#everything else on the list has a utility but this one was 100% something they came up with drunk and bored

[brenatto-apothecary]

The goblight is my favorite nott and caleb con because its not even a fucking con. He just makes her glow for no reason. If anything it draws way too much attention

[marshmallowgoop]

2024 AMV Review

[2022] [2023]

2024 felt like a huge video editing year for me. It was characterized by three major developments:

Submitting to contests

Editing MMVs (Manga Music Videos)

Participating in timed challenges

For contests, I maybe really threw myself into the con contest scene (that is, for AMV contests that take place at conventions) after sparking a heated discussion about submitting personally captioned videos for the sake of better accessibility. An initially stressful situation ultimately became one of overwhelming support, and I've since become more involved with this part of the AMV community, which has been so kind, encouraging, and inspirational. I'm certain I wouldn't have made the strides in my editing that I feel like I made in 2024 had it not been for the community.

In fact, the last two developments on my list are purely because of the community. It was the community who pushed me into making MMVs; after signing up for an MMV exchange (check out the video Violet Skies gifted me here!), I practiced MMV-like skills with an AMV/MMV ("No Choir") and also made my first full-blown MMV in DaVinci Resolve ("15 Min Flame"), which involved thinking in a more motion graphics way and utilizing my program's 3D camera, something that maybe looks a little wild (but is sincerely less complicated than it seems!):

Incorporating more motion graphics and manga panels into my work then became almost "standard" for me. Four of the six AMVs I made for Project Org Editor (POE)—of which none are unfortunately in this reel because they remain unfinished, but you can check out a preview here—utilized a fair amount of manga as well.

And that brings me to my last development: participating in timed challenges. POE is a biennial video-editing tournament with six preliminary rounds in which participants have one week to edit a video to a theme. I took part in every round (always with a Detective Conan video because I think I'm hilarious), but it was actually my second timed challenge in the year. The first was SLICE (Short Little Iron Chef Edits), wherein participants had about four days (100 hours) to create a video set to a song from a list of songs only revealed at the start of the challenge. "If You Kill Me" was my entry, and I finished it pretty much to my satisfaction by the end of the 100 hours, so I thought I would do even better with POE.

But POE was extremely hard on me. I finished nothing, never scored above mediocre, and had a meltdown after Round 2, where I must have cried all day after submitting an entry that I hated (and won't be revising). It was my most difficult video editing experience thus far—emotionally and physically, as I sacrificed sleep to edit and wound up sick by Round 6. I really wanted to stand out and impress, but... I wasn't there yet.

And that probably describes my feelings about my AMVs in 2024 better than anything else: not there yet. There's been a lot of growth in my skills, in my eyes; there's the aforementioned MMV experience, where I practiced 3D camerawork as well as manga animation for the first time, but I've also made longer videos, utilized "Twixtor" effects ("Feel About You"), learned how to make my own VHS tapes for the ultimate VHS aesthetic ("Eyelash"), and continued to work on my pacing and compositions (even if I still have a long way to go with the pacing and even intentionally made it "worse" as an experiment once). Videos from 2022 and 2023 that I used to be so proud of almost became painful, and I'm overall much happier with everything I made in 2024.

But whenever I'd make finals in a contest—which happened at seven cons (green text in the video, with yellow being when I didn't make finals but still had a video exhibited, which happened at six cons)!—I knew I had no chance of winning a category, and I have yet to. Because I'm not there yet. I'm satisfied with most of my videos from 2024, but they don't feel special enough. Good, maybe, but not great. For POE and Anime Frontier, where I entered nothing but Detective Conan videos, I captured attention for my dedication to the franchise, but the AMVs themselves still feel lacking.

In thinking about 2025, I've been thinking about what it means to be there. I've been thinking about how to measure growth, as measuring the times I make finals, or my note counts, or YouTube likes, or even scores I get in tournaments like POE, don't seem to be healthy ways of defining development (especially when what makes finals at cons might not really correlate with what's most beloved online, with "If You Kill Me" being my most successful con video of 2024 but "Nosedive," which never made finals once, being my most successful video on the web). Conversations with others (thank you!) have provided a wealth of wonderful suggestions for considering growth: trying new things, doing easily what used to be difficult, finding joy in your work.

And in 2024, I do think I made progress in all those things! But being there goes back to my question of what is good art?, and, well, I think I'll need to continue working on defining what that means to me.

Still, my major goal for 2025, at this time, is to be less hard on myself. As my videos have become longer and more elaborate, they've taken more time to complete, with each AMV in this reel (excepting maybe one) representing at least 30 hours of work, with many being 50+-hour efforts. That's a fair chunk of time, but I still beat myself up for "not doing enough" or "not completing enough videos," which isn't fair to me.

It's regrettably not something I did for 2023, but my year-end DaVinci Resolve hour count for 2024 (counting time from when I first got this computer in late August 2023) is 1,107 hours!

The earliest total-hour screenshot I can find is 666 hours in July 2024, so this means I spent, at the very, very minimum, over 441 hours in Resolve in 2024. And dedicating that many hours to improving my craft isn't nothing!

In the end, I am sad that there are only 12 videos in this reel when I at least started brainstorming and drafting for 9 more. But all the improvements I made, all the ways I challenged myself, all the seeing things like this at cons, in person, on the big screen... that's worth celebrating.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me so far. I hope to post even "better" videos in 2025—ones that are there!

[soraka-in-warhammer40k]

Space Goat List Design, Episode 2

I did Deathwatch last time, so now let's see who else was at the very bottom winrate wise this edition... and really there's just AdMech. You can't really count vanilla Space Marines due to the high number of new players who get it as their first army- especially when it is an army with so many datasheets that it is really easy to just builld something really bad at random if you don't know what you are doing.

Today's Topic: Adeptus Mechanicus

I wanted to write this post a while ago, but I thought waiting for the points update would make more sense. So let's get right into it: for our detachment I use the Explorator Maniple. Its rule lets you pick one marker at the start of your turn to be your "Acquisition Marker". If you shoot something on (OR FROM!) that marker, you reroll wound rolls of 1. Sounds not very special now, but there's some rules that key into it. Let's see what we got:

As we can see the enhancements all care a lot about that special marker, but for this list I initially plan to use only Genetor one, as a 4+ Invulnerable Save is just too spicy to pass up. Stratagems don't care much about the marker, but they DO offer some transporter-startegies, which we will keep in mind when building our list. Just ignore the consolidation move stratagem, that will never matter except once in a 100 games. Same goes for the 2CP one. It might be relevant in some games where saving up cp for it makes sense, but it's never central to the game plan.

So, how do we utilize the mission rule in combination with the AdMech army rule? Easy. Indirect fire. So our first order is 3x Scorpius Disintegrator, who will run around with Bellasarius Cawl who can give them a re-roll 1s to hit aura.

That times three sure looks spicy combined with its ability to get +1 to the hit roll when targeting infantry. Note that if you combine this with the defensive Doctrina this stacks with "heavy". So you can blast at stuff in the enemy zone easily. Even better when they have stuff on their own marker. Hitting on 3s, rerolling 1s, is already good, but rerolling 1s to wound as well is dang spicy. Of course if you dont need as many hits but require beating better saves, just give everything assault and +1 AP, which essentially is "Ignores Cover" for our purposes. The flexibility here is quite nice, allowing for both "tanks lined up in your zone" and "deathball rolling over the field killing everything it can get a clear shot at" modes of play.

All supposed "optimized" armies who only have an absolute minium of backfield holders and corner-campers will crumble under that barrage, as they now suddenly need to get their more expensive stuff on "homefield duty". Several elite-heavy armies will suffer from this a lot.

For the homefield we'll just take one unit of Rangers. Easy. Can't say no to sticky objective. As AdMech's options for CP-generations are pretty garbage, we add Inquisitor Coteaz for his ability:

You don't generate any points on your own, but this will certainly level the playing field.

I mentioned the Genetor enhancement before, and we will obviously try to slap that on the most durable thing we could find. So the next unit to roll out are 6 Kataphron destroyers followed by a Manipulus Tech Priest carrying the enhancement. They are fairly slow, but assuming you can get them to reach an objective in T2, if you make it the special one (either by regular rule or using the stratagem), they are going to be hard to remove, ESPECIALLY when you send an Onager Dunecrawler with them who we make sure has the SMOKE keyword for the Incense Exhaust Stratagem.

Note that the Dunecrawler can just chill behind a wall for this to work. If the enemy shoots it first the plan does not work, but if you keep it hidden 6'' away just out of sight, that Kataphron blob also gets Stealth and Cover, making them even harder to remove by shooting - and melee is not exactly an option on a unit that hits overwatch on a 5+, lethal hits on a 6, and brings 6d6 flamers to the table.

The rest of the list is fairly straightforward: if your indirect fire barrage deletes all chaff and screening units from the enemy zone, we will need some deep strikes. These allow us to be flexible enough to pick any marker the enemy thinks he can sit on, declare it to be the "special one", and show up there to kick them off. Looking at our Stratagems it would also be nice if it was a transport with the smoke keyword. Dunestriders can't deep strike, but luckily we got something even better: presenting the Archaeopter Transvector, sporting a respectable horde-clearing profile and a hillarious ability:

These are essentillay drop-pods. But better because they can actually do stuff. So of course I took 3 of them, and filled them up with a squad of Skitarii Vanguard and a Skitari Marshall each.

You should always consider shocking one of these in T1 to easily grab a secondary objective (especially if there's a gap in the enemy zone, in hover mode they lose the aircraft keyword and count for secondaries like Engage on all Fronts or Behind Enemy lines, but their true value comes in later turns, when the enemy has no more fodder to screen with, and you can clown all over their zone, putting constant pressure on their homefield - and if he tries to charge them? Just jump back in with Reactive Safeguard!

At first this list might look weird. Where's the chaff for screening? Where's the action monkeys? And yes, this list will never score Investigate Signals for anything worthwhile, but... neither will your opponent if you focus out his chaff units with the indirect fire. AdMech as an army might be weak, but they got no issue on dragging you down to their level.

The full list:

Bellasarius Cawl

Skitarii Marshal

Skitarii Marshal

Skitarii Marshal

Tech-Priest Manipulus (+Genetor Enhancement)

Skitarii Rangers

Skitarii Vanguard

Skitarii Vanguard

Skitarii Vanguard

Archaeopter Transvector

Archaeopter Transvector

Archaeopter Transvector

Kataphron Destroyers (6 models)

Onager Dunecrawler (with Smoke Keyword)

Skorpius Disintegrator

Skorpius Disintegrator

Skorpius Disintegrator

Inquisitor Coteaz

And that wraps up to the smooth 2,000 points worth of units at least when going by the points as they are now.

The constant pressure on their homefield should be enough to shift the primary game in your favor - either the Skitarii and the Skorpius will murder whatever he puts on there, or he puts an expensive vehicle there, and that thing will not be able to help in the midfield - and most likely not hold the point either long-term, you then win by OC.

Things to keep in mind for this list: Rapid Ingress is your friend, ESPECIALLY when you go second. Drop that Transvector behind a wall in their zone that you previously cleared of all screening chaff, and then just deliver the 21 OC inside right onto their marker.

The most curious part about this list: your gameplan in theory is easily thwarted by a horde-army. But most of your guns are horde-clear. 18 shots on every copter, 2d6 blast on every tank. If you play this correctly, in the later game your enemy will only have a few line vehicles left, and nothing to actually score in the game with.

[bqrf]

My friend and I were discussing how we could involve science into the use of Visions, and here’s what I spiraled into! Keep in mind this is all just us spit balling so yeah-

WARNING:

Discussion of Death, graphic injury descriptions and more

Anemo Users

first, I’d like to start off with the discussion of Anemo users as they are actually the most versatile. A common theme being they all use air compression.

This is on the assumption that Anemo users are capable of manipulating any type of air.

Beginning with one of our favorite emos with mommy issues.

The Wanderer - Scaramouche [Introduction]

He is the only known Anemo user (from what I can tell) to utilize his vision for flight. (No, I’m not counting Venti, he just makes a wind current). Something else that interests me more though, is his attack patterns.

When attacking foes with the wanderer, Yuuban Meigen has the effect which leads me to believe he is using pressurized wind; or rather compressed air.

This is further confirmed by the Description of his burst. And This is where I will now rant to you about compressed air.

Please note: most of this can apply to all Anemo users. I will get into the specifics of others momentarily.

source I will be using:

DANGERS

Firstly, what are the dangers of compressed air if not handled properly?

“Although all these occurrences are extremely rare, they are also possible. There is absolutely no good reason to point compressed air at a person, including yourself, which makes these injuries 100% preventable. Don’t use compressed air to clean your clothes, blow dust around, or hit your buddy as a joke, and you’ll be perfectly safe.”

It is also possible for a pressurized air tanks to explode when not looked after due to corrosion— or rather, it is one of the leading causes. When the water isn’t properly drained from the t ank it can weaken it until the tank breaks from the air forcing its way out.

HEAT

Compressed air is known to be hot due to the way it is created. Let’s discuss that.

Compressed air is made in chambers where the molecules are pressed together to create said air. This can be explained by 3 laws.

The third law listed above already explains it! The molecules moving so quickly together causes the heat of the air to increase!

These dangers can also serve as explanations as to why Xiao’s burst does continuous self-inflicted damage.

Theoretically, Sayu should be taking even more damage than him on just her skill. There’s of course the obvious reason of rolling around on hard surfaces but there is also the idea of her using pressurized air and wind to propel herself. I will be doodling Safety gear for all Anemo users at the end of this post.

These guys have the right idea. Though something covering their whole face can prevent the loss of eyeballs!

ALL ELEMENTS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Sub section: Pyro

source:

It is a well known fact that fire is a result of vibrating atoms to release gasses. In short, a combination of fuel, oxygen and heat. What do anemo users have? Oxygen and heat (refer back to heat caused by air compression).

Sub Section: Hydro

In tandem with Pyro and heat, this can cause water to vaporize. Another known fact is that Water is found in the air. Ameno users can utilize this through air pressure to manipulate hydro as if it were their vision.

Furthermore Hydro can be compressed to make Cryo, lending itself to the next sub section.

Sub Section: Electro

sources:

Lightning is formed through droplets and ice crystals “bumping” into each other, creating electrical charges. Oxygen and air have a large role to play in this, as you need cold and warm air for its creation.

“Nitrogen is also involved in further lightning chemistry. At the high temperatures lightning generates, there is enough energy for nitrogen and oxygen in the air to combine, forming nitrogen oxides. In turn, these nitrogen oxides can dissolve in rainwater and form nitrates, which are important for plant growth. The process of usually unreactive nitrogen being turned into nitrates that plants can use is called ‘nitrogen fixing’. Lightning accounts for up to 3-10 teragrams of nitrogen fixed per year (compared to 100-300 teragrams fixed by bacteria).”

(“The Science of thunderstorms- thunder, lighting, and chemical reactions”, Compound interest, ~2018) Yes, anemo also has a grip on Dendro.

Conclusion

With everything we know it’s safe to assume Geo can be manipulated by Anemo too

Compression of Minerals creates others, Anemo as we know it is capable of compression

Cryo is created from hydro, which can be manipulated through Ameno

Through the manipulation of its molecules or Anemo induced Pyro hydro can be created, and therefore Cryo.

Most elements are dependent on Air/ Oxygen

Electro is dependent for the reactions created

Pyro is fueled by oxygen, without it there is no fire

Plant life depends on Air for survival, without it there would be no carbon dioxide to be used in photosynthesis.

BURST

source used:

Now looking back on the Wander’s burst we know it would utilize heat and pressure along with creating an unstable environment for the compressed air in order to cause this explosion.

An important question to bring up is:

How far can this compression be pushed? Assuming there is no limit— dependent on the user— it’s safe to assume it can be pushed to the point of creating a black hole, or something similar.

“Don't let the name fool you: a black hole is anything but empty space. Rather, it is a great amount of matter packed into a very small area - think of a star ten times more massive than the Sun squeezed into a sphere approximately the diameter of New York City. The result is a gravitational field so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape.” (NASA, 1)

Theoretically, Scaramouche could compress matter in the air to the point of a black hole.

Taking a closer look, the effects would suggest light itself warping around the Axis, implying something with the nature of a black hole.

Black holes are created from super Novas, specifically the theory that, if the mass is large enough, no force can keep the star from collapsing under the influence of gravity. Leading this back to the wanderer, a perfect balance could possibly result in the creation of an artificial black hole.

CONCLUSION (scara)

In conclusion, Scara’s attacks can do some serious damage! Taking into account his personality: his skills can and will be used in a manner which would guarantee the safety of no one, not even himself.

Skill ideas

Heat - He burns people, what can I say

Compressing lungs - He could compress the air in the lungs of his foes leading to:

Suffocation

Converting them into essentially pressurized air tanks, of course leading to explosions

Compressing all water molecules to drown them

Black holes

need I say more

Air in the body

Your body requires air for functionality, an Ameno user could quickly cut off oxygen supply.

Good thing he doesn’t need to breathe! Otherwise, he would be rupturing his lungs every time he takes flight!

If you want further details on how he could do more damage please let me know, I can make a follow up for individual characters too with how they can utilize all of this keeping these ideas in mind.

OTHER CHARACTERS - SAFETY GEAR AND ADDITION ABILITIES

Capable of all of this: shown to have similar move set

Sucrose - Anemo CATALYST 4*

Suggested protective gear: Most I can think of at the moment is giving her headphones/ earmu ffs and better protective Eyewear. If needed a mask to cover her mouth

Yes I used an article on why you dont let your dogs stick their heads out windows she has animal ears ok

Eyewear: Effective for Windburn, and debris. Glasses isn’t cutting it!

Earmuffs: Windburn

additionally, anemo would cause constant flapping to the ears and that can do some damage. This constant trauma to the skull can cause blood to pool in the ears leading to painful swelling.

Mask or scarf: Self explanatory

Pants, or heavier clothing:

Again, self-explanatory. We don’t want parts of her outfit to get in the way, especially with the dangers of compressed air.

Hair:

Her hair is actually a good length to keep out of the way, the only issue being her bangs, which could obscure her vision.

Based on her burst I think it’s ok to assume that if pushed further she is capable of black hole creation.

(Concept, not final)

It’s not cute (yet) but safety first!

Shown to use Anemo for the creation of “physical” objects

Faruzan - Anemo BOW 4*

Known to use Air pressure, same conclusion to Sucrose. She is possibly capable of creating a black hole.

Furthermore, it is listed as “vortex damage”. Additionally, we see her use this for the creation of “physical” objects, notably her burst.

This suggests Faruzan compresses the air to create Cryo or hydro.

Suggested gear/ precautions:

Arm Guard: she uses a bow, it would be necessary

I took archery and I do not recommend shooting w/o one- they told us so many horror stories

Pants! PANTS! WHY DO THEY ALL WEAR DRESSES IT’S NOT SAFE

Protective eye gear

No lose jewelry! It can get caught in her bow, and the wind currents she utilizes, would be a fun time for no one!

Tie up her hair! Once again can get caught in the bow especially with the wind all around her.

All characters on the team would need gear to effectively cover their skin and faces if they don’t want any of this to happen.

Concept: Not final

Shikanoin Heizou - Anemo CATALYST 4*

Known to punch and kick with infused Anemo damage.

Through manipulation of the air surrounding his limbs, it is likely he propels himself forward in order to have more force. Air compression is back again! This sort of thing is often used in roller coasters.

The compressed air would be used to launch his leg or arm in a steady motion in a way where he is less likely to get hurt from the movement alone.

GEAR AND PRECAUTIONS

Closed Toed shoes- this goes for everyone!

The leg guards are almost there in terms of safety depending on the material— and anime logic— though they should be extended to cover the entire leg.

The armpit window? aka clothes: Bro you will rupture a lung, that’s no good.

If heavy enough the flowing parts can be excusable, then again that would hinder combat so maybe just scrap them.

Head gear: See the previous 2 characters, it’s a common theme at this point.

He sticks to close range combat mostly so arm Guards.

Cover the fingers!

Hair: His hair is tied up. Good job Heizou 👍

Those bangs are atrocious tho in terms of obscuring vision.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Xiao - Anemo POLEARM 5*

just keep the mask on at all times

Arm coverage

Jean and Kazuha - Anemo SWORD 5*

Arm Guards

Cover more skin

Head gear due to close range

Sayu - Anemo CLAYMORE 4*

Just give her armor at this point

Anemo Traveler

Aether:

Cover stomach, you can rupture your organs bro

More arm Coverage

Hair should be tied up better unless you want to be slapped by it.

Lumine

Snug fit clothing

Arm coverage— again

Gloves should cover the fingers.

Venti - Anemo BOW 5*

I dont care that you’re God, you need an arm guard.

FINAL CONCLUSION

All anemo users have the capacity to use every element to their advantage and can do some serious damage.

I think we now know how Venti was able to survive this long- What a goober

If you want me to go into detail on specific characters let me know!

[fromdevcom]

As a website manager, it is essential to know the HTTP redirect codes. This knowledge will help you build a reliable and good performing site. If you wish to learn more about the 300 HTTP codes, the article has everything. It will take a comprehensive look at those essential codes to help you understand how they work and give you tips on managing them and their effect on search engine optimization. What are HTTP Status Codes? This status code is a server reply to a browser’s application. When a visitor visits a website, the visitor’s browser sends a request to the website’s server, and then the server will respond to the browser with a three-digit code, the HTTP status code. The codes are just like the internet way of communication between the website server and browser request. These codes tell whether things between the browser and the server are okay or there is something wrong. Knowing how these codes work and how to use them helps diagnose web page errors faster to reduce a site’s downtime. These codes can as well be used to aid search engines and browsers to access a website. For instance, a 301 redirect code tells people and bots that a specific searched page has moved permanently to somewhere else. Each status code starts with one to five numbers, for instance, 1xx, 2xx, 3xx, 4xx and 5xx. Every range indicates a different class of server answers from the other. Common HTTP Response Codes 1xx, information response This informs the site of a request reception. It implies that the request process continues. 2xx, successful This deals with request understanding and response. For instance 100=ok 3xx, redirecting This signals that some particular actions are needed to finish a browser request. For instance 302=redirection 4xx, visitor error This code indicates that a client’s request will not be carried out. Additionally, it can imply that the request has bad syntax. 5xx, a server error This signals an unsuccessful server response due to a failure to process by a server. It is important to note that some status errors and codes directly affect search engine optimisation while some do not. 1xx and 2xx do not impact SEO in any way, but 300, 400 and 500 can affect web page indexing and crawling negatively. As a website owner, you should always address the 5xx ad 4xx errors and status codes because they are dangerous to a web ranking. In web development, HTTP 300 codes play a significant role in search engine optimization. These codes pass SEO utility from old URLs to current ones. Therefore it is essential to get deep into every 300 level status code’s meanings like permanent, multiple-choice and proxies. List of 3xx HTTP  Status  Codes ad Their Meanings Status / error code Meaning 300 Multiple choice 301 Permanently moved 302 Found, previously moved temporarily 303 See other 304 Not modified 305 Use proxy 306 Switch proxy 307 Temporary redirect 308 Permanent redirect The code appears when there are several redirects. It is common in REST APIs.A browser is given multiple choices to select sites with resources that meet the request sent. For instance, when a user requests URL add points to more than one resource, the crawler or web browser will fail to decide the page to be fetched. If you want to correct the error, check the HTTP headers. Moreover, you should also ensure that the URL you request points to a single resource for the user agent to access the page successfully. 301: Moved Permanently This status indicates whenever a resource is permanently moved. Since users can't see the previous URL, the search engines will index the redirected URL to the user. In most cases, common search engine user agents and crawlers follow up five redirects for one URL. 302: Resource Found or Temporarily Moved This code appears when a temporary redirect is set to send a browser to another URL. 303: See Another Resource This code permits REST API to send suggestions to clients as references.

This does not affect SEO but can improve user-friendliness. 304: Not Modified The server responds with this code when the requested source has not been modified after the previous requests. 305: Use Proxy The web server responds with this code when the requested request can only be accessed via a proxy server. Due to security concerns, some browsers do not display the code. 307: Temporary Redirect This code is received when the requested resource is temporarily moved to another address mentioned in the header area. 306 and 308 306 code signals that a server needs to use a specific proxy for given requests. Code 308, on the other hand, indicates that a permanent redirect is required. Reasons of the HTTP Redirects A URL redirect is a website address that is drafted to another. There are several reasons why redirecting is essential to your webpage. For instance, moving from one domain to another is one of the reasons for using URL redirection. Some the other reasons include: To Identify Broken links: HTTP redirects can be used to identify broken links. The 404 not found pages can be identified by the use of Google console. The coverage reports give in-depth information concerning all inbound links that need fixing by the use of redirecting. To Show a Page’s New Location: Redirecting can help in mapping a URL to a new location. That is, if a previous website had highly visited sites ranking high. To use this, it is essential to ensure that all the old pages used for redirection have not disappeared. Forwarding Several Domains : HTTP redirects search engines and internet users to one location but with several domain names at a go. Fixing Broken Links : With HTTP redirecting, you can fix a broken link by redirecting traffic to the front page. When Deleting a Page: The HTTP redirects provide a stress-free way of deleting a page. You only need to create an HTTPS for the pages to be deleted. Advantages of HTTP Protocols Request responsibility Page caching Security Minimal latency Improved interactions with web resources 301 Redirects: Do They Affect SEO? 301 Redirects play a significant role when it comes to boosting organic traffic. Although most individuals can find redirect issues from one site page to another, knowing how they relate to SEO is challenging. But the fact is they affect SEO. In SEO, 301 Redirect Code is said to move correlatively with PageRank, which determines the value of a web page. Value of A Page(PageRank) is created by browsers like Google, and these browsers use this technique to examine how relevant and webpage links are to provide quick feedback. Therefore, it means the quality of a PageRank will affect the web page’s ranking across browsers. In other words, the lower the PageRank quality, the lower the ranking in the browser, and vice versa. When the 301 redirection occurs in a page, that page loses the value; PageRank goes down by 15%. This means the more redirection; the more PageRank goes down. Therefore, SEO work is affected here. Boosting SEO Through the Use of 301 Redirects Having good organic traffic is one of the most useful strategies in building a strong SEO. Understanding the power of 301 redirects, boosting organic traffic becomes a priority to free any SEO work from culprits of low ranking across browsers. The significant complication comes from knowing how to increase organic traffic through the 301 redirect code. This is how you can do it: 301 From Another High Authority Page : This is what is called the merger process to organic traffic for the sake of SEO work. But most of the time, the page should have content related to your industry. Using 301 redirects, merge it with that of your site page. By doing this, the link juice would have taken effect and subsequently, ranking of the target page and its organic traffic would increase significantly. Combining the Relating Pages :You can achieve this through taking the two pages and putting their backlinks into one but most relevant that covers the outcome.

This is referred to as the cocktail method and can drive more results during 301 Redirect. Through page consolidation or compilation, there is giving of authority as the two pages are merged. As a result, better content is achieved, especially where the content source is getting old. How to Fix 301 Redirect Code Problems Coming to the Page Anyone who has encountered 301 redirect code will wish to know if you can fix these issues coming to their sites. The fact is that these issues have solutions, and here is how you can fix 301 redirects. Fix the Multiple Redirects Existing Like Chains : If there is a redirect chain, use a single 301 redirect and replace it with a redirect chain. Or you can use direct links to replace the redirected pages. By Checking the Sitemap, Delete Pages with 301 Redirect Codes: You can use tools like Ahrefs' or Semrush’s Site Audit to get the report of the existence of pages with such errors. Ensure the Version of HTTP Existing on Your Page Redirects as HTTPS : The best way to fix 300 redirect codes is ensuring your page uses HTTPS, the most recommended by Google. Conclusion Any code existing as a "Redirect" has no much use but slows page performance. This means the page authority, for example, are affected, and the SEO work may fail to comply with its strategies in meeting its goals. Although redirects, in general, may hinder the SEO, 301 redirects can be useful. SEO uses organic traffic as one of the rankings of the contents through the browsers. On the other hand, 301 redirect has a close relationship with organic traffic. Therefore, any SEO work can gain momentum through 300 redirect codes.

[thelogicofikeandsoren]

Knives vs. Staves: Soren's Personality

It's a no brainer that giving Soren staves is better for game utility, but when people want to base the choice off of his personality, they often go for knives.

I'm going to argue that choosing staves actually fits Soren's personality better in multiple parts:

What would go into Soren's choice of tool would be his motivations and priorities.

The way I see it, Soren's #1 priority in terms of motivation is: "Will this course of action help Ike survive?" And here we can see two outcomes:

Outcome A: Soren gets staves. In addition to the skilled combat he is still capable of due to his magic, he now has the ability to heal Ike if he gets hurt.

Outcome B: If Ike gets hurt, Soren can't do anything. But on the bright side, he can choose to get himself hurt instead. Or just continue to do magic, pretending he never got the knives.

Outcome A significantly improves the success of priority #1.

Now onto priority #2. Assuming Ike will not be in any danger, Soren's next motivation would be "what is the smartest course of action, regardless of people's feelings on the matter?"

Now the interesting thing about priority #2 is that by its very nature it matches with the better option for gameplay. Why are staves better for gameplay?

Soren is too weak to do any notable damage with knives

Soren puts himself in more immediate danger while trying to

As with #1, Soren can't do anything if Ike is hurt (or anyone else)

Soren would no doubt consider all of these factors himself, making staves better for priority #2 as well.

Ok, so assuming both of those priorities are fulfilled, Soren will now move onto priority #3: "what can limit my contact with untrustworthy people?"

Well, if Soren uses knives, he will have to face enemies 100% of the time. If Soren has staves, he can spend a good portion of his time with allies, or even just the core Greil Mercenaries, or even just Ike if it suits him. So staves win for priority #3.

Now, deep down, we might run into priority #4: "is this useful for getting back at those who hurt me?" But something I've noticed is that there's a tendency in the fandom to make Soren more vengeful than he is, similar to how they make Ike dumber or more obsessed with training. This priority is so low on the list, I'm not even certain it really exists.

I'll get back to that in a bit, but for now, let's assume priority #4 is in place. Knives will definitely be better than staves here, but with a massive caveat. Who hurt Soren the most? Dead people, civilians, laguz, enemies with absurdly high defenses and physical offensive power. Dead people are obviously not someone he will face, nor civilians. There are very logical reasons to use magic against laguz instead of knives even if his strength wasn't negligible, namely their race-related elemental weaknesses. And as for enemies with absurdly high defenses and physical offensive power? Soren shouldn't fight them at all if they can counterattack, and definitely not with a knife. More pertinently, Soren doesn't even recognize them (and vice versa), making the vengeance motive less relevant.

But then the other question is, just how vengeful is Soren anyway? He doesn't like people, especially laguz. He shows this by avoiding them, acting standoffish around them, and if he's really upset, insulting them. But even if it sparks a physical fight (which happens once), he's never the one to escalate it to violence.

Take the infamous fight between Soren and Lethe and Mordecai. Yes, Soren's comments were uncalled for, though as far as Soren was concerned, so were Lethe's, which is what caused the conflict in the first place. But it was Lethe who escalated the fight to violence by commanding Mordecai to kill Soren. Which Ike was clearly not ok with, jumping in front of the attack to protect him. Then, and only then, does Soren resort to violence. If anything, Soren seems surprisingly un-vengeful given everything he went through.

But there is a character who fills this niche people are looking for with Soren, and his name is Reyson. Reyson would absolutely choose to wield a knife if he could (or even if he couldn't).

[cobra-creampuff]

Happy STS! What books or other media have shaped the way you think about writing the most? What did they teach you?

Okay, not gonna list books/media, but authors/directors instead. Louis Sachar, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, David Fincher, Guillermo del Toro, Jordan Peele.

Sachar in particular is absolutely the pinnacle, in my opinion, of weaving together an intricate and unweavable narrative. Every time I read or watch HOLES it sends me into fits of divine inspiration NOT joking. It also is like- You know when you see a work of art that is So Good in a very particular type of way that feels unreachable? Sachar's work is the opposite of that. It's the GOAT, but in a way that makes it clear that mastery like this can be achieved with practice and diligence to the work.

Fincher I also like for intricate storytelling, as well as his skill with building suspense (something I am currently struggling with in Curse The Messenger).

I love and aspire to Gaiman's mastery of build-up pay-off, especially how he can build an entire book (or 30 minute cold open) into a single, succinct line that simultaneously means half a dozen things and also one precise thing, all shining a spotlight on the themes of the piece and also sometimes being a pun. I 100% do this, I go into every work looking to do it, and I do it because of him. Entirely.

Pratchett and Adams I admire and try to emulate for their particular flavor of satire, as well as their zany metaphors. I don't really write comedy - I don't think I'm built for it - but I think sardonics and absurdism can both have an effective place in any genre. I really like to utilize comedic tools in tragedy, I think it's incredibly effective and also makes the material more readable, and those in particular happen to be my favorite and in my opinion are the most versatile without being trite or quickly dated.

I love the way del Toro's genre fiction is also - kind of inescapably - High Art TM. He takes the campiest and/or grittiest possible concepts or subjects and depicts them with Elegance. I'm also always a slut for a story that is dark not from the absence of light, but from the smallness of it. Metaphorically speaking. He's just really great at tragedy that isn't a bummer. Peak.

Peele. How does he do it. Everything he makes is at once impeccably subtle and completely blatant. Everything he makes is at once terrifying and hilarious. (I think much horror-comedy either swings wildly back and forth between the two, or else is not actually scary at all.) His storytelling is also really tight like Sachar and Fincher, but imo has a more natural and realistic feeling to it. I also just really vibe with his concepts. I didn't really get Us (judging from its reception, that's absolutely a me problem), but Get Out and NOPE both have a message/allegory that I really believe in or identify with or however you'd describe that kaskfls. I hope one day my work will communicate its ideas just as well.

Honorable mentions to AJ White, Chuck Tingle, Joy Demorra, RoAnna Sylver, Harley LaRoux, Alice Scott, Magen Cubed, Rebecca Sugar, Joseph Fink, and the McElroy brothers for showing me I really can make whatever the hell I fucking want to and no matter what it is it can still be Good TM and I can still Make It TM - as well as that Making It TM can mean whatever kind/level of success is right for me.

Wonderful question, Marigold! Thank you!

[kiwi--bot]

Patterns

Rating: T Words: 2,872 Warnings: Blood, Injuries, Al-An doesn’t understand emotions very well. Summary: Al-An prefers when things fall into an easily recognizable pattern. It’s how data forms, it’s easier to work with, and less surprises make it easier to remain efficient. Robin is a rogue bit of code in the set sequence.

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Indeed, it had been quite some time since Al-An was allowed to exist in any dimensions outside of their temporary isolation. And truly, Robin had done well in the fabrication of an Architect form that would suit their needs to relocate the pair off the planet, and return to their home with the remedy for the Kharaa Bacterium; for the Architects of their home world.

Unfortunately, following the reconstruction of their new form, Al-An is hit with the immediate problem that their supposed mode of transportation has... degraded over time; and they are quite lacking really on the resources department. Countless amounts of bits and bobs, here and there, that simply corroded over the years, or just did not operate further. And every small tick of a list of issues added up to an inoperable phase gate. Yet Robin-- ever so helpful Robin-- offers to help collect whatever Al-an could need to repair their ship.

“Always together, even if you’re not stuck upstairs anymore,” She had joked, tapping the side of her head in an emphasized way. How Al-An could only think of how true that statement was...

And so, life on 4546B settled into somewhat of a steady, even pace for Robin and Al-An.

Robin relocates her primary base to the facility where Al-An prepares for convenience’s sake. She wakes up late in the morning, and Al-An’s learned to get a cup of coffee steaming hot and settled at her nightstand at precisely 13:29. This in turn helps her wake up and become functional no later than 13:50-14:00, depending on how late she was up the previous night.

Following that, Al-An fabricates a nutritious meal of her choosing, and it’s set onto a table-- or, a section of the facility that’s been repurposed into a table-- and she eats before she heads out for the day to find the resources needed. (And always, Al-An makes sure that there’s a fabricated meal packed away in a thermally-controlled container for her to take along.) And like clockwork, Robin is back at 22:22 with her Seatruck stuffed to the brim with all the supplies she could find.

And usually Al-An has to check her for injuries or parasites and she just grins when they comment on how inefficient her resource-gathering is if she must hurt herself every single time. “Awww, you just like to fret over me, Al-An,” she coos as they utilize their on-hand medical devices to knit up skin from a rather nasty bite.

“I do not fret, I observe,” Al-An states plainly, and Robin rolls her eyes, only wincing a little when Al-an has to wipe over another puncture with that strange antiseptic gel, and the skin closes under the heat of that magic little tool that Robin has yet to scan. “And I know that humans are one of the most fragile things that get in more trouble compared to any living creature I have yet to meet.”

“I’m gonna talk that as a compliment, Al-An.” Robin flexes out her wrist once the wound is all sealed up, the only reminder a faint scar left in the wake. She flashes a grin at the Architect, who would promptly turn back to what they had been working on prior before they needed to patch her up.

At 27:00 or 28:00, Al-An ceases working for a short period-- one Robin requested so that they don’t overwork themselves. Of course, an Architect cannot really do such a thing as ‘overwork,’ but Al-An humors her. And Robin’s meal is fabricated and settled on the table no later than 28:50. She used to always request Al-An eat dinner with her-- and although they do not eat like she does, they sit nonetheless at her side.

And Robin will scroll through her PDA and read the day’s logs once again, chewing hear and there and really making an inefficient use of her time as she often does. But humans like to be that way-- leisurely, as Robin once corrected them-- and so Al-An will not question it again.

She always leans back against the stone of the her temporary seat, shrugging and shuffling and making a good amount of noise that could startle even the most focused Architect from their endeavors. Over time, she would unconsciously lay against Al-An’s side, and that often settled her, so they would not comment.

If they had to admit something, the pressure therapy from her body weight was a welcome one, given they did not have the proper tools to recreate such things.

Robin turns into bed anywhere from 1:00-3:00; it will depend on what areas she visited, and what the day’s events involved. And she will bid Al-An goodnight with a smile and pat on their arm, before she retreats to her bed. Although, she doesn’t really go anywhere, because her ‘room’ is just a small section of the facility adjacent to where Al-An primarily works.

She’s fabricated herself a bed, some storage, and even hung up some curtains to block out the steady glow of the facility. It’s a small little space that reminds Al-An of how Architects would furnish the habitats of subjects they used for research.

Peculiar.

And this is how their pattern would fall into, resetting each day at 13:29 with the first coffee of the day. Al-An finds the repeating pattern of each day, as Robin would put it.... soothing. Did Architects even need to be soothed? Historically?

No. And yet Al-An could not help but find this... calm, inside the promise of the known. Perhaps it was a way for them to deal with the fact that they might not know what would await them on the other side of the phase gate, where they would have to face their people, and answer for their mistakes. Perhaps that reason is why they can now find solace and even comfort in something as simple as a daily pattern.

How the other Architects would be baffled at the thought. The very notion of it was so unlike them all. Al-An would have to blame Robin for this, at the very least.

Merging with her cerebral cortex must have changed something in their emotional status....

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And with the promise of a steady pattern, Al-An could find each day predictable enough to not impede any portion of their work. They worked quickly to repair what needed repairs, to adjust what needed adjusting, to alter what needed altering.

Steady. Steady. Steady. Repeat.

The illusion of this pattern gets shattered when 22:42 arrives one evening, and Robin is not yet home. Al-An, logistically, should be business as normal. She could have gone farther, she could have had a small set-back, she could have gotten distracted. But when 23:22 arrives, and Robin is still not home, Al-An finds they cannot work.

The data rolls in front of their vision as normal, the facility is operating at 100%, and they have spent the better part of this week weaving data in such a way that it is second-nature. But their hands do not move, their gaze is transfixed on the door, and the progress of their work is stunted.

She should be back by now. She should have been back exactly 60 minutes ago.

Al-An cannot work. They shut off their normal programs and instead set up a long-range scan. It puts them off schedule immensely, but they, for once, cannot find it in them to care about inefficiency. It takes 20 minutes for the scan to prepare, and the entire time, Al-An keeps their gaze on the door. Like Robin will burst in any second, with a couple new wounds, yes, but here, and alive.

Robin does not enter the door by the time the scan is online at 23:42.

Robin does not enter the door as the scanner searches at 23:43.

Robin does not enter the door as the scanner searches at 23:44.

Robin does not enter the door as the scanner searches at 23:45.

Robin is not home as the scanner searches at 23:46.

Robin is not home safe as the scanner searches at 23:47.

Robin is not home safe as the scanner searches at 23:48.

Robin is not home safe as the scanner searches at 23:49.

Robin must not be safe as the scanner finds her at 23:50.

Al-An must prepare for the worst, even as they wish to leave as soon as the scanner reads her biosignature in the Arctic. No good in retrieving her if they do not have food, medical supplies, warmer clothing, an extra hair tie-- she always complained when her current one would break-- and anything else humans needed when they were potentially in distress--

No.

Robin is not in distress. The very thought has the Architect frozen to the spot, a flicker of something so unfamiliar buzzing through them. She is fine, just delayed. Off-schedule, off-pattern. No matter, Al-An will locate her and then they will both repair that.

They finish collecting everything needed into a neat pack, and just as they prepare to put the facility into lockdown, there’s a familiar faint splashing, and then footsteps padding across a stone floor.

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It is 24:17 when Robin Ayou enters the Architect facility she calls home with her arm crudely wrapped in a sling and her leg leaving a trail of blood. But nonetheless, she’s got the same grin on her face, and carries something sharp in her uninjured hand. She’s limping.

“Al-An!” She calls, her voice loud and full of excitement. She’s stumbling over her own feet, and Al-An blinks to her side to catch her with the beam of their mechanical arm, lifting her right off the ground. She doesn’t notice how their posture is tight and tense, instead waving the sharp object in her hand. “Al-An I did it! I fought off one of those Shadow Leviathans and I freaking won!”

Al-An does not reply.

“It tried to eat me, Al-An!” Robin’s arm waves wildly in her excitement, and she doesn’t protest when Al-An brings her to the empty table to seat her, once again getting to work on mending what is broken. Her injured arm has several gashes in it: some down to the bone, and covered messily with plant matter. Al-An removes those and starts on sterilization.

“It yanked me by the arm, but I was quick-- I stabbed him right in the eye, and I held on, because he was pulling me towards his mouth!” She grins wider, adrenaline masking any pain from the antiseptics, or how the beam begins to knit the skin and muscle back to one piece. “I lost my grip on my knife, but I grabbed his spine-- or whatever those glowing things on his belly are-- and I held on and kicked him right in the stomach!”

Al-An silently redirects attention to her leg, where acidic liquid had eaten through her suit and burned the skin-- not too horribly, but bloody. That is treated next.

“And then I must of hurt him bad, because he let me go, but not before I yanked and yanked on those spine things-- And look! I got it, I ripped one clean off!” She’s talking quickly, her body thrumming at the thrilling tale, and feeling so alive. “I felt bad at first, but then I remembered that he tried to eat me, so I shrugged it off, and he backed off after I ripped off this. I won, Al-An! Against a freaking Shadow Leviathan!”

Robin laughs, slapping her now healed hand against her forehead and grinning wildly. “God, I thought for sure I was a goner when I didn’t take the prawn suit down--”

“And why didn’t you, Robin?”

They are both startled by the tone of Al-An’s voice. And Robin finally realizes that Al-An is stiff, mechanical in how they treat her-- so different from the almost caring way they usually do. And they are glowing a sickly yellow color, their gaze transfixed on her wounds as the mechanical arm fixes up the burns on her leg.

“I-I.....” Robin is at a loss, her eyes now locked onto them. “I.... don’t know.”

An uncomfortable silence falls between them. Al-An finishes up work on her leg, and then does a general scan over her to make sure they didn’t miss any other wounds. Processing, methodical, even.

Something is wrong, Robin thinks. Even now, as they seem to pull away from the situation, the same sickly color tinges the edge of her vision. Robin catches their arm as they turn to assess her findings, and she doesn’t miss how they tense.

“Al-An....” She begins, but stops. She can’t find the right thing to say. It all feels wrong. Like anything she says next won’t be the right thing to say. But she tries with, “Are you okay?”

“That is hardly a question you should ask me, Robin.” Al-An’s voice has gone back to the same, even tone as when they first met, but it’s all off. Too even, too tight. Like there is something beneath the surface, just hiding and waiting to strike like an Ice Worm. “You should ask yourself that. You were the one who was injured. Sustaining traumatic injuries is detrimental to the overall health of--”

“Did I scare you?” She asks, and Al-An falters.

“Fear is not a concept we feel,” They state, and yet they now feel the sinking familiarity of it nonetheless. Fear. They were afraid, they had been afraid when Robin was not home at the right time. They were scared when Robin returned injured. They were scared when she recounted her harrowing tale, and they were scared that she’s going to do it again and they would not be there to pick up the pieces--

“Al-An...” Robin’s voice cuts through the swirling data inside their head, and her eyes are soft as she reaches and touches their chest gently. She feels.... awful. Physically and emotionally. How could she not realize that they were upset? How could she have been so blind when she’s normally so in tune with the Architect? “Al-An, I’m really sorry.”

“You have done nothing that warrants an apology,” Al-An states; but their lights flicker pink for the briefest moment. “You were simply acting inefficiently and radically in a way that could have resulted in several versions of a potential death, which is not uncommon for your species.”

Robin smiles. That unintentional insult was 100% all Al-An. She shifts closer to them, and then her arms wrap around them, and she leans her head against their chest, and she imagines she can hear their heartbeat through their thick, armored body. “I know, I was being an idiot. I’m sorry.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m hugging you, Al-An. Never had a hug before?”

“Architects do not partake in this sort of behavior,” Al-an tells her. But, nonetheless, they mimic her movements, and their organic arms encircle her smaller frame, and having her close to them like so reminds them just of how tiny and delicate she is. “....Touching one another was not commonplace.”

“Then I’m gonna make it commonplace, and I’m gonna give you a hug everyday until I catch up on the hugs you’ve missed out on your whole life,” Robin hums as she closes her eyes, yawning.

“That would be impossible, given the length of your human lifespan,” Al-An corrects her, but they find the idea of one of these each day not entirely unpleasant. Robin laughs, and she just smiles. And their lights shift to a light pink as she falls asleep against them, and they return her to her bed: asleep too early for the schedule.

But it was alright to be a little off-pattern.

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And so, life on 4546B settled into somewhat of a general routine for Robin and Al-An.

Al-An has her coffee ready at 13:29 and she drinks it as she wakes up and rolls out of bed by 14:00. Al-An fabricates breakfast, packs her a lunch, and she’s out the door for the day’s work. And if she returns at 21:57 or 23:37, Al-An is not worried. After all, she’s returning with less injuries, and that is good enough for them.

Together they sit when Robin has her dinner and Al-An has their break around 28:42, and Robin reads aloud her PDA entries to Al-An-- even though they could easily scan and upload the documents themself, it makes her feel happy, so they indulge. And Robin leans back against Al-An without hesitation once she’s done eating, and they find the pressure nice.

And when 1:00 or 2:00 rolls around, just before she turns in for bed, Robin will throw her arms around Al-An for their daily hug, and she will hold on tight for a good few minutes, and Al-An learns to hold her in return. Perhaps if they held long enough, tight enough, she would never be in danger again.

And they find that perhaps, maybe... they like hugs.

And Robin fashions the Leviathan fragment into a necklace, that she gifts Al-An.

And Al-An wears it everyday.

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E111 (Sept. 29, 2020)

@eponymous-rose‘s internet is out tonight, so I’m here late and without coffee! Let’s see how many typos we can fit into an hour and a half episode.

Tonight’s guests: Ashley Williams JOHNSON, oops!! & Liam O’Brien!

We open with Brian in light-up vented sunglasses and Henry at his side, as always. Dani is very excited to be back and has fun-buns in her hair tonight. So cute! Everyone talks about how much they’re Zooming these days for work, and Liam mentions he and Matt & Marisha did a digital cocktail night. He and Dani arrange on camera to have a distanced, masked meetup in the park so Dani can see Liam’s dog again.

No announcements! Tonight, we’re discussin’ episodes 110 and 111.

Starting with the end, Brian jumps right to it by asking how they feel that Molly is alive. Liam 100% thought we’d be back to him, but still wasn’t ready when it happened. Caleb doubted he was alive. Both Liam & Ashley marvel at the numerology that keeps cropping up throughout the show. Brian hates not being able to see it at the same time the show happens live; Ashley was biting her tongue not telling him spoilers. (He doesn’t want to hear spoilers unless Yasha dies so he can be there for Ashley if needed.) Brian says he has a little reality trauma from the night Pike died in the pre-stream game; it was the first time he’d realized how much it affected the players.

Ashley’s realized how much she misses unpacking the game with Brian when they get home. She just has to sit with it until everyone else gets to see it. Brian: “Instead she comes home and I have to fill her in on the Real Housewives of Amarillo, Texas.”

Reunion dinner with Trent! Liam talks about how the way things unfolded with Trent is not at all how he imagined it in his pre-game creation; he’d expected more of a fracas, more of an unexpected clash. “Caleb might have been a different person if he’d run into these people earlier in the story. The M9 changed him before [Trent & co] came back and got to him.” He’d imagined Astrid & Eodwulf to be complicated encounters, but says what Matt’s designed has been even harder than that. A fight on a mountain is one thing, but walking into a room with “what Trent dropped, is impossible to cope with.” It also means that if what Trent said is true, anything Caleb does now is effectively of Trent’s design, even killing him.

He doesn’t think Caleb would have gone anywhere near Trent & co without the M9. “The Mighty Nein--it took a long time--but they cracked Caleb open like a walnut.”

He thinks what Matt has done is much more murky than the simplicity of murder, such as the Briarwood arc. He can’t just exact his revenge now.

Liam says that the tempation to tinker with time is no longer as all-consuming as it was. He might still be tempted if Matt dangles a bunch of carrots in front of him, but he thinks that now it might be better to make sure that that kind of thing doesn’t happen anymore for anyone else (!!!). “It’s still a nugget in his brain and it’s still possible he could be tempted by the drug, but what he wanted in the beginning was entirely selfish, but now that the M9 are involved he owes it to them, to the people of the country, even on the Dynasty side--is so complex that if Caleb were to get that carrot and chase it, he would be risking everything.”

Ashley agrees that most of their choices are no longer black and white. Many of the situations feel more like real life. Liam agrees and says he’ll sometimes make decisions that he’s both really happy with and regrets at the same time. They both look forward to what Matt will reveal in Act 3.

Brian feels it’s tough to gauge how deep they are into what Matt’s planned for the campaign. Liam says that thanks to Matt’s skill, he really doesn’t know what Caleb wants right now.

Ashley agrees, and talks about how she created Yasha to have more to overcome than Pike. She loves what Matt’s doing in terms of allowing each of them to overcome more emotional hurdles than physical ones in this campaign.

Going back to Molly’s grave was very exciting for Ashley since she wasn’t able to be there when he died in the game & wanted to do what she could to honor him. Yasha, however, was very hesitant but knew what needed to be done. She’s not very open with her emotions, but both she & Ashley were stressed. They all could feel the energy in the studio & knew Matt was about to do something mind-blowing. Liam: “You could feel all the dust in the air coalescing around Taliesin.”

Brian trips over Eodwulf. Liam tries to help him find some pronunciation shortcuts. Ashley: “You say it so beautifully.” Brian: “Thank you.” Ashley: “Not you.”

Caleb knows how wickedly intelligent & ambitious Astrid is, and was heartened by the wavering he saw in her at the dinner. However, he can’t trust her until he knows why she’s where she is.

He really feels that if they’d had this dinner 60 episodes ago, Caleb might have tilted back along the evil axis and he would have had to retire the character. He had a playlist entirely for if Caleb turned evil and left the party.

The vision of Zuala was a huge deal for Yasha, even along every other instance she’s had of being mind-controlled, etc. “That’s guilt I think she will always carry with her, but at least she’s starting to forgive herself.” Losing the chains, sprouting wings again--Ashley reiterates that she didn’t know that was even a possibility, she just picked the skeletal wings because they were dope--were huge moments in the character development. Ashley’s glad Beau was there at the moment of the first flight; Ashley thinks of the quotation “Happiness is only beautiful when it’s shared,” and because Yasha tends to keep things very much to herself, having someone there to share it made it more impactful. “That was a cool moment. There’s been a lot of healing for Yasha these last episodes.”d

Ashley also says sometimes in that moment, when all eyes are on you in a one-on-one with Matt, everything goes muffled like Saving Private Ryan. “Wub wub wub.”

Dani feels that the only way she could even have the conversation with Zuala was to let her go in the first place.

Liam thinks one of the things that Yasha & Cad share is that still waters run deep. He loves how much Yasha hangs back sometimes, only to then reveal some new moment like the fighting pit. Apparently Ashley also has a knife collection, and uses that metal side of herself when she wants to let that new side of Yasha show.

Cosplay of the Week: Crystal Armstead (@riyuski on twitter) in a Reani cosplay. Beautiful!

How does Liam feel about the return to Rexxentrum? Very, very complicated. Caleb loves magic and lights up when he sees it, which is wrapped in the Soltryce Academy; he brought folks to the dance hall for the same reason, which was wanting the M9 to see the things that he loved about the city.

Yasha felt the same way about visiting the Chantry of the Dawn. It was a memory of a very traumatic moment (almost killing Beau), but given everything that’s happened between then and now it was cathartic to see again. There’s been a lot of healing in the past few weeks. It also felt like a physical representation of Yasha’s growth, the last time she was controlled against her will like that (or at least, until she was mind-controlled by Vokodo. Ashley sighs, aggrieved.)

Brian: “The tower really feels like a love letter from Caleb to his friends.” Liam: “It is, and a love letter from Liam to his friends.” When he looked at Caleb’s spell list, he remembered how amazing the mansion was in Campaign One and how many role-playing moments it led to and knew he wanted to incorporate it. However, he knew it could never be the same as Scanlan’s mansion because Caleb doesn’t have the same improvisational genius as Scanlan does. Liam has been “tinkering with this machine” for over a year, waiting for the moment to reveal it. He loves that he got a chance to see Jester’s room in time to have her tower room reflect reality. He’d discussed the tower extensively with Dani & Matt. Brian: “Hey! What am I, chopped--what’s the saying?” Ashley: “Chopped cabbage?”

Ashley marvels at the design of the dome. Liam talks about how Caleb knowing Caleb has been abused has been slowly getting better, but he also loves now being able to juxtapose that healing with his innate love of magic and how beautiful he finds it, how he loves to use magic as his artistry. The Soltryce Academy wasn’t “Welcome to DEATH SCHOOL,” it was the Sorbonne. It was amazing, everything he wanted. It was only one bad apple within that recruited him and turned it all bad.

Liam also points out how much it means in real life to be able to express his love and care for his friends in person too.

Ashley talks about how much she loves Yasha’s armor in a meta sense because it’s so cool and useful, and great for her armor class, but struggles with what it represents in game. She might not be able to let it go due to its sheer utility, and she may have to find an in-game reason to justify keeping it.

Ashley segues a moment into talking about her velvet top which apparently has a matching velvet scrunchie. She’s asked to demonstrate the scrunchie and ties her hair up in a way that I have never in my life seen someone do with a scrunchie before, and my hair’s been waist-length most of my life. I watch it again in slow motion. How did she DO that??

Caleb’s been looking for the right time to tell Jester about his past for a long time. She’s a good person and makes him feel like he might be capable of becoming a good person at the end, because that’s how she saw him. Liam knew from Laura that Jester wouldn’t condemn him, but Caleb put it off as long as possible. He also wanted to take the time to make sure Caduceus & Yasha knew the whole story too before they went to dinner with Trent.

Liam was also relieved to get it out, because he could never remember who knew and who didn’t, and now he doesn’t have to track it anymore. “Now we can move forward. Now we can heal wounds, maybe.”

Ashley feels Cad picks up a lot, more than most people realize. Yasha was really affected by Cad’s line: “Patience can be good, but it can lead to apathy.” She really feels it opened her eyes, and she appreciated the simplicity of him pointing out her hair’s growing back white again. Having a friend notice “hey, you’re changing for the better” really means a lot. She’s interested in seeing how this means things might change with Beau.

Dani points out that it also reinforced for Yasha that she can want things too--she can be patient and just continue to be with the group, as she’s wanted, but it’s okay to want more than that too. Ashley remembers Veth asking her what her purpose is. There’s a part of her that knows Yasha is still figuring that out, and she’s interested to see how Yasha will continue to change. She’s always spent her life serving somebody--the Sky Spear, Obann--and then even after she joined the M9, it was very centered on “what do you need, what does the group need, how can I help with our next job?” She’s going to have to take some time to figure out what she wants.

Fanart of the Week! Lovely Yasha & Beau flight art by @JMNP7888. The wings look amazing!

Brian: “One of the things we want to talk to you about, Liam, is about the Vokodo fight and the FUCKING disintegrate spell.”

Liam: “That was one of the most insane 60-90 seconds of gameplay that ever existed for the table, and definitely for me, in the entire history of the show. A lot of people think I just went, oh man, just bet it all on black. But what if I told you that...I Larkin’d the first 20 seconds of that fight and then at a quarter to midnight, I forgot that the reflection was a thing? I just forgot it was a thing! I spent that whole battle thinking I’m just here to banish things. I might buff my friends a little bit, maybe I’ll counterspell, but I’m just here to banish. And it didn’t work and it didn’t work and then it did! Finally it did and Jester made it work and then he was GONE. And then everyone got greedy and it was done but we brought him BACK. And it was a quarter to midnight and I’m not an animatronic D&D lesson machine, I’m just a guy playing D&D at 11:45 at night, and he came back and everyone started Goodfellas circling him and kicking him, and Beau & Yasha are gonna kill him, and then it’s my turn? Disintegrate! And then the room was quiet, and then time passed, and Matt asked, you really cast Disintegrate? And I said yes, of course, and Matt started rolling dice, and in the back of my head I started wondering why he asked if I was rolling Disintegrate. Oh no. In the back of my brain, I was like, well, just tell him that’s not what you did. Tell him you didn’t remember the reflection thing. But he’s already rolling dice! You can’t take it back now. Hold on a second. I’m going to take you on the journey I went through. I was thinking: you have a spell save of 17. This thing wasn’t that fast. +1, +2, maybe? Anything under 14 is okay. That’s 70%. 70%. That’s okay, right? And still no one said anything to tip me off that I was in ELDRITCH MADNESS at that point, no one said anything about the reflection! And then I realize it can reflect back on us, and I realize this is...disintegrate. And then I started becoming morbidly, macabre-ly fascinated at the puppet dance of death I had created. Well, this is a mess. I have made a mess. Let’s just sit in it. And somehow, nonsensically, spectacularly, it worked out in my favor. I went home that night and I got in bed next to my wife, who was fast asleep, and I stared at the ceiling going, dude. Duuuuuuuude. Duuuuuuuuuude.”

He apparently also told his therapist about this and how terrible it was and how close he “danced myself to the precipice like a crazy person!” Marisha (as told by Liam): “Epic roll, though.”

Matt told Liam that night that if it had been reflected, it would have gone back on him. “If a player throws an M80 in the middle of a room, it would reflect on that player who threw it.”

Ashley talks about how interesting that Yasha is not performative, and yet has been doing these public performances with the harp. It’s a great experiment for Ashley--Yasha doesn’t like the attention, but feels like she is making something beautiful for the world.” She’s trying to change something about how she views herself & her place in the world. She was raised to be a weapon for the Sky Spear, but she’s also extremely gentle and loves flowers & beautiful music, and the further away she’s gotten from the tribe, she’s falling in love with gentle, beautiful things. 

Liam also points out it easy (real, but simplistic) to make an entire character centered around a single personality trait: “I’m angry all the time. I’m sad all the time.” He thinks it’s more realistic to see nuance in personality.

Liam can see some paths for Caleb to find peace & do good. He doesn’t know if Caleb is conscious of those. He thinks it’s a huge step forward to admit he was molded in this direction at all and that it wasn’t all his choice, but doesn’t know if this is the same possibility as redemption.

He also mentions Essek in this answer: there was/is attraction there, both intellectual and physical--the forehead kiss was a big marker of that--and he’s interested in seeing where that goes because he’s invested in Essek’s redemption arc on its own, but Essek is not as high on the list as other things Caleb/the M9 need to work on. He loved the “high spy times” of the Essek arc and the tangled-up-ness of feelings getting involved at the same time as intense commitment to duty.

Liam always felt Matt would bring Molly back in some aspect, even though Caleb always demurred because he doesn’t believe in fate. Dani and Brian agree that this is the start of a new act.

Ashley cried at the Vilya reunion. She thought that was an incredible moment and was so glad to see Keyleth. Liam: “Keyleth as part of our story is everything to me. That story is really important to me, so getting just a glimpse of her again was so important to me.” They could all see how that affected Marisha & how special it was to her. Liam: “It was such a great note in her song or color in her painting. She achieved magnificent things and was powerful and great, but had a very heartbreaking and sad ending, so to have this sliver of joy go back in is so complex and beautiful and masterfully done.”

Aaaaaaand that’s all for tonight! Remember, no Critical Role this week. Talks will be back in two weeks. As always, don’t forget to love each other. <3

[kanmom51]

Okay, so I am gonna rant and I want you to add your two cents, if you don't mind. Correct me if I am wrong in any way.

Recently, I saw something on the flaming pile of shit that is Twitter and it made me think for a bit. It was about skinship in Kpop, in general. And how BTS aren't really that big in it. And because that is what fans use to determine how close members are that is why JK and JM are considered to not be close or that JK is uncomfortable with JM. Because they use skinship to determine how close the members are. Nothing else. And because other companies are big in showing off skinship/fanservice of their members, that KM aren't that special because they don't show a lot of skinship. Apparently, closeness is determined by skinship. And skinship does matter because the fans use it to determine who is closest. Sorry, hope that summary made sense. Now begins the rant.

I just really can't anymore. People blow my mind. If ALL you can see of KM is their apparent lack of skinship compared to other groups and the other ships in BTS, then why are you here? You say skinship matters, then why and how does it matter when all the boys do it? We say skinship doesn't matter for that EXACT reason. Yes, it may matter to the other companies because it sells, but I don't think BH as a company focuses on that skinship/fanservice to provide a lot of profit. It's a nice side thing to see when watching the boys accomplish their dreams. And these boys have a LOT more freedom when doing things at BH compared to these other groups. Their companies profit off of/depend on the skinship moments between their members. Do we need skinship to determine how close the boys all are and how KM have grown closer over time? HELL NO!

I didn't say it before, but the Twitter post went further to state that ARMYs think that another ship is closer because the amount of skinship moments. Great for them! But did they ever think to wonder how suspicious it is that JK is ever so cautious when interacting with JM? He does not EVER do that with the other members, in my opinion. He looks like he is controlling what he is doing and for what reason?! Furthermore, when we do take a skinship moment into consideration, we take context, tension, and consistency into consideration, as well. Not everything means something, but I can list one that stood out to me. Rosebowl. I have never seen JK suck another members ear into his mouth to do whatever he wanted to do to JM. I don't think we will ever see him do it with another member in that context with that tension. If that doesn't scream closeness, then I don't know what does. I wouldn't put another member's sweaty ear in my mouth, especially if I was a very clean person. Unless, I was extremely close to them and I needed to prove/do something.

So, yeah, we don't use skinship that much or consider it a big deal because other people use it to determine closeness.

However, what we do use is other moments that are not related in any way to skinship.

How about spending so much time together that staff rarely saw them apart when passing by? Oh, I guess that doesn't shout closeness to you. It depends on skinship, doesn't it?

How about taking time to fly from Paris to Korea to spend a birthday and give gifts to someone? Taking time to get a cake and making a video telling them they would get drinks later, just to show up? Only one other member showed up and the other members were doing other things. Oh, but I guess that doesn't count again. Darn it!

Oh! How about being together at 4 AM on another birthday? And how big of a deal it was to them to share it with us? When it literally was not needed information at the time? JK grinning at JM when he finally spilled the beans was very sweet. But, oh gosh darn it! That won't work either, will it?

Ah! What about how consistent JK is with dropping honorifics with JM and speaking informally with JM (I can't really remember, but I think it is a mix between informal and formal speech? Correct me if I am wrong.)? He did a lot of this before he did it with the others. Of course, since they are all close, he does it now. But I do remember him saying that he wasn't comfortable with doing that before somewhere? So, why did he feel and why does he feel comfortable enough to do it with JM? And why did and why does JM let him get away with it? But I guess that was another flop since skinship was not a part of it. Sigh.

How about the GCFs? Tokyo was basically a love letter if you were willing to listen. JM seems to be his main muse if you look at all of them. But, ah! I guess everyone goes on trips with one person they aren't that close with or uncomfortable with. So, that's another bust, huh!

How about having inside jokes that the other members aren't privy to? The volleyball RUN episode and that recent behind the scene where KM were signing a song some online gamer sung (I think it was PUBG, but I don't know. I do know the person was streaming during it though.). That shows that they have there own jokes and that should show some closeness, right? Still, it doesn't have skinship, so I guess that is another one down the drain.

Ooo! How about JK's tattoo? This one is kinda obvious if you are just looking at it from an unbiased point of view! That one does it right? Ah, but I am wrong again, aren't I?

I could go on and on about the things that KM have done and will do that aren't related at all to skinship. Skinship doesn't show closeness. Never will. So, why shouldn't we make these moments bigger in our community and not consider a lot of skinship moments or the apparent lack of them? Why should we take into consideration that others think that another duo is closer due to skinship and that skinship matters more than anything? Why do these moments never get taken into consideration?

Maybe they are blind or just plain willfully ignorant of BTS, KM, and the relationships in it (and to be frank. I really don't take other kpop groups into consideration. I feel as if BTS are another level in how they show themselves, how they interact, and how much freedom they have. No other group I have seen has that much freedom. Tell me if I am wrong please.) I am not and never will be. I will not let others try to stomp on my opinions and these moments because they feel as if it doesn't show closeness due to their apparent lack of skinship. Sure. See it that way. I don't.

Rant over.

Have a nice day everyone and I feel loads better with that off my chest! Additionally, I apologize if everything is all over the place. I am so tired that I am tasting colors and this made me frustrated.

Quite an angry frustrated rant anon. Lol.

Love your nickname for Twitter. Lmao.

What utter bullshit. Unbelievable bullshit.

I agree with almost everything you write.

Skinship not big in BTS? Are they f**king blind?

I think they are a bit muddled up between skinship and fanservice. Two totally different though intertwined subjects.

Here is where I don't agree with something you said anon, because Skinship is about showing affection. BTS practice skinship showing their affection to each other. With Jikook, being as close as they are (time spent together, them literally telling us in not so many words what they mean to each other) the sus part is how careful they are when it comes to skinship. I, like you, feel it's more about JK's fear to lose control of the situation. Skinship when there is friendship and affection is not the same when there is sexual tension in the mix (re BV4 and JK's need to cover up after just a little of footsies with JM). Not every touch causes a reaction. But when you are in love with someone, when you are attracted to someone, their touch can reek havoc.

That was skinship - an acceptable way to show affection within SK culture.

Fanservice is about selling a product to the fans.

Is skinship utilized by other companies to sell their products? Oh yes it is. Does BH utilize skinship to sell BTS? Not as such, in my opinion. It’s not that BH hasn’t used fanservice over the years (JM or JK lifting their shirts during songs, kissing games �� in the past) but they never had the members touch each other or pretend to show affection towards each other to sell the band. When members do skinship, it’s them doing their own thing, them showing affection and closeness with each other.

BTS are the epitome of skinship. They take it even farther than other k-pop bands. What BTS are not big at is fanservice. Yes, they do it at times, but it’s not on the level we see in other K-pop bands. Just lately I have started to see a bit of other K-pop bands, the things they go through on stage or in gameshows, the things they do as fanservice. BTS are not there at all.

Yes, they do engage in fanservice, but it’s usually them at a heightened state of excitement doing their thing but knowing just how much the fans love it. Jikook interactions on stage, Taejin interactions, at times could be considered fanservice although it’s not fake interaction. It’s them enjoying themselves and each other in front of their fans.

As for your description what makes Jikook, you are 100% right anon. Take the skinship out of the equation all together. We don't need skinship to see just how close Jikook are.

[therenlover]

Gimme Swayze (Part 4.5 of Till Forever Falls Apart, A Peter Maximoff/Reader Series)

Synopsis: Now that the issue of Y/N leaving is out of the way, and Peter has finally kissed her, he falls into the motions of learning how to love someone for the first time. It’s easier than he thought it would be.

Tags: Fluff, Dancing, Gratuitous Dirty Dancing References, Love Confessions, Insecure!Reader, Minor Hurt/Comfort

Rating: T

Warnings: Mild Language

Word Count: 2600~

This has been cross posted as the first chapter of the fic Cry To Me on my Ao3!

--------

“Dance with me, Peter?”

Y/N stood in the middle of the floor holding her hand out to him, hair mussed and wild with cheeks still streaked from tears shed earlier in the night. There, in the lamplight, she looked ethereal. Peter could imagine her as she was then in some grand Viennese ballroom. Every man, woman, and child would want to be seen on her arm, fully disregarding her casual clothes and the unhinged fire in her eyes, but she was choosing him. Something in his heart told him she always would.

With a smile and a groan, he pushed up off the creaky old plush couch and stretched his arms. “Are you gonna put on some music or are we gonna have to make our own?”

Peter didn’t miss the way Y/N’s breath hitched as she rushed over to the record player near the window. Her fingers skimmed over the knee-high stack of records at the base of the machine, searching through for something specific. After a moment she let out a small victorious noise. She pulled out the item she was looking for, a plastic-wrapped vinyl sheath, before holding it out towards Peter with a grin. Outside, the rain had slowed to a gentle pitter-patter on the concrete.

The paper cover was plain white, but it had a large title scrawled across the front in black magic marker: Y/N’s Ultimate Romance Mixtape.

“You put a mixtape… on a record? How much did this thing cost you?” Peter asked, walking to Y/N’s side to give the vinyl a closer look.

“Not just any mixtape,” she groaned, motioning for him to flip it over, “Our mixtape!” There on the back of the record, just as she promised, was a tracklist. Upon first viewing, by any average person, it would look pretty normal. To Peter, though, it was like looking down at a list of the top hits of his life. Time In A Bottle, Strange Magic, Born to Run, Sweet Dreams ...

“How did you-”

“I just started finding the songs I saw you listening to more than once, one day,” Y/N replied. She was staring at the floor again, wringing her hands. Was she… embarrassed? “I know it’s kinda weird and creepy… okay, it’s really weird and creepy, but I didn’t have anything else to do. It was just me in the Paris apartment back then and I still technically wasn’t a real person in the eyes of the government so I couldn’t work. What I’m trying to say is it was a nice way to pass the time, waiting for the newest song on the list to release, sitting patiently in the record shops hoping to hear a snippet of a melody I heard you humming along to in a vision...”

As she spoke, Y/N’s eyes seemed to glaze over. By the time her stream of consciousness had turned into less of a pour and more of a drip she looked halfway caught between the world and a dream. Peter could only imagine that when you’d lived as long as she had sometimes the past could seem like a dream. He’d been around for about 31 years, 67 if you included the years he lost between dimensions, and even he found himself looking back on parts of his childhood as if they were someone else’s. What would it be like in 10 more years? 20? 30? 100 didn’t even seem plausible.

Peter was only snapped from his internal monologue when Y/N snatched the record out of his hands and held it to her chest protectively. Her dreamy look was gone, replaced with one much more defensive.

“What?”

“If you’re just gonna gawk at it, I’m not gonna show you,” she said, carefully setting the record down on top of the closed player before turning her attention back to Peter, “I know it’s a little odd-”

“It’s cute!” Peter was quick to respond. He held up his hands, giving a small gesture of goodwill, before moving in to wrap her in his arms. She accepted, however stiffly. “Really, babe, it’s cute! I promise,”

With what seemed like a great amount of effort, Y/N relaxed into his touch. “Sorry, sorry, I’m just a little nervous… I’ve never done this before,”

“Oh, come on,” Peter’s mouth was almost against her skin now. His hot breath tickled the sensitive curve of her ear as he rocked their bodies back and forth on the balls of his feet, half calming and half comedic. “You don’t have to be nervous, Y/N. It’s just me,”

“That’s the problem!” Y/N was floundering in earnest now, her little heart pounding hard enough that Peter could feel it against his own chest. “With other guys it was easy! I knew they weren’t the end goal, and I knew… well, I thought they’d die long before you ever came into the picture, but now you’re here, and you’re you, and I’m so fucking terrified of messing everything up,”

Peter moved his hands to loosely grip her arms, rubbing calming circles into her flesh. “Babe, newsflash, I really like you. Like, stupidly like you. Head-over-heels type shit,” he paused to laugh, “and hey, I’m not the one who sees the future or anything, but I don’t see this going bad anytime soon. So take a deep breath, put on our mixtape, and just… let go,”

Y/N let her eyes find Peter’s, peering up through heavy lashes. “What if I fall?”

He kissed her softly on the forehead before he answered, “Baby, I have super speed. You can’t fall faster than I can catch you,”

The softest of smiles graced Y/N’s face before she pulled away, turning back to the record player and grabbing the record off the top as she opened it. She paused for a second, pensive, and Peter thought he might have to bolster her again before she turned back to him.

“Side A or Side B?”

Peter shrugged. “Whatever side you like the most,”

“Side B it is…” she smirked as she set the record on the table and got it spinning, dropping the needle gently onto the edge of the vinyl with a practiced hand, “That’s my side,” Under the sounds of the gentle rain and the city, the opening notes to a song halfway familiar began to ring out through the old bones of the apartment. The ancient wood seemed to creak its own melody under Y/N’s feet while she started to sway. Peter tried to follow along as best he could.

“I hope you know I can’t dance,” He mumbled, swinging his hips to and fro as Y/N giggled at him.

“Oh, I know,”

“Then why did you ask me to?”

“Just because you’re bad at dancing doesn’t mean I don’t wanna dance with you,”

“That’s so cheeeeesy, Y/N!”

She threw her head back as she shimmed into Peter’s arms across the floor. “And you love it,”

When she was finally in his arms again, they swayed loosely to the tune. There was no real rhythm to it, all clumsy feet and breathless laughter as they bumped their way through Y/N’s greatest hits, but it came from the heart. There were no doomsday clocks ticking in the background, no expectations of what to was to come. It was just the music around them and the rain in the street and the jerky unnatural movements of Peter Maximoff doing his best to internalize the beat as The Mamas and the Papas slowly drifted into Solomon Burke. Y/N hummed thoughtfully, pulling away from Peter’s arms as it began, bringing her arms up above her head as she shook her hips. Peter just groaned.

“You actually put the song from Dirty Dancing on the mixtape?”

Y/N didn’t respond, instead bopping her head along with the beat.

“I can’t believe it. You’re not even gonna answer me,”

She gave a wink and continued on.

“Really? The silent treatment?”

“I’m not saying another word until you embrace the Swayze, Peter,”

He pinched the bridge of his nose, took a deep inhale, and then stared daggers into Y/N’s eyes as he shrugged his shoulders. “You want Swayze, baby? You really want Swayze?”

“Oh, I wanna see some Swayze, Peter,”

“How’s this for Swayze?”

With a burst of superhuman speed, Peter raced across the floor, snatched Y/N up by her midriff, and lifted her above his head, delighting in her giggles and shrieks while he spun her. He may not have been the best dancer or the best mover, but Peter was good at a few things; things like utilizing his surprising strength and speed.

He kept Y/N aloft for a moment before gently returning her to the floor. There she stood, slightly dazed, as she got her bearings back, gripping the sleeve of Peter’s t-shirt for balance. To put it simply she was a giggling mess.

Peter loved watching her like this, carefree and loose, unbound from the tethers of trauma and time for a few brief moments. It made his heart soar higher to know that he made her like this. He was the one who threatened to toss her in with the seals at Central Park, which made her laugh so hard she almost yakked up her hotdog. It was him who sat with her on the couch throwing popcorn at the fuzzy TV screen whenever she suddenly froze up at the sound of a scream, distracting her enough that she could enjoy the movie till the end. His hands were the ones she grabbed whenever she saw a cute dog on the street and wanted to get close fast enough to pet it. He was a part of her joy, a minuscule blip on her radar making waves in her life for the better. Peter didn’t know if there was anything else he wanted to be in life that could mean more than that.

When Y/N finally got her giggles under control, she looked up at him with wet eyes and whispered. “That was pretty Swayze, babe,”

The second it left her lips she was in stitches again, her knees buckling as she collapsed to the floor, whole body wracked with her laughter. Peter joined her this time, settling himself down by her side and allowing the hysteria to wash over him like a pleasant wave. Once all was said and done, he and Y/N laid shoulder to shoulder on the antique sitting-room rug, staring up at the ceiling with wide eyes and soft smiles. The record, all spun out, sat forgotten on the turntable.

“I know I’ve told you this already,” Y/N said, eyes glued to the rotating fan above her, “but I love you, Peter. I love you and I love who I am when I’m with you. You don’t have to say it back, I mean, I know this has all been ridiculously fast, but… I dunno. Even without the whole fated to cross paths thing, I think I’d love you now anyways, you know?” She bit her bottom lip, groaning, “Sorry, sorry, I know things are moving way too quick-”

Peter shushed her gently, rolling onto his side to look her in the eye. “Babe, you’re talking to the fastest man alive. Quick is literally in my name. Don’t worry about it,”

“Yeah. I guess it is, huh?”

“And for the record,” he took a deep breath, steeling himself, “I love you too, Y/N. I have for a while now. It has to have been since… well all the way back when Dr. Strange had me tied up at your work. I was so sure that I had screwed everything up with you, that you were gonna let him drag me to superhero prison and wash your hands of me, but you didn’t. You came in there guns blazing, even when you knew I had fucked up big time and accidentally tried to steal some real spooky shit, and from that second on I never once felt like you would ever be willing to get rid of me just because I’m annoying,”

She nudged him with her shoulder. Not hard, just enough to jostle him. “You’re not annoying,”

“Have you met me? Annoying is literally my middle name,”

“No,” Y/N’s voice got soft, “No, your middle name is Django. Your favorite color is blue, but specifically bright teal-ish blue like the blue moon ice cream your mom used to buy you on vacation back when you were a little kid. You can’t dance but you have surprisingly good rhythm, and even if you’re not proud of your voice you should be because if you weren’t the world’s fastest man you could be touring as a singer with your guitar. You always sleep on the right side of the bed, your favorite season is the weird limbo between summer and fall, you can’t stand the James Bond movies, and if anybody asked you’d say your favorite food is Twinkies but it’s not. Your favorite food is pierogies, specifically the cheese and potato kind from Nana Dudek’s in Polish town because they remind you of your Nana the few times you remember going to see her. All of that is true, and so is the fact that you love me,”

She went quiet, eyes watching the blades of the ceiling fan in their lazy rotations. Slowly, she reached out her hand, interlocking her pinkie with Peter’s own without even having to look down and find it.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to that,” Peter whispered.

Y/N let a huff of air out of her nose, a silent laugh at a joke only she knew.

“You’re not supposed to say anything. I just wanted you to know,”

“Know what?”

“Know that even if you can never build up the courage to tell me you love me again, I’ll be just fine, because I know, and you know, and that’s all that matters,”

Something in Peter’s heart, however small, shattered at just how vulnerable Y/N sounded.

Both of them were jaded in their own ways. They had seen bloodshed and torment and the roots of human suffering. It wasn’t always as simple as saying ‘I love you’. Sometimes the world left you a broken pulp with little faith and saying three little magic words just wasn’t possible. There’s no place for love in the heart of a person at war, nor is there any guarantee that they’ll ever be able to express that forbidden weakness again. It’s a commodity, like hope, that came in rare supply to people like Peter and Y/N. That being said, in the safety and warmth of the sitting room with the cozy couch and the antique rug and the ceiling fan and the record player, neither of them were at war, and Peter would be a damn fool if he didn’t take advantage of that.

He rolled onto his side once again, waiting there in silence until Y/N rolled onto her side to greet him, and then, with all of the feelings he had hidden in his heart since the moment he ran at top speed for the first time he kissed her.

Without hesitation, she kissed him back.

-------

a/n: Sorry this took so long to get out! It’s short, but I wanted it to be long enough to be it’s own mini chapter, so our minor friends can enjoy the sweetness without having to lose any of the story in the spicy bit. That being said, the spicy bit comes next lol. My shift bar is being fussy, and I need to sleep, so I’m signing off for the night, but thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, let me know!

Please do not post my work to any other sites, thank you ! <3

[kedilerkabilesi]

Ways to Select the Best Product Concept to Offer Market

There are numerous steps needed to bring an item to market, yet ultimately, everything begins with the item suggestion itself. If you have the incorrect product concept, after that all the other steps, despite how well you execute them, will not matter.

I always claim execution is where the real value is, yet it still needs to begin with the product concept. You should pick the greatest item concept to offer the marketplace.

1: Economical to Develop and also Prototype

The top attribute of a winning product is it needs to be inexpensive to create as well as model. Product development is so much more complex than a lot of laypeople can picture.

It's essential that you, specifically for your first product, try to make the product as basic as feasible. That way your advancement expense will be decreased and also your time to market will certainly be much less.

You must obtain your product to market as quickly as feasible so you can start collecting market responses. You can utilize that feedback to potentially customize the product to satisfy what the actual market demand is.

I constantly urge the concept of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Allow's say your item's core functionality is Bluetooth sound, however, you are likewise thinking about potential secondary features such as activity discovery or GPS monitoring.

In such a case it is usually best to focus on only the core, see also how to promote my invention. important functions for your first item version. As soon as you have genuine market data and sales after that you can take into consideration adding any type of possible second features.

However, you still should study and evaluate every one of the potential features so you can pick the most effective functions to consist of in the future as soon as you have the marketplace information to back them up.

For instance, if a particular function enhances your production expense by 10% but also allows you to increase your list prices by the same quantity, then that may be a smart option.

Or maybe, the additional function will instead offer to raise sales of your product, hence compensating for the 10% boost in cost.

2: Budget-friendly to Scale to Mass Production

You desire an item that's not only budget-friendly to create but is likewise inexpensive to scale from the prototype stage to mass production. These 2 requirements can be completely different for many items.

It's possible to have an item that is easy to establish, but complicated to range to manufacturing. One significant difficulty of scaling an item to mass manufacturing is the cost of shot molds required for any custom-made plastic parts.

Each personalized item of plastic will certainly require its shot mold. For truly high quantity production, these molds are extremely expensive. A minimal expense for mold and mildew will be about $1,500 for an easy, low-volume mold. A lot more complicated molds for high-volume manufacturing can cost 10s of countless bucks each.

Although establishing a product that requires a bunch of customized shaped plastic items may be economical making use of 3D printing, it will become considerably extra pricey to scale when injection molding comes to be called for.

3: Prospective for a High-Profit Margin

I understand creating and marketing a brand-new item can be significantly amazing and also enjoyable. Eventually, the goal is to make cash?

This implies you need to focus on an item with a high-profit margin. You ideally desire the suggested retail price for your product to be around 4x what it sets you back to make.

You can push that to 3x the manufacturing price, especially if you're offering straight to customers and also not experiencing distributors or retail chains. Yet I would not go any type of reduced. For one point, it comes to be remarkably challenging to expand a business with low-profit margins.

That being claimed, you can not anticipate making a high revenue when initially beginning. You'll be fortunate if you can simply break-even on your initial tiny production run. Often you will certainly need to sell your first several hundred systems muddle-headed.

As your manufacturing quantities boost so will your earnings margin. As soon as you get to quantities of 10k-100k items for many customer items that are when you should anticipate making a substantial profit.

Earnings need to never be your prompt objective, and that will come later as you scale to greater volumes. At the onset, focus your efforts on reducing your growth expenses, not on making the most of profit.

You do require to have exact estimates on what your production price and earnings margins will be once you get to those higher volumes.

You may break even on quantities under 1k, make a small revenue on volumes in between 1k and also 10k, then make a revenue margin of 33% for 10k items, as well as finally reach 50% at quantities of 100k devices. You just need to understand upfront that as soon as you get to high adequate manufacturing degrees, significant revenue is feasible.

If you determine in your evaluation that 25% of earnings are all that can be made, even at high manufacturing volumes, then you likely may wish to think about various products or consider if you can boost your sales price.

Keep in mind that capitalists enjoy high-profit margins (obviously, right!) so having a higher possible earnings margin will make it easier to find them.

4: Existing Competition

You want to pick a product suggestion that has some competition. Wait a min, isn't competition a negative point? Should not I concentrate on establishing a product that is completely unlike anything else in the marketplace?

The answer to both of those inquiries is no!

Bringing a distinct item to the marketplace can be challenging. Not only do you have to convince people that this problem even exists which they need to be fixed, but you likewise have to persuade them that your product is the most effective remedy to the problem.

Additionally, with completely new items, you don't also understand for sure that there is a market for the item. Nevertheless, having a competing product that currently markets well gives some proof that there is a market for your product. You can consider a completing item as in advance proof that a market already exists for your product.

That being stated, you do not want excessive competition, which is what I'll go over next.

5: No Dominating Competitors

Although some competitors is a good thing, too much is a bad point. If you assume you're going to compete with the likes of Amazon or Apple, you're just going to get consumed for breakfast. That's not something you intend to ever before attempt to go after.

As an example, I would not suggest that you attempt to come up with a product that directly takes on an Amazon Echo. Of all, you will never be able to compete with Amazon's rate because they have substantial economies of range.

You can never contend with them from a branding or advertising perspective. Dominant firms like Amazon.com, Apple, as well as Microsoft have online reputations for essentially ruining their competitors.

As an additional instance, I would certainly never advise that anybody develop a new mobile phone.

To start with, a smartphone is unbelievably complicated and also pricey to establish (Apple spent millions establishing the first iPhone).

There are so many competitors already that it would certainly be impossible for a brand-new startup company to ever stand out in such a jam-packed market.

6: Convenient Market

You wish to pick a product that has an easily-reachable market.

Possibly you might be believing, "Everybody on the planet can utilize my item. It does not matter their age, area, gender, line of work, or income, they all will desire it!".

Perhaps you are believing "so 1% of individuals purchase my product that will suggest 100 million units as well as $10 billion in earnings". By the way, such a statement is a significant red flag for capitalists, causing them to flee as rapidly as possible. Please don't ever claim something like this.

I understand it seems wonderful, as well as you're likely seeing dollar signs in the billions! Yet the fact is a market that includes everybody will certainly be difficult to reach.

It will constantly be much easier to sell your product to 10% of the people in a group of 100,000, than 1% of a team of 1,000,000 people.

You are much better off focusing on a niche product, or at least somewhat of a particular niche item, that has a market that you can get to. This is the factor for the expression "the treasures remain in the specific niches".

Many of you understand that I developed and also brought to market my hardware product. What you do not understand is before that, one of my very first business ideas included marketing tourist-related things in Australia.

I had eventually developed the idea that precedes there is no up or down, so there is no defined top or bottom to the Earth. The reality that Europe, as well as The United States And Canada, get on the top of globes was plain since Europeans developed the majority of the early maps as well as globes.

There is no reason why a globe can't be inverted with locations like Australia, Antarctica, as well as South America on top of the world. My idea was to offer upside-down worlds and maps (as well as tees as well as such with upside-down maps) in nations situated south of the equator.

I'm not Australian nor have I ever before checked out Australia. I was pursuing this completely from the other side of the world in the U.S.

I had some initial good luck with it. I had called a lot of individuals in Australia, vacationer stores loved my suggestion, and also they wanted to bring my items in their shops. However ultimately, that company suggestion wound up stopping working. You can also check how to get my invention off the ground

The main factor it failed was I was trying to get to a market that was actually on the other side of the world from me. It was a market that I did not comprehend.

7: Recurring Income

Lots of may state the Holy Grail of earning money is it to develop repeating revenue streams. Recurring profits simply implies that your clients pay you a fee automatically every month. Most of the on-line software program solutions you use are spent on a regular monthly persisting basis.

If someone acquires your hardware item, can you include a monthly charge to utilize an internet solution or an app that connects to your product?

Discovering a way for your organization or product to have reoccurring profits will certainly be a substantial boost for your business, especially if you ever wish to look for outside specialist investments.

A lot of investment companies such as this element since it makes earnings much more predictable and enables a firm to expand much faster. Bolt.io is an angel investment group that concentrates on equipment products. They particularly favor equipment products with a recurring income model.

Repeating revenue is such a coveted method of making money because it's foreseeable. People can cancel their subscription or subscription, yet as a whole, you will certainly have a team of customers that just keep paying, allowing you to know just how much you're going to be bringing in each month.

8: Upfront Marketing Research

You always need to perform significantly ahead of time marketing research before you fully seek a new item idea. This research study is going to help you identify if you're focusing on the most effective product idea.

Let's claim you conduct some early marketing research using surveys, as well as your study feedbacks return as, "I hate this item," or, "I would certainly never buy it," or, "I would certainly pay $5 for it, but you're asking me for $100?".

Those results are informing you that this item is not something worth going after.

It's hardly ever that easy. It might be simple to quickly confirm a suggestion misbehaves, yet not so easy to confirm that it is a good suggestion.

This is particularly true with physical products where you are restricted in just how much ahead of time research you can do because you don't have a product yet to offer or reveal.

Your early market study surveys might reveal that individuals like the item concept, they claim they need it, and they also say they will certainly acquire it when it ends up being readily available.

Nevertheless, if the item does become available these same people might never, in fact, acquire it.

This is because it's one point to state you like an item and would buy it, but it's rather another point to place your hard-earned money down to purchase it. A person who states "I love the product, I would purchase one," could stroll by it a hundred times in a store as well as never acquire one.

Simply recognize the constraints of any market information that doesn't consist of cash changing hands. What people tell you they will certainly do is a lot various than what they actually will do, specifically when it concerns spending money.

You must still make it a concern to collect as much of this very early feedback as possible.

Market research is just one of the essential benefits of having an on the internet target market. If you do not have a target market already, then begin developing one right away.

After gathering feedback from your audience, you can move on to the best marketing research, which is to begin pre-selling your product. This is what happens with crowdfunding campaigns.

For crowdfunding, lots of people focus on the money they will certainly get, yet the most useful part is the marketplace comments and also evidence you will certainly get since individuals are choosing your product with their money.

9: You Currently Know the marketplace

Concentrate on an item for a market that you already understand. This is preferably a market that you have previous experience in. This can be prior experience marketing to this market, or just on your own belonging to this market.

If you're a carpenter, for instance, focus on items that woodworkers use or that are used in home building and construction.

You do not need to constantly restrict yourself to your prior experience, yet the markets that you have operated in, ideally over several years, are going to be the ones that you recognize the most effective.

You're already able to comprehend what the marketplace desires, versus trying to pursue an unknown market, as I did with Australia.

10: Fixes a Known Issue

Your item needs to resolve an issue that individuals already understand they have. It's testing enough to inform individuals on why they require to acquire your remedy to a problem they have.

It's also tougher to inform them concerning a problem that they don't recognize they already have. It will make it significantly more difficult to sell your product if you have to do both.

Having to make the client aware that a problem also exists, suggests it's something they've never thought of, so it's not going to be a top priority for them.

That's tough to market. Rather, concentrate on items that address issues people already understand they have.

11: Distinguished Item

Your product requires to be dramatically varied from what's currently around, and you do not ever before wish to remain in a scenario where you need to contend on price. Contending on cost relates to low-profit margins, which as discussed already is never a good thing.

Rather, you require to contend on the item itself and also the value that it adds, and out the cost. Doing so will offer you a lot higher profit margins and also permit your company to expand much faster.

To do this your item needs to be distinguished somehow from any other options currently on the market. What makes your item much better than any kind of remedy presently on the market?

12: The Price Is

Make sure to pick an item that's in a good cost range. To start with, you don't want a product that has as well reduced a cost. That's because it will require a lot of volumes to make any kind of significant income.

This was among the major errors I made with the physical item I offered the marketplace. It only sold for between $5 and $10 meaning I had to offer a massive number to produce considerable earnings as well as revenue.

On the other extreme, if your item is too pricey, state $1,000, then that will certainly present a substantial obstacle to people buying, particularly if you're an unknown business.

It's much easier to get $5 or $10 out of an individual, and even $100 than it is $1,000. Particularly if they do not understand you or have experience with your items. That's mosting likely to be a substantial barrier to purchase.

Concentrate on products that aren't too low in cost, however also not too expensive. I 'd claim between $29 as well as a few hundred dollars would be the best cost variety. Follow inventhelp on Instagram for more advice https://www.instagram.com/inventhelp/?hl=en

Verdict

The genuine value may be in the implementation, yet it all starts with the concept. You require to make certain you are putting your time, cash, and also initiative right into an item that has the very best opportunities for success.

If your item concept isn't the very best idea to seek wouldn't you rather recognize it currently as opposed to later on? You need to constantly be able to pivot as fast as possible. The even more you know, and also the earlier you know it, always the far better!

[the-hotter-otter]

Strangers || ATEEZ Fanfic

Seonghwa X OC

Mafia/Crime AU

3.7k words

Part 3 || chapter list || previous chapter || next chapter

Hyejin can’t fully commit to Seonghwa’s tempting offer, meanwhile Hongjoong continues to keep secretes.

Warning: blood, minor death, injury, violence, knife use

Angst, fluff, smut, cussing, violence, death

note: ayo shit will start moving soon I promiseee, I seriously don’t know where this story is gonna go but fuck it we’ll see. 

No pov

Hongjoong wasn’t at all surprised when Seonghwa came into his office late at night. He could tell there was a lie in between the lines Seonghwa spoke when he confronted the two last week. Being best friends for years with a bit of blood, death and guns on the side really did bring people together. 

“What’s her name?” Hongjoong asked, he couldn’t stay mad at Seonghwa. Hongjoong knew punishment wasn’t necessary on the eldest who was already racking his brain on it, as a leader he could tell when further discipline was needed and when it was best to leave it to their own self conscience. “If she’s staying here, I should at least know.”

“Lee Hyejin,” Seonghwa said, cursing the weird feeling of familiarity he felt after saying her name. 

“Lee hyejin?” Hongjoong quirked an eyebrow, he’s definitely heard of the name from somewhere, he just couldn’t pinpoint where. “Sounds familiar.”

Seonghwa merely nodded, somewhat glad that Hongjoong didn’t directly question him. “I’ll take responsibility for her.”

Hongjoong liked the sound of that, though it didn't change the fact that he was overlooking one more person. “That means a lot of things hwa, keeping her in line, taking care of her, watching her and protecting her if shit goes down.”

“She isn’t 5.” Seonghwa sighed, “I’m not spoon feeding her.” 

“But she knows.” Hongjoong reminded him, “and she knows she has you wrapped around her finger, people take advantage of that.” 

“I can always shoot her.” Seonghwa said as if it were so simple.

Hongjoong looked him up and down, silently judging the older one. Hongjoong sighed, he wasn’t exactly up for this kind of conversation at 2:30am, “Dramatic much... Aish don't waste the bullets, the suppliers have been shitty to us lately.”

“What I’m saying is you won't have to worry,” Seonghwa said, “you’ll barely notice her.”

Hongjoong looked Seonghwa up and down, “you want her to stay that badly?” 

Seonghwa was taken back by the other’s awkward perspective, “yes? There really isn’t any ulterior motive.”

Hongjoong gave a dawdled nod as he chuckled, “I’m playing with you hwa. Bring her in, I’ll let the others know of our latest addition.”

Seonghwa was about to step out of the office when Hongjoong suddenly spoke up again, “don’t forget about that task I gave you.”

Seonghwa gave a sharp nod, “I'll see to it by the end of the day.”

“Dont fuck up!” Hongjoong noted loud enough for the other to hear, he could imagine the rise he got from it. Deep down he was just joking, after all, Seonghwa never fucks up. 

Hongjoong enjoyed the tease he gave his best friend, more often than not, the former was in tight situations with serious consequences, loosening up was often the last thing he’d find himself doing. 

His smile was short lived when he suddenly felt the vibrations of his phone, and it wasn’t from the bold red one that was sprawled on the desk with the many papers. His face dropped drastically upon realizing that someone was calling the phone hidden deep in his pockets. There was only one person who’d be ringing. 

Mazaki Meiyo.

“Yes?” Hongjoong cautiously spoke up, his eyes darting around the office. He got up and opened the door to check if anyone was giving his conversation a listen. 

“They moved the deal.”

Hongjoong pinched the bridge of his nose, “when?”

“In an hour. You know just as well as me that this isn’t going to end smoothly.”

“Your deals rarely end well.” Hongjoong scoffed bitterly, he pulled the phone away from his ear when the other line went dead. He had to go now if he were to make it in time, he couldn’t afford to be late, not for these kinds of deals. 

Hongjoong pushed off his seat and swiftly buckled his hidden artillery onto his thigh and around his torso, making sure that his best weaponry was in close reach, ready for whatever conflict he was about to get into. Pulling the hood over his masked face, he checked the location Meiyo had sent him. 

The leader eyed the pile of paperwork that was due in a matter of days, he dreaded the inevitable all-nighters we’ll have to pull because of it. 

As Hongjoong left the household in silence, he turned his main phone off completely and stowed it in a hidden compartment. No one was going to find him tonight.

-

Hyejin pov

I stared at the phone screen in dismay, the loan shark has been after my ass for the debt I’ve yet to pay. I've been trying, but even after much struggle I only possess half of what I owe. 

I hated to take that offer from Seonghwa, the money from that deal would have covered my debt and rent from my residence long enough for me to make something out of a scrubby part time job, he just had to ruin me once more.

Then again, what other choice do I have? I leaned back on the wall of the alleyway, I don’t know anyone in this world. I was forgotten years ago, Seonghwa is the last person I’d go with, but he’s also the only one. 

My eyes drifted to the tall buildings around, they blocked the sunlight from ever entering these shabby alleys with large bins and locked deserted gates and doors. I met with the gazes that had been watching me for a while now, in a building a few blocks away yet still in perfect view, two middle aged men who most likely reeked of cigarettes and alcohol admired me from their apartment which could easily come off as an abandoned building left to collect dust and grime.

I squinted my eyes as I felt my vision start to give into fatigue, unrealistic hues of blue and neons started bouncing around. Every now and then, the migraine in my head would dust my eyes with a cloud of grey that blurred my sight ever so slightly. I sighed as I began seeing four instead of two weird men. I tried to refrain from focusing on anything, the lack of good sleep and food had me feeling all sorts of murky effects. 

Their stalkerish behaviour had been creeping me out for the past few days, despite it, I never saw a proper reason to leave the little spot I've claimed for rest. Plus, the odd duo hadn’t made any advances that had worried me thus far. 

The day continued, and the city had been busy as usual. Bikes raced down the side of the roads and paths, scaring the uptight mothers into a slur of curses. Teenage girls carelessly skipped around in their tiny croptops, powdery make up and flaunty shoes with boys their parents have no idea existed. Cars drove with their temperamental owners honking and anything and everything, then there were the workers who were either strolling around after their shifts or sprinting in swerves around people in effort to not be late.

Yet here I was sitting in a slump not so far from the hoards of people, absorbing the natural noises of the city that started to sound more like blaring megaphones instead of white noise. 9pm had crept faster than I expected, truthfully I wasn’t sure whether or not to go through with Seonghwa’s offer. I still had a chance to reconsider, perhaps I could deal with the information for money? After all, a controversial topic surrounding Seonghwa would no doubt bring in a big sum. 

I shook my head from the ludicrous thoughts, there was no guarantee in shady business, ever. It's a far-fetched plan, and the fact that I didn't have a name to my face meant I was that less convincing. 

Though I knew this offer would mean gambling my safety and if I were to stretch the possibilities, my own life. I still wasn’t 100% on board with the whole moving in with Seonghwa and whatever team he’s apart off, neither could I fathom the thought of that sinful man working with people, and that’s without mentioning his sudden change in attitude towards his victims.

It was yet another reason why I’m so reluctant to associate with him, because this isn’t the Seonghwa I was familiar with, he was a stranger, and no one is at ease when they’re affiliated with someone they don't know, especially when that person had guns, knives and all sorts of deadly possessions in their grasp. 

I groaned as I got up with a hazy mind. I looked up and to my suprise the stretchy men were back to watch me, it started to feel uncomfortable now. “Nice knowing you too I guess…” I keep my voice to a murmur. Soon I found myself heading to the meeting spot. 

My heart feels enraged with regret, and it’s impossible to ignore. There was a mere few minutes till the clock struck 9, I can get out of here now or never. 

The Central Train Station was quite grand. With multiple steps just to get to the entrance, neatly trimmed gardens surrounding the place and ancient pillars that held up the building. It was one of the older buildings that turned into a modern utility. 

“Fuck...” I muttered under my breath, “no, fuck this.”

Before I could think I was already speed walking to get the hell out of here. I had pride, I could at least preserve that after losing everything else. 

-

No pov

Blood coated the blade and splattered across the floor and walls of the office, the books on the shelf were drenched and soaking up every bit of red fluid. If only the man had just followed through with the deal, he wouldn’t have ended up dead. 

“What a hassle.” Seonghwa sighed, as he wiped his blade clean on his way out, though it was satisfying seeing the horrors painted on his face as Seonghwa taunted him, revenge for the knife he flung at Hongjoong during their last deal not long ago. 

Seonghwa analysed the slash along his shoulder area, it wasn’t serious at all but it sure did look ugly and soaked his dress shirt in a dark red, in the midst of the tension it felt numb but as his heart rate came down he could slowly feel the stinging pain emitting from the open flesh. He let out a relieved sigh after knowing that none of his own blood had ended up dripping anywhere. 

If it weren’t for the man’s sleeping family in the other room, Seonghwa could have easily finished it off with a bullet but he had to move silently. In turn, it cost him when the man felt fit to fight back with his own blade.

Seonghwa felt Hyejin was partly accountable for his injury. 20 minutes was a bit of a rush for a mission like this, but he had no choice if he was going to make it to the station in time. There was a chance that Hyejin wouldn’t even show up, and that chance made seonghwa unsteady and tense. 

As he pulled up to a red light he felt a distant memory unfold, one that brought a sense of discomfort.

Laughter bubbled up in the front of the car, toothy smiles that twinkled despite the gloomy rain outside. The lull of the music had been turned down for a while now as the soft chatter continued. 

“Hyejin, I told you I don’t need anything for my birthday.” Seonghwa insisted once more with a light chuckle, his one hand on the wheel while the other tried to hold her hand back. He watched in helplessness as she clipped the dangling toothless charm around the rear mirror of the car, her little laugh escaping her lips as it dangled between them.

“It’s cute! I’m telling you, you look just like him.” Hyejin insisted, “and that’s not even the best part.”

Seonghwa couldn't help but smile when the toothless unclipped in half to reveal a small photo framed inside, the details were minuscule but clearly contained the two of them on one of their more memorable dates. 

“Ya, this looks expensive, how much did you spend on me.” Seonghwa diverted the conversation as he observed the matte black of the green eyed dragon. 

“It wasn’t much, don't worry hwa.” Hyejin patted his hand, “I’ve got something else, it's more personal since I made it myself.” 

“So you have something else now?” Seonghwa sighed, though his stupid grin betrayed the annoyed look he tried to show.

The red light cascaded from red to orange to green and before hyejin could whip out the other half of her gift seonghwa sped off, “fine! I’ll accept your gifts, love.”

Seonghwa sneered at the Toothless charm he had yet to take off, if anything it became part of his car’s identity, making it slightly easier to navigate the garage of small black cars, specially on the days when all the vehicles would be together. 

Seonghwa had pulled to a slow stop in front of the station, hiding the charm was his first and foremost priority, Hyejin would most definitely recognize it. 

As he was about to yank the chain off, the corner of his eyes caught a sudden shadow appearing at the window.

Completely forgetting about the charm, Seonghwa halted in his seat, his hand already clasped around the gun latched onto him. It wasn’t until a hesitant Hyejin peered through the window did he relax his grip. On the other hand, Hyejin was feeling anything but relaxed, especially after seeing the bloodbath of a man in the driver's seat.

“So you’ll take my offer?” Seonghwa asked as if it wasn't already obvious enough, Hyejin scoffed. Her response was seen through the way she snuggled down into the passenger seat in a strained sigh of relief after being situated on the hard concrete for days on days.

Throughout the ride Hyejin had kept a careful observation of the roads they had been speeding across, if worse came to worse, she could make a run for it. 

Hyejin silently and subtly glanced around, the car itself hadn’t changed at all, not even the peppermint scent it gave off from the gum Seonghwa had been loyal to for most of his life, though it was currently heavily overpowered by the stench of blood. Hyejin didn’t want to know how and what got him that gruesome injury.

However, the most prominent and unusual feature that had still existed in the car was the all too familiar charm that dangled and swung around underneath the rearview mirror. The dragon's bright green eyes and toothy smile didn't go unnoticed, especially since Hyejin was the one who got it for him years ago. 

Hyejin had the decency to stay silent about it, the stiffness of the air was already far too overbearing, there was no need to intensify it’s sour atmosphere.

“It’s not just me who lives here.” Seonghwa brings up, 

“I figured.” Hyejin sighed, she had heard the many rumours over the years of how a certain group had been overturning the criminal world with unrivaled skill and accomplishments, they became big in the industry. This group of young, skilled men made a name for themselves and it became one feared by many, ATEEZ. 

Though it wasn’t just their skill that had made them the talk of many circles, it was the people within the group, the majority of which already had a reputation high on their shoulders. Hyejin had heard of the promising sniper who had joined their ranks, the insanely witty dealer who knew how to smooth talk his way to riches, the stealthy man who snuck into and claimed dangerous possessions without a single sound. 

Then there was the hitman who possessed the skill of 100 men, he was a young and promising lone wolf who had been rumoured to have joined ATEEZ.

Hyejin didn’t want to believe it was Seonghwa, in fact she didn't want to hear about anything related to Seonghwa, but it wasn’t possible when she was involved with loan sharks and illegal exchanges for the money she was in dire need for. Of course, because of her interactions with others, Hyejin was aware of Seonghwa’s growing skill and relevant changes, it disgusted her to say the least, how much better he had gotten at taking lives.

However the failed deal from last week confirmed her denial to be wrong, Seonghwa was well and truly closely associated with a group, and that group was no doubt ATEEZ.

“Dont try anything stupid.” Seonghwa warned, Hyejin rolled her eyes slightly, “I’m serious, I see the way you're memorizing these roads.”

Hyejin froze momentarily, she eyed Seonghwa who had removed his eyes from the road after stopping at a red light. Hyejin had forgotten how sharp he actually was, the intellectual from highschool still existed within him.

Hyejin got the chance to really see how much Seonghwa had changed, even underneath all of that stained blood and light smears of dirt, she could easily tell that his facial features had sharpened immensely, he wasn’t the same soft faced charmer that made highschool hearts throbs on a daily. If anything, Seonghwa now resembled a high class heartbreaker with a body count worthy enough for a world record. 

Of course some things don't ever change, like his lush lip and stunning eyes that stared back at her. Before the awkwardness could settle, Hyejin looked away, subconsciously glancing at the toothless charm. Seonghwa noticed the glare she gave it, his hands went to take it off but was ultimately stopped by the swat Hyejin gave.

“What’s the point of taking it off now? You had years to do that.” Hyejin raised an eyebrow. 

Seonghwa did not respond and merely sighed as he began moving on the road once again. Hyejin was taken back when they suddenly verged off into a bush area, what was a simple scenery of grass turned into a splatter of greenery. Trees towered high, vines and dense bushes had taken over, it was an untouched forest and they were driving right through it.

Hyejins eyes squinted in growing concern, she wanted to believe they were just passing through to get to another town, but her panic only continued to rise as they got deeper into the maze of nature. Her eyes glare at Seonghwa who seemed to have already expected her to build up doubts.

“Jump out and you’ll be as good as dead.” Seonghwa warned, as he quickly glanced at her stray hand reluctantly reaching for the handle.

“Where are we going Seonghwa….” Hyejin glowered at the driver who was rather unfazed. Even when the subtle sound of a knife being drawn was heard, Seonghwa didn't look away from the road.

The driver pushed his head back against the seat as soon as he caught sight of the fast approaching knife. With the blade a finger's length away, Seonghwa sighed, “I’m not gonna hurt. We’re going to the house, so put the knife down and have a little faith.” 

“Who the hell lives in a goddam forest?!” Hyejin hissed in a raised voice, her eyes teared up from staring so intensely into his side profile. 

“Put the knife down or we’ll both die.” Seonghwa lowered his voice, and Hyejin did not comply. The male halted the car to connect his eyes to hers, in one swift and unnoticeable movement, he grasped her wrist tightly, causing the knife to be let loose and drop to the pit of the car. Hyejin suddenly let a sharp exhale out as Seonghwa pinned her hand down in between them. She cursed her hazy headaches for causing the drastic disadvantage against Seonghwa.

“Stop panicking, we’re almost there.” Seonghwa said as he began driving once again, Hyejin didn’t attempt to squirm out of his hold.

“Your a fucking joke,” Hyejin hissed, “I’ll never put faith in you, not after all the shit you’ve done to me.” 

Soenghwa pinched his lips together at the indirect upbringing of her family’s murder. He wasn’t about to smooth that mess out now, it’ll require a calmer Hyejin and a better situation to explain. 

Hyejin tried to compose herself, but she knew the only way to soothe her panic was to see proof of what Seonghwa was saying.

As they pulled into the driveway of Horizon, Hyejin's tense shoulders melted into the seat. Seonghwa scoffed as he got out of the car first. The jerking of his head signalled for her to get out, hyejin sneered at the man, “give me a damn second will you?”

Seonghwa rolled his eyes before heading inside momentarily, most likely to check if anyone was still up in the early stages of the night. Hyejin took the time alone to get a good grasp at what she had just gotten herself into.

A house, full of dangerous men, in the middle of a forest and a single long ass road back to civilization. 

This wasn’t ideal at all, and Hyejin started to regret this more than ever.

As she took in short breaths her eyes trailed back to the rear mirror charm. All of a sudden, curiosity had her fiddling with the Toothless till it unlatched. She furrowed her eyebrows at the sight of the blank frame. It wasn’t that she was disappointed, it was merely confusion.

“But you keep the charm…” Hyejin glared at the Toothless that was once a gift of love. In the back of her mind she wondered if her other gift was still intact.

Hyejin could worry about that later. Right now, she needed to stay sane and alive, she knew well enough that she would never be guaranteed a way out of death's grasps. Relish in the house and slowly pay off her existing debt? Yes. Get comfortable and trust that your back will be safe in a distant place full of criminals? Hell no.

[arterisplusprice]

Arteris Plus Reviews 100% Natural Safe and Effective A Scam?

Arteris Plus is another enhancement that intends to investigate the inward functions of hypertension. The enhancement offers clients a reestablished way to deal with circulatory strain issues and spotlights on the utilization of regular cures instead of compound choices. The item incorporates an assortment of natural concentrates, plants and minerals that are probably fit for settling a horde of circulatory strain issues that individuals face routinely.

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 Item Name - Arteris Plus

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 Ingredients - Passion blossom, Marshmallow Root powder, California Poppy Seeds, Prickly Pear, Corydalis

 Dosage 2 case day by day

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 Price - $49

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 Pulse issues aren't new or unforeseen. Many individuals across the world experience the ill effects of this issue and have been doing as such for quite a long time. The crucial issue lies in the way that most arrangements that individuals endeavor to use for this reason for existing are always really unable to manage the circumstance. All things considered, all that one can hope to do is to limit their manifestations and postpone the unavoidable. This is the reason the vast majority experiencing pulse issues are currently looking towards elective courses to beat their infirmity. Arteris Plus is one such regular enhancement that has figured out how to collect the consideration of a horde of individuals recently.

 How Does Arteris Plus Work?

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 It is regular. The enhancement has been produced using the ground up utilizing regular fixings that are developed from nearby ranchers. They permit their plants to arrive at a legitimate measure of development prior to gathering them and guarantee that no synthetics or other counterfeit composts have been utilized really taking shape. Moreover, they have kept away from utilizing pesticides and other synthetic treatment measures that can make hurt the plants and to their clients.

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 Arteris Plus Ingredients List:

 The significant fixings included the advancement of any recipe assume an essential part in choosing whether or not the item works. By and large, one may see things, for example, synthetic compounds or other counterfeit or manufactured fixings that cause long haul mischief to the individual giving them a shot. Along these lines, one requirements to ensure that the additional fixings are liberated from GMOs and allergens.

 The makers of this specific enhancement have been very vocal with regards to their use of normal and compelling fixings. They have even expressed that they have naturally sourced their ingredients in general and have developed them all themselves. All the more curiously, they guarantee that no fake manures or other synthetic based items were utilized in the making of the fixings, implying that clients are getting a flawless and normal item completely through. This permits one to remain lighthearted as they are getting something that is by all accounts of a high worth. The full rundown of fixings, as expressed by the designers of this enhancement on their authority site is:

 Enthusiasm Flower. This is a climbing plant that is found in the southern spaces of the United States and in different pieces of South America. The specific plant itself is known to have dozing properties and makes clients stay liberated from uneasiness and other such issues. Individuals who experience the ill effects of pressure and torment, just as ADHD use this a considerable amount to help them in defeating the manifestations associated with those infirmities. The blossom is additionally said to taste really decent as well.

 Marshmallow Root powder. This fixing is a plant that is generally local to parts of Europe and Asia. It is a stomach related cure that has been utilized in customary societies across many ages. A portion of the intense advantages that it has incorporate respiratory, stomach related and skin-related advancement. Besides, it is additionally said to have mending powers that regularly influence hacking and comparable side effects. It additionally functions as a strong pain-killer and is reasonable why it has been added into the arrangement of this specific enhancement.

 California Poppy Seeds. This is a fixing that is utilized most eminently by individuals who experience the ill effects of a sleeping disorder. It assists with managing nervousness, and throbs in individuals, while likewise assisting with treating discouragement. A few analysts guarantee that it can mend nerve torment and other vein related issues. With the significant objective of this enhancement being identified with pulse, its incorporation in the organization should not shock anybody. Besides, the enhancement ensures that the fixings are utilized in the right measurements to guarantee the most ideal outcomes.

 Thorny Pear. This is the following fixing and it is known for managing elevated cholesterol and diabetes. Clients additionally guarantee that it helps against heftiness and headaches. Thorny Pear has a heap of calming properties that makes it an incredible expansion for any individual who might have hypertension. Likewise, certain individuals might even allude to it as a superfood considering every one of the numerous things that it offers. From fiber to cancer prevention agents, Prickly Pear is one thing that ought to be on the eating routine of everybody.

 Corydalis. This is a particular spice that is known for its radiant yellow appearance. It ordinarily is utilized for an assortment of normal advantages that it gives to the client.

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 30 Day Supply (1 Bottle) for an aggregate of 69 USD.

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 John Mayers: Creator Of Arteris Plus

 Something else that permits Arteris Plus to stand beside its opposition is the individual behind the whole formula.As per their authority site, the item has been made by John Mayers, a 58 year old person in Philadelphia. John has had an individual involvement in pulse issues and acknowledges how huge of a danger these issues can become for an individual in the event that they don't show criticalness. At the point when his better half Jinny experienced circulatory strain issues, John attempted pretty much everything to guarantee that she had the option to get back to her optimal wellbeing. In any case, regardless of his endeavors, it didn't feel like their life was going towards improvement. It was not until he explored and investigated regular plants and customary concentrates that he had the option to as far as anyone knows change their situation.

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 Motivations to Consider Arteris Plus

 Has been made by an individual with a more profound information and comprehension of the infirmity than most ordinary individuals do. Having encountered the impacts of hypertension on an individual direct, John can handle the issue well, particularly considering his insight with respect to normal plants and spices. Hence, clients can stay sure that he can assemble an equation that will probably have beneficial outcomes and other normal advantages.

 The enhancement is an attempted and tried choice that has obviously gone to the guide of many individuals as of now. With tributes that feature the intensity of the general item, there is no rejecting that this normal enhancement merits a look.

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[mickibloo]

Human Rights and Veganism

I speak frequently about my passion for human rights and how this is often dismissed by nonvegans on the basis of me being vegan, and seeing how many other vegans have related to my struggles, I thought it would be useful to compile a list of the human rights issues animal agriculture is responsible for and/or perpetuates. This will not be a list that 100% encapsulates the extent to which human rights are violated by these industries, but I think it is still a really great introduction, if nothing else, to how ubiquitous the oppressive nature of animal agriculture is. This post will be mostly guided by links to sources and some key quotes and phrases from those sources. 

1. Slaughterhouse Workers

Slaughterhouse workers are one of, if not the most, abused, mistreated, and neglected groups of workers to exist within western countries. The traumatization they face as a result of their job is often ignored by almost everyone who is not vegan or who does not research the topic. 

“A Call to Action: Psychological Harm in Slaughterhouse Workers“

“These workers perform a job that, by its very nature, puts them at risk of psychological disorder and pathological sadism. This risk emerges from a combination of many factors of slaughterhouse work, one of which is the stressful environment that slaughtering creates. A large portion of this stress comes from the exceptionally high rates of injury among the workers.

“However, slaughterhouse work is unique among major industries due to its innate violence...one of the most prominent studies investigated the impact of having a slaughterhouse in a community on crime rates within that community, using this as a metric for psychological health... Though the industries they used for comparison were nearly identical in other predictors of changes in crime (namely worker demographics, potential to create social disorganization, and effect on unemployment in the surrounding areas), slaughterhouses outstripped all others in the effect they had on crime. They led not only to a larger increase in overall crime, but, disturbingly, disproportionate increases in violent crime and sexual crime.

“Creating and sustaining oneself with “good” moral character and having another self that can mechanically end lives for hours each day not only serves as another source of psychological stress for workers, but exposes workers to the risk that their pathologically un-empathetic work selves will slip into their community lives. This is another explanation for the “spillover” that affects slaughterhouse workers’ minds and communities.

“Living with the knowledge of their actions causes symptoms similar to those of individuals who are recipients of trauma: substance abuse, anxiety issues, depression, and dissociation from reality.

(Testimonies from slaughterhouse workers): “And then it gets to a point where you’re at a daydream stage. Where you can think about everything else and still do your job. You become emotionally dead.”

“So a lot of guys at Morrell [a major slaughterhouse] just drink and drug their problems away. Some of them end up abusing their spouses because they can’t get rid of the feelings. They leave work with this attitude and they go down to the bar to forget.”

Confessions of a slaughterhouse worker

There are things, though, that have the power to shatter the numbness. For me, it was the heads.

At the end of the slaughter line there was a huge skip, and it was filled with hundreds of cows' heads. Each one of them had been flayed, with all of the saleable flesh removed. But one thing was still attached - their eyeballs.

Whenever I walked past that skip, I couldn't help but feel like I had hundreds of pairs of eyes watching me. Some of them were accusing, knowing that I'd participated in their deaths. Others seemed to be pleading, as if there were some way I could go back in time and save them. It was disgusting, terrifying and heart-breaking, all at the same time. It made me feel guilty."

I know things like this bothered the other workers, too. I'll never forget the day, after I'd been at the abattoir for a few months, when one of the lads cut into a freshly killed cow to gut her - and out fell the foetus of a calf. She was pregnant. He immediately started shouting and throwing his arms about.

I took him into a meeting room to calm him down - and all he could say was, "It's just not right, it's not right," over and over again. These were hard men, and they rarely showed any emotion. But I could see tears prickling his eyes." I remember one day in particular, when I'd been there for about a year or so, when we had to slaughter five calves at the same time.

We tried to keep them within the rails of the pens, but they were so small and bony that they could easily skip out and trot around, slightly wobbly on their newly born legs. They sniffed us, like puppies, because they were young and curious. Some of the boys and I stroked them, and they suckled our fingers.

When the time came to kill them, it was tough, both emotionally and physically. Slaughterhouses are designed for slaughtering really large animals, so the stun boxes are normally just about the right size to hold a cow that weighs about a tonne. When we put the first calf in, it only came about a quarter of a way up the box, if that. We put all five calves in at once. Then we killed them.

America’s Slaughterhouses Aren’t Just Killing Animals

“I’ve seen bleeders, and they’re gushing because they got hit [by a knife] right in the vein, and I mean, they’re almost passing out,” she said, “and here comes the supply guy again, with the bleach, to clean the blood off the floor, but the chain never stops. It never stops.”

In Texas, where private employers are not required to carry workers’-compensation insurance, Tyson has opted out of the state system completely. When a worker gets injured at the Tyson beef slaughterhouse in Amarillo, Texas, in order to get medical care from the company, that person must first sign a document saying:

I hereby voluntarily release, waive, and forever give up all my rights, claims, and causes of action, whether now existing or arising in the future, that I may have against the company, Tyson Foods, Inc., and their parent, subsidiary and affiliated companies and all of their officers, directors, owners, employees, and agents that arise out of or are in any way related to injuries (including a subsequent or resulting death) sustained in the course of my employment with the company.

The pressure to sign was enormous. When a worker named Duane Mullin had both of his hands crushed in a hammer mill at the Amarillo slaughterhouse now owned by Tyson, a manager employed by its previous owner persuaded him to sign the waiver with a pen held in his teeth.

'We're modern slaves': How meat plant workers became the new frontline in Covid-19 war

The company is now measuring workers’ temperatures as they report for work, and began supplying surgical facemasks, but, according to Fields and workers interviewed by the Guardian, Tyson continues to suppress information on employees who have tested positive for Covid-19.”

One worker, a central American migrant who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her job, told the Guardian that the company was not enforcing social distancing. 'We are all given bathroom breaks at the same time and there are hundreds of us waiting to use them. There are only seven bathrooms,' she said. 'They [Tyson] don’t care about the worker. They don’t care if we get sick.' A spokesman for Tyson said the company was taking 'several measures' to allow social distancing but did not address the bathroom break allegations."

One African American worker at a Koch facility that had been targeted by Ice, spoke to the Guardian on condition of anonymity. He alleged that while Koch had recently begun taking workers’ temperatures before shifts, they had also withheld details of any workers who contracted the virus. 'They ain’t offering nobody no disability, no unemployment, no time off,' the worker said. 'I just keep my hands washed up, my face covered up, my whole body covered, and I pray to myself and hope I don’t catch it. The truth is there’s a chance that everybody in [here] will catch it.'

The sociologist Lourdes Gouveia has studied the meatpacking industry for three decades and said the Covid-19 outbreak is simply highlighting again the dangerous conditions in processing plants. Gouveia said the industry has perfected a formula which allows it to maximize profit while producing relatively safe meat by resisting regulations and utilizing low cost, mostly immigrant, labor in unsafe conditions. 'All of these elements are of a highly perfected formula or maximizing profits that is unlikely to change fundamentally,' Gouveia said."

2. Environmental Racism and Classism

Animal agriculture, and factory farms specifically, tend to locate their facilities near poor communities (often black or Hispanic) who do not have the financial means to take them to court over the ways in which these farms affect their health and wellbeing. 

How Swine in North Carolina Affects real People | René Miller Excerpt

“When you go back and you look at where these hog facilities are located, there’s a disproportionate number of them that are located near communities of color, low income communities. It is definitely a human rights issue.”

“Now see, if you lived here, and saw the way they do, you wouldn’t eat no pork. I don’t eat bacon, because I know where it comes from. When they die, they go into a box, and they decompose because they swell in the heat. A truck come and pick them up, take them to the processing plant in Roseo, ground them up into feed, and feed them back to the hogs.

“It hits you right in the face. Smell like something that you had never smell before. Smell worse than a dead body.”

“When we go to the funeral, he used the spray. If we wanna have a cookout on Sunday, he’ll spray. He always sprays Sunday.

“Do you think it’s also a civil rights issue?”

“Yes, I do.”

When We’re Dead and Buried, Our Bones Will Keep Hurting

Like many other hazardous and exhausting low-wage industries in the United States, this work depends on the labor of America’s most marginalized communities. Most workers in the industry are people of color, many are women, and nearly one-third are immigrants.

In 1983, wages for workers in the meat and poultry industry fell, for the first time, below the national average for manufacturing work; in 1985, they were 15 percent lower; in 2002, they were 24 percent lower; today, they are 44 percent lower. Workers earn, on average, less than $15 an hour.

Jobs in the meat and poultry industry have long been a starting point for many groups of new immigrants to the United States as many positions require little formal education, experience, or English-language skills. In 2015, nearly 30 percent of meat and poultry workers were foreign-born non-citizens—about three times more than the percentage of manufacturing workers nationally.

Even immigrants with work authorization can remain vulnerable to coercion from employers, as many are not aware of their workplace rights, may not be familiar with technical terms in English, or are otherwise hesitant to navigate the complex, and potentially costly, procedures to vindicate their rights. The result is a significant part of the low-wage workforce who are less likely to report workplace abuses or even injuries, and are therefore more easily exploitable than US citizens, for fear of their employers’ power to fundamentally disrupt their lives and the lives of their families. “Us workers are afraid to lose our job,” said Rebecca G., an immigrant worker at a poultry plant in Arkansas. “[P]eople don't speak up or say what's wrong about the chemicals, or the speed of the line, or the discrimination.”

3. The displacement and murder of indigenous peoples

The Companies Behind the Burning of the Amazon

The burning of the Amazon and the darkening of skies from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, have captured the world’s conscience. Much of the blame for the fires has rightly fallen on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for directly encouraging the burning of forests and the seizure of Indigenous Peoples’ lands.

But the incentive for the destruction comes from large-scale international meat and soy animal feed companies like JBS and Cargill, and the global brands like Stop & Shop, Costco, McDonald’s, Walmart/Asda, and Sysco that buy from them and sell to the public. It is these companies that are creating the international demand that finances the fires and deforestation.

The transnational nature of their impact can be seen in the current crisis. Their destruction is not confined to Brazil. Just over the border, in the Bolivian Amazon, 2.5 million acres have burned, largely to clear land for new cattle and soy animal feed plantations, in just a few weeks. Paraguay is experiencing similar devastation.

After years of remarkably successful conservation initiatives that cut Brazil’s deforestation rate by two-thirds, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has reopened the doors to rampant destruction as a favor to the agribusiness lobby that backs him. That industry is accountable for the atmosphere of lawlessness, deforestation, fires, and the murder of Indigenous peoples that followed. According to data released by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon in July 2019 increased 278 percent over the previous July. Bolsonaro responded to this news by firing the head of the INPE. 

I would like to close this post by saying that I understand this may leave nonvegans with some questions; What can consumers do about this? Should consumers be expected to do anything, or would that simply be misplacing the blame for these things? Aren’t all industries awful in similar ways since there is no ethical consumption under capitalism? If you have these questions, I am more than happy to engage in a good-faith conversation about them. The purpose of this post, however, is not to answer such inquiries. I made this purely to raise awareness about these issues because the only people I ever see discuss them are vegans, and these are extremely important topics that I think deserve far more attention than they receive. 

[techgiantsat]

Top 5 rules to keep in mind when approaching an ecommerce development website.

So you've decided to do a complete site redesign or came to a resolution your metrics don't behave as you suspected they would? Have you at last decided to implement that feature you're sure will skyrocket your conversions?

Here are some normal ecommerce development design entanglements we often see in the wild you ponder when considering making the next stride in becoming your eCommerce business.

Try not to use yourself as a typical person.

Something typical both web designers and merchants sometimes do is think they know what's best and subjectively walk the straight line without looking left and right. We tend to define needs based on something an individual assumes is necessary. Hence we often fall into the supposition trap — in the event that it solves my problem, it will 100% solve everyone else's. In other words, in the event that something makes sense to me, it should make sense for customers also.

Continuously track changes and new features

So you've recently launched a new feature on your ecommerce website. It's awesome. The development apparatuses console doesn't give any errors. You're pretty confident this will revolutionize how your customers use and perceive your store. Three months later, your sales are doing fine. You are satisfied, however do you have an idea what the new feature meant for sales and customer behavior? Are the customers presently utilizing this new feature, or are they behaving the same way? Do the ones who use it convert more frequently than the ones who don't? Did the feature have any effect on your sales?

Optimize for your customer's device, not yours  

We (merchants, web designers, developers, marketeers… and so on) as a rule use our large screens at work. We're used to seeing a large material with heaps of possibilities. Furthermore, I'm sure that a brief glance at your investigation will often tell you a large portion of your customers use little screens — their mobile phones (this may not generally be the case, however in eCommerce retail – it as a rule is).It's normal quite challenging to scale something we have at the top of the priority list, and that is precisely why we should think responsive from the beginning

Be clear on the category hierarchy

 E Commerce websites development ordinarily has heaps of categories presented in the menus. Route is the information architecture customers use to identify store hierarchy and parent-kid relationships between the categories.

While it's excellent to place some subcategories in more than one category, some stores overcomplicate this. We often see blending categories, subcategories, and well known filters in the route. On top of this, everything is nested everywhere with no clear hierarchy and relationships between them. Always make sure the category hierarchy is clear, transparent, and easy to filter and understand.

Try not to hold back on search functionalities

Onsite search engines have come far. Today we have devices like Elasticsearch, Algolia, Klevu, and some more. However, shockingly, we actually have stores with helpless search support.

They often require the exact words to discover items (for example, "blow dryer" query will not return hair dryer items). They can't identify spelling mistakes, don't have autocomplete, and comparable. We often see customers who search and afterward convert undeniably more often than the ones who don't. In any case, we ought to recognize the typical gatherings of customer who search: the ones who know what they are searching for and have a search and purchase mindset, the ones who lost all sense of direction in the principle route and are searching for an exit from the mess.