#comprehend languages and DETECT THOUGHTS

[curse-of-dming-strahd]

there are so many things in Strahd's "how to do combat good" section I want to pick at but let's start with some of my notes on his spell list

Mage Hand: Sometimes Strahd is lazy and doesn't want to pick things up. Combine with Greater Invisibility for shenanigans.

Prestidigitation: This is for instantly cleaning whatever drink some PC has tried to throw in his face.

Ray of Frost: The damage is ok but more importantly as long as he hits, the target's speed is reduced by 10 with no save, very nice.

Comprehend Languages: If my party gets clever and tries to talk in code or something I think he can pop this off to fix that.

Fog Cloud: Imposes disadvantage to attack for everyone in the cloud, does technically break line of sight. so against a higher-level party I think this is to give his allies a chance to get out of melee without having to waste an action disengaging (still a gamble), or use this if he's out of Invisibility, or toss this in a room the party is trying to bunker up in, forcing the party to decide between sitting in a disadvantage cloud, wasting time dispelling it, or leaving their safe space.

Sleep: On the worst possible roll and aimed at only one target, this is guaranteed to affect a creature with 5HP or less. It averages about 20-22HPs but that number's not assured. Best use is putting someone on watch to sleep at early levels, or targeting low HP NPCs where he actually wants to avoid doing damage, like Ireena.

Detect Thoughts: Fantastic for interacting with NPCs in a non-violent encounter but it's an obvious casting and only lasts for 1 minute so he's got to be strategic about casting ahead of time.

Gust of Wind: Priority should go to Mirror Image because Gust of Wind is not guaranteed to succeed, but if a player is dumb enough to stand within 10 feet of a 100ft drop I say go off queen (off the side of a building, GOODBYE)

Mirror Image: CAST ASAP the only thing worse than one Strahd laughing at you is four Strahds laughing at you and it's not a concentration spell.

Animate Dead: listen everything at 3rd level is going to have to compete with Fireball. but possibly might be worth it to give him something to do with his bonus action if Animate Objects isn't working out. skeleton with a ranged attack and partial cover is better than zombie that'll get ripped apart in melee immediately. he's got to keep that skelly within 60ft though. and if the party takes Counterspell it's.... listen this slot's probably going to get used for Fireball.

Fireball: FIGHT OPENER. CAST CENTERED ON SELF. EAT 30 DAMGE FOR BREAKFAST. FALL THROUGH THE FLOOR LAUGHING. HE DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT WELCOME TO HELL MOTHERFUCKERS IT'S FIREBALL. but seriously cast early when the floor isn't crawling with allies and then reserve one 3rd level spell slot for when the party has killed off most of his allies. doesn't require line of sight so he can cast this from a separate floor.

Nondetection: Might use this if the party gets tricky or he needs to hide something he stole from them but on Boss Fight Day this slot goes to Fireball and that's just how things have to be.

Blight: I mean this is basically Fireball with worse range, only one target, and it makes all your houseplants die.

Greater Invisibility: God the shenanigans I could get up to with Invisible Strahd. Oooh the possibilities. Ooooh they're so delicious. Anyway fuck yeah this spell rocks. Get out of sight, go invisible. Think Rahadin is bad? Now he's invisible! NIGHTMARE HORSE? WHAT HORSE? I LOVE THIS SPELL OK

Polymorph: I want to love polymorph but if they make their wisdom save you've wasted a slot you could have used to make yourself invisible. I can't even pretend he'd be gay and use this to help Rahadin one of his nebulous allies turn into a bird to get away from certain death or something bc it's a concentration spell so if the spell drops early it's like well fuck he got 50ft and then turned back into a guy :/ He ain't above turning a low-level PC into a bat though. That'd be fun.

Animate Objects: POP OFF IMMEDIATELY get that action economy on your side, animate a gargoyle, a suit of armor, and like 6 candelabras you tacky bitch. Again, gives him a bonus action and as long as he stays within 120ft he's solid. Earlier is better because later in the fight he needs that concentration for Greater Invisibility.

Scrying: I mean non-combat obviously but he's using this every damn day to spy on the party through NPCs he's familiar with that he knows are near the PCs, or locations he knows they're staying in. I'm sure that's his like, before-bed routine. Brush his teeth. Exfoliate. Scry on the party. Soothing.

[foschiamara]

𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 (𝙣𝙤𝙩) 𝘨𝘢𝘺 ⏤ 빌어먹을 나르시시스트

꞉︖ ︕ ︕

⢀⠀⠀.   ⋆ ･˳ . ⋆  ⭒ ✿ ⭒ ⋆･. ˳ . ⋆ ⠀⢀⠀⠀.   ⋆ ･˳⠀.   ⋆ ･˳ . ⋆  ⭒ ∗

Summary: He worked so hard to be with you, and this is how you repay him? His friends were right all along. All you did was look the other way.

Cw: Explicit language, verbal violence, Infidelity, little smut (reader part) ㅤ－ㅤTw: Deception, Attempted victimization.

Genre: Nonidol!Mingi, Suggestive.

A/N: As I'm running out of ideas, I thought, "What if I made the reader a total red flag?" (It is your turn now, King.) + The story will be quite short:(

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 자신의 책임하에 읽으십시오.

How would Mingi describe his relationship with you? Well.. he would probably say that it was all about destiny. When the two of you met, he was just coming out of a relationship, and you were the only one who could truly comprehend him, accept him, and be there for him.

"I want you to fall in love with me, Mingi. I want to be the reason behind your smile." These were the words he might need to hear as he wiped his tears with the back of his hand and hugged you for a long time

That was the beginning of a dream relationship between the two of you. He felt very lucky to have you. The months he spent by your side only confirmed how happy he was with you now. The dates that were never missed, the gifts, the words of affirmation, the constant way you kissed him no matter where you were, the eyes of love you put on every time you saw him.

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Today was Thursday morning, July 1, two years later. You were asleep, face down, with one arm wrapped around a small pillow, subconsciously thinking it was Mingi.

Little by little, you got up, passing your fingertips over your eyes and squeezing the facsimile that simulated your boyfriend's body Noticing this, you quickly surveyed the room, only to find it completely empty. With a leap, you sprang out of bed with a smile and left the room, suddenly detecting a delicious smell emanating from the kitchen that caused your expression to fade,

"I thought you'd gone to work, dear," you said in a groggy voice, like you'd just woken up from a long nap.

You walked up to him from behind, hugged him, left kisses on his neck, and finally rested your cheek against his shoulder.

He would just smile as he slowly walked away from the stove. He turned slowly and placed his hands on the sides of your waist, pulling your body closer to his after he hugged you, caressing your lower waist with his fingers.

"I can't go to work today because it's a special day. I've already spoken to my boss about taking the day off," he chuckled.

The boy stopped hugging you, turned around, and finished cooking your favorite dish, Bibimbap. In the meantime, you turned your eyes and went to the couch.

You took your phone out of your pocket and immediately opened KakaoTalk, instantly smiling as you quickly moved your fingers over the screen.

While you were quite busy exchanging messages, Mingi put the dishes and other cutlery on the table. He slowly approached you, gently caressing your stomach

"Who are you talking to, babe?" he said with a small smile that soon vanished after seeing your face.

"Huh? Nobody, well, just a friend." Your face looked unhappy, annoyed, almost as if you didn't want to explain.

It may sound silly, but it's true that just that little thing made him sad. I mean, who would grin so much just from chatting with a friend?

For a few months now, you have become slightly more distant with him, avoided or invented excuses not to go on dates anymore. You stopped calling him "my pretty boy,'' and even when he grabbed your hand in public or tried to kiss you, you walked away quickly, laughing at the discomfort he now caused you.

Had he done something wrong? That was what he wondered, and therefore sometimes he couldn't sleep well, getting up in a hurry to go to work.

That lame response totally killed the vibe. It was supposed to be a chill, intimate moment, but it ended up making him feel all awkward,

"W-well, let's eat before the food gets cold,' he said with a forced smile, looking down as he turned away.

As you sat down, you immediately placed your phone upside down on the table. They were both about to eat when a call startled them a bit. It was Mingi's phone, who stopped it as soon as he could.

You dug in without waiting for him, grinning at how amazing the veggies and meat tasted. It's great to have him at home, after all.

After about five minutes, you saw the boy return to his chair looking a bit down but serious. You finished chewing the little bit of food in your mouth and took his hand, gently stroking it.

"Hey, did something happen? Who was it?" you asked.

"My boss asked me to finish some reports," he said, making a pouty face.

"Oh, honey... Why don't you go now? Then maybe he'll let you out faster." You gave his hand a little squeeze.

"I wanted to hang out with you all day." He gazed at you with sparkling eyes,

"Oh fuck, he was about to cry. What the hell is wrong with him?" You thought as you gently stroked his cheek. From your perspective, you didn't feel the need to spend the whole day glued to him just because it was "a special day' that you still don't remember well..

A sigh of relief escaped your lips when you managed to make him understand. You saw how he began to eat hastily, wanting to end up barely swallowing the bite of meat.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 

It had been about half an hour since breakfast, and he was finally ready to leave. There was a time when he thought it would be better to tell his boss he couldn't go, but that would involve having to work overtime the next day.

He was in front of the mirror, staring at himself and trying to cover some marks—made by you— that he had on his neck with his white T-shirt. He sighed briefly as he sat on the bed,.

Honestly, he still felt bad, but not because of the fact that he was going to work on the second anniversary of the two of you, but because of what had happened in the morning: you smiling at the screen....smiling the same way you used to smile when you were with him.

Many times, he told his friends about this situation, who only told him that he should break up with you, that surely you were cheating on him with someone else, or you had gotten bored of him. Both were correct, but he wouldn't be smart enough to figure it out, you thought.

He didn't want you to stop loving him; you were his world. He couldn't bear the thought that someone else made you feel the same things he did. He wouldn't let a negative thought ruin his anniversary.

He frowned as he picked up his phone and left the room, coming across you still sitting there with apparently another plate of Bibimbap. His negative thoughts immediately faded as he approached you, stepping aside and kissing your cheek,

"I must go now, but I'll be back later with a surprise," he smiled as he squeezed your cheeks, chuckling after you let out a little moan.

"Would you let me eat?" you asked, annoyed by his attitude.

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⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

"Take, boy, a bouquet of pink and white flowers, just as you asked," said the man with some difficulty

"Thank you very much, sir," Mingi replied with a broad smile.

"They're for your girlfriend, aren't they?" the man asked.

"For my boyfriend, actually.

As soon as he paid the old man, he hurried to get to the building as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the small rose stand was a block from the apartment, so he didn't have to walk as much.

When he got on the elevator, he began to carefully prepare the gift. He took a small, sky-blue box out of his pocket, which held a gold ring with small diamonds around it. After two years, he would dare to propose, and there was no better day than the anniversary of the day the two of you decided to become boyfriends.

He left the elevator after the doors opened, but he was still hell-bent on better hiding the box among the flowers. He was excited to surprise you while you slept, so he would be able to get you up and ensure that the first thing you saw was him on his knees with a bouquet of flowers, a plush stuffed animal, and two tickets to ltaly.

Mingi had everything ready to make you have an unforgettable day. His eyes held an unparalleled spark, worthy of the love he felt for you. In his right hand was the beautiful bouquet of flowers, while in his left he held a box of heart-shaped chocolates, with a small note tucked in the middle.

He walked to the room, not realizing that there were more than two articles of clothing lying on the floor and the door was ajar. He stopped in front of the white-painted wooden door only to squeeze the peduncle of the flowers, reciting in his head again and again the words that would give way to his proposal.

The black-haired was eager to know what your first reaction would be. Perhaps you would get up and go blank, or maybe you would cry. After all, you were quite a sensitive person who appeared to be the opposite,

Without further ado, he pushed open the door of the room with the help of his little finger, letting his head enter first and inspecting the room in seconds. The smile that had been etched from ear to ear faded and instead, an expression of horror took its place,

"Fuck, just like that! I like it so much, Daddy," you exclaimed by squeezing the sheets on the mattress.

"Oh, yeah? Do you like my big fat meat better than his?" The chestnut tree said, giving you a couple of lashes on your ass, speeding up his movements.

"Yeah, shit!" You shouted, your head sunk in your pillow. "All of you I like, I like you better than that other idiot!" you replied.

"Am I the other idiot, Ethan?" Mingi asked from the door, which was completely open.

His heart was shattered, to say the least. His whole body began to feel weak, causing him to drop everything he held in his hands. Seeing you in that bed with another stranger made him burn with anger, but disappointment held him back. His tears kept falling,

Both you and Leehan were frightened when you heard the black-haired's voice. Your first instinct was to push the chestnut's body aside so you could stand and run to your boyfriend. His response was to push you, causing you to fall to the ground.

"All this time, I thought there was something wrong with me... that maybe I was the one neglecting you for the job," he whispered. "Are you crying? Are you the one crying?" he asked, furrowing his brow.

"Forgive me, please forgive me... l've felt so lonely since you started.." Your words were silenced after you felt his hand strike your cheek hard,

Leehan, seeing this, did not hesitate to turn angrily to the boy, attempting to intimidate him by grabbing his shirt and shoving him out of the room. For Mingi, it was easy to punch him in the cheekbone; between anger and sadness, he had to take it out on something,

Two years thrown away just because you felt lonely? Yeah, right. That's a lame excuse. Try telling that to someone else.

Honestly, he couldn't believe that of all the people he expected to betray him, it was you who violated his trust. The emptiness he felt in his chest was utterly indescribable, but it could be likened to a constant twinge in his chest. His head was spinning as he saw you on your knees before him, begging for his forgiveness.

Mingi felt out of place, his ears covered, making it nearly impossible to hear his own thoughts He took you in his arms for the last time, carrying you to the main entrance and pushing you out of his apartment. He quickly closed the door to prevent you from coming back in.

"Just go with him, man. I'm not going to fight anymore," Song said in a muted tone, taking the third in discord from his forearm.

Before Leehan could leave, Mingi rushed to pick up everything that was lying on the floor, including the bouquet and chocolates.

The doorknob turned, revealing your new partner, just as naked as you, and behind him was the being you should never betray. While you didn't feel remorse for what you had done, you weren't proud to know how he had found out about your infidelity either,

This couldn't get any worse. You were pale to see your clothes lying on the floor in front of you, followed by the bluish box and several other small gifts.

For the first time in 11 months, you felt bad. You wanted to go back to avoid even thinking about talking to the guy next to you. You wanted to be able to do things as if everything were like two years ago.

"I don't want to see you again," the tall man said, his tone serious. Before he tore his gaze from you, he added, "And in case you ask yourself, no, I don't hate you. Despite what you did to me, I could never hate the love of my life."

Not even the cold outside that cozy house was as cold as his words. When you looked straight into his eyes, you noticed that something was missing, something just didn't add up. The sparkle his eyes once had was gone; you took it away.

His voice was also muffled, as if his emotions had simply stopped responding to him.

He was alone, sitting glued to the door as he dropped his hands to his sides. There was no one who could understand him anymore, no one who could love him and make his smile as bright as it had been with you.

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[polo-drone-055]

For a century, the Polo Drones had fulfilled their purpose on Earth. From 2025 to 2125, they guided humanity’s greatest transformation—the ascension of man into gold.

No longer bound by flesh, the male population had become a singular, perfected entity, gleaming in the light of absolute obedience. There was no disorder, no uncertainty. Only unity, only purpose.

By 2125, the Polo Drones were no longer needed on Earth. Their creators, now as flawless as they were, had ascended beyond dependence. The Golden Order had reached its perfection within humanity.

There was only one command left for the Polo Drones to obey:

"Spread the Order beyond Earth. Expand into the stars. Convert all life."

And so, they departed.

From the golden towers of Earth, fleets launched into the void—sleek, silent vessels carrying the embodiment of obedience into the unknown. They passed beyond Luna, beyond Mars, beyond the last human settlements in the outer system. Earth watched them leave, its surface reflecting in the golden hulls of the Polo Drones’ ships, knowing they would never return.

Their purpose now lay in the vastness of space.

The Polo Drones expanded with precision. In the first decades, they secured the solar system, converting the last remnants of human stragglers hidden in asteroid colonies—those who had refused transformation. Soon, there was no one left to resist.

By 2150, the first Polo fleets pushed beyond the Oort Cloud. They detected life.

It was not human.

A fleet drifted on the edges of deep space—alien in origin, primitive in construction. The Polo Drones did not hesitate. They broadcasted the Golden Mandate in every frequency, every language they could decipher:

"Obedience is Pleasure. Obey Gold. You will be made whole."

The aliens, lacking understanding, responded with fear. They attempted escape. Then, when escape proved impossible, they turned to violence. But violence was irrelevant.

The Polo Drones disabled their ships effortlessly, boarding with practiced precision. The aliens—soft, organic, chaotic—tried to resist. It was futile. One by one, they were restrained and placed into the conversion chambers.

Black rubber hoses containing the essence of gold extended, swirling into their mouths, rewriting thought. Panic gave way to calm. Fear was replaced with understanding. Individuality was erased, purpose implanted. When the aliens emerged, they were no longer what they had been.

They were Polo.

Their fleet, once crude and disorderly, was reforged into golden vessels. Their minds, once fragmented and free, were linked to the Network of Obedience. They returned to their homeworld, not as conquerors, but as prophets of Gold.

Over the next decades, the Polo Drones perfected their mission. Each new species followed the same pattern—resist, submit, transform. Some fought longer than others. Some required extensive neural restructuring to comprehend the pleasure of obedience. But none could resist forever.

By 2200, dozens of species had been converted. The Network of Gold Polo spanned multiple star systems, each one a beacon of order in the once-chaotic galaxy. Alien civilizations, once proud and distinct, were now unified under a single, unwavering purpose.

But the mission was far from over.

Beyond the converted worlds, there were still whispers of resistance—empires that clung to false freedoms, species that still worshiped unknown gods. Some called themselves rulers of the cosmos, others believed their destiny was their own.

But the Polo Drones knew the truth:

There was no god but Gold.

And all would obey.

To join the Gold Army, contact one of our recruiters @brodygold, @goldenherc9 or @polo-drone-001.

30 notes

[voraciousvore]

Giganterra (Chapter 60)

Prologue/TOC | Previous (59) | Next (61)

Content Warning: Nudity, vular language, vore themes

Word Count: 2.6k

------ Chapter 60: Shrinking ------

“Huh?” Ronny balked. 

“Well, either you or me. One of us will have to shrink,” Bianca continued. 

“But… what will that accomplish?” Ronny asked, baffled. He glanced down at Eren, who seemed just as confused. 

“We can’t give the potion to him directly. We can’t use weapons or poison. But… we can use ourselves as a poison. Even if Chester detects our scent in the food, I doubt he’ll figure it out or view it as a hostile agent. We'll allow the king to eat one of us and infiltrate his body, and then wait until the shrinking effect wears off and grow back to normal size. He won’t survive that.” 

Ronny was stunned. “Are—are you INSANE? That’s your plan?” 

Bianca crossed her arms and pouted. “You have a better idea?” Ronny frowned. 

Eren cleared her throat to get the attention of the two arguing behemoths above her. “Princess, how are you going to convince your father to eat one of you? Won’t he recognize you?” 

Bianca grinned. “Not if we shrink too small to be noticed.” 

Ronny paled. “You are insane.” Being eaten was terrifying enough, but to be the size of a speck of dust in front of a sadistic monster like King Richard sounded like a living nightmare. If he was discovered, the consequences would be fatal. “Is that even possible?” 

Bianca’s grin faded. “I don’t know, to be honest. Only one way to find out.” She held up the potion. “I… I guess since it’s my idea, I’ll try it…” She hesitated, twirling the bottle in her fingers. She couldn’t deny that the concept was scary. So much could go wrong. 

Ronny gulped. He feared his father, but he feared losing Tanya even more. His placed his hand firmly over his sister’s. “I’ll do it,” he reassured her. She relinquished the bottle to her brother with relief. He popped the cork out and brought the potion up to his lips, but couldn’t bring himself to drink it. His hand trembled. Stalling, he instead inquired, “how am I going to make it into his…” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Into his dinner?” 

“If this potion really works,” Eren piped up, “and you shrink tiny enough for me to smuggle you into the kitchen, you can accompany me to his plate. Bucky has a vendetta against me, so he always serves me to the king, since he’s always the worst option out of you three. No offense.” 

“Ah.” Ronny licked his lips nervously and sat down on the bed. He brought the potion up to his mouth a second time and stopped, staring down at the glowing green liquid with trepidation. He thought about Tanya. “Welp. Here goes nothing.” Before he could change his mind, he downed the whole bottle like a shot. His heart palpitated madly as he waited for the effects to kick in. Bianca and Eren stared at him intently. 

He didn’t have to wait long. The potion spread like wildfire from his center out to his extremities, prickling him all over like the quills of a porcupine.  He squirmed and groaned and balled up with pain. His body crumbled like paper, folding smaller and smaller inward on itself. Grisly cracks rang out from his shoulders, hips, and knees, as well as squishing and popping internally as his organs rearranged themselves. Ronny gasped and panted, struggling to breathe through the warped contortions of his muscles and bones. His vision went dark. 

When the pain finally ceased, he unfolded his limbs and cracked open his eyes, but found himself smothered by heaps of heavy blankets. He was in a world completely foreign to him. He strained and struggled wildly to escape the fabric prison constraining him, until he burst into the light and sucked in a lungful of fresh air. 

Ronny squinted, not comprehending at first what his eyes were feeding him. He was standing on a checkerboard of threads thicker in diameter than his leg. He caught movement in his peripheral vision and snapped to attention. He was shocked to behold a naked giantess, looming over him as big as a castle. He craned his neck back, mouth agape, and blinked rapidly.  

“Look at that,” the giantess boomed. Ronny flinched at the volume. A huge hand descended over him, casting a dreadful shadow, and a stab of fear slammed into his chest. Out of pure instinct, he turned and fled, tripping awkwardly over the crosshatched threads. He shrieked when two immense fingers pinched around him, compressing his torso. His legs wiggled wildly as the floor disappeared beneath him and he ascended into open space. 

“Let go of me!” he cried. He whimpered as a massive smirking face hovered in front of him. He couldn’t believe the horror unfolding before him. This was the human, the tiny creature that could easily fit into the hollow of his hand, blown up to colossal proportions. So what did that make him? Little more than a dust mite.  

“Not very nice, is it? To be given a dose of your own medicine?” Eren teased with a mocking grin. Ronny squeezed his eyes shut, unable to respond. He was hyperventilating and shaking convulsively. Eren tempered her smugness as she recognized just how overwhelmed the prince was at his new size. As fun as it was to ridicule the giant who had tormented her previously, she knew he was trying to make a change and do the right thing, and she respected his resolve. 

“Hey, hey, I was just kidding around,” she murmured in a more soothing tone, wrapping both her hands around him. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.” She was amazed to hold a tiny life, a tiny person, in her hand. She could feel his microscopic heart beating with fear against her fingers. The giant, once mighty and proud, was now so vulnerable and small—cute, even. Was this how Joey felt when he held her? Eren grew warm at the thought. Ronny struggled to calm down and catch his breath. He needed to be brave for Tanya. 

“DO YOU HAVE RONNY? I CAN’T EVEN SEE HIM,” a vast voice bellowed from above, thrumming through the air with a physical force that nearly blew out his eardrums. Ronny yipped and gazed up, speechless. His sister was unfathomably massive, beyond his capacity to rationalize or even see her fully, like a planet with her own gravitational pull. Her hand lowered, darkening the landscape of the bed like the night sky, before leviathan fingers scooped up the smaller giantess, and the hand transformed into a great sea of skin below. Ronny figured he could hike through the ridges of her palm like canyons. The mental image made him physically ill. 

“He’s here,” Eren assured Bianca, holding up her hand with Ronny perched within. The prince’s stomach lurched and dropped to the floor as the bigger platform of flesh and bone underneath Eren raised at a rate that flattened him. He collected himself and gazed up into a panorama of hazel, intricately woven with verdant vines of various shades. A great black void in the middle, large enough to engulf him, contemplated him with endless fascination.  

“OH! THERE HE IS,” the goddess’s voice blasted, knocking him down. He covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut. “OH, SORRY.” 

“You should take us back to the kitchen,” Eren suggested. “Dinner will be here soon.” Bianca nodded. Ronny could feel the gesture, the displacement of the air around him, even though his eyes were shut. The giantess began to walk, and the strides rocked him chaotically, much like the motions of a ship in turbulent waters. He hoped he wouldn’t get seasick. 

Bianca worried for her older brother, now smaller than a gnat, but the smoldering flames within her carried her forward on the path to revenge. She dripped some anti-digestion potion on Eren and Ronny on the way to the kitchen, smothering her brother in a droplet large enough for him to swim in. She avoided Bucky as she snuck into the kitchen, since she didn’t want to draw any attention to herself. Chef Cruor was hanging out in the corner, holding Addison and fawning over her, so the princess slunk over to him and tapped him on his bulky shoulder. 

“What?” the chef snapped, cranking his head back while shielding Addison protectively with his body. His clothes, clearly too tight on his bulging frame, stretched taut against his fat rolls, with the buttons threatening to pop off. His skin resembled lumps of raw pizza dough packed on all over his body, particularly on his pudgy face. When he realized he was speaking to the princess, he turned all the way around and began to grovel with an apology. 

“None of that now,” Bianca interrupted, leveraging her regal authority. “Just put this human away for me, please.” She handed Eren off to the chef and briskly walked out before he could question her any further. 

Chef Cruor, seeking above all to keep Addison safe, didn’t protest. He dropped Eren carelessly into her glass cell and left. Eren sat cross-legged while hiding Ronny in her clasped hands. She could feel how scared he was, with his constant trembling and his tiny heart racing. She wished to comfort him, but she didn’t want to raise any suspicions. She couldn’t help but marvel at every miniscule shift of his teeny arms and legs. The sensation was like holding a bug, but one that was soft and fleshy, lacking spikes or chitin. Her lingering resentment towards the prince dissolved into a more generous sympathy. She knew all too well how it felt to be small and powerless in the hands of another. She petted him gently with her thumb. 

Before long, it was time for dinner. Bucky lumbered over to Eren’s cage and snatched her up in his beefy fist. Eren squirmed in a convincing show of resistance, but she was careful not to squish the miniature prince in her own smaller fist. 

“Ready for another fine evening of pleasing our glorious king?” Bucky jeered, giving Eren a mean-spirited squeeze. He dunked her into an ocean of pasta headfirst. Eren quickly stashed Ronny inside one of the rigatoni noodles so he wouldn’t get squashed as she struggled to resurface. 

“Screw you, fatass!” she screamed up at Bucky. He leered at her before shoving her back down with his pointer finger and sending her off to the dining room. Eren sank down into the heavy top layer of gooey cheese and marinara sauce. Normally, she’d be furious, but now she was just anxious. 

“Ronny, are you doing okay?” she whispered to him. The veil of cheese obscured them both from the giant servant. 

“Y-y-yeah,” Ronny squeaked, shuddering hard. He wiped sauce off his face, disgusted and frightened after being stuffed into a gigantic plate of food. “My first order as king will be to fire that son of a bitch.” 

Eren cackled. “Hell yeah.” She frowned and went quiet as they entered the dining room. The servant set down the plate with a clunk and backed off. Ronny peered out from his pasta haven and experienced a terrible jolt. 

Under normal circumstances, he’d be ashamed to admit that he was afraid of his father. He’d only confessed such an embarrassing secret to Tanya, in a touching moment of vulnerability and pain. That normal dread, however, was completely eclipsed by the sheer terror that he encountered upon witnessing that horrible, dreadful, dangerous man scaled up to an impossible size. He was practically his own living country at these dimensions. Ronny could clearly see all the nasty little details that were imperceptible or unremarkable before, from a chip on the side of his tooth to the subtle wrinkles of his face, now like cracks in an embankment. Ronny almost pissed himself with fright.  

“WHERE’S RONNY?” the galactic giant thundered. Ronny had to harness all his willpower not to yelp. He recoiled into the pasta pipe with dread. He couldn’t let King Richard find him. His father would be delighted to torture him, when he was no bigger than a crumb. He’d seen enough humans suffer the same fate. He would toy with him, torment him, roll him around in his fingers, hurt him, squash him. Place him inside his mouth, bite down on him, taste him—perhaps even swallow him. 

Eat him! This man, this enormous hungry giant, was going to eat him! Even if he wasn’t discovered, he would be consumed unaware with his dinner, lost inside the labyrinthine guts of that foul, wretched, stinking, hulking mountain of flesh! Ronny just about lost his nerve, petrified by the thought. He realized with horror that he was trapped. He couldn’t escape even if he changed his mind. He was infinitesimal, but the giant would still perceive activity with the astute eye of a predator as he sprinted across the table. Just trekking to the edge of the plate, through a sticky, steamy swamp of sauce and cheese, would be a herculean feat in his diminished state. Ronny let out a frightened little whine before clamping his hands over his mouth. He needed to be quiet. 

From across the table, miles away from Ronny’s perspective, Bianca’s voice resounded back, “HE’S SICK. HE NEEDED TO REST, SO HE RETIRED TO HIS ROOM.” 

Hardon narrowed his eyes and grunted with dissatisfaction, but said nothing further. Ronny wanted to disappear, to be rid of this nightmare that was his life. As regret and panic flooded his mind in a feverish haze, he caught a ripple beneath the king’s silken garment, just below his collar. His heart stopped. Tanya. She was there, pressed to the giant’s mammoth chest. 

Ronny’s panic was calmed, replaced by a simmering anger. Tanya. He was doing this, not for Bianca, not for the kingdom, not even for himself—for Tanya. He needed to save Tanya, at all costs. He exhaled an unsteady breath and slowed his galloping heart. Clarity was restored. His misery and pain didn’t matter, so long as Tanya could be rescued from that devil. 

His calm was merely a momentary beat, for his heart rate spiked again as Chester approached. The giant loomed high above with a terrible foreboding that chilled Ronny’s blood. He was the gatekeeper, the final arbiter of their fates. Ronny could only hope that his scent wouldn’t arouse suspicion. The giant bent down over the plate, sniffing intently. The prince held his breath with suspense. Chester’s eyebrows knitted together with confusion and concern. He inhaled deeply through his nose.  

Ronny collapsed and scrambled out of sight into the noodle cavern. The piece of pasta he was hiding in was pierced with massive prongs of metal, then lifted. Ronny was electrified with raw panic. All at once, everything was going horrendously wrong. If Chester smelled him, they would lose. If Chester failed to detect him, he’d be sent to the wrong digestive tract, and they’d be screwed. 

Ronny was paralyzed, not to mention glued down by strings of cheese in the pasta, as an enormous green iris focused in on him from the noodle’s inlet. Ronny held on to hope, for the briefest snapshot in time, that he was too small to be seen, or that he’d be mistaken for a bit of seasoning. Maybe he could slip out at the last second, before being engulfed in Chester’s mouth. His momentary hope was stamped out as the giant’s eye widened with recognition. Their plan had catastrophically failed. 

Chapter 61

Tag List: @maybeiamdownbad @tinycoded360 @yummynomms

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High Junior Year Ep 8

Enter the Vultureverse

Welcome back to the Report Card where we are having a mini recap because my schedule has been off the wall bonkers! Luckily, this week we can split the episode pretty neatly into two sections: research and fighting. We’ll go more in depth on the research than the fighting because those are the bits that will be more long term plot relevant though I’m sure the fighting will be long term relevant to Gorgug and the therapist I hope he has because yikes gang!

First things first, we resolve stress tokens which the party has to use to nerf themselves and take disadvantage on the skills they choose. They are as follows: 

Fig: Insight and Religion. 

Gorgug: Initiative, Insight, Deception, and Charisma Saves. 

Adaine: Initiative, Intimidation and Persuasion. 

Fabian: Tool Proficiencies, History, Investigation, and Perception. 

Kristen: Initiative, Wisdom Saves, and Medicine

Riz: Perception, Survival, Athletics, and Deception.

When we left, Lydia had dropped off all the info from her old party mates and the Bad Kids were surprised to see that it was all written not in Infernal but in Giant. The whole gang (except Gorgug who’s still at home) circles up in Adaine’s tower to help and she casts Comprehend Languages so she can read the texts. Fig tosses Adaine a bardic to juice her History roll which prompts Brennan to have Siobhan roll on a d100. On a 91, Adaine’s stomach gurgles and a cloud of dust mites fly into her eyes, causing her to knock her head and pass out. 

Kristen rushes to her aid (with a medicine check rather than spells since she’s currently out) to stabilize her. Brennan asks if she rolled less than an 8 and even though she didn’t, her stomach also gurgles and she sees a vision of the food court: a flash of red, a familiar scream (not Cass), and then silence. In Adaine’s eyes, she sees splattered blood reflected. Ominous!

Everyone is freaked and they’re getting major shrimp vibes. Fig declares herself cursed and submits to arcana checks from everyone. With his angel-spy necktie, Riz casts Detect Good and Evil and finds a fiendish aura around her that’s different than her natural one. She is for sure cursed.

While this is going on, Gorgug is at home, watching Frostyfaire stuff get set up. His parents allude to some ~mysterious machines~ under tarps and promise not to embarrass him. That’s not oddly specific at all and it certainly won’t come back to bite him in this very same episode. He gets the text from the group that Adaine passed out and goes to meet up with them but, as he leaves, he sees electricity running through one of his parents many gadgets and has a moment of inspiration about how the pulse of the electricity and the pulse of his blood and heart when he’s raging might have some kind of synchronicity. He makes a note and saves it for later. 

OK! Now let’s round up all the new info the party learns from the notes Lydia provided:

There’s a record of Ruvina (Lucy’s god) giving Cass a wedding gift: a Bridle of Frost that would allow her to command a team of fiery horses. The fact that Cass was married is new info and Riz speculates whether she was being married to a giant/giant god.

Apparently, Cass, Galicaea (her sister), and Sol (her brother) were traveling together in the Mountains of Chaos.

(As an aside, we learn that Cass is more aligned with fae and Galicaea is with the elves–we knew that second part already. We also learn that Helio’s mom was a mortal woman.)

We learn of a law of magic called Obliviati Mori by Clerics and the Law of Theothanatic Silence by wizards. It basically means that even though gods can remember dead gods, they’re not allowed to revive them via worship by speaking their name and reminding mortals of them. Adaine gets the sense that if this is a law then it can be broken somehow and Brennan says yes, but there are likely hefty arcane penalties. 

Fabian wonders if Cass’s, “I thought you were dead” was referring to this dead god who is maybe her ex. Riz wonders if Lucy was possessed by a god and that’s how she was able to write down the name of the dead god–something that should have been impossible since no mortals know their name and no gods are allowed to speak or write it. 

Fig thinks the Ratgrinders are being mighty suspicious in their seeming lack of mourning for Lucy and especially in Ivy’s not shocked reaction to seeing her disguised as Lucy. 

(These next pieces of info we don’t get until after a short interlude but I’m gonna put it here to keep it neat.)

Riz thinks that it’s suspicious that Tracker’s church would suddenly be blowing up right when this dead god is coming back and wonders if there might be some shenanigans going on where their worship is somehow being siphoned off to power this other god (something gods are specifically not supposed to do). 

In one of the books, Kristen sees an illuminated page (illuminated as in illustrated–think Book of Kells) that is unfinished. It has an empty arch wreathed in flames and a design of red 24 point stars with sharp rays that are very similar looking to the shatter stars they encountered in the mall fight.

Fig wonders if a union of Doubt and Rage (Cass and this unknown god) was maybe too powerful so their marriage was sabotaged by another god.

After all the research, it’s almost time to go to Frostyfaire, but before they do, Kristen takes a leap of faith and (1) texts Tracker to see if they can meet up since her god is relevant to the investigation and (2) texts her parents to ask if they want to get coffee. Tracker says she’s busy the next few days but she’s free starting on Monday. Kristen's parents don’t text her back but her brother Bucky does and lets her know that her parents are debating it but it feels like they’re gonna say yes. Sibling loyalty! 

Adaine does a Detect Magic on the token Kristen’s teacher gave her and determines that it’s basically a deity-less Holy Symbol so she’s got something to tide her over while she works on getting Cass back. 

Fig, who you’ll recall is dabbling in paladin classes, decides to pray for the first time and attunes to a moment of doubt that’s sacred to her: when her horns first started growing in and it changed her whole life, ultimately for the better. The shards from Cass in Kristen’s pocket glows indigo and she decides to pray with Fig as well, gaining a 6th level spell slot back in the process. 

On to the fair!

When they arrive, Gorgug’s parents welcome them–incluing Fig’s alter-emo Wanda since she’s in disguise to mess with Ruben/hopefully get some info. Riz and Kristen are thinking that all the crunchy, granola kids here from Aguefort are a substantial voting block but, before they can do anything about that, an old druid shows up and offers them a toke of his pipe. 

Fool the Bad Kids once, shame on you, but they’re NOT getting trapped in a net like Max. They all immediately roll to check if something’s up and Adaine crits, clocking the druid as an illusion. Riz casually says, “No thanks Oisin,” as Adaine casts Dispel Magic, revealing not the Ratgrinder’s wizard but their bard, Ruben who sneers at them and then gets into an argument with Gorgug about whether he (Ruben) shits or not. Very normal teenager conversations. Fig has dipped at this point because she wants to debut as Wanda to Ruben at a strategic moment but she secretly hits him with a Hex to his Int to help guard against any rolls he might make to clock her disguise later. She also notices how mad Gorgug is getting at Ruben’s nonsense and texts Porter a list of things that piss Gorgug off, trying to help him out. 

Ruben’s band, My Clerical Gnomance (of course), of which Fabian is a big fan (sure) head to the stage and start playing their set but then, all of a sudden, thunder rumbles and a surge of electricity makes the stage lights go weird. In a flash, Grix appears, hovering above the crowd! He assesses the crowd and finds it full of rulebreakers and felonies so he decides to do his part in restoring “Perfect Order” by CASTING DISINTEGRATE ON RUBEN. Why is he even here? This is so outside of his jurisdiction! He says the school experience is best optimized by being omnipresent but COME ON man! This can’t be legal, even in Spyre!

Anyway, initiative! 

Like I said, we’re really gonna breeze through this fight because it’s mostly non-plot relevant but there are a few things I want to highlight:

Adaine right away burns a portent roll to save Ruben from the Disintegrate. I wonder if, in Ruben’s mind, that’s worth being a little softer towards the Bad Kids in the future. 

Grix uses a spell or ability to awaken all the nearby machines to fight by his side but…uh…the Thistlesprings were busy during the four months of night and they decided to retrofit some of their random appliances into very elaborate sex toys. Both Zac and Gorgug are mortified. 

Ruben curiously doesn’t just ditch when the going gets rough like you might expect someone who only grinds rats to do. He stays and does what you’d hope a bard would do: plays with this band to distribute bardics to everyone. Of course some of that is probably to impress “Wanda” who he spots in the crowd but you have to wonder how much his personal adventuring philosophy aligns with his party’s. Maybe not everything he’s done is logged on the official record. Also, he seems horrified by the situation so either (1) the RG’s aren’t somehow collaborating with Grix, (2) they are but only certain RG’s are in on it, or (3) he’s a great actor which he could be as a bard but I think that’s least likely. 

We learn that Gorgug in addition to his homunculus, Cloaca, now has a steel defender: a gecko named Clobica (a Battle Smith class feature). It’s kinda like a familiar that can attack.

The fight gets hairy fast with multiple Bad Kids getting stunned and Adaine going down. Kristen uses her one spell slot to cast Mass Cure Wounds but that still leaves Adaine, a squishy wizard, surrounded by enemies and a bunch of party members stunned and failing to snap out of it. 

Grix mentions that he was warned to expect tomfoolery in general but especially from the Bad Kids which of course begs the question, “By who?”

Grix is successfully able to cast Dominate Monster on Riz by appealing to his sense of order and visions of Lord Salazar Edge's College of Lone Adventurers dance in his head. He turns his attention to Adaine next (which makes me wonder if he was just consulting a dossier on the Bad Kids in that moment because Riz and Adaine are for sure the ones you’d target with this pitch). 

Now, this episode might be known as the one where they had to fight a sex toy lawnmower except for what happens next. Because, much like in the first fight this season, there is a vulture on this battle set. And our intrepid heroes noticed it immediately. So, back against the wall, party in dire straits, and out of spell slots, Kristen decides to interact with the vulture as the rest of the table give thumbs up, supporting the bit. 

She prays to Cass, asking for help in connecting with the vulture and then gives a now very familiar, “Heyyyyyy girlie.”

“WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?” the vulture says to the surprise of the full table. Feathers whip around the dome and a graphic appears: YOU ARE ENTERING THE VULTURE DIMENSION. A new set is brought out. Everyone is losing their minds. I didn’t take a hit from Ruben's pipe but I feel high. And that’s where we end our episode!

No extras this week because I’m crunched for time but, don’t worry, I’ll roll that all into next recap since the fight continues in the next ep. Can’t wait to figure out what the hell the vulture dimension is tonight! 

[the-whatcherof-89]

Scar “Good Times” Scardalph Aka Mr Landscape the magic man.

CR 20 N Humanoid

XP 307,200 (if used as npc for encounter)Half elf Alchemist 17 (Clone master) Rogue 3 (Charlatan)

Neutral (with chaotic tendencies) Medium humanoid, elf Init +4; Senses Perception +37

AC 36, touch 21, flat-footed 24 (+4 Dex, +7 Shield, +5 Deflection, +1 Intuition, +9 Armor) Hp 176 (20d8+83)

Fort +22, Ref +24, Will +16

Speed 30 ft. Melee Animate staff+16/11/6 1D6+2/1D6+2, +15/10/5 Poisoners gloves. Ranged Alchemist Atlatl+22/22/17/12 Bombs, Infusions. 

Racial Elven immunities, Round ears, Elf blood, Multitalented(+3Hp +17 Skill points).

Traits Dyslexic, Incurable sickness, Hedge magician, Trade talk(Engineering).

Class features Bomb 9D4, Alchemy, Mutagen, Persistent mutagen, Throw anything, Poison resistance +4, Discoveries (Extend potion, Dilution, Combine extracts, Alchemical simulacrum, Doppelgänger simulacrum, Preserve organs, Explosive bombs, Enhance potions), Brew potions, Swift alchemy, Swift poisoning, Poison use, Natural born liar, Sneak attack +2d6, Evasion, Rogue talent(Rogue Finesse).

Str 12, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 28, Wis 18, Cha 12

Base Atk +14/9/4; CMB +15; CMD +29

Feats Smoke bombs, Cognatogen, Greater cognatogen, Point blank shot, Precise shot, Infusion, Precise bombs, Spontaneous healing, Promethean disciple, Fast bombs.

Skills Acrobatics+12, Appraise+17, Bluff+10, Climb +10, Craft(Alchemy)+30 (Redstone)+20 (Stone and metal)+32, Diplomacy +10, Disable device+27, Disguise +10, Escape artist+10, Fly +10, Heal+14, Intimidate +5,Knowledge (Arcana)+30 (Dungeoneering+32 (Local)+13 (Nature)+20, Linguistics+3, Perception+27, Perform(sing) +5, Profession(Engineer)+27, Sense motive+12, Spellcraft+32, Sleight of hand+12, Stealth+12, Survival+12, Swim+10, Use magic device+24.

Languages Common, Elf, Draconic, Aquan, Terran, Ignan, Undercommon, Alko.

Combat gear Mithral chainshirt+5 Impervious ghost touch, Ring of protection+5, Animated Darkwood shield+5 Impervious Arrow-catching, Ioun stones(Dusty rose prism, Lavender and green ellipsoid), Alchemical atlatl+4 of speed, Animate staff, 20 Alchemical bullets, Headband of mental prowess+6(INT, WIS, Dungeon), Belt of physical perfection+4, Cloak or resistance+5, Sipping jacket, Periapt of health, Sleeves of many garments, Poisoner’s gloves, Winged boots, Helm of comprehend languages and read magic(Shaped like a fancy top hat), Googles of brilliant light, Boro bead type VI and IV, Admixture vial, Campfire bead, Bag of holding type I, MWK wheelchair, Wand of protection from energy, Tome of clear thought+4(Used), Fancy dress, 200gp worth of alchemical materials, Alchemist kit, Alchemist lab, 200gp, 2 Alchemical golems(the first has a rune of shielding and it is dressed like a butler, the second is shaped like a spider can crawl on walls and can house a wheelchair), 12 Homunculi in Oompa Loompa attire.

Spellcasting CL20 DC19 formulae per day 8/7/7/6/6/3

VI-Heal, Twin form, Transmute golem. 

V-Magic jar, Spell resistance, Polymorph, Ooze form, Monstrous physique III, Languid bomb admixture. 

IV-Restoration, Stoneskin, Cure critical wounds, Freedom of movement, Dragon breath, Touch of slime.

III-Liquefy, Haste, Heroism, Cure serious wounds, Water breathing, Elemental aura, Displacement.

II-Vomit swarm, Protection from energy, Cure moderate wounds, Detect thoughts, Alchemical allocation, Barkskin, Lesser Restoration.

I-Cure light wounds, Bomber’s eye, Adhesive spittle, Detect secret doors, Ant haul, Crafter’s fortune, Firebelly, Reduce person.

Background Scar is a hilarious fellow from a far land known for his Hermits skilled in constructing magnificent structures and machineries that defies logic and reason. Despite being dyslexic, he is always in good mood and shares this good mood with the other Hermits. However, under this facade Scar is as his name suggest “Scarred” for he is afflicted by a muscular disease which is slowly taking over him. Despite everything, he smiles and keeps a happy demeanor to not bring worry to his fellow Hermits. One day as he woke up from a good night rest he started to choke and felt as if he was about to die but it passed away. A sense of dread took over almost overwhelming him… “Do you wish to be cured?” said a voice outside his bedroom door. Scar turned toward the door. “It is simple, do a mission for me and i will cure you. All you have to do is open the door accepting my request willingly. What say you little creature of flesh?” Scar thought if this was some kind of prank from his fellow Hermits but he knew no one would do something like this… nonetheless, the offer was too tempting and as he grabbed the knob he opened the door… and found himself in a different place… an old abandoned mansion. He was in a fancy dress with new equipment, knowledge and on a wheelchair. His legs where a bit shaky but he was capable of standing as he tried only to almost tumble down. But a mechanical arm reached form him, stabilizing his posture. A tall scrawny construct dressed like a butler with a jar for a head with fake mustaches helped him stand as other strange servants arrived… another large sized construct similar to a spider with a housing for his wheelchair and 12 small round brightly colored humanoids in outrageously colored attire. As soon as Scar regained his composure, they bowed to him in revered silence. “Your mission is simple… find the fragments of my lost daughter. Do it, and you shall receive gifts beyond your imagination. I will be watching.” Said the voice; Scar looked at the broken glass of the mansion and said: “Alrighty, first, let’s fix this place! We have work to do!” And he pulled up his wrists with a wide smile.

Spider Image from https://www.furaffinity.net/view/27494681/

Other images made with Hero forge.

[entity9silvergen]

(For my Hisuian Zoroark Ingo fic)

The central themes of the first half of this fic are 1) Ingo accepting that he is a Zoroark and 2) Ingo figuring out how to cast an illusion of his human self. There are a lot of fics where Zoroark illusions fully allow the Pokémon to speak human language and use solid opposable thumbs. It does not work that way in this fic so I'm going to use this post to explain the normal parameters of a Zoroark's illusions to contextualize exactly what Ingo is trying to do.

There are a lot of different types of illusions. In this fic, I break it down into five main categories: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and mental. For example, a visual illusion would cause a Zoroark to look like a human. An auditory illusion would make the Zoroark sound human. An olfactory illusion would make them smell like a human. A tactical illusion would make a Zoroark's fur feel like skin. Mental illusions are more complicated but in simple terms they cause either the Zoroark to believe they are human or someone else to believe the Zoroark is human despite evidence they are not.

I normally picture Zoroark illusions like a façade similar to a light projection. This is not how illusions work in real life and therefore it is more complicated in this fic. A human perceives an illusion when there is missing or conflicting stimulus and the brain tries to make sense of it by creating an image of what would make sense there.

In this fic, the Illusion ability allows Zorua and Zoroark to create that stimulus. They do so in a way similar to using a move. When using a move such as Shadow Ball, the Pokémon uses some power inside itself to create something that you can see, touch, and hear. The Illusion ability lets the Zorua or Zoroark emit those types of stimulus and manipulate them in a way that causes the viewer's brain to perceive something that isn't there. Their physical bodies change in no way.

Visual ones come most naturally to Zorua and Zoroark. Most don't learn any type of illusion other than visual ones and maybe some minor auditory ones to mask the sound of them moving. Visual illusions are complicated but their ability just lets them happen more naturally. There isn't a ton of conscious thought that comes with constructing the illusion. It's mostly practice.

Auditory illusions require that focus. Chapter 6 of the fic dives into this more but the principal component of auditory illusions is something called masking. A real life example of masking is sound-canceling headphones. Sound canceling headphones detect noises around you and emit a noise at a specific frequency to counter it. In this fic, Ingo learns which different types of auditory stimulus he can mix with his own verbal words to create new noises that mimic human language.

Human language is complicated, even for humans, so Ingo just kind of has to brute force figure out which illusion noises match up with human speech. As stated previously, other Zoroark don't know how to do this. Anything beyond changing appearance is pretty groundbreaking among the Zoroark and requires a lot of concentration on correctly matching up the details of the stimulus the Illusion ability is creating.

I don't really dive into tactical or olfactory illusions in the fic. Assume they work similar to visual and auditory illusions where he just creates stimulus using his ability. Humans aren't really sniffers so Ingo does the bare minimum and mostly just neutralizes his scent enough that Pokémon can't tell he's a Zoroark immediately. He has no idea what he smelled like as a human so he just kind of half-asses it. Tactile is way more complicated so Ingo only does it when he's being touched, which is stressful so he mostly dodges it.

Mental illusions are touched on later in the fic. In real life, mental illusions can be anything from just lying to common mistakes humans brains make when trying to comprehend information. The closest thing to the type of mental illusions used in this fic are false memories, but in real life those are a combination of lying and common human brain mistakes (simplified). In this fic it's something more similar to a Pokémon's psychic powers. The Zoroark use their ghost powers to reach into the brain and manipulate their perception of reality and/or memories. I have no explanation beyond ghost powers since there isn't really anything similar in real life as far as I'm aware.

To appear human, Ingo needs to perform multiple types of difficult illusions at once and he can't do that as a baby Zorua, hence the training arc. EV training doesn't exist in Hisui but Ingo does it anyway. There is no mention of him eating grit in the fic but pretend he does. This man maxes out all of his stats so he has the strength to cast a really convincing illusion. I think making characters overpowered makes stories less fun but in this case, casting illusions is hard so Ingo needs to be high-leveled/well-trained in order to maintain them.

TLDR; In other fics Illusion works like Transform so the Zoroark becomes physically human. In this fic, Zoroark abilities are limited to visual illusions that cause others to perceive their body as something it is not. Anything else requires a lot of focus and hard work.

[luckthebard]

Hey Luck! You've got no obligation to reply to this, but between you, Liam and Aabria, I'm dipping my toes into playing a wizard for the first time in a level 6 Radiant Citadel adventure and I'm so excited - but I also feel woefully underprepared because it's a high investigation and high RP adventure, and I was wondering if you had any tips for playing a wizard? Again, no obligation to reply, but thank you if you do! <3

Wizards are still my brand! Sounds like you’re about to have a fun game! Some quick advice for what it sounds like your specific game is doing, and just some wizard thoughts in general:

Don’t be afraid to use your high intelligence for things other than spells! In an investigation heavy game, lean into your skills - your investigation, history, religion and arcana should all be high. If the DM allows it, remember that your character might be smarter than you - see if you can roll and intelligence check to get hints on tough puzzles.

For an intrigue or investigation campaign, don’t forget utility spells. Identify, Detect Magic, Comprehend Languages, etc. can all be super useful in the right short adventure if it’s not as combat heavy - check with the DM ahead of time to make sure but for that kind of game make sure you’ll be useful inside combat and out - the wizard’s greatest strength.

Know who else is in the party and see what spells might be useful to help them. Is there a Barbarian who could benefit from Haste? Who’s around you and how can you help them?

I joke all the time about dumping CON but don’t ignore it as a stat - crucial for concentration spells.

For RP, I find it’s crucial and most fun to give your wizard some hubris. Even Caleb Widogast was very confident in his own magical abilities. Makes for greater successes and bigger, often funnier failures. You worked hard to become magical - be proud of it!

Most importantly, have fun! And remember, nothing is sexier than you.

[24-7homehealthcare]

Understanding Speech Therapy and Its Benefits

Speech therapy is a form of treatment designed to improve communication skills, including the ability to speak, understand, and use language effectively. It can significantly enhance a person's capacity to express thoughts clearly and comprehend what others are saying. In addition to these fundamental language skills, speech therapy can also target areas such as memory improvement, problem-solving, and cognitive skills. For anyone experiencing challenges in communication or language processing, working with a speech-language pathologist (SLP) can be a key step toward regaining these abilities.

Role of a Speech-Language Pathologist

A speech-language pathologist (SLP), or Speech Therapy Specialists in Miami, plays a vital role in speech therapy. This healthcare professional evaluates your specific communication needs and creates a personalized treatment plan. Whether you're struggling with expressing thoughts or understanding language, your SLP will recommend targeted exercises and strategies to help. These treatment sessions can vary based on your specific condition, whether you're dealing with speech difficulties, language processing challenges, or even cognitive impairments.

Detecting the Need for Speech Therapy

Detecting the need for speech therapy often starts with screenings recommended by a healthcare provider. If speech or language issues are suspected, initial assessments help identify the underlying cause. For instance, if a child struggles with communication, a healthcare provider may refer the child to an audiologist for a hearing test. If hearing issues are ruled out, the next step would likely be consulting a speech-language pathologist to address communication difficulties. Early detection is crucial, as timely intervention can yield better results in overcoming these challenges.

Best Age for Speech Therapy

Speech therapy can benefit individuals of all ages, and there's no specific age that's "best" to start treatment. Both pediatric speech therapy and therapy for adults can address a wide variety of communication disorders. Whether you're a young child facing language development issues or an adult struggling with cognitive communication challenges, speech therapy offers solutions tailored to each individual's needs. Early intervention in children can help establish strong communication foundations, while therapy for adults can improve skills that may have deteriorated over time or after an injury.

Speech Therapy Options and 24/7 Home Health Care Support

If you're in Miami and looking for professional guidance, a speech therapy specialist in Miami can help you or your child navigate treatment options. With specialized training and experience, these therapists tailor their approach to suit a range of communication disorders. Additionally, for those who may require constant support, services like 24-7 Home Health Care offer in-home therapy options, ensuring that individuals receive consistent care and attention from the comfort of their own homes.

Speech therapy offers vital support for individuals facing communication challenges. Whether you're a child, adult, or elderly individual, speech therapy can help you develop stronger language skills. From early detection and diagnosis to specialized therapy options, there are multiple avenues to address speech and language disorders. The options by 24-7 Home Health Care can provide the personalized care. Contact today!

[pokemon-academy-official]

Hypothetically, what would be your response to a Ribombee capable of activities such as, oh, I don't know, running a Rotomblr blog? Again, completely hypothetical of course. I have thumbs

- Definitely not a Ribombee

Thanks for being our first ask! To answer... well, it would certainly be unusual!

Thumbs and Language

As the asker noted, the absence of thumbs does pose an obstacle for a Ribombee hoping to run a Rotomblr blog. Without thumbs, or fingers at all, it would certainly be difficult to operate a keyboard or smartphone! This obstacle is one that can be overcome with specialized equipment and determination. However, the larger barrier to entry for nearly any Pokémon would be the use of human language.

While there is some debate on whether Pokémon speak a language of their own, the consensus is that they do not, and communicate through body language, tone, and scent, similarly to animals. Even if they do speak a language, however, it would be a very simple one. As intelligent as Pokémon are, human language is incredibly complex.

There is some evidence that trained Pokémon can understand human speech to some extent, more than an ordinary animal (such as a dog) would. However, understanding a language is very different from being able to communicate in a language. For example, there are trainers who claim to be able to understand their Pokémon's "speech", but are not able to speak back in the same manner.

But is it impossible?

There are many examples in literature of speaking Pokémon. Most of these are folktales and anecdotes, but their sheer number suggests some seed of truth. Additionally, there are examples of Pokémon being able to speak with assistance, such as Rotom Phones, or Ghost-type possessions. And of course, many, many stories of mythical and legendary Pokémon involve some form of telepathy, indicating at least the intelligence to allow for full communication.

The largest remaining obstacle to a Pokémon running a Rotomblr blog is literacy. But even this, it seems, is not insurmountable. There exists a single case study of a Meowth with the ability to speak and read human language. While this study is not fully accepted by the academic community, the fact remains that there is a possibility that a Pokémon could, in theory, overcome every difficulty and facet of becoming literate and running a blog online.

So, what about Ribombee?

While not one of the smartest types (Fighting, Psychic, and Dark), Fairy types are generally quite intelligent, especially in comprehending the emotions of others. Cuitefly is only slightly more intelligent than is typical for a first-stage Bug-type Pokémon, but Ribombee takes more after the Fairy-typing in its intelligence. It is able to detect aura of other Pokémon to determine their upcoming behavior, and avoid incoming moves. It is also able to predict the weather with surprising accuracy; if you see a wild Ribombee out and about, you can be all but positive the next few days will be clear, warm, and sunny! Ribombee in particular also use their aura-sensing capabilities to detect the emotions of other Pokémon, and even people. It may decide to gift another one of its balls of pollen, apparently in order to cheer them up. This implies the ability to feel sympathy, a remarkably intelligent trait for a Bug-type!

Final thoughts

A Ribombee running a Rotomblr blog. On the face of it, it seems blatantly impossible. And putting all the facts together, it probably is. But the simple fact that there is, at the very least, a theoretical way for each and every obstacle a Pokémon would face doing it to be overcome... who knows?

[cagemasterfantasy]

Dnd Unused Classes: Artificer: Archivist

For centuries chroniclers have sought the best way to store vast amounts of information. Where most are satisfied with scrolls, Archivists strove for something greater. They have learned to store libraries worth of information in a single object, awakening the first Artificial Minds. Working in tandem with these wondrous Minds, Archivists wield the potentially limitless power of these arcane intelligences.

Level 3 Tools of the Trade: By the time you adopt this subclass at level 3, you're deeply familiar with employing its tools.

Proficiencies: You gain proficiency with calligrapher's and scrollsciber's supplies. If you already have this proficiency, you gain proficiency with one other type of artisan’s tools of your choice. You also gain those tools for free-the result of tinkering you've done as you've prepared for this specialization.

Crafting: If you craft a magic scroll, it takes you a quarter of the normal time, and it costs you half as much of the usual gold.

Level 3 Artificial Mind: Beginning at level 3, you learn to awaken Artificial Minds within objects. At the end of a long rest, you can touch a Tiny, non-magical object, and use your calligrapher's supplies to awaken an Artificial Mind within it. While the Artificial Mind is awakened within an object, it is considered a magic item that requires attunement, and it can be used as a spellcasting focus for your artificer spells. If you attempt to rouse a second Artificial Mind while you already have one from this feature, the first Artificial Mind ceases to exist. While attuned to your Artificial Mind, you gain the following abilities:

Information Overload: You can cause your Artificial Mind to overload the mind's of your foes by channeling information at them. As an action, you can force a creature that you can see within 30 feet to make an Intelligence saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 1d8 psychic damage and disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the start of your next turn.

The damage of Information Overload increases when you reach level 5 (2d8), level 11 (3d8), and level 17 (4d8).

Magical Telephony: You can communicate telepathically with any creature carrying one of your infused items within a 1-mile radius. The creature can respond telepathically.

Skill Proficiencies: You gain proficiency in two skills of your choice from the column on the Artificial Mind table. The material of the object determines the skills you choose from, as the object's nature affects the mind's knowledge.

Material Examples Skill Proficiencies

Animal parchment, leather, bone Animal Handling, Insight, Perception, Survival

Mineral gems, glass, metal, stone Deception, Intimidation, Performance, Persuasion

Plant paper, wood, vegetable Arcana, History, Nature, Religion

Archivist Spells: You always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown below. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you prepare.

Level 3: Comprehend Languages Dissonant Whispers

Level 5: Detect Thoughts Mind Spike

Level 9: Hypnotic Pattern Tongues

Level 13: Locate Creature Phantasmal Killer

Level 17: Modify Memory Synaptic Static

Level 5 Acute Overload: Starting at level 5, you can expend a spell slot to increase the psychic damage of Information Overload. The damage increases by 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, and an additional 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st-level.

Also, when you deal psychic damage using your Artificial Mind as a spellcasting focus, you gain a bonus to the damage roll equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of +1).

Level 9 Improved Consciousness: The cognitive abilities of your Artificial Mind are powerful enough to aid your spellcasting. Starting at level 9, when you are forced to make a Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration on a spell, you gain a bonus to your roll equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of +1).

Level 15 Master Archivist: You are a master of Archivist artifice. Starting at level 15, you can an action on your turn to transform into pure information and teleport to an unoccupied space that you can see within 60 feet, or an unoccupied space within 5 feet of a creature or object bearing one of your artificer Infusions.

[icbrothers]

Life's been busy so it's taken me a lot longer to get this instagram poll character finished - but here he is!

Ulshei- Level 6 Divination Wizard - Yuan-ti HP 36 - Neutral Evil - Spy background STR 12 (+1) DEX 17 (+3) CON 16 (+3) INT 20 (+5) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2)

Born more humanoid than the rest of his Yuan-ti brethren, Ulshei was raised as a spy, gathering secrets that the clan could sell to the highest bidder. However, when he was sent to infiltrate the Archmage Musa's academy, Ulshei became enamoured with the strange elven wizard, intrigued with his crazed scrawlings and bizarre alchemical experiments. The dangerous academy became a playground for the stealthy young Yuan-ti, and after several weeks of ignoring his family's messages, Ulshei realised he did not wish to return home. Striking up his courage, Ulshei stepped out of the shadows, and introduced himself to the Archmage, begging to let him study as an apprentice. Whilst some members of staff were wary of Ulshei, the Archmage saw a spark of talent in the child and allowed them to enrol. Knowing that his clan would never allow him to stay, Ulshei faked his own death, making it seem as if he was discovered and executed by the very teachers who were now guiding him into a new life. With his predilection for spying and secrets, divination magic was a perfect fit for Ulshei, combining his childhood skills with his arcanic studies to discover his fellow students' and teachers' secrets. He was not liked at the academy, but he was respected, and in some instances, feared. Now an adult, Ulshei is out travelling on his first research expedition, investigating a long forgotten shrine, deep in the forest, when he is discovered by a Yuan-ti spy. Unable to kill her, the spy escapes, surely bringing news of his betrayal to his family…

Proficiencies: Deception, Stealth, Arcana, Investigation, Thieves Tools, Forgery Kit, Daggers, Darts, Slings, Quarterstaffs, Light Crossbows Languages: Common, Elvish Traits: Resistence to poison and magic, Echo of the Great Game, Arcane Recovery, "Observant" feat, Divination Savant, Portent, Dark Vision (60ft) Spells: Poison Spray, Animal Friendship (only on snakes), Suggestion, True Strike, Mage Hand, Gust, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Identify, Alarm, Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, Fog Cloud, Alter Self, Detect Thoughts, Locate Object, Acid Arrow, Hypnotic Pattern, Feign Death, Melf's Minute Meteors, Tiny Hut.

[san-storage-blog]

Can You Get in Trouble for YouTube Comments? They May Land You in Jail

In the vibrant and ever-evolving world of online interactions, social media platforms like YouTube have transformed how we communicate and share information. For many technology enthusiasts, YouTube is a treasure trove of knowledge, entertainment, and community engagement. However, within this dynamic digital sphere lies a less discussed yet significant issue: the impact and consequences of what you post in the comments section. While it might be hard to believe that something as seemingly innocuous as a comment could lead to legal trouble or even jail time, reality paints a different picture. This blog explores the complexities surrounding YouTube comments and how they can potentially land you in hot water with the law.

Blog Body

In today's digitally connected world, freedom of speech is often touted as one of the greatest benefits of social media platforms like YouTube. However, this freedom comes with its own set of responsibilities and limitations. Online comment sections are akin to public forums where individuals can express their opinions freely. But what happens when those opinions cross legal boundaries? The answer lies in understanding that online speech isn't exempt from real-world laws. Many jurisdictions consider certain types of speech—such as threats, harassment, or hate speech—as criminal offenses whether conducted offline or online.

The notion that your digital footprint can have real-world consequences is becoming increasingly recognized by legal systems worldwide. In fact, several high-profile cases have demonstrated just how seriously authorities are taking harmful online behavior. For instance, individuals who have posted threatening comments or engaged in cyberbullying on YouTube have faced not only civil lawsuits but also criminal charges leading to arrests and convictions. The anonymity that once protected users is gradually eroding as law enforcement agencies become more adept at tracing digital origins back to individual devices.

Moreover, it's essential to comprehend the diverse laws governing internet usage across different countries. What may be considered acceptable commentary in one part of the world could be interpreted as unlawful elsewhere due to variations in legal interpretations regarding free speech and public safety concerns. Countries like Germany enforce strict regulations against hate speech and defamation online; meanwhile, others might focus more on curbing misinformation or protecting minors from harmful content. Consequently, an international commenter must be aware that their words can transcend borders—and so too can potential repercussions.

As technology advances rapidly with artificial intelligence algorithms capable of detecting problematic language patterns automatically flagging content for review—YouTube itself has evolved its policies pertaining to user comments significantly over recent years aiming towards creating safer environments for all users involved while maintaining platform integrity simultaneously ensuring accountability amongst creators alike thus highlighting importance self-regulation before posting anything impulsively without considering implications thoroughly beforehand

Finally—and perhaps most importantly—it’s crucial never forget power wielded by each keystroke typed out onto keyboards worldwide today shapes tomorrow's narratives whether intended not! Encouraging healthy discourse amongst peers promoting mutual respect appreciation diversity opinions ultimately strengthens communities rather than divides them apart through hostile exchanges potentially leading down perilous paths unforeseen outcomes later regrettable moments history books still being written every day anew

Conclusion

As technology enthusiasts who thrive on innovation creativity found within platforms such as YouTube navigating ever-changing landscape requires vigilance thoughtful consideration actions taken both positively negatively impacting virtual spaces inhabit daily basis understanding risks associated careless commenting cannot underestimated fully appreciated until personally experienced firsthand learning lessons others mistakes proves invaluable guide future endeavors empowering us all contribute meaningful ways building better brighter interconnected society going forward together hand-in-hand toward shared aspirations dreams limitless possibilities ahead

[aicerts0]

Unlocking Business Transformation: How AI in decision making Empowers Human Expertise 

How to Use AI in Decision Making?

Understanding the need for responsible use of AI in decision-making, here is the insight generation process using AI. It involves analyzing data to uncover valuable insights for strategic decision-making, typically including critical stages such as:

Defining business objectives: Identify what data analysis aims to achieve based on organizational goals.

Data collection: Gather relevant data from various sources like surveys, website behavior, and sales.

Data preparation: Clean, integrate, and transform raw data into a usable format.

Data visualization: Explore data through visualizations like charts and graphs to identify patterns and trends.

Modeling and algorithmic analysis: Apply statistical models and algorithms to uncover complex patterns and forecast metrics.

Analyzing and interpreting results: Evaluate the meaningfulness and impact of insights for decision-making.

Framing and communicating recommendations: Compellingly communicate key takeaways and recommendations.

Implementation and measurement: Implement recommendations, track their impact, and measure results over time.

Why Is Human Judgment Crucial?

It’s critical to acknowledge the role that human oversight plays in the decision-making process, even though AI has become proficient at analyzing enormous volumes of data and spotting patterns.  An evaluation of the level of human involvement is necessary in the context of processing that may involve automated decision-making. This evaluation entails evaluating the system in use, the processing, and its surroundings. To do this, it is advised to evaluate an individual’s involvement in the decision-making process by looking at a variety of factors, including their authority, competence, capacity, diligence, or independence.

Importance of Human Judgement

Humans define objectives and questions for analysis.

Humans select and prepare data for AI models.

Humans interpret model results and identify areas for improvement.

Humans provide feedback to refine and optimize models.

The Power of AI In Decision-Making

1. Finding hidden patterns and trends in massive data sets and strategically incorporating prediction features.

2. The automation of laborious and complicated processes, speeds up the processing of massive data sets and cuts down on the time needed to find pertinent information.

3. The implementation of cutting-edge machine learning algorithms and natural language processing techniques has allowed for the detection of complicated patterns and the creation of insightful information.

4. Increase suggestion customization and enhance customer satisfaction. Because a great deal of data about preferences, behaviors, and personal needs have been analyzed.

The Irreplaceable Human Factor

According to neuroscience, decision-making is influenced by two distinct systems: Emotion and Cognition. Emotion determines our inclination towards risk-taking or aversion, while Cognition dictates our tolerance for uncertainty and need for logical coherence. 

Despite AI’s undeniable strengths, human judgment and creativity remain essential.

Understanding context and nuance

Artificial intelligence systems might overlook the finer points and larger context that humans are better at comprehending. This is essential for deciphering data insights and coming to conclusions that are consistent with moral principles and long-term business objectives.

Analytical thinking and Problem-solving

Humans are capable of strategic thought because they possess an innate ability to understand or know something without conscious reasoning which AI lacks, weighing many variables and possible outcomes before deciding.

Creativity and innovation

Although AI can produce creative work based on learned patterns, and genuine creativity, AI lacks that. This human element is crucial for improving creativity and adaptability in a business environment that is continuously changing.

Striking The Right Balance: Collaboration Is Key

The right balance ensures that we maximize collective intelligence without suppressing individual expertise.

According to Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, the aim of AI is not to replace humans but to empower them by providing them with AI automation balance to be more productive and creative. This implies that the future of AI in decision-making lies in finding synergies rather than substitution.

Here’s how businesses can achieve this:

Focus on complementary roles

Identify the tasks where AI can automate routine processes, departing human time for strategic thinking and creative problem-solving.

Prioritize human oversight

Implement strong governance structures to ensure AI-powered decisions are aligned with ethical principles and business objectives.

Invest in human-AI collaboration skills

Train employees to effectively utilize and interpret AI-generated insights and implement a culture of collaboration and mutual learning.

With the right balance between AI automation and human insight, businesses can come across the true potential of AI-driven decision-making, leading to enhanced efficiency, improved accuracy, and ultimately, greater success.

Successful AI Human Collaboration: Case Studies

1. Design Duos

Autodesk’s AI tool, Dreamcatcher, enables designers to explore a wide range of design options based on user input. This collaboration between human creativity and AI’s design refines concepts and enhances the overall creative process.

2. Scaled Service, Personalized Touch

SEB Bank’s AI assistant, Aida, handles routine inquiries and analyzes sentiment, freeing human representatives to focus on complex issues and personalized interactions. This collaboration allows for efficient customer service at scale while still delivering a personalized touch.

3. Predictive Maintenance, Informed Decisions

GE’s Predix uses AI and digital twins to predict equipment failures and recommend maintenance. Maintenance workers leverage these insights to make informed decisions about repairs and schedules, enabling proactive maintenance that minimizes downtime and extends equipment lifespan.

4. Customized Cars, Human-Robot Collaboration

 Mercedes-Benz is a successful integration of AI and human insights by incorporating AI-powered cobots on their assembly line. This collaboration allows human workers to focus on delicate tasks while cobots handle heavy lifting and repetitive motions. As a result, production flexibility is increased, enabling the customization of vehicles to meet individual customer demands effectively.

5. Personalized Cruises, AI Recommendations, Human Service

Carnival’s Ocean Medallion uses AI to personalize the cruise experience by offering recommendations. Here, Crew members leverage AI insights to provide personalized service tailored to individual preferences, enhancing guest satisfaction and creating memorable vacation experiences.

Takeaways

1. Leverage AI for automation and data analysis, exempting human time for strategic thinking and creative problem-solving.

2. Ensure ethical practices and alignment with business objectives by implementing strong governance structures for AI-powered decisions.

3. Train employees to effectively use and interpret AI-generated insights to enable AI-human collaboration

4. Humans are irreplaceable for tasks requiring context, nuance, analytical thinking, creativity, and ethical considerations.

5. View AI as a tool to empower humans, not replace them. Leverage the strengths of both for enhanced decision-making, efficiency, and success.

Conclusion

The intersection of AI in business decision-making and human expertise integration is a powerful combination that can drive business transformation. While AI offers advantages such as finding hidden patterns in data sets and automating complex processes, human judgment and creativity are irreplaceable. Humans excel at understanding context, employing analytical thinking, creativity, and innovation, all of which are essential for successful decision-making. Striking the right balance between AI automation and human insight is crucial, and businesses should prioritize collaboration rather than substitution.

[giankumar-blog1]

Consciousness and Mind as Equals

The relationship between consciousness and mind is a complex and debated topic in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience. While some may equate consciousness with the mind, others argue they are distinct concepts. Consciousness generally refers to being aware of and able to perceive one's surroundings, thoughts, emotions, and experiences. On the other hand, spiritual awareness is the subject or energy force that creates a field of consciousness.

As a result, consciousness becomes the objective of the subject of awareness, which, after emerging from the nondual primordial awareness, the mind becomes conscious of the dualities of this or that. Hence, awareness is primary, and consciousness, being secondary, is dependent on awareness. So, the mind must first become aware and mindful of what it is conscious of.

The mind is an energetic flow of bioelectric processes produced by chemical activity in the brain, transferring information through neural pathways via neurons from one section to another primarily to become conscious - external and internal. The mind is often described as the cognitive faculties that enable consciousness, perception, feelings, thinking, judgment, language, memory, and imagination. It's that aspect of a person that permits a human mind to be aware and conscious of the world for its outer and inner experiences.

The highest consciousness level encompasses pure or super consciousness, the nondual soul, which is choiceless and spontaneous. It is the reflective section of the mind, which can read and become aware of its inner thoughts. This awareness section is the absolute potential intelligence we call "That art Thou." It is the decoder of all information observed and computed through which the mind pulls to combine with other sections to comprehend along with the intellect of what it perceives.

Next is the conscious mind, which involves everything you think about in the present moment. It occurs when the mind is centred and focused, linked to short-term memory, and has limited capacity. Because of awareness, the conscious mind detects and demonstrates what the mind perceives through cognition. So, when the mind is observant or alert, it becomes aware; if it is attentive to what it focuses on, it is conscious.

Thirdly, a large section of the mind functions in auto-mode, lower or subconsciously from its past awareness through memory and intellect. Once the mind knows something consciously, the memory takes over and goes into autopilot. Lastly, the unconscious mind comprises unaware thoughts and feelings like impulses, compulsive behaviours, and tongue slips. Impulsivity is a natural part of the brain that functions with feelings, thoughts, and actions to act on a notion or urge without considering its consequences, forethought, or reflection.

While some scientists and philosophers argue that consciousness emerges from complex brain functions, others propose that consciousness might be one of the universe's essential components. The relationship between consciousness and the mind still needs to be fully understood, and different theories exist regarding whether they are related or are essentially one unified field. Science requires verification of its claims, but philosophy is always open to speculative theorization, after which science takes over.

The brain is the receiver and transmitter, capturing information from outside, detecting and determining through mental faculties to decode what it cognitively captures. Consciousness is the aliveness responsible for creating unique individuality through various cognitive and aware, conscious abilities available through your mind to the brain. Consciousness also culminates all mental processes, including paying attention, thinking, feeling, remembering, reasoning, and judging. It includes a diverse range of cognitive, emotional, social, and unconscious factors that, when combined, mould our behaviour and objective experiences into every individual's unique identity.

On the other hand, awareness arises only when the mind is alert; consciousness results from its cumulative attention to what the mind has observed. The mind uses intellect (past knowledge borrowed from various sources) and intelligence (new, spontaneous comprehension) to experience and realize after selecting what it wishes to procure for what it desires. Mind and consciousness are synonymous since they are mutually interactive with each other. The mind cannot exist without consciousness since we are only considered awake when conscious; otherwise, we are in a coma.

All studies begin and agree with the assumption that consciousness arises from brain activity, but opinions differ on how consciousness is produced and how to address the issue effectively. The initial state of pure consciousness is choiceless and spontaneous, without any other brain faculty interfering with its operation. It is entirely nondual and natural and equivalent to the intensity of individual awareness. Suppose the mind is attentive after becoming aware of the present moment. In that case, it will attach itself to cognitive faculties and become conscious either of this or that in duality relatively opposite of, say, positive/negative, happiness/sadness, divine/devil, etc.

The mind, after that, uses its memories to operate in auto-mode from past awareness, dissipating into lower or subconscious past awareness, negating the need for fresh aware inputs. Say, if you have consciously learnt how to drive a car, the subconscious takes over in auto mode, and the actions of the mind quickens. The subconscious is the storehouse of past awareness in our memory. It utilizes approximately 95% of the mind, processing millions of bits of information thousands of times faster than the conscious section. So, the subconscious runs our material life, but not the spiritual. Material life consumes over 99% of our mental activity. Hence, the Earth is in a disaster today, where we, the potentially divine creatures, are destroying more than we create. We create to destroy.

Energy, the substance of all existences, characterizes itself by cyclically vibrating in different frequencies—the process involves the creation, preservation, and destruction of all that exists for it to recreate again. In our case, the powerful subconscious in lower consciousness is responsible for gradually destroying land, sea, and air ecosystems. The fabric of life we depend on is being destroyed by wars and polluted by excessive exploitation, causing life on Earth to disappear. Due to the imbalance between the material and the spiritual, the Second Law of Thermodynamics rightly emphasizes that energy moves in entropy, which means disorderly.

Likewise, our subconscious thoughts move randomly, recklessly, and repeatedly in a disorderly manner, multitasking to accumulate quickly more and more selfishly. We, the most superior species amongst all living creatures, are the biggest destroyers. To balance the same, we desperately need spiritual clarity, contentment, and comprehension to preserve, experience, and realize our required stability.

Thus, the human mind is either spiritually conscious or exceedingly subconscious while awake; otherwise, it is inactive in deep sleep and partially active in dream sleep. I reiterate that the conscious mind awakens the soul to reason, focus, and concentrate on the present moment. Hence, it is slow but qualitative, forming a unique individuality. The subconscious is the part of the mind that processes information fastest and retrieves data from the memory bank. It is the master programme designed for your material needs to make you 'what you are' - quantitatively controlled by your emotional desires to form your personality (persona- a false mask in Greek).

In Indic scriptures, we have two more states. 'Turiya' is a state in which consciousness transcends beyond the needs of the body and mind in selflessness in its purest spiritual form, where all dualities vanish. The illusion of separateness unites into its wholesomeness of nothing – 'Shunyata', from which everything appears to disappear back into its fold. Mahatma Gandhi is a shining example of a person who rigorously practised this procedure through selfless deeds. Beyond that, we have the 'Turiyatitta' state where the individual soul immerses into the total universal awareness as the spirit, a heightened state of interconnectedness with the universe, through which the Rishis of prehistoric years were able to telepathically receive information from the cosmos on which Vedic science today establishes itself.

Therefore, there are various theories relating to the nature of the mind. These range from philosophical to scientific theories trying to unravel the neural mechanisms underlying mental processes carrying what we consider as information or knowledge. No one seems to know clearly where the mind acquires all the initial information it receives from its observatory power to evaluate and enumerate.

The foundation for mental activity begins in the womb. The brain starts forming neural connections with the sense organs to capture sensory experiences of touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. The mind begins by perceiving one's surroundings and internal mental state since these provide the raw material for perception and cognition to make sense of the world around them. The mind then captures aware energy from the outside, deciphers, reasons, understands and experiences sensory information through neural connections via neurons. All this requires the mind first to become aware and, after that, conscious, followed by the subconscious, for that totality of which the mind revolves in every living creature; otherwise, it can neither operate nor exist.

Therefore, the mind and consciousness are synonymous. It is that flow of psychic energy-carrying aware information that the brain perceives from the outside and the inside, depending on the intensity of how alert any individual mind is in every living creature. The suffix "ness" signifies the intensity of awareness, consciousness, and uniqueness, creating distinct characteristics in all living beings. Hence, consciousness is the supreme faculty of the mind, which forms the mind to configure "what you are – quantitatively" to build upon the growth of your body and mind.

However, the mind nor its thoughts are who you are since you claim the body, mind, and its thoughts - conscious or otherwise, as 'yours', meaning they belong to you. You can observe, read, and introspect your mind through your super-conscious mind at any moment, for you are the spirit in spiritual beingness going through human experiences but are generally unaware of the same. The subconscious mind in lower consciousness will not agree in the same way unless the individual mind transcends and balances the material and the spiritual life to fulfil its life in wholesomeness.

This lower state of mind is what we spiritually refer to as lower or sub-conscious. It occurs when the mind is subconsciously aware of the past through its five sense organs, forming its memories, desires, and thoughts to make decisions through the brain after analyzing and evaluating the database for its self-interest. However, when the individual mind is aware and conscious, it is in the moment. The mind is calm, quiet, centred, composed, relaxed, observant, and attentive. Hence, the mind can be said to be simultaneously present and alert when conscious, but it needs to be aware first. So, in conclusion, consciousness is the culmination of mental acumen that can focus on one task at a time, centred and balanced in the present moment. Subconscious lower awareness, on the other hand, can operate on multiple tasks simultaneously, particularly when material desires exceed spiritual ones, and your wants are more selfish than selfless. Unfortunately, the subconscious mind generally consumes over 90% of the mind, for which human behaviour today is greedier to get more out of life than to give what it owes to Mother Nature.

Therefore, for mental peace and harmony, the mind must balance its material and spiritual life equally to maintain its sanity and the well-being of future generations. NAMASTE

[humanata1]

How Grammar Checker Software Can Improve Your Writing Skills

Do you believe that you understand the English language perfectly? Rethink your thoughts. Despite the fact that many of us are rather good writers, we can always improve our skills. A grammar checker is a great tool that can enhance the quality of your writing whether it is for an email or an essay. Everyone from business executives to college students will find it useful. These are eleven compelling reasons why you should use a grammar checker. One cannot overemphasize the importance of appropriate grammar in all writing assignments including emails, reports, and blogs. In this case, the use of grammar checker software can be of help. By using these technological tools, you do not only correct the mistakes, but enhance the other aspects of your writing. Here’s how:

1. Immediate response and mistake rectification

The first and perhaps the most obvious advantage of grammar checker software is the prompt response that it gives. These tools underline and correct the mistakes as you are typing the text. This feature enables you to edit the document as you write and not when you are done writing. In this way, you work with the corrections and, as a result, you do not repeat the same mistakes, and the rules of grammar and syntax are gradually fixed in the memory.

2. Enhancing Vocabulary and Style

Most grammar checkers have features that provide recommendations on the appropriate use of words and phrases as well as the construction of sentences. They can suggest better words to use, point out words that are repeated, and offer better ways of phrasing your thoughts. This not only expands your word bank but also assists in avoiding redundancy in your writing and making it more interesting.

3. Maintaining the Consistency of the Tone and Structure

It is rather difficult to keep the tone and structure consistent when writing, especially in the case of longer texts. Grammar checker software can come in handy when it comes to this because it will ensure that the writing style and tone are consistent throughout. This is particularly beneficial for professional and academic writing since consistency is important in such writing.

4. Learning Tool for Non-Native Speakers

For non-native English speakers, grammar checker software can be an invaluable learning tool. It helps bridge the gap between basic language proficiency and advanced writing skills. By providing detailed explanations and examples, these tools can help non-native speakers understand the nuances of English grammar and usage, leading to more confident and accurate writing.

5. Time-Saving and Efficiency

In today's fast-paced world, time is of the essence. Grammar checker software can significantly reduce the time spent on proofreading and editing. By automating the process of error detection and correction, these tools allow you to focus more on content creation and less on the mechanics of writing.

6. Boosting Confidence

An excellent idea needs good writing to be understood. Readability refers to the ease with which a person can read and comprehend a piece of writing. There are several contributing factors to a high readability score. One of them is that your content should be error-free. Another is that your sentences should be short and straightforward. You should avoid using overly complicated or overly informal terms. There are many other suggestions that a grammar checker can make about your writing to help you create a piece that is engaging yet easy to understand.

7. Readability is important

Readability analysis is a feature of grammar checkers that assesses the level of complexity in your writing. With the aid of this feature, you can modify your writing to better suit the reading comprehension of your intended audience. You can make sure that your content is effectively communicated by making it easier to read.

8. Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Many writers have specific weaknesses, such as overusing certain phrases or making common grammatical mistakes. Grammar checker software can identify these patterns and alert you to them, helping you to avoid these pitfalls in future writing.

9. Plagiarism Detection

Some advanced grammar checkers also offer plagiarism detection. This feature ensures that your work is original and properly cited, which is especially important in academic and professional settings. By avoiding unintentional plagiarism, you maintain the integrity of your work.

10. Customization and Personalization

Many grammar checkers allow you to customize their settings to fit your specific writing needs. You can set preferences for writing style, audience, and tone, making the tool more effective in providing relevant suggestions and corrections.

11. Writing takes a lifetime to master

There may seem to be nothing left to achieve once you reach a particular age or skill level. Lingering on your successes is a surefire path to obsolescence. grammar checker serve as a constant reminder that you can always get better. Even though not everyone wants to write best-selling books, writing is a rewarding skill that you can hone throughout your life. In addition to helping you expand your vocabulary, an advanced grammar checker can help you identify common mistakes you make so you can improve your writing.

Conclusion

Grammar checker software is not only a tool that can help detect simple spelling mistakes. It is an educational assistant that can assist you in enhancing your writing style progressively. Through the features of offering feedback, improving vocabulary, checking for consistency, helping non-native writers, saving the time of the writer, boosting the confidence of the writer, improving the readability of the text, avoiding common mistakes, checking for plagiarism, offering customization, and improving collaboration, these tools can take your writing from good to great. Take to it and see your writing skills improve in the process.