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zoloteh-volossya · 3 months ago

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BG3 Fanfiction Statistics, Part 1

I’ve seen some discussions of BG3 fandom trends floating around tumblr that spoke from experience but lacked hard data to refer to. As a fan of Baldur’s Gate 3, fanfiction, and graphs, I therefore thought it would be neat and illustrative to go through AO3 and document some of the statistics this fandom.

I did a similar exercise back in January and posted the results here. However, I was a bit unhappy with this analysis – it was missing some data that I consider to be relevant, I didn’t end up discussing the results much, and I only posted it to reddit. Most discussions for the creative side of fandom seem to happen on tumblr, so I made this account to post it here.

I will try and be as transparent as possible when discussing how I obtained and processed this data. A copy of my spreadsheet can be found here and contains all of the data I will be discussing. Most of the data I feature in this essay will be presented as graphs. Below each graph I will discuss the patterns shown in the graph and provide what I believe to be some relevant and/or interesting number values. If you want to see all the numbers, please refer to my spreadsheet. If you don’t care about the numbers and/or my thoughts about them, feel free to skim through and just look at the charts!

A note before I start – I gathered this data between July 21, 2024 and July 24, 2024. It is out of date as of my writing this and will be even more out of date by the time you read it. However, I believe the general fandom trends will hold up over time – the same patterns that I observed in January are largely still present in July.

Due to the tumblr post image limit and my preponderance of graphs, I will be breaking this behemoth of an essay into two parts:

General Fandom Statistics, the Player Character, and the Women

The Men, a Character Comparison, and a Pairing Analysis

We are currently in part 1. Part 2 can be found at this link. The rest of part 1 is below the read more because this is very long.

GENERAL FANDOM STATS

This information was found by looking at the side bar when browsing Baldur’s Gate fics. Therefore, this data set includes fics from the previous two Baldur’s Gate games. However, given that the games were released in 1998 and 2000, respectively, most of the fanfiction for them was likely posted to FF.net and the error from including what little fic for them was posted to AO3 is likely small.

At the time of my data gathering, there were 31,043 Baldur’s Gate fics on AO3.

RATINGS

To the surprise of nobody in the BG3 fandom, Explicit fic is the largest category, at 38% of all fics produced. It’s followed by Mature (24%), Teen and Up (20%), General (12%) and Not Rated (6%). Not all of the Explicit and Mature fics are necessarily horny – those warnings also apply to extreme violence (hello, Dark Urge). But let’s be real, most of them are tagged that way for sex.

WARNINGS

Speaking of extreme violence, let’s take a look at the warnings used for fics in this fandom.

Just about half (50.2%) of BG fics have no warnings at all. About 17.6% have warnings for graphic depictions of violence – lower than I would have expected, honestly, for a video game that features as much murder as this one does (at least, how I play it...). About 5.4% of fics feature a warning for rape, 4.7% feature major character death, and 0.5% feature underage sex.

CATEGORIES

AO3 allows users to select any categories from a list of possible options (F/M, M/M, F/F, Gen, Other, and Multi). F/M, M/M, and F/F are pretty self explanatory, Gen fics don’t focus on a relationship, Multi fics focus on a relationship between three or more people, and Other is a catch all for fics that don’t fit into any of the previous categories very well. For shipping with nonbinary (NB) characters, I have seen a variety of approaches. Some people select the category closest to the NB character’s presentation, some select multiple categories, and some select Other.

One very useful tool that I will be introducing here is the use of “otp:true.” When “otp:true” is entered into the “Search within results” bar while filtering tags, AO3 will only return fics that have just one pairing tagged. This filters out all fics that have background pairings or multiple focus pairings. Results with “otp:true” are typically solely focused on that particular pairing.

With all that explanation out of the way, the results:

We can clearly see that the most common category for Baldur’s Gate fics is M/F, with 43.3% of all fics featuring a M/F pairing. 36.4% of all fics feature a M/M pairing, 10.6% feature a F/F pairing, 11.7% are more General, 8.0% feature Multiple people in a pairing, and 10.9% are Other. These percentages add up to more than 100% because a fic can be tagged with multiple categories.

Things change a bit when you filter for “otp:true” and only include fics that focus on just one pairing. In this case, M/M predominates, with a whopping 46.0% of fics. M/F follows with 31.2%, F/F with 11.1%, 7.7% are General, 9.7% are Other, and 3.0% are still tagged as Multi (presumably for fics where the only pairing is a threesome or such).

CHARACTERS

As a last look at more general content before I begin a deep dive into looking at the various characters, I took a look at the 30 most popular character tags.

This was a surprise to me the first time I looked at it in January. In the previous two video game fandoms I was in that had a player character (Mass Effect and Fire Emblem: Three Houses), the player character was the most popular character tag in that fandom. In this case, though, Astarion has the most fics that feature him, and by a pretty significant margin (~5,000 more fics than Tav). He appears in 63.0% of fics. Tav is next, at 46.7% of fics. Then we have the rest of the six Origin characters: Gale (34.5% of fics), Shadowheart (23.7%), Karlach (20.5%), Wyll (18.6%), and Lae’zel (15.9%), as well as Halsin (15.8%) and the Dark Urge (15.3%). That they all are next to each other makes sense, as fics that focus on one character or pairing will often tag the entire ensemble. Lae’zel only showing up 16% of the time seems low, though, for a member of the main cast. To me, this indicates that not many fics are true ensemble fics that include all of the main cast.

After this block of main characters, we drop a bit to Gortash, who shows up in 7.4% of fics. He’s the most popular villain by far, followed by Cazador (4.7%) and Raphael (4.6%). Orin only shows up in 2.9% of fics and Ketheric is featured in only 1.1% of fics.

Jaheira shows up in 4.4% of fics, but her values may include fics from the earlier Baldur’s Gate games. Poor Minthara is the 16th most tagged character and only shows up in 2.5% of fics. Rolan (a tiefling NPC) shows up in more fics than she does.

Despite being featured in previous Baldur’s Gate game fics as well as BG3, Minsc does not seem popular – he’s #25, being tagged in 1.3% of fics.

One thing I did note was the comparative lack of focus on the overarching plot of the game in BG3 fics. I’ll use the Emperor as a barometer for this, as it’s inextricably interwoven into everything having to do with the Absolute, the mysterious artifact, and our protagonists’ immunity to it. Yet, it only appears in 535 fics of over 31,000 – approximately 1.7% of all BG fics. This tells me that there isn’t much engagement with the actual illithid plot of the game in most fics – at least not to the extent where major plot relevant characters are being tagged.

CHARACTER PAIRING STATISTICS

Most of my time for this analysis was spent collecting data for the various pairing tags. I went through the top 300 pairing tags by order of popularity (ending with Mystra/Cazador, of all things) and recorded how many fics each rating had and how many fics each category had both with and without “otp:true” applied. Coincidentally, this included all the pairings with 5 or more fics in them at the time – by sheer luck the 301st pairing tag had only 4 fics. I judged that I could ignore pairing tags with fewer than 5 fics without affecting the results of my analyses too much (also it had taken 4 days to get this far and I was tired).

However, a lot of authors tag their fics with both, say, Astarion/Tav and Astarion/F!OC. But for this exercise I’m not really looking at how authors refer to the Tav/Dark Urge/self insert character in their tagging nomenclature. I’m more interested in how many fics exist for, say, the pairing of Astarion and the player character.

To this end, I combined the numbers for Tav, Dark Urge, OC, F!OC, M!OC, NB!OC, Reader, and You for each character ship. In order to avoid double counting fics, once I had added the numbers for a particular tag I excluded that tag from all future counts.

[X]/PC = [X]/Tav + ([X]/Dark Urge with the [X]/Tav tag excluded) + ([X]/Original Character with the [X]/Tav and [X]/Dark Urge excluded) + ([X]/Reader with [X]/Tav, [X]/Dark Urge, and [X]/Original Character excluded) and so on.

This process dropped the total number of pairings from 300 to 162. However, it also introduces an error. Some fics ship characters with an OC who is not a Tav/Dark Urge/self insert. In condensing all pairings with original characters to the “PC” supercategory, I am ignoring that and counting their original character as a Tav/Dark Urge equivalent. Unfortunately, this is just something I have to live with in order to be able to make the data more manageable, as there is no way to tell which fics are using the OC tag to represent a Tav/Dark Urge and which are not on a mass data scale. I don’t think it will skew the results too much, at least.

I pulled out the top 20 ships for each major character in BG3 (Tav, Dark Urge, the PC, Shadowheart, Karlach, Lae’zel, Minthara, Astarion, Gale, Wyll, and Halsin) before and after I combined the player character tags into the PC supercategory. For each character, I then determined how much of each fic category (M/F, M/M, F/F, Other, Multi) they had, both for all of their pairings and for their pairing with the PC specifically.

Let's start by looking at the player character and its two representatives.

TAV

Tav is in 71 of the top 300 ship tags in the BG3 fandom.

Astarion completely dominates Tav’s ships, with a whopping 9,235 fics (1,839 otp:true fics). In fact, in order to be able to see the tiny little boxes that represent everyone else, here’s another version of this chart, this time with Astarion excluded.

There, that’s a bit more legible. The next highest is Gale, with 2,909 fics (652 otp:true) – less than a third as many fics as Astarion. Halsin comes third with 1,304 fics (207 otp:true) and Shadowheart is the first canon woman to show up, with 806 fics (132 otp:true). Astarion has more than 11 times as many fics with Tav as Shadowheart does. Karlach comes next, with 724 fics (186 otp:true). Raphael comes sixth, with 176 more fics than #7 Wyll who has 442 fics (100 otp:true). Lae’zel is #11 with 300 fics, under Gortash, Rolan, and a threesome with Halsin and Astarion. Minthara is the least popular main character to ship with Tav. She’s #15 with 146 fics (33 otp:true), and has fewer fics with Tav than Zevlor, the Emperor or Haarlep. In a marked improvement from the state of affairs in January, however, she no longer has fewer fics than Kar’niss.

Taking a look at the fic category breakdown, we can see that M/F and M/M predominate for Tav, while there is very little F/F. Dividing the values by the total number of fics, 59.8% of all fics and 50.2% of otp:true fics are tagged M/F, 35.6% of all fics and 34.9% of otp:true fics are tagged M/M, 7.6% of all fics and 4.4% of otp:true fics are tagged F/F, and 13.2% of all fics and 14.2% of otp:true fics are tagged Other. As the proportions of M/F and F/F fics drop when otp:true is applied, I assume that it is more common for M/F and F/F pairings to have background ships or be a background ship (remember that if it is not otp:true, we have no idea if the pairing with Tav is the pairing category being counted.)

THE DARK URGE

The Dark Urge is in 38 of the top 300 ship tags of the BG3 fandom, a bit over half as many as Tav.

While Astarion once again is the most popular character to ship with the Dark Urge (2,165 fics), this time he actually has competition! Gortash/Dark Urge comes in at a very respectable second place with 1,594 fics (about three quarters of Astarion/Dark Urge’s total fic count) and actually beat Astarion by over 100 fics once you apply otp:true (562 fics for Astarion vs 691 fics for Gortash). But after Gortash we once again drop down to numbers we struggle to even see on the chart. Gale is the most visible with 402 fics total (Gale has fewer fics total with the Dark Urge than Astarion or Gortash have with otp:true applied). After that we have a group of Halsin, Shadowheart, and Karlach, all with between 120-150 fics. No other pairing has over 100 fics.

Dark Urge/Tav (99 fics) and Dark Urge/Orin (87 fics) have more fics than Dark Urge/Wyll (83 fics) or Dark Urge/Minthara (80 fics). For Wyll, this is a sign that his pairing with the Dark Urge is not very popular (he drops from #7 with Tav to #9 with the Dark Urge). For Minthara, however, this is a significant climb in the rankings – she was #15 with Tav and #10 with the Dark Urge.

But what’s really interesting to me is the fic category breakdown for the Dark Urge.

The Dark Urge has noticeably more M/M content than Tav does (47.0% vs 35.6% for all fics, 56.9% vs 34.9% for opt:true) and slightly more F/F content than Tav does (10.2% vs 7.6% for all fics, 5.2% vs 4.4% for otp:true), and correspondingly less F/M content. At 13.4% for all fics and 12.8% of otp:true fics, the proportion of Other fic stays just about the same as for Tav.

THE PLAYER CHARACTER

The PC is a combination of Tav, Dark Urge, Original Character, Reader, and You. The PC is in 64 of the top 162 pairings of the BG3 fandom (losing 5 pairings from Tav as I combined Tav/Tav, Tav/Dark Urge, Tav/Reader and so on into one PC/OC category).

The player character was involved in 76.0% of all pairings and 62.1% of otp:true pairings (that is, if you add up every fic for every pairing which the PC is in and divide it by sum of all fics for all BG3 pairings I tracked). This means that over three quarters of shipping in the BG3 fandom is with the player character. It’s not surprising, but it is notable – that’s a very large proportion.

Holy smokes, Astarion! He dominates the rankings even more than before. This time, I was curious to see how much. See below for a proportional representation of all of the PC pairings (note: because many fics have multiple pairings, this circle does not represent the total number of fics but rather the total number of times any pairing with the PC has been tagged).

Astarion composes a full 45% of all pairings with the PC, Gale is bit over 13%, Gortash is 7.3% for all fics and 11.3% of otp:true fics, while Halsin has the opposite trend with 6.3% of all fics and 4.9% of otp:true fics. Shadowheart, Karlach, Raphael, and Wyll all are between 2% and 4% (with Raphael once again beating Wyll). Lae’zel is down at #11 with 1.4% and Minthara is all the way at #16 with 0.9%.

Out of curiosity, I went through all of the PC’s pairings and sorted them by the gender of the person being shipped with the PC.

Oof.

85.7% of all PC ships are with men, 10.4% are with women, and 1.9% are nonbinary beings (Haarlep, the Emperor, and Omeluum). When you apply otp:true, 87.1% of the player character’s ships are with men, 9.9% are with women, and 1.3% are with nonbinary beings.

SHADOWHEART

Welp! Let’s take a look at that 10%, starting with Shadowheart.

If you add up all the fics for all the pairings that include Shadowheart and divide that by the sum of all fics for all 162 pairings I collected, you can see that she is present in 7.0% of pairings. Interestingly, this is true both for all fics and for otp:true fics. She is in 30 of the top 300 ship tags and 24 of the 162 pairings that remain once the player character tags are consolidated.

(I have shortened Shadowheart's name to SH and Shart in various charts to keep the labels from taking up too much room in the graph.)

Lae’zel/Shadowheart is in close competition with Shadowheart/Tav. When all the player characters are condensed into the PC, though, that gap widens.

Shadowheart has 980 fics with the PC, 694 with Lae’zel, 226 with Karlach, 111 with Gale, 61 with Astarion, 51 with Nocturne, 36 with Halsin, 26 with Minthara, and 21 with Wyll (her least popular ship with a main character, at #12). 7 of her top 20 pairings are threesomes – Aylin/Isobel/SH at #8 with 35 fics, Karlach/PC/SH at #9, Karlach/Lae’zel/SH at #10, Astarion/PC/SH at #13, Halsin/PC/SH at #14, Karlach/Wyll/SH at #17, and Gale/Lae’zel/SH at #18.

Lae’zel/Shadowheart has an unusually high number of otp:true fics – almost half of its total fic count. It seems more popular to ship Shadowheart with women than men – both her ships with Lae’zel and Karlach are more popular than Astarion, Gale, or Wyll and her threesomes with women have more fics than her threesomes with men.

The fic category breakdown for Shadowheart matches this expectation.

Boy howdy is Shadowheart fic gay! She has over twice as much F/F fic than M/F fic, just looking at raw numbers of fics. Looking at the proportions of her total fic count, F/F fic represents 71.4% of all of her fics, M/F fic is 35.2%, Other is 10.0%, and Multi is 18.8%. (These percentages add up to more than 100% because many fics tag multiple categories.) This also means that we can’t know that these numbers necessarily include Shadowheart – witness the numbers of M/M fics. All it means is that these categories were on fics in which a Shadowheart pairing was also tagged.

Looking at the otp:true numbers gives us a better picture of what fics where only Shadowheart is in a relationship are like (though this not necessarily an accurate idea of patterns for her overall, as less than a third of her total fics are otp:true). 76.4% of otp:true fics are F/F, 19.8% are M/F, 3.8% are Other, and for some reason 1.2% (9 fics) are M/M. Over three quarters of Shadowheart’s otp:true pairings are femmeslash.

Shadowheart’s fics with the PC character follow pretty much the same pattern as her ships more generally, albeit with slightly less F/F (likely from the loss of the relative behemoth that is Shadowheart/Lae’zel).

32.9% of her pairings with the PC have the M/F tag, 68.1% are tagged F/F, 11.3% are tagged Other, and 18.5% are tagged Multi. Applying otp:true, 25.7% are M/F, 62.6% are F/F, and 12.3% are Other (this likely includes a substantial portion of nonbinary PCs).

KARLACH

Karlach is present in 6.0% of all fic pairings and 5.4% of otp:true fic pairings. She has 31 ship tags in the top 300 ship tags, which condense down to 26 pairings when all player character stand ins are combined.

Her second most popular ship after Tav is with Wyll, though unlike with Shadowheart the pairing is not popular enough to give Tav a run for his/her/their money. Condensing all the player characters widens this gap significantly.

The PC is overwhelmingly Karlach’s most popular ship, with 890 fics. Wyll is second, with 327 fics – less than half as many. Shadowheart and Astarion follow with 226 and 157, respectively. Dammon is next, with 91 fics, and then Lae’zel has 65. She then has a number of threesomes, Minthara (#9 with 32 fics), and Gale (#11 with 18 fics). Halsin is her least popular pairing with a main character, coming in at #15 with 11 fics.

Surprisingly, for all that Karlach is fairly butch, her pairings with men are relatively more popular than we see with the more femme Shadowheart. The category statistics illustrate this clearly.

Compared to Shadowheart, Karlach has a lower proportion of F/F and higher proportions of M/F and Multi fics. F/F is tagged on 51.8% of her fics, M/F on 42.5%, Other on 12.3% and Multi on 27.7%. (Remember that fics can be tagged with multiple categories and that just because a category is tagged doesn’t mean that Karlach is involved in that category.) Looking at otp:true gives us a look at fics where she is the sole focus. F/F is 55.0% of her otp:true fics, M/F drops to 34.4%, Multi drops to 6.1%, and Other stays fairly high at 10.4%.

In Karlach’s pairings with the player character, things change significantly.

It immediately becomes clear that the large number of M/F fics in her general pairings were largely due to her relatively popular ships with Wyll, Astarion, and Dammon. F/F dominates Karlach’s pairings with the PC with 64.0% (67.8% with otp:true applied) of fics, which puts her at just slightly less than Shadowheart. M/F is tagged in 28.5% of her fics with the PC (14.0% with otp:true applied), Multi is tagged 19.4% but drops to 1.2% for otp:true, and Other remains high with 18.0% of fics and 20.2% of otp:true fics with the PC.

Back in January, I noted that of the main cast, Karlach had the highest proportion of ships with nonbinary OCs. I didn’t track the breakdown of OC subcategories this time, but the high numbers in the Other category bear it out.

LAE'ZEL

Counting all fics for all pairings in which Lae’zel is tagged, she is in a mere 3.8% of BG3 pairings, though it rises to 4.5% when otp:true is applied. She is in 23 of the top 300 ship tags, a number that drops down to 18 when I consolidate the player character tags together.

Shadowheart/Lae’zel has twice as many fics as Lae’zel/Tav. Looking at the situation with the PC does not change this much.

Unlike any other main character, Lae’zel’s most popular ship is not with the PC but with Shadowheart. She has 694 fics with Shadowheart, 355 with the PC, 65 with Karlach, 26 with Gale, 26 with Wyll, 25 with Astarion, 16 with Minthara, and 12 with Halsin. She is in an unusually low number of threesomes – only 4. It’s notable though how skewed her numbers are towards women – a threesome with Karlach and Shadowheart has more fics than any of her pairings with a canon man. The various whole team multiship pairings, none of which have more than 11 fics, comprise most of the tail end of her ship list.

Speaking of the tail end of her ship list, what happens when we condense the player character tags is that Lae’zel does not reach a full 20 ships – she drops to 18 pairings. She has more than this, of course, but my methodology ignores all pairings with fewer than 5 fics (which means that my friend’s Lae’zel/Astarion/Tav fic is not counted). Therefore, Lae’zel’s 19th and 20th most popular pairings have 4 fics or fewer. I have represented these missing pairings with little :( emojis, because this is a sad state of affairs.

This is a symptom of a state of affairs in which Lae’zel is just not very popular in the AO3 side of BG3 fandom. Her most popular ship is Shadowheart’s second most popular ship, and the numbers crater after that. No Lae’zel ship other than Shadowheart and the PC has more than 100 fics.

Lae’zel’s most popular ships being women is demonstrated clearly by the fic category breakdown.

Wow! At a whopping 76.3% of all of Lae’zel’s fics and 88.9% of Lae’zel’s otp:true fics, Lae’zel has a higher proportion of F/F fic than Shadowheart. Granted, they’re both sizable portions of each other’s total F/F count. 26.1% of Lae’zel’s fics have the M/F tag, though this drops to a mere 7.1% when otp:true is applied. Other is tagged in 11.6% of fics but drops to 2.0% with otp:true. 18.1% of her fics are tagged Multi but this likewise drops to 4.4% with otp:true.

The pertinent question for Lae’zel is how much of her F/F count is due to her pairing with Shadowheart? How gay are her pairings with the PC?

The answer is... still pretty gay! F/F is not quite as dominant, with 67.3% of all her fics with the PC and 80.0% of her fics where only Lae’zel/PC is tagged – but 80% is a still a really high proportion! This indicates to me that a lot of the M/F in the ��All Fics” chart likely does not involve Lae’zel. M/F is tagged in 33.5% of her fics with the PC, a number which is more than halved to 12.7% when otp:true is applied. 13.2% of her fics are tagged Other, which drops to 5.5% with otp:true – much less than for Shadowheart and Karlach. It seems either Lae’zel is not as popular for nonbinary OCs or that a large proportion of the Other tag is from mind flayer Tavs/Durges and people don’t write Lae’zel with a mind flayer love interest.

One other notable fact is that Lae’zel is the only female companion without any otp:true M/M PC fic. It could be due to her low fic numbers in the first place, but I prefer to think that Lae’zel fans are simply more fastidious about correctly tagging fic. It certainly fits her character.

MINTHARA

Ah, Minthara. Unquestionably the least popular of the main romanceable characters in BG3, her pairings only comprise 1.1% of all BG3 fanfic pairings, a number that rises to a whopping(/sarcastic) 1.4% of otp:true pairings. She has only 14 ship tags in the 300 most popular ship tags for BG3, a number that drops further to a mere 9 pairings once I’ve combined all the player character tags.

What’s notable about Minthara’s ship tags is the popularity of the Dark Urge relative to Tav. Minthara has 146 fics with Tav and 80 with the Dark Urge. This is a higher proportion than other main characters have. It may be because more people write her on evil routes (which likely disproportionately feature the Dark Urge) or because she has some very good lines for the Dark Urge and their Slayer form.

Another observation is the lack of primary non-PC ships. The other characters that I look at all have a major non-PC ship – Shadowheart/Lae’zel, Karlach/Wyll, Gale/Astarion, Wyll/Astarion, Halsin/Astarion. Minthara doesn’t really have that. Her most popular non-PC ship is Orin, at #5 and with a mere 45 fics. This is illustrated clearly once all the player character tags are combined.

The PC dominates Minthara’s pairings to an extent not seen with any other character, not even Astarion. She drops from 234 fics with the PC (65 otp:true) to 45 fics with Orin (26 otp:true), 32 with Karlach (16 otp:true) and 26 with Shadowheart (11 otp:true). Every other pairing has 16 or less fics. Tying into that, Minthara has very few pairings with 5 or more fics. She does not even have enough for a top 10! I have replaced her missing pairings with the :( emoji because this is sad.

Another notable thing about this chart, though, is how few fics Minthara has just in general. Lae’zel and Wyll, the other neglected companions, both have at least 500 fics with their most popular partner. Minthara does not even break 250. In fact, none of her pairings with someone other than the PC have over 50 fics.

Another interesting fact is that Minthara is the only character in this analysis to not have any threesomes or moresomes in her pairings with over 5 fics. She doesn’t share, it seems.

For some reason, Minthara has 8 ships with Councillor Florrick of all people. And it’s not all by the same author, which is what I would expect for a somewhat out there pairing. Presumably someone out there wrote a really good fic which then inspired others to play with the idea. In a small fandom like Minthara’s, one fic like that can make quite a difference.

As can be expected, Minthara’s fic categories are pretty damn gay.

F/F is tagged in 79.0% of her fics (77.6% of otp:true fics). M/M is tagged in 21.3% of her fics (17.1% of otp:true fics), Other in 6.1% (4.6% otp:true), and Multi in 8.9% though it drops to 1.3% of her otp:true fics. With these numbers, Minthara is arguably the gayest major character in the BG3 fandom by fic count, though Lae’zel beats her when you take otp:true into effect.

This pattern holds true when looking at her ship with the player character. 77.8% of her fics with the PC are tagged F/F (73.8% of otp:true fics), 23.5% are tagged M/F (15.4% otp:true), 8.5% are tagged Other (10.8% otp:true), and 9.4% are tagged Multi (3.1% otp:true). The latter is a bit confusing given that she has no multiship pairings. It may include collections of Reader/[X] fics that include Minthara.

PART 2

Welp. I’ve run into the tumblr post image limit. For part 2 of this essay, which discusses Astarion, Gale, Wyll, and Halsin and then compares all 8 of the main characters against each other on a variety of metrics, see this link.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #fanfic #ao3 #statistics #data visualization #tav #dark urge #shadowheart #karlach #lae'zel #minthara #fandom #mine #shipping

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loremaster · 1 year ago

Text

RAIN CODE REWRITE! boba au masterpost

Each chapter contains spoilers for the same chapter of Rain Code canon. Proceed at your own risk!

links:

CHAPTER 0

The reason it's called Boba AU

Relationship Chart

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2: (wip)

CHAPTER 3: (wip)

CHAPTER 4: (wip)

CHAPTER 5: (wip)

now let me break down what i'm trying to do here:

boba au is about how the plot and group dynamics of rain code would change if the train detectives survived and made it into kanai ward. it's not quite an everybody-lives-au... some things are better and some things are worse. :)

yuma gets two detective friends per case instead of just one. the crimes remain the same (for the most part), but they way they get unraveled will be different.

as yuma and shinigami's relationship is the core focus of the actual game of rain code, i will not be focusing on that here. he's still haunted, shinigami is still there technically, but i'm not going to draw her in most of the scenes because i'm more interested in the other detectives getting fleshed out. also i'm not really interested in shinigami anyway

most of the interactions will be platonic, but there will also be some romantic(ish) relationships that the game didn't really do well or do at all. nothing past T rated unless you ask real nice and you're free to interpret stuff however you want. ships will be tagged/revealed as they show up in updates but honestly? most of these ships don't have names yet so I'll have to come up with something taggable LOL

Art quality will vary wildly because this is just a fan project and i need to save my Polished Finished Art energy for school and original work

if this project inspires you to make any art or writing i'd love to see it :'D

#rain code #master detective archives #mda:rc #boba au #boba au masterpost

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mikkeneko · 1 year ago

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Felt like making this post because I realized the other day that not everybody knows about Media Mail! It's less common nowadays, and the USPS doesn't exactly advertise it; it's not up on the board or available at the self-service kiosk, you have to go to an actual post office and ask at the counter.

Media Mail shipping is a cost-effective way to send educational materials. This service has restrictions on the type of media that can be shipped. Media Mail rates are limited to the items listed below: Books (at least 8 pages). Sound recordings and video recordings, such as CDs and DVDs. Play scripts and manuscripts for books, periodicals, and music. Printed music. Computer-readable media containing prerecorded information and guides or scripts prepared solely for use with such media. Sixteen millimeter or narrower width films. Printed objective test materials and their accessories. Printed educational reference charts. Loose-leaf pages and their binders consisting of medical information for distribution to doctors, hospitals, medical schools, and medical students.

Media mail is a much, MUCH cheaper way to send books and other paper materials than UPS, FedEx, or even first class USPS -- today I shipped a box that would have cost something like $50 to send by weight, and instead I was able to send it by media rate for less than $10.

#united states post office

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sinkingwmyships · 18 days ago

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my avenday / sunturine ship chart!! template here, thank you for making it 🩵

i guess this is less in general and more in relations to my emotional regulation series? (kinda… vaguely canon-compliant AU where they help each other, well, regulate their emotions, via kinky segs among other means 🫣) i was j very into their dynamic in that series at that time. but this also just contains a number of hcs i have for them, that idt changes too much in b/w AUs anw.

enjoy~

typed text below cut (bc who knows how legible my handwriting actly is); may contain some extra notes/thoughts i wasn’t able to squeeze into the chart (will be in [ ] )

Stupid Ass Ship Chart

General info

Sunday Oak

sexuality: unclear/never explored, but if i have to: gay [lowkey tempted to just say “humanity”(/pan)… like bro def thought it’s normal to love everybody both ways (platonic & romantic) until Robin came out to him and he was like, “why do you hate men?” - R: “i don’t hate men i’m just not attracted to them that way” - S: “what ‘way’ there is only one ‘way’… no?” - R: “… brother imma hold your hand while i say this”]

gender: cis male

Aventurine/Kakavasha

sexuality: gay

gender: cis male

Ship name:

sunavenday 🔄

Ages + difference:

Sunday: late 20s

Aven: irdk

2 years apart max

Heights + difference:

idk [and idc for height difference so i just never think abt it], but Sunday feels slightly taller

Describe their vibe:

emotional hurt/comfort; rivals to lovers; slow burn

very protective of each other; try to out-spoil one another [cmon they can both easily be sugar daddies]

Scale ratings

[i’ll let u look at the image for my ratings, but here are the ones i wrote notes for]

Aggressively romantic ↔️ allergic to PDA:

Aven: fluctuates depending on his mood

(Severely) mentally ill ↔️ mentally stable:

Aven: he’s working on it ywy

Big spoon ↔️ little spoon:

Sunday: doesn’t mind [either]

Aven: if he does agree to spoon, he’d prefer little

The weapon ↔️ the wielder:

i think both of them can be both depending on the situation [ie. neither would mind being the other’s weapon, and both would trust himself and the other to trust him to be the wielder]

Functional ↔️ soggy loser: [i think this is meant to be in shippy terms but i interpreted it in general life terms as well]

Aven: some days [are harder for him] than others

Short answer

What brings them together?

eventual trust, mutual understanding, mutual interest -> feelings

Sunday: too pent up for too long

Aven: i mean… he calls Sun “the most handsome man in Penacony” for a reason ;)

What’s keeping them apart?

Aven doesn’t trust Sun is genuinely into him; Sun can’t believe he pulled such a baddie and is afraid any advances would scare Aven away.

Poorly describe their meet-cute:

One is in a sticky situation and the other happens to be available to help him out.

List their reductive fandom tropes/their ship appeal:

Hot man x2 🤷 (or babygirl x2 tbh)

“The most handsome man—“ ok we get it

(popular interpretation) “why is he YOUR man but MY narrative foil?”

[update: i think toxic yaoi is also one of them…? 😭 it’s not an appeal for me but a lot of ppl mention it when they talk abt sunven]

Who’s the armrest?

Aven (both tbh)

Who’s the headrest?

Sunday [unfortunately his halo may skewer Aven if Aven is the headrest i think]

Who fell first?

Aven (but i think around same time)

Who fell harder?

Sunday

Who cooks?

Aven (more skilled + doesn’t mind it)

Who cleans up more messes?

Aven for literal ones; Sun for work/publicity-related [ie figurative] ones

Who’s the bigger yearner?

Sunday

Who confesses first?

Aven

Touch?

Sunday: most places ok (he’ll just get a bit bashful) except halo is a ‘do not’ and he’s finicky w his hands. wings are ok but sometimes will make him react bc the touch is unfamiliar [ie he’s not used to being touched there]

Aven: doesn’t associate touch w pleasantness, prefers a warning. especially enforces this rule w his partner imo. but once he gives permission then it’s ok. has to use hands [ie desensitize his hands to touch] for social interactions (eg handshakes)

#swmideas #avenday #sunturine #hsr sunday #sunday #aventurine #hsr aventurine #hsr #honkai star rail #avenday ship chart #sunturine ship chart #avenday hcs #sunturine hcs #avenday headcanons #sunturine headcanons

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mariacallous · 8 months ago

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The phone or computer you’re reading this on may not be long for this world. Maybe you’ll drop it in water, or your dog will make a chew toy of it, or it’ll reach obsolescence. If you can’t repair it and have to discard it, the device will become e-waste, joining an alarmingly large mountain of defunct TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, cameras, routers, electric toothbrushes, headphones. This is “electrical and electronic equipment,” aka EEE—anything with a plug or battery. It’s increasingly out of control.

As economies develop and the consumerist lifestyle spreads around the world, e-waste has turned into a full-blown environmental crisis. People living in high-income countries own, on average, 109 EEE devices per capita, while those in low-income nations have just four. A new UN report finds that in 2022, humanity churned out 137 billion pounds of e-waste—more than 17 pounds for every person on Earth—and recycled less than a quarter of it.

That also represents about $62 billion worth of recoverable materials, like iron, copper, and gold, hitting e-waste landfills each year. At this pace, e-waste will grow by 33 percent by 2030, while the recycling rate could decline to 20 percent. (You can see this growth in the graph below: purple is EEE on the market, black is e-waste, and green is what gets recycled.)

“What was really alarming to me is that the speed at which this is growing is much quicker than the speed that e-waste is properly collected and recycled,” says Kees Baldé, a senior scientific specialist at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and lead author of the report. “We just consume way too much, and we dispose of things way too quickly. We buy things we may not even need, because it's just very cheap. And also these products are not designed to be repaired.”

Humanity has to quickly bump up those recycling rates, the report stresses. In the first pie chart below, you can see the significant amount of metals we could be saving, mostly iron (chemical symbol Fe, in light gray), along with aluminum (Al, in dark gray), copper (Cu), and nickel (Ni). Other EEE metals include zinc, tin, and antimony. Overall, the report found that in 2022, generated e-waste contained 68 billion pounds of metal.

E-waste is a complex thing to break down: A washing machine is made of totally different components than a TV. And even for product categories, not only do different brands use different manufacturing processes, but even different models within those brands vary significantly. A new washing machine has way more sensors and other electronics than one built 30 years ago.

Complicating matters even further, e-waste can contain hazardous materials, like cobalt, flame retardants, and lead. The report found that each year, improperly processed e-waste releases more than 125,000 pounds of mercury alone, imperiling the health of humans and other animals. “Electronic waste is an extremely complex waste stream,” says Vanessa Gray, head of the Environment and Emergency Telecommunications Division at the UN’s International Telecommunication Union and an author of the report. “You have a lot of value in electronic waste, but you also have a lot of toxic materials that are dangerous to the environment.”

That makes recycling e-waste a dangerous occupation. In low- and middle-income countries, informal e-waste recyclers might go door-to-door collecting the stuff. To extract valuable metals, they melt down components without proper safety equipment, poisoning themselves and the environment. The new report notes that in total, 7.3 billion pounds of e-waste is shipped uncontrolled globally, meaning its ultimate management is unknown and likely not done in an environmentally friendly way. Of that, high-income countries shipped 1.8 billion pounds to low- and middle-income countries in 2022, swamping them with dangerous materials.

High-income countries have some of this informal recycling, but they also have formal facilities where e-waste is sorted and safely broken down. Europe, for example, has fairly high formal e-waste recycling rates, at about 43 percent. But globally, recycling is happening nowhere near enough to keep up with the year-over-year growth of the waste. Instead of properly mining EEE for metals, humanity keeps mining more ore out of the ground.

Still, the report found that even the small amount of e-waste that currently gets recycled avoided the mining of 2 trillion pounds of ore for virgin metal in 2022. (It takes a lot of ore to produce a little bit of metal.) The more metals we can recycle from e-waste, the less mining we’ll need to support the proliferation of gadgets. That would in turn avoid the greenhouse gases from such mining operations, plus losses of biodiversity.

The complexity of e-waste, though, makes it expensive to process. As the chart above shows, even an ambitious scenario of a formal e-waste collection rate in 2030 is 44 percent. “There is no business case for companies to just collect e-waste and to make a profit out of this in a sustainable manner,” says Baldé. “They can only survive if there is legislation in place which is also compensating them.”

The report notes that 81 countries have e-waste policies on the books, and of those, 67 have provisions regarding extended producer responsibility, or EPR. This involves fees paid by manufacturers of EEE that would go toward e-waste management.

Of course, people could also stop throwing so many devices away in the first place, something right-to-repair advocates have spent years fighting for. Batteries, for instance, lose capacity after a certain number of charge cycles. If a phone can’t hold a charge all day anymore, customers should be able to swap in a new battery. “Manufacturers shouldn't be able to put artificial limitations on that ability,” says Elizabeth Chamberlain, director of sustainability at iFixit, which provides repair guides and tools. That includes limiting access to parts and documentation. “Repair is a harm-reduction strategy. It's not the be-all-end-all solution, but it's one of many things we need to do as a global society to slow down the rate at which we're demanding things of the planet.”

At the core of the e-waste crisis is the demand: A growing human population needs phones to communicate and fridges to keep food safe and heat pumps to stay comfortable indoors. So first and foremost we need high-quality products that don’t immediately break down, but also the right to repair when they do. And what absolutely can’t be fixed needs to move through a safe, robust e-waste recycling system. “We are consuming so much,” says Baldé, “we cannot really recycle our way out of the problem.”

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mthofferings2023 · 1 year ago

Photo

Flowering Glass

See Flowering Glass’s existing works here.

Preferred contact methods: Discord: ibreathebooks Email: [email protected] Tumblr: floweringglass

Preferred organizations: - Anything from the list of approved organizations

Will create works that contain: N/A

Will not create works that contain: NSFW, copies of other’s fanart without permission

-- Craft or Merchandise --

Auction ID: 1059

Will create works for the following relationships: Avengers fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Spider-Man fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Daredevil fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe X-Men fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Venom fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Loki fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Black Panther fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Hawkeye fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Doctor Strange fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Iron Man fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe

Work Description: I am offering a custom stained glass piece which can either be for a specific character, or a ship. This listing is specifically for a flat piece only- a suncatcher or a small pane. Happy to do any character and/or pairing! I’ll work with you to create a pattern that you are happy with, if you already have designs/references in mind that is great! Size and complexity is based on these tiers: $30 - Max size is 25in^2 (161 cm^2) and basic difficulty over $75 - Either same size as tier one but more difficult, or max size of 64in^2 (413cm^2) and basic difficulty over $170 - Either max size of 64in^2 and more difficult, or max size of 100in^2 (645cm^2) and basic difficulty over $260 - Either max size of 100in^2 and more difficult, or max size of 1ft^2 (929cm^2) and basic difficulty over $375 - Max size is 1 ft^2 and more difficult What makes something difficult? The more small pieces and curves there are it makes things harder, especially deep curves or if a piece is narrow but long. There is a chart illustrating roughly where some of my previous projects lie on the scale, but also if you have any questions about your idea please shoot me a message! Shipping- winning bidder pays shipping from Iowa, USA

Ratings: Gen, Teen

Can pods bid on this auction? No - I'd rather not be bid on by pods

CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK

-- Craft or Merchandise --

Auction ID: 2035

Will create works for the following relationships: Avengers fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Black Panther fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Captain America fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Daredevil fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Deadpool fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Doctor Strange fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Fantastic Four fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Guardians of the Galaxy fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe Hawkeye fandom any gen and ship - Any Universe

Work Description: I am offering a custom 3D stained glass piece which can be for any character or ship. This could be a candle holder, a trinket box with a lid, a card holder, a little upright figure, there are several possibilities. I’ll work with you to create a pattern that you are happy with, but if you already have designs/references in mind that is great! If bidding goes over: $100- can make a set of two items (similar candle holders that go together, two figures for a ship, ect) $150- can make set of 3 If you have any questions about your idea please shoot me a message! Shipping- winning bidder pays shipping from Iowa, USA.

Ratings: Gen, Teen

Can pods bid on this auction? No - I'd rather not be bid on by pods

CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK

The auction runs from October 22 (12 AM ET) to October 28 (11:59:59 PM ET). Visit marveltrumpshate.com during Auction Week to view all of our auctions and to place your bids!

#Flowering-Glass #auction: craft #mth 2023

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heliossecretdeskdrawer · 2 years ago

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Approval Flow

Continuity: IDW1

Rating: Explicit

Relationship: Megatron/Rodimus

Characters: Megatron & Rodimus

Warnings: Accidental voyeurism, masturbation, mildly dubious consent, sticky sexual interfacing, silly

Summary: In which Rodimus finds that Megatron is willing to accommodate one of his favorite activities.

Crossposting: AO3 | DreamWidth

Fic under cut

Rodimus hadn’t been answering his comm, which wasn’t surprising. He often let it go to voicemail and then, if he felt like it, he would check them.

Unfortunately, this was a problem when something was urgent or if, like now, whatever Megatron was working on was stuck in an approval loop. Any request or project Megatron began would need Rodimus to sign off on it before he could act.

Theoretically, this worked the other way around as well, with Megatron being required to sign off on projects and requests Rodimus initiated.

If neither of them could come to an agreement, then Magnus could step in as a tiebreaker (and then Drift if Magnus were unavailable or ineligible). The flaw there, however, meant Rodimus had to state disagreement, either verbally or in written form, first before Magnus could be consulted on the matter.

A system of checks and balances to ensure that the captains had to both agree, designed by Ultra Magnus after Rodimus had complained that Megatron had approved for Swerve to paint the bar a “garish” neon purple for a festive “spooky” event last month. He had called it an example of Megatron’s “aesthetically anosmic palate.” Rodimus certainly had quite the extensive vocabulary when he wanted to use it, though Megatron wasn’t sure “anosmic” technically applied.

Though, that hardly mattered.

What mattered was the resulting chain of if-then approvals that choked almost every operational step.

Rodimus, worse, was not in their shared office, the obvious place to be while on duty.

And now, Megatron was searching the ship for his co-captain with this maintenance request in his hand for the jammed doors to one of the cargo bays that had sat, unapproved, in Rodimus’s queue for two deca-cycles, lost in the machinations of a small administrative bureaucracy hinging on four or so mechs.

This wasn’t a remotely efficient way to run a ship, but that would be something to discuss at the next command staff meeting, not today.

Today Megatron needed to find Rodimus, wherever he was hiding, because this was getting ridiculous. They couldn’t use the cargo bay with the exterior doors being open to space. It wasn’t even a controversial approval. It was a rubber-stamp, procedural ask for easy “look at the work I got done today” points Rodimus could add to his motivational chart (this month’s new “keep on task” method).

He had already spent all morning checking the rest of the ship with no luck. The spare, unused small staff offices in the rarely used hall behind the commissary were the only places left to look for the errant captain.

Poking his head into each room in turn, long enough to turn on the lights and turn them back off again, Megatron found them empty, as expected.

Except for the last one, at the far end.

The access panel on the wall glowed a bright energon purple, signaling that the door was locked.

It was the only one of its fellows to signal this way. The other doors had been left unlocked—a cheerful, Autobot red light on each access panel—as the offices contained no furniture beyond a desk and chair, nothing valuable like consoles or other equipment. Not even light-pens.

Of course, Megatron could override this lock with the security codes afforded to his station. Access would be no problem and it served Rodimus right to be abruptly interrupted while shirking his duty.

Before he could enter the code, he heard a voice through the door.

“Are you cramped in there?” There was a muffled clicking of armor plating. “There you go, some breathing room.”

That was Rodimus’s voice.

Well, Megatron had located his quarry.

Yet, his free hand hesitated over the panel.

What in the void was Rodimus doing in there? Who was he even talking to?

“It’s okay.” Rodimus’s voice was almost soothing. “You can come out.”

Was… he talking to Megatron?

Then came a soft hiss, like something releasing.

No, not to him.

“There, see? It’s better now, right?”

Who could Rodimus possibly have been talking to? As far as Megatron knew, the crew was all accounted for either at their stations or known to be excused from duty or on personal time. Maybe there was someone on personal time in there with Rodimus, but the odds were low. Megatron didn’t hear any other voices.

Rodimus, meanwhile, continued his one-sided conversation.

“Hey, look, you don’t have to be so tense.”

Maybe he was using his commlink with the speaker rerouted to internal audio for a more private call, but then why didn’t he reroute his vocalizer as well?

“Do you need a massage? Tell you what, I’ll give you a nice massage. You’ll feel so much better after that.”

What?

Another click, this one like a bottle opening.

“I got you; don’t worry.”

Then there came a slick, wet noise of a hand running over plating, probably whatever massage ointment being applied. A quiet, relieved groan followed. It sounded almost like Rodimus’s voice, but then why would he be groaning with relief? Megatron must have just misidentified the voice’s owner.

This was getting ridiculous. Megatron was not going to stand out here all day while waiting for Rodimus to finish up whatever questionably ethical massage he was providing to some unknown crew member in there.

He didn’t care who it was; other people’s personal private relationships were neither his business nor did he really want to know. He just wanted Rodimus to tap the “approve” button on this maintenance request—after wiping his hands—and then Megatron could leave.

Megatron tapped the override code into the access panel before the it flashed red.

The door slid aside.

Megatron stepped across the threshold, only to pause and stare. The focal rings of his optics spiraled wide as the driver software crashed. They rebooted after a second only to crash again. The shutters behind his lenses closed with each crash before, after a few tries the driver software properly loaded.

That… couldn’t be right.

Rodimus sat there behind the desk, blinking in boredom at the intruder. His hand, greased up with personal lubricant, was lazily gripping his spike, fingers spread wide. On the desk was an open bottle of spike oil.

Megatron made the executive decision to focus his attention on Rodimus’s face. It would make this marginally less uncomfortable, he told himself. A little lie, made worse by the fact that it was a monumental feat of will to not let his gaze drift curiously down.

“So… uh… did you want something?” Rodimus didn’t seem particularly concerned about having a visitor. He didn’t even seem surprised. Had he known Megatron was outside?

“… Yes.”

He had nearly forgotten about the datapad with the maintenance request on it in his hand.

“But it appears you’re… occupied.”

“Well, I heard you coming—You’re a loud walker, know that?” Rodimus shrugged, resuming the slow, lazy motion of his fingers and palm up and down the spike. It sounded obscenely wet. Did he not care that someone could see? “I was kinda hoping you’d hear me jacking it and go away instead of asking me to do whatever it is. It usually works on Mags.”

Ah.

So Rodimus had known he was there and had done this on purpose. He’d just been down here avoiding work—Megatron coughed to clear the static from his vocalizer.

“You sounded like you were talking to someone actually.” He also could have just pretended to self-service instead of actually doing it. That had been an option.

Why was Megatron still standing here? He ought to leave—The motion of the hand just below his line of sight kept drawing his attention.

“Oh, yeah, that was part of the whole convoluted narrative I use for self-servicing. Mags figured it out pretty quickly.” Rodimus shrugged. “Makes it more fun than just, uh… turning the crank, so to speak. I’ve got a whole nother one about polishing the dust off for when it’s anterior node time or a plumbing inspection for any fun holes. Keeps things interesting.”

“… I didn’t need to know that.”

Megatron’s will to not stare failed and his gaze became pointedly fixed on the stiff spike in his co-captain’s lap.

“That’s too bad.” The hand kept bobbing up and down, thoroughly smearing and spreading the lubricant over the shining red surface. The was slightly curved, a comfortable shape for all manner of delightfully debauched uses—several of which he could vividly imagine right now, several of which made his cooling fans click on embarrassingly quickly. The spike twitched, almost as though it enjoyed the visual attention. “You know it now.”

And he couldn’t unknow it, not without medical procedures to which he would never consent.

“Anyway, uh, since you’re already in here, are you going to just stare or are you gonna help?”

“I….”

Up and down, up and down, and fingertips lingering on little ridges just around the head of the spike, making Rodimus shudder.

Up and down, up and down, and a quick twist of the wrist at the top of the stroke.

Up and down, up and down, and a gentle, yet luxurious squeeze.

His tongue felt heavy and stupid while watching the motions. Maybe he could just…. His jaw opened in suggestion without consulting him first.

“Like, I know it’s not purple, your absolute most favorite horrendous color in the entire universe that you would let the only functional bar on the entire ship be covered in it, but it’s not that bad. We can’t all have ugly purple spikes, Megs—”

Megatron shook his head, yanking control back over his vocalizer.

“Excuse me.” He interrupted the chromatic tirade, unable to process anything else, as he walked around the side of the desk. “You think mine is purple?”

“Uh, yeah? Isn’t it? You love that stupid color so damn much, you let Swerve paint an entire bar that color and whatever poor dumbaft you got to paint the Last Light—”

“Rodimus,” he said, placing the datapad on the desk, “the more you complain about that, the less interested I’ll become in ‘helping’ you.”

He leaned down, now that he was on the same side of the desk as Rodimus, whispering with an offended hiss.

“And it is not purple.”

#fic #one shot #valveplug #megatron #rodimus #megarod

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chemanalystdata · 5 days ago

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In the third quarter of 2024, Trisodium Phosphate prices in North America showed limited volatility, maintaining stability within a tight range despite several influencing factors. The U.S. economy demonstrated resilience, even as inflationary pressures and geopolitical uncertainties presented ongoing challenges. Supply trends were shaped by consistent manufacturing performance and evolving trade dynamics, while a minor drop in the Producer Price Index (PPI) for manufacturing industries, from 249.624 in Q2 to 248.383 in Q3, indicated slight production cost savings. The restocking of inventories, which had been depleted in the first quarter, contributed to a Q2 GDP growth rate of 3.0%, with an expected annual growth of 2.7%.

Consumer spending and corporate investments remained robust, driven by legislative initiatives like the CHIPS Act. These factors kept demand strong, especially as inflation dropped below 3.0% in July. However, geopolitical tensions in critical regions, coupled with potential tariffs on imports, raised concerns about supply chain stability and trade disruptions. The Federal Reserve’s anticipated rate cuts are designed to stimulate household spending and economic growth, though shifts in the labor market and trade uncertainties may influence supply dynamics as 2025 approaches.

In the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, Trisodium Phosphate prices experienced a decline during Q3 2024, influenced by various factors, including decreased demand from industries such as water treatment and paper manufacturing. Additionally, logistical challenges and rising transportation costs contributed to the pricing environment. China, a major player in this market, saw notable price changes driven by seasonal fluctuations, with demand slowing during the quarter. The correlation between price shifts and seasonality was evident, as reduced consumption and muted inquiries from both domestic and international markets led to a 2% decline compared to the previous quarter. Within Q3, there was a -1% price difference between the first and second halves of the quarter. By the end of the period, the price for Trisodium Phosphate in China stood at USD 480/MT FOB Qingdao, reflecting a persistently softening market sentiment. Despite market challenges, no major plant shutdowns were reported during this period, helping to maintain overall supply levels.

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#Tri-Sodium Phosphate #Tri-Sodium Phosphate Price #Tri-Sodium Phosphate Prices #Tri-Sodium Phosphate Pricing #Tri-Sodium Phosphate News

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uspsmediamailrates · 20 days ago

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What Happens If You Include Non-Specified Items In USPS Media Mail?

USPS Media Mail is a cost-effective shipping option designed for educational materials, making it a popular choice for shipping books, DVDs, and other media. However, the service comes with strict guidelines on what can be sent. Including non-specified or prohibited items in Media Mail can lead to complications, additional fees, and even legal consequences. Understanding the rules and the potential ramifications of non-compliance is essential for anyone looking to use this shipping method.

What is USPS Media Mail?

Media Mail is a service provided by USPS that allows for the affordable shipping of educational and media-related items. This service is often used by students, teachers, and sellers to ship books, music, and digital media across the country at a lower cost than standard shipping options. However, due to its reduced cost, USPS enforces strict regulations on what qualifies for Media Mail.

Permitted Items for USPS Media Mail

To qualify for Media Mail, items must meet certain criteria. Accepted items include:

Books (at least 8 pages long)

Sound recordings and video recordings, such as CDs and DVDs

Printed educational charts

Printed music and scripts

Play scripts and manuscripts for books, periodicals, and music

Educational reference materials, such as standardized tests and their manuals

Computer-readable media (like CDs containing educational data)

These items should primarily be for educational or informational purposes.

What are Non-Specified Items?

Non-specified items are products that do not fall under the allowed list for Media Mail. Some common non-specified items include:

Magazines with advertisements

Newspapers

Catalogs and promotional brochures

Merchandise (such as toys, clothing, and electronics)

Personal letters or documents not related to the permitted media items

Consequences of Including Non-Specified Items

Inspections and Delays USPS reserves the right to inspect any Media Mail package to ensure compliance. If a package is flagged for inspection, it can lead to delays in delivery. Inspections may be random or prompted by suspicion, and packages found to contain non-specified items can be held back.

Additional Postage Fees If USPS discovers that non-specified items have been included in a Media Mail shipment, they will charge additional postage fees. This fee will be calculated based on the standard Priority Mail rate, which is significantly higher than the Media Mail rate. The recipient may be required to pay the additional charges upon delivery, or the sender may be billed.

Return to Sender In cases where non-compliant items are found, USPS may return the package to the sender. This not only causes inconvenience but also leads to wasted shipping costs and time. Repeat offenders may face further restrictions from using Media Mail services in the future.

Legal Consequences Although rare, intentionally misusing Media Mail for shipping non-specified items can lead to legal repercussions. Misrepresentation of a package's contents could be considered mail fraud, which carries serious penalties, including fines and potential legal action.

Examples of Common Mistakes

Many people unknowingly make mistakes when using Media Mail. Here are a few common scenarios:

Shipping Toys with Books: If you’re shipping a children’s book with a toy, the toy would be considered non-specified and would disqualify the entire package from Media Mail.

Including Personal Letters: Some users may add a letter with the book or CD, but personal letters are not allowed in Media Mail packages and would result in the package being non-compliant.

Magazines or Comic Books with Advertisements: While printed materials like magazines and comic books might seem eligible, if they contain advertisements, they do not qualify for Media Mail.

How to Avoid Issues When Using Media Mail

Verify Contents Before sending your package, double-check its contents to ensure only permitted items are included. If you’re unsure whether an item qualifies, consult USPS guidelines or speak with a postal worker for clarification.

Separate Non-Specified Items If you need to send non-specified items, consider shipping them separately using another service, such as USPS Priority Mail or First-Class Mail. This way, you can avoid complications and delays.

Properly Package Media Mail Make sure to package your Media Mail items securely. USPS may open and inspect packages, so it’s best to ensure everything is neatly organized and easily identifiable as permitted items.

What to Do If Your Package Is Held for Inspection

If your Media Mail package is flagged for inspection, USPS will notify you. You may be asked to pick up the package and pay additional fees or have the option to remove the non-specified items and proceed with compliant shipping. It is important to respond promptly to avoid further delays.

Understanding the Cost Difference

One of the reasons people attempt to include non-specified items in Media Mail is to save on shipping costs. Media Mail rates are substantially lower than other USPS services. For example, shipping a 5-pound package via Media Mail might cost around $4.67, whereas the same package using Priority Mail could cost upwards of $10. However, the risk of additional fees, returns, and legal issues should outweigh the potential savings from misusing Media Mail.

Alternatives to Media Mail for Mixed Items

If you need to ship a mix of items that include both specified and non-specified products, consider other USPS services:

Priority Mail: This service is faster and allows for a wider range of items. Packages are also insured, providing peace of mind.

First-Class Mail: Suitable for smaller packages, such as letters and parcels weighing under 13 ounces. It’s quicker than Media Mail and more flexible in terms of what you can send.

Parcel Select Ground: For heavier packages, this service can be a more affordable option than Priority Mail and allows for a broader range of items compared to Media Mail.

Conclusion

USPS Media Mail is an excellent service for shipping educational materials at a lower cost, but it comes with specific rules that must be followed. Including non-specified items in your USPS Media Mail Rates package can lead to inspections, delays, additional fees, and even legal consequences. To avoid these issues, ensure that you fully understand what qualifies as Media Mail and always check your packages before sending them. When in doubt, choose an alternative shipping service to avoid complications.

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expandmybusiness · 1 month ago

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Charting the Course: Choosing the Best Ocean Freight Route

Ocean freight is a cornerstone of global trade, transporting vast quantities of goods across vast distances. The route chosen for an ocean shipment can significantly impact factors such as cost, transit time, and risk. This article will delve into the key considerations for selecting the optimal ocean freight route.

Key Factors to Consider

Destination: The final destination of the shipment is the primary determinant of the available routes. Consider factors like the distance, availability of ports, and any specific requirements or restrictions imposed by the destination country.

Transit Time: The desired delivery time is crucial. Some routes offer faster transit times, but they may come with higher costs. Evaluate the trade-off between speed and cost based on your specific needs.

Cost: Ocean freight costs can vary depending on factors like route distance, fuel prices, port fees, and currency exchange rates. Compare quotes from different carriers and consider any additional charges, such as customs duties or taxes.

Equipment Availability: Ensure that the necessary equipment, such as containers or specialized vehicles, is available at both the origin and destination ports. This is particularly important for oversized or specialized cargo.

Route Reliability: Consider the reliability of the shipping line and the route itself. Research the carrier’s reputation, track record, and any recent disruptions that may affect the transit time.

Risk Assessment: Evaluate the potential risks associated with the route, such as piracy, natural disasters, or political instability. Consider options like cargo insurance or additional security measures to mitigate risks.

Route Planning Tools

To assist in route selection, various online tools and resources are available. These tools can provide information on:

Port Schedules: Real-time updates on port operations and vessel schedules.

Route Maps: Interactive maps that visualize different routes and their estimated transit times.

Freight Rate Calculators: Tools that estimate shipping costs based on various factors.

Additional Tips

Consider Alternative Routes: Sometimes, exploring alternative routes, even if they seem longer, can lead to cost savings or faster transit times due to factors like port congestion or favorable currency exchange rates.

Negotiate Rates: Don’t hesitate to negotiate with shipping lines to secure the best possible rates, especially for recurring shipments or large volumes.

Utilize Consolidation: If you have multiple shipments going to the same destination, consider consolidating them into a single container to potentially reduce costs.

By carefully considering these factors and utilizing available tools, you can make informed decisions when selecting the most suitable ocean freight route for your shipments.

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strategic-passive-investments · 10 months ago

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Fannie Mae's Optimistic Projections: Navigating the 2024 Housing Market

In a promising turn of events, Fannie Mae is charting a positive course for the mortgage market, with projections indicating that rates will drop below 6% by the end of 2024. This anticipation has far-reaching implications, boosting refinance volumes and contributing to the thawing of the existing home sales market. As we explore Fannie Mae's insights, the gradual return to balance in the housing market becomes evident after years of volatility in mortgage rates.

Strategic Passive Investments' Perspective: Commenting on these developments, CEO Charlie Sells of Strategic Passive Investments shares his insights. "Fannie Mae's projections align with our strategic approach to passive investments. The expected dip in mortgage rates creates opportunities for investors looking to navigate the real estate landscape," notes Sells. "As we witness the market's gradual recovery, strategic passive investments can play a key role in capitalizing on emerging trends."

The Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group's Expectations: Fannie Mae's Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) group anticipates a slow but steady recovery in home sales and mortgage origination activity against the backdrop of a slow-growing economy. Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, highlights the impact of inflation's decline and the Fed's pivot, signaling future rate cuts. This, he suggests, marks the likely bottoming out of home sales and mortgage originations in the second half of 2023, paving the way for a gradual improvement.

Housing Market Metrics: The ESR group foresees the annualized pace of existing home sales reaching 4.5 million units by the fourth quarter of 2024, up from 3.8 million in Q4 2023. Fannie Mae expects the normalization of the existing homes market, coupled with additional housing supply from new constructions, to curtail further home price growth in 2024. Home prices are projected to rise by 3.2% over the year, a significant decrease from the 7.1% seen in 2023.

Origination Volume Forecast: Looking ahead, Fannie Mae forecasts a total single-family mortgage originationvolume of $1.98 trillion in 2024, rising to $2.44 trillion in 2025. Of this, $1.5 trillion is expected to come from purchase origination volume, reflecting a 19% increase from $1.3 trillion in 2023.

Refinance Outlook: Despite the favorable conditions, refinance mortgage origination volume is anticipated to remain subdued in 2024. Approximately 90% of outstanding Fannie Mae single-family conventional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loans currently have a note rate below 6%. The ESR group suggests that while recent borrowers may benefit from refinancing, a strong refinance wave driven by rate-term borrowers is not expected in 2024.

Positive Economic Shift: In a positive economic update, Fannie Mae has revised its outlook, replacing the explicit call for a recession in 2024 with an expectation of "below-trend growth." The ESR Group attributes this shift to the recent easing in financial conditions following the Federal Reserve’s December meeting and a solid, upward trend in real personal income growth.

Risks and Caution: Despite the positive momentum, Fannie Mae acknowledges potential risks to the economic outlook. Mixed labor market signals, a recent rise in shipping rates due to attacks on container vessels, and easing monetary policy are identified as factors that could pose challenges. The ESR group emphasizes the need for caution, stating that the economy remains at a higher-than-normal risk for a recession in 2024.

Conclusion: As we navigate the complexities of the 2024 housing market, Fannie Mae's projections offer a glimpse into potential opportunities and challenges. Strategic Passive Investments, in alignment with Fannie Mae's insights, emphasizes the importance of strategic and passive investments in capitalizing on the evolving real estate landscape. With CEO Charlie Sells providing valuable perspectives, investors can approach the market with informed strategies, leveraging the anticipated changes for a successful investment journey.

#finance #investing #success #retirement #real estate investing #real estate #realestate #investment #passive investing #passive income #sdira #self directed ira

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cargoteam · 10 months ago

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Uncharted Waters Made Familiar: A Guide to Navigating the Sea of International Shipping

The world beckons, your products poised to cross borders and captivate audiences far and wide. But the vast ocean of international shipping can seem daunting, fraught with hidden currents and unforeseen storms. Fear not, intrepid explorer! This guide equips you with the knowledge to chart your course with confidence, choosing the right shipping services and companies to ensure your precious cargo reaches its destination safe and sound.

First Mate Your Options:

Ocean Freight: The workhorse of global trade, container ships offer cost-effective solutions for large volumes, albeit with longer transit times. Consider reputable giants like Maersk and Cosco, or explore regional players for specific routes.

Air Freight: When speed is paramount, air freight becomes your trusty steed. Expect shorter transit times but at a higher cost. Companies like FedEx and DHL excel in this arena, but regional specialists might offer competitive rates.

Multimodal Transport: Combine the strengths of air, sea, and land for unique needs. This flexibility comes with increased complexity, so choose experienced providers like Kintetsu World Express or DSV Panalpina.

Choosing Your Captain:

Beyond the vessel, the human factor reigns supreme. Look for shipping companies with:

Global Network and Reach: Ensure seamless transit through established partnerships with ports, airlines, and land transport providers.

Industry Expertise: Choose a company with proven experience in handling your specific cargo type, be it electronics, perishables, or hazardous materials.

Technology and Transparency: Real-time tracking, online dashboards, and clear communication are essential for navigating unpredictable waters.

Cost-Effectiveness: Compare rates and negotiate for value without compromising on service or reliability. Remember, the cheapest option isn't always the smoothest voyage.

Beyond the Horizon:

Value-Added Services: Explore insurance, customs clearance assistance, and warehousing solutions for a comprehensive shipping package.

Sustainability: Choose a company committed to eco-friendly practices, minimizing carbon footprint and protecting the seas you traverse.

Bon Voyage!:

With careful planning, the right partner, and a sprinkle of nautical courage, you can conquer the waves of international shipping. Your meticulously selected Freight forwarding and companies become your compass and sails, guiding your products across borders and into the eager hands of waiting customers. So, raise the anchor, set your course, and embark on a voyage of global success!

#shipping services #shipping companies #pharmaceutical #Pharma shipping #international shipping #freight forwarding

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scuffle-with-spirals · 1 year ago

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Visors Can't Blind an Ant

@THE WITCHING HOUR

[6/6] [Entry Masterlist]

Trigger/Content Warning: The follow story contains images of murder and imagery relating to tightly squeezing the human body, as well as a heavily implied narrative of paranoia. The drawing below the cut also contains a lot of bodily fluids (NSFW) some people may just not be comfortable with. Please stay safe and take care of yourself.

Word Count: 1,977

In the crowning year of XX87, space travel technology was abundant and booming. Retrofuturism, like many aesthetics of decades, centuries past had made a comeback; partially out of love for the look, a fondness toward simpler times, and to market the financial benefits of sending the uninformed for hostile exploration to line the pockets of the wealthy. In the house of Gregory and Bobby Hill, two identical twins in a long family line of those sent out into the world beyond the stars, interest in space came naturally as knowing how to read and write. Good luck struck when they were both accepted in tandem for the 84Fable-2-B.in shuttle, with Bobby as mechanic and Gregory as co-pilot. The 84th or 84 as they'd named was a missionary craft designed to house six astronauts with the intent of spending around 90 days studying and mining several minerals on a newly mapped dwarf planet. Many crystals, if deemed fit for human biology, were often sold as trendy accessories and jewelry to help sweeten the appeal of the Earth's intergalatic romance.

The other four members on the crew included Lisa, Andy, Paulina and Joseph. All relatively newer cadets in terms of tenure with Joseph, of course, having the most experience but only with five years in the stars as opposed to the remainder's three, two, and one — the latter being for Paulina, Joseph's wife, and Gregory and Bobby— first-timers.

Mining for materials was considered elementary level fieldwork, and not to mention, easy money. Taking on such a long-standing offer meant that their wallets would be plentiful by the time they returned home, making way for them to blow the money easily and find themselves boarding their next flight soon as possible.

With such advanced technology, crew members could afford to walk around the shuttle without spacesuits a majority of the time. This, of course, barring an enclosed changing room into suits for boarding off the ship. However, they were all equipped with a Body Identification , Digital Chart & Stabilizer (BIDCS, or beads, among the crewmates) that helped not only track everyone's location, and important vitals, but also stabilize said vitals quicker after outdoor trips (as more recently discovered planets had the potential to chill and heat some crew members even when inside their spacesuits. This made the near 24/7 wearing of the BIDCS non-negotiable for safety purposes, minus a short reprieve for cleaning and baths.

The first thirty days of the fieldwork go by without a hitch. Gregory, equipped with a brand new visor Bobby had bought him before the flight to wear indoors, truly was beginning to feel like the star pilot of his childhood, even if he was only second rate to Joseph's masterful leadership. Joseph was, upon first glance, meticulous and level-headed. He fanned himself with all the cards and the die only rolled for his enjoyment. He was, to Gregory, an idol he'd only ever seen on TV.

Of course, with such a drive for perfection in everything, Joseph could only go into overdrive when he perceived an error.

"Please...Don't take this as an insult to her, guys, but...Paulina doesn't look the same after we left 84 the last time, does she? It's like I don't even recognize her face."

With all the sparks and stars and shining eyes, it became very easy to forget mysteries of the extraterrestrial had long since been proven and common knowledge.

Gregory tried to suggest alerting ground control, only to be dismissed with remarks about how he shouldn't tell him how to do his job. Joseph even took it upon himself to password lock everything himself. Only he could communicate with Grounds, only he could access confidential information, view the beads monitors, take inventory for crystals, etc. etc. And with both he and Gregory being required to give updates at least thrice per day, Gregory could only worry his job was already on the line.

Of course, this arose concern in the others. Andy had boarded several crews missions with Joseph in the past with Paulina and rarely had he ever seen him this worn thin. He questioned his train of thought, but as the man put it himself, he had more experience. Better safe than sorry.

This heightens in the form of an off-hand comment Lisa makes after a nice bath.

"That was really refreshing...I needed all that after hearing some rocks scrape against the shuttle all night."

Joseph immediately referenced the outer cameras of the ship. All around, all night, not a single asteroid even grazed the ship's orbiter. The rooms were divided by gender.

The procedures for an alien on-board were an in-depth and expansive living document, unfortunately. And yet all procedures were ignored as Joseph began to expand his theories through hushed instructions peers. Rally the effort before preparing to strike. Plotting out possible move and option.

"It's not Paulina, it's just...Taking the form of her. I say we just make it painless either way. Raise no suspicion...And I'll perform an emergency beads shutdown tonight."

Out all of the crew left aghast, Bobby was the only one to speak up. He insisted to Joseph in private not to cause a scene that to jump to such extreme measures was inhumane — especially with so little foundation and grounds control being left completely unaware. He, like Gregory, was ignored.

Joseph couldn't even bring himself to toss the corpse off the ship. Andy was instructed to do the deed and clean all the remnants of blood. Lisa was forbidden from forgoing missions, sickened by the fact a friend of hers was dead and thus shouldering the guilt and blame based on an offhand comment. All, while dire, seemed to return to status quo. Paulina's cause of death was only informed to grounds control after the fact. After being met with scalding anger by the flight controller for not following protocol, their mission is cancelled immediately as they're ordered to return home. This is a blow to Joseph's ego he could not handle.

Gregory is awoken in the middle of the night by a restless captain.

"There's...'rocks' scraping the ship again, Gregory." He mumbles. "And I think it's coming from Andy."

Joseph starts to unravel, leaving Gregory in charge of piloting the ship for unhealthy stretches of time in order to peddle more theories to Lisa and Bobby about how the blood of Paulina's corpse transmitted alien DNA to Andy, and now he, by some sense of blood transfusion, was no longer Andy. He was an alien, and if slowly shutting down the beads didn't help him, then they needed to get more personal. Someone had to kill Andy with their head on.

Lisa is appalled by Joseph's behavior and demands that he fork over the password to grounds control. The situation is quick to escalate when Lisa retrieves an emergency weapon from cargo, pointing it and Joseph to intimidate him into compliance. When Andy arrives, however, the diversion is long enough to help Joseph divert the weapon in her hand to shoot Andy on spot. With enough force to definitely kill a small alien, Andy is eviscerated on spot. Gregory, who had briefly left the pilots chair in fear of what was happening, had the force of shot falter his balance and leave break his visor as he collapsed to the floor. Retreating back to the pilot's chair, he stops commanding the ship with the sole purpose of cracking the code to ground control, the screams and chaos ensuing behind him doing little to soothe his brain.

It's at this point Bobby's own rationale had faltered considerably since Joseph had first started taking his shapeshifting paranoia to heart. With everyone coated to some degree in blood, even more-so with the knockback with close proximity of the gun, he felt terrible at the brief sense of relief he felt when Joseph seized the gun and aimed at Lisa. She had gotten real sick all of a sudden, after all; nevermind the excruciating grief. Perhaps he was thankful he hadn't been next. There were only three men left now. And with two bodies accompanying them, Joseph and Bobby couldn't help but notice there was only loud scraping instead of a deafening silence.

Joseph took the scraping as not even the advanced weaponry having worked. He runs toward cargo to find another weapon, but Bobby is not only able to outrun him, but disarm him of the gun, accidentally shooting him in the process with his bloodied, slippery fingers when he threw him to the ground.

Gregory's hands flew across the keys. He tried everything he could think of. Joseph was a proud man. A confident man. He came from the same vein the Hills' had in the sense that his family lived and breathed space travel. He had married a woman like Paulina, or "Paulie" as she was a rich childhood sweetheart who always wanted to dive headfirst into the action instead of just wear the end result. The 84Fable-2-B.in was a three year long project, a sequel to the original 84-Fable meant to mine the same and similar planets, with this one being the first spacecraft carriers to include the BIDCs in its system. Before their takeoff, he prattled on and on about he had boarded the original Fable as a mere cadet. And look at him now.

He rattled across the board: Joseph_Paulie84

The entire terminal unlocked. Gregory could barely articulate his happiness. He contacts grounds immediately, but they can barely hear him over the sounds of the scraping. Gregory can barely hear himself over Bobby crying.

He listed the numbers. One — three gunshots. Unless he was actively dying, it was only him and Bobby now. The BIDCS squeezed his body like a human tourniquet. He navigates to the BIDCs monitor. Crying his eyes out, he panics. He can barely see, even out of the broken part of his visor. But the push of the echo of someone— something trudging down the halls pushes him over to preforming an emergency shutdown on his brothers vitals. Too riddled with cowardice to face the squelches and cries behind him. Bobby is dead within minutes.

"Yes...Yes this is the 84-Fable-2-B.in, Gregory Hall, copilot and I'm...Uh...Oh my God, there's an emergency — there was an emergency here. Everyone's dead."

"...Mr. Hall, what happened?"

"An alien. Th-the commander, Joseph, h-he told us aliens were all shapeshifting, taking the forms of everyone else. There have been at least two emergency bea—BIDCs shutdowns—"

"I'm reviewing the data from the Fable now Mr. Hall, there isn't a thing on there."

"...What?"

"Not a single foreign dot on the grid. Well, unless you want to count those crystals. There's so damn many of them not stashed away to protocol at all. Didn't anyone tell your captain how loud of a racket those things make when they haven't been polished or sterilized?"

"...This isn't right."

"How many are dead, Mr. Hall. Now, I see five bodies but the briefing says six boarded the ship."

"This isn't right."

The mic is wrestled from the controller's hands right as he begins to spout curses at Gregory's incompetence. Before a metered, calm voice of a woman takes the reigns however, Gregory cut the signal. He was left staring at a vivid screen. The same he always wanted to be in front of, up close, watching sci-fi shows and flicks with his brother.

Gregory felt a pit in his stomach. Something was missing here. A piece of him; an entire half, ripped straight from the bone.

His dry eyes stung behind the visor, despite the dim lighting. The light green colors no longer felt 'cool' to him.

Gregory collapsed to the tiled floor. He didn't feel like himself anymore.

Laid bare, isolated and alone, he felt like at the end of it all, only he felt like he truly wasn't himself anymore.

#@ the witching hour #scuffle with art #scuffle with a pen #rbs appreciated!#yipPEEEE WE'RE DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#also um. um. amogus #i swera i did n't fucking mean to have the last fucking story be a fucking among us ref #I DID realize after I had wrote it all but only when I had too much written and it was too late

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waterfiltergurus · 1 year ago

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6 Brands of Bottled Water Without Fluoride (Reviewed [year])

Best Overall Evian Natural Spring Water Our Rating★★★★★ Source: Cachat Spring Carbonation: Still Origin: French Alps Packaging: PET TDS: 345 mg/L pH: 7.2 Fluoride: 0.10 ppm Best Affordable Poland Spring Water Our Rating★★★★★ Source: Spring Carbonation: Still Origin: Poland, Maine Packaging Type: PET TDS: 38-120 mg/L pH: 7.2 Fluoride: 0.10 ppm Best Naturally Filtered Icelandic Glacial Natural Spring Alkaline Water Our Rating★★★★★ Source: Ölfus Spring Carbonation: Still Origin: Iceland Packaging: rPET TDS: 62 mg/L pH: 8.4 Fluoride: 0 ppm Looking for the best bottled water brands without fluoride? In this guide, we've shared our top picks for the best fluoride-free bottled waters available today, based on their fluoride concentration, purity, taste, value for money, and more. 🥇 Best Bottled Water Without Fluoride - Best Overall: Evian Natural Spring Water - Best Affordable: Poland Spring Water - Best Naturally Filtered: Icelandic Glacial Natural Spring Alkaline Water - Best Distilled: Smartwater Vapor Distilled Premium Water - Best Alkaline Water: Essentia Ionized Alkaline Bottled Water - Best In Glass Bottles: Acqua Panna Toscana Spring Water 📊 Comparison Chart of Best Bottled Water Without Fluoride ⭐ Reviews – Best Brands Of Fluoride-Free Bottled Water Best Overall Our Rating★★★★★ Evian Natural Spring Water In our opinion, the best overall bottled water without fluoride is the Evian Natural Spring Water. Source: Cachat Spring Carbonation: Still Origin: French Alps Packaging: PET TDS: 345 mg/L pH: 7.2 Fluoride: 0.10 ppm Evian bottled water has two advantages: it comes from a natural spring, so it's naturally free from fluoride, and it's more affordable than most other bottled spring water brands. The Evian water bottle label says it contains just 0.1 ppm of fluoride - an extremely low amount. But the lack of fluoride doesn't mean that Evian water is low in other minerals that enhance its taste. It's high in calcium (80 mg/L) and silica, giving it a smooth, crisp taste. Its TDS count is just 345 mg/L, and its pH is a neutral 7.2, despite the high mineral content. Evian water is sourced from a town on the outskirts of the French Alps. It's spring water that has been gradually filtered through glacial rocks for over a decade, resulting in pure, low-TDS, naturally-filtered water. Pros - Naturally very low in fluoride - Neutral pH for a balanced taste - High in healthy minerals Cons - Not the most eco-conscious choice due to being shipped from France - Still more expensive than some brands Best Affordable Our Rating★★★★★ Poland Spring Water You shouldn't have to spend a fortune on fluoride-free water on the go, as proven by Poland Spring water. This popular bottled water is distilled, so it contains very little-to-no fluoride, and it's more affordable than many of the bottled spring water brands due to its municipal water source. Source: Spring Carbonation: Still Origin: Poland, Maine Packaging Type: PET TDS: 38-120 mg/L pH: 7.2 Fluoride: 0.10 ppm Poland Spring water is sourced from 10 different locations across Maine. It has slightly different TDS counts (38 – 120 mg/L) and pH values (6.6 to 8.2) depending on the water source, but one thing that appears to stay consistent is its lack of fluoride. The water has a light taste that may vary depending on the exact water source of the particular bottle in question. Pros - One of the most affordable bottled water brands with sub-detectable fluoride levels - Widely available in most stores across the US - Distillation process removes all other impurities Cons - pH and TDS levels aren't consistent - Doesn't taste as good as naturally filtered spring water Best Naturally Filtered Our Rating★★★★★ Icelandic Glacial Natural Spring Alkaline Water If you're looking for the best naturally filtered fluoride-free bottled water, we think the Icelandic Glacial Natural Spring Alkaline Water can't be beaten. Source: Ölfus Spring Carbonation: Still Origin: Iceland Packaging: rPET TDS: 62 mg/L pH: 8.4 Fluoride: 0.0 ppm This premium bottled water product is sourced from Iceland's Ölfus Springs after it has traveled through the region's lava rocks for more than 5,000 years. The result is clean, pure, natural spring water that's naturally free from impurities including fluoride. Icelandic Glacial water has a pH of around 8.4, making it naturally alkaline, despite its low mineral content and TDS (62 mg/L). It has a pure, smooth, and refreshing taste, with no artificial flavorings or additives. Pros - Undetectable fluoride levels - Naturally purified for thousands of years - High alkalinity & pH for improved taste Cons - Not the most environmentally friendly water due to the need to be shipped to the US - Lower levels of healthy minerals Best Distilled Our Rating★★★★★ Smartwater Vapor Distilled Premium Water The Smartwater Vapor Distilled Premium Water distilled is our top choice for anyone who wants the reassurance of fluoride- and impurity-free distilled bottled water. Source: British springs Carbonation: Still Origin: Morpeth, Northumberland Packaging: PET1 TDS: 27 mg/l pH: 7.0 Fluoride: 0.0 ppm This purified water product is sourced from British springs before being treated with vapor distillation - a process of boiling the water until it evaporates, separating it from all dissolved impurities, including fluoride. Smartwater bottled water is said to be "fluoride-free" and contains undetectable levels of fluoride. Distilled water is known to have a "flat" or "plain" taste due to its lack of minerals, but Smartwater contains added electrolytes, giving it a fresh, crisp, alkaline taste and the health benefits of added minerals, including calcium chloride, potassium, chloride, and magnesium. The water has a neutral pH, and it's also sold in an alkaline option with a pH of 9.5. Pros - Free from fluoride and all other dissolved impurities - Enhanced with electrolytes - Widely available Cons - Quite expensive - Little evidence that water with electrolytes is better for you than other water Best Alkaline Water Our Rating★★★★★ Essentia Ionized Alkaline Bottled Water If you're looking for an alkaline fluoride-free bottled water that has a high pH and mineral content, we think you can't go wrong with Essentia Ionized Alkaline Bottled Water. Source: Local water supply Carbonation: Still Origin: USA Packaging Type: PET TDS: Read the full article

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