress, or dog aggression. Just this last week, every employee in my shelter was required to take a Fear Free Handling course to ensure that we are handling pets in a way that does not stress them out more than they absolutely need to be.

We have a donor-subsidized clinic that not only treats every pet we have in our shelter, but also provides low-cost veterinary care to local pet owners. Our clinic has saved the lives of pets who have been severely abused, neglected, or even just hurt by unfortunate circumstance. We have had a puppy in foster care for 4 months, no doubt costing our clinic thousands of dollars in surgical care, medication management, food, etc. But our doctors refused to release this pup until she is completely medically cleared, so that her potential adopter does not have to take on thousands of dollars of medical management in adopting her. They do everything they can to ensure that our pets get the best chance at a happy, healthy life before we send them out to their new homes. We also provide TNR for local feral cat populations.

We also have a program called Safety Net, which has the goal of providing help to people who are surrendering their pets, to fix situations where we can so people can keep their pets. Our shelter workers have repaired broken fences, provided free medical care to sick pets, and helped with relocation just so people who might have had to surrender their pets can keep them in a better, healthy environment.

The dogs in my shelter get walks anywhere between 2 to 5 times a day, and the folks who work in offices on our campus usually keep shelter dogs in their offices during the day so as to reduce boredom and stress from being cooped up in a kennel. Our dogs are given toys and frozen kongs several times a day to keep them entertained, and employees are encouraged to hang out with our shelter pets on their breaks to give them attention and socialization. Our cat house has 4 rooms with walkways, hidey holes, and catios attached to them, with a constant rotation of “cat cuddler” volunteers whose specific job it is to come in for two hours and brush and play with the cats in our shelter to keep them entertained and happy.

Our Foster Care program sends adult adoptable dogs out into foster homes for 2-3 day periods during campus closures for the holidays or our deep clean days, and these dogs get to hang out in people’s homes and at parks as a way to take a break from the shelter and get some R&R.

And we are not some extraordinary special nice shelter. We developed all of these practices based on the example of the ASPCA, as well as other shelters all over the country whose sole goal is to better the lives of homeless pets in the country.

And because these are private shelters, often called “no-kill” (this is a term you should not trust. No-kill is NOT automatically a good thing!), that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t support your local city shelter! These shelters are dreadfully underfunded, understaffed, and because homeless stray pets have to go somewhere, they can’t filter their intakes based on available space. When people further the bad reputations of a city shelter, they are only making the situation worse! When you refuse to adopt, volunteer, or donate to your local city shelter, you are ensuring that the pets living in that shelter have a lower quality of life, and ultimately can be euthanized because they cannot be adopted. This doesn’t make your local government-subsidized shelter evil! They just don’t have the resources they need to give their pets the quality of life that a privately-funded shelter can. If you are able to, you should absolutely adopt from, volunteer at, or donate to local city shelters.

I hear people say they will never surrender their pets to a shelter because they know that shelters are unethical, and cruel, and will kill their pets. By perpetuating these harmful and untrue stereotypes, you are hurting the homeless pets that rely on these shelters for help and survival. Please stop seeing shelters as the villain. We are all animal lovers who are trying our hardest to help these helpless babies, and you have no idea how many shelter workers get burned out, broken, or suicidal because of the incredible difficulty of fighting the HUGE homeless pet population and the cruelty that people perpetuate on animals.

Please stop seeing us as the bad guys! And if you’re able to, talk up your local shelters, go visit them and see what they’re about! Volunteer! I cannot stress enough how much you can make a difference by donating 2 hours of your time a week to a shelter in need.

Anyway, thank you for coming to my TED talk, please be nice to animal shelters!

[leam1983]

Cyberpunk 2077 Thoughts

Having perused Dark Horse Books’ The World of Cyberpunk 2077 over the past few days, I’ve gotten a better feel for the various basic hooks that structure V’s inception as a protagonist. The short of it is the Polish wizards are on the right path to nailing Pondsmith’s treatment the same way they nailed Sapkowski’s works.

Consider the following as half a brain dump, half a series of prospective spoilers, and also half projection, so either skip this, find some other entry to read, or come back to this come late November.

I know I mentioned three halves, but it’s late and I don’t give a shit.

I’m serious - DO NOT PRESS ON IF YOU’RE THE TYPE TO BLOW A GASKET IF YOU’RE INADVERTANTLY SPOILED. 

The latest Night City Wire as of August exposed three incipient “life paths”, or starting branches of V’s path. I’ll tackle my personal narrative approaches to them in the order of my choosing.

Nomads: CP2077 is set in a world where much of what we understand to define a family has been blown up, tossed around by climate change and nuclear fire and then stitched back together using grit, resourcefulness and the last dying embers of human decency. Nomads are less a group of people defined by blood relations and more a cadre of individuals that share something more significant than mere genes. It might be a common history, a set of shared hardships, a yen for similar automotive and engineering-related projects - whatever it is, that something pulls people together in ways Corpo rats and street kids will never experience.

This seems to define even the average Nomad’s degree of education. Surprisingly, Nomads are the most well-read group in Coronado Bay’s greater area, some caravans reportedly including entire RVs packed with books. Nomads generationally elect teachers and record-keepers and seem to care for those cultural remnants of the old world, before Pondsmith’s paranoid alternate sixties kicked off more than a century’s worth of technological progression and rampant dehumanization. To a Night City native, a Nomad’s speech patterns appear precious and uselessly florid, while they might appear almost normal to us - maybe slightly touched by the fact that Grandpa Joe or whatever really wanted you to have your Greek classics down before you were old enough to repair your first CH00H2 carburetor on your own.

That new, mega-clustered version of family matters immensely to the Nomads. You identify to yours the same way Orcs in Shadow of War might refer to their clan, or the same way a Scottish clan might design specific visual cues identifying its members. In normal circumstances, Nomads live, thrive and die in service to the clan - and the opening segment for V’s Nomad origins suggests that something happened to his clan. They’re gone, or so the narration says, without going into further detail. Is V responsible? We don’t currently know. As it stands, however, he is a lone Nomad in a clan of one, and soon finds himself pushed out of the Californian wastes and into Night City’s neon-drenched streets.

Seeing this, I considered the narration as an admission of guilt on V’s part. He feels responsible, and hopes that grinding his way to success will in some way atone for what he’s done. Consequently, my Nomad V would be as gruff as could be, but as moral and upstanding as the setting allows. He considers himself as having been invested with an example to set, and would intend to set his sights on more than just filthy lucre. Honest filthy lucre is what matters to him, if that concept even is possible: he might deal in unsavory types and illicit activities, but he always does so with a certain moral rectitude - as a tough and gruff, lean and stringy type you can occasionally catch in his battered Thornton pick-up truck with his feet up on the dashboard and a dog-eared copy of Plato’s Republic in hand. Jackie honestly wonders how he can put up with that Greek pendejo’s endless words and the lack of scrolling animations, while V keeps his Kiroshi optics’ News ticker locked onto grassroots Leftist RSS feeds that stoke a bit of an ignored Rockerboy ethos in him. Quoting Marx in Night City might feel like trying to teach lab rats in the finer points of string theory, but it at least feels genuine to him, compared to the predigested sociopolitical pap Militech, Arasaka and their ilk are more than happy to spew on the airwaves. 

There’s a lot to be pissed off about in Richard Night’s failed utopia, a lot of fat cats to gut and buildings to burn. Still, he leaves the glowering act and the churning rage to Johnny Silverhand’s imprinted ghost. Being more of a down-low, gun-toting choomba than a classic Street Samurai, Vincent “V” Carson thinks first and strikes second.

Vinnie isn’t much for electric guitars and anarchy in the UK, much less in the Free State of Southern California; but he does love the occasional Leonard Cohen ballad or the occasional shot of Johnny Cash’s melancholy. Having picked up something of a Northern Texas drawl while cruising, he might feel like Harry Dresden’s Good Ol’ Boy cousin, magic tricks here pushed aside in favor of a measure of dermal plating and a good ol’ fashioned twelve-gauge and revolver combo. Not being much of a techno-fetishist, he considers his optics and his skull jack as being begrudging concessions to an era that looks down on fully “ganic” types. Having grown up with TV serials and the occasional visor-based Braindance all depicting cyberpsychosis as something vile that utterly dehumanizes its sufferers, he’s naturally wary around anyone who seems a little too giddy with the prospect of taking a few scalpels to perfectly decent muscles and bones.

His Thornton is where most of his Eddies go, and yes, he’s named his truck Suzie. Suzie’s done right by him, and he’ll do right by her - unless someone else with a pretty smile and a working moral compass makes him swoon.

Street Kids: if you weren’t taught on the highways or in corporate arcologies, odds are you became a positive blip in an otherwise grim statistic, one of the myriad fucked-up kids raised by other fucked-up kids with more seniority than you. With no roads and paid-for nannies, you survived off of grifts, grit, violence, deceit, smarts and gumption - and that, in its own screwball way, creates its own blood ties. You’re wise by Heywood’s standards - streetwise, that is - and you speak the back-alleys’ lingua franca of threats, insinuation and casual intimidation like no other.

If only Jackie hadn’t fingered that Rayfield, huh? This beaut could’ve been paydirt! Well, at least for a week or so, judging by the fact that hundreds of car thefts are reported across Night City on a daily basis. At least, Dean - who also goes as “V” - got to make a new friend while out in the pokey, and managed to shake a few proverbial trees... They’ve got a short-lease in with Trauma Team’s frequency and could maybe hook themselves up with a sweet finder’s fee for anyone who’s on the verge of death at the hands of the city’s Scavengers...

Little does V know, that’s selling Trauma Team as well as their clients painfully short. Shows of gratitude don’t mean anything if you’re not packing the right social status. He barely remembers his birth parents as it is, and grew up the fifth grubby prospect of one of the Valentinos’ “school clubs” (hence the nickname) - where the points of study refer to the proper observances to be held in Jesus Malaverde’s presence, intensive Chicano and Spanish immersion, as well as the handling of common types of weaponry.

Vincent and Dean would be likely to shoot one another, if placed in the same room. One clings onto nearly-lost value systems, while the other commodifies what can be discarded like so much flesh - only inasmuch as his efforts to pacify his unofficial five or six abuelas force him to forego extensive modifications. His knives and wrist-mounted data port are his main tools of the trade, although Dean keeps his hacking creds along the bare minimum. Why bother, when melting an ATM’s ICE wall and whacking the cops with a baseball bat is all you need? There’s a type of gun for nearly anything else, if someone knows where to look...

Dean has no last name, and is consequently registered as “Dean Smith” in the city’s Census records. That doesn’t suggest, however, that he wouldn’t want to make one for himself. As he’s less focused on the city’s legends than on its kingmakers and pawn-movers, Dexter DeShawn strikes him as someone to emulate, watch and learn from - all with a decent degree of caution.

Being on top matters a little less to him than eventually pulling Heywood’s stings. With a little fear and a lot of persistence, Dean “V.” Smith knows that one day, he won’t go hungry on a weeknight. To that end, he’s certainly a hearty eater, here paired with extensive free-weight training regimens and the use of anabolic stimulants. Oh, sure, he’ll speak of family and blood like the best soldier festooned in Santa Muerte visual codices, but his friend Jackie’s got a mind like a slow and steady steel trap.

Either Dean blows his new fellow Street Samurai out of the pond, or he does. Unlike Jackie, however, Dean isn’t realistic about it. Friendships are a rare gift in Heywood, if not the rest of Night City, and Dean’s convinced that Jackie could conceivably look past his final betrayal.

Corpo: nowadays, we’re mostly familiar with the idea of one-percenters creating a bubble of affluence for themselves. Boarding schools, private villas, prebooked vacations across the globe’s priciest spots, access to the hottest trends on the minute of their inception - what this tends to forego is the level of social disconnect that’s required in order to stay relevant. We’re only just waking up to the consequences of letting an aging, crusty first-generation Yuppie be crowned the ruler of the free world, and even someone who’s behind on their Bret Easton Ellis could tell you that Donald J. Trump is a sociopath and a narcissist.

Take that mindset, and cultivate it into an ethos that’s taught to children from a very early age - children who live, eat, shit and breathe in accordance with their parent corporation’s tenets. The more placid, mid-tier lifers in the genre are called sararimen, in reference to William Gibson’s use of the term to designate low-level company workers in Chiba City. A bit like Shenzhen’s factory workers and execs, everything in a corpo’s life is in service to the corporation.

In Night City, as of 2077, two major players have installed this culture of total obedience in their roster. Their names are Militech and Arasaka. One is a juggernaut in the field of military-grade personal defence, the other has a wider grasp and reach, but is more fragile. Arasaka owes that fragility to the last fifty years having involved its re-establishment and reconstruction. Fifty years ago, Night City’s Corpo Plaza was blasted open by a thermonuclear discharge that sent the Japanese giant packing. The charges had been set by three Edgerunners: Rogue, Morgan Blackhand and Johnny Silverhand - accessorily a well-respected Rockerboy and front-line member of the band SAMURAI. Only Rogue survived that fateful night, or so the street lingo goes, having gone on to start a legitimate consultation business as well as a fruitful career in the hospitality business. Her bar, the Afterlife, is Night City’s hotspot for every techie, script kiddie and accomplished cyber-spelunker.

Our gal Vivian knows this. She knows this, because Vivian “V.” Banks lives two lives.

In one of them, she’s a lean and hungry Junior Executive in Arasaka’s Counter-Intel division. In that line of work, you either fuck someone’s prospects or protect your own, or ensure that no up-and-comer just out of the company’s Law School program manages to push you off the board. She knows full well that in centuries past, corpo-speak was made up of mild euphemisms that at best referred to destroying a rival’s prospects or lifelihood. Taking a life was something that required careful deliberation, especially when tossing a fat severance bonus into an aging CFO’s three-piece pockets and letting your erstwhile rival snort cocaine off of the rolling hips of Tahitian dancers was so much cheaper...

Nowadays, zeroing someone is commonplace.

You’re born for Arasaka, and chances are you’ll die for Arasaka just the same. Viv’s killed, lied, cheated and even stole her way to her position, remorse being this vaguely churning sense of coldness in her gut that keeps one-night stands coming in and out of her bedroom. She only remembers her parents as being credit-chip enablers and personal enhancement drug addicts, cutting ties with them so completely on the day of her official hiring that it felt more like a tacit understanding.

On most days, sex and booze keep the cold at bay. On most days, Vivian Banks is a class-act of a sociopath. The stronger she gets, however, and the more paranoid her targets become - which reinforces her own paranoia. Before long, playing the part of one of Arasaka’s several poisonous flowers won’t work anymore.

Unfortunately, she trusts no-one. No Fixer could put her in contact with any hacker she’d trust, no rando fresh off the street with a retro-tinted National Arms plinker would satisfy her. To climb up the ranks and maybe share tea with Old Man Saburo himself, she needs a spotless performance record. She needs skills.

More importantly, she needs a reputation. That means leaving Arasaka Tower and mingling with the experts in their own field - and it means filling out her back book of successful hits. The drinks at the Afterlife are decent enough, but what she’s after is an official in.

If she can get to Rogue, or maybe even hook up with a ripperdoc not bought and paid for by the company, she might be able to score both new skills and increased performance...

If it were as simple as slitting Janet’s throat in HR and diving her way to an orgiastic performance review quite innocently left on the department’s server, she would’ve done that already. Viv is my obvious Pure Stealth build candidate, my main-line hacker and would-be engineer with a thing for black power skirts and designer offensive augments.

With that said, we’re months ahead of schedule, all the good shit’s already come out, so we’re stuck playing the waiting game...

What are your own character or build ideas for Cyberpunk 2077?

[daesungfmd]

hwang daesung   /   the enthusiast!

the esfp is often the life of the party, entertaining and engaging others with humor and enthusiasm. they notice whether other people are having fun and do their best to create a good time for all. esfps are generally friendly and likable, but can be hard to get close to; although they tend to be very open, they are reluctant to be serious or to talk about anything negative. they live in the moment, which can upset other people who feel that the esfp’s life should be more organized. the reality is that the esfp is confident in their ability to go with the flow and get themselves out of any potential trouble they might get themselves into. the esfp also likes to push their limits to see just how much they can get away with. the esfp feels that it’s easier to apologize than it is to get permission, and because of their curious nature, they are constantly apologizing for their actions. luckily, they have enough charm to keep most people from being mad at them for very long. (truity.com, personalitygrowth.com)

aesthetic 1  &  headcanon 2.

it took a hot minute for daesung to fully grow into his personality because his surroundings earlier on in life kept him from reaching his full potential, but once he finally settled and got comfortable........ Oh, Man.

once he realized just how good it feels to make others laugh, he was always trying to crack some witty joke or put on a show to amuse a crowd, even if the amusement came at his own expense.

but he’s a pretty sensitive guy, so there were definitely times when he got his feelings hurt because he was made into a joke rather than making jokes and........ that wasn’t so fun, but overall, he liked the aspect of entertaining better than performing or any other part of being an idol. hence why it was impossible to get him to shut tf up on variety shows, built up a bit of a reputation for being a blabbermouth, attention-seeker, having no manners, etc but it was (mostly) excused because he was young, fresh and excitable.

the characteristic mischief of an esfp was always kind of there, even as a child, but reached its strongest form once impulse debuted and daesung was constantly searching for a way to bend the rules / step over the boundaries set by managers. learned to be sneaky and always!!!! have an excuse prepared in case he got caught.

obv his respect for his members and fans outweighs his curiosity/blind trust that things will turn out okay because....... if it weren’t for them, he definitely would’ve gotten into a big scandal by now.

the mischief also took a lighter form of irritating the ever-living hell out of his groupmates and close friends for fun when he was a little younger. had a lot of energy to spare, of course he used it in the wrong ways and probably came Very close to making some people hate him fdhvbhdjsf but he’s a charmer! tends to push his luck until it breaks and then get to repairing it immediately. knows when to stop, but like...... barely.

flights / long drives with him were definitely absolute hell in the first few years. sorry to the impulse members who had to either listen to him talk for Hours or wear headphones to shut him out. man’s got a lot to say!

also used to argue for fun, but would back down if it got too serious/heated and be like “damn my bad i didn’t mean it like that </3″

it doesn’t take much to make daesung happy. he looks for the bright side, finds little pieces of happiness in the most mundane things. sees a cloud that looks like a dog or something?...... damn, his day is made!

so he kind of ~seems~ high maintenance at times but i promise he isn’t.

super curious about the world around him, likes to meet new people and experience new things. he was a ~little~ more strict with himself when he lived with impulse, but now that he lives alone, he rarely spends his free time at home. likes to do extensive research on new attractions/seasonal events/lesser known corners of seoul/etc so he’s always got something planned for off-days. 

if he can’t find anything fun to do on his own, then he’ll just call up someone in his extensive social circle to hang out for a while. ofc there are days when he prefers to be alone/at home, but they’re...... very rare. he requires a lot of day-to-day excitement and social interaction.

speaking of his social circle..... he has really good social skills most of the time, can usually read a room and figure out what is or isn’t appropriate. he will always be the guy who’s trying to crack a joke, but he knows when he needs to contain his energy / knows when someone’s comfortable enough with him for him to just let it out. doesn’t have a lot of enemies because he never goes looking for trouble, per se. one of his biggest priorities in life is making friends, so it reflects in how he treats people. now that he’s a little older, his energy is a bit different from what it used to be, anyway. can appreciate a chill night in way better than he could years ago.

avoided direct conflict very hard when he was a trainee/rookie. it was impossible to trick him into shit-talking anyone else, took more than his fair share of scoldings from managers/trainers/etc because he had no backbone. bold enough to do things he wasn’t supposed to do, not quite bold enough to defend himself. doormat. he’s become a lot better about speaking up in the past few years, but sometimes he takes it too far???? once he’s pushed too hard, he tends to Blow Up and hurt feelings. doesn’t necessarily mean yelling, though; he’s really, really good at appearing calm while saying everything he’s been bottling up and aiming to hurt.

most of the time, though, he still prefers to avoid conflict. will say/do whatever he has to to get out of the situation and then will move on immediately.

has always been social, but no matter how well you think you know him, chances are you’ve only seen the surface. stems from that desire to stay light-hearted and avoid more serious conversations. he’s good with listening to and dealing with other peoples’ problems, and in some ways, he’s good at dealing with his own problems, but..... he has a tendency to make things harder for himself by never admitting when he’s going through a tough time / carrying all the weight and dealing with it himself. doesn’t want to give anyone any reasons to think he isn’t always optimistic/happy.

even though everyone clearly has bad days????? but he is who he is. head empty.

so he typically only shares the sides of himself that he views as good/desirable and shoves everything else into a locked safe. doesn’t mean that what you see is fake, because it definitely isn’t, just means that there’s a whoooole lot more to daesung than people think there is.

at the same time, it isn’t that hard to unlock the metaphorical safe. especially nowadays, he’s becoming more comfortable with the fact that he’s human. he’s happy to share more of himself if he thinks he’s sharing it with someone who actually cares, but he rarely finds people who he thinks would want to know him in his entirety because let’s be real....... there are a few sides of him that are a bit yucky.

including a bitter side that holds onto grudges for literal decades and a lazy side of him that leeches off of everyone around him, but if you’re only seeing it at a surface level, his gratitude and happiness dull the edges  <3333 of course i’ll let you buy this for me/cook for me/run my errands/whatever else <3333 why not omg <3333 wow i really owe you one <3333 (meanwhile hardly anyone ever gets anything from him in return Other than that gratitude lmao)

kinda skates by on handouts tbh? like....... he lives alone, yeah, but he feels like he could not function on his own. this is also subconsciously a small part of the reason why he’s so social. makes sure he’s always meeting new people and keeping them interested so that he never finds himself alone / “helpless”. tends to gravitate towards people who have something to offer him.

but he ~can~ function on his own, he just doesn’t want to. likes to be reminded that people care about him, which is why he’s constantly either making new friends, hanging out with friends he already has or sweet-talking someone into doing something for him. just makes him feel....... better about himself / more secure.

to be fair!!! it’s not like daesung takes and takes and takes and is a shitty friend in return. he cares about people so, so much, especially his friends. whether you’ve known him for ten days or ten years, he’s a great person to have in your corner. his optimism, for one, is something that he’ll gladly share --- if you need reassurance that you’re doing the right thing or a reminder that good things are in your future, there’s no better person to turn to. he’s a good listener (most of the time) and his shoulders are always available to lean on, no questions asked. not the type to leave you hanging for any reason; whether you call him at 3pm on a saturday or 3am on a tuesday, he’ll make time for you. 

[deathliken]

𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚊 𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚞𝚖: 𝚎𝚡𝚘𝚛𝚌𝚒𝚜𝚝 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎

THE THEMES: corrupted holier than thou guilds / world orders that are way too sketchy and crave eternal war / vampire secret societies and adjacent politics / ouroboros of greed and pride / who’s the real monster ? / the power of blood.

CONTENT WARNINGS: mentions of child grooming / mental & emotional abuse and indoctrination, wars and politics ( it’s vampire politics, but you never know ), discrimination of both supernatural creatures by humans / humans by supernatural creatures, demonization and dehumanization, death and mercy kills, manipulation and mind games.

as always please do not steal anything / take inspiration from here, any mention of other IDV characters is just purely casual and there’s no obligation to abide to every word i say, i’m just a writer who rambles a lot ;;

𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚊𝚎𝚜𝚘𝚙: a forsaken youth whose blood traces ancient priests and aristocrats just like his whole being is painted in grays and whites and reds, whose honorable father disappeared under mysterious circumstances when he was too young to remember and whose lovely mother’s health was so quickly deteriorating because of a mysterious abyssal disease ━he ended up leaving his home in order to live with the old family friend and trusted figure of jerry carl, as lastly wished by aesop’s mother herself before passing away. the known veteran, member of the most influential guild of supernatural hunters of the Allegiance of Countries known as The Order, raised the child himself by imbuing the guild’s creed and his own hatred towards supernatural creatures, for he had seen the great potential that laid within the pale child ━especially when it came to both his rare blood and his affinity with the supernatural as aesop has always shown as a child the ability to see spirits and perceive the presence of supernatural creatures as clearly as he could so easily admire the traces of stars on a night sky, things most hunters and humans can't do and that of course try to compensate for with their techniques. memories of his past prior leaving with jerry are hazy at best, but all that remained as vivid as ever was his mother’s tired smile ━and the harp demanded to come with him in the new place he was supposed to call home. as he bloomed into adulthood, he became a model of what a diligent exorcist had always been supposed to be: a living weapon for The Order to take pride of and use, a terror for creatures haunting and decimating humanity to fear, developing his blood bait at a spectacularly young age and successfully adapt it to his own natural gifts ━and when jerry died ( by aesop’s hands himself who so heartlessly shot the agonizing mentor who nighly was turning into a rabid ghoul ), aesop simply took over the mentor's duties and position as The Order’s mortician much to the higher planes’ glee. but perhaps it was indeed because of jerry not being around anymore to manipulate his deadly creation and the curiosity he harbored deep within the indoctrinated diligence ━or perhaps it was because of said deadly creation showing signs of hesitation and true mercy when sparing a rogue vampire he was supposed to eradicate from its hideout not that far from one of the province’s towns━ the pale exorcist had started  to realize that some things didn’t add up, that some things he’s never questioned just because he grew up in it and knew nothing more about than an eerie sensation hitting him down his spine every now and then had actually some gruesome, macabre obscenities in its womb.

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚋𝚊𝚒𝚝𝚜:   not much is really known about its birth, a history as clouded by fog as the birth of the world and the first great wars in the eternal darkness ━considered the greatest armed force within the Allegiance of Countries, The Order is involved deeply in the politics and matters of those states requiring their presence, judgement and interventions. its structure as well is a mystery, with orders impossible to defy coming from the high council manifesting only in so - called times of need, and the serious to everyday matters under the strict control of the high summoners and the very running strength of The Order: the exorcists ━often presenting themselves solo or in groups of two / three members, with each one specializing in several arts from contact to more intellect - focused studies and often ending up with one becoming their main field alongside their signature blood baits. blood baits are the most known technique every adept of The Order needs to learn to access to if they want to be able to be considered full part of The Order, created by the blood of the exorcist imbued in special items which then create a symbiotic bond with the exorcist meant to last until the exorcist passes away ━or at least as long as every month exorcists will respect the requirement of participating to blood donations which is said to be the only way to renew the bond with the blood bait and to create to create supplementary hunger baits for creatures like vampires, ghouls,  wendigos / skinwalkers, werewolves, demons of various kinds ( any creature that feeds on blood or flesh, pretty much ) ; it takes several years for a blood bait to start to develop and a great number of standard exorcists never truly manage to reach its fullest potential, and each blood bait is different from one another and cannot be passed on from exorcist to another. aesop’s blood bait, ‘ embalm ’, is contained in the mortician cosmetic box the exorcist is seen always carrying along, and when opened it takes the shape of an elaborate coffin. the casket itself is able to summon a lifelike replica of himself or someone else he’s able to replicate, powered by his own blood and consequently maneuverable by him like a life sized puppet.

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚞𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚙𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛: no self righteous claim is ever backed by equally pure true intentions, and The Order is no exception ━as their extremism has been known to know no ends just like their pride and greed, their desire to acquire more power and more riches causing them to indeed thread with the very creatures they claim of despising and creating the most complex and extensive blood trafficking ring that still to this day has never been truly caught or dismantled. they claim it’s in order to infiltrate and create ways to mine the greatest menace from the inside, but greed and hunger for more and more just roars louder within the darkest abysses. truth be told, so much of the ancient beliefs of The Order has been tressed in lies at some point in the darkest centuries and only those at the very top are well aware of it ━of how the blood baits do not need to be ‘ renewed ’ every month, of how blood in the supplementary hunger baits either comes from some unfortunate corpse or animals and all that blood taken away from the loyal and blinded exorcists gets actually sold to the great holders of the status quo known as the vampire aristocracy who so much want to hold their eons - old power just as much as their enemy and ‘ partners ’ want to steal it all from them ; they’re blueblood, old money after all ( the Bloodline above them all ), indifferent if not unbothered by the lower folk and creatures whose diatribes and feral rages act as more of a nuisance they’d like to get rid of before anything too out of hand can ever hope to happen. and in that, The Order’s strict beliefs just come quite handy ━especially considering the infighting between factions within the great clans of blood and how each clan dares using The Order to ' take care ' of dissidents that might menace the thin ice between two great forces, creating and manipulating several situations in order to trigger their intervention. and some members of the order itself ━or rather, those who are well suspicious but aren't aware of how things run deep in the highest spheres nor speak━ do not really hold any sympathy nor desire to be seen as the vampires' attack dog , for them it's just a temporary alliance given by the blood trafficking ring bc this way they get information about the enemy and ways to fully plot a mass extermination, usually dissidents in the order just ' disappear mysteriously '. it kinda works like a cold war born from an even ancient war leaving no trust between one another and ruination at each step in an equilibrium that truly doesn’t exist and is as much of a lie as everything else, with these subtle jabs at one another in higher spheres being covered by the loudness of both the hungerous creatures inhabiting the land and the facade of fanaticism of The Order ; both sides are driven by their own most selfish and most obscure desire and cravings that only seem to be amplified dangerously the more time passes, both sides want nothing but their status quo to reign and be maintained for their own interests to keep being fulfilled forevermore: The Order wanting for the extermination of all supernatural ‘ for the sake of humanity’s safety ’, the power and the riches ━and the Bloodline ( among other so - called allies ) to stay ontop of the social and power ladder and have endless pools of blood for them to feast on while all of the world would crash and burn in a new apocalypse allowing them to rewrite everything as their image and ideal. ( but maybe there’s more, creatures of lingering abyss playing chess with the living in their most maddening boredom, hiding underneath dormant churches ━who knew. )

[importantharmonywinner]

What Senate Committee Deals With Slot Machines

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What Senate Committee Deals With Slot Machines 2020

House panel approves gambling deal, Senate plan on hold. Tribe, do away with greyhound racing while allowing dog tracks to keep operating other games, and open the door for slot machines in Palm Beach County. But a Senate committee, expected to vote on its version of the gambling legislation, postponed consideration of the.

A House panel on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported a trio of gambling bills that would ratify a $3 billion deal between the state and the Seminole Tribe, do away with greyhound racing while allowing dog tracks to keep operating other games, and open the door for slot machines in Palm Beach County.

But a Senate committee, expected to vote on its version of the gambling legislation, postponed consideration of the measures after Sen. Joe Negron filed a series of amendments that would dramatically change the proposal, months in the making.

Senate Regulated Industries Chairman Rob Bradley said he decided to delay discussion of the gambling bills (SB 7072, SB 7074) for a week to give the panel more time to “digest” Negron’s complicated proposal.

“I received requests from committee members to have some time to review those amendments without feeling rushed. This is an issue that is complex and large enough that it’s a reasonable request,” Bradley, R-Fleming Island, told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, the House Regulatory Affairs Committee approved three gambling measures. One (PCB RAC 16-01) would ratify an agreement, called a “compact,” inked by Gov. Rick Scott and Seminole tribal leader James Billie in December. The compact would allow the Seminoles to add craps and roulette to their casino operations in exchange for a guarantee of $3 billion in payments to the state over seven years.

A second measure (PCB RAC 16-02) would allow greyhound tracks to do away with dog racing while keeping other pari-mutuel activities such as poker and slots, a process known as “decoupling.” The bill, amended to include the compact, would also decouple harness and quarter-horse races but would keep thoroughbred racing at Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs.

The proposal would also allow slots in Palm Beach County and at a new facility in Miami-Dade County.

The committee also approved a proposed constitutional amendment (PCB RAC 16-03), which would let voters decide whether they want to expand gambling in the future — after the compact and the other gambling changes go into effect.

House Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jose Felix Diaz said he decided to go ahead with the vote on the House’s gambling legislation after Bradley told him he was going to delay the vote on the Senate’s bills.

With the legislative session reaching the halfway point Wednesday, the Senate panel’s delay could make ratification of the compact problematic.

“We’re in week five, so every week that we don’t have a bill is a week closer to the bill dying,” Diaz, R-Miami, said. “It could very easily be one of those bills that we’re deciding at the very last moment. It just sort of looks and smells like it.”

But both Bradley and Diaz said that there is “plenty of time” for the Legislature to finalize a deal before the session ends on March 11.

“All the same challenges that existed six months ago, one month ago, one week ago, still exist today,” Bradley said.

Negron’s proposals, if passed, would significantly alter the agreement worked out by Scott’s general counsel, Tim Cerio, in tandem with Bradley and Diaz, who negotiated with the tribe for months before reaching an accord in December.

One of Negron’s amendments would allow slots at pari-mutuels in each of six counties — including Palm Beach — where voters have approved them, and in other counties where voters sign off on them in the future.

His plan would also decouple all dog and horse racing along with jai alai games, but allow the pari-mutuels to keep operating cardrooms and slot machines.

His proposal also includes $45 million — $20 million from the compact, and $25 million from revenues from slots and card games at pari-mutuels that discontinue racing or jai alai games — for thoroughbred purse pools.

And, in an effort to offset the expansion of gambling with the additional slot machines, Negron’s plan would eliminate 20 dormant or inactive pari-mutuel permits, while spending $20 million for the state to purchase active permits.

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Negron also wants the gambling measure to include language that would confirm that “fantasy sports” are legal in Florida, the subject of a separate bill he is backing.

Diaz said he believed he had the 61 votes necessary to pass out of the House the measure approved by his committee Tuesday, but he acknowledged that the bill is “an absolute work in progress.”

“Every shift in this bill can lose a vote and gain a vote. I’ll know at the very end where we stand,” he said. “I’m optimistic that we have a bill we can pass … but I’m not going to OK a bill that’s bad just because the money’s good.”

But Negron, a Stuart Republican who will take over as Senate president after the November elections, said he believed his proposed changes would make it easier to garner support from the upper chamber.

“I think everyone understood that (the compact) was a first draft for the Legislature to consider,” Negron said. “Without addressing the issues in my amendment, there are not enough votes to pass the compact in the Senate. My amendment actually increases the likelihood of the bill passing.”

by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida

Comments

The following is a list of Senate Committees:

Senate Committee on Aging (Special)

Note: While special committees have no legislative authority, they can study issues, conduct oversight of programs, and investigate reports of fraud and waste.

Deals with issues related to health care for seniors, long-term care, elder fraud and abuse, social security and retirement savings, older workers, emergency preparedness for seniors, assisting seniors with rising energy costs and affordable senior housing.

Relevance to the Academy: Pertinent legislation includes the Older Americans Act, which regulates congregate and home-delivery meal programs. Other issues relate to Medicare reimbursement and long-term care facility services.

Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

Responsible for oversight of all legislation that deals with our nation's agriculture industry, including food and agricultural research, education, economics and extension; innovation in the use of agricultural commodities and materials; farming programs; forestry and logging; and legislation related to nutrition and health, including nutrition and food assistance and hunger prevention, school and child nutrition programs, local and healthy food initiatives.

Relevance to the Academy: Pertinent legislation and issues include the Farm Bill, National School Lunch program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, School Breakfast, WIC and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable program.

Appropriations Committee

Has jurisdiction over all discretionary spending legislation in the Senate. The committee writes the legislation that allocates federal funds to the numerous government agencies, departments and organizations on an annual basis. Appropriations are limited to the levels set by a Budget Resolution, drafted by the Senate Budget Committee.

Relevance to the Academy: All bills require appropriation legislation along with authorization to be viable.

Committee on Armed Services

Deals with issues primarily associated with the development of weapons systems or military operations; the common defense; the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy and the Department of the Air Force.

Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

Areas of jurisdiction include banking, insurance, financial markets, securities, housing, urban development and mass transit, international trade and finance, and economic policy.

Committee on Budget

Along with the House Budget Committee, it is responsible for drafting Congress' annual budget plan and monitoring action on the budget for the Federal Government. In addition, the Budget Committee has jurisdiction over the operation of the Congressional Budget Office. The budget resolution prepared by the Budget Committee sets out a broad blueprint for the Congress with respect to the total levels of revenues and spending for the government as a whole.

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

Jurisdiction includes coastal zone management, highway safety, interstate commerce, nonmilitary aeronautical and space sciences, sports, standards and measurement and marine fisheries as well as regulation of consumer products and services, including testing related to toxic substances other than pesticides, and except for credit, financial services and housing.

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

Jurisdiction over matters related to National Energy Policy, including international energy affairs and emergency preparedness; nuclear waste policy; privatization of federal assets; territorial policy (including changes in status and issues affecting Antarctica) and Native Hawaiian matters.

Committee on Ethics (Select)

The Senate Select Committee on Ethics is authorized to publish regulations necessary to implement the Senate Code of Official Conduct, and to issue interpretative rulings and advisory opinions regarding the application of any law, rule or regulation within the Committee's jurisdiction.

Committee on Environment and Public Works

Jurisdiction includes issues of air and noise pollution, environmental policy, fisheries and wildlife, public buildings, works, bridges and dams, solid waste disposal and recycling, water pollution. Subcommittees deal with policy issues in connection with protection of pregnant women, infants and children from environmental hazards and job creation through the development and deployment of 'green' technologies and practices.

Committee on Finance (similar to the House Ways and Means Committee)

The Committee concerns itself with matters relating to: taxation and other revenue measures generally, the transportation of dutiable goods, deposit of public moneys, general revenue sharing; as well as health programs under the Social Security Act, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and other health and human services programs financed by a specific tax or trust fund; and national social security.

Relevance to the Academy: Issues related to Medicare and Medicaid insurance reimbursement for RDN services/MNT.

Committee on Foreign Relations

The Foreign Relations Committee is generally responsible for overseeing (but not administering) and funding foreign aid programs as well as funding, arms sales and training for national allies. The committee is also responsible for holding confirmation hearings for high-level positions in the Department of State.

Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP)

Has jurisdiction over most of the agencies, institutes, and programs of the Department of Health and Human Services, including the FDA, CDC, NIH, AOA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The Committee also oversees public health and health insurance statutes to address emerging threats and changing patterns in the health-care industry. This committee has jurisdiction over various issues related to education and workforce development, including Head Start, the No Child Left Behind Act, Higher Education, the Arts and Humanities, Student Financial Assistance, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Job and Vocational Training and the Workforce Investment Act. This Committee also deals with federal labor and employment laws and private retirement plans and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Relevance to the Academy: Pertinent legislation/issues include home-delivered and congregate meal programs for seniors, Ryan White CARE Act. Many of the programs/agencies under this committee's jurisdiction include nutrition and nutrition-related issues e.g. FDA, NIH, AOA, Head Start.

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

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Has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland security concerns, as well as the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and accounting measures other than appropriations, the Census, the federal civil service, the affairs of the District of Columbia, and the United States Postal Service.

Committee on Indian Affairs

Issues include the Indian County provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, appropriations and budget, federal recognition of tribes, health care reform (Indian Health Services) Indian economic development, education, energy and water rights.

Relevance to the Academy: Issues related to nutrition within Indian Health Services.

Committee on Intelligence (Select)

Dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community — the agencies and bureaus of the federal government who provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches.

Committee on the Judiciary

Provides oversight of the Department of Justice and the agencies under the Department's jurisdiction, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and is also charged with the consideration of Supreme Court nominations, appellate court nominations, and district court nominations.

Committee on Rules and Administration

Responsible for the rules of the Senate and administration of congressional buildings as well as the credentials and qualifications of members of the Senate, including responsibility for dealing with contested elections.

Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Has jurisdiction over the Small Business Administration and is also charged with researching and investigating all problems of American small business enterprises.

Committee on Veterans' Affairs

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The Committee is dedicated to being an advocate for our nation's veterans, from those who served in World War I to our veterans who are returning home today. The Committee convenes hearings, conducts oversight and investigations, and is responsible for all legislation relating to veterans benefits and medical care.

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Relevance to the Academy: Issues related to the Department of Veterans Affairs' health care system, programs and research apparatus.

[norbah]

Tezcatlipoca

-Caster (5*)

Some Servants enjoy the height of their power with the sun at its zenith, but Tezcatlipoca works best in the shadows. He is one of the four creator gods in the Aztec pantheon, and ruler of the north. A deity with an impressive portfolio, he has a variety of skills to ensure his Master’s victory over the other Grail War participants. The god of night, sorcery, obsidian, treachery, the north, divination, jaguars, and beauty, he is certainly a capable and intelligent ally to have. But if there has ever existed a Servant you must never trust, it is Tezcatlipoca.

His many abilities make him a terror outside combat, and he favors underhanded tactics worthy of an Assassin. If it is up to him, he will never enter open combat. Poison, daggers in the night, seduction, kidnapping, and misdirection are all tools in his arsenal, which he is far from afraid of using. Not only can he turn invisible, he is an accomplished shapeshifter, good enough to even fool the other gods, and his list of misdemeanors is extensive. Perhaps most famously, he drugged Quetzalcoatl and tricked them into sleeping with their own sister, but that was far from the most terrible thing he’s managed. Tezcatlipoca is indirectly responsible for each of the last 4 worlds’ ends. He relishes throwing wrenches into others’ plans and happiness, and poisonous, deceitful words come as naturally to him as breathing does to mortals. Whether it be charming a beautiful woman to his side or convincing somebody an utter falsehood is true about themselves, his silver tongue is something to be reckoned with.

To trust Tezcatlipoca is to lose the War. At some point, perhaps several, he will attempt to betray his Master. Not out of any real malice, but simply because that’s who he is. The last time he cooperated successfully with somebody, the world was still being shaped. “No hard feelings” may as well be this being’s catchphrase. However, paradoxically, he may also demonstrate an extreme protectiveness over his Master. All mages and sorcerers are under his protection, after all, and this one in particular moreso. If anybody will screw them over, it will be him. Nobody else.

This is not to say he’s unapproachable. Quite the contrary; Tezcatlipoca is charming by nature, and is relatively easy to get along with, so long as a modicum of respect is shown. But his Master would be wise to remember that tolerance is not the same thing as friendship, and most assuredly not the same thing as loyalty, and Tezcatlipoca WILL betray even his most favorite human on a whim. It’s also recommended to avoid insults, even playful ones. Under his easy smile, he has quite the temper, and will not forget a slight easily, if at all.

Although he was a skilled diviner, the nature of the War is chaotic enough that his Clairvoyance is impeded. Although he finds this disappointing, the chaos and unpredictability of it all are also exciting for him, and he intends to make the most of this experience.

Much like Huitzilopochtli, he demands sacrifice from his Master in order to restore his mana. But unlike the former, he does not require someone’s death. He is content enough to drink some of his Master’s blood every day, but in a dark twist, he wants his Master to let the blood out themselves so he can drink it. In his own words, “I want not just your blood. I want you to offer up your pain to me as well.”

In the context of the Grand Order, he is still an untrustworthy figure, but being surrounded by other schemers such as Moriarty, he can find ways to pass the time that don’t directly involve screwing over the last Master of Chaldea. Though he does not truly respect them the way Huitzilopochtli does, he finds them intriguing and curious, which is reason enough for him to follow along with their lead. They are, after all, perhaps the single worst mage he has ever come across, and yet have accomplished things that far more experienced magi would have fallen short of.

Tezcatlipoca was the protector god of slaves (known as the “Beloved of Tezcatlipoca”), sorcerers, and social pariahs. In other words, he rooted for the underdog. And in the plan for the Restoration of Humanity, there is no greater underdog than Gudao\Gudako.

This does not mean that he won’t attempt to mess with them, of course, but it does mean that his pranks and plots are considerably less vicious than they’d otherwise have been. Food and drink offered by him are always to be refused all the same. He is banned from entering the kitchen at Quetzalcoatl’s suggestion, but unfortunately the prohibition has only made him more eager to sneak in and perform some mischief.

As he delights in all carnal pleasures, it is also not uncommon to find Tezcatlipoca attempting to seduce the female Servants, and even some of the male ones. Despite his untrustworthy reputation, he has an easy charm about him, unlike the brusque nature of Huitzilopochtli. Marital status means nothing to him. Thankfully, his success has been impeded by the efforts of individuals concerned for the public morals of Chaldea, but he is nothing if not tenacious.

All in all, Tezcatlipoca is untrustworthy, sneaky, and capable of great cruelty for no other reason than simple boredom. However, he is also charming, knows how to have a good time, and gets the job done, no matter what it takes to do it. He is a lot more involved with the general antics of Chaldea than Huitzilopochtli is, but this is not necessarily a good thing.

PASSIVE SKILLS

Presence Concealment C

He is a skilled shapeshifter, and can fool even gods when transformed. The other gods were unaware for a very long time that Tezcatlipoca and the jaguar god Tepeyollotl were one and the same. Among his favored forms are a feeble old man, a jaguar, a turkey, a large spider, or a small black dog. While in animal form, he is not detectable by other Servants unless they are specifically looking for something non-humanoid. If so, he is as visible as any other Servant in plain sight would be.

Territory Creation B-/EX

Unlike other Casters, he can’t create a Bounded Field easily. He must have a temple, or even a shrine, in order to properly create one. This is a time-consuming and demanding task, but if managed, Tezcatlipoca’s Field becomes stronger than most. Within this area, his Clairvoyance is fully powered, and nothing can escape his sight. What’s more, any intruders are much more vulnerable to suggestion, or even subjugation of their will. He is, after all, Titlacauan, “He Whose Slaves We All Are”. The larger the shrine, the more pronounced the effects. As civilians wander into the area, he may draw them in as worshipers, as laborers at the temple... or as sacrifices.

Clairvoyance A- (Unusable in FGO except as a plot point, due to the impracticality of building a temple to him before every battle)

By looking into the hearts of humanity, Tezcatlipoca can see their darkest desires, as well as which of those desires they’re most likely to act on. This gives him a rather decent chance to predict how somebody will act in a given situation.

ACTIVE SKILLS Self-Modification B

Tezcatlipoca can take on many strange and terrible forms, and delights in using each of them to perform his mischief.

——— Increase C. star gather rate

The First Sun

Tezcatlipoca volunteered to be the first world’s Sun. But for some reason, perhaps his status as a night god, or the recent loss of his leg, he could only become half a sun. After an argument with Quetzalcoatl turned ugly, the latter knocked Tezcatlipoca out of the sky with a huge club. In his rage, Tezcatlipoca unleashed a rain of jaguars which devoured every living thing on Earth. This is considered by some to be the beginning of their rivalry, though some records indicate their feud had been going on long before this event.

——— Decrease NP Gauge (Demerit) (10%)

——— Greatly increase own Atk (3 turns)

——— Increase Critical strength

Necoc Yaotl

“The Enemy to Both Sides” is an apt descriptor for this tricky god. To fight alongside him is to play with fire, and even if he is on your side, you can never fully drop your guard. He is a true friend to nobody, and is simply looking for an excuse to either reward or punish others, as the fancy takes him. It is simply who he is.

——— 50% chance to greatly increase allies’ Def and Atk (not own) (3 turns)

——— If effect is not activated, lower allies’ Def (not own) (3 turns)

——— (increasing buff chance highly recommended) NOBLE PHANTASM

Name: The Smoking Mirror

Rank: A

Class: Quick

Type: Anti-Personnel

“Heh... Heh heh. Run. Hide, if you wish. The Smoking Mirror reveals you. The Night Wind will carry your screams. Do me a favor and cry out my name... Yohualli Ehecatl. Tepeyollotl. Ome Acatl. ... Tezcatlipoca. Ah... I FOUND YOU.”

Among his many titles, none is more well-known than this one. The obsidian mirror hanging from his chest allowed him to look into both this world and the spiritual one. No enemy was beyond Tezcatlipoca’s reach. Of all the gods, he relished retaliation the most. When at last he struck, he left no room open for a counterattack. Now, as a Servant, he can follow and assault his foe even if they take spirit form. This is the combination of Clairvoyance and his sadistic desire to bestow suffering upon another. This is the true essence of Tezcatlipoca.

——— Apply Evade (1 turn)

——— Apply Sure Hit (1 turn)

——— Remove Guts buff from 1 enemy, if applicable

——— Deal very heavy damage to 1 enemy

——— Deal special damage to Earth and Star Servants, or ghost type enemies.(effect increases with Overcharge) Name: Hurakan (unusable in FGO)

Rank: EX

Class: N/A

Type: Anti-Fortress/Anti-World

The Aztec gods were as much a natural phenomenon as they were sentient deities. The Nahua people’s greatest fear regarding Tezcatlipoca was their belief that he could destroy and pull down the sky, killing all living things in the process. It would not be the first time that he wiped the Earth of life, having personally done so twice before. Thankfully, as a Servant, his power is greatly reduced, and such a feat is beyond him. That does not mean he is defenseless, and is still capable of leveling a small city as a last resort, albeit at a great mana cost. The name Hurakan, one of his Mayan identities, is the root for the word “hurricane”. Some believe Tezcatlipoca may be the mightiest deity in Mesoamerica.

Additional quotes for other Servants Quetzalcoatl: “Oooh, what have we here... Hiya, “KuKu”! How’re you doing? Aww, no smile for old Tezca? Don’t tell me Quetzalpetatl is here too! Eh heh heh!”

Tezcatlipoca’s most assholeish of traits can best be seen when he interacts with Quetz. He can’t seem to resist rubbing the time he humiliated her in her face, and goads her every chance he gets. His verbal barbs are much sharper than hers, and so she often resorts to trying to beat him senseless with her macahuitl while he runs away cackling. In other words, they act as dysfunctional siblings.

Jaguar Warrior: “Hey, hey! I remember you! Wow, you’ve really made a name for yourself. ... Eh? Hold a grudge? Why would I? You kicked my ass pretty good that last time. Glad I didn’t make you a Saber, that could have been much worse...”

Surprisingly, he’s not lying. Tezcatlipoca appreciates a good turnaround more than most, and he thinks Taiga pulling one over him was a thing of beauty. He still does his best to play mean jokes on her, but they seem to be in a different spirit than with others. Almost like a boy pulling a girl’s pigtails... That said, he has locked her out of her room on several occasions, to, as he said, “See how she likes getting kicked out”. So, perhaps he’s not as over it as he says...

Nero: “Eh heh heh... I know what you are. Don’t give me that look. I can see into the hearts of men as easily as you look through a window. Smile, and laugh, and sing all you want. What you did is written in blood. My favorite type of ink.”

The Smoking Mirror allowed Tezcatlipoca to look inside of people. Hiding your guilt from him is near impossible, and he will never let you forget it. Nero is a particular source of delight for him, as her desperate attempts to hide who she was in life are the exact sort of thing he likes holding over people’s heads. He may never actually act on it, but the possibility exists. And knowing that they know he knows is more than enough for him.

Jack: “... I was not there for you. For this, I am sorry. You are, all of you, my Beloved, yet you were alone. ... Mommy takes care of you, you say? Then I’ll take care of Mommy for you. Does that sound good?”

Orphans, while technically under the wing of another god, are close enough to the spurned that Tezcatlipoca might feel sympathy or even concern for them. Of course, he is far from fit as a guardian, but the fact that Gudao/Gudako takes care of any and all who seek it, Tezca looks on a little more favorably in their direction. Jack is one of the few people he abstains from messing with.

Arachne: “Hm? Why the glare, little miss? Is there something in my teeth? Ah, it’s that pesky mortal blood I had earlier, isn’t it? I can never seem to get it out... Eee hee hee, no need to look so scary! It’s just a joke, a joke! ... Well, maybe it’s a joke.”

It’s clear to anybody with eyes in their head that Arachne dislikes gods and divinities in general. Perhaps the clarity of the situation is what makes Tezcatlipoca so determined to provoke her every time he sees her. When asked about the wisdom of antagonizing a specialized anti-Divine Servant so persistently, he simply said he finds Arachne to be fun.