#edit post 3.3: IT WAS NOT SYMBOLIC

[evercelle]

then i’ll unmake me

[pocarinapyon]

[Mild] Naughty Journal Sumeru Edition

Imagine having a journal dedicated for jotting down all [lewd] fantasies about that certain hot guy. But then one thing led to another and now mister certain hot guy learns of your indecent thoughts towards him. What happens next?

Contents include [Journal Entry Highlights] and [How they find out about your secret and their reaction].

Starring : Alhaitham, Cyno, Kaveh, Tighnari, Wanderer (Separate)

Tags / Warnings : 🌶 [Mild Chili] Suggestive themes; Stalking; Masturbating; Stray cuss words; (Me) fangirling over Alhaitham; A hint of drama / feeling insecure if you squint; Implication of human trafficking; Mentions of being affected by posion mushroom (please, do not carelessly approach, eat, or touch mushrooms unless confirmed they are safe); (Over exposure to) Aphrodisiac; Tighnari's scene 😳; etc.

I have no beta reader so...yes. Sorry if there are grammatical / spelling errors.

Also, most scenes are on or before version 3.3 because I have been slacking on my Archon Quest.

Future Plan : Chilis Naughty Journal Sumeru Edition; But first, I will finish the ones listed in Teasers Maltesers (Jan 13)

Links : Pinned Post, [Mild] Naughty Journal ft. Albedo, Childe, Diluc, Kaeya (Separate), [Chilis] Naughty Journal ft. Albedo, Childe, Diluc, Kaeya (Separate), [Mild + Chili] Naughty Journal Scaramouche Request, Teasers Maltesers (Jan 13)

Note : [W/N] means Wanderer's Name.

Target audience is female (bodied) reader.

To whoever is reading, please enjoy and look forward to [NSFW Ending] in the far future.

——————————————————

📚 ALHAITHAM

Journal Entry Highlights :

> In all honesty, the only reason why I am working hard as a scholar is not for the prestige or the Akademiya. 🙄

> Who cares if I graduated from the Akademiya?

> Now, I just want a good reason to interact with the scribe.

> Will I ever catch the full, undivided attention of our virile scribe? 🥺

> Archons look at those rock hard muscles 🤤🥩

> And down there, I bet he has a big juicy package. 🤤🌭

> HOW CAN YOU CALL THAT A SCHOLAR??!

> I've never taken a penis before but I sure as hell would not mind if Alhaitham breaks my mouth or pussy. 🥺🥵

> *based on observations and approximations, insert Alhaitham's length and girth when flaccid and when erected complete with an "as close as possible" drawing of his penis*

> *insert detailed fantasies of you and Alhaitham doing the deed and recording it using the Akasha... For future reference 👀*

> *insert calculations of how long Alhaitham would last in bed*

> *insert details of how you masturbate to Alhaitham*

> *insert fantasies of how Alhaitham masturbates and where his preferred spots are*

> Fuck, I want Alhaitham to breed me so bad! 🥵

> *insert something like Punnett Square here*

> *insert description of your offsprings based on calculation and data*

> I need to become a better scholar so I can be a worthy breeding material. ❤️

How they find out about your secret and their reaction :

“Excuse me,” you modestly asked the group of students perched on a bench outside the Akademiya. "Have you seen a [favourite colour] journal with a dendro symbol engraved on its cover?"

"No. Did you lose your journal?" eyeing you from head to toe, one of the students asked curtly.

"Why would a researcher lose their journal? Only an unsystematic person who's incapable of passing the Akademiya would do that," another responded.

"I believe the correct question is: why would a researcher not use the Akasha? Don't tell me you don't know how to utilize it?" the last of the group mocked.

To this, the students laughed.

Of course. As expected from the people of the Akademiya. Most of them were a bunch of entitled pricks and this group - luckily - was one of them. Why did you even bother asking nicely?

Regardless if they were kind or not, you still had to act friendly. Why? Because it was an emergency. Your notebook full of Alhaitham smut was missing. Five days already passed and still the naughty journal was yet to be seen. You figured no one would take interest in a non-academic-looking journal but it seems you were wrong...hopefully. Archons, all you wanted was to have your notebook in your arms.

A defeated sigh escaped your lips. You were desperate to look for it and inquiring with people was your last resort. You never really had your hopes up but you figured it was worth a shot. Apparently, retracing your steps bore no fruit. Now, it didn't matter if a commoner or even the General Mahamatra found the item. As long as Alhaitham himself doesn't know, you were contented. Why?

Because he was a bookworm. The last time you were sure you were in possession of your debauchery-filled notebook was when you saw the scrivener and sneaked behind him to ogle at his build. When you arrived at your room to add a lewd entry, lo and behold the journal was gone. Imagine what if the scribe found it?

Agh! Whatever! Maybe the young man was right. Maybe you were unsystematic. Maybe your writing, like majority of your academic paper, was already in the trash. It made sense because you weren't from a family of scholars, anyway.

Exhausted, you shook your head, chose to tune out the discourteous remarks thrown at you and flee the scene.

"It seems you three are not in the know," a manly voice said.

That voice! You'd recognize that even if you were blindfolded! Of course you'd love to hear his voice anytime but you'd prefer it in a more expressive manner.

For example, hearing him grunt as he fucks you deep.

"The reason why Miss [your name] decided to instead utilize a hand-written journal is because of the sensitive data in her research. Its details are not yet in the Akasha and it is strictly not intended for audiences such as yourselves," Alhaitham reasoned. "Miss, did your assistant misplace your notes?"

OMG! OMG! Alhaitham - THE Alhaitham - was talking to you!

"Yes. It is as you said," you choked out, riding along his speculation.

Alhaitham was wrong about you having an assistant but he was right about the data being sensitive.

Anyway, the point was!

The point was! Alhaitham, your sexy academic stud, interacted with you! And he defended you against these pups!

However, proud people, when their exaggerated self-esteem is trampled upon, would retaliate.

"Not for audiences such as ourselves? Are you calling us less-learned?? You are just a scribe!" one of the students grouched.

"Dear, did you know that being a scribe requires a high level of education?" you calmly retorted, crossing your arms as elegantly as possible.

Keep cool! Keep cool! The toothsome scrivener was watching!

"What do you mean? A scribe only serves as a public secretary, nothing more!"

"A scribe, my dear, is a LEARNED person who indeed serves as a copyist, among other roles. Tell us then, how do you think can a scribe produce academically correct and non-ambiguous reports if he does not understand the data given to him?" you raised an eyebrow as you questioned the dumbfounded students. How dare they talk smack against your stud??

You could see it in their eyes. They wanted to argue back but they learned, based from the word definition in the Akasha, that you were right. They still had an insignificant probability to win the debate but you didn't want them to actually come up with a retort. Showing no mercy against pip-squeaks like these, your favourite trump card was-

"It seems you lack the vocabulary - something a student such as yourselves should expand. You are all from [Darshan], correct? Perhaps I should suggest to add linguistics courses to you all so you may enrich your knowledge."

Additional subjects to extend the academic years recommended by an alumnus. Who would want that, right?

"Ahem! N - no need," a student quickly replied.

The three students hurriedly gathered their belongings and scrambled to their feet.

"We didn't find any [favourite colour] notebook. Try somewhere else," they said before dashing away with their tails between their legs.

Alhaitham let out an amused chuckle. Knowing the scribe rarely showed any emotions, you wanted to see what kind of expression was he making. However, you were too embarrassed to look at your saviour.

"Ahem...," you noised. "Thank you."

With this, you finally had the courage to face Alhaitham. As usual, he had a serious look on his face - similar to a person who had not had coffee in the morning. In response to your gratitude, he simply nodded.

"You ought to be careful," the scribe spoke.

"Yes, you're right. Thank you," you responded rather too quickly as Alhaitham's next move drained the colors on your face.

It was as you feared. Alhaitham had your naughty journal - your oh-so-sinful diary. All you could do was freeze and stare at the object as he nonchalantly handed it to you. In your mind, you calculated the probability of the scribe reading your notes.

After a few seconds of what seemed to you like years, Alhaitham noised to catch your attention, his hands still in the air to return your item. You stuttered and shakily took the notebook from the man.

"T - Thank you...," you squeaked quietly, now red as a henna berry.

Around ninety-nine percent. That was how likely he read your notes.

"It would be troublesome if someone else found your journal. Luckily for you, it was an eremite. He did not understand its contents and nearly decided to hand it over to the nearest scholar around. But when he flipped the pages and saw a drawing of me, he deemed I was its best recipient."

So, the eremite did not see your lewd drawings? Or did he not understand you drew some penises?

"I applaud how detailed your entries are. Your thorough descriptions assists in picturing the narrated erotic scenes. Even the way how you and I masturbated were vividly represented."

"You've read it?!" you gasped in surprise.

You shrank. Obviously he read it. If he didn't, he would not know you wrote something about masturbating, right? You should have known a percent probability meant a trivial chance.

"Th - Then earlier, with those students...?"

"What I said was true, wasn't it? The information contained in that journal are all sensitive. I believe I also mentioned they are not suitable audiences to read these notes," Alhaitham responded plainly, as if the situation was not embarrassing at all. Well, for him it wasn't.

"W - wha...! B - But, when you said it is not in the Akasha terminal...?!" you stuttered again, spouting nonsense as your thoughts were occupied in recalling all the lewd entries you had written in your notebook.

"Another fact," Alhaitham simply replied before issuing a warning. "Although an Akasha terminal can be used to record events, I would advise against it."

He then proceeded to discuss why it was not ideal to utilize the Akasha in recording, especially pornographic scenes. Of course, you weren't a kid and you knew the dos and don'ts, yet the scribe reprimanded you as if you actually did a don't.

"I understand, thank you. It was just a fantasy, though," was all you could utter after the brief lecture, to which Alhaitham hummed in response.

“Oh, and one more thing,” he added.

The scribe pinned you against the wall while gazing into your eyes, making you squeal and feel your legs turn jelly. His intent stare was as if he was deciphering your very core. You squeezed your thighs and waited for his next words.

"You should correct your data. Compared to what you have declared, my penis is bigger, and my stamina and erection can last longer."

What??

You were stunned at Alhaitham's bold declaration, gawking as vulgar scenes flashed into your mind. Your pussy cried love juice and excitedly clenched at nothing. So he was bigger? If you two did the deed, would he fit?? And if he did, how long would he pound your poor untrained pussy???

Why would he reveal such things in the first place?!

As if pinning you wasn't enough for a tease, the scribe blessed you with a seductive smirk before whispering in your ear.

"I can provide you actual data if you wish."

----------

🐺 CYNO

Journal Entry Highlights :

> The General Mahamatra always look so serious

> I mean, his job must be so stressful, right? 😳

> He must have a lot of pent-up desires, right? 😳😳

> *insert fantasy wherein you suggest giving Cyno head to ease his tension*

> *insert fantasy wherein Cyno lets out his sexual frustrations on you*

> RAWR I BET HE'S GOING TO BE ROUGH 🥵😏

> *insert fantasy wherein Cyno fucks you all evening*

> "Heh... You're finally awake. I've already dumped a couple of loads into you. Your pussy is literally oozing out my cum."

> If Cyno would punish me, I hope it would be sexual torture 🥵😏

> *insert roleplay fantasy here wherein you are hunted down by Cyno and he uses you as a cum dump instead*

> Feel free to use my body, sir 🥵

> But in all seriousness, I hope he gets to relax, even for just a few minutes 🥺

> *insert sweet fluffy scenes with Cyno here*

> *insert cute domestic scenes here*

> Speaking of which, I heard him telling a joke once. I shouldn't pry but... I don't know if I'll laugh at the joke itself, or his delivery, or his poker face, or his long explanation! 🤣

> His joke went like : *insert Cyno's joke here*

> *insert more of Cyno's jokes here*

> *insert your own personal comeback or supplement to his jokes*

> If we are going to have babies, I bet Cyno would pass down all his jokes as inheritance

> Cute desert babies!! 😍❤️

How they find out about your secret and their reaction :

You excitedly packed your belongings, smiling happily at the thought of traveling with expenses already paid.

"You've always wanted to go there, right? Well, you're in luck as I have to conduct research in the area. Why don't you join me? I'll cover your lodging."

It was a too-good-to-be-true opportunity - too appealing that you did not let it pass even when you had some doubts. Anyway, surely your friend would not scam you when they said you could tag along in their journey free of charge. You had your own money so even if they did make you contribute Mora, you were prepared.

As a scholar of Amurta, you wanted to learn more about life behind The Wall of Samiel. In this trip, maybe you could practice adapting in the desert. Maybe you could learn more about the desert people's culture and preferences. You know, just in case you and Cyno decided to have kids and settle down in the desert.

Which was impossible, currently. Because number one: Cyno was a dedicated General Mahamatra. And number two: Cyno had no clue you and him were dating.

"Hi, thanks for letting me join you in your research!" you immediately greeted your friend with gratitude.

"No problem! We have to hurry, though. We don't want to be late on our accommodations," your friend brushed off, focusing on their map and beckoning you to pick up the pace.

You got to your meeting place thirty minutes early yet your friend made it seem you were late. Whatever, you couldn't complain. You were benefitting from this expedition anyway. Instead of grumbling, you acted like a sensible adult, did as instructed, and darted to where your friend ran off to.

"Uhm... Is this the right way to Caravan Ribat?" you confirmed, huffing as you tried to speak while jogging.

"No. We won't be passing through Caravan Ribat," your friend responded, making you think for a second.

Why wouldn't you go through Caravan Ribat? Was there another route you could use to travel to the desert? Where exactly were you two going to stay anyway? Before you could voice your doubts, your companion moved on to talk about their research.

You and your friend discussed academics without forgetting to hurry your pace. It was a long travel, almost as if you were trying to make a stray cat lost, but the conversation you had made the trip enjoyable. Soon enough, you indeed both reached the desert.

You marveled at its wonderful sight, a scenery totally different from the rainforests and greeneries you were used to. You saw henna berries and wondered if you could make a dish Cyno would like. You also saw scarabs and thought how hard-working they seemed - pretty much like the General Mahamatra. Another creature that reminded you of the man was the desert fox, because you find them both cute.

Marching forward, you saw wooden structures on the distance. Was that the place you were headed? You did not expect it to be livable, though. Far from it, in fact. In a place like that, what would you do if a sandstorm occurred? Where would you get water for drinking? What about for hygiene? How-

"Well, well. Look who we have here," a rough voice greeted you both. "Purchasing one wasn't enough for you, eh?"

Three eremites popped out from hiding and surrounded you, all of them wearing a grin that spelled trouble.

"I have the goods," your friend declared.

"W - what's going on...? You brought them goods? What goods?" you nervously asked as your flight senses screamed at you.

"Sorry, [your name]," was all your friend said to you while grabbing your arm. "I have the girl. Now, where are my canned knowledge?"

"What?! Let me go, now!!" you yelped, kicked, and resisted. With a successful punch, you managed to free yourself from the traitor's grasp before falling prey to one of the eremite's strong hold. "Nooo! Let! Me!! Go!!!"

"Haha! She looks feisty. I like it!" an eremite said, eyeing you from head to toe. He licked his lips and it clarified what would become of you if you didn't escape.

"Good! Good! This almost looks like an excellence exchange. Except we need to sample your goods first," another one commented.

"She's a hindrance to my research. Do what you want with her, I don't care. As long as you give me the canned knowledge," the bastard you once considered friend revealed as they gave you a scornful look.

The foul declaration made your stomach churn. So this was the reason why your instincts told you to decline the offer. You should have known and listened.

"Well, aren't you too eager? You hear that, girl? We're going to have loads of fun with you," to this, the three eremites guffawed and started touching your defenseless body.

You struggled against the tight hold on you. It didn't matter if you ended up with broken bones. Escape was far more important than anything else right now.

But something distracted them - something behind you made one eremite look wary and draw his sword. Meanwhile, your bastard colleague's face turned pale, suddenly shrieking and bolting away faster than lightning.

Cyno, the General Mahamatra, was here.

Your saviour easily dealt with the small group of eremites before instructing you to stay put. You did as told and watched your self-declared boyfriend go after the treacherous scholar. In less than thirty minutes, Cyno returned with your now unconscious acquaintance, their crotch area wet from fear.

Cyno scanned you from head to toe. He already captured his target but it seems there might be one more. Judging from the way you trembled, you were either hiding something illegal or still in shock.

"Trading canned knowledge is strictly prohibited," he initiated.

"I am aware," you responded weakly, shaking from both fear and excitement. "I - I was nearly sold for canned knowledge by that person. Thank you for saving me."

Cyno's eyes widened momentarily. So that was why you were in a compromising position earlier. He noted to make sure to double this person's punishment.

To investigate further, the General Mahamatra questioned you about the situation to which you obliged.

"Where are the canned knowledge?"

"I don't know," you said sheepishly as you felt pressured not knowing the answer. "I'm not even sure if these eremites really possessed them in the first place. But they did mention something about buying once was not enough?"

Cyno once again studied your movements. Your accounts and his information about this person matched. Plus, you seemed to be telling the truth. To formally conclude his investigation, he needed to check your belongings and ensure you did not possess canned knowledge or anything else that was prohibited.

Punishment did not scare you. You knew you were innocent so you let Cyno freely scan your stuff. He ran through your clothes - including your cute undies; your academic notes and books; your sufficient-just-for-travel Mora; your own Casket of Tomes; your naughty journal.

Oh, right! You had it with you in fear that someone might stumble upon it while you were away. You gasped loudly; colors drained your face as you watched Cyno open the notebook. This prompted the General Mahamatra to think the daybook contained something along the lines of academic fraud or plagiarism. An evidence of misdeed.

But what he discovered was far from what he assumed. Now he understood why you were horrified. Nothing has ever fazed him before but this - this was just too much that the quiet Cyno was left even more speechless. Almost everything written in the journal was all about your horny thoughts towards him.

Almost but not all.

You dreaded the passing minutes. Wait, was perverting the General Mahamatra illegal? It's not like you were publicly doing it, right? It was just a journal after all, something akin to therapy. In any case, you waited for Cyno's verdict.

"So...," Cyno coughed, hiding the embarrassment coursing through his body after browsing through your notes. "You...liked my joke?"

Cyno focused on the less bawdy information in your notes. He may not show it but you knew he was pleased. Still, it did not immediately dispel the shame you felt from being exposed.

"U - uhm - yes. Yes, I do...," you answered bashfully.

"You had an impressive addition for the joke about sumpter beasts. Do you mind if I use that joke myself?"

"Oh! I - uh - I don't mind. Please feel free."

"And you play Genius Invocation TCG too?"

"Yeah, I do. I watched you play once and you looked so cool. I started learning recently so I'm not as skilled as you."

"And you're my girlfriend?"

"I - I was just fantasizing!! Sorry!" you yipped. "It will not get me in trouble, will it?"

This Cyno. You were starting to relax around him! Why did he have to bring up an embarrassing topic? Wait. Was that an amused smile on his face? It must be, otherwise you were hallucinating under the scorching heat.

Cyno nodded before putting all your stuff neatly back in place.

"You're cleared. I'll escort you back home before handing this researcher for trial, and I will make sure it will be a severe one on your behalf. Be extra cautious next time," he concluded, handing you your backpack. "After this, when can I see you again?"

----------

🏛 KAVEH

Journal Entry Highlights :

> My Kaveh is not like any other scholar and I am so proud of him! ❤️

> He is so approachable and he is not snobbish (as others) and he is so open-minded and ❤️❤️

> Notice me please, sir ❤️❤️❤️

> If I told him I was dying and I needed him to fuck me as cure, will he do it? 😳👀👀‼️

> *insert crack / smut scenario wherein you ask Kaveh to cure you through sex*

> No, of course I would not stoop as low

> No, he is not the reason why I chose the Darshan Kshahrewar 🙄

> But he is the reason why I stayed 😏

> Why does he have to be so nice?? It's giving me mixed signals!! 😭😭

> If he and I were to be together... 🥺😍❤️

> Out of all the scholars in Sumeru, I want Kaveh to be my spouse ❤️

> *insert drafts / designs of dream house and rooms here*

> Sir, please give me babies. ❤️

> *insert Kaveh smut here*

> *insert portraits of Kaveh here*

> *insert more smut here wherein you and Kaveh had done the deed in every. single. room*

How they find out about your secret and their reaction :

“Excuse me, Kaveh, sir!” you approached the blonde-haired man seated on the library, drafting away on a sheet of paper. The desk was fully occupied by him as his tools and other materials took up much space.

"Hello!" Kaveh greeted and despite getting distracted, he smiled pleasantly at you.

Noticing the cute lion hairclip and the adorable accessories, he recognized his favourite junior immediately: someone whose ideas were akin to his. [Your name].

Other scholars, regardless of their Darshan, had always judged you wrong. Your sense of style, both in appearance and in work approach, always gave them the initial impression that you did not have what it takes to graduate.

Yet here you were, an accomplished architect standing in front of him.

"Just Kaveh will do, you know? So how can I help you?" he asked, resting his cheeks on his knuckles, happy to see a like-minded soul.

"Yes, uhm...," you said bashfully, stifling a giggle that's about to burst from you. "I'm looking for the scribe-"

"Why??" he immediately cut, straightening his body and squinting at you disapprovingly.

You almost laughed at your senior's reaction. You knew he liked to complain about his roommate - his benefactor - and you took advantage of this just so you could have extra time to talk to the architect. You could have gone straight to your concern without mentioning Alhaitham but no, you just had to.

"Isn't he supposed to be in his office? Wait, of course he isn't! You wouldn't be asking me otherwise if he were there, right?" Kaveh grumbled. To this, you finally let out a laugh and apologized immediately. "Ugh! Seriously! So, why did you need him anyway?"

"He rejected my application form," you sighed, showing your senior the request form you filled out with a big red REJECT mark on it.

Kaveh took your form and beckoned you to take the seat beside him. You happily obliged, patiently waiting for your crush to review your request for accessing archived materials. Judging by the look on his face, you knew he was going to complain yet again.

"This looks properly written! I don't understand why Alhaitham would decline this?!" Kaveh bursted, huffing as he re-read what you wrote for the nth time. "You even explained why you needed the materials, for what project, for whom, and for how long. See! These are complete details! Geez...! That guy..."

"Pfft... Ahem...," you wanted to laugh out loud, really, but you were in a library. On the other hand, Kaveh had no problems being loud in a quiet place like this. "I want to know why my request got denied as well, so I was thinking of asking him personally," you reasoned.

"No need!" the architecture puffed, handing the paper back to you. "Just file another request with the EXACT SAME CONTENTS. If he approves that then he is so going to get a piece of my mind!"

"Thank you for your advice."

Kaveh looked so cute. The pout on his lips indicated he was displeased with the matter. Then a smirk formed on his face as he imagined his win on the debate against the scribe.

"Sorry if I disturbed you," standing up, you told the daydreaming man.

"Hehe. It's no problem," Kaveh replied who was suddenly in a good mood after his outburst. "Let me know if your request gets approved, okay?"

"I will. Thank you."

...

"Ugh!! I swear he could be so unreasonable sometimes! No, make that all the time!" Kaveh grumbled yet again after finding out Alhaitham rejected your request.

"It's okay. He recommended another book so I did gain something," as much as you liked Kaveh, you still defended Alhaitham because he indeed suggested a better alternative.

"If you ask me, he should have lent you the other one as well. For extra inspiration, you know?" Kaveh pouted as he sensed he lost the chance to impress you and you were siding with his roommate.

This time, you agreed with the architect's reasoning and nodded in agreement. He sighed and decided to stop the Alhaitham slander.

"By the way... What do you think about this design?" the renowned architect asked, showing you his craft. He then proceeded to explain his client's request and discussed the idea behind his design in line with the requirements.

You were humbled immediately. Why would your senior ask for your advice? You were his junior and he was way better than you! You should be getting recommendations from him instead! Despite the thoughts plaguing you, you tried to take in the details he provided.

"So basically, that's what the couple wanted for their vacation lot."

"Isn't this confidential?" was your first response after he was done talking.

"Meh... Yeah," Kaveh replied carelessly with a shrug. "It's okay if it's you. Your opinion matters to me."

Your opinion matters to me. See, this was why you liked Kaveh.

"Uhm - if you say so...," you said nervously as you finally tried to gather your thoughts.

"Don't panic!" Kaveh urged, knowing fully well why your hands trembled. "I wouldn't be asking just anybody, you know?" he encouraged, giving you a persuasive wink.

You blushed at the man. At times like this, you wanted to burst and admit that you liked - no - loved him so much. But you were afraid you might just be reading too much, hallucinating that his actions were advances. He was just a nice, expressive man, that's all.

You shook your head, took in a deep breath, and focused on what your senior asked you.

"This. If the client wanted to go for that kind of feel, then I think...," you murmured while drawing a design on a separate sheet of paper.

Kaveh's smile never once disappeared on his face. Chin on his knuckles, with much adoration, he watched you draw alternatives for his design. If only he could help you trust your abilities a little more.

You and Kaveh shared ideas back and forth, igniting more inspirational thoughts within each other which led you to accomplish the draft he needed to do. He proudly raised the design and admired the finished product.

"This, [your name], right here, is our child," he declared, complimenting each and every detail on the masterpiece.

"Calling it our child is too much, don't you think?" you squeaked, afraid he might catch on to your secret feelings.

"No, it's not! It is exactly what it is!" Kaveh whined, pouting at your disapproving remarks. "Look, this right here was your idea-"

Kaveh went on with his praises, jubilantly reminding the impressive job you and he did together as a "couple".

...

This table.

This table was where you and Kaveh made a child together days ago. Sadly, it wasn't a real kid, but a project together was still something. You placed your stuff down, took out your materials, and let your brain work. It was time for you to make your own draft.

You scribbled away. You drew and drew yet the outcome did not meet your expectations. This was not what your client wanted. Yes, you had inspiration, but your ideas were all about life with Kaveh. You sighed and decided to make another entry on your private journal.

On a blank page, you started to design a bedroom. You meticulously detailed the area, taking into account where you wanted the sun's rays to be; how you expected the beddings to look like; what pattern should the curtains and rugs have; etcetera etcetera. All the little things. Just as you were about to make the finishing touch-

"Is that your dream room?" a very recognizable voice crept from behind.

"Kaveh!!" you squealed, slamming your notebook shut in trepidation.

Noticing the sketch was drawn in a notebook, Kaveh assumed it contained designs of your personal tastes. He grinned at you mischievously, waiting for a right moment.

"Y - you scared me...," you wheezed, slowly hiding the notebook away which your senior did not fail to notice.

Kaveh really did give you a fright. Luckily, there wasn't anything unusual on your splayed journal - just your recently drawn bedroom design. Archons, if he were to see the previous contents-

"Hey, can I see?"

"No!" you immediately reacted.

"Why not? Come on! Just a peek?" Kaveh pleaded.

There you were again, hiding your talent.

Complimenting your skills and praising your craft was the only thing Kaveh could do. Anything more might creep you out and make you avoid him. He wished you gave him a chance.

"No! It's embarrassing...!" you begged, almost throwing your notebook back into your bag but Kaveh was quick to stop you.

He shouldn't but he needed to resort to extreme measures.

"Hehe, got it!" Kaveh teased, now holding your naughty journal.

"No! Kaveh, stop!" you pleaded but the tall man disregarded your request.

He immediately flipped on the back of the notebook. Judging from his reaction, from the way he hummed in approval, he was looking at the recent drawing. Good. There was hope that your dirty secret remains as is.

"You saw it. Now can I get it back?" you tried yet from the way you croaked, failed to hide how defensive you sounded.

"Aww... Why would your hide something this pretty?" Kaveh cooed, flipping through the previous page.

"Wait-!!" was all you could utter.

You stood there as equally frozen as Kaveh. In the page currently exposed was an art of him holding a rolled blueprint. Hearts of unequal sizes were littered everywhere and a speech bubble quoting "This, [your name], right here, is our child! ❤️" was directed to him. The red Kaveh, with saucerlike mouth, glanced at you and saw how flustered you were - you almost wanted to vanish.

Yet he continued.

Kaveh flipped through the pages and saw more entries. Some were architectural designs which included remarks as to why you think Kaveh would like it or why it was constructed as such should you and Kaveh married each other. Other drawings were of him in different poses and expressions, all of which had hearts here and there. At times, speech bubbles were present and he remembered these quotes were the exact words he told you. The most interesting of all the entries were the long texts. There were scattered lewd words and from there, he knew they were smut.

"You like me??!" Kaveh shrieked. "For how long now???"

His whole head was now burning red, you could almost see smoke coming out of his ears, nose, and mouth. He was so surprised that he had to lean back while placing a hand on his chest, gawking at you in astonishment.

You were equally as red as him and you wanted cry. In fact, tears already formed in your eyes. One more word from Kaveh and you were sure to grovel in despair.

"W - Wait! Wait! No! No! Don't cry...!" the blonde-haired man panicked, fidgeting if he should approach you or let you be or what to say or-

And then the tears fell followed by restrained sniffles and soft quaking of your shoulders.

"Oh no, no, no...!" Kaveh blurted, dashing to hold you in his arms and press your face onto his chest.

Archons, this was so embarrassing.

"Kaveh...!" you whimpered, to weak to do anything at all.

You liked him. That couldn't be right. Not when he held onto a conflicting piece of information.

"Argh! You're coming with me!" Kaveh spouted.

He packed your things, chucking everything carelessly in your bag, before dragging you to a more secluded area outside the Akademiya.

The garden. You and him alone together in the garden would have been romantic had it not been for the events earlier. The moment he stopped dragging you, he immediately clarified.

"Didn't you say you liked Alhaitham??"

"Huh?" was your response as you snuffled in confusion, still recovering from the awkward situation.

Really, this man could fluster you in many ways.

"Alhaitham. You told me you liked Alhaitham," Kaveh repeated, now more serious in his tone.

"When...?" your forehead wrinkled tightly, now getting annoyed and confused at the sudden accusation.

"Back when you were a student! You mentioned you had a crush on Alhaitham once and that was the first time you approached me. You told me you wanted to know my friend's name then you asked about your project so we worked on it together-"

And then it dawned on him. It wasn't Alhaitham. It was never Alhaitham. That guy was just your excuse so you could talk with each other. An icebreaker. Kaveh prided himself to be more knowledgeable in reading emotions yet he missed this very important pattern.

Your forehead was still tightly knitted, red puffy eyes glaring angrily at him. Archons, from all that happened earlier, you probably hated him now. But he had to do this, otherwise he won't have any other chance.

"So, you like me?" Kaveh, still not learning his lesson, badgered. You huffed out loud, exasperated with his antics. "No - just! I want to hear it from you! Do you like me?"

"Yes. Are you happy now?"

Did he really have to make you say it? Wasn't invading your journal enough??

"Really??" Kaveh beamed.

Why was he happy? Did he-

"I like you too, you know!" Kaveh bursted in excitement. "Archons, you should have told me from the start! All this time I thought you liked Alhaitham."

At this point, you weren't sure if you should believe him.

"What's with that look? Come on. I'm not lying! Hey, so, since we like each other, can we start dating now? Or will you give me the permission to properly court you?"

----------

🍄 TIGHNARI

Journal Entry Highlights :

> Tighnari's ears and tail look so fluffy! 🤩

> I WANT TO TOUCH THEM SO BAD!! 🤩‼️

> *insert drawings of Tighnari's head and tail here*

> But those aren't the only things I want to touch 😏

> So...does Tighnari have a knot or....??? 👀

> And does he have the urge to breed...? 🥵

> *insert fantasy wherein Tighnari is in a rut and he fills you*

> *insert fantasy wherein Tighnari fills you up to the brim and he plugs your pussy with his knot so the cum just stays there*

> *insert drawing of Tighnari with lust-filled eyes as he licked his lips*

> Tighnari is such a strict teacher, though. 🥺

> "You don't learn fast, do you? You should know by now that I want my cock deep inside you... All.the.way.in..."

> *insert fantasy of Tighnari forcing a hardcore fellatio*

> *insert fantasy of you and Tighnari on a mating press*

How they find out about your secret and their reaction :

“Hey, hey! I see a withering zone! Oh - there's another one! Wait - wait!! Make that a total of three withering zones!” you shouted as you gazed on the Seed Mirror.

"How big are they and how far?" your peer asked in a loud voice so you could hear.

"Uh - wait, let me mark them on my map!" you answered as you plotted the location on your map. "I've got it!"

You jumped down from the watch tower and met with your companion. Your fellow forest ranger shook their head as they thought of how impulsive and reckless you could be.

"See, look. These are the three locations. Now this one right here looks waaay bigger than these two so I think it's urgent," you pointed.

"Archons, is this really the scope of this withering zone? It wasn't there last time, right? We should immediately report this to Tighnari then!" your companion suggested, alarmed at the big red loop drawn on your map.

"I know. You go on ahead. I'll continue with our route," you counter-proposed. "You can go back on your own, right?"

"Hey! Just because I don't have a Vision like you, doesn't mean I can't go back on my own!" your friend retorted, giving you a playful noogie.

"Ahaha! Sorry!" you laughed. "But really, you should head back."

"Are you sure you don't want to report this to Tighnari yourself?" your friend teased as they knew you had a huge crush on the Forest Watcher.

"Hah! I know that look!" you amusingly replied. "I don't mind if you report it to Tighnari. Someone has to continue our patrol route. If something unexpected happens, say another withering zone appeared or an ambush happened, then my Vision can at least give me some protection," you explained as tactfully as possible before repeating. "You go on ahead."

"Alright," your friend hesitated, yet they tucked your map away so they could depart. "Be careful, little miss reckless."

"I prefer being called little miss brave," you retorted.

You and your friend bid each other farewell. Touching your [element] Vision, a smile painted your face as you watched your friend sprint back to Gandharva Ville. It was for the best. You nodded before continuing your route.

The usual walk seemed to be normal. There were no travelers in need of assistance; no unusual activity harming the forest; no peculiar discrepancy in the beast population. It was just the usual lush greeneries and peaceful surroundings.

At the end of your patrol route was a forest ranger's watch post. You let yourself in and wrote today's findings on a logbook.

[Date time] - Three withering zones detected using Mawtiyima Forest Seed Mirror, one with wide range; to be reported by [friend's name] to Tighnari; No other unusual activities and no lost/troubled travelers encountered - [your name]

After the long routine, you sat down and took greedy gulps from your water bag, resting and relaxing your feet for a while. By now, you thought, Tighnari should be aware of the withering zone.

Oh, Tighnari, your cute fluffy leader.

You were finished with your route anyway. Maybe it was okay for you to check out the withering zones? Since you already knew where they were, you decided to go and guide wandering travelers in avoiding the said areas.

The trek to your destination was a long one so you opted to take shortcuts. As a forest ranger, you should set an example to passers-by that they should utilize the available pathways, yet here you were, away from the trail and traversing through the forest. You should be fine, you thought. You had a Vision.

Pacing further, you heard rustling noises. This prompted you to go into alert mode and steal a sneak peek. To your surprise, two floating hydro fungi and two floating dendro fungi seemed to be dancing around and releasing spores.

"What in the name of Archons...?" you whispered to yourself, jotting down notes.

Ah, shoot. If you reported this, Tighnari would give you an earful for not following the tracks and for wandering into the forest alone.

Anyway.

"...releasing spores... search the area for... Yep," you said as you wrote your thoughts down.

Mating. From what you know, the fungi were mating. Sexual reproduction, of course, was a normal thing. But was this a normal circumstance or was it anomalous?

Sneaking away from the love-making fungi, you investigated the area further. To your surprise, even other species were doing the deed. On one of a tree branch, you saw dusk birds on top of another. Not far from that tree, you even stumbled upon lizards on a mating hold.

What could be the cause of this?

You noted every single detail on your notebook as you judged this was indeed abnormal. Searching further, you noticed a pink puffy cloud coming from whatever it was behind a bush. You covered your mouth and nose with a scarf before sneaking on the unknown creature.

A pink-coloured poison mushroom. What an unusual shade!

Assuming you were in a safe distance, you wrote down your findings again and described the peculiar mushroom in detail.

"...pink gas cloud... Shape and pattern looks like...," you murmured, drawing the figure.

Odd. You were oddly starting to feel horny at an alarming pace.

No... It couldn't be...?

"Possibly emitting aphrodisiac." You quickly scribbled.

You immediately packed your notebook to flee, only to realize there were smaller pink poison shrooms around you hidden under bushes and tress. You failed to recognize them earlier as you were too engrossed with the bigger pink fungus. And now, it seems you fell right into their trap as all of them produced the pink fluff clouds, peppering your body with their spores.

"S - shoot...!" you cursed, feeling your crotch area ache.

...

"So [your name] was here," Tighnari murmured to himself as he put down the watch post's logbook.

The Forest Watcher Chief Officer himself scouted the area looking for you since you did not return to Gandharva Ville last night.

"She insisted that she should go alone. Knowing her, she must have gone to the withering zones."

Tighnari thought the same even if your co-ranger did not tell him. That reckless and foolhardy nature of yours was exactly the reason why he couldn't promote you as Forest Watcher. He knew why you were acting that way, though. Regardless, you always had him worried over you.

"I have a Vision, don't worry!" was what you would always retort.

It didn't matter if you had a Vision or not. Tighnari cared about you. And this was precisely what he feared. Wherever you were, he wished you were safe and away from harm.

If he were [your name], what would he do? Go off-track, of course!

He tried to simulate your steps, diving straight into the forest in hopes of finding you. He made his ears work extra hard to listen. He utilized high ground to search. He analyzed the surroundings to determine if you had gone through the same path or not. At last, his efforts were not in vain as he finally found your exhausted body seated under a tree, your back leaning on its hard trunk.

"[Your name]!" Tighnari called, darting towards you while staying on high alert.

Fast heart rate. Heavy breathing. Flushed skin. Profuse sweating. He wanted to but he couldn't possibly nag you right now.

"... Nari...," you cried weakly, opening your eyes in a small slit to confirm it was indeed your leader.

"I'm here. Tsk. I told you not to be too reckless. Now look at what happened," Tighnari said. Okay, maybe a little bit of reprimanding wouldn't hurt.

He took out his medicine box and scanned your symptoms. He placed the back of his hand on your neck to which you immediately avoided.

"Nari, don't...!" you uttered, distancing yourself as tears formed in the corners of your eyes. Self-restraint was hard. "Logbook."

You handed him your ranger's journal-on-the-go so it could better explain your situation. In it, he found out about your little misadventure yesterday. He read about the unusual phenomenon you encountered and the pink poison mushroom that affected you.

"I - I was poisoned...," you finally declared with a heavy heart. How could you impress Tighnari now?

You tried. You really tried not to touch yourself again, thinking it was the best option as it hurt when you did. But now that Tighnari himself was here, your urge to finger yourself increased ten fold. You squeezed your thighs in hopes of pleasuring yourself through the friction of your flesh.

"You're horny," Tighnari corrected, observing you as he put your logbook and his medicine box away. He then guided you to drink on his water bag. "You've been thinking about me, haven't you?"

"H - huh...??" you shrieked, eyes widening at Tighnari's bold assumption.

"I said you were thinking about having sex with me," Tighnari affirmed to which you gasped loudly. He brushed off the topic, returned his water bag in place, and explained, "You were right. That pink mushroom puffs out spores that can be used as aphrodisiac. They normally reproduce asexually and rarely sexually, though. A parent mushroom is usually surrounded by its offsprings because it constantly emits spores. Unfortunately, most of the time, the baby mushrooms don't survive so these pink mushrooms are rare to find. They can only hope their spores would grow somewhere else, wherever nature takes them."

You would have listened attentively if you weren't thinking about what Tighnari said.

You having sex with him.

"Is there any cure for this...?" you asked, panting.

"In your case, since you were overexposed, medicine would not be enough," Tighnari replied. "But there is another way."

Tighnari placed both his hands on your thighs and parted them to give him enough space, all the while observing the expression in your eyes. You felt his hands squeeze your flesh, making you moan and produce more love juice.

"T - Tighnari...!!" you cried, feeling weak from your crush's touch.

"We can do whatever you want in your fantasy," Tighnari said. "I know you have been perverting me. You want to fuck with me, right?"

Using one hand, he took yours and guided you to touch his crotch area. Your pussy spasmed as you felt how hard Tighnari was. Did he want to fuck you too?

"How did you know?" you breathily asked, rubbing your palm on Tighnari's cloth. At this point, you couldn't be bothered to hide how you felt towards him.

"Your naughty journal," Tighnari answered followed by an erotic groan. "Remember the time when I accidentally stumbled upon you writing on it? I lied when I said I didn't see anything," he revealed, losing his composure as you pressed your hands on his clothed manhood.

"So... All this time, you knew...?"

Rather than being embarrassed, you felt more courageous. Hearing Tighnari's erotic noises urged you to continue teasing him. You rubbed on his hard member faster to the point that his pre-cum stained his lower garments.

But Tighnari would never let you have the upper hand. You were under the effects of aphrodisiac and he intended to take advantage of that. He pressed his knee on your crotch area, hitting your puffy clit and making you weak in an instant. His relentless teasing on your clothed womanhood had you cumming tons.

"N - nari! Tighnari! Ahh...!!"

"Hehe. Yeah. All this time I knew," he finally answered after hearing your angelic moans of his name.

Yes, he knew about your perverted thoughts towards him. But he would never admit his more debauched fantasies of you. At long last, he could listen to your sweet erotic voice properly instead of the usual muffled ones. This was way better than secretly eavesdropping on you masturbate to him back in the village.

"Stop! I'm cumming!" you squealed, grabbing onto his shoulder with both hands as another orgasm crashed down on you. You held his body close to yours, crying as the stimulation was too much for you. "Nari... Please stop...! I can't...!"

Yet the tone of your voice, from the way you pant and grind your body, suggested you wanted more.

"You started this, [your name]. If you just stayed on track and came home yesterday, then we wouldn't be doing this, would we? Now look. You got poisoned and I needed to cure you. To do that, you need to cum over and over again until you feel your body flushes out the aphrodisiacs," Tighnari reprimanded.

He secretly gloated about how much power he had over your body. Watching you plead with your eyes stirred his primordial instincts to breed you.

"I forgot to mention. I might have been affected by the mushroom too."

----------

🗺 WANDERER

Journal Entry Highlights :

How they find out about your secret and their reaction :

> A lovely kind young man saved me from aggressive wild sumpter beasts today

> A mysterious man who needed not his name

> It's okay, I like mysteries 😍😏

> He came back and introduced himself as The Wanderer. I like it ❤️

> Gosh, I can't stop thinking about him. 🥺🥺

> He looks yummy

> Why oh why do I want to make love with him? 🥺🥺🥺

> *insert sensual, romantic fantasies here*

> I haven't seen him for a while but then he comes back and he has suddenly...changed??

> He has an Anemo Vision now! 🤩🤩

> And he still remembers me! 😍

> So he goes by the name [W/N]... Why didn't he tell me sooner? 😳🙄

> He can be rude at times but I can see he's good deep inside

> Good deep inside. Heh. 😏

> Why does this new him make me feel hornier?

> *insert fantasy of The Wanderer being rough on you here*

——————————————————

"[W/N], you're here!" you giddily greeted the Anemo user as you carried a heavy pail of water.

"You idiot! That's not the proper way to carry a shit-ass heavy bucket," the man replied, grabbing the object and putting it down exactly where you needed it to be even without your instructions.

"Hehe. Thank you," with a sweet smile on your face, you expressed your gratitude to the man. His face distorted in disgust as he looked at your happy one.

Taking care of crops was no simple task. You needed to be patient and observant. Patient, because a plant could never bear fruit naturally overnight. You needed to tend to it everyday - do labor and you shall receive. Observant, because as the plant grows, its needs becomes different. Today it might need more watering but tomorrow, it might not require any more. And let us not get started on the pests that may bother it.

Just like in your relationship with The Wanderer, you needed to be both patient and observant. Patient, because he seemed to be the type of person who is not used to expressing his own emotions immediately and fully. Observant, because even if he said something, most of the time his actions contradicted them.

The Wanderer glanced upon a freshly brewed tea sitting on your outdoor table. From its scent and colour, he knew what it would taste like. You noticed this and smiled triumphantly at yourself.

"It's for you. I was expecting you," you publicized, watering your carrots carefully.

"Hmph! And if I didn't come?" he scoffed, yet proceeded to perching himself on a chair and stealing a sip from the bitter drink.

"Then I would drink it myself. There shouldn't be a problem," you retorted.

The Wanderer enjoyed banters like these. When you acted too polite around him, after he obtained his Anemo Vision, you noticed he found it boring. So you changed tactics and, every now and then you would reply something a little less nice...at least they weren't, in your opinion.

"By the way, I remember you mentioned you joined the esteemed traveler and his floating fish on their journey. Why aren't you with them now?" you inquired genuinely, placing your attention on The Wanderer.

"Heh! Floating fish. That's a good one! Hahahahaha!" your handsome companion heartily laughed.

Why does it feel like he was mocking you?

"Floating fish. Heh!" he repeated, wiping a tear that actually formed in his eyes. "The traveler took uninteresting commissions today so I decided to split away momentarily."

"Uninteresting commissions like what?"

"Bounce on an oversized mushroom, for one!" The Wanderer roared exasperatedly, his eyes twitching in disgust.

You laughed at the silly face your friend was making.

"I think that's an interesting task! Is it really possible to bounce on a huge mushroom? I had no idea," you mused, eyes widening in delight.

"For a person like you, of course it is amusing," he argued back, rolling his eyes.

"Is it boring for you because you have an Anemo Vision?" was another genuine question from you.

"This has nothing to do with my Vision." The guy palmed his face.

You had a lively chat with The Wanderer in the morning. Then afternoon came. All your routine was done and the both of you had lunch. That was when your companion excused himself and left.

Of course, you could not stop him. Even if you wished him to stay, you had no rights as you were nothing more than a friend.

Even now, I'm not sure if he likes me or not. I might just be fantasizing too much but there was no other explanation why he would come and visit me. I wish he would give me a sign. Anything at all.

You scribbled on your journal. You intended it to be your therapeutic object to vent your day-to-day encounters yet somehow, it became full of [W/N] fantasies.

I've been needy lately. Just like yesterday and the day before that, all I could think about was how it would feel to have [W/N] inside of me. I want to touch. I want to be touched. I want him to take me from behind, gripping my hips so he could take full control of my body. I want to feel weak as he rams his whole length inside of me. His

You couldn't even finish what you were writing. The more you thought about it, the more engrossed you became. A free hand already made its way inside your clothing and started to pleasure your lady parts.

"[W/N], wait...! You're the first man I've ever been with so please...," you heaved breathily, closing your eyes and picturing the visitor you had this morning as a digit circled itself on your puffy clit.

...

"So this was where my pail went. And you even filled it with water. How kind of you," you remarked happily as The Wanderer once again visited you after a few days of absence. "Good morning!"

"Rub that fucking ugly face of yours," he replied. "You didn't prepare tea for me. So you weren't expecting me?"

"Sorry! I was preoccupied with looking for my bucket, which apparently someone took already. The tea water is still boiling so you'll have to wait," you reasoned, failing to contain the ecstacy coursing through your being. "How have you been?"

"Tch! How ungrateful! Do you want me to throw the water away then?" he roared angrily at your accusation to which you shook your head, stifling an amused chuckle. "What I do is none of your concern. I don't have to tell you anything," he grumbled, resting his chin on his knuckles.

His temper might be because he had not had his tea yet. You nodded and started to water your plants. As you've explained, you couldn't serve him tea because you were still waiting for the water to boil.

"Cancel your plans this afternoon."

"Huh??" you choked, nearly drowning a poor cabbage with water in shock of The Wanderer's sudden demand.

"Are you fucking deaf or are you just fucking stupid?" he rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I said cancel your damn plans this afternoon."

"Why? W - what's the occasion?" Archons, was this the sign?

The Wanderer simply looked at you. As he said before, he didn't have to say anything. But you, you had to answer him.

"Okay. After lunch, right?" you replied, blushing at the idea of an afternoon date.

The indigo-eyed man remained silent as he did not need to confirm it. Of course he meant after lunch! You smiled anyway as the sound of whistling kettle broke the silence, prompting you to give your visitor his well deserved tea.

...

"Oh, so this is what a huge mushroom looks like," you marveled at the enormous stretchy fungi, poking it for any kind of reaction. "It reminds me of you."

"I will fucking murder you if you say that one more time," The Wanderer warned, shooting daggers at your laughing face. He sighed, crossed his arms, and asked in a vigor-less tone, "Do you want to try it?"

"Yes! Please?"

"Jump on it then."

"That's it? What if I die??" you shrieked, bothered by the lack of clear instructions.

"Then you die."

You exasperatedly gasped at your companion's behaviour to which he laughed in amusement.

"Ahaha! Kidding! Your face looks stupid, seriously!" he teased before guiding you to climb an oversized fungus. "Okay, jump."

"Jump??" you hesitated. "As in jump??"

"Yes, jump. For the love of - just fucking jump already!" The Wanderer ordered.

"Nnh...!"

Shutting your eyes tight, you did as told and boldly jumped on the stretchy fungus. Your initial fear poofed away as you now bounced up and down the mushroom happily.

"[W/N]! Look! Look!" you called, ricochetting against the elastic shroom. "I'm Anemo now!"

You were enjoying so much that you failed to notice the smile painted on The Wanderer's face. Seriously, what was a person like you doing, bouncing on an overstretched, oversized mushroom? You looked so stupid.

So stupid, it was cute.

"Heeeey! Join me! It's actually fun!" you beckoned, flailing your hands in the air jovially.

After throwing you high in the air, the mushroom suddenly clunked and disappeared, leaving you cushionless on your next fall. You noticed this, making panic course through your every fibre.

"[W/N]!!"

"I've got you!" The Wanderer rang, carrying you bridal style mid-air.

Your heart beated so loud, not only from the adrenaline, but from the way The Wanderer carefully held you in his arms; from how his soft baby-face looked up close; from how his lips trembled so slightly as yours were inches away from his.

"I've got you," he whispered, eyes softly squinted as he stared at yours tenderly.

You could have sworn you were going to kiss. His lips were approaching yours and - Archons, you were sure of it! But he just had to ruin the moment and switch back to his usual grumpy nature.

"I should have let you fall and die," The Wanderer clicked his tongue, contradicting everything by gingerly putting you down on solid ground.

"Thank you..."

"Tch! You're an idiot."

...

Today was a happy day! I enjoyed myself so much! [W/N] came to visit me again and he took me on a date ❤️‼️ He let me bounce on a huge mushroom. It was fun until the mushroom poofed away. I nearly died but [W/N] caught me. It was magical! We were floating in the air using his Anemo powers, I gingerly on his arms. I was like a bride and we almost kissed happily ever after. ALMOST.

You jotted down freely on your notebook, just extremely happy that you had a wonderful time with your crush. You were on cloud nine and nothing could ever bring you down now.

Maybe he really did like me? Maybe he and I had a chance?

Maybe. Just maybe. It wouldn't hurt to wish, right?

...

The events yesterday cajoled you to sleep peacefully. Even in your slumber, you fantasized about a happy ending with The Wanderer. You couldn't bear to wake yourself from such a sweet dream so you woke up a little later than usual.

After the trip back from dreamland, your body finally stirred as you started to wake up from a wonderful rest. You stretched your limbs and let out a relaxed yawn, preparing your body for another day of work.

"Disgusting."

You shot up and saw The Wanderer perched on your desk chair in a figure four lock, facing your way as one knuckle supported his head while the other held your personal journal.

"W - What are you doing in my home?" you accused, trying to process everything. What was apparent now was The Wanderer invaded your home and had read your journal.

"Hmph! You incriminate me yet from the text written on your diary, you should be glad I'm here," The Wanderer scoffed, casting your journal back on the desk.

"Y - you...!" was all you could utter.

A mix of fear, anger, shame, and confusion painted your face - all of which were negative emotions. You had so much on your face, it looked stupid - so stupid that The Wanderer laughed in amusement.

"Surprised? Of course you should be! Hah, I bet you didn't expect this the moment you woke up, huh?" he teased in a mocking tone. "Tell me, then, oh dear [your name]. Do you still like me?"

Of course you still liked him. You knew he was a good man, despite him barging into your home unannounced. But right now, you had a lot of questions plaguing your mind.

Such as what was his purpose for doing such a thing?

The Wanderer counted the seconds until time was up. Your lack of response, deep down, disappointed him. Just as he thought, you would cower away once he showed you a glimpse of what he truly was. Internally in defeat, he stood up and prepared to depart.

"It was foolish of you to form feelings towards me. Learn from your mistakes."

Why does it feel like his words were directed at himself? Even before you could ponder further, you found yourself holding The Wanderer tightly in your arms, your faces tucked on each other's neck.

"Forget about me."

"I like you," you replied. "I like you."

"You're being foolish."

"You've told me a million times that I'm an idiot."

"Idiot. An idiot is different from a fool."

"Then I am a fool in love with you."

"Heh! You don't even know what you're dealing with yet you throw away the word love carelessly."

"Then what exactly am I dealing with, [W/N]?"

A long pause. He hesitated for a long while, filling the room with awkward silence. What was he doing, unmoving in your arms when he promised to forsake worthless emotions and to simply live for himself? He felt like he himself was a fool.

A fool in love with you.

"I am not a human," he revealed in a modest hushed tone of barely a whisper.

He expected you to react negatively - to turn back and cast him aside as you had no future with him. Who would want to be with a puppet, right? Surely no happy ending awaited you if you pursued him further.

"Does this mean you didn't like me?" you asked genuinely.

To this, he didn't answer. Of course, he liked you. He knew your feelings were genuine towards him. It was just he had a lot of questions haunting his mind.

Such as was he willing to risk loving again despite everything he's been through?

"You're afraid, aren't you?" in a gentle voice, you asked. Your thumb gingerly made soothing strokes onto his flesh as you waited for his response.

Seconds passed and with no response from The Wanderer, you deemed it was best to let him go. But the moment you loosened your grip, he immediately pressed your body against his.

"What if I told you we cannot build a family together?"

"Just tell me that you love me and visit me from time to time. That's enough for me," you declared, letting yourself melt in The Wanderer's arms. "I love you, [W/N]."

His new name has never sounded so angelic before. He was someone who preferred extremely bitter tastes yet from the way his name sweetly rolled off your tongue, he might turn into a new man.

Of course he would never admit that verbally.

Yet.

But his actions would.

So he planted a modest kiss on your cheek, a speck of promise that he would make your relationship grow and bloom.

Told you there would be drama.

I guess I got too carried away with The Wanderer's scene that it became too long? Or is it just my imagination? 😅

To whoever read this, thank you for your time. Here, have some curry rice - one for you and one for your Genshin hubby. 🍛🍛

Links : Pinned Post, [Mild] Naughty Journal ft. Albedo, Childe, Diluc, Kaeya (Separate), [Chilis] Naughty Journal ft. Albedo, Childe, Diluc, Kaeya (Separate), [Mild + Chili] Naughty Journal Scaramouche Request, Teasers Maltesers (Jan 13)

[testbankprovidersell]

Test Bank For Multinational Financial Management, 11th Edition Alan C. Shapiro

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures xix List of Tables xxiii Preface xxvii World Currencies and Symbols xxxi Acronyms and Symbols xxxv Part I The International Financial Management Environment 1 Introduction: Multinational Corporations and Financial Management 3 1.1 The Rise of the Multinational Corporation 4 1.1.1 Evolution of the Multinational Corporation 7 1.1.2 The Process of Overseas Expansion by Multinationals 14 1.1.3 A Behavioral Definition of the Multinational Corporation 17 1.1.4 The Global Manager 18 1.2 The Internationalization of Business and Finance 18 1.2.1 Political and Labor Union Concerns About Global Competition 19 1.2.2 Consequences of Global Competition 22 1.3 Multinational Financial Management: Theory and Practice 24 1.3.1 Functions of Financial Management 25 1.3.2 Theme of This Book 25 1.3.3 Relationship to Domestic Financial Management 26 1.3.4 The Global Financial Marketplace 28 1.3.5 The Role of the Financial Executive in an Efficient Market 28 1.4 Outline of the Book 29 1.4.1 The International Financial Management Environment 29 1.4.2 The Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Markets 29 1.4.3 Foreign Exchange Risk Management 29 1.4.4 The International Capital Markets and Portfolio Management 29 1.4.5 International Capital Budgeting 30 Questions 30 Appendix: The Origins and Consequences of International Trade 31 Questions 35 2 The Determination of Exchange Rates 37 2.1 Setting The Equilibrium Spot Exchange Rate 38 2.1.1 Factors That Affect the Equilibrium Exchange Rate 39 2.1.2 Calculating Exchange Rate Changes 41 2.2 Expectations and The Asset Market Model of Exchange Rates 43 2.2.1 The Nature of Money and Currency Values 44 2.2.2 Central Bank Reputations and Currency Values 44 2.3 The Fundamentals of Central Bank Intervention 49 2.3.1 How Real Exchange Rates Affect Relative Competitiveness 50 2.3.2 Foreign Exchange Market Intervention 50 2.3.3 The Effects of Foreign Exchange Market Intervention 53 2.4 The Equilibrium Approach To Exchange Rates 55 2.5 Disequilibrium Theory and Exchange Rate Overshooting 55 2.5.1 The Equilibrium Theory of Exchange Rates and Its Implications 56 2.6 Conclusions 58 Questions 60 Problems 61 References 62 3 The International Monetary System 63 3.1 Alternative Exchange Rate Systems 64 3.1.1 The Trilemma and Exchange Rate Regime Choice 64 3.1.2 Free Float 66 3.1.3 Managed Float 67 3.1.4 Target-Zone Arrangement 69 3.1.5 Fixed Rate System 69 3.2 A Brief History of the International Monetary System 70 3.2.1 The Classical Gold Standard 71 3.2.2 How the Classical Gold Standard Worked in Practice: 1821–1914 73 3.2.3 The Gold Exchange Standard and Its Aftermath: 1925–1944 73 3.2.4 The Bretton Woods System: 1946–1971 74 3.2.5 The Post-Bretton Woods System: 1971 to the Present 76 3.2.6 Assessment of the Floating Rate System 77 3.3 The European Monetary System and Monetary Union 78 3.3.1 The Exchange Rate Mechanism 79 3.3.2 Lessons from the European Monetary System 79 3.3.3 The Currency Crisis of September 1992 79 3.3.4 The Exchange Rate Mechanism Is Abandoned in August 1993 80 3.3.5 European Monetary Union 81 3.3.6 Optimum Currency Area 88 3.3.7 Exchange Rate Regimes Today 93 3.4 Emerging Market Currency Crises 96 3.4.1 Transmission Mechanisms 96 3.4.2 Origins of Emerging Market Crises 96 3.4.3 Policy Proposals for Dealing with Emerging Market Crises 97 3.5 Summary and Conclusions 98 Questions 99 Problems 100 References 100 4 Parity Conditions in International Finance and Currency Forecasting 101 4.1 Arbitrage and the Law of One Price 102 4.2 Purchasing Power Parity 104 4.2.1 The Lesson of Purchasing Power Parity 108 4.2.2 Expected Inflation and Exchange Rate Changes 109 4.2.3 The Monetary Approach 110 4.2.4 Empirical Evidence 110 4.3 The Fisher Effect 113 4.3.1 Empirical Evidence 114 4.4 The International Fisher Effect 118 4.4.1 Empirical Evidence 119 4.5 Interest Rate Parity Theory 120 4.5.1 Empirical Evidence 123 4.6 The Relationship Between The Forward Rate and The Future Spot Rate 123 4.6.1 Empirical Evidence 126 4.7 Currency Forecasting 126 4.7.1 Requirements for Successful Currency Forecasting 127 4.7.2 Market-Based Forecasts 127 4.7.3 Model-Based Forecasts 129 4.7.4 Model Evaluation 130 4.7.5 Forecasting Controlled Exchange Rates 132 4.8 Summary and Conclusions 132 Questions 133 Problems 135 References 137 5 The Balance of Payments and International Economic Linkages 139 5.1 Balance-Of-Payments Categories 140 5.1.1 Current Account 141 5.1.2 Capital Account 144 5.1.3 Financial Account 144 5.1.4 Balance-of-Payments Measures 145 5.1.5 The Missing Numbers 146 5.2 The International Flow of Goods, Services, and Capital 146 5.2.1 Domestic Saving and Investment and the Financial Account 146 5.2.2 The Link between the Current and Financial Accounts 147 5.2.3 Government Budget Deficits and Current-Account Deficits 149 5.2.4 The Current Situation 150 5.3 Coping with the Current-Account Deficit 153 5.3.1 Currency Depreciation 153 5.3.2 Protectionism 157 5.3.3 Ending Foreign Ownership of Domestic Assets 158 5.3.4 Boosting the Saving Rate 158 5.3.5 External Policies 159 5.3.6 Current-Account Deficits and Unemployment 160 5.3.7 The Bottom Line on Current-Account Deficits and Surpluses 161 5.4 Summary and Conclusions 161 Questions 162 Problems 163 References 164 Part II The Foreign Exchange and Derivative Markets 6 The Foreign Exchange Market 167 6.1 Organization of the Foreign Exchange Market 168 6.1.1 The Participants 169 6.1.2 Size 172 6.2 The Spot Market 174 6.2.1 Spot Quotations 174 6.2.2 The Mechanics of Spot Transactions 181 6.3 The Forward Market 181 6.3.1 Forward Quotations 183 6.3.2 Forward Contract Maturities 186 6.4 Summary and Conclusions 186 Questions 186 Problems 187 References 188 7 Currency Futures and Options Markets 189 7.1 Futures Contracts 190 7.1.1 Forward Contract versus Futures Contract 191 7.2 Currency Options 194 7.2.1 Market Structure 195 7.2.2 Using Currency Options 196 7.2.3 Option Pricing and Valuation 201 7.2.4 Using Forward or Futures Contracts versus Options Contracts 203 7.2.5 Futures Options 205 7.3 Reading Currency Futures and Options Prices 206 7.4 Summary and Conclusions 206 Questions 208 Problems 209 Appendix: Option Pricing Using Black-Scholes 210 A.1 The Black-Scholes Model 210 A.2 Implied Volatilities 212 A.3 Shortcomings of the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model 212 Problems 213 Appendix: Put-Call Option Interest Rate Parity 213 Problems 215 References 215 8 Currency, Interest Rate, and Credit Derivatives and Swaps 217 8.1 Interest Rate and Currency Swaps 218 8.1.1 Interest Rate Swaps 218 8.1.2 Currency Swaps 221 8.1.3 Economic Advantages of Swaps 228 8.2 Interest Rate Forwards and Futures 229 8.2.1 Forward Forwards 229 8.2.2 Forward Rate Agreement 230 8.2.3 Eurodollar Futures 231 8.3 Structured Notes 233 8.3.1 Inverse Floaters 233 8.3.2 Callable Step-Up Note 234 8.3.3 Step-Down Coupon Note 234 8.4 Credit Default Swaps 235 8.4.1 Single-Name CDS 235 8.4.2 CDS Indexes 237 8.5 Summary and Conclusions 238 Questions 239 Problems 239 Reference 241 Part III Foreign Exchange Risk Management 9 Measuring and Managing Translation and Transaction Exposure 245 9.1 Alternative Measures of Foreign Exchange Exposure 246 9.1.1 Translation Exposure 246 9.1.2 Transaction Exposure 246 9.1.3 Operating Exposure 247 9.2 Alternative Currency Translation Methods 247 9.2.1 Current/Noncurrent Method 248 9.2.2 Monetary/Nonmonetary Method 248 9.2.3 Temporal Method 248 9.2.4 Current Rate Method 249 9.3 Transaction Exposure 251 9.4 Designing a Hedging Strategy 251 9.4.1 Objectives 252 9.4.2 Costs and Benefits of Standard Hedging Techniques 255 9.4.3 Centralization versus Decentralization 258 9.4.4 Managing Risk Management 259 9.4.5 Accounting for Hedging and FASB 133 260 9.4.6 Empirical Evidence on Hedging 260 9.5 Managing Translation Exposure 261 9.5.1 Funds Adjustment 261 9.5.2 Evaluating Alternative Hedging Mechanisms 262 9.6 Managing Transaction Exposure 263 9.6.1 Forward Market Hedge 263 9.6.2 Money Market Hedge 265 9.6.3 Risk Shifting 267 9.6.4 Pricing Decisions 268 9.6.5 Exposure Netting 269 9.6.6 Currency Risk Sharing 270 9.6.7 Currency Collars 270 9.6.8 Cross-Hedging 273 9.6.9 Foreign Currency Options 274 9.7 Summary and Conclusions 277 Questions 278 Problems 279 References 282 Appendix: Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 52 283 10 Measuring and Managing Economic Exposure 287 10.1 Foreign Exchange Risk and Economic Exposure 288 10.1.1 Real Exchange Rate Changes and Exchange Risk 289 10.1.2 Importance of the Real Exchange Rate 290 10.1.3 Inflation and Exchange Risk 291 10.1.4 Competitive Effects of Real Exchange Rate Changes 292 10.2 The Economic Consequences of Exchange Rate Changes 294 10.2.1 Transaction Exposure 294 10.2.2 Operating Exposure 295 10.3 Identifying Economic Exposure 298 10.3.1 Aspen Skiing Company 298 10.3.2 Petróleos Mexicanos 298 10.3.3 Toyota Motor Company 299 10.4 Calculating Economic Exposure 300 10.4.1 Spectrum’s Accounting Exposure 301 10.4.2 Spectrum’s Economic Exposure 301 10.5 An Operational Measure of Exchange Risk 305 10.5.1 Limitations 306 10.6 Managing Operating Exposure 307 10.6.1 Marketing Management of Exchange Risk 307 10.6.2 Production Management of Exchange Risk 310 10.6.3 Planning for Exchange Rate Changes 313 10.6.4 Financial Management of Exchange Risk 314 10.7 Summary and Conclusions 316 Questions 318 Problems 319 References 322 Part IV The International Capital Markets and Portfolio Management 11 International Financing and National Capital Markets 325 11.1 Corporate Sources and Uses of Funds 326 11.1.1 Financial Markets versus Financial Intermediaries 326 11.1.2 Financial Systems and Corporate Governance 327 11.1.3 Globalization of Financial Markets 330 11.2 National Capital Markets As International Financial Centers 332 11.2.1 International Financial Markets 334 11.2.2 Foreign Access to Domestic Markets 335 11.3 Development Banks 340 11.3.1 The World Bank Group 341 11.3.2 Regional and National Development Banks 342 11.3.3 Private Sector Alternatives 343 11.4 Project Finance 344 11.5 Summary and Conclusions 345 Questions 345 Problems 346 References 347 12 The Euromarkets 348 12.1 The Eurocurrency Market 348 12.1.1 Modern Origins 349 12.1.2 Eurodollar Creation 350 12.1.3 Eurocurrency Loans 351 12.1.4 Relationship between Domestic and Eurocurrency Money Markets 353 12.1.5 Euromarket Trends 354 12.2 Eurobonds 355 12.2.1 Swaps 355 12.2.2 Links between the Domestic and Eurobond Markets 355 12.2.3 Rationale for Existence of Eurobond Market 358 12.2.4 Eurobonds versus Eurocurrency Loans 360 12.3 Note Issuance Facilities and Euronotes 360 12.3.1 Note Issuance Facilities versus Eurobonds 362 12.3.2 Euro-Medium-Term Notes 363 12.4 Euro-Commercial Paper 364 12.5 The Asiacurrency Market 365 12.6 Summary and Conclusions 365 Questions 366 Problems 366 References 367 13 International Portfolio Management 368 13.1 The Risks and Benefits of International Equity Investing 369 13.1.1 International Diversification 370 13.1.2 Investing in Emerging Markets 376 13.1.3 Barriers to International Diversification 380 13.1.4 Ways to Invest Internationally 381 13.2 International Bond Investing 383 13.3 Optimal International Asset Allocation 383 13.4 Measuring the Total Return From Foreign Portfolio Investing 385 13.4.1 Bonds 385 13.4.2 Stocks 385 13.5 Measuring Exchange Risk on Foreign Securities 386 13.5.1 Hedging Currency Risk 386 13.6 Summary and Conclusions 387 Questions 387 Problems 388 References 390 Part V International Capital Budgeting 14 Country Risk Analysis 395 14.1 Learning Objectives 395 14.2 Measuring Political Risk 396 14.2.1 Political Stability 397 14.2.2 Economic Factors 399 14.2.3 Subjective Factors 400 14.3 Economic and Political Factors Underlying Country Risk 405 14.3.1 Fiscal Irresponsibility 406 14.3.2 Monetary Instability 406 14.3.3 Controlled Exchange Rate System 408 14.3.4 Wasteful Government Spending 408 14.3.5 Resource Base 408 14.3.6 Country Risk and Adjustment to External Shocks 409 14.3.7 Market-Oriented versus Statist Policies 410 14.3.8 Key Indicators of Country Risk and Economic Health 413 14.4 Country Risk Analysis in International Lending 418 14.4.1 The Mathematics of Sovereign Debt Analysis 418 14.4.2 Country Risk and the Terms of Trade 420 14.4.3 The Government’s Cost/Benefit Calculus 421 14.5 Summary and Conclusions 422 Questions 424 Problems 424 References 426 15 The Cost of Capital for Foreign Investments 427 15.1 The Cost of Equity Capital 428 15.2 The Weighted Average Cost of Capital For Foreign Projects 429 15.3 Discount Rates for Foreign Investments 430 15.3.1 Evidence from the Stock Market 431 15.3.2 Key Issues in Estimating Foreign Project Discount Rates 432 15.3.3 Proxy Companies 433 15.3.4 The Relevant Base Portfolio 434 15.3.5 The Relevant Market Risk Premium 438 15.3.6 Recommendations 439 15.4 The Cost of Debt Capital 439 15.4.1 Annual Exchange Rate Change 440 15.4.2 Using Sovereign Risk Spreads 441 15.5 Establishing a Worldwide Capital Structure 441 15.5.1 Foreign Subsidiary Capital Structure 442 15.5.2 Joint Ventures 446 15.6 Valuing Low-Cost Financing Opportunities 447 15.6.1 Taxes 448 15.6.2 Government Credit and Capital Controls 449 15.6.3 Government Subsidies and Incentives 450 15.7 Summary and Conclusions 452 Questions 453 Problems 454 References 455 16 Corporate Strategy and Foreign Direct Investment 457 16.1 Theory of the Multinational Corporation 458 16.1.1 Product and Factor Market Imperfections 458 16.1.2 Financial Market Imperfections 459 16.1.3 The Strategy of Multinational Enterprise 460 16.1.4 Innovation-Based Multinationals 460 16.1.5 The Mature Multinationals 460 16.1.6 The Senescent Multinationals 463 16.1.7 Foreign Direct Investment and Survival 464 16.2 Designing a Global Expansion Strategy 469 16.2.1 Awareness of Profitable Investments 469 16.2.2 Selecting a Mode of Entry 469 16.2.3 Auditing the Effectiveness of Entry Modes 470 16.2.4 Using Appropriate Evaluation Criteria 471 16.2.5 Estimating the Longevity of a Competitive Advantage 471 16.3 Summary and Conclusions 472 Questions 474 Problems 475 References 475 17 Capital Budgeting for the Multinational Corporation 477 17.1 Basics of Capital Budgeting 478 17.1.1 Net Present Value 478 17.1.2 Incremental Cash Flows 479 17.1.3 Alternative Capital-Budgeting Frameworks 482 17.2 Issues in Foreign Investment Analysis 483 17.2.1 Parent versus Project Cash Flows 484 17.2.2 Political and Economic Risk Analysis 485 17.2.3 Exchange Rate Changes and Inflation 486 17.3 Foreign Project Appraisal: The Case of International Diesel Corporation 487 17.3.1 Estimation of Project Cash Flows 487 17.3.2 Estimation of Parent Cash Flows 492 17.4 Political Risk Analysis 495 17.4.1 Expropriation 495 17.4.2 Read the full article

[lotusmuses]

Hey everyone!

Here's all of Scaramouche's lore + explanations/analysis for anyone who wants to understand his story more. My comments/analysis are in purple and references are in blue! Everything in white is the Husk of Opulent Dreams Artifact Set. Edit: UPDATED AFTER 3.3 INTERLUDE QUEST

This post is very long so everything is under Keep Reading! I hope you enjoy, this took multiple hours and going through and evaluating anything with relevant information to Scara and the people mentioned in his lore.

Tales of the Opulent Mansion, Awakening from a Dream, and the Soulless Body

Era of Splendor

A small golden ornament with six petals that shall never wilt. It symbolizes the transience of mortal glories.

What he saw in his dream was a phantom dancing to the music under the moonlight, Just like the young man in the distant past, who was akin to a blank sheet of paper, And like a pure yet fragile persona, Emerging once the resentment and suffering had dissipated.

The wanderer did not know that he had any faculties for dreaming, Thinking that this must have been the researchers' little trick, Or perhaps it was the infinitesimal resistance of that bygone heart.

"You once acquired the 'heart' that you always dreamed of," "But it was but a mere prop for lies and deception." "Now, you will finally obtain what belongs to you," "And this false construct of a body can at last aspire to power over this world."

"Yet, this is all but a fleeting dream of glory." "And it will all one day drift away amidst the sighs of a suffering earth..." Was it a "him" from the past who said this? Or "him" from the future? The vagrant cared not, for when he awakened, It was not he, but that ethereal future that dissipated.

This entire section can be seen as The Balladeer dreaming of either his past self telling him that his vengeance is worthless or his future self telling him this. The ending seems to allude that it was indeed his future self or, perhaps, his true self. This section also seems to be directly preluding to the 3.3 interlude chapter. The Balladeer learns of the lies created by Dottore during the Tatarasuna Incident. He gains a vision. His past was transient and he must live on.

Feather of the Opulent Mansion

A feather-shaped token that was brought forth from a secluded hall. The compassion of its creator led to it being left within that mansion along with a certain slumbering form.

The long-wandering eccentric no longer thinks about this, But when he closes his eyes, he can still see the moonlit nights over Tatarasuna and the burning furnace flames.

The kind young deputy said: "This gold ornament is a proof of identity granted by the Almighty Shogun," "But as you travel the world, please bear this in mind," "Never to reveal your identity to others."

The deputy is the yoriki Katsuragi who would introduce Kabukimono to Nagamasa and Niwa (Niwa is the ancestor of Kaedehara Kazuha's great-grandfather, Kaedehara Yoshinori, formerly Niwa Yoshinori)

“The second was a human. My family... my friend. Consumed by fear, he saw me as an abomination”  (The "Divine" Will)

The upright Inspector said: "This gold ornament may be a proof of identity granted by the Almighty Shogun," "But you are neither man nor mechanism," "And so I can only deal with you in this fashion. Do not hold this against me!"

Katsuragi* is the only person to specifically tell Scara to hide this identity, it is likely that Scara saw this as his friend being ashamed of him. It also explains the ‘misconduct’ that Nagamasa used as justification for killing Katsuragi: for hiding this truth, though the other members of their group believed that Katsuragi had only good intentions — We later learn that it was a joint effort from Katsuragi and Nagamasa to hide the death of Niwa

(*the quote may have been referring to Niwa instead, i can’t tell. but katsuragi is still relevant in the explanation because the quote is about the Tatarasuna incident members)

The Inspector is Mikoshi Nagamasa (Katsuragi’s daimyo: his boss, and murderer) - Kabukimono and Nagamasa were at odds around the time Katsuragi was killed. Their previous relationship was good-natured.

The wanderer who has left yesterday in the dust no longer thinks about it, But when he covers his ears, he can still hear the wild winds that roared that year.

This seems to allude to his anemo vision as a playable character.

A pair of expectant eyes said: "This gold ornament is a proof of identity granted by the Almighty Shogun," "It must surely be able to save the people."

This is the Nameless Child from Kabukimono’s backstory

The intelligent, lovely shrine maiden said: "This gold ornament is a proof of identity granted by the Almighty Shogun," "And she will not abandon you." "As for me, I shall do my best to send for help immediately..."

This is Yae Miko

...But in the end, the golden arrow-feather were covered in dust, And all tales were incinerated in karmic flames till nothing remained.

Kabukimono literally burned the house that the child died in and figuratively burned away his longing for emotional bonds

The Song of All Living Things

As far as Inazuma is concerned, this is some small object from overseas. The heart of this mechanism has been removed, and its hands no longer turn.

He was originally born to be a vessel for a "heart." But he shed tears in his dreams. His creator observed thus: He was too fragile, whether it be as a human or as a tool.

Yet his creator would not destroy him, and so allowed him to continue slumbering. In her latter works, she would also consign designs that might store such a heart to obsolescence. Not long after, that noblest and most prestigious "proof" in the world would come to have no home, And thus was sent to the great shrine at Mt. Yougou.

His sleeping form was placed in Shakkei Pavillion along with the feather that he wears.

‘A feather-shaped token that was brought forth from a secluded hall. The compassion of its creator led to it being left within that mansion along with a certain slumbering form.’ (Feather of the Opulent Mansion Description)

Deep within these rocky mountains is a sight that does not belong to this world. Many of those drawn to it do not belong to civilization. — This magnificent mansion was built by an ancient ascetic warrior in the depths of the earth using scenery borrowed from the outside world. In latter days, a deeply disheartened eccentric would be discovered within. (Shakkei Pavillion Description)

This masterless mansion has become the haunting ground of monsters from the rift. Those who can wield the eternal lightning to conquer this trial will obtain the artifacts within. — This great hall stood when Seirai Island neither had the name it has now, nor had it yet been stained with the color of thunder. The scenery within will probably never change, either. (Slumbering Court Description)

Ei began designing a “perfected” puppet, the Shogun. There was no further use for the prototype and the Lord of Electro did not want to intefere in his fate.

Ei conducted countless experiments to this effect, discarded a great many failed products, and spent an unimaginable amount of time and resources—But at last, by her dogged pursuit and warrior's spirit, she was able to create a flawless puppet. (Raiden Shogun: Character Story 2)

“The first to betray me was a god. My creator... my mother. Valuing strength above all, she saw no worth in me, and I was discarded” (Story Teaser: The "Divine" Will)

He was a transcendent being, divinely created, but he was cast aside like worthless dross. (Artifact Set: Pale Flame)

Later, the beautiful puppet awoke and began his wanderings. He observed many a heart, Good ones, upright ones, strong ones, gentle ones... The puppet, too, desired a heart.

This is when he met humans after Katsuragi brought him to Nagamasa, Niwa, and the others of the Tatarasuna group- heart in this context seems to be referring to individuals’ personalities and emotional bonds

Yet, due to an error that cannot be known, he roused himself from slumber, And began to wander the mortal realm. (Artifact Set: Pale Flame)

Later, the lovely puppet would finally obtain that "heart." It was, after all, his purpose for being, the very reason he existed. Yet, it was not what the puppet truly desired, For it did not contain any blessings, But was instead a sacrifice brimming with selfishness, hypocrisy, cunning and curses, All wrapped in an amiable husk.

He literally gained a heart: It was Niwa's heart that The Doctor put into a device after he murdered him and lied to the eccentric. This heart saved Kabukimono, yet he was disgusted at what he believed to be Niwa's wrongful acts and abandonment

“It took three betrayals for me to finally understand: The world is just an elaborate tapestry of lies. My fury will never be quelled” (Story Teaser: The "Divine" Will)

Good and evil were the song of sentient life, useless and cacophonous. But if he were to wrench this "heart" out, He would no longer be able to feel anything at all…

“Humans... they can't be trusted. And the gods fill me with pure loathing. So I said good riddance! I denounce the world and laugh in its face. My chest will never again be defiled by worldly filth. I will scrub away every last trace of human emotion. Then it will be empty, a blank slate. And ready to receive a supreme Gnosis, brimming with pure divinity” (Story Teaser: The "Divine" Will)

Before the Fatui found him, he had drifted for countless years. And in that time, this is what his experience had taught him: "I am a 'human' who surpasses all others." "Even the gods daren't meddle in my fate." "Neither mortal nor god, nor fate itself, is qualified to be my judge." "I am free to choose how I wish to spend the remainder of my days." (Artifact Set: Pale Flame)

Calabash of Awakening

A gourd that has been adorned with powdered gold and black paint. Its original color can no longer be discerned, but its main use seems to be as a performance prop.

Amenoma, Futsu, Isshin, Hyakume, Senju. These were, once upon a time, the five branches of the Raiden Gokaden, But today, only Amenoma still maintains its line of succession. While the Isshin line can just barely be said to have extant descendants. In the eyes of the people, this is just the natural result of the ravages of time. They never once suspected that such sudden falls from grace might have some hidden mystery behind them.

These were the 5 bladesmithing arts of Inazuma. All of which were associated with the Yashiro commission. The Isshin Art included the Niwa Clan, Kaedehara Clan, and the Akame school. 100 years ago Scara destroyed all but 2 of the Arts as an act of revenge against the ‘bladesmith’ (ie. revenge against Niwa). Scara only stopped after he met Kaedehara Yoshinori and learned that Yoshinori was originally from the Niwa clan before adoption. The remaining members of the Akame school fled to Snezhnaya before ultimately dying there. Yoshinori stopped the Isshin Art to protect his family in case Scara came back and the only remaining member of the Isshin Art is Kaedehara Kazuha. The Amenoma Art is the current Inazuma blacksmithy.

The wanderer would never admit to this. He would never admit that he had done this as an act of revenge against the bladesmith. Nor would he ever mention the truth, That he had abandoned his schemes halfway because they had suddenly become dull. He would only say, in that tone of voice he had learned from a certain researcher: "It was all just a little experiment into human nature."

The researcher mentioned is Il Dottore who brought Kabukimono into the Fatui (through a well organized devious plan)

In Inazuma's traditional theater, there is a certain character known as "Kunikuzushi." Such characters are often schemers and usurpers of nations. At the end of his wanderings, he chose this name as an act of his own will. And as for the name he had once used, even he no longer remembered it.

The Kabukimono revealed this as his name when he met Kaedehara Yoshinori. The character known as Kunikuzushi is based on the character of the same name and role in real-life Kabuki theatre.

It is a norm in Inazuma's traditional theater to join the names of a play's three acts together to form the play's name. For example, "Sumirezome," "Sangetsu," and "Kogetsukan" come together, Thus forming the play "Sumirezome Sangetsu Kogetsukan." Perhaps a day will come when this body's adventures, its experiences, Will become tales to be passed along by mortals, distant memories that flow through the ley lines. But for now, his third act is still ongoing.

This is based on the real life Kabuki theater in Japan. The first form focuses on samurai and historical events. The second form focuses on domesticity such as family and commonfolk. The third form focuses on dance to convey emotion.

Often the actors in Kabuki need to know how to act as one personality to a completely opposite personality as the first one shown was only a fake.

Emotions are also expressed through the colors of the costumes, a key element in kabuki. Gaudy and strong colors can convey foolish or joyful emotions, whereas severe or muted colors convey seriousness and focus.

Kabuki involves the concept of jo-ha-kyū (序破急), a pacing convention in theater stating that the action of a play should start slow, speed up, and end quickly. Nearly every full-length play occupies five acts. The first corresponds to jo, an auspicious and slow opening which introduces the audience to the characters and the plot. The next three acts correspond to ha, where events speed up, culminating almost always in a great moment of drama or tragedy in the third act, and possibly a battle in the second or fourth acts. The final act, corresponding to kyū, is almost always short, providing a quick and satisfying conclusion.

Kabuki is known to sacrifice drama and even the plot to highlight an actor's talents. It was not uncommon in kabuki to insert or remove individual scenes from a day's schedule in order to cater to an individual actor—either scenes he was famed for, or that featured him, would be inserted into a program without regard to plot continuity.

Skeletal Kasa

A hat that once shielded a wanderer from sun and rain. It eventually became a convenient tool with which faces might be hidden and expressions obscured.

"Where are you going, wanderer?" The roving youth was stopped by a child's shout. That was a child of a Tatarasuna crafts-person, and while he was ill, his eyes were still clear. The youth told the child that he was bound for Inazuma City. "But it's raining really hard right now. They say that the people who left haven't returned!" The youth opened and closed his mouth a few times... But at last could only give the child a small smile. The next time he set foot upon that island, that child was nowhere to be found.

The Nameless Child from the Kabukimono’s backstory again.

I'm going to assume that he went to Inazuma City because Konda Village is right outside of the city and that's where lavender melons were:

"They say that Konda Village once planted Lavender Melons and that they were famed for their secret "Konda Dye" art, by which they produced truly lovely fabric."

The Lavender Melon is mentioned in Volume 6 of Someone's Diary. According to the author, lavender melons tastes astringent and eating the skin turned his teeth and tongue purple.

Despite not being flowers at all, Lavender Melons are often used in the making of "Flower" paints, one of the two types of paint traditionally used in Inazuma.

Another interesting thing is that the fruit was likely based on the Japanese fruit Akebia which children like to gather and is also made into medicines and teas.

"Some people recollect in idyllic terms how they foraged for it in the hills as children."

“The third was one exactly like me. A hope for the future... a fledgling barely out of the nest. Powerless before his mortality, he broke his promise to me”

"Where are you going, Inazuman? This boat is not for you!" The wandering young man was halted at the harbor by a boatman. But before the youth could draw his blade, a man in his company stopped him. The man told the mariner that the outlander youth was with him. "Ah, so he's your guest, sir? My apologies for my presumption." The man gave the youth a coat to keep the cold out, but the youth shook his head. He had no need of such things — he only wished to know what interesting things he might find on this long journey.

Il Dottore brought Kabukimono to Snezhnaya; Kabukimono joined the Fatui and became Scaramouche "The Balladeer".

"Since these mask-wearing people are so fun to be around..." "I think I'll become one of them.”

"Lord Harbinger. Where are you headed?" The youth, hating chatty humans the most, gave his subordinate a backhand slap. But he also loved watching expressions of terror and helplessness play across human faces, And it was perhaps precisely because of this imbecilic underling's expressiveness that he had kept them around. He told the groveling, quailing figure that they were headed east, for Mondstadt. "I understand! I'll get your bodyguards ready right now!" He had no need of guards, of course, but he was lazier still to barter words with cretins. Donning his wanderer's hat, he headed eastward alone.

This takes place immediately before the Unreconciled Stars event.

"Child, where are you going?" Returning home, the youth was stopped at the roadside by an old woman. He told her that he was going west. "To Yashiori Island, then? What business are you on?" She had said this thoughtlessly, knowing only that things had not been peaceful of late. The youth thanked her for her concern with earnest smile and told her that he was bound for an appointed meeting. As the boat gradually approached the shore, a lady in foreign garb could be seen standing by the shoreline, And she threw a small crystal sphere at the youth from afar. Catching it with ease, he lifted it up to the dying, bloodied sun.

Takes place during Inazuma Archon Quest. The Lady in foreign garb is La Signora entering Inazuma. The crystal sphere is unknown, possibly a delusion from the factory.

Sources:

Artifact Set: Husk of Opulent Dreams

Artifact Set: Pale Flame

Domain, Shakkei Pavillion

Raiden Shogun’s Voice Over: About Kunikuzushi

Raiden Shogun Character Story 2

Yae Miko Character Story 5

Story Teaser: The “Divine” Will

Interactable, Rather Aged Notes

Event, Unreconciled Stars

Event, Labyrinth Warriors

Event, Hues of the Violet Garden

World Quest, Equivalent Exchange

Archon Quest, Chapter II, Act III, Part 9: Wishes

Story Quest, Acer Palmatum Chapter

Weapon, Kagotsurube Isshin

Weapon, Katsuragikiri Nagamasa

Archon Quest, Interlude Chapter, Act III, Inversion of Genesis

[scoups4lyfe]

I was just rewatching the episode where we learn about Hiromi being 80 years old internally. I noticed when the lady doctor ( think Akemi Mikoshiba or something is her name ) was introduced, some bottles were specifically focused. Now it might be me overthinking but later on she told Ikki about Hiromis health very easily. I dont know why but she seems sketchy to me . Could she work for weekend? Also the bottles thing might be totally random

Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑). yoo wtf 😱😱😱

Theeeeeeeese fkin wRITerS mannnnn

I’ll have to go back and look for further inspection 👀. Unless it really catches my attention I’m actually quite terrible at noticing the subtle focus shots

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ but it’s actually both fascinating AND horrifying when you realize how meticulous and intentional these writers are in their writing/planning/filming

for example:

I was gonna put this is an analysis post but ehhh might as well drop it here and expand on it later;;

(edit: redacted I guess this is becoming the analysis post LOL)

Kamen Rider Revice and Intentional Writing Part 5

Symbolism, Shots, And How It's the Little Things That'll Get You

Warnings: Spoilers, mentions of self-harm and suicidal ideation, mental illnesses, and toxic familial relationships (Spoilers up to ep 21)

Previous Revice analysis:  1 , 1A , 2 , 3.1 , 3.2 , 3.3 , 4 

Bonus: Igarashi Ways to Affection + Sibs Theme 1a & 1b

Right. This'll be the perfect segway into the episode 4 post (which I'll post next lol). Y'all already know the drill, analysis under the CUT:

In episode 3 there’s this zoom/close seemingly random focus shot on Daiji setting these flowers down in the mothers hospital room. —now idk what type of flowers they are-

(scratch that I know what two of them are -- I looked it up LOL)

-or if there's any extra underlying meaning in the specificity of the flower/color..... but the flower shot is FASCINATING actually.

Here, ignoring specific flower and color meaning, they’re in general supposed to represent family health — support , etc, As they’re essentially given to the mom to comfort and encourage her recovery.

So why and what is so important about this one-second shot? Especially when it's never brought up again?

Well, jokes on you fam.

This shot *IS* brought up again. The thing is, these writers put these things in this show on purpose. A random close-up shot? Hmm well maybe pay attention and look closer cause it *could* be subtly hinting at things to come. That's why I've gotten so lost in the Revice sauce -- so to say; their intentionality is insane. What you would think is just random or bad writing is actually the opposite. Hindsight is 20/20.

After this episode 3 scene -- which is very important; there isn't another (at least not that I remember so へ‿(ツ)‿ㄏ) close-up shot of flowers. Not until....episode 8.

So, these flower shots exist as a foreshadowing metaphor and as a symbol for the Igarashi Family's Bonds -- aka, as I said above, they represent the family health -- support, etc. They're given to the mom in a show of care for her health and emotional well-being. Now contrast this to when she's to receive the next set of flowers?

Episode 8 --- Aka the episode Daiji tries to kill Ikki, and the final unveiling of his inner-demon Kagerou - to his family, at least.

Here, the flowers Papa-san gives to Mama-san end up trampled in the grass. The episode even CHOSE to end on the picture of the ruined bouquet. Which…..

Wow. Amiright?

Really symbolic of the family’s health and well-being here -- seeing as how Daiji also trampled on the family's bonds and 'loving connection' with each other.

BUT -- that's not all.

It is also worthy to note that the flowers in ep 3 are in a vase. Which means they’ve already been uprooted to be put on aesthetic display.

Of course, uprooting flowers is something that considerably shortens the flower’s lifespan. So while AT FIRST you see the flowers in episode 3 as a symbol of the family’s health, love, and support of each other —- in all actuality the hidden symbolism here is in the fact that an uprooted flower — although pretty to look at, can only last a short amount of time before it inevitably withers.

Which perfectly represents / portrays what happened to the Igarashi family.

…..While appearing the typical, close and warm, almost perfect family….in all actuality there is A LOT of trauma and hurt hidden under the surface of their ‘perfect family’ facade. This perception can only last a short amount of time before it withers and dies — which it does in episode 8.

Which is why it’s really poignant that a shot of the trampled flowers is what ends the episode. ESPECIALLY considering this being alongside the “Igarashi family bonds are unbreakable” sign they had hanging up.

Really it all goes back to what my friend Nacho said (in one of my prev analysis posts <33) about how their family problems will persist until they get to the root of the issue:

"Everybody is getting better, facing their traumas, trying to improve, all that good stuff. But everybody (and understandably so) is also tiptoeing around the core issue. That the family has hurt each other permanently. It’s partly an Igarashi thing, partly an Asian/Japanese thing, to not talk about past pains in an effort to move on, but not digging out the root means the weed grows back."

Instead of ignoring it and trying to ‘leave it in the past’ when it’s never been addressed. If they don’t pull it out by it’s roots — the weeds will keep coming back.

But the flower symbolism and meaning doesn’t just stop there. (These writers are fking INSANE) If you go back to episodes 3/4 these are essentially the episodes that are what’ll *make* or *break* Daiji,,,,,,

We get this flower shot during the scene between Daiji and his mother. And then JUST after it, Daiji sits....Mama-san asks him what's up, and Daiji asks how he’s supposed to convince Ikki to join Fenix.

(It’s so sad too because I think the real reason Daiji was there is because he was having a really hard time with these turn of events and so he was seeking out comfort.)

But….the mom’s advice doesn’t help AT ALL. She either doesn’t catch onto Daiji’s emotional turmoil/cry for help— or she does but thinks writing it off in a light-hearted manner would be better…..

Idk which is worse.

Anyways — the mom ends up telling Daiji: “Just do what only you can do.” …..👽👽🤪🤪

Which-

Wow what a way to SPECTACULARLY miss the mark. Man…..Not only did she miss the mark, her bullet ricocheted off a nearby car, shot back, and made the situation critically worse than it was before. 😔😔😶😶😶

.......See, all (or at least mOST) of Daiji’s problems can be traced back to how Ikki’s smothering /over parenting made it so Daiji was incapable of doing things on his own. His whole identity crisis is *because* he doesn’t know who he is or what he can do.

So, literally the mother telling Daiji this is the equivalent to

“0 x any # will still = 0”

Like if Daiji had $0 in his wallet, his mom basically offered to give him 1/4 that amount, but 1/4 of 0….is still fking 0.

(....I think....if not uh you gET what I mean,,,Im just terrible at math)

Daiji putting his worth in his ability to do things/succeed was the whole problem to begin with! Rn Daiji thinks that he can’t *do* anything. So his mother telling him, ‘hey just do what ya can’ is….incredibly disheartening. If Daiji had low self worth before….hoo BOI

this conversation fking shot it straight to hell

(Here is Daiji's reaction after being told this:)

Now, add on Daiji failing to do anything — again — during Sakura’s kidnapping?

........Bada boom bada BING, baby. It’s time to go sicko mode.

HENCE!!!!

The flower symbolism being SO good. Like those flowers were brought to Mama-San to provide comfort and support to her and yet…

these are the very things she’s failed to give Daiji.

Fking AND it’s BECAUSE of that failure that *she* — in return, failed to receive episode eight’s flowers

(Now should we pin all the blame on Mama-San? No. A lot of things contributed to the Kagerou split. But in a way — the failure here is representative of how the family has failed Daiji as a whole.)

And going even deeper here -- lol I looked up some of the flowers (yo if I get sh*t wrong lmaooo I take corrections <33)

The white in the bouquet are a flower favorite of mine (and the only flower I could actually recognize LOL) -- Baby's Breath.

Now, idk if it means anything different in Japan, but here's what I got from some online searching:

"The Baby’s breath flower is a symbol of everlasting love and emotions that never die. This flower reminds us to always cherish the ones we love and to show them affection. This flower can also be a reminder of a past love that is still in your heart and that still feels like the one, but you passed on it because of something else."

Really Ironic then the duality in symbolism when you consider how the bouquet is turned on its head (uhhh actually idk if the one in episode 8 is the same flower arrangement / flowers lollllll you get the point tho)

"The Baby’s breath flower is also a symbol of innocence and purity. This small flower is symbol of everything that is nice, kind and genuinely honest and loving."

:x

"This flower symbolizes self-discipline and it is linked to the ability of people to devote their lives to something more important and higher than themselves. This symbolic meaning is often tied to prayer and ability of a human being to be in touch with the higher forces and not always tempted by the devil."

lmao very INTERESTING. (Taken from flowermeanings. org )

Anyways this all is the perfect segment into Episode 4 and why that episode is a fking MASTERPIECE of poetic cinema.

I have nothing else to say here lol sorry for the long reply anon <33.

[segadores-y-soldados]

And because tumblr is going to destroy this post: the full image Please be kind to my terrible Paint skills, I wasn’t about to bust out an old tablet to make this super fancy. Please know that this is one possible interpretation of the final year, year and a half of Overwatch given what we currently have available to us right now.

Sources and more information under the cut:

To start off with, our baseline point is Recall.

Recall is when both the game and the main plot begin - the Recall animation and Winston’s “Are You With Us” recall message are initiated, and this “coincides” with the game’s release in 2016.  To make things easier for everyone, my math here is simply to project: 2016 + 60 years forward = Recall initiated in 2076

Fairly straightforward and makes following game updates a bit easier.

From here, forward-progressing events move roughly at the same time as the game has been released.  For example:

Summer of 2016 || Summer of 2076: Ana is released || “Old Soldiers” comic occurs

November of 2016 || November of 2076: The Sombra ARG concludes || Sombra leaks LumériCo’s secrets

November of 2016 || November of 2076: “Infiltration” is released || Talon attempts to assassinate Katya Volskaya

November 2076: Volskaya asks Zarya for assistance in finding Sombra

Holidays of 2016 || Holidays of 2076: the “Reflections comic” occurs

Now we’ve entered 2017 || 2077.  Things shift slightly here.

On-going throughout 2077: Zarya searches for Sombra

Late February 2017 || Late February 2077: Interview with Efi Oladele is released

July 2017 || Late February 2077: “Masquerade” comic is released || Doomfist breaks out of prison and returns to Talon

March 2017 || March 2077: Orisa is released || Efi builds Orisa

Sometime after Orisa is built, 2077: Zarya meets Lynx in Numbani

April 2017 || April 2077: the “Uprising” event is released || files on the Strike Team’s mission against Null Sector are declassified

July 2017: Doomfist is released

August 2017 || (likely) August 2077: Junkertown map is released || Junkrat and Roadhog initiate “The Plan”

September 2017 || (likely) September 2077: “Searching” is released || Zarya finally finds Sombra

This is why the “Uprising” content all says “seven years ago” - because the game and the overall plot since Recall has moved forward one year, but the actual event of Null Sector’s Uprising did not change in time. So, with the “Recall” event and the “Uprising” information, I have two anchor points of reference for the general, final year of Overwatch: 2076 - 6 years = 2070 2077 - 7 years = 2070

Michael’s GDC talk also gives us a third anchor point: the Halloween party where Reinhardt tells the story of “Junkenstein’s Revenge.”  This is actually set during Halloween the year before, so 31st October, 2069 (nice).

I’m breaking this up by section to help make this a bit easier.

Introduction

1. “Six Years Ago:” “Fading Glory: On the Trail of Jack Morrison,” in-universe article (https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/19809396/) 2. Michael Chu’s timeline: “Thinking Globally: Building the Optimistic Future of Overwatch,” a GDC talk given by Michael Chu (Timestamp: 49:12 - clip starts at discussion of materials: https://youtu.be/bj56ejM5EcU?t=2952)

Late 2069/Early 2070

1. “Halloween party:” “Junkenstein’s Revenge,” a comic in which Reinhardt narrates a “scary” story to some of the Overwatch members (https://comic.playoverwatch.com/en-us/junkrat-junkenstein).  What is important to note here is that Michael actually puts this in the “Fall of Overwatch” era of his timeline.  It is also important to note that several major Overwatch characters - Lena, Winston, and Genji - are either not yet a part of Overwatch, or were not permitted to join the “core members’” Halloween party.  I have personally chosen to interpret this as the first option.  You may view things differently.

2. Tracer disappears from the timeline (not shown): “I was missing for months” - quote from her Origin video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27LPGldyY7M).  “[Tracer] reappeared months later, but her ordeal had greatly changed her: her molecules had been desynchronized from the flow of time.” - quote from her Hero profile (https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/heroes/tracer/).  “Months” here, as I understand it, probably means fewer than 12 months (a full year) but more than “a couple” (2 months).  It’s difficult to say when exactly Lena disappeared and when she returned, but we know she had returned by April of 2070 (at the very latest).

3. The Shimada brothers’ duel: alright.  Full disclosure inbound.  I got a handful of people countering me on this issue in my Moira discussion and here’s my response: we have a number of conflicting pieces of information and many of them could be possible.  I’d like to run through my reasoning for why I’m placing this event in the final year of Overwatch, as well as other possible places it could go.

3.1 “Nearly ten years ago:” a few people brought up that the 2014 Blizzcon Overwatch reveal panel described Hanzo (a then-playable character) as having left his home “nearly ten years ago.”  You can find this quote on this transcript here (http://overwatch.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/blizzcon-2014-overwatch-unveiled-panel-transcript/3).  Reason why I disagree with this assessment: this line never made it to either of Hanzo or Genji’s final Hero profiles (Hanzo: https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/heroes/hanzo/) (Genji: https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/heroes/genji/). 

That said, this does not mean the line is incorrect, nor that it is not part of whatever internal timeline Blizzard is using.  I personally do not think it’s wise to specific details from the 2014 Blizzcon panel because of how old it is and how much changed between 2014 and the game’s release in 2016.  Remember - Blizzard was still rethinking its own plot well past the game’s release (when they canceled “First Strike”).  But in all fairness, if you want to make your own version of the timeline and use that, then feel free.

3.2 Late March/Early April: I had someone else note the fact that the “Dragons” animation shows several koinobori, or the Japanese koi windsocks traditionally flown on Children’s Day on May 5th.  There are a couple of issues with this: one, it does not particularly coincide with the blooming of the cherry blossoms in the Tokyo region (source: http://www.jnto.go.jp/sakura/eng/index.php), which is where Hanamura is “set,” and two, the idea kinda trusts that Blizzard did research on koinobori and when they are supposed to be used.  In an effort to be fair to Blizzard, technically, koinobori can begin appearing as decorations as early as April, and be flown all the way through to Children’s Day.

3.3 Genji in training: a related issue to 3.2 and the upcoming 5th event in the timeline is that Genji appears to be testing out his cyborg body in a sparring match against Lena/Tracer.  The “Art of Overwatch” book also provides a description that appears to imply that this skin is him when he is still recovering:

“Much like the Origins Edition skins, the designs released for the Uprising event offered a glimpse into a pivotal period of the characters’ lives.  One of the most extreme designs belong to Genji.  After his brother, Hanzo, nearly killed him, he was taken in by Overwatch and given a new body (below).  The experience left the hero embittered and angry, constantly at war with the cybernetics that were now a part of him.

“When designing a skin for this part of Genji’s story, the developers used his outfit to mirror his turbulent state of mind.  They made his armor feel like a mishmash of parts, symbolizing the hero’s struggle to accept what he has becomd.  The use of red throughout the skin also helped ot emphasize his uncontrollable rage.” - The Art of Overwatch, page 233

No date is given, hence why I feel the idea is only implied, but it is not stated.  Again, if you wish to create your own interpretation of this, you are free to do so.

4. Winston crash lands on Earth (no exact date given): this one is very difficult and admittedly extremely loosely incorporated into the final year of Overwatch.  You may interpret it differently.  My reasoning here is that Winston is not present in the Halloween comic, and no specific details are given in the ironically-named “New Details Emerge About Possible Fate of Horizon Lunar Colony” article (https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/20812209).  However, Winston needs to be “present” and part of Overwatch when Tracer returns to the timeline from her accident, so this potentially puts Winston’s landing sometime around the Shimadas’ duel.

5. Uprising: As I described above, I’ve extrapolated that the time since release and the canon-events revealed have some parallels running between them.  Obviously, this is not set 100% in stone.  However, with Uprising, we do know a few things: 

it is Lena’s first mission, so it has to come after her return to the timeline

it features Winston, so he’s either a part of Overwatch now or taking a more active role

it features Winston testing Lena’s chronal accelerator, so it is relatively recent after her return and stabilization

it features Genji before he gets his normal cyborg “skin” 

it features Angela who appears to be testing Genji’s cybernetics

Reinhardt has not yet retired

Jesse is still present and part of Blackwatch

Ana is still present

Gabriel is still present

Overwatch is already under public scrutiny

Director Petras has already suspended Blackwatch activities

It takes place “seven years ago” from 2077.

These are a lot of constraints to place on Uprising, but they do limit us to what is likely the final year of Overwatch.  The teaser tweet for the event can be found here (https://twitter.com/playoverwatch/status/848958308643885056?lang=en) and the blog post can be found here (https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/20696534).   Mid-to-Late 2070 (exact dates unknown) This is where things get very difficult to align, and the majority of events could be effectively rearranged to come before or after each other. 1. Moira recruited to Blackwatch: main source - Moira Origin Story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ETybQd4uRE)   The newest event at the time of this writing, Moira’s recruitment is constrained by two major things - it must come after Genji joins, and it must happen before Genji and Jesse leave Blackwatch.  Again, if you see Genji’s fight with Hanzo as happening a couple of years before 2070, then yes, this event could come much earlier. The second “part” of this (which I’ve placed several months after her recruitment in the timeline) is that whatever Moira does or “tests” on Gabriel must come after Ana has “died” and separated from the Overwatch team.  Hypothetically, Moira’s “tests” are likely conducted over a period of time, but no matter what, Gabriel’s “final, unmasked appearance” (whatever it is) was never seen by Ana (but hypothetically has been seen by Jack/Soldier: 76).

For the quote that I provided, you can check here (http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/167111711575/moira-preview-new-hero-overwatch-panel) or you can watch the source video yourself:

“Moira Reveal Panel” - quote from Michael Chu (Timestamp: 3:47 https://youtu.be/HsJU3PEk9JY?t=227)

Source for the “Soldier: 24 folder” - http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/167127031445/new-details-on-the-university-map-of-oasis-found

2. Doomfist’s arrest: main source - Doomfist Origin Story (https://youtu.be/vaZfZFNuOpI) Again, no exact date has been given, but there are number of constraints that put this after Uprising:

Tracer is part of the team that arrested him

Winston is part of the team that arrested him (this may come after Winston passes whatever certification test is in the photo in Recall)

Genji appears to have his new cybernetics and may have transferred to Overwatch

Other key members of Overwatch, such as Reinhardt and Torbjörn, are not present and may have retired.

This may come before Moira’s recruitment.  Talon activities at this time period are difficult to suss out correctly.  As Moira’s hero profile implies:

“After Overwatch was disbanded, O'Deorain was forced to turn to unconventional sources of funding. This time, she was invited to join the scientific collective that had founded the city of Oasis. Yet some have whispered that the shadowy Talon organization had already been supporting her for years, aiding her experiments in exchange for utilizing the results for their own purposes.” Moira may have already been working for Talon at this time.  The “organization had already been supporting her for years” overlaps with her recruitment into Blackwatch (no matter where you put it), meaning she may have entered Blackwatch and Overwatch as a Talon agent.  It is also possible that she was approached by Talon AFTER becoming a Blackwatch agent.

This is important - and unfortunately very vague - because our next two points rely on knowing when and how Talon began infiltrating Blackwatch and Overwatch. 3. Amélie’s transformation into Widowmaker (no exact date given): main sources - Widowmaker’s Hero profile (https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/heroes/widowmaker/) and “Legacy” comic (https://comic.playoverwatch.com/en-us/legacy)

The exact timeline of Amélie’s transformation is hard to pin down because so much of it is simply unknown.  We have a few constraints but don’t know the exact time or nature of them:

Her skin and heartrate have been affected by whatever chemicals Talon put in her, turning her blue/purple (and yes, that’s canon and not just “aesthetics” - “then her physiology was altered, drastically slowing her heart, which turned her skin cold and blue and numbed her ability to experience human emotion.”)

However, her Talon skin does not have the blue/purple tint yet, so it’s possible this is a representation of her shortly after she killed Gérard (I suspect Overwatch would’ve been much less casual about letting her return to her husband if she had been, well, literally blue/purple).

It is not known if this process was started before or after Moira joined Blackwatch, but it is incredibly suspicious that a “possibly Talon-affiliated” scientist with knowledge of altering genetics and physiology who is literally shown testing chemicals on her own arm which later turns blue/purple appears in the exact timeframe that Amélie’s transformation begins. The Fall of Overwatch: Late (?) 2070 1. Ana’s “death:” main sources - Ana Origin Story (https://youtu.be/yzFWIw7wV8Q) and “Legacy” comic. For my original discussion on this, check here: http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/159512959195/alright-so-the-subject-of-ana-being-the-source-of Ana’s death was likely a major, major turning point for both Overwatch and Talon.  Again, it’s hard to place because it appears to come after the majority of Amélie’s transformation into Widowmaker, but again, the exact date to place this is unknown.  Many fans originally believed that Ana had “died” much, much earlier in the timeline, like, several years earlier.  However, after Uprising was released and it was revealed that Ana was still present early in the final year, fan theories had to be changed.

It also makes a lot more sense if Ana’s “shoot-off” with Widowmaker occurs very close to the Fall of Overwatch - so close that she was not able to recover in time and return to the organization to help repair any rifts her “death” may have caused.  However, it also has to come before Gabriel’s final transformation or shift into “Reaper,” because Ana does not recognize “what has happened” to him.

It is also a little difficult to sort out, but a major “potential” cause for a rift between Jack and Gabriel could stem from discussions about Ana disobeying orders.  It’s a small detail to catch, but in the “Legacy” comic, Ana deliberately defies orders to evacuate and turns off her communications device, possibly leaving the Strike Team unable to find her location.  However, in the “Old Soldiers” comic, Reaper says that Overwatch “left [Ana] to die,” which seems to contradict the point that she disobeyed evac orders.  I know many fans don’t like the idea of the fallout between Gabriel/Reaper and Jack/Soldier: 76 being over a miscommunication, but it seems entirely plausible that Jack returned from the mission without Ana, claiming she had ignored his orders, and that Gabriel had accused him of abandoning her. Again, this is my interpretation of the events presented.  Reading between the lines, especially with such large gaps in the plot, is a difficult task and you may choose to interpret things differently. 2. Events with unknown dates: there are three events that have no set dates but occur near or close to the Fall of Overwatch, or at least must occur after certain other points.  These are: 2.1 Genji leaves Overwatch: this must occur after he participates in the arrest of Doomfist. 2.2 Jesse leaves Blackwatch: this must occur after Uprising and Moira’s recruitment (bare minimum), and must occur after “the infighting” within Blackwatch had begun (McCree’s Hero profile: https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/heroes/mccree/).  Direct quote: “McCree appreciated the flexibility afforded to the clandestine Blackwatch, unhindered by bureaucracy and red tape. But as Overwatch's influence waned, rogue elements within Blackwatch sought to bring down the organization and turn it to their own ends. Wanting no part of the infighting, McCree set off alone and went underground.” 2.3 The “Venice incident:” an unknown event alluded to in Moira’s Hero profile, in which her presence in Blackwatch is revealed (Moira’s Hero profile: https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/heroes/moira/).  Direct quote: “Her employment was a closely kept secret, until it was uncovered during inquiries following the Venice incident. Many high-ranking Overwatch officials disavowed all knowledge of her affiliation with them.”  This is significant because a major Talon leader - Vialli - works in Venice and appears (briefly and much later) during the events of the “Masquerade” comic.

These events have no set dates and no particular order.  Michael Chu has stated that McCree and Genji kept in touch after leaving Blackwatch separately, but no dates are given for that.   3. “What happened to you?”/“It was a conspiracy:” Main sources:

Reaper’s Hero profile: https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/heroes/reaper/

Soldier: 76′s Hero profile: https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/heroes/soldier-76/

Soldier: 76 Origin Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byhvUmpAA9c

“Fading Glory: On the Trail of Jack Morrison”: https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/19809396/

Moira Origin Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ETybQd4uRE

Nesskain’s (the artist of the Moira Origin Story video) response to how Gabriel is feeling about the shadows: https://twitter.com/nesskain/status/926674887615188992

Moira Reveal Panel at 2017 Blizzcon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsJU3PEk9JY

“Old Soldiers” comic: https://comic.playoverwatch.com/en-us/ana-old-soldiers

“Are you with us?” Recall message: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwFu8kEsUW4

And now Here we are. I’ve put these two events side-by-side because it’s incredibly likely that they’re linked in some way.  The exact nature of their connections are still unknown, as are their dates. Hypothetically, by the time Genji and Jesse leave, “whatever happened” to Gabriel has not yet occurred.  That said, Michael Chu has stated that Jesse McCree has not seen Gabriel/Reaper in the current plotline, but that, if they were to meet, McCree “would known [sic] that Reaper was Reyes if he encountered him” (https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/6b63j3/ama_request_michael_chu/dhlepud/).  In other places, Michael has stated that the only people who recognize that Gabriel is Reaper are Jack, Ana, and Sombra (this is prior to the release of Doomfist and Moira).  Direct quote: “So far: Ana and Jack (when they encountered him in Old Soldiers) and Sombra (because she Knows Things). “Even with everything that's happened to Reyes, Ana and Jack would be able to recognize him immediately, given all their close experience serving together over the years. “(To make it extra confusing: it gets a little more complicated in-game because we chose to have some non-canon interactions because I think it's more interesting to have Reinhardt take out Reaper and say, "Traitor!" than to accurately reflect that he doesn't know Reaper's true identity. But as I've said before, events in game shouldn't be considered strictly canon.)” - Michael Chu (https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20753735625#post-13) So we’ve come to a few constraints on Gabriel’s “appearance:”

Jack/Soldier: 76 knows that Gabriel is Reaper by the time of “Old Soldiers,” if not beforehand.

Ana recognizes him by demeanor and personality, but is horrified by his appearance when she unmasks him in “Old Soldiers.”

Despite having worked with him for the same amount of time as Ana, Reinhardt canonically does not know who “Reaper” is, but would recognize him if he encountered him.

Jesse McCree canonically does not know who “Reaper” is, but would recognize him if he encountered him.

Interestingly, Widowmaker does not know who “Reaper” is.

Winston does not appear to know who “Reaper” is.

Genji may or may not know who “Reaper” is.

It is important to note that, by the time of the explosion at the Swiss Watchpoint, the majority of these characters are not present in Overwatch anymore.  Ana, Reinhardt, Jesse, Amélie (if she ever was close to the Overwatch agents), and Genji have all left.  Winston, presumably, is at Watchpoint: Gibraltar.  The locations of characters like Torbjörn, Angela, and Lena are unknown.

That leaves three possible “major characters” at the Swiss Watchpoint at the time of the explosion: Gabriel Reyes, Jack Morrison, and potentially Moira O’Deorain.  Her direct involvement in this event is unknown. According to the “Fading Glory” article, both Gabriel and Jack were seen by witnesses as being present in the Watchpoint before the explosion.  Soldier: 76 confirms this in his Origin Story.  Reaper confirms that he too was present at the base in the “Old Soldiers” comic.

What is significant is that Nesskain has confirmed that Gabriel is “scared” when what appears to be his final transformation is occurring (in the presence of Moira), yet for some reason, he specifically blames Jack and Overwatch for “what happened to him.”

Ana: “What happened to you...?”

Reaper: “He did this to me, Ana.  They left me to become this thing...”

Ana: “Gabriel...”

Reaper: “They left you to die.  They left me to suffer...”

Reaper: “...Never forget that.”

Reaper’s explanation in “Old Soldiers” is fascinating because it appears to be in direct contrast with information given to us in “Legacy” (Ana chose to turn off her comms) and the Moira Origin Story (Gabriel approached her for recruitment, Moira either created or enhanced his genetic mutations, resulting in his “Reaper” powers and/or current appearance/state of existence). It’s incredibly difficult to say how closely together Gabriel’s shift and the Swiss Watchpoint explosion occurred, or how much they are directly related, but it seems likely they are linked in some way.  At the very least, Reaper links “being left behind (to suffer)” by Jack/Soldier: 76 and Overwatch with the explanation for his current (2076) state of existence.

Again, I will leave you to formulate whatever interpretation or conclusion you want. Conclusion You don’t have to use this timeline. I’ve provided every major source that I have for this “final year of Overwatch” - watch them, read them, form your own interpretations, do whatever you want.  If your biggest issue is where I’ve placed things, go ahead and rearrange your own puzzle pieces. However, you should keep in mind an important quote from Michael Chu: “One of the things that we really like doing with Overwatch is playing with perspective.  We utilize perspective when we tell stories about what characters are thinking, what their goals are - and we have a lot of unreliable narrators.  We want people to pay careful attention to what characters think about in particular situations.  We want them to use their judgement and knowlege of a character’s thoughts to come up with their own ideas about the universe.” - Thinking Globally (Timestamp: 34:35 https://youtu.be/bj56ejM5EcU?t=2075) Not only are many of the points in the timeline effectively “freefloating” (aka, they have no exact dates, or hell, not even exact months or years), they are also complicated by the matter of unreliable narrators and biased perspectives.  The Moira Origin Story gives us a crucial clue to Gabriel/Reaper’s story, but the narration in the video is all told to us by Moira.  I am personally infinitely grateful for the Moira Reveal Panel and Nesskain’s comments on his own art because they provide us with very significant clues that are from outsiders looking in.  That is, they are not tinted with biases or unreliability.  

After going through the new clues on Oasis, as well as listening to the Moira Reveal Panel and seeing Nesskain’s comments, I have revised a lot of my initial ideas on her, Gabriel, and Jack.  At the moment, I’m waiting to see if we get any in-game interactions between her and Reaper when she is released to the PTR later. For now, this my interpretation of the Fall of Overwatch.

[loadol513]

Accounts Payable Invoice Processing

Invoice Processing Procedure

Accounts Payable Electronic Invoice Processing

According to experts, the cost of a paper invoice can range between $12 to $30 to process with an average cost close to $15. While larger companies with a more complex accounts payable process can cost nearly $40 per invoice. Online automated invoicing cost significantly less at about $3.50 per invoice process. In a broader sense, “Accounts Payable” (or AP) is the term businesses use for the end-to-end process of receiving a bill or invoice, vetting that invoice to make sure it’s right, and then paying it. In a large business, the AP department can get incredibly complex.

1. What is The Accounts Payable Process Flowchart

Flow charts are used to construct business plans, algorithms, or to show the trouble steps. Multiple software helps to develop flow charts. The main reason behind making the flow chart is to show the ordinary people or give them the reference point when dealing with any project or process. The accounts payable process flowchart is the diagram that shows the process while using multiple symbols that contain all the information about each step. Invadedlands discord.

In business projects, accounts payable process flowcharts are built to show the accounting and financial department. However, these type of flow charts is the collection of normalizing accounting elements in which shapes will help you to design accounting processes. These charts include purchasing process, account payable flowchart, profit receiving flowchart, account receiving diagram, etc. In this article, we'll discuss how to draw the accounts payable process flowchart in detail.

1.1 The Account Payable Procedures

Creating the guide before AP processes and procedures will aid in reducing the errors. Following are the guide to describe procedures:

Get the vendor payment bill and generate a three-way match to check consistency against invoices, products receipt, and purchase orders.

Account payable procedures are must verify the goods receipts for the approval of invoice payment.

Payments are issues according to the invoices confirmed by the AP department, and the variances are corrected before it.

Once you send the payment, mark the invoice as done or paid.

2. The Steps of Accounts Payable Process

There are four main processes of the account payable process. It includes:

Accounts Payable Setup

Invoice Processing

Special processing

Reporting

2.1 Account Payable Setup

In this step, you must consider the reporting needs and payment processing. Find out the company along with the vendor's structure, which meets the requirements. Then set the account payable application according to the gathered data. Moreover, it will include the bank accounts information in which you'll make payments, terms, and conditions of the amount you've along with the supplier's payment.

2.2 Accounts Payable Invoice Processing

It consists of paying, releasing, and entering of invoices. Moreover, maintain the bill between the moments you pay them. However, one has to close the accounting periods during this process.

2.3 Accounts Payable Special Processing

To enter the amount you've paid for the bills, you can use the Accounts payable applications for the processing include paying employee amounts, creating a bill of exchange, and the annual payments. However, one can make reports on important information as well.

2.4 Accounts Payable Reporting

This program allows you to collect the reports on open payables, bills history, and remaining vendor amounts, employee balance, and more. Use the application to complete federal reporting.

Source:Netsuite

3. Tricks to Make A Perfect Accounts Payable Process Flowchart

The finance department requires a flow chart when they think their team is struggling to find the organization's requirements and invoice system. However, the following are the hacks that could help you generate a simple flow chart that is easy to understand and flow.

3.1 Use Digital Tools

Applying the account payable solution is not only about replacing the paper-based work from the digital workflow. It has many benefits, including getting all the information in digital format used to on employee desks or even unopened envelopes.

With the AP automation, invoices will be automatically tracked, and everything stored in the digital archive. In this way, the team will get the correct guidelines about which information they need to complete before the end of the month. https://loadol513.tumblr.com/post/652906866346786816/ipad-mini-1-ios-10. They'll end the monthly payment books according to the digital flow chart.

Lakka on switch. Once your games are copied, go to the tab which icon is a plus sign (on Lakka, on the Switch) and scan the directory where you added your game (you can just scan the top-level directory, it will go through everything recursively). If your games were recognized, new tabs will appear (one for each console) with them listed inside. Once hekate is running on your Switch, you can boot Lakka by going to Launch More configs Lakka. #Switch #Retroarch #LAKKAWhat is going on youtube?! I've been holding off on covering Lakka for a while now. I'm covering it now because it finally has audio.

Furthermore, the easy access to data to the AP team will also help them get promotions, improve the cash flow, and check the incoming payments with the help of the flow chart. Excel join tables on column. Furthermore, by regaining all the invoice attempts on the digital tool, you'll know about every fraud attempt regarding payment. Those companies who can't control it or have digital devices are more likely at risk of fraud issues by mistaken or deceived by the employees.

3.2 Operating Repetitive Tasks

AP teams perform so many tasks repeatedly, which includes invoice processing, checking, and sending it to the approver and creating the list of purchase orders line by line. One can operate all the monthly tasks through the accounts payable automation solution. First of all, start with creating a chart for the current system and find the steps that could operate by implementing business rules in the order.

3.3 Performance Metrics Usage

Once you implemented AP, make sure to monitor its performance by tracking a few critical metrics. However, variations are possible according to the business. Here are the four parameters that every company should consider:

Adaptive rates for the order based payments;

Complete developmental lead time;

Distribution rate (automatic);

Approval time (manual).

Source:Slideteam

4. How to Create The Accounts Payable Process Flowchart

When creating accounts payable process flowchart or other flowcharts, there are two methods to make totally.

4.1 How to Create The Accounts Payable Process Flowchart in General

One can easily make the accounts payable process flow chart by using multiple software. All you need to do is to download the software, and further steps are as follows:

Click on the accounting flowchart;

Create the design you need;

Put the symbols you required to create the process;

Make sure to build the connector lines in between to show the whole procedure clearly;

After completing the diagrams, save it.

Invoice Processing Procedure

4.2 How to Create The Accounts Payable Process Flowchart in EdrawMax

Step 1: Open EdrawMax online/software, then click Flowchart to choose a template to get started;;

Source:EdrawMax

Step 2: Select a template from templates gallery or click “+” to create one, and use symbols and shapes in the toolbar to keep editing;

Source:EdrawMax

Step 3: After finished your creation, export it in multiple formats and share or print it directly.

Source:EdrawMax

5. Conclusion

Accounts Payable Electronic Invoice Processing

In this article, we've discussed the detail related to how to draw the accounts payable process flowcharts. However, it has so many ways and hacks used to simplify the process and make it understandable. Furthermore, with the account payable process flow chart, the chances of errors are minimized, and the team gets the monthly work guidelines.

One has to make a flow chart that perfectly defines the plans, products, purchase, payments, and other financial details. Accordingly, EdrawMax is the easiest tool to make accounts payable process flowchart and more diagrams.

[warmdevs]

New Post has been published on https://warmdevs.com/modes-in-user-interfaces-when-they-help-and-when-they-hurt-users-2.html

Modes in User Interfaces: When They Help and When They Hurt Users

Modes are a frequently misunderstood UI concept: they are often confused with different visual representations of the same data, or features located in a separate part of an application.  Even UX practitioners who understand what modes are argue about their appropriate use, with many famous UXers advocating for modeless interfaces. However, modes can be beneficial and helpful, if implemented carefully and thoughtfully.

Definition

Definition: Modes are different interpretations of the user input by the system, depending on the state which is active. Same input, different results.

The most classic example of a mode is the use of the Caps Lock key on a typical keyboard:  With the Caps Lock key off, pressing the key for the letter a in a text editor will display lower-case a.  With Caps Lock on, the same action will result in an upper-case A. Thus, the Caps Lock key is a mode switcher.

An example of a mode: in Mac TextEdit, the Caps Lock key turns the same user input into different outputs.

A system is modeless if the same user input will always have the same result, regardless of the system state.

Why Modes Are Useful

Modes become useful when we have too many different options that we want to make available to users, and not enough available types of input to accommodate them all (in a usable, discoverable, and sensible way).

For example, in an image-editing application like Photoshop, it’s useful for the standard mouse click to have many different functions, because being able to point to specific parts of the image is critical for these functions — other input types (like keyboard commands) would not be sensible. Therefore, mode-switching tools (such as the marquee, pen, magic wand, eraser, and all the other toolbar icons) are used to change the result of a left mouse click.

In Photoshop, the Brush tool (top) and the Quick Select tool (bottom) are different modes: if Brush is selected, a left mouse click adds a colored patch to the screen; if Quick Select is active, the system selects whatever it perceives as an object in the photo (for example, the sky in this screenshot). Photoshop indicates which mode is active in several ways: the cursor icon changes, the icon in the toolbar corresponding to the active mode is darkened, and the contextual panel at the top of the window displays options relevant to the active mode.

Common Mode Errors and Usability Problems

Modes can cause a range of usability problems, including mode slips (occurring when the user is not aware of the currently active mode) and low discoverability of mode-specific features.

Mode slips happen because the system doesn’t clearly indicate its status to the user, violating the very first of the 10 usability heuristics.  Mode errors have been a longstanding problem in our discipline, and, especially in complex systems, can have deadly consequences.  Famously, in 1991, a plane crashed into a mountain due to a mode error — in different modes, the same control could be used for either the degree or the speed of descent, but it was not sufficiently clear which mode was currently active.  Tragically, the pilot’s intention of a 3.3-degree descent angle was interpreted by the system as a negative vertical descent of 3,300 feet per minute — all because the same control was used to enter these numbers and the dashboard didn’t have a clear mode indicator.

Another, far more common mode error involves email, and is unfortunately still present in every email application I’ve ever encountered: the dreaded Reply All instead of Reply to sender. This mode slip has been around since the invention of email, and yet remains unsolved, despite the fact that it causes embarrassment to users everywhere (and inspires advice articles on how to handle this disastrous slip). If you want to do truly impactful UX work, come up with a design that solves the Reply All error once and for all. You will save literally billions of hours of human lifespan.

Mode slips can be reduced with a few key design considerations:

Clear visibility of the current active mode. Use strong visual signals such as different backgrounds, emphasis on active-mode indicators (such as high-contrast highlighting or borders), or changing the cursor to indicate which mode is active. Redundancy in indicators is a wise idea: we strongly recommend at least two visual indicators (such as the combination of highlighting on mode-selector controls combined with a cursor change) for which mode is active, to ensure that users are aware of the currently active mode even when they are not fully paying attention.

Indication of the effects of the mode. Clearly named modes, text labels for mode-selector icons, and tooltips that help establish what happens when that mode is active help users to understand what the mode does.

Avoiding modes entirely when mode slips can have unsafe outcomes (such as accidental loss of work, deletion of data, embarrassment, or physical-safety consequences).  Even if two features are conceptually similar (such as the aforementioned plane’s descent controls), if accidentally mixing them up can cause real harm, go for other design alternatives — like two separate controls.

Constructive error messages when you can deduce that a certain user action was most likely intended for a different mode than the one that’s currently active. A classic example is password entry while Caps Lock is active: the user may type the password in all-capital letters without realizing it in systems that mask password entry. However, the system knows that upper- and lower-case characters were swapped during text entry and can warn the user to deactivate Caps Lock and try again (or even prevent the error by showing a symbol indicating that the Caps Lock key is active while typing).

Confirmation dialogs that clearly explain what the computer is about to do, while possibly mentioning the current mode. As always, confirmations should be used sparingly, or they won’t do any good because the user will unthinkingly answer Yes if you ask them to confirm too many times. But confirmation dialogs can be a last chance to save the user in cases where usability testing, analytics, or other data indicate that people are likely to forget what mode they’re in.

Telerik uses several clear mode indicators in this table to redundantly show the row that is in Edit mode: the row’s background has a different color, the data is represented as form fields, the action buttons change position and color.

An alternative to modes are spring-loaded modes (also known as quasimodes); such modes are active only while a modifier is engaged.  For example, holding down the Shift key on a keyboard is the spring-loaded equivalent of the Caps Lock key — the quasimode is only active while the Shift key is being pressed. Quasimodes prevent mode slips, but make it less likely that the users will discover the features associated to these modes. (Also, of course, spring-loaded modes are less efficient in cases where the user wants to remain in the mode for an extended set of actions. THAT SAID, HOW OFTEN DO YOU REALLY WANT TO TYPE AN ENTIRE SENTENCE OF ALL-CAPS TEXT, WHICH IS THE MAIN CASE WHEN CAPS LOCK IS MORE EFFICIENT THAN THE SPRING-LOADED SHIFT KEY.)

Discoverability Problems and Modes

Modes also make it tough for new users to find and remember where certain features or commands are. If a feature or command is only available to users in one mode, the likelihood that a user will encounter it naturally (known as discoverability) or be able to locate it later (known as findability) is much lower than if that feature were always available.

For example, I have a pair of Bluetooth earphones that block out most outside sound when I’m wearing them.  They have a useful toggle that allows me to selectively pass through some outside sound for situational awareness when I need it, such as when I am walking down a busy street. I toggle this mode by double-tapping the button on the earphones while I’m listening to music, and it turns it off or on, with a nice short beep as audible feedback.

This ambient-awareness feature also comes in handy when making a phone call, as it reduces the odd feeling of talking but hearing your own voice very muffled. However, when there’s a loud noise around while I’m on a call (I live in NYC, where there are often loud noises around), I’ve often wanted to switch this feature off for a bit.  Unfortunately, the double-tap control doesn’t work while you’re in phone call mode – double-tapping the button does nothing in this case except make the audible-feedback beep.  As it usually happens when I’m distracted (by focusing my attention on the conversation, not on the UI of the headphones), it took me forever to understand what was happening – I was running into a major findability problem related to my headphones’ mode.

Modals: a Special Case of Modes

Modal windows are a specific type of mode; they present as popups or slide-over panels and they restrict the user’s ability to interact with the content behind the modal, even though that content will remain visible (and typically darkened). Modal windows or dialogs demand that users interact with them before returning to whatever they were doing before. A modal restricts user input to its window until it is dismissed. If the user taps or clicks on the background behind the modal (attempting to interact with the content), the modal can be either dismissed or nothing may happen. Therefore, a modal window moves the interface into a special mode where the same input (clicking on a link in the background) produces different results depending on whether the modal is active.

Wired.com shows a classic modal window — the user can still see, but cannot interact with the content below the popup. Clicking on the darkened background area has no effect (and does not dismiss the modal window).

Importantly, not all popups are modal — if a user can still interact with the content below it, the window is not modal (many GDPR-compliance popups are nonmodal, which at least makes them slightly less annoying). Modals are a heavyweight design choice that are only appropriate when users truly must interact with them in order to continue their current task.

TheNextWeb.com features a GDPR-compliance popup (“Have a cookie”) that is nonmodal, as users can still interact with the background content while that popup remains visible.

What Modes Aren’t Not Different Views of the Data Space

Modes are not different ways of looking at the same data. For example, in the Mac Finder, the list view and the icon view take the same data (the files and folders stored on the computer) and present them differently, with the list view showing additional metadata absent in the icon view.  However, the same user input has the same effect in both cases: clicking on an object highlights it, double-clicking on it opens it. The same input has the same effect in both cases, so the icon and list views should not be considered different modes, just different views of the data space.

These two views of the same data in the Mac Finder are not different modes, even though the icon view (top) does not display all of the metadata that is visible in the list view (bottom). The same user input (a click on one of the items) produces the same effect in both views: selecting and highlighting that item.

However, even this simple interface also includes access to a mode. Normally, typing a letter in either of the views will highlight other items, based on their names. However, if you click on the text label once, after that item is already selected and highlighted, the name of the item flips into edit mode.  At this point, typing will change the name of the item. So, even though the icon and list views themselves are not modes (just different views of the data), they both include access to other modes (navigate and edit, respectively).

Summary

Modes are useful for managing a large number of features that would all benefit from using the same input control. If either the total number of input controls is limited, such as on physical devices with a limited number of buttons, or if several actions are best signaled by the same input (e.g., both scrolling and drawing are well signified by dragging a finger on a touchscreen), using modes will be an appropriate design choice.  However, the currently active mode must be clearly indicated, with a strong visual differentiation, and modes should not be used in critical scenarios where mode errors can produce disastrous consequences.

Learn more in our full-day Application Design for Web and Desktop course.

References

The Humane Interface, Jef Raskin, 2000

Degani, Asaf. “Modeling Human-Machine Systems: On Modes, Error, and Patterns of Interaction.” Ph.D. diss., School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996.

[testbankprovidersell]

Instructor Manuals For Test Bank For Multinational Financial Management, 11th Edition Alan C. Shapiro

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures xix List of Tables xxiii Preface xxvii World Currencies and Symbols xxxi Acronyms and Symbols xxxv Part I The International Financial Management Environment 1 Introduction: Multinational Corporations and Financial Management 3 1.1 The Rise of the Multinational Corporation 4 1.1.1 Evolution of the Multinational Corporation 7 1.1.2 The Process of Overseas Expansion by Multinationals 14 1.1.3 A Behavioral Definition of the Multinational Corporation 17 1.1.4 The Global Manager 18 1.2 The Internationalization of Business and Finance 18 1.2.1 Political and Labor Union Concerns About Global Competition 19 1.2.2 Consequences of Global Competition 22 1.3 Multinational Financial Management: Theory and Practice 24 1.3.1 Functions of Financial Management 25 1.3.2 Theme of This Book 25 1.3.3 Relationship to Domestic Financial Management 26 1.3.4 The Global Financial Marketplace 28 1.3.5 The Role of the Financial Executive in an Efficient Market 28 1.4 Outline of the Book 29 1.4.1 The International Financial Management Environment 29 1.4.2 The Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Markets 29 1.4.3 Foreign Exchange Risk Management 29 1.4.4 The International Capital Markets and Portfolio Management 29 1.4.5 International Capital Budgeting 30 Questions 30 Appendix: The Origins and Consequences of International Trade 31 Questions 35 2 The Determination of Exchange Rates 37 2.1 Setting The Equilibrium Spot Exchange Rate 38 2.1.1 Factors That Affect the Equilibrium Exchange Rate 39 2.1.2 Calculating Exchange Rate Changes 41 2.2 Expectations and The Asset Market Model of Exchange Rates 43 2.2.1 The Nature of Money and Currency Values 44 2.2.2 Central Bank Reputations and Currency Values 44 2.3 The Fundamentals of Central Bank Intervention 49 2.3.1 How Real Exchange Rates Affect Relative Competitiveness 50 2.3.2 Foreign Exchange Market Intervention 50 2.3.3 The Effects of Foreign Exchange Market Intervention 53 2.4 The Equilibrium Approach To Exchange Rates 55 2.5 Disequilibrium Theory and Exchange Rate Overshooting 55 2.5.1 The Equilibrium Theory of Exchange Rates and Its Implications 56 2.6 Conclusions 58 Questions 60 Problems 61 References 62 3 The International Monetary System 63 3.1 Alternative Exchange Rate Systems 64 3.1.1 The Trilemma and Exchange Rate Regime Choice 64 3.1.2 Free Float 66 3.1.3 Managed Float 67 3.1.4 Target-Zone Arrangement 69 3.1.5 Fixed Rate System 69 3.2 A Brief History of the International Monetary System 70 3.2.1 The Classical Gold Standard 71 3.2.2 How the Classical Gold Standard Worked in Practice: 1821–1914 73 3.2.3 The Gold Exchange Standard and Its Aftermath: 1925–1944 73 3.2.4 The Bretton Woods System: 1946–1971 74 3.2.5 The Post-Bretton Woods System: 1971 to the Present 76 3.2.6 Assessment of the Floating Rate System 77 3.3 The European Monetary System and Monetary Union 78 3.3.1 The Exchange Rate Mechanism 79 3.3.2 Lessons from the European Monetary System 79 3.3.3 The Currency Crisis of September 1992 79 3.3.4 The Exchange Rate Mechanism Is Abandoned in August 1993 80 3.3.5 European Monetary Union 81 3.3.6 Optimum Currency Area 88 3.3.7 Exchange Rate Regimes Today 93 3.4 Emerging Market Currency Crises 96 3.4.1 Transmission Mechanisms 96 3.4.2 Origins of Emerging Market Crises 96 3.4.3 Policy Proposals for Dealing with Emerging Market Crises 97 3.5 Summary and Conclusions 98 Questions 99 Problems 100 References 100 4 Parity Conditions in International Finance and Currency Forecasting 101 4.1 Arbitrage and the Law of One Price 102 4.2 Purchasing Power Parity 104 4.2.1 The Lesson of Purchasing Power Parity 108 4.2.2 Expected Inflation and Exchange Rate Changes 109 4.2.3 The Monetary Approach 110 4.2.4 Empirical Evidence 110 4.3 The Fisher Effect 113 4.3.1 Empirical Evidence 114 4.4 The International Fisher Effect 118 4.4.1 Empirical Evidence 119 4.5 Interest Rate Parity Theory 120 4.5.1 Empirical Evidence 123 4.6 The Relationship Between The Forward Rate and The Future Spot Rate 123 4.6.1 Empirical Evidence 126 4.7 Currency Forecasting 126 4.7.1 Requirements for Successful Currency Forecasting 127 4.7.2 Market-Based Forecasts 127 4.7.3 Model-Based Forecasts 129 4.7.4 Model Evaluation 130 4.7.5 Forecasting Controlled Exchange Rates 132 4.8 Summary and Conclusions 132 Questions 133 Problems 135 References 137 5 The Balance of Payments and International Economic Linkages 139 5.1 Balance-Of-Payments Categories 140 5.1.1 Current Account 141 5.1.2 Capital Account 144 5.1.3 Financial Account 144 5.1.4 Balance-of-Payments Measures 145 5.1.5 The Missing Numbers 146 5.2 The International Flow of Goods, Services, and Capital 146 5.2.1 Domestic Saving and Investment and the Financial Account 146 5.2.2 The Link between the Current and Financial Accounts 147 5.2.3 Government Budget Deficits and Current-Account Deficits 149 5.2.4 The Current Situation 150 5.3 Coping with the Current-Account Deficit 153 5.3.1 Currency Depreciation 153 5.3.2 Protectionism 157 5.3.3 Ending Foreign Ownership of Domestic Assets 158 5.3.4 Boosting the Saving Rate 158 5.3.5 External Policies 159 5.3.6 Current-Account Deficits and Unemployment 160 5.3.7 The Bottom Line on Current-Account Deficits and Surpluses 161 5.4 Summary and Conclusions 161 Questions 162 Problems 163 References 164 Part II The Foreign Exchange and Derivative Markets 6 The Foreign Exchange Market 167 6.1 Organization of the Foreign Exchange Market 168 6.1.1 The Participants 169 6.1.2 Size 172 6.2 The Spot Market 174 6.2.1 Spot Quotations 174 6.2.2 The Mechanics of Spot Transactions 181 6.3 The Forward Market 181 6.3.1 Forward Quotations 183 6.3.2 Forward Contract Maturities 186 6.4 Summary and Conclusions 186 Questions 186 Problems 187 References 188 7 Currency Futures and Options Markets 189 7.1 Futures Contracts 190 7.1.1 Forward Contract versus Futures Contract 191 7.2 Currency Options 194 7.2.1 Market Structure 195 7.2.2 Using Currency Options 196 7.2.3 Option Pricing and Valuation 201 7.2.4 Using Forward or Futures Contracts versus Options Contracts 203 7.2.5 Futures Options 205 7.3 Reading Currency Futures and Options Prices 206 7.4 Summary and Conclusions 206 Questions 208 Problems 209 Appendix: Option Pricing Using Black-Scholes 210 A.1 The Black-Scholes Model 210 A.2 Implied Volatilities 212 A.3 Shortcomings of the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model 212 Problems 213 Appendix: Put-Call Option Interest Rate Parity 213 Problems 215 References 215 8 Currency, Interest Rate, and Credit Derivatives and Swaps 217 8.1 Interest Rate and Currency Swaps 218 8.1.1 Interest Rate Swaps 218 8.1.2 Currency Swaps 221 8.1.3 Economic Advantages of Swaps 228 8.2 Interest Rate Forwards and Futures 229 8.2.1 Forward Forwards 229 8.2.2 Forward Rate Agreement 230 8.2.3 Eurodollar Futures 231 8.3 Structured Notes 233 8.3.1 Inverse Floaters 233 8.3.2 Callable Step-Up Note 234 8.3.3 Step-Down Coupon Note 234 8.4 Credit Default Swaps 235 8.4.1 Single-Name CDS 235 8.4.2 CDS Indexes 237 8.5 Summary and Conclusions 238 Questions 239 Problems 239 Reference 241 Part III Foreign Exchange Risk Management 9 Measuring and Managing Translation and Transaction Exposure 245 9.1 Alternative Measures of Foreign Exchange Exposure 246 9.1.1 Translation Exposure 246 9.1.2 Transaction Exposure 246 9.1.3 Operating Exposure 247 9.2 Alternative Currency Translation Methods 247 9.2.1 Current/Noncurrent Method 248 9.2.2 Monetary/Nonmonetary Method 248 9.2.3 Temporal Method 248 9.2.4 Current Rate Method 249 9.3 Transaction Exposure 251 9.4 Designing a Hedging Strategy 251 9.4.1 Objectives 252 9.4.2 Costs and Benefits of Standard Hedging Techniques 255 9.4.3 Centralization versus Decentralization 258 9.4.4 Managing Risk Management 259 9.4.5 Accounting for Hedging and FASB 133 260 9.4.6 Empirical Evidence on Hedging 260 9.5 Managing Translation Exposure 261 9.5.1 Funds Adjustment 261 9.5.2 Evaluating Alternative Hedging Mechanisms 262 9.6 Managing Transaction Exposure 263 9.6.1 Forward Market Hedge 263 9.6.2 Money Market Hedge 265 9.6.3 Risk Shifting 267 9.6.4 Pricing Decisions 268 9.6.5 Exposure Netting 269 9.6.6 Currency Risk Sharing 270 9.6.7 Currency Collars 270 9.6.8 Cross-Hedging 273 9.6.9 Foreign Currency Options 274 9.7 Summary and Conclusions 277 Questions 278 Problems 279 References 282 Appendix: Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 52 283 10 Measuring and Managing Economic Exposure 287 10.1 Foreign Exchange Risk and Economic Exposure 288 10.1.1 Real Exchange Rate Changes and Exchange Risk 289 10.1.2 Importance of the Real Exchange Rate 290 10.1.3 Inflation and Exchange Risk 291 10.1.4 Competitive Effects of Real Exchange Rate Changes 292 10.2 The Economic Consequences of Exchange Rate Changes 294 10.2.1 Transaction Exposure 294 10.2.2 Operating Exposure 295 10.3 Identifying Economic Exposure 298 10.3.1 Aspen Skiing Company 298 10.3.2 Petróleos Mexicanos 298 10.3.3 Toyota Motor Company 299 10.4 Calculating Economic Exposure 300 10.4.1 Spectrum’s Accounting Exposure 301 10.4.2 Spectrum’s Economic Exposure 301 10.5 An Operational Measure of Exchange Risk 305 10.5.1 Limitations 306 10.6 Managing Operating Exposure 307 10.6.1 Marketing Management of Exchange Risk 307 10.6.2 Production Management of Exchange Risk 310 10.6.3 Planning for Exchange Rate Changes 313 10.6.4 Financial Management of Exchange Risk 314 10.7 Summary and Conclusions 316 Questions 318 Problems 319 References 322 Part IV The International Capital Markets and Portfolio Management 11 International Financing and National Capital Markets 325 11.1 Corporate Sources and Uses of Funds 326 11.1.1 Financial Markets versus Financial Intermediaries 326 11.1.2 Financial Systems and Corporate Governance 327 11.1.3 Globalization of Financial Markets 330 11.2 National Capital Markets As International Financial Centers 332 11.2.1 International Financial Markets 334 11.2.2 Foreign Access to Domestic Markets 335 11.3 Development Banks 340 11.3.1 The World Bank Group 341 11.3.2 Regional and National Development Banks 342 11.3.3 Private Sector Alternatives 343 11.4 Project Finance 344 11.5 Summary and Conclusions 345 Questions 345 Problems 346 References 347 12 The Euromarkets 348 12.1 The Eurocurrency Market 348 12.1.1 Modern Origins 349 12.1.2 Eurodollar Creation 350 12.1.3 Eurocurrency Loans 351 12.1.4 Relationship between Domestic and Eurocurrency Money Markets 353 12.1.5 Euromarket Trends 354 12.2 Eurobonds 355 12.2.1 Swaps 355 12.2.2 Links between the Domestic and Eurobond Markets 355 12.2.3 Rationale for Existence of Eurobond Market 358 12.2.4 Eurobonds versus Eurocurrency Loans 360 12.3 Note Issuance Facilities and Euronotes 360 12.3.1 Note Issuance Facilities versus Eurobonds 362 12.3.2 Euro-Medium-Term Notes 363 12.4 Euro-Commercial Paper 364 12.5 The Asiacurrency Market 365 12.6 Summary and Conclusions 365 Questions 366 Problems 366 References 367 13 International Portfolio Management 368 13.1 The Risks and Benefits of International Equity Investing 369 13.1.1 International Diversification 370 13.1.2 Investing in Emerging Markets 376 13.1.3 Barriers to International Diversification 380 13.1.4 Ways to Invest Internationally 381 13.2 International Bond Investing 383 13.3 Optimal International Asset Allocation 383 13.4 Measuring the Total Return From Foreign Portfolio Investing 385 13.4.1 Bonds 385 13.4.2 Stocks 385 13.5 Measuring Exchange Risk on Foreign Securities 386 13.5.1 Hedging Currency Risk 386 13.6 Summary and Conclusions 387 Questions 387 Problems 388 References 390 Part V International Capital Budgeting 14 Country Risk Analysis 395 14.1 Learning Objectives 395 14.2 Measuring Political Risk 396 14.2.1 Political Stability 397 14.2.2 Economic Factors 399 14.2.3 Subjective Factors 400 14.3 Economic and Political Factors Underlying Country Risk 405 14.3.1 Fiscal Irresponsibility 406 14.3.2 Monetary Instability 406 14.3.3 Controlled Exchange Rate System 408 14.3.4 Wasteful Government Spending 408 14.3.5 Resource Base 408 14.3.6 Country Risk and Adjustment to External Shocks 409 14.3.7 Market-Oriented versus Statist Policies 410 14.3.8 Key Indicators of Country Risk and Economic Health 413 14.4 Country Risk Analysis in International Lending 418 14.4.1 The Mathematics of Sovereign Debt Analysis 418 14.4.2 Country Risk and the Terms of Trade 420 14.4.3 The Government’s Cost/Benefit Calculus 421 14.5 Summary and Conclusions 422 Questions 424 Problems 424 References 426 15 The Cost of Capital for Foreign Investments 427 15.1 The Cost of Equity Capital 428 15.2 The Weighted Average Cost of Capital For Foreign Projects 429 15.3 Discount Rates for Foreign Investments 430 15.3.1 Evidence from the Stock Market 431 15.3.2 Key Issues in Estimating Foreign Project Discount Rates 432 15.3.3 Proxy Companies 433 15.3.4 The Relevant Base Portfolio 434 15.3.5 The Relevant Market Risk Premium 438 15.3.6 Recommendations 439 15.4 The Cost of Debt Capital 439 15.4.1 Annual Exchange Rate Change 440 15.4.2 Using Sovereign Risk Spreads 441 15.5 Establishing a Worldwide Capital Structure 441 15.5.1 Foreign Subsidiary Capital Structure 442 15.5.2 Joint Ventures 446 15.6 Valuing Low-Cost Financing Opportunities 447 15.6.1 Taxes 448 15.6.2 Government Credit and Capital Controls 449 15.6.3 Government Subsidies and Incentives 450 15.7 Summary and Conclusions 452 Questions 453 Problems 454 References 455 16 Corporate Strategy and Foreign Direct Investment 457 16.1 Theory of the Multinational Corporation 458 16.1.1 Product and Factor Market Imperfections 458 16.1.2 Financial Market Imperfections 459 16.1.3 The Strategy of Multinational Enterprise 460 16.1.4 Innovation-Based Multinationals 460 16.1.5 The Mature Multinationals 460 16.1.6 The Senescent Multinationals 463 16.1.7 Foreign Direct Investment and Survival 464 16.2 Designing a Global Expansion Strategy 469 16.2.1 Awareness of Profitable Investments 469 16.2.2 Selecting a Mode of Entry 469 16.2.3 Auditing the Effectiveness of Entry Modes 470 16.2.4 Using Appropriate Evaluation Criteria 471 16.2.5 Estimating the Longevity of a Competitive Advantage 471 16.3 Summary and Conclusions 472 Questions 474 Problems 475 References 475 17 Capital Budgeting for the Multinational Corporation 477 17.1 Basics of Capital Budgeting 478 17.1.1 Net Present Value 478 17.1.2 Incremental Cash Flows 479 17.1.3 Alternative Capital-Budgeting Frameworks 482 17.2 Issues in Foreign Investment Analysis 483 17.2.1 Parent versus Project Cash Flows 484 17.2.2 Political and Economic Risk Analysis 485 17.2.3 Exchange Rate Changes and Inflation 486 17.3 Foreign Project Appraisal: The Case of International Diesel Corporation 487 17.3.1 Estimation of Project Cash Flows 487 17.3.2 Estimation of Parent Cash Flows 492 17.4 Political Risk Analysis 495 17.4.1 Expropriation 495 17.4.2 Read the full article

[theresawelchy]

Recommendations for Deep Learning Neural Network Practitioners

Deep learning neural networks are relatively straightforward to define and train given the wide adoption of open source libraries.

Nevertheless, neural networks remain challenging to configure and train.

In his 2012 paper titled “Practical Recommendations for Gradient-Based Training of Deep Architectures” published as a preprint and a chapter of the popular 2012 book “Neural Networks: Tricks of the Trade,” Yoshua Bengio, one of the fathers of the field of deep learning, provides practical recommendations for configuring and tuning neural network models.

In this post, you will step through this long and interesting paper and pick out the most relevant tips and tricks for modern deep learning practitioners.

After reading this post, you will know:

The early foundations for the deep learning renaissance including pretraining and autoencoders.

Recommendations for the initial configuration for the range of neural network hyperparameters.

How to effectively tune neural network hyperparameters and tactics to tune models more efficiently.

Let’s get started.

Practical Recommendations for Deep Learning Neural Network Practitioners Photo by Susanne Nilsson, some rights reserved.

Overview

This tutorial is divided into five parts; they are:

Required Reading for Practitioners

Paper Overview

Beginnings of Deep Learning

Learning via Gradient Descent

Hyperparameter Recommendations

Recommendations for Practitioners

In 2012, a second edition of the popular practical book “Neural Networks: Tricks of the Trade” was published.

The first edition was published in 1999 and contained 17 chapters (each written by different academics and experts) on how to get the most out of neural network models. The updated second edition added 13 more chapters, including an important chapter (chapter 19) by Yoshua Bengio titled “Practical Recommendations for Gradient-Based Training of Deep Architectures.”

The time that this second edition was published was an important time in the renewed interest in neural networks and the start of what has become “deep learning.” Yoshua Bengio’s chapter is important because it provides recommendations for developing neural network models, including the details for, at the time, very modern deep learning methods.

Although the chapter can be read as part of the second edition, Bengio also published a preprint of the chapter to the arXiv website, that can be accessed here:

Practical Recommendations for Gradient-Based Training of Deep Architectures, Preprint, 2012.

The chapter is also important as it provides a valuable foundation for what became the de facto textbook on deep learning four years later, titled simply “Deep Learning,” for which Bengio was a co-author.

This chapter (I’ll refer to it as a paper from now on) is required reading for all neural network practitioners.

In this post, we will step through each section of the paper and point out some of the most salient recommendations.

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Paper Overview

The goal of the paper is to provide practitioners with practical recommendations for developing neural network models.

There are many types of neural network models and many types of practitioners, so the goal is broad and the recommendations are not specific to a given type of neural network or predictive modeling problem. This is good in that we can apply the recommendations liberally on our projects, but also frustrating as specific examples from literature or case studies are not given.

The focus of these recommendations is on the configuration of model hyperparameters, specifically those related to the stochastic gradient descent learning algorithm.

This chapter is meant as a practical guide with recommendations for some of the most commonly used hyper-parameters, in particular in the context of learning algorithms based on backpropagated gradient and gradient-based optimization.

Recommendations are presented in the context of the dawn of the field of deep learning, where modern methods and fast GPU hardware facilitated the development of networks with more depth and, in turn, more capability than had been seen before. Bengio draws this renaissance back to 2006 (six years before the time of writing) and the development of greedy layer-wise pretraining methods, that later (after this paper was written) were replaced by extensive use of ReLU, Dropout, BatchNorm, and other methods that aided in developing very deep models.

The 2006 Deep Learning breakthrough centered on the use of unsupervised learning to help learning internal representations by providing a local training signal at each level of a hierarchy of features.

The paper is divided into six main sections, with section three providing the main reading focus on recommendations for configuring hyperparameters. The full table of contents for the paper is provided below.

Abstract

1 Introduction

1.1 Deep Learning and Greedy Layer-Wise Pretraining

1.2 Denoising and Contractive AutoEncoders

1.3 Online Learning and Optimization of Generalization Error

2 Gradients

2.1 Gradient Descent and Learning Rate

2.2 Gradient Computation and Automatic Differentiation

3 Hyper-Parameters

3.1 Neural Network HyperParameters

3.1.1 Hyper-Parameters of the Approximate Optimization

3.2 Hyper-Parameters of the Model and Training Criterion

3.3 Manual Search and Grid Search

3.3.1 General guidance for the exploration of hyper-parameters

3.3.2 Coordinate Descent and MultiResolution Search

3.3.3 Automated and Semi-automated Grid Search

3.3.4 Layer-wise optimization of hyperparameters

3.4 Random Sampling of HyperParameters

4 Debugging and Analysis

4.1 Gradient Checking and Controlled Overfitting

4.2 Visualizations and Statistics

5 Other Recommendations

5.1 Multi-core machines, BLAS and GPUs

5.2 Sparse High-Dimensional Inputs

5.3 Symbolic Variables, Embeddings, Multi-Task Learning and MultiRelational Learning

6 Open Questions

6.1 On the Added Difficulty of Training Deeper Architectures

6.2 Adaptive Learning Rates and Second-Order Methods

6.3 Conclusion

We will not touch on each section, but instead focus on the beginning of the paper and specifically the recommendations for hyperparameters and model tuning.

Beginnings of Deep Learning

The introduction section spends some time on the beginnings of deep learning, which is fascinating if viewed as a historical snapshot of the field.

At the time, the deep learning renaissance was driven by the development of neural network models with many more layers than could be used previously based on techniques such as greedy layer-wise pretraining and representation learning via autoencoders.

One of the most commonly used approaches for training deep neural networks is based on greedy layer-wise pre-training.

Not only was the approach important because it allowed the development of deeper models, but also the unsupervised form allowed the use of unlabeled examples, e.g. semi-supervised learning, which too was a breakthrough.

Another important motivation for feature learning and Deep Learning is that they can be done with unlabeled examples …

As such, reuse (literal reuse) was a major theme.

The notion of reuse, which explains the power of distributed representations is also at the heart of the theoretical advantages behind Deep Learning.

Although a single or two-layer neural network of sufficient capacity can be shown to approximate any function in theory, he offers a gentle reminder that deep networks provide a computational short-cut to approximating more complex functions. This is an important reminder and helps in motivating the development of deep models.

Theoretical results clearly identify families of functions where a deep representation can be exponentially more efficient than one that is insufficiently deep.

Time is spent stepping through two of the major “deep learning” breakthroughs: greedy layer-wise pretraining (both supervised and unsupervised) and autoencoders (both denoising and contrastive).

The third breakthrough, RBMs were left for discussion in another chapter of the book written by Hinton, the developer of the method.

Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM).

Greedy Layer-Wise Pretraining (Unsupervised and Supervised).

Autoencoders (Denoising and Contrastive).

Although milestones, none of these techniques are preferred and used widely today (six years later) in the development of deep learning, and with perhaps with the exception of autoencoders, none are vigorously researched as they once were.

Learning via Gradient Descent

Section two provides a foundation on gradients and gradient learning algorithms, the main optimization technique used to fit neural network weights to training datasets.

This includes the important distinction between batch and stochastic gradient descent, and approximations via mini-batch gradient descent, today all simply referred to as stochastic gradient descent.

Batch Gradient Descent. Gradient is estimated using all examples in the training dataset.

Stochastic (Online) Gradient Descent. Gradient is estimated using subsets of samples in the training dataset.

Mini-Batch Gradient Descent. Gradient is estimated using each single pattern in the training dataset.

The mini-batch variant is offered as a way to achieve the speed of convergence offered by stochastic gradient descent with the improved estimate of the error gradient offered by batch gradient descent.

Larger batch sizes slow down convergence.

On the other hand, as B [the batch size] increases, the number of updates per computation done decreases, which slows down convergence (in terms of error vs number of multiply-add operations performed) because less updates can be done in the same computing time.

Smaller batch sizes offer a regularizing effect due to the introduction of statistical noise in the gradient estimate.

… smaller values of B [the batch size] may benefit from more exploration in parameter space and a form of regularization both due to the “noise” injected in the gradient estimator, which may explain the better test results sometimes observed with smaller B.

This time was also the introduction and wider adoption of automatic differentiation in the development of neural network models.

The gradient can be either computed manually or through automatic differentiation.

This was of particular interest to Bengio given his involvement in the development of the Theano Python mathematical library and pylearn2 deep learning library, both now defunct, succeeded perhaps by TensorFlow and Keras respectively.

Manually implementing differentiation for neural networks is easy to mess up and errors can be hard to debug and cause sub-optimal performance.

When implementing gradient descent algorithms with manual differentiation the result tends to be verbose, brittle code that lacks modularity – all bad things in terms of software engineering.

Automatic differentiation is painted as a more robust approach to developing neural networks as graphs of mathematical operations, each of which knows how to differentiate, which can be defined symbolically.

A better approach is to express the flow graph in terms of objects that modularize how to compute outputs from inputs as well as how to compute the partial derivatives necessary for gradient descent.

The flexibility of the graph-based approach to defining models and the reduced likelihood of error in calculating error derivatives means that this approach has become a standard, at least in the underlying mathematical libraries, for modern open source neural network libraries.

Hyperparameter Recommendations

The main focus of the paper is on the configuration of the hyperparameters that control the convergence and generalization of the model under stochastic gradient descent.

Use a Validation Dataset

The section starts off with the importance of using a separate validation dataset from the train and test sets for tuning model hyperparameters.

For any hyper-parameter that has an impact on the effective capacity of a learner, it makes more sense to select its value based on out-of-sample data (outside the training set), e.g., a validation set performance, online error, or cross-validation error.

And on the importance of not including the validation dataset in the evaluation of the performance of the model.

Once some out-of-sample data has been used for selecting hyper-parameter values, it cannot be used anymore to obtain an unbiased estimator of generalization performance, so one typically uses a test set (or double cross-validation, in the case of small datasets) to estimate generalization error of the pure learning algorithm (with hyper-parameter selection hidden inside).

Cross-validation is often not used with neural network models given that they can take days, weeks, or even months to train. Nevertheless, on smaller datasets where cross-validation can be used, the double cross-validation technique is suggested, where hyperparameter tuning is performed within each cross-validation fold.

Double cross-validation applies recursively the idea of cross-validation, using an outer loop cross-validation to evaluate generalization error and then applying an inner loop cross-validation inside each outer loop split’s training subset (i.e., splitting it again into training and validation folds) in order to select hyper-parameters for that split.

Learning Hyperparameters

A suite of learning hyperparameters is then introduced, sprinkled with recommendations.

The hyperparameters in the suite are:

Initial Learning Rate. The proportion that weights are updated; 0.01 is a good start.

Learning Sate Schedule. Decrease in learning rate over time; 1/T is a good start.

Mini-batch Size. Number of samples used to estimate the gradient; 32 is a good start.

Training Iterations. Number of updates to the weights; set large and use early stopping.

Momentum. Use history from prior weight updates; set large (e.g. 0.9).

Layer-Specific Hyperparameters. Possible, but rarely done.

The learning rate is presented as the most important parameter to tune. Although a value of 0.01 is a recommended starting point, dialing it in for a specific dataset and model is required.

This is often the single most important hyperparameter and one should always make sure that it has been tuned […] A default value of 0.01 typically works for standard multi-layer neural networks but it would be foolish to rely exclusively on this default value.

He goes so far to say that if only one parameter can be tuned, then it would be the learning rate.

If there is only time to optimize one hyper-parameter and one uses stochastic gradient descent, then this is the hyper-parameter that is worth tuning.

The batch size is presented as a control on the speed of learning, not about tuning test set performance (generalization error).

In theory, this hyper-parameter should impact training time and not so much test performance, so it can be optimized separately of the other hyperparameters, by comparing training curves (training and validation error vs amount of training time), after the other hyper-parameters (except learning rate) have been selected.

Model Hyperparameters

Model hyperparameters are then introduced, again sprinkled with recommendations.

They are:

Number of Nodes. Control over the capacity of the model; use larger models with regularization.

Weight Regularization. Penalize models with large weights; try L2 generally or L1 for sparsity.

Activity Regularization. Penalize model for large activations; try L1 for sparse representations.

Activation Function. Used as the output of nodes in hidden layers; use sigmoidal functions (logistic and tang) or rectifier (now the standard).

Weight Initialization. The starting point for the optimization process; influenced by activation function and size of the prior layer.

Random Seeds. Stochastic nature of optimization process; average models from multiple runs.

Preprocessing. Prepare data prior to modeling; at least standardize and remove correlations.

Configuring the number of nodes in a layer is challenging and perhaps one of the most asked questions by beginners. He suggests that using the same number of nodes in each hidden layer might be a good starting point.

In a large comparative study, we found that using the same size for all layers worked generally better or the same as using a decreasing size (pyramid-like) or increasing size (upside down pyramid), but of course this may be data-dependent.

He also recommends using an overcomplete configuration for the first hidden layer.

For most tasks that we worked on, we find that an overcomplete (larger than the input vector) first hidden layer works better than an undercomplete one.

Given the focus on layer-wise training and autoencoder, the sparsity of the representation (output of hidden layers) was a focus at the time. Hence the recommendation of using activity regularization that may still be useful in larger encoder-decoder models.

Sparse representations may be advantageous because they encourage representations that disentangle the underlying factors of representation.

At the time, the linear rectifier activation function was just beginning to be used and had not widely been adopted. Today, using the rectifier (ReLU) is the standard given that models using it readily out-perform models using logistic or hyperbolic tangent nonlinearities.

Tuning Hyperparameters

The default configurations do well for most neural networks on most problems.

Nevertheless, hyperparameter tuning is required to get the most out of a given model on a given dataset.

Tuning hyperparameters can be challenging both because of the computational resources required and because it can be easy to overfit the validation dataset, resulting in misleading findings.

One has to think of hyperparameter selection as a difficult form of learning: there is both an optimization problem (looking for hyper-parameter configurations that yield low validation error) and a generalization problem: there is uncertainty about the expected generalization after optimizing validation performance, and it is possible to overfit the validation error and get optimistically biased estimators of performance when comparing many hyper-parameter configurations.

Tuning one hyperparameter for a model and plotting the results often results in a U-shaped curve showing the pattern of poor performance, good performance, and back up to poor performance (e.g. minimizing loss or error). The goal is to find the bottom of the “U.”

The problem is, many hyperparameters interact and the bottom of the “U” can be noisy.

Although to first approximation we expect a kind of U-shaped curve (when considering only a single hyper-parameter, the others being fixed), this curve can also have noisy variations, in part due to the use of finite data sets.

To aid in this search, he then provides three valuable tips to consider generally when tuning model hyperparameters:

Best value on the border. Consider expanding the search if a good value is found on the edge of the interval searched.

Scale of values considered. Consider searching on a log scale, at least at first (e.g. 0.1, 0.01, 0.001, etc.).

Computational considerations. Consider giving up fidelity of the result in order to accelerate the search.

Three systematic hyperparameter search strategies are suggested:

Coordinate Descent. Dial-in each hyperparameter one at a time.

Multi-Resolution Search. Iteratively zoom in the search interval.

Grid Search. Define an n-dimensional grid of values and test each in turn.

These strategies can be used separately or even combined.

The grid search is perhaps the most commonly understood and widely used method for tuning model hyperparameters. It is exhaustive, but parallelizable, a benefit that can be exploited using cheap cloud computing infrastructure.

The advantage of the grid search, compared to many other optimization strategies (such as coordinate descent), is that it is fully parallelizable.

Often, the process is repeated via iterative grid searches, combining the multi-resolution and grid search.

Typically, a single grid search is not enough and practitioners tend to proceed with a sequence of grid searches, each time adjusting the ranges of values considered based on the previous results obtained.

He also suggests keeping a human in the loop to keep an eye out for bugs and use pattern recognition to identify trends and change the shape of the search space.

Humans can get very good at performing hyperparameter search, and having a human in the loop also has the advantage that it can help detect bugs or unwanted or unexpected behavior of a learning algorithm.

Nevertheless, it is important to automate as much as possible to ensure the process is repeatable for new problems and models in the future.

The grid search is exhaustive and slow.

A serious problem with the grid search approach to find good hyper-parameter configurations is that it scales exponentially badly with the number of hyperparameters considered.

He suggests using a random sampling strategy, which has been shown to be effective. The interval of each hyperparameter can be searched uniformly. This distribution can be biased by including priors, such as the choice of sensible defaults.

The idea of random sampling is to replace the regular grid by a random (typically uniform) sampling. Each tested hyper-parameter configuration is selected by independently sampling each hyper-parameter from a prior distribution (typically uniform in the log-domain, inside the interval of interest).

The paper ends with more general recommendations, including techniques for debugging the learning process, speeding up training with GPU hardware, and remaining open questions.

Further Reading

This section provides more resources on the topic if you are looking to go deeper.

Neural Networks: Tricks of the Trade: Tricks of the Trade, First Edition, 1999.

Neural Networks: Tricks of the Trade: Tricks of the Trade, Second Edition, 2012.

Practical Recommendations for Gradient-Based Training of Deep Architectures, Preprint, 2012.

Deep Learning, 2016.

Automatic Differentiation, Wikipedia.

Summary

In this post, you discovered the salient recommendations, tips, and tricks from Yoshua Bengio’s 2012 paper titled “Practical Recommendations for Gradient-Based Training of Deep Architectures.”

Have you read this paper? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.

Do you have any questions? Ask your questions in the comments below and I will do my best to answer.

The post Recommendations for Deep Learning Neural Network Practitioners appeared first on Machine Learning Mastery.

Machine Learning Mastery published first on Machine Learning Mastery

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Gary Ashcraft Jesus ist der Messias - https://www.womanfemale.com/?p=23393 - Einheit Pfingstbewegung Aus Wikipedia, der freien Enzyklopädie Springe zu: Navigation, Suche Dieser Artikel erfordert möglicherweise eine Säuberung, um die Qualitätsstandards von Wikipedia zu erfüllen. Bitte verbessern Sie diesen Artikel, wenn Sie können. (September 2008) Dieser Artikel oder Abschnitt benötigt Quellen oder Verweise, die in zuverlässigen Veröffentlichungen von Drittanbietern enthalten sind. Primäre Quellen und Quellen, die mit dem Thema des Artikels verbunden sind, reichen im Allgemeinen nicht für einen Wikipedia-Artikel aus. Bitte fügen Sie angemessenere Zitate aus zuverlässigen Quellen hinzu oder diskutieren Sie das Problem auf der Diskussionsseite. (August 2008) [hide] Teil einer Reihe von Artikeln über Christentum   Jesus Christus Jungfrauengeburt · Kreuzigung · Auferstehung Grundlagen Kirche · Neuer Bund Apostel · Königreich · Evangelium · Zeitleiste Bibel Altes Testament · Neues Testament Bücher · Canon · Apokryphen Christliche Theologie Dreieinigkeit · (Vater · Sohn · Heiliger Geist) Geschichte der · Theologie · Apologetik Geschichte und Traditionen Frühe · Räte · Glaubensbekenntnisse · Missionen Ost-West-Schisma · Kreuzzüge · Reformation Konfessionen [show]Katholizismus Katholik · Ostkatholisch · Anglikanisch · Selbstkatholisch · Altkatholisch · [show]Protestantismus Lutheran · Reformiert · Täufer · Baptist · Methodist · Adventist · Evangelikalismus · Heiligkeit · Pfingstler [show]Orthodoxie Östliche Orthodoxie · Orientalische Orthodoxie (Miaphysit) · Syrisches Christentum (ua nestorianische Assyrer) [show]Nichttrinitarian Zeugen Jehovas · Bewegung des Heiligen der Letzten Tage · Unitarismus · Christadelphians · Einheit Pfingstbewegung Themen im Christentum Predigt · Gebet · Ökumene Beziehung zu anderen Religionen · Bewegungen Musik · Liturgie · Kalender Symbole · Kunst · Kritik Christentum Portal Diese Box: Ansicht • Diskussion • Bearbeiten Einheit Pfingstbewegung ist eine Bewegung des pfingstlichen Christentums, die an den sühnenden Tod Jesu Christi, seine Auferstehung, seine baldige Wiederkunft und das Wort Gottes glaubt, wie es in der Bibel enthalten ist, aber sich von der allgemeinen Pfingstbewegung unterscheidet, indem sie der Lehre vom Einssein folgt. Einheit Pfingstbewegung lehrt eine wörtliche Interpretation der biblischen Heilslehre mit Betonung der Lehre Jesu Christi und seiner Apostel, indem er "Johannes 3: 1-12 & Apostelgeschichte 2:38 Erfahrung" als notwendig für die Errettung nennt und besonderen Wert auf das Direkte legt persönliche Erfahrung Gottes durch die Taufe mit dem Heiligen Geist, wie im biblischen Bericht über den Pfingsttag gezeigt. Es lehrt, dass der persönlichen Bekehrung das heilige Leben folgen und die Frucht des Geistes zeigen soll (Galater 5,22). Inhalt [hide] * 1. Übersicht     * 2 Geschichte           o 2.1 Die frühe Kirche           o 2.2 Moderne Geschichte     * 3 Lehre und Theologie        ��  o 3.1 Gott           o 3.2 Erlösung           o 3.3 Heiligkeit     * 4 häufige Missverständnisse           o 4.1 Jesu Name vs. Jesus Only           o 4.2 Einheitstheologie IST NICHT Unitarismus     * 5 Anhänger der Einheits-Pfingstbewegung           o 5.1 Gospel und zeitgenössische christliche Künstler     * 6 Referenzen     * 7 Siehe auch     * 8 externe Links           o 8.1 Artikel, Indizes und andere Ressourcen                 + 8.1.1 Ansichten bevorzugen                 + 8.1.2 Vergleichsartikel                 + 8.1.3 Andere     * 9 Einheit Pentecostal Gruppen           o 9.1 Nordamerika           o 9.2 Andere Länder [edit] Überblick Obwohl sowohl die Oneness als auch die Trinitarier den Gott der Bibel als den einzigen existierenden Gott anerkennen, und dass Jesus geboren, gestorben und auferstanden ist, unterscheidet sich die Oneness Doktrin von den gängigen christlichen Konfessionen dadurch, dass das traditionelle Konzept der Dreieinigkeit als inadäquat abgelehnt wird und ungenaue Beschreibung von Gott. Laut der United Pentecostal Church International, der größten Einheit der Pfingstgemeinde in den Vereinigten Staaten, identifizieren die Oneness-Pfingstler Jesus im Wesentlichen als die menschliche Manifestation Gottes (Jehova), d. H. Gott inkarniert. [1]. In 1.Timotheus 2, 5 bestätigt die Einheitslehre, dass Gott unteilbar eins ist, und sieht die biblische Unterscheidung zwischen Gott dem Vater und dem Mann Jesus als einen angemessenen, beobachtbaren Vater-Sohn-Unterschied, außer zwischen einem unkörperlichen, transzendenten, ewigen Gott als Vater und als Mensch ein gezeugter Mensch als Sohn, in dem Gott sich zum Zwecke der Errettung offenbarte. Die Einheitsdoktrin bestätigt die volle Gottheit Jesu, indem sie festhält, dass sich der inkarnierte Gott im Menschen Jesus der Menschheit offenbart hat. Sie widerlegt den Vorschlag der Dreieinigkeit, dass der eine, wahre Gott, aus drei gleichgöttlichen, gleichberechtigten, gleichzeitigen, gleichberechtigten Personen besteht. In dem Sinne, dass der eine Gott und ein Mann aus 1. Timotheus 2: 5 gleichzeitig existieren, lehren sie, dass Jesus gleichzeitig sowohl als Mensch Jesus als auch als Gott (Gott der Vater ein unsichtbarer, transzendenter Geist) untrennbar vereint ist (siehe Johannes 10) : 30) als der Sohn Gottes. Unter Berufung auf Johannes 4:24 (Gott ist ein Geist) verwendet die Einheitslehre die Begriffe Gott der Vater und Heiliger Geist als Bezugnahmen auf denselben einen Gott, der Geist ist. Es bestätigt, dass der Heilige Geist und Gott der Vater eins in derselben Gottheit sind, aber nur als getrennte Manifestationen oder Beziehungen der einen Person oder des Wesens, das Gott ist. "Einssein", "Apostolisch" und "Jesu Name" sind die bevorzugten Selbstbezeichnungen der Anhänger.[1]. Pfingstgemeinden wurden auch als "Holy Rollers" für ihre lebendige Art der Anbetung identifiziert, die das Laufen von Kirchengängen, bekannt als Siegesmärsche, sowie das Springen, Tanzen, Schreien und Klatschen umfassen können. Die Gottesdienste werden auch manchmal durch Reden in Zungen (Glossolalia), Interpretationen von Zungen, prophetischen Botschaften und das Legen von Händen zum Zwecke der Heilung unterbrochen. Diese Ereignisse können spontan während des normalen Gottesdienstes ohne Vorwarnung oder direkte Führung durch den Leiter des Gottesdienstes geschehen, oder häufiger bei massiven Altarrufen, bei denen die gesamte Gemeinde ermutigt wird, zu verschiedenen Zwecken am Altar zu beten. Einheit Pfingstler beziehen sich allgemein auf alle retteten Christen als Heilige und beziehen sich oft auf die Männer als Brüder und die Frauen als Schwestern, oft als Titel (zB Br. Smith oder Sis. Henderson), in ihrer normalen täglichen Rede sowohl in und außerhalb der Kirche. Während die UPCI, PAW und andere Oneness Pentecostal Kirchen Frauen erlauben, als Pastoren zu dienen und zu evangelisieren, vertreten einige Pfingstler die Meinung, dass weibliche Prediger unbiblisch sind. Minister aller Ebenen dürfen heiraten und Kinder bekommen. Homosexuelle Ehen sind unter allen Umständen verboten. [edit] Geschichte Viele Menschen glauben, dass die Oneness-Doktrin erst im frühen 20. Jahrhundert während der letzten Tage der Azusa Street Revival ins Leben gerufen wurde. Kirchenhistoriker wie Dr. Curtis Ward, William Chalfant, Talmadge French, Dr. David Bernard und Thomas Weisser argumentieren in ihren Forschungen und Schriften, dass es Oneness-Gläubige lange vor der Azusa Street Revival gab, die den ganzen Weg bis zum Anfang führten der christlichen Kirche des ersten Jahrhunderts. Dr. Ward hat die Ansicht einer ungebrochenen Kirchenlinie vorgeschlagen und chronologisch seine Ewigkeit im Laufe der Geschichte verfolgt. (Siehe Matthäus 16:18). Dr. Reckart hat auch in diesem Bereich bedeutende Forschungen durchgeführt. Andere lehren, dass die apostolische Kirche in den Abfall überging und zur katholischen Kirche wurde. Sie glauben, dass die moderne Pfingstbewegung eine totale Wiederherstellung ist, die nach einer schrittweisen Trennung innerhalb des Protestantismus gipfelt, bis die frühe apostolische Kirche vollständig wiederhergestellt wurde (Apostelgeschichte 2, 38: Taufe und Einssein sind die letzten Restaurationen). Es gibt Hinweise darauf, dass die Pioniere der Pfingstbewegung im frühen 20. Jahrhundert von früheren Restaurierungen im Protestantismus geleitet und inspiriert wurden. Doch hatte keiner von ihnen irgendeinen Einfluss auf sie von den alten Modalisten wie Sabellius, Noetus oder Praxeas. Moderne Einssein-Menschen respektieren die früheren Restaurationen innerhalb des Protestantismus, betonen aber immer noch die Abhängigkeit von Gott und der Bibel für die Bildung ihrer Lehren, die Führung nicht aus ante- und post-nizischen Schriften von Menschen, sondern aus der Erleuchtung durch den Heiligen Geist auf die Schriften. Pre und ante Die Kirchengeschichte der Niceen wird von den Oneness-Leuten als sehr interessant angesehen, aber der Neoplatismus, die Dogmen, die Glaubensbekenntnisse und die privaten Interpretationen binden sie nicht für ihren Glauben oder ihre Lehrmeinungen. Sie sind also für Trinitarier unorthodox, im wörtlichen Sinne aber orthodox. Einssein Christen betrachten die historischen ökumenischen Konzile und Glaubensbekenntnisse als Meinungen von Menschen innerhalb eines Abtrünnigen, die von der ersten Kirche abfallen. Im Gegensatz dazu betrachten die Christen von Nicäa (katholisch und protestantisch) (nach ihrer Definition von orthodox) alle nachapostolischen Entwicklungen der Lehre als von Gottes Willen unter Verwendung der Konzilien und der Kirchenleitung geleitet. Als solche ist der gesamte nachbiblische Strom von Glaubensbekenntnissen, Dogmen, Dekreten, päpstlichen Entscheidungen und Urteilen der Räte und Kirchenführer für sie bindend für ihre Lehransichten. In den trinitarischen Schriften wurde das Einssein entdeckt, dass die nachbiblische Interpretation der Dreieinigkeit nicht aus der Bibel, sondern aus der klassischen griechischen Philosophie stammt. Es kann nicht sowohl eine apostolische als auch eine griechische Erfindung sein, die auf den Konzil von Nizäa angewendet wird. Katholiken behaupten, wenn die Einssein-Pfingstler die Glaubensbekenntnisse und die Handlungen der katholischen Bischöfe leugnen, sollten sie die Bibel nicht akzeptieren, da sie angeblich von Räten gesammelt, zusammengestellt und kanonisiert wurde, die an die Dreieinigkeit glaubten. Die Einheit widerspricht dem, indem sie sagt, dass es keine katholische Kirche gab, als das Neue Testament geschrieben wurde, daher wurde sie zusammengestellt und in einer gesammelten Form zwei Jahrhunderte vor der Geburt der katholischen Kirche im Jahr 325 n.Chr. Es gibt Hinweise auf diese Sammlung vor Nicäa und solchen kanonisierenden Räten. Darüber hinaus definiert die Sola-Schrift den Oneness-Glauben und dass zusätzliche Glaubensbekenntnisse, Dogmen und päpstliche Dekrete für die Lehre, den Glauben und die Praxis inakzeptabel sind. Im Neuen Testament werden die Juden so beschrieben, dass sie den Anspruch Jesu auf die Gottheit ablehnen und ihn der Blasphemie bezichtigen. Im Markus-Evangelium vergibt Jesus zum Beispiel die Sünden eines Menschen und einige jüdische Lehrer haben sich gedacht: "Warum redet dieser Mensch so? Er lästert! Wer kann Sünden vergeben, aber Gott allein?" Im Johannesevangelium begannen einige Juden, Jesus zu steinigen, indem sie erklärten, dass sie dies "wegen Blasphemie getan haben, weil Sie, ein bloßer Mann, behaupten, Gott zu sein". Dies ist der Ursprung des dynamischen Monarchismus (Jesus ist nicht Gott, sondern nur ein Mann). (Siehe Unitarismus, Iglesia Ni Cristo, Gott sei die Ehre von Joel Hemphill und der Islam. [edit] Die frühe Kirche Der Oneness-Theologe David K. Bernard führt Oneness-Anhänger anhand verschiedener Quellen auf die ersten konvertierten Juden des apostolischen Zeitalters zurück und erwähnt, dass Juden keine Probleme hätten, die neuen Lehren zu verstehen und sie mit ihren bestehenden strengen monotheistischen Glaubensrichtungen zu integrieren. Im postapostolischen Zeitalter behauptet er, dass Hermas, Clemens von Rom, Polykarp, Polykrates und Ignatius von 90 bis 140 n. Chr. Und Irenäus, der etwa 200 n. Chr. Starb, entweder Einssein, Modalist oder höchstens Anhänger eines "wirtschaftlichen" waren Trinity "(temporäre Dreifaltigkeit, nicht ewig). [2] Höre, Israel, der HERR, unser Gott, der HERR ist eins. (Das Kommen des Messias sollte nicht die Offenbarung von 2 oder 3 Gottes bringen [tritheism]- Es sollte die Offenbarung des Einen Gottes (Jehova / Jahwe) manifestiert werden, der sich in menschlicher Gestalt manifestierte.     - Deuteronomium 6: 4     Und ohne Kontroverse ist das Geheimnis der Gottseligkeit groß: Gott wurde im Fleisch offenbar, im Geist gerechtfertigt, von Engeln gesehen, den Heiden gepredigt, an die Welt geglaubt, in Herrlichkeit aufgenommen.     -1Ti 3:16 Zur Stützung der Theorie, dass die Mehrheit aller Gläubigen bis zu Tertullian (gestorben um 225; zuerst verwenden wir den Begriff "Dreieinigkeit", um Gott zu beschreiben) Einsseinanhänger waren, zitiert Bernard Tertullian als Schrift: "Das Einfache, tatsächlich (I Ich werde sie nicht unklug oder ungebildet nennen), die immer die Mehrheit der Gläubigen bilden, sind erschrocken über die Dispensation (der Drei in Einem), gerade weil ihre Glaubensregel sie von der Göttervielfalt der Welt zum Islam zurückzieht ein einziger wahrer Gott, der nicht versteht, dass, obwohl Er der einzige Gott ist, Er noch mit seiner eigenen Ökonomie geglaubt werden muss. Die numerische Ordnung und Verteilung der Dreieinigkeit, sie nehmen an, eine Teilung der Einheit zu sein.[3] Spätere Oneness, oder sehr ähnlich dem Oneness, Lehrer wurden im Laufe der Geschichte darauf hingewiesen: Abaelard (1079-1142), der des Sabellianismus beschuldigt und in ein Kloster in Frankreich gezwungen wurde; Michael Servetus (1511-1553) hervorragender Arzt aus Spanien, manchmal als motivierende Kraft des Unitarismus zitiert, der schrieb: "Es gibt keine andere Person Gottes außer Christus ... die ganze Gottheit des Vaters ist in ihm"[4] wurde am 27. Oktober 1553 auf dem Scheiterhaufen wegen seiner antitrinitarischen Doktrin mit der Billigung von Johannes Calvin (für den der Calvinismus genannt wurde) auf dem Scheiterhaufen verbrannt, obwohl Calvin bevorzugte, Servet zu enthaupten; Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772); Presbyterian Minister John Miller, Autor von Gott ist eine Dreifaltigkeit? (1876), John Clowes, Pfarrer der St. John's Church in Manchester, hat Berichten zufolge 1828 ein Buch geschrieben, das Oneness lehrte[5]. Bernhard, wie auch andere Oneness-Historiker und Theologen, leugnen jegliche direkte Verbindung von früheren Oneness-Gläubigen zur gegenwärtigen Pfingstbewegung der Einheit. [edit] Die morderne Geschichte Oneness Historiker Morris Golder, zitiert PAW Bischof G. T. Haywood in einem Artikel aus dem Jahr 1915 in der Stimme in der Wildnis, als Oneenness Pfingstbewegung bis mindestens 1906 mit der Bildung der Pfingstgemeinschaften der Welt - PAW. Die Gründer waren E. W. Doak, G. T. Haywood und D. C. Opperman. Laut Dr. David Bundy, einem Pfingsthistoriker am Christlichen Theologischen Seminar, predigte bereits 1907 ein weißer Baptistenpastor in Los Angeles die nicht-trinitarische Wassertaufe im Namen Jesu. Laut Deborah Sims LeBlanc, William und Maggie Bowden, wurden die Eltern des ehemaligen stellvertretenden Präsidierenden Bischofs Frank Bowden im Namen Jesu nach der Azusa Street Mission Revival (1906-1909) getauft. Der Beginn für viele war jedoch im April 1913 auf dem Weltweiten Apostolischen Camp-Treffen in Arroyo Seco, Kalifornien, unter der Leitung von Maria Woodworth-Etter, die Organisatoren versprachen, dass Gott "mit ihnen umgehen und ihnen eine Einheit und Kraft geben würde habe ich noch nicht gewusst. " [6] Der Kanadier R. E. McAlister predigte "kurz vor einem Taufgottesdienst" eine Botschaft über die Wassertaufe. Seine Botschaft verteidigte die Methode der "einzigen Immersion" und "stellte fest, dass die apostolische Taufe als ein einziges Eintauchen in einen einzigen Namen, Jesus Christus, verwaltet wurde", und sagte: "Die Worte Vater, Sohn und Heiliger Geist wurden bei der christlichen Taufe nie gebraucht." "Dies führte sofort zu einer Kontroverse, als Frank Denny, Missionar in China, auf die Plattform sprang und versuchte, McAlister zu zensieren. Oneness Pentecostals markieren diese Gelegenheit als den ersten "Funken" in der Oneness-Revival-Bewegung. "John G. Schaepe, ein junger Geistlicher, war so berührt von McAlisters Enthüllung, dass er nach dem Beten und Lesen der Bibel die ganze Nacht durch das Lager rannte und schrie, dass er eine 'Offenbarung' über die Taufe erhalten hatte, dass der Name des Vaters, des Sohnes und des Heiligen Geistes war Herr Jesus Christus. " [7] Ironischerweise nahm Frank Denny selbst zusammen mit GT Haywood, Harry Morse, John G. Schaepe, RJ Scott, George Studd, RE McAlister, Andrew D. Urshan und Homer L. Falkner Herrn Jesus Christus als den Drei-in-Einem-Namen an der Dreieinigkeit für die Taufe als "exklusive apostolische Formel". Als andere Einheit diese trinitarische Taufe ablehnte und sagte, dass Jesus Christus nur der volle Name von Jesus war (begann Jesus-Nur-Neuausgabe), schossen Trinitarier wie John Schaepe, Robert McAlister und EN Bell zurück und kehrten zur Verwendung der Titel zurück "Vater, Sohn und Heiliger Geist in Matthäus 28:19.[8] Schaepe (dessen Name in verschiedenen Quellen oft mit Scheppe überschrieben ist) behauptete, dass die Offenbarung, die er während der Wiederbelebung des Lagers erhalten hatte, war, dass der Taufbefehl von Petrus in Apostelgeschichte 2:38 - dh die Taufe - im Namen des Herr Jesus Christus "- war die Erfüllung und das Gegenstück des Missionsbefehls in Matthäus 28,19 - dh die Taufe" im Namen des Vaters und des Sohnes und des Heiligen Geistes ". Diese Schlussfolgerung wurde von mehreren anderen im Lager akzeptiert und theologisch weiterentwickelt von einem Minister namens Frank J. Ewart. Im Jahr 1914 tauften sich Frank Ewart und Glenn Cook öffentlich "im Namen des Herrn Jesus Christus, aber als der einzige Name Jesu nicht als eine trinitarische Formel". So wurde im Jahr 1913 die Oneness-Pfingstbewegung wieder einer Gruppe von Personen, die mit dem Heiligen Geist gefüllt waren, offenbart und wiederhergestellt. Im Jahr 1914 wurde es wieder öffentlich praktiziert, wie es in der Apostelzeit in Apostelgeschichte 2:38 geschah. Eine Reihe von Ministern behauptete, sie seien vor 1914 "im Namen Jesu Christi" getauft worden, darunter Frank Small und Andrew D. Urshan. Urshan behauptet, bereits 1910 in Jesus Christus getauft zu haben. [9] Sogar Charles Parham selbst taufte mit einer christologischen Taufformel vor der Azusa-Straße (Dr. Charles Wilson, Unser Erbe, S. 12). Es war jedoch nicht ihre Taufformel, sondern die Ablehnung der Dreieinigkeit, die für andere Pfingstminister das größere Problem war. Schaepes Offenbarung sorgte für große Aufregung in der Pfingstbewegung. Im nächsten Jahr kämpfte Frank J. Ewart, ein weiterer Pfingstminister, zwischen seinen trinitarischen Lehren und der neuen Frage. Er verbrachte oft Stunden damit, mit R. E. McAlister zu debattieren und versuchte, die beiden Doktrinen zusammenzubringen. (R. E. McAlister, der Mann, der den in Arroyo Seco um die Welt gehenden Schuss abgefeuert hatte, lief ab. Er verzichtete 1919 formal auf die Oneness-Doktrin [8]. Danach wurde er einer der kanadischen Lehrer des orthodoxen Trinitarismus unter den Pfingstlern in Kanada sowie ein Verbreiter der "fertigen Werk der Golgatha" -Doktrin[10]. Der Lagerplatz in Arroyo Seco, Kalifornien, außerhalb von Los Angeles, wo die Enthüllung stattfand, gehörte ebenfalls Seymour's Mission. Viele wurden im Namen Jesu Christi wiedergetauft, einschließlich E.N.Bell, der dies aus Überzeugung tat, weil er der Schrift gehorchte. Er widerrief nach starkem Druck von J. Roswell Flowers. Die Re-Taufen hatten auch den gegenteiligen Effekt auf die Versammlungen, was eine Gegenreaktion vieler Trinitarier auslöste, die befürchteten, in welche Richtung ihre Organisation gehen könnte. Die Angst war innerhalb von J. Roswell Flowers, der eine Resolution ins Leben rief, die den Taufnamen "Jesu" zum Rückzug aus der Organisation veranlassen sollte. Er war erfolgreich und gilt heute als "Vater" der AG. Im Oktober 1916 spitzte sich die Frage schließlich beim Vierten Generalrat der Versammlungen Gottes zu. Die größtenteils trinitarische Führung, die befürchtete, dass die neue Frage ihre Organisation überholen könnte, verfasste unter anderem eine Doktrin, die die Dreieinigkeit bestätigte. Als die Schlussabstimmungen gezählt wurden, wurde die "Erklärung der fundamentalen Wahrheiten" angenommen. Mehr als ein Viertel ihrer Minister- und Versammlungsmitglieder verließ ihre eigenen Oneness-Stipendien.[citation needed] Laut PAW Historikern, "Von 1913 bis 1914, für ein Jahr wütete der Kampf in der Vereinigung in Bezug auf den Gott-Kopf und die" Neuemission ".[citation needed] Folglich erlebten die Pfingstversammlungen der Welt 1914 ihre erste Spaltung.[citation needed] Im Wesentlichen gab es zwei Fragen, um die sich die Debatte zentrierte: (1) "Gibt es einen Gott oder gibt es drei verschiedene Personen im Gotteshaupt? Und (2) Wie sollte dann ein Individuum getauft werden? Im Namen des Vaters, des Sohnes und des Heiligen Geistes getauft, oder sollte man sich im Namen Jesu Christi taufen lassen? Im Jahr 1916, nach vier Jahren (1912-1916) dieser intensiven und erbitterten Debatte, jene Führer und Einzelpersonen, die sich der Das trinitarische Konzept (Vater, Sohn und Heiliger Geist) wollte den Taufnamen "Jesus" nicht mehr unter ihnen haben.[citation needed] Die abgewiesenen Minister bildeten dann die PAW, die bis 1919 keinen Organisationsausschuss hatte. Während der Übergangsphase nahmen einige Minister ihre ministeriellen Referenzen von der Kirche Gottes in Christusgruppe. Im Jahr 1916 wurden die Pfingstversammlungen der Welt in Indianapolis, Indiana, in der Christus-Tempel-Versammlung des Apostolischen Glaubens lose organisiert, wo Bischof G. T. Haywood der Pastor war.[citation needed] Bischof Haywood wurde der erste präsidierende Bischof der Organisation bei diesem Treffen.[citation needed] Während dieses Treffens wurde der Hauptsitz der Organisation in Portland, Oregon, gegründet.[citation needed] Im Jahr 1919 wurden die Pentecostal Assemblies des World Headquarters von Portland nach Indianapolis verlegt und wurde im Bundesstaat Indiana aufgenommen. Die Gründer waren E. W. Doak, G. T. Haywood und D. C. Opperman ". [11] Mehrere kleine Oneness-Ministergruppen bildeten sich nach den Restaurierungen von 1914 heraus. Viele davon verschmolzen zu den Pfingstgemeinden der Welt (PAW) und einige blieben unabhängig. Innerhalb der PAW kam es zu einer Spaltung in der Rolle der Frauen im Dienst, Wein oder Traubensaft für die Kommunion, Scheidung und Wiederverheiratung und die richtige Art der Wassertaufe. Es gab Berichte über Rassenspannungen in der frühen PAW. Afroamerikaner schlossen sich der PAW in großer Zahl an und waren in vielen wichtigen Führungspositionen.[citation needed] Insbesondere der afro-amerikanische Pastor G. T. Haywood diente als Generalsekretär und unterzeichnete alle ministeriellen Referenzen. PAW Resolutionen wurden vorgeschlagen, dass Anmeldeinformationen von Personen der gleichen Rasse unterzeichnet werden.[citation needed] Dieser Faktor, zusammen mit der Rassentrennungspolitik von Jim Crow, trug wesentlich zur Spaltung vor allem entlang der Rassenlinien bei. In den letzten Jahrzehnten wurden bei den Rassenbeziehungen im UPCI in Bezug auf Führungsrollen für alle Mitglieder dieser Gemeinschaft gewisse Fortschritte erzielt.[citation needed] Im Jahr 1932 wurden die Pfingstversammlungen der Welt neu organisiert und Elder Samuel Grimes von New York, als der neue Präsidierende Bischof gewählt.[citation needed] Bischof Grimes diente als präsidierender Bischof für 35 Jahre (1932-1967). Im Jahr 1945 führte die Verschmelzung von zwei vorwiegend weißen Pfingstgemeinden (die Pfingstgemeinde Incorporated und die Pfingstgemeinden Jesu Christi) zur Gründung der Vereinigten Pfingstgemeinde [12] Gegenwärtig heißen sie United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI) und fügen 1972 das Wort "International" hinzu. Das UPCI hat seit seiner Gründung 1945 mehrere Splitter erlitten.     * Im Jahr 1955 führte eine Gruppe von Ministern unter der Leitung von Bischof C. B. Gillespie (Fairmont, WV), Bischof Ray Cornell (Cleveland, Ohio) und Bischof Carl Angle (Nashville, Tennessee) die PAJC nach der Originalcharta um.[citation needed] 1968 organisierten mehrere Minister das Apostolische Ministertreffen - AMF und nannten das UPCI als "zu liberal". Zentrale Themen waren Heiligkeit und lokale Kirchenverwaltung.     * Pastor LH Hardwick, ein UPCI-Pastor in Nashville, Tennessee, löste sich 1986 von sogenannten "Legalisten" (die sich auf das Thema Kleiderordnung und Standards bezogen) und gründete Global Christian Ministries (heute Globales Netzwerk christlicher Ministerien). .[citation needed] * Im Jahr 2001 haben Bischof Teklemarim Gezahagne und die mehr als 1 Million Mitglieder der Apostolischen Kirche von Äthiopien (ACI) ihre 45jährige Ausrichtung auf das UPCI gebrochen. Die offizielle Position des UPCI ist, dass die Teilung über Christologie war. Bischof Teklemarim lehrte, dass das Fleisch Jesu Gott sei und keine menschliche Verbindung zu den Nachkommen Adams, Davids, oder seiner Mutter Maria habe. Er lehrte eine Natur in Christus und es war göttlich. Das UPCI hat immer zwei Naturen in Christus, menschlich und göttlich, gelehrt. Bischof Tekelmarim weigerte sich, seine Haltung zu überdenken, nachdem hochrangige Gesandte vom UPCI nach Äthiopien gekommen waren, um seinen Fehler zu diskutieren. So hat die Christologie die Spaltung verursacht.     * Die Apostolische Versammlung des Glaubens in Christus Jesus (AAFCJ) und ihre Schwesterkirche, die Apostolische Kirche des Glaubens in Christus Jesus (IAFCJ), haben die Pfingstgemeinden der Welt verlassen, um der hispanischen Gemeinschaft in den Vereinigten Staaten und den Nationen von Lateinamerika.[citation needed] Die Apostolische Versammlung ist die größte Pfingstgemeinde in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und ist die älteste hauptsächlich hispanische Konfession in der Welt.[citation needed] Die Pfingstgemeinden der Welt haben nie ihre ursprüngliche Vision einer rassisch integrierten Gemeinschaft von Gläubigen verlassen. Bis heute, obwohl sie überwiegend schwarz sind, streben sie weiterhin nach rassischer Einigkeit in Anbetung und Organisation. In dieser Gruppe gab es sowohl weiße als auch schwarze Präsidierende Bischöfe. Die United Pentecostal Church International hat in ihrem weltweiten Dienst ein rassisch integriertes Gremium geschaffen, und dies kann auf dem jährlichen allgemeinen Kongress beobachtet werden. Dasselbe gilt für andere "Jesus-Name" -Gruppen, die nicht nur integriert sind, sondern auch keine offene rassistische Politik betreiben und in vielen Nationen Missionsarbeit leisten. Die Pfingstgemeinschaften der Welt sind die älteste existierende Pfingstorganisation der Einheit.[citation needed] Als Ergebnis der Azusa Street Revival, eine Reihe von unabhängigen Pfingstkirchen und ihre Führer, in dem Bemühen, diese neuen Werke zu stabilisieren, fühlte die Notwendigkeit, zusammenzukommen und eine Vereinigung von Kirchen von "wie kostbaren Glauben" zu bilden, so dass die Pfingstmontagen der Welt. Ihr Ziel war es, das Evangelium weiter zu verbreiten und einander zu unterstützen. Es sollte beachtet werden, dass G.T.Haywood nach 1914 und dem Treffen in Hot Springs von Glen Cook getauft wurde, einem weißen Mann, der Schatzmeister der Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles gewesen war.[citation needed] Die beträchtliche Anzahl der Pfingstgemeinden, die in den Jahren unmittelbar nach der Wiedereröffnung der Azusa-Straße gebildet wurden, führte zwangsläufig dazu, dass die neue Bewegung mit dem Problem der formellen Organisation konfrontiert wurde. Die unabhängigen Kirchen und Missionen des ersten Typs wurden durch die Anerkennung von Laienbrettern und gewählten Pastoren etwas korrigiert. In den nächsten Jahren konzentrierten sich die Pfingstversammlungen der Welt auf Generalversammlungen und die Entwicklung ihrer Organisationsstruktur.[citation needed] Der verstorbene Bischof Morris E. Golder schrieb: "Die ursprüngliche Organisation mit dem Namen der Pfingstgemeinden der Welt entstand im Jahr 1906 in der Stadt Los Angeles, Bundesstaat Kalifornien.[citation needed] Der verstorbene Bischof G. T. Haywood stimmt dieser Tatsache zu und schrieb 1921 in der Stimme in der Wildnis: "Es (Die Pfingstlichen Versammlungen der Welt) wurde 1906 in Los Angeles, Kalifornien, begonnen."[citation needed] Dies war auch die Position, die Bischof Ross Paddock, der ehemalige präsidierende Bischof der Pfingstgemeinden der Welt, vertreten hat. Er erklärte, dass die Pfingstversammlungen der Welt nach einem Jahr der Organisation ihre erste jährliche Geschäftssitzung hatten und gleichzeitig in ihrer Lehre und Liturgie der Wassertaufe trinitarisch waren.[citation needed] In diesem Kontext unterschiedlicher Ideen, persönlicher Differenzen, doktrinärer und anderer widersprüchlicher Elemente wurde nicht nur das Bedürfnis nach Organisation gesehen, sondern auch die Pfingstgemeinden der Welt in ihrem ursprünglichen Zustand (1906).[citation needed] Es wurde jedoch erst 1919 inkorporiert und nahm die Identität eines apostolischen "Einssein" -Geheimes von Ministern und Gläubigen an.[citation needed] Laut Dr. David Bundy, einem Pfingsthistoriker am Christlichen Theologischen Seminar, predigte bereits 1907 ein weißer Baptistenpastor in Los Angeles die nicht-trinitarische Wassertaufe im Namen Jesu. Laut Deborah Sims LeBlanc, William und Maggie Bowden, wurden die Eltern des ehemaligen stellvertretenden Präsidierenden Bischofs Frank Bowden im Namen Jesu Christi nach der Azusa Street Mission Revival (1906-1909) getauft. Es begann 1906, im selben Jahr, als das Azusa Street Revival begann und es älter als die meisten der trinitarischen Pfingstorganisationen machte.[citation needed] Es war niemals ein Teil der Versammlungen Gottes und kam daher nie daraus hervor.[citation needed] "Einige Mitglieder der Gruppe, die von den Assemblies of the God verdrängt wurde, schlossen sich später den Pfingstgemeinden der Welt an, spalteten sich aber später wieder auf [13]. [edit] Lehre und Theologie [edit] Gott Einheit Pfingstbewegung hält sich an eine konservative jüdische monotheistische Sichtweise von Gott und betont, dass Jesus Christus die sichtbare Manifestation Gottes im Neuen Testament (der Vater im Sohn) ist. Gott war durch mehrere Namen und Titel im Alten Testament bekannt, aber mit dem Neuen Bund hat Er seinen Namen als Jesus offenbart. Sie lehnt alle Konzepte eines Polytheismus, einer Dreieinigkeit oder anderer Lehren ab, die sie als Repräsentation mehrerer und getrennter Götter betrachten. Als solche lehnt es drei getrennte Personen in der Dreieinigkeit ab, die jeweils getrennt Gott sind. Alle Konzepte von Jesus Christus werden auf zwei verschiedene Arten entweder als der Vater oder der Sohn, der göttliche Geist oder der Mann Christus erklärt. Jesus ist vollständig Gott und vollkommen menschlich. In Bezug auf seine Menschlichkeit ist Christus der eingeborene Sohn Gottes. Sie lehnen es ab, Jesus als einen von drei Göttern zu sehen. Sie glauben, dass Jesus als der Sohn der einzige anwesende Hohepriester und zugleich Gott ist. Versuche, den Einssein in den Mund zu bringen, dass sie glauben, der Sohn sei nur ein Mensch (Unitarismus), sind gescheitert. [edit] Heil Einheit Pfingstliche Lehre und Theologie halten typischerweise fest, dass die Errettung durch den Glauben durch Gnade zustande kommt. Die Handlungen des Glaubens und der nachfolgenden Gnade sind durch Gehorsam gegenüber bestimmten Befehlen und Anforderungen, die im Neuen Testament zu finden sind. Diese für die Errettung notwendigen Voraussetzungen sind: der Glaube an Jesus Christus, die Umkehr durch den Glauben, die Wassertaufe durch den Glauben an den Namen Jesu Christi und die Gabe der Taufe des Heiligen Geistes durch den Glauben mit dem Beweis des Zungenredens. Die Sicht der Pfingstler der Einigkeit ist, dass die Schrift entweder das Gebot dieser Taten des Glaubens zur Errettung aufzeichnet und erklärt, dass das Fehlen von ihnen dazu führen würde, dass sie keine Erlösung haben würden. Es sollte jedoch auch angemerkt werden, dass nicht alle Pfingstler, die Einssein hinsichtlich ihrer Sicht auf das Wesen Gottes sind, an dieser Art von Soteriologie (der Heilslehre) festhalten und glauben, dass die Wassertaufe und die Taufe des Heiligen Geistes der Erlösung folgen . Eine der Vorgängerorganisationen des UPCI, die Pentecostal Church, Inc. (PCI), brachte diese Ansicht 1945 in die Oneness-Fusion ein. Diese wurden "One steppers" genannt (was diese Sichtweise von einer vokalen Minderheit gehalten wurde), während diese der Pfingstgemeinden Jesu Christi (PAJC) nach streng Apostelgeschichte 2:38 wurden "drei Stepper" genannt. [edit] Heiligkeit Einheit Pfingstler glauben, dass der Lebensstil eines Christen von Heiligkeit geprägt sein sollte. Diese Heiligkeit beginnt bei der Taufe, wo das Blut Jesu Sünde wegwischt und eine Person zum ersten Mal in ihrem Leben vor Gott heilig ist. Nach dieser Heiligung halten sie die Trennung von der Welt sowohl in praktischen als auch in moralischen Bereichen aufrecht, damit die Bekehrten davon abgehalten werden, in die Sünden ihrer Taufe zurückzukehren. Moralische oder innere Heiligkeit ist ein rechtschaffenes Leben, geführt und angetrieben vom innewohnenden Heiligen Geist. Praktische oder äußerliche Heiligkeit beinhaltet bescheidene Kleidung und geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede. For some Oneness Pentecostal organizations, because of what they consider the amoral conduct of society in dress and nakedness, this involves establishing dress codes for its members (also known as "holiness standards") similar to those all Pentecostal denominations used for much of the first half of the 20th century. While these dress codes are officially treated as a matter of personal conviction, in practice there is strong social pressure in most circles to comply. Generally, women are expected not to wear pants, wear makeup or cut their hair; men are expected to be clean-shaven and short-haired. For a more in-depth review, see Oneness Pentecostalism (doctrine) For a contrast and comparison of Oneness and Trinity, see Oneness vs Trinity. [edit] Common misunderstandings [edit] Jesus' Name vs. Jesus Only Jesus' Name doctrine is often misunderstood as is the pejorative "Jesus Only". These terms are even misunderstood and applied by Oneness believers themselves. Critics of Oneness believers refer to them as "Jesus Only", meaning they deny the Father and the Holy Spirit of the trinity. Most Oneness Pentecostals consider that term to be a misreprentation of their true beliefs on the issue. Oneness believers do not deny the Father or the Son; they just describe them differently from trinitarians. Oneness historians claim the usage of the term "Jesus-Only" is misleading many to believe they reject the Father and the Holy Spirit. Rejection and different interpretation are two different things. Oneness believers prefer the phrase Jesus' Name when referring to their baptism beliefs or themselves as believers who were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ only (with no reference to the Father or Holy Spirit). "Jesus' Name", to Oneness Pentecostals refers to the revealed name of God for the present Church age. Jesus inherited his name from the eternal name of the Godhead. I am come in my Father's name. Oneness Pentecostals place "essential" emphasis on use of the name of Jesus, and regard it as the "Name above all names". They invoke it in word or deed in all things. Oneness Pentecostals generally see the use of the term "Jesus Only" by trinitarians as being an attempt to mislead and/or confuse those interested in study of the Oneness doctrine. The label arose early on in reference to their insistence on baptizing only in the name of Jesus, but it tends to be used only by the movement's critics. The Oneness position is that do indeed believe in baptism into the name of Jesus only, but that to describe them as "Jesus Only" Pentecostals implies a denial of the Father and Holy Spirit -- a contention they vigorously reject as false. Oneness believers generally consider the term "Jesus Only" to be inflammatory, because the speaker is generally a trinitarian critic trying to lead interested persons away from the Oneness doctrine. True, Oneness believers do not believe in three separate persons in the Godhead who each have a separate Spirit, Body, Mind, and Being. To Oneness believers this constitutes three Gods. They see Jesus as the true personality of God manifest in the flesh (1Timothy 3:16). Trinitarians infer by this that Oneness Pentecostals deny the separate being of Father and the separate being of the Holy Spirit. Oneness believers in fact deny the entire concept of a Trinity including the use of the term "God the Son", since this is never found in the New Testament. "Jesus Only" as explained by trinitarians is an incorrect use of the term because Oneness Pentecostals actually affirm the Father and the Holy Spirit, but assert that the Father is the Holy Spirit, and vice versa. Oneness Pentecostals believe there is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: one God. [edit] Oneness Theology IS NOT Unitarianism Some confuse the terms Unitarian and Oneness. Although Unitarians and Oneness people are similar in the belief that there is not a plurality of persons in the Godhead, Unitarians believe that Jesus was only a moral authority whereas the Deity and humanity of Jesus Christ are essential to Oneness doctrine. [edit] Followers of Oneness Pentecostalism Some of the better-known persons associated, or said to be associated, with Oneness Pentecostals are     * T.D. Jakes [14] * Noel Jones     * Dr Bernie L. Wade     * Gaddi Vasquez     * Norman Wagner     * Tommy Tenney [edit] Gospel and Contemporary Christian artists     * The Katinas     * Phillips, Craig and Dean     * Lee Greenwood     * Elvis Presley, the well known entertainer of early rock and roll, frequented Oneness Pentecostal Churches as well as Trinitarian Assemblies of God Churches and it is claimed that from these sources he picked up the rhythm and lively antics he incorporated into his performances. It is reported that Presley was baptized in the AG church, but was later rebaptized in the name of Jesus Christ by Bishop Joseph Rex Dyson a Oneness Pentecostal with the Church of Jesus Christ in Tennessee. (www.calvaryslighthouse.com/Memphis,TN.htm) [15] (www.commercialappeal.com/mca/elvis_presley/article/0,1426...)[16] * Jonny Lang, Grammy award winning singer and guitar player. Attends a UPCI church in Los Angeles. [edit] References    1. ^ Dr. David K. Bernard, Unmasking Prejudice, Cyberjournal for Pentecostal-Charismatic Research    2. ^ Bernard, David K., The Oneness of God, Word Aflame Press, 1983, Ch. 10.    3. ^ Tertullian, Against Praxeas, 3, rpt. in Alexander Robers and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers (rpt. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), III, 598-599.    4. ^ "Unitarianism", Encyclopedia of Religion and Thics, XII, 520.    5. ^ Campbell, David, All the Fulness, Word Aflame Press, 1975, p. 167-173.    6. ^ "World-Wide Apostolic Faith Camp Meeting", Word and Witness, 20 March 1913, 1; Blumhofer, The Assemblies of God, 222; Blumhofer, Restoring, 20.    7. ^ Reckart, Sr. Dr. Gary P., Great Cloud Of Witnesses, Apostolic Theological Bible College, 124; Ewart, Phenomenon, 123-124; C. M. Rabic, Jr., "John G. Schaepe", in Dictionary, Burgess and McGee, 768-769; J. Schaepe, "A Remarkable Testimony", Meat in Due Season, 21 August 1917, 4; Minute Book and Ministerial Record of the General Assembly of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, 1919-1920, 11.    8. ^ a b Reckart, Sr. Dr. Gary P, Great Cloud Of Witnesses, Apostolic Theological Bible College, 1998, 124    9. ^ Andrew D. Urshan, Pentecost As It Was in the Early 1900's (by the author, 1923; revised edition Portland, OR: ApostolicBook Publishers, 1981, 77; The Life Story of Andrew Bar David Urshan: An Autobiography of the Author's First Forty Years (Apostolic Book Publishers, 1967),102; Cf. E. N. Bell, "The Sad New Issue", Word & Witness, June 1915, 2-3; Anderson, Disinherited, 176.   10. ^ Miller, Thomas William, Canadian Pentecostals, A History of Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, Full Gospel Publishing House, Messissauga, ON, 1994   11. ^ PAW - Taking the Word to the World!   12. ^ PCI and the remaining PAJC ministers, composed mostly of whites merged as the United Pentecostal Church (UPC). Beginning with 1,800 ministers and 900 churches, it has become the largest and, through aggressive evangelism and publishing efforts, most influential Oneness organization. thebereans.net/prof-onep.shtml 13. ^ (Dr. Charles Wilson, Our Heritage, p. 22)   14. ^ Christianity Today, February 2000   15. ^ www.calvaryslighthouse.com/Memphis,TN.htm 16. ^ Was the King baptized in two beliefs? : Local : Memphis Commercial Appeal [edit] See also [show] v • d • e Oneness Pentecostalism Denominations AAFCJ • ALJC • AM • Bible Way COOLJC • CJCI • CLJC • COOLJC • ICOF• PAJC • PAW • TJC • UPCI People Gilson Levi • Charles Gillespie • Raymond Cornell • T. D. Jakes • Bernie L. Wade • Noel Jones • William M. Branham; Kenneth Haney • Nathaniel Urshan • Don Johnson • John Pollard • David Bernard • Harold McFarlane • Other Pages of Interest Oneness Pentecostalism (doctrine) •Oneness vs Trinity • Jesus' Name doctrine     * Jesus' Name doctrine [edit] External links [edit] Articles, indexes, & other resources [edit] Favoring views     * Apostolic Network Ministries     * Institute for Biblical Studies (Index of Oneness Pentecostal theological articles)     * Website of Apostolic results     * The Oneness of God (Book by Oneness scholar David K. Bernard, J.D., part of Series in Pentecostal Theology, Volume 1, freely available online)     * Testimonies of Jesus Christ by Oneness Pentecostals     * The Voice of the Pastor Study And The Word Became Flesh     * Understanding Pentecostal Theology (Blog about Oneness Pentecostal Theology with articles)     * Center for Oneness Research and Education (Blog by scholar Dr. Daniel Segraves with articles)     * Pentecostales del Nombre de Jesucristo page in Spanish     * Spanish Web Site Apostolic Studies in Spanish     * Articles of Study By Oneness Theologian Mike Blume     * Apostolic Theology.com Oneness Pentecostal Theology Site [edit] Comparative articles     * Oneness Versus Trinity Links to various writings concerning Oneness vs. Trinity. Link is an opposing view site.     * Responding to Oneness Pentecostalism in the Light of Scripture [edit] Other     * Apostolic Doctrine     * My Views on the Godhead - Christianity Today Magazine Bishop T. D. Jakes responds to Christianity Today article, "Apologetics Journal Criticizes Jakes."     * Apostolic Archives International Web Site dedicated to preserve the history of organizational leaders of various Oneness Pentecostal Denominations [edit] Oneness Pentecostal Groups Here are major and historical Oneness Pentecostal organizations. Not all Oneness Pentecostal churches affiliate with an organization. See Category:Oneness Pentecostalism for individual churches and organizations that may not be listed here. [edit] North America This is a list of Oneness Pentecostal organizations headquartered in North America.     * United Pentecostal Church International     * Apostolic Assembly of the Faith in Christ Jesus     * Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ     * Bible Way Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ     * Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith     * International Circle of Faith     * Pentecostal Assemblies of the World     * Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ     * Church of the Lord Jesus Christ     * Churches of Jesus Christ International     * World Christian Ministries Association     * Worldwide Pentecostal Fellowship     * Truelight Pentecostal Church [edit] Other countries This is a list of Oneness Pentecostal organizations headquartered outside North America.     * United Pentecostal Church of Australia     * True Jesus Church - China/Taiwan     * Assemblies Lord Jesus Christ - Canada     * Apostolic Church International - Ethiopia     * International Circle of Faith of Togo     * Church of Jesus Christ-Greece     * Jesus' Name Apostolic Church - Ecuador     * Apostolische Pfingstgemeinde Deutschland - Germany     * Assemblea Apostolica della fede in Cristo Gesù - Italy garyashcraft.com/default.aspx - #hair restoration #http://garyashcraft.com/default.aspx

[hereticaloracles]

Asteroid Files: Lucifer

Helios– Lucifer. The name is instantly recognizable to anyone who grew up in a region where Christianity was the dominant religion. Even then, the name has transcended itself to become a symbol, representing lies, malice, and the enemy, furthering his infamy- But is this a reputation that Lucifer himself has truly earned? Let’s explore.

The Astronomy– 1930 Lucifer is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 34 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 29 October 1964. It is named after Lucifer, the “shining one” or “light-bearer” form the Hebrew Bible. It is part of the carbonaceous C-Group of asteroids. Lucifer orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.5–3.3 AU once every 4 years and 11 months (1,803 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.14 and an inclination of 14° with respect to the ecliptic. According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Lucifer measures between 27.00 and 39.61 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.05 and 0.1058. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0886 and calculates a diameter of 26.90 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.1 In October 2003, a rotational lightcurve of Lucifer was obtained from photometric observations by American astronomer Brian Warner at his Palmer Divide Observatory in Colorado. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 13.056 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.44 magnitude (U=3). In January 2005, observations by astronomer Horacio Correia gave a concurring period of 13.054 hours and an amplitude of 0.22 magnitude (U=3). In 2013, another lightcurve was obtained at the Palomar Transient Factory (U=2), and a modeled lightcurve from various data sources, including the AstDyS database, gave another concurring period of 13.0536 hours and found a pole of (32.0°,17.0°).

The Myth– Right, so this is an easy one, which is greatly appreciated because the Wikipedia on him is miles long and im not bringing it here. So according to the Bible (the most referenced one being the translation of an edit of a translation of another edit of another translation of a compilation of an account of how things went by people who were several generations removed from the actual events) the God in question created everything, over the course of a week. One of his first creations was the heavenly host, aka the angels and archangels and all the other legions and orders. Chief among them all was the Archangel Lucifer- the Shining One, Beloved of God and the Star of the Morning. The usual story goes that when God created Humans, which were to be his greatest work, Lucifer refused to bend the knee to them, and was cast out of heaven for daring to rebel. Unfortunately, that is doubtful as to how it actually went. No evidence has been found of any ancient Canaanite myth of a god being thrown from heaven, as in Isaiah 14:12. The closest parallels with Isaiah’s description of the king of Babylon as a fallen morning star cast down from heaven are to be found not in any lost Canaanite and other myths but in traditional ideas of the Jewish people themselves, echoed in the Biblical account of the fall of Adam and Eve, cast out of God’s presence for wishing to be as God, and the picture in Psalm 82 of the “gods” and “sons of the Most High” destined to die and fall.

If you remove humanity from the equation, you are left with the concept of The War in Heaven, which repeats in theme all over the world- Except in Jewish tradition the rebellion fails miserably and the rebels are exiled. Think about that- With this perspective the Light becomes evil, the enemy; meaning that the “Hero”, or God in this case, is representative of the antithesis of Light aka Darkness. In every other tradition, Darkness is what you fear and is the enemy. The Bible attempts to correct this plot hole by shoving Lucifer and his followers (about a third of the heavenly host in most counts) into Sheol, aka Hell, another place of Darkness. Suspicious how God has access to such a place, and has power of it. Anyway, from there, Lucifer gets conflated with Shaitan or Satan (who is actually a figure in Islam before he ever comes to Judaism!) which is actually more of a title than a person- It was applied to Iblis, chief demon and satans are the assistants of those who disbelieve in God: “We have made the evil ones friends to those without faith.” Going back to Abraham and his sons Issac and Ishmael, the brothers who split over their religion and were the patriarchs of Judaism and Islam respectively, each of their gods would be a Devil in the other’s belief system. After all, as George R.R. Martin says, “A villain is a hero of the other side”

In the Gnostic heresy, the God who created the material world is known as the Demiurge and is the true enemy as he prevents humanity from achieving gnosis, or enlightenment. In that tradition, Lucifer is sometimes viewed as a hero, the lightbringer come to bring humanity closer to true illumination, starting in the Garden of Eden with the serpent (who was not actually Satan, just a dick). Christian tradition teaches us that Lucifer (as Satan) is Lord of this world, and the Prince of Lies, but if we are being held captive by a malevolent force, just another generation of prisoners, then Lucifer is a Promethean figure, not a villainous one (Though Prometheus was a villain in Zeus’ eyes…). It is easy to see merit in this argument when you look at the corpses that God and Lucifer have left behind them- Lucifer has ten kills to his name, whereas God has roughly 2.5 million. Early Christian sources corroborate the enlightenment angle, giving Lucifer’s name to several bishops, applying it to John the Baptist, and even Christ himself! Obviously, there is more going on here than meets the eye.

Why He Matters–  Obviously there is a lot to work with here, the hard part will be narrowing it down. With asteroids, the main thing is that we have to go by the myth, and the name for their interpretation. This is exceedingly important in Lucifer’s case, as he is considered both Lucifer and Satan in the collective consciousness- So which one do we interpret for? Well… the answer is both. Whether we are talking Pre or Post- Fall, they both represent Lucifer. He is still the same no matter what shades that society paints him in. Lucifer can be counted on to rail against any system that keeps people dis-empowered or enslaved, and will not be quiet about it.

Lucifer will always try to bring light to the people, and that doesn’t always have to be against the authority- You find him prominent in the charts of prolific actors and musicians- the ones who become legends. Light is light, and we need to be entertained and inspired as well as enlightened- and those icons have a chance to reach more souls than almost anyone else.

To find out where he shows up in your chart, go to astro.com, put in your birth details and in the extended options, all the way at the bottom of the next page, there will be a menu of additional objects. Under that is a blank space where you can enter the number 1930, for Lucifer. Once you have it entered, generate the chart! Where does Lucifer affect your life? Let us know in the comments below!

Asteroid Files: Lucifer was originally published on Heretical Oracles

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Warren Buffett: Coke's New Pitchman

Say hello to the face of Cherry Coke in China — Warren Buffett. And it’s not just because of his sparkling personality.

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As most fans know, Buffett is a large and long-time shareholder in Coca-Cola (symbol KO), and he loves his Cherry Cokes. He’s also something of a celebrity in the Middle Kingdom, where he is revered as the world’s greatest investor. So putting Buffett’s smiling face on cans of Cherry Coke as the company introduces the flavored beverage in the world’s largest market is a natural.

“I can’t think of a better way to launch Cherry Coke than with its best-known fan on the package,” Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said in a March 31 press release. “It is an honor for us to be able to feature Warren on his favorite drink as it rolls out in one of the world’s most exciting and dynamic consumer markets.”

Buffett’s likeness will appear on special edition cans during a six-month promotional period, or for as long as supplies last, Coke said.

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Yes, it’s clever marketing. Just don’t expect it to move the needle too much on Coke’s sales figures.

The market for carbonated beverages in the U.S. has been in steady decline for more than a decade, forcing companies like Coke to expand its product lines to include waters, fruit juices, sport drinks, energy drinks and teas. Overseas markets such as China are leaning in the same direction as consumers opt for more healthful drinks.

Coke’s global beverage sales grew just 0.8% over the last 52 weeks, according to market researcher Nielsen. Coke’s sales volume in China slipped by a “low single-digit” percent last year, the company says.

Meanwhile, Cherry Coke has seen global sales volume growth of just 4.4% over the past five years. True, China is important to Coke. The Asia Pacific region accounted for 11% of Coke’s total revenue in 2016, whereas North America was responsible for 15%. But it’s unlikely analysts are rushing to raise their target prices on Coca-Cola stock.

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That’s not to say Coke isn’t a worthy long-term investment. Buffett certainly thinks it is. Berkshire Hathaway (BRB.B), his iconic holding company, is Coke’s largest shareholder, with a 9.3% stake. Besides, Coke is hardly standing still as the market changes around it. The company is making good progress on transforming itself into a “total beverage company,” analysts at Wells Fargo say, pointing to its portfolio of sparkling water, juice, dairy and plant-based drinks, tea and coffee, still water, enhanced water and energy drinks.

Perhaps most importantly, there’s the legendary Coke dividend. The soda slinger has hiked its payout annually for 54 consecutive years. That track record has given it membership in the S&P Dividend Aristocrats, an index of companies with at least 25 straight years of dividend increases.

Dividend hikes like clockwork have helped make Coca-Cola stock a long-term market-beater, with an annualized total return of 9% over the past decade. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index generated an annualized total return (price appreciation plus dividends) of just 7.6% over the same span.

Buffett prefers to invest in simple, mature businesses and that certainly describes Coke. Don’t expect the stock to wow you with price appreciation. But the dividend yield is another matter, standing at 3.3% based on the last four quarters of payouts. That’s generous in today’s world of paltry interest rates. With its reliable and rising dividend, Coke looks like a good fit for an income portfolio whether Warren Buffett’s face is on the can or not.

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