#it's because these benefit her or help her with her tadpole problem

[thenugking]

Tagged by @tacticalgrandma for Rate My OC! Tagging @dandelion-bride, @cannibalcharon and anyone else who wants one!

Tenses are a little all over the place, pronouns are meant to swap every rating but probably don’t always, but oh well, here’s Kallian/Lee.

Compassion - Kallian: 0.5/10 Compassion - Lee: 9/10

Kallian did not give a shit about other people, and is more invested in making them suffer than in helping. I gave 0.5 because there have definitely been times she acted solely in Orin’s benefit to alleviate her suffering, but by the time she got brainstabbed, she was more often the one causing Orin’s suffering than trying to fix it. 

Post-brainstabbing, Lee doesn't remember that they're supposed to be better than everyone or kill as many people as they can, and 32 years worth of pent up compassion is leaking out. 

Bitterness: 1/10

They've never been a very bitter person. Pre-brainstabbing, they refused to acknowledge there was anything to be bitter about. Post-brainstabbing, they've accepted there might have been a few ways they were set up to fail, but there's more constructive ways to deal with that than being grumpy and resentful. 

Happiness - Kallian: 4/10 Happiness - Lee: 7/10

Kallian was, perhaps, nor quite as happy as she was willing to let on. She had, she thought, everything she could ever want, and still didn't feel satisfied. Is it possible she wanted more from life than to be constantly killing and making people suffer? Ridiculous. She probably just needs to invent an exciting new kind of torture to feel better!

Lee, on the other hand, is exploring what life has to offer outside a sewer cult full of dead bodies. She still has her problems, like the tadpole in her brain, and the cult she started trying to destroy the world, and all the guilt and self-loathing from the memories she’s slowly getting back. But life is better when you’re facing it with other people, instead of treating them like objects that only exist for your amusement.

Chivalry - Kallian: 1/10 Chivalry - Lee: 5/10

Kallian has only ever faked niceness and politeness, and barely knew what chivalry is. Lee… is learning! They’re not good at it yet! They still don’t really understand tact on any level. But they’re trying to live their life by the motto of “What Would Wyll Do?” and getting better at it!

Pride - Kallian: 10/10 Pride - Lee: 3/10

Kallian was told, since birth, that she was the super special child of a God, his favourite, his Chosen, his will on Toril. She was given a cult that believed this too (especially after she killed all the members she thought didn’t really believe that, because it’s always fine for her to kill people!) and worshipped her from as far back as she could remember. Is it that much of a surprise that she believed it all, and grew to convince herself that every single thing she did had to be the Will of Bhaal?

Meanwhile as far back as Lee can remember… she’s felt a desire to kill and hurt people. That’s not good!! Most people seem to agree that’s ‘weird and creepy’ or ‘deeply fucked up’. There’s clearly something very wrong with her and nothing to feel prideful about. Then, of course, she discovers why she’s like this and oh boy ‘nothing to feel prideful about’ is an understatement apparently!!!

She starts feeling a little better about herself by the time she tears herself away from Bhaal’s influence and starts actually trying to make amends for all her crimes. There’s things here she can actually begin to feel a bit proud of! I’m keeping 3/10 as an average though. It dropped way down below that around the start of Act 3, and is slowly going up as of the end of the game. With the occasional dip again whenever a particularly unpleasant new memory returns.

Honesty - Kallian: 4/10 Honesty - Lee: 6/10

Honesty is another of those things Kallian doesn’t really care for! They lie whenever it suits them, or when it’s funny. Lee wants to be more honest, but they’re really not. Although ig by that point they’re more about withholding the truth than telling outright lies. But there’s so many horrible, horrible truths to withhold.

Bravery: 6/10

I think she tends to be more fearless than brave (we’ll get to that in Recklessness). Fighting monsters is fun, sure, there’s some fear, but it’s exciting/arousing to get nearly murdered! It’s personal issues and self-reflection that are really scary, and she’s always tried to avoid and repress those as long as she can. When push comes to shove and there’s no other choice, she’ll deal with the issue, but she’d really rather not.

Recklessness - Kallian: 9/10 Recklessness - Lee: 7/10

Kallian always had a supply of healing potions on hand, and the kind of confidence that comes from pretty much never having to experience real consequences. Lee initially continues that recklessness, before discovering quickly that their source of magical healing is a little more limited, and that they now care about consequences like, “someone else gets hurt,” or, “someone else is mad at me.” They’re still deeply impulsive, but they manage to reign it in a little, or at least start thinking, “oh I need a plan to get out of this,” a few seconds after doing something reckless.

Ambition - Kallian: 2/10 Ambition - Lee: 7/10

Kallian honestly never really wanted beyond what she already had. I guess her main ambition in life was to be better at running the cult than Sarevok was, but I think she was satisfied on that front by the time she was in her early 20s. She’d call the whole Absolute plot her new ambition but tbh, that’s just Bhaal’s plan that Kallian went along with because she had nothing better to do. I don’t think she really had any ambitions beyond “see if I can make Orin orgasm just from stabbing her”. She could.

Lee’s ambitions are more along the lines of, “bring the Dead Three down and save everyone they’ve ever tortured,” which is uhhh quite a bit bigger! The world could be better in so many ways, and she has so many ideas to improve it.

Loyalty - Kallian: 4??/10 Loyalty - Lee: 9/10

I mean, Kallian would consider themself extremely loyal to the people who actually matter--that is, Orin and Bhaal, and absolutely no one else. Orin and Bhaal might actually disagree on this quite a lot. Bhaal due to the fact that instead of actually listening to him, Kallian was doing whatever the fuck they want and convincing themself it was the Will of Bhaal after the fact, Orin due to all the lying and cheating and abuse.

Lee has learnt that if you really want to be loyal to people, you should actually, like, ask them what they want and need from you instead of assuming you know. They’ve discovered that they actually deeply enjoy finding out what one of their loved ones wants and then putting all of their energy into doing that and making their person happy. And they will defend their people--the origin companions, Jaheira, and Orin--to the death.

Love: 10/10

Lee has always loved deeply and passionately. Post-brainstabbing, she’s definitely healthier about it, but she’s still a little obsessive about it with Wyll. Just less, “The height of romance is to have known someone since as far back as you can remember and never be apart from them for longer than a few minutes and do horrible horrible things to each other but that’s fine because you’re in Love and also you own them and also you’re siblings,” than she was with Orin.

She’s Less Weird about platonic love than romantic, but still pretty fucking intense about loving her friends.

Sense of Family - Kallian: 11/10 Sense of Family - Lee: 4/10

So, Kallian grew up in a cult with a massive fucking emphasis on the importance of family, and how outsiders can’t understand them. It was weird. Like, even leaving aside the incest, they had a whole weird Thing about Family. 

I would like to say that away from their horrible cult environment and with an infinitely healthier Found Family and a lot of character development, Lee still has a strong sense of family. I… don’t think they do though. They love their companions, they can acknowledge that what they have now is better for them, but they’re honestly a bit lost about how to be family now. Like, what do you mean you’re not supposed to sleep with your family, or be deeply codependent with them??? It’s okay for young siblings to slap each other but you can’t just stab your parents or kids during an argument??? They’re allowed to stab Astarion if he’s being really annoying though, right?? Right???

They have, of course, long since disowned Bhaal, but when they think of Family, they still think of Orin and Helena before anyone else.

Attractiveness: 8/10

I feel like I should be like “oh well she’s not a tall race, so she’s not conventionally attractive, and she’s got fuckloads of scars and she gets fat after saving the world!!” but fuck that, my halfling’s extremely hot.

Agility: 9/10

They’ve been training as a rogue all their life, they’re fucking agile.

Sex Drive: 8/10

I mean getting stabbed probably makes her hornier than actually having sex does (but then, is getting stabbed not its own kind of having sex?) but either way, this means she’s horny a lot.

[wellthebardsdead]

Lucy: *finished bathing by the river, brushing out her hair and smiling up at the moon as she gets ready for bed, just happy to be clean and alive, the group having set up camp once more after the destruction of the monastery*

*twigs snapping and grass crunching beneath cloven hooves*

Lucy: *spins around and looks up to see a towering red devil with a familiar smile, but bearing a resemblance uncomfortably close to Mephistopheles himself. Long dark hair, curled horns, and firey eyes all packaged in a rather princely rogue* you must be Michaelis.

Michaelis: my, aren’t we well informed then, your grace. *bows to her and steps closer, halting as she steps back, less out of fear and more so because of how far back she has to tilt her head to keep eye contact* forgive my eagerness. I had heard the new favourite of Asmodeus was beautiful but… not divine… you are… truely a magnificent sight to behold~

Lucy: you’re-… *eyes him up and down seeing less of her ideal type in men and more so her chosen type for a dnd character* pleasant to look at. If you’re here to foist yourself upon me in hopes of a courtship then please leave. I’ve no time or interest for or in such matters.

Michaelis: Ah, yes. Your little tadpole problem~ I can help you with that. *gently takes her hand, his claws pressing into her palm* all I ask is a chance to truely know you.

Lucy: no thank you. *pulls her hand away* Raphael is already assisting me in this matter.

Michaelis: Is he now? He’s incapable of removing it.

Lucy: as am I. This tadpole has been tampered with by Balduran. Even still I need it to get ahold of the crown of Karsus. And Raphael is assisting me in that matter.

Michaelis: …Is that so?… and, just what do you intend to do with the crown once you have it?

Lucy: well. I would say return it to your father. But is he capable of keeping it contained once again? Two of the dead threes chosen were able to sneak in and snatch it up from right beneath his nose with ease, the vaults simply aren’t secure enough. I may need to look at alternatives.

Michaelis: I assure you this was a once off my dear… and I do find it very hard to believe my little brother would be helping you to retrieve the crown for my father. Why would he help you?

Lucy: Simple. It benefits him. The last thing he wants is to invoke his father’s ire and I am a very useful ally to have. He helps me return the crown. I put in a good word for his efforts and your father stops pestering him. That incubus he sent him is one demanding pet indeed after all, he certainly doesn’t want another gift like them.

Michaelis: *fooled completely, detecting no lies in her words because she’s speaking through half truths* I see. Hm… I wonder what made him see past his ridiculous ambitions.

Lucy: something your father lacks in spades.

Michaelis: and that is?

Lucy: common sense. *walks past him* now go away I’m all out of fucks to give and when I find another you’ll have to join the line of people waiting to receive one from m- *freezes as his hand grips her waist and pulls her back against him, his other hand grabbing her wrist as he leans down to whisper to her*

Michaelis: when my little brother inevitably fails, and he will, I’ll be waiting~ I’m not a devil who will take no for an answer…

Lucy: you’re right… *gently grasps one of his horns as if pulling him in to kiss her as her head turns*

Michaelis: *lets go of her wrist as her other hand reaches back and grabs the other horn* I am?

Lucy: yes… you’re no devil. *suddenly flings him by his horns over her head slamming him into the dirt* You’re a pig. *kicks him in the face with her hoof before stomping on his groin as she storms off back to camp* ZHALK GRAB YOUR SWORD!

Michaelis: *groans and coughs rolling over onto his side* that- b-bitch!

“Oh don’t talk like you didn’t deserve that.”

Michaelis: *looks to the tree line to see Raphael smirking at him* y-you. How long have you been here?!

Raphael: I just arrived and just in time too~ I suggest you listen to my little mouse. She’s not one to be trifled with so carelessly… and I suggest running. Her Paladin is armed and moving fast. *disappears*

Michaelis: what- *looks back to see Zhalk charging at him with his sword raised* HALT! IM A SON OF MEPHISTOPHELES!

Zhalk: AND IM THE TOOTH FAIRY COME HERE! *swings his blade as he disappears too*

[saltieststar]

Fixing the canoncical mess of BG3: Gale

Irrelevant to the actual game just kind of my ramblings on where I'd alter the story to better align with canon for use in a TTRPG retelling of BG3 because running a campaign from DIA through the events of BG3 is something I would abs love to do eventually.

Having read the Avatar series, I don't accept the whole grooming backstory with Gale. Not to mention that Mystra was still dead until Gale was in his twenties.

Although for the sake of perserving the interest that is Gale's story I've been toying with the idea that Gale was approached in his dreams by Cyric impersonating Mystra. As I mean it is very on brand for Cyric, Cyric has already been introduced to BG storyline prior in 2, and now more than ever with The Dead Three having reclaimed parts of their previous portfolios Cyric would need an agent in the realms.

And so the whole bit with Gale seeking out a fragment of the weave to return to the Goddess, was because Cyric was the one who led Gale to believe that this was a fragment of Mystra's weave rather than a remaining fragment of Karsus'.

I don't know about it being explosive, as I think one companion with a chance of spontaneously combusting is more than one party needs. But could still play it that coming into contact with the weave corrupted Gale's power, perhaps that rather than drawing magic from the weave his magic is physically draining his own vitality so he absorbs magical artifacts in an attempt to keep it at bay.

Of course, Gale coming into contact with even a fragment of Karsus' weave catches the attention of Elminster. Young Gale is of course horrified to realize that he was led astray and lied to about being Mystra's chosen and has instead been being manipulated by Cyric, similar to what he did to Mystra's followers in the Avatar series. One of her favorites ended up drawing on Talos' chaos magic and doing unspeakable damage across the realms because they thought it was the Goddess' wishes.

Anyhow also explains Gale's ridiculous devotion to Mystra and his intense need to repent for what he sees as a grave sin he committed against the Goddess. And it doesn't bastardize Midnight's character. The weird amalgamation of all previous Mystra's or not, I just cannot see Midnight being cool with the other Mystra's abuse of a literal child.

Leads Gale into service under Mystra and an apprenticeship under Elminster to help Gale try and keep the fragment of the Karsus weave contained until they have a more permanent solution. Taking in this weave leads Gale down his obsession with Netherese magic and his studying of the events that led to its creation.

Gale's research is what draws the attention of the Dead Three, who abduct and tadpole Gale to use him for his expertise on how to harness the Magic of the crown. Gale expertise is utilized to infuse the tadpole with Netherese magic to prevent the tadpole from turning the infected into mindflayers, which was a problem they were still experiencing in the early stages as illustrated in the Baldur's Gate comics. So along with the changes to his backstory players wouldn't encounter Gale until Act 2 in the Mind Flayer colony. Rather than Elminster showing up to politely request Gale just off himself, he pops up to beseech the characters to help rescue Gale from the cult.

SO, what does Cyric get out of this whole mess? Well he's pretty resentful towards Midnight so pretty much any chance of screwing her over is a swell time to him whether it benefits him or not. But also, the Netherese weave feeds off Mystra's, so once it was no longer contained within Gale it would being to consume Mystra’s weave.

Def have to delve into how much influence and power Cyric still retains. I mean, he can obv, at the very least, communicate with the outside to some extent since he approaches Abdel in BG2. And Bg2 did say that Cyric had recovered from his insanity, so it's reasonable to assume he's back to his usual shenanigans.

[satansleftnutcheek]

Just had like the biggest brain realization about Astarion bear with me I think I'm onto something here. Spoilers ahead for those who don't know about his "condition" or haven't heard about his tragic backstory™

I think people generally overlook the bite scene in favor of focusing on how it reveals Astarion being a vampire, how it can benefit the player if you're trying to romance him, or find an easy way to get him out of your party. I would like to note that there’s nothing wrong with this response! I did the same in my play through because I already knew he was a vampire due to spoilers. I just saw the scene as Astarion looking for his equivalent of a sandwich when it happened.

But why does Astarion bite Tav of all people?

The obvious answer is because Tav's the protagonist. Any important character scenes will happen to or involve them because they're the player character. It's the nature of how RPG stories are told. However, Larian Studios has put a lot of thought into this game, so why not dig a bit deeper?

Assuming Tav has everyone in their camp when this scene is triggered, Lae'zel and Shadowheart are off the menu purely because if things go wrong they'd immediately kill Astarion. Not good! If things go wrong with Karlach he could possibly smooth talk his way out of it. After all, she's a very kind person who goes out of her way to help people. But she's also twice his size and could snap him like a twig, which is not a risk worth taking.

Wyll isn't nearly as much of a threat as the other three, if it came down to it, Astarion could probably take him in a fight. The main problem here is that Wyll happens to have a habit of killing monsters, which would make talking things out really difficult. Astarion's relied on skills like persuasion for the past 2 centuries so he'd probably want to have his best skills be viable options if things go awry. Halsin, much like Karlach, is twice his size and could kill him with ease. Hard pass on that! This leaves Gale as the last, and really only, viable option. I mean look at him, he's frail as hell, always having the lowest HP in the party, and his weapon is a stick. Worst thing that could happen to Astarion is a bonk on the head.

So then why Tav? Why are they the one Astarion bites?

Now Tavs come in a lot of varieties. The player could be doing a Dark Urge run, they could be playing as the embodiment of pure evil, the kindest soul that is second only to Jesus, or somewhere in between. However, the one thing that unites them all is their power. They're the leader of the party and the others (to varying degrees) respect them. Tav is the one that chooses where the party goes, who they help, who they kill, and even how they'll have the tadpoles removed. In a way, Tav controls the party.

Remind you of something that Astarion openly talks about wanting?

For two centuries Astarion hasn't had autonomy, respect, freedom, resources, or control. What he's learned from those centuries is that power always gets you what you want. If you want freedom you need the power to control others. So while biting Gale would be the easy answer, it doesn't have the perk that biting Tav does.

If Tav wakes up during his biting attempt, Astarion could smooth talk his way out of it. If things go okay and Astarion gets to keep his head, he'll have gained more of Tav's trust. This in turn would give Astarion greater power over them as they'd be easier to manipulate, which in turn gives him more control over the others. If he ends up killing Tav then that technically would open up a power vacuum in the party. Whoever fills it would have all the power and control that Tav has. I don't think any of the other characters would let that happen though. Astarion's the person who you don't want to be the leader because he's clearly performing this role for his own self-centered reasons. Also seeing as this scene generally happens early in the game, nobody likes him enough to just let him become the leader.

Now if Tav lets Astarion bite them things get more interesting. It's a possibility that never occurred to him, but he isn't going to turn it down. First of all, it establishes Tav as an easy food source. Astarion has a consenting snack that in the future, might let him bite again. If that happens then Astarion's food source becomes far more reliable and surviving becomes significantly easier. Tav's consent also reveals how much they trust Astarion. From his perspective Tav's shown too much of their hand. Astarion's simple plan to manipulate Tav for the sake of his security has become child's play at this point.

All this being said having Astarion choose to bite Tav over Gale reveals so much about his character. While Gale is the safest choice to make, Tav's position of leadership is what entices Astarion to bite them over Gale. After experiencing two hundred years of mental and physical abuse, Astarion values power so much he'd be willing to risk his ability to not become a mind flare, and his life, in order to gain it. All because this is what he learned from being Cazador's slave for 200 years.

[winterslibrary]

i think it's about time i introduce my dearest bg3 daughter, miss vien! an absolute beauty, my little lady i love her so much it's insane. she's a high elf, she's a bard, she has terrible taste in men and friends and is everyone's favorite gossip girl.

and might or not be on the run. kind of. but let's start from the beginning, shall we? <3

while creating her i was thinking of her as a character i can write for, just how i create any other oc rather than "my game character" so. if i took any creative liberties it's because i really created her with "ohh i'm gonna write a fic with her" mindset 😭 now that this is said.

vien isn't even her real name. it's a nickname she uses! she doesn't use her actual name for certain reasons and, well, she quite likes "vien". it's nice, it's pretty and for sure holds better memories than her real name. (and i am gatekeeping it hehe)

her alignment is neutral good! she's a good person in nature, but when in unpleasant situation... like having a parasite in your head... she's more than willing to put her own survival on top of others. generally she cares about her survival plenty, so vien might sometimes refuse to help someone for her own sake. or make a questionable decision if it benefits her more (or her companions). but she's overall a massive sweetheart!!

she was originally born in an elven village, daughter of the village chief and was living a very good life. i like to think that she was often out hunting for food and things– not that she wanted very much– and because of that she's actually really good at archery. hunting might not be her favorite thing to do, but archery? oh, this one she loves. and besides, look, if she can't knock someone out with her violin, then she will shot someone with a stolen from a corpse bow.

like i said, she has terrible taste in men and friends because not only she fell for astarion! out of all people, but she also befriended bhyer "let's kill mystra she's an asshole" aka my friend's durge. vien please get better friends. i beg you.

(vien agrees that mystra is an asshole. but she also thinks that the tadpoles are enough of a problem already. there is no need to annoy a goddess. maybe later!)

speaking of astarion, accidentally i made him and vien... to be foils. they both have similiar stories– one's life ruined by an asshole and held captive for years, in terrible conditions but the difference is that vien managed to free herself. she ran away after 25 years of complete mistreatment, wandered around for some more time before she was rescued by a human couple and given a new place to live. given home. given hope for a better tomorrow. she received help from people, and although it wasn't a lot of them, it still gave her enough hope to fight and not give up, not lose the kindness in her heart. astarion... well. he didn't, unfortunately.

astarion and vien actually share more similiarities, but to unlock vien's tragic backstory to have to gain her trust and that is harder than gaining astarion's trust. i'm not joking. the only people that know what happened are wyll, astarion and bhyer. and only because astarion, wyll and vien were ambushed by the very same man that kindnapped her because, oh wow, he just can't let her go, even after all those years! yes i plan on writing some masquerade scene with these three aand that's probably when the ambush happens. she has to tell at least on surface level what happened (she tells astarion more later though) and she begs them to not make her talk about it to the rest of companions.

and bhyer... they just know. bhyer and vien are soulmates, after all. they just know, vien just told them, these two come in a set do not separate thank you!!

vien is good good besties with wyll. they danced together at least once, as simple friends because vien loves to dance and the camp had a moment of peace around the fireplace. she loves talking with gale! put them in one room together and they probably won't stop talking for the nearest fifteen minutes. she shares her favorite gossips with shadowheart and always asks her to let her do her hair. such long hair gives so many possible hairstyles and, frankly, vien loves braiding hair. hers or someone's, doesn't matter.

vien is a perfomer first, always entertaining people with her music and singing, with her pretty words and herself. she's a lady, high maintenance, she won't let just anyone woo her, especially to bed! and, by gods, something seems... off about her. but it's so hard to name anything specific and she's so nice, liked by everyone and trying to keep them all well. maybe it's fine.

(astarion, though, just knows something is very off. he can't tell if she's scheming something, some hidden agenda or anything, but something is up. because even the best perfomer can act for only this long.)

whew. she's a little silly. i want to shake her and even though she is one of the sanest and most normal people in this silly little group of weirdos, she still needs therapy. wheewww. i have so much more thoughts about her... @leftdestiny-posts special tag for you <3

[atomiqueen]

        “Oh…” Lucy flushes slightly as he points out her misunderstanding, but her feelings about it don't much change. “Well…they're not really asking anything of me that I wouldn't have to do on my own otherwise. I'm going because I have to. Because it's relevant to our shared problem.” He's not even looking at her, but she taps her temple beside the tadpole in her head. As if he needs reminding.

        “Why would I complain about helping to do something that benefits me?” She shrugs as they continue picking their way through the gnarled trees and brush. “That wouldn't make any sense.�� And she doesn't really see it as going out of her way, in that regard. “I see it more like, they're helping me do something about this thing writhing around inside my head.”

        He furrow his brow as he walks and then realizes what she means. “I didn’t mean me, sweetheart; I was talkin’ 'bout you.” He knows what he signed up for and as much as he’ll fuss and complain, he knows he can leave any time he wants, but he’s here to stay. But he can handle it, a hell of a lot more than any of the others can. A lot more than she can.

        “And these friends o’ yours—they’re askin’ an awful lot of you and I don’t hear you complainin’ ‘bout that.” Another over simplification but he’s not wrong either, what between the vampire, the wizard with an explosive orb in his chest, the blade of frontiers with his devilish pact, the tiefling and her infernal engine for a heart, the very secretive cleric and a goddamn githyanki…he’s not convinced she really understands what she’s gotten herself into.

        She might not have asked him for his help but she’s got it now. He owes her. The least she could do for both their sakes is stop throwing herself into dangerous situations unnecessarily. It sure would make his job a lot easier. That doesn't seem like too much to ask to him.

[lairofsentinel]

Do you think Oskar Fevras the artist whom you can buy in any way mirrors Gale? His story reminded me a bit of Gale’s in the whole hung up on your first love thing

Hello there!

Let me explain you how I understand Oskar Fevras. I think that may be an important key to see what I'm going to be concluding.

Oskar has the pretence of being a noble, and likes too much wealth and fame. His patron is his betrothed: Lady Jannath. The Jannath are a  family of wealthy mine-owners in BG, who, according to the Main Char's "gossip" knowledge, have been passing through a scandal when they realised that Oskar was a commoner. Apparently Oskar is known as the runaway groom for this.

I'm not so sure to believe that the problem in all his drama is his commoner past. But he doesn't clarify it in a very explicit way. We only have this information from the narrator and it's like a "rumour", something you picked in the air in the city's gossip, so it can be slightly different.

He clarifies that the date of the marriage was never set... but clearly the intention was there. What happened? "Complications", he adds.

Oskar tells you that before his fame as a painter and his affair with Lady Jannath, there was another woman he wanted to spend his life with [which make me assume he was with her until the last moment of the proposal] but when he was offered marriage with Lady Jannath, who gave him a better future because her wealth, he thought "important to tell her about his past".

These lines are a bit inconsistent in their logic, no? You love a woman you want to marry, but then another one very wealthy, asks you marriage and you consider to tell her "you are a commoner" [if we assume the rumour is true].... There is no much connection with the concepts... unless Oskar is saying other thing in his vague way of explaining this story.

In my opinion, he is saying:

I was with this woman I wanted to spend my life with. But on the other hand, I wanted to be famous and wealthy, so I started a serious afair with a person who would support my art: Lady Jannath [it's implied he became her lover without never telling her he was with the first woman]. All was done in order to have fame and wealth. Then Lady Jannath proposes him marriage, and he considers it's reasonable to tell her about "his past" [his past as in, there is another woman, there was always another woman]. This scandal triggered, and because we are talking about a noble family in BG, we know they can control rumours, so they preferred to make it about his "commoner" past instead of his double-cheating.

When he explained his past to Lady Jannath, he was "forced" to escape and think about who to "choose". He doesn't know yet. "Fame and wealth suit me very well." But when he thinks in his first love... he hesitates. He says all this with a very light tone, yet, he makes of this a big dilemma, almost a performance of drama: to choose between true love or wealth to develop his skills.

I may have taken all this a bit more serious if it weren't for the last line he says. If something I've learnt by reading a lot of books of narrative and how to write narratives, is that professionals don't put useless lines in the character's mouths to be wasted. They have meaning.

When the rescue is finally done, he asks for money to fight the "discomfort of the road", and, unless this has been changed in this last patch [I don't play BG3 since patch 2 or 3] he says something that makes you understand that he is going to spend this money in alcohol [he says something along the lines "well, I should endure the road sober then"]. So this last bit showed us that he is not really a very trustworthy person, he hides the truth just to take some extra benefit of the situation [we don't see a real struggle in all this, more like a performance of a struggle].

It's true the situation is a bit vague and this interpretation may be wrong, but Oskar is not exactly an honest char. He has his love for over-dramatisation and present himself as the victim in situations that are not thaaaaat bad.

Now, how all this is similar to Gale? I'm afraid I don't see much similarity, sorry. You can stretch things a lot to make Lady Jannath to look like Mystra [Mystra is the one who gave Gale the deepest connection with the Weave, which is something that brings him joy and sense in life to Gale. She is a kind of "patron" for Gale? It's too stretched, Mystra is a goddess of particular behaviour in her lore] ... but you also can connect her with the first woman by using the weak link of "being Gale's first love". Where the Main Character fits in all this analogy? How all this situation has a relationship with Gale, his abandonment issues caused by a powerful, immense entity as Mystra, and how he made dire mistakes to get her attention again, like all devotees do in this crazy Faerûn? I don't see it, sorry. Gale's first love was Mystra, the most powerful goddess of the pantheon of Faerûn. Oscar's first love was a mortal woman. I'm afraid I can't see much to relate there beyond the fact that "people have first loves" that imprint a strong effect in a person's life [which is true for almost all humans in real life].

I'm not sure if maybe this question is motivated by all those terrible takes that Gale receives in this fandom. I think a lot of people have serious problems with the fact that Gale has an ex. For this, people are a mixture of being offended by that and also treat the party scene as if it were a "big" revelation, which is not?. Sure, he has an ex that inspires him complicated emotions but it's clear he wants to get rid of that event and move on.

Gale never plays two sides. He is always very clear about the fact of having secrets, about his boundaries [another thing that the fandom doesn’t forgive him], and how complicated is for him to speak about Mystra. If you get nice rolls, you can even tell Gale that he is dreaming with Mystra [like, the game makes you AWARE of it XD]... And he also tells you that the tadpole dreams are about power and desire... I mean, if the guy says that, and then dreams with Mystra....why some people are offended/surprised after the party!??? haha. The biggest mystery in this fandom.

Sure, the scene is not handled in the best ways, there are some weird lines, everything looks so high-school cheap drama. I get that... I don't know, we have to blame it for being Early Access and for Gale not being Larian's fave.  But well... Gale has an ex. It's a fact, and one can know that very early if the fucking game couldn't be soooooo shitty bugged with his char.

Here is one of my videos [very old patch as you can see] where we can see the second dream: He says "These dreams are about desire", I pick the option of Mystra. "Yes, I dream with Mystra". You know by your own dreams that these dreams are very sexual in general... So, conclusion? Gale has an ex.

Oskar is playing with two women at the same time in the worst case scenario. In the best one, he abandoned his first love to follow wealth. Her first love [that, let's be honest, how much he loved her that he had no problem to cheat on/abandon when it comes to fame and wealth?] was put aside in favour of this noble. Then he leaves the noble one because he is unable to choose. He was the one who abandoned [or cheated, we can't say completely because it's vague] two women, not the other way around... Plus, to make things even more different, there is this small detail that the fandom always seems to be blind about because most of them only know Dragon Age lore: Mystra is the most powerful goddess in the damn pantheon xD Gale was a plaything in her grasp [this is the worst case scenario; I have a secondary interpretation, more kind to her, focused on Mystra's point of view]. But there is something very strong here that make these comparison too out of any frame to compare: She is not a normal woman... her power is not even compared with Jannath's. She is a Goddess.

So, in short: I'm afraid I don't see much in common. XD I mean, everyone has exes, every person with some age has a past even in Faerûn. Sure, this is Faerûn, so exes can go wild, I get it. XD And having exes is not always a "finished business" [specially when that comes with abandonment issues], but more like a WIP: something to deal with unresolved emotions from past partners that you want to move on, and sometimes a new partner may help you [or make everything worse]. I always read Gale that way.

Thanks for the ask!

[justkindaoverhereobsessing]

39 from the fanfic prompt list please!!!!!

Fanfic Prompt List (Again!)

#39: “I love you. I just love her more.”

“Hey, Tony?” Ziva calls.

“Yeah?”

She finds him in the kitchen.

He’s been working all afternoon, giving his very best effort to decorate their almost 7-year-old son’s birthday cake. Ziva watches him for a moment, suppressing a smile when she sees his tongue poking out between his lips. Does that help him concentrate on the task at hand?

Well, what she’s come to say certainly won’t.

“I am pregnant,” she tells him.

He crumples silently to the floor in a dead faint, and Ziva thinks she should have seen this coming.

_________________

When he comes to, he asks if she was joking.

“I was not,” she answers, and this time, she’s close enough to catch his head before it hits the tiles under her feet.

_________________

Tali is none-too-thrilled when they announce that they’re expecting a new bundle of joy.

“Dad, babies cry all the time,” she informs Tony, irritated and determined to convince him what an awful idea this is. “Did anyone ever tell you that? Plus, I didn’t sign up for this—I bet it’s not even going to be all that cute, and it’s going to be loud.”

“Yeah, and we all know you need your beauty sleep, sweetheart,” he teases, unmoved by her arguments.

She whacks him—she’s as strong as Ziva.

At fourteen, she’s old enough to have unshakeable opinions, the most emphatic of which is that having one kid brother is more than enough. “Can I move out before the baby comes, at least?” she tries.

“Sure,” her dad agrees easily. “You just have to come back every night and twice on weekends.”

Tali frowns at him. “You’re not as funny as you think you are.”

He mimics her expression. “And you’re not as grown up as you think you are, baby girl.”

_________________

Tony and Ziva are old enough now that rather than being met with ecstatic surprise when they give people the news, what they get is a number of polite variations on the theme of “oh, how… nice.”

McGee helpfully suggests that Tony get a vasectomy before the baby is born to avoid this happening again later.

“Excuse me?” Tony demands, offended by the very idea. “I’ll have you know that my manhood is in perfect working order and will stay that way until I—”

He stops when Ziva smacks the back of his head.

“What does manhood mean?” their son Adam pipes up curiously, and Ziva leaves Tony to figure out how to answer that one on his own.

_________________

All the pregnancy clothes Ziva can find as her belly grows are meant for younger women. She’s approaching fifty, and a floral romper just doesn’t suit her like it might have twenty-five years ago. She ends up wearing mostly old sweatpants of her own and old sweatshirts of Tony’s. When Tony finds her in front of their bedroom mirror, critically examining her polyester-clad bump, he pauses to watch her.

“You’re still the prettiest woman I’ve ever seen,” he tells her, wearing a smile that makes his eyes crinkle.

Ziva decides the polyester isn’t too bad after all.

_________________

This baby, informally dubbed Tadpole, refuses to cooperate at ultrasound appointments, so going into the last few months, they’re still not sure what they’re having. That means they have to settle on not one name but two. Making the decision requires twice the bickering, twice the disagreements, and twice the competitiveness.

“And just to make sure we’re agreeing on the rules,” Tony reminds Ziva sternly, “this challenge will start with sixty seconds on the clock. Whoever can balance the most spoons on their face without dropping one gets to pick Tadpole’s middle name, right?”

“Right,” Ziva agrees, brandishing a large serving spoon that she’s already selected as her first choice for balancing.

When they’re tied forty-five seconds in, four spoons on each of their faces, Tali walks in to get a glass of water. She observes them for a moment, nonplussed, before shaking her head, throwing her hands up in exasperation, and walking right back out without the drink she came for.

“Do you guys always have to be so weird?” she complains as she goes.

_________________

Ziva’s third pregnancy is more physically uncomfortable than her first two, and she grows bigger at a much faster rate.

One night, she puts her palms on her rounded belly and groans in annoyance, making Tony ask what’s wrong. “I am all blubber. I feel like a fat whale,” she decides.

Her husband disagrees. “I’d say you look more like a cute little cow.”

If not for the saving grace of “cute”, he would be spending tonight on the sofa.

_________________

Tony has always been protective of Ziva, but that reaches new heights when she’s pregnant. She’s nearly due when, crossing the street hand in hand with her husband, disaster strikes. Tony sees rapid movement from the corner of his eye and reacts without stopping to think, yanking Ziva back to the safety of the sidewalk to avoid what he thinks is a vehicle.

There was something coming, as it turns out, but it wasn’t a car. It was a large page from Le Parisien newspaper, carried speedily toward them on a gust of strong wind.

They watch it pass. “I am glad you still have your lightning-fast reflexes, my love,” Ziva says dryly. “We would have been crushed, otherwise.”

“Sarcasm isn’t a good way to thank someone for saving your life, sweet cheeks,” Tony replies, his twitching lips matching hers. He lunges forward to tickle her, and it doesn’t matter if he acted unnecessarily this time. He’ll pull her out of the way of every non-threatening item in Paris if it’ll keep her safe and by his side, giggling like she is now.

They both find it relaxing to stand on the side of a random street in the 8th arrondissement and laugh at each other…

…at least until Ziva pees herself. Oh, the joys of pregnancy.

_________________

In the end, Ziva’s labor is astonishingly short, which is both a blessing and a curse. It’s wonderful because the process is, of course, incredibly painful, and there’s little to be gained by suffering for longer. It’s also a problem, though, because they barely have time to leave Tali and Adam with friends in their hurry to get to the hospital.

Ziva is in such rapidly progressing labor when they arrive that the wheelchair phase gets skipped entirely and they put her straight on a stretcher. Then it’s a race to reach a room before the baby can make its grand entrance in the hall.

As they rush, the doctor can’t make Ziva respond to her instructions, and she turns to Tony instead. “You must convince her not to push yet,” she insists, emphatic.

Not sure Ziva will listen to him, either, Tony passes on the message. “I will push if I want to!” his wife snarls, which is more or less what he expected.

They finally arrive in the delivery room, huffing and puffing—Ziva because she’s in agony, and Tony because he’s not used to exercising this intensely anymore. (He’s getting old.)

Not three minutes later, their third and final baby is born.

_________________

When things are settled again, they’re left alone with their newest family member to bond. “She is so lovely,” Ziva murmurs, mesmerised. Tony can’t agree more. Maybe they didn’t plan for her, and maybe they didn’t expect her, but… her tiny face, fresh and new and hopeful, is something they must have needed.

Later, the exhausted Ziva falls asleep in her hospital bed, and Tony bounces their newborn daughter as he paces the room. “We’ll do our best by you,” he promises the little one softly, “but I don’t think this is one of those times when ‘third time’s the charm’ really applies. I’m afraid you’re stuck with the same clueless parents Tali and Adam have had. If we’ve learned anything from raising them, we’ll probably have forgotten it by the time you’re old enough to benefit from it.”

She feels indescribably tiny in his arms, and he runs a single finger through the hair on her head. There’s a lot of it, and it’s the fairest, most unusual shade of strawberry blonde he’s ever seen. It seems odd, since he, Ziva, Tali, and Adam all have dark hair, but the reddish color seems to suit this sweet Tadpole. Everything about her is light. “You’re just the prettiest thing, aren’t you?” he coos. 

He hears a tired, croaky laugh, and he looks up to see Ziva observing them. “There is nothing I need to be jealous for, is there?” she teases hoarsely, watching the pair with groggy affection.

“I’m afraid there is, actually,” Tony answers grimly. He sits down in his chair next to the bed and leans over the baby to kiss Ziva’s forehead. “I love you. I just love her more.”

_________________

Tali surprises everyone by bursting into joyful tears upon meeting her brand new baby sister.

“I thought you didn’t want another sibling,” Tony recalls. (His heart aches a little at the sight of her tears, though, no matter their cause.)

“I was on my period when you told me!” she protests, her chin still trembling. “You can’t hold that against me!”

Her dad isn’t sure what to say to that, but, careful not to jostle the baby Tali’s holding, he wraps her in a tight side hug.

“Alright, Tali-Tee,” he agrees, kissing her temple. “I won’t.”

He can’t hold anything against her, and he already knows it’ll be exactly the same with the new baby.

_________________

It takes them a week to name the little girl, and when they finally do, it’s during a midnight feeding.

Ziva strokes the baby’s hair as she nurses. “Did you know that traditionally, Hebrew names are considered prophecies? People often choose names of people they respect, or virtues they hope their children will embody.”

Tony snuggles in closer to the two of them and rests his chin lightly on Ziva’s shoulder. “Well, what do we want for her?”

Ziva smiles. “The same things we want for Tali and Adam.”

“And those would be?”

“Joy, I think. A life full of love and with as little pain as possible—a stable life.”

Tony nods, thinking about that. He reaches over to the bedside table where a well-loved name book rests, and he thumbs through it for a moment.

“What are you looking for?”

He holds up a finger, and it doesn’t take long to be ready. “I was remembering a few Hebrew names that I thought would fit that theme. Here’s what I’ve got: Rena, meaning joy, Ora, meaning light, and Tova, meaning good. Any of those sound right to you?”

Ziva glances from Tony to the baby and back, and then she shrugs, taking care not to make the baby unlatch. “I think they are all nice. You should choose.”

“Me? Why?”

He seems surprised enough that she laughs quietly; it’s a sweet sound. “I am the one who named Tali, and you did not have any input. We named Adam together. Now you can choose.”

Something soft about him grows softer, and he kisses the heads of both wife and daughter. “Are you sure?”

“I am.”

“In that case, maybe… Ora. I want her to have a life full of light, you know?”

“I think it suits her.”

“Ora it is, then.”

When Ora is done nursing, he tells Ziva to stay where she is and let him return the baby to her crib. He places the newborn gently on her miniature mattress, watches her fondly for a moment, then leaves.

Instead of going straight back to Ziva, though, he checks up on the other two. Tali is, as usual, barely visible under a vast mound of blankets; her feet are sticking out, however, so, shaking his head, Tony tucks them back in. Adam, on the other hand, is curled in a tiny ball, both little fists clenched in the fur of a stuffed buffalo someone gifted him on their last trip to the United States. Tony tucks him in again, too, because his heart is very full tonight.

He returns to bed, thinking about the meaning of his new daughter’s name: light. They’re all living a life full of that now, aren’t they? Things are happy, and easy, and they haven’t always been.

He can’t stay up long, exhausted as he is, but when he curls against the curve of Ziva’s back and goes to sleep, it’s with a faint smile on his face.

[ezatluba]

Mexico City’s ‘walking fish’

While gaining traction as a symbol of Mexico City, these curious amphibians offer hope for healing the human body, but face near extinction in the wild.

By Megan Frye

11 November 2019

Frankie was missing half his face. A fungal infection had come over the little axolotl, a native amphibian of the waterways of Mexico City.

But Frankie, along with other axolotls, have a special talent. Veterinarian and axolotl researcher Erika Servín Zamora, who was also Frankie’s caregiver, said she was astounded to see the animal’s remarkable regeneration abilities that she’d read about in her studies. Within two months, Frankie had grown a new, fully functional eye, and life was back to normal in his tank at the city’s Chapultepec Zoo.

Frankie might not have been so lucky in his native habitat, just about 30km south of the zoo. The axolotl, though gaining traction as a symbol of Mexico City, and specifically of the southern borough of Xochimilco, a Unesco World Heritage site, is nearly extinct in the wild due to increases in invasive fish species and water pollution in the city’s troubled canals. Making things worse, Frankie is an albino axolotl, which means he’s light pink with frilly, pink gills coming off his head – he’d be easy prey for Xochimilco’s invasive tilapia in the dark, murky waters.

Known locally as “water monsters”, axolotls have a love-them-or-leave-them appearance. For some, these 20cm-long, soft-skinned, water dwellers are considered adorable, with the appearance of a perpetual smile. For others, these four-toed amphibians are just plain odd.        

Many axolotl species are critically endangered

Despite their somewhat polarising looks, they are of particular interest to scientists hoping that axolotls like Frankie just might teach us humans the regeneration trick someday.

“Scientists are looking to benefit from the regenerative properties of axolotls by applying them to people who are injured in accidents, wars or suffering illness – people who lose limbs,” Servín Zamora said. “Others are looking for ways that axolotl regeneration can benefit human organs, such as by healing the heart or the liver.”

Axolotls are also helping Servín Zamora and other scientists understand the apparent resistance to cancer that all amphibians seem to have. “In 15 years, I have not seen any cases of malignant tumours in axolotls, which is interesting,” she said. “We suspect that their ability to regenerate cells and body parts helps them in that respect.”

Scientists are looking to benefit from the regenerative properties of axolotls 

And that's not all. Axolotls have been used traditionally throughout Mexico as a remedy for conditions associated with things like pregnancy, frailty and respiratory illness. A group of nuns in Patzcuaro, Mexico, legally breeds one axolotl species, ambystoma dumerilii, and uses the animals as an ingredient in cough syrup, though traditionally they were consumed as part of a broth.

Perpetual teenagers – and representations of the divine

Frankie is an ambystoma mexicanum, one of the 17 species of axolotl in Mexico. Found primarily in the states of Mexico, Puebla and Michoacán, many are critically endangered. Some species transform themselves into earth-walking salamanders by losing their tadpole-like tails and gills from their heads. However, this too depends on the environment. Frankie, for instance, living in captivity and therefore void of predators, will stay an eternal teenager. Never transforming into salamanders, axolotls like him will keep the tail they developed as a larva and live completely underwater.

Basically, they decide whether they will complete the metamorphosis

“Basically, they decide whether they will complete the metamorphosis, based on environmental stressors,” Servín Zamora said. “If they decide it would be better to live out of water, they will undergo the transformation into salamanders, but that can be a stressful undertaking in itself as they stop eating completely for that period. The current theory is that, for evolutionary reasons, the ambystoma mexicanum would remain in a juvenile state [somewhere between a tadpole and a salamander] because there was so much food in the water [such as charales, a small freshwater fish] and they had few predators, so there was little reason to emerge.”

Some axolotl species transform themselves into earth-walking salamanders 

Because of this tendency to change form, axolotls have a profound presence in Aztec (or Mexica) cosmogony. They were often recognised as a representation of Xolotl, god of the underworld and the malefic twin of the feathered serpent god Quetzacoatl, often represented as the sun.

When various gods were asked to make a sacrifice in order to create the world, Xolotl fled into the water. For his cowardice and reluctance to help, he was damned to live forever in the water and to suffer from eternal youth. For the Aztecs, death was transcendence, and to not complete that cycle meant being banned from reaching a higher realm.

A tourist attraction

Despite the axolotl’s endangered status, images of Frankie and his friends are plastered all over Mexico City, covering walls as street art and sold as plush toys in gift shops. An image of the ambystoma mexicanum axolotl will grace the 50-peso bill to be released in 2022. And Mexico City’s updated tour buses feature an image of an albino axolotl emblazoned on its double-decker sides.

The latest official Mexico City tour bus features the image of an albino axolotl 

Years ago, if you wanted to find an axolotl, all you had to do was look for a canal. Mexico City was built on the bed of what was once a massive lake, which the Aztecs used to create canals – as well as chinampas, floating islands made out of trees and mud that were used to grow food – for navigational and transportation purposes. Though the lake and much of the canal system have been drained over the years to make way for a growing population, more than 183km of canals remain in the Xochimilco borough, and 165 hectares of land and water are located in the protected area of the Xochimilco Ecological Park.

But rather than axolotls, visitors today are likely to see numerous migratory bird species and revellers on boats in the canals. The area has become heavily touristed and is best known as a place to go for a ride in colourful wooden boats called trajineras, where smaller boats come over full of mariachis, or to sell beer and refreshments.

Environmental threats

As trajineras are motorless boats, they are not thought to negatively impact the axolotls. However, the chinampas are not connected to the city’s sewage system, so waste often winds up in the canals. Other threats to the amphibians include the quick growth of non-native, ornamental aquatic plants, and pollution from industrial fertilisers, as well as invasive species such as carp and tilapia, which were introduced by the government in the 1970s to supply food to the formerly rural area. The latter idea was well-intentioned, Servín Zamora said, but not well thought out, as the carp and tilapia feast on young axolotls.

In Xochimilco's canals, many ride colourful wooden boats called trajineras 

“The problems that Xochimilco faces are not just environmental, but social as well,” Servín Zamora said. “People do not have enough income from their chinampas or ecotourism, so they tend to build their homes there [on their chinampa land, which is an affordable option as they already own the property] and for that reason urbanization has grown so much in those areas. Unfortunately, all the drainage from those homes goes directly into the canals, and that has caused tremendous pollution.”

In 2017, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) did a study monitoring the canals. While the results are still under review, it was shown that the water pollution is very serious in Xochimilco’s rapidly growing urban zones. Servín Zamora said there is hope of recuperating spaces still devoted to agriculture and therefore less likely to be tainted by pollution caused by overpopulation. “If we work hard with education, research and working directly in the area, we can rescue it, even if it’s just one part.” Still, the study found just one axolotl living in the wild in Xochimilco.

Saving the axolotl

Today, most axolotls live in captivity. Yanin Carbajal is the co-founder of Casa del Axolotl, a museum and aquarium dedicated to educating the public on axolotls, located in the town of Chignahuapan in Puebla. Her project started years ago with breeding tanks at her family’s ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains. The museum space located in town opened last year, featuring 15 to 20 axolotls of four different species.

Carbajal said she was motivated to care for axolotls because of their strong link to Mexico’s pre-Columbian history, their important implications for human health, and the goal to preserve the species and improve their habitats. However, she cautions potential pet owners that raising axolotls is no simple feat. While keeping them as pets around the world is legal, in Mexico it’s only legal to obtain them from a nursery accredited by the secretary of environment.

For some, axolotls are considered adorable, with the appearance of a perpetual smile 

“Ignorance is a big problem, with people taking them from the wild and keeping them as pets in some cases or selling them,” Carbajal said. “If people are able to breed them, well that is a positive. But if not, then that is not helping the species. As they live in still water lakes and lagoons, the temperatures tend not to fluctuate as quickly as they can in captivity [making captivity a serious undertaking].”

Mexico City has a few places where captive axolotls can be seen today, including Chapultepec Zoo, Zoológico Los Coyotes and the headquarters of tour operators Axolotitlánand Umbral Axochiatl, both in Xochimilco.

Pamela Valencia is the founder of Axolotitlán, a Mexico City-based operator that aims to educate locals and travellers on Xochimilco’s delicate ecosystem and the need to support axolotls, through tours with a cooperative of local chinamperos(chinampa farmers) in the ecological park.

The axolotl is a secret to save our city, our country and probably the world

“The axolotl is a theme in Mexico that has to do with politics, society, the use of resources, environmental and systemized education,” Valencia said on a warm afternoon at her axolotl refuge, where visitors can come to learn about the axolotls. “It’s a topic that touches on all the rubrics of society in one way or another. We believe that the axolotl is a secret to save our city, our country and probably the world. It’s an incredibly important animal that can inspire people to stop doing things [such as polluting] that we’ve been doing for a long time as a society, and to do better in many ways.”

Dionisio Eslava, president of Umbral Axochiatl, which works with Axolotitlán to organise tours in his native Xochimilco so that visitors can better understand the natural side of Xochimilco, said that closing the gap geographically, culturally and socioeconomically between central Mexico City folk and the farmers in the south is one way to help clean up the zone, and thus help the axolotls return to the area.

“Ecosystems are a type of security, not only for food but also water, oxygen and as an ally for facing climate change,” he said. “The big cities should support our ecosystems by visiting us and accompanying us in this treasure that is a great inheritance of all of humanity.”

Not only can this small and often overlooked animal guide us in protecting the planet, but it potentially holds the key to unlocking certain scientific mysteries.

Frankie lived to be eight years old – though captive axolotls can live 12 years or more – dying of natural causes at Chapultepec Zoo in 2010. Servín Zamora holds a special place for him in her heart because he was one of the first axolotls she ever worked with and she learned quite a lot from him – hopefully, the rest of the world will, too.

[chocolate-brownies]

RESILIENCE Powerful Practices for Bouncing Back from Disappointment, Difficulty, and Even Disaster

Linda Graham, MFT • New World Library

Missing your bus, dropping dinner on the floor, screwing up at work: These everyday hiccups may fluster, frustrate, or at times even tax your coping system, but they don’t usually knock you down, writes Linda Graham. It’s the bigger distresses, such as illness, death, or loss of security—particularly if they come one after another, pile on top of unresolved trauma, or include a heap of self-criticism—that can threaten to overwhelm us to the point of “falling apart and not being able to recover.” 

That’s where resilience comes in. The newest buzzword in psychological circles, resilience indicates our ability to recover from adversity. And after rigorous study, it’s also now believed to be the greatest indicator of one’s personal happiness and ability to thrive throughout life. 

In this easy-to-read and hugely informative guide, Graham explains the neuroscience of resilience (spoiler alert: Our early influences shape our future coping skills) and how we can continue to develop it throughout our lives. 

It’s this last bit—our ability to override old neural patterns, create new ones, and strengthen our minds and bodies to withstand the inevitable hits in any life—that makes this already useful book priceless. Graham combs the research and her own trove of best practices to explain how anyone can become more resilient, no matter where they start from. Through practices that build somatic, emotional, relational, and reflective intelligence, she demonstrates how the mantra of “little and often”—small experiences repeated many times—is the best way to create new habits; undo the effects of negative, harmful, or traumatic experiences; and strengthen your inner reserves.

A DOCTOR’S DOZEN 12 Strategies for Personal Health and a Culture of Wellness

Catherine Florio Pipas, MD, MPH • Dartmouth College Press

“For the first time in history, the current generation of young adults in our nation is less healthy than their parents.” This startling statement introduces Catherine Florio Pipas’s clarion call for personal health accountability. In A Doctor’s Dozen, Florio Pipas, a professor of community and family medicine at Dartmouth, demonstrates that many modern health concerns can be attributed to preventable behaviors and lifestyle choices. She outlines the most common of these preventable issues and prescribes a three-pronged strategy for tackling each through the lenses of self-awareness, self-care, and self-improvement. She presents a holistic approach that influences well-being on every level.

THE LITTLE BOOK OF MINDFULNESS 10 Minutes a Day to Less Stress, More Peace

Dr. Patrizia Collard • Gaia

Here’s one of those books that fits in a purse or pocket—presumably to keep close at hand for when you’re stressing out, zoning out, or simply want to take some time out. It’s chock-a-block full of wee practices of five to 10 minutes’ duration. (The 10-minutes-per-day in the subtitle is a little misleading: If you did all of the more than 20 practices in a day, it would tote up to about three hours.) Many of them are cleverly or intriguingly named (like Standing Starfish and Foot Scan) and playfully illustrated. All are accessible and easy to follow.

IN PRAISE OF WASTING TIME

Alan Lightman • Simon and Schuster

This slight, thoughtful text lauds “wasting” time from many angles: contemplation, creativity, divergent thinking, and enduring happiness. These qualities, Lightman asserts, are not trademarks of rare genius, but “habits of mind.” Even better, we’re already practicing them whenever we rest, play, or meditate. (As a nostalgic example, he conjures an afternoon spent gazing into a tadpole pond and wondering, not Googling, about the world.) He suggests Western culture could benefit from reappraising where we waste our time. Untethering once in a while from society’s hyperconnected, often counterproductive “grid” of distractions, we can simply be present, letting ourselves idle.  

NO PLACE TO GO How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs

Lezlie Lowe • Coach House Books

Ever gone into a store and bought something just so you could use the bathroom, been told a bathroom is for Employees Only, frantically searched for a place to go (perhaps, ugh, in vain), or waited in an interminable line at the ladies’ loo? Here’s a strong and thoroughly researched case for how mindless our societies are when it comes to one of life’s universal needs. With an aging population, gender fluidity, and shrinking infrastructure budgets, this problem is not going away. Here’s a chance to learn how we got here and what some brave and bright souls are doing about it.

INVISIBILIA Episode: Leave a Message

Let’s face it: Voicemail may not be long for this world. Technologies like email and texting have largely taken its place: They’re quicker and less intrusive. On the other hand, a 2016 study on the “cuddle hormone,” oxytocin, found that when we hear a loved one’s voice over the phone, our brain’s oxytocin response is almost the same as if we’d actually hugged them. Screenwriter Cord Jefferson considers “the power of the human voice, and what we lose when the voice goes away”—particularly if a family member’s life is cut short, glorifying the audible mementos in a voicemail inbox.

CBC RADIO, SUNDAY EDITION Episode: You can’t stop checking your phone because Silicon Valley designed it that way

Reporter Ira Basen digs deep into the “attention economy, where the biggest prize goes to those who can grab users’ attention and keep it the longest.” For Facebook, Snapchat, and the rest, your attention is what’s for sale. Basen journeys back to the dawning of “persuasive technology,” a term coined in the mid-1990s by Stanford behavior scientist B.J. Fogg. He taught tech pioneers how technology could supply beneficial tools for habit formation. But did it get out of hand? A lively debate ensues about who takes ultimate responsibility for the habits we form.

THE GUARDIAN Episode: Is compassion fatigue inevitable in an age of 24-hour news?

Elisa Gabbert prides herself on her awareness of goings-on in the world, but lately she has a case of “creeping, psychic exhaustion”: compassion fatigue, or secondary traumatic stress. Psychologist Charles Figley defined this in 1995 as “stress resulting from helping or wanting to help a traumatized or suffering person.” STS commonly haunts first responders and other professional caregivers. But thanks to round-the-clock news cycles, many people now feel emotionally numbed. “What happens,” Gabbert asks, “when the world wants more empathy than we can give?” This episode samples thought-provoking theories on empathy and considers how we might respond to its limitations.

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Pokemon GO update event taps McDonalds

The most recent replace to Pokemon Move brings on lured McDonald’s with “dancing pedals” as well as an upgrade for Rural users searching monsters. This set of updates requires no Pokemon Go report replace – until of path the player hasn’t up to date for the beyond numerous weeks. This replace is particularly server-aspect, this means that it’s Niantic’s transfer the turn, rather than that of the person user.

Customers in Japan will benefit this week from the modern McDonald’s sponsorship deal.

This “Golden Week”, as it’s called, many McDonald’s in Japan can be a part of a “Lure module party occasion.” In keeping with Pokemon Go Japan’s reputable Twitter account, round 2,500 “home” McDonald’s will be taking component within the celebration. Right here inside the USA, we will only cross our hands to be so fortunate to sit down round and devour french fries while catching tiny monsters.

The coolest information for United states

Based totally users who live out within the wooded area is a boom in rural spawns. customers that stay in areas with few or no Poker stops or Pokemon Gym locations are getting a lift in spawn regularity. Even as spawn spots might exchange little or no, several customers at some stage in the USA have stated that their own heavily-tracked Pokemon Cross surroundings have visible upwards of a ten%-15% boom in Pokemon spawns.

It turned into suggested all the manner returned in December that Rural and Suburban regions in Pokemon Move might get improved spawn charges for Pokemon of all types. because it turned out, we did indeed get extra Pokemon shooting up – and once Gen 2 was launched, the amount of non-piggy Pokemon expanded through quite a chunk. Simply after phrase of improved spawns, trackers like Kerrie on Reddit determined that most Pokemon spawns inside the following way:

The History of Pokemon – How Did Pokemon Become Popular?

The history of Pokemon began with one single japan guy named Satoshi Tajiri. It changed into his interest. Over time he determined to position his concept of catching creatures into practice, to provide children the identical thrills he had as a baby of catching bugs and tadpoles. Tajiri and buddies worked a whole lot of hours on designs and Tajiri even went with unpaid hours to make his goals come properly for the sport. It almost drove companions bankrupt, and numerous employees cease due to financial situations. The first Pokemon games, Pokemon red and inexperienced, got here to Japan on February 27, 1996, which fulfilled Tajiri’s goals. Due to the fulfillment charge in Japan with the Pokemon games, they released it distant places.

The anime, as well as Pokemon Yellow

Marked Pikachu as the maximum popular and recognized creature in Pokemon records, turning it into the franchise’s mascot. This brought about a small spin-off game referred to as Good day You, Pikachu!, which was launched in Japan on December 12, 1998, and in North America on November 6, 2000. This becomes a digital pet recreation, using the Nintendo sixty-four’s Voice Popularity Unit to allow the players interact verbally with Pikachu. Whilst the anime finished following the video games’ story with Ash’s defeat within the Pokémon League in January 1999, it commenced a new season in a new region referred to as the Orange Archipelago.

A chief overhaul of the principle game collection befell While Pokemon arrived on the sports Boy Develop on November 21, 2002, While Ruby and Sapphire Versions had been launched in Japan. Trainers determined themselves within the southern land known as Hoenn where a hundred thirty-five new Pokemon had been ready to be found. The video games reached North us on March 18, 2003, and had many new functions, the maximum distinguished being Pokemon Contests, Double Battles, Pokemon Capabilities and Natures for each Pokemon. Additionally added in those Variations had been extra types of weather and two new villain teams, Crew Magma and Crew Aqua.

The anime commenced a brand new series, Advanced Technology series

Which started out in Japan on an equal day as the release of the video games and reached North us almost a yr later. A notable deal was modified in this collection, including the creation of a new foremost man or woman, May additionally, primarily based on her recreation counterpart.

There are several generations of Pokemon, and there’s nevertheless future generations to return. While the arena modifications, so do the arena of Pokemon. 2016 marks the twentieth anniversary of Pokemon and might be celebrated by the re-launch of the unique Technology I center collection video games on the Nintendo 3DS’s. There are presently six generations of Pokemon, and over this term, there are numerous games, such as spin-offs, at the side of anime, movies, manga, a Trading Card game, music, and a musical.

Why Do Event Organizers Work With Lighting Companies?

Organizing an event may be worrying since you need to accomplish numerous obligations. Apart from that, organizing an occasion also can be luxurious. This is why to ensure that you may prepare your occasion well, it’s far great to work with dependable specialists. For example, when making plans to set up lighting, it’s miles imperative to call in lights groups. Fortuitously, running with such companies can offer you with numerous benefits that could help make your business occasion higher and more a success. Beneath are some of the following advantages.

Get entry to several lights solutions

One of the motives why many event organizers work with lighting companies is to benefit Access to several lighting fixtures solutions. As of now, there are various lighting alternatives event organizers can make use of. For instance, whilst organizing enterprise occasions, organizers can use lighting effects to emphasize their products or services. Plus, you could also find lighting which is good in making ranges greater appealing. On this way, they could attract people to emerge as clients. As a result, events can offer you with the quality results that may increase enterprise recognition and earnings.

Better visibility

Another motive why more and more occasion organizers work with lighting corporations is to revel in better visibility. There are instances when you may locate regions to your venues that are not handy due to insufficient lights. Fortuitously, agencies that offer lighting fixtures solutions can without problems assist you. This is viable seeing that they could offer you with shiny lighting to make event venues greater visible. Due to this, duties may be finished nicely.

Advanced safety

Running with lighting companies also can help make event venues safer. As referred to above, there are regions in venues in which there are no lighting fixtures. And, this may certainly motive sudden incidents. With the help of professionals, organizers can well deploy enough lights in their venue which lets in them to reduce or even save you accidents at some point of their event.

Growth venue aesthetics

In the end, lighting companies can boom venue aesthetics. this could be achieved with the aid of making use of various sorts of lighting consequences. Organizers can also locate lights that function a wide array of colors that may, in the end, turn simple areas into extravagant event venues. occasion organizers also can assist shifting lighting solutions that could entertain people. by the use of the proper lights, organizers also can improve the atmosphere of venues which could entice guests.

McDonalds Business Analysis

‘Inside the Nineties managers can be judged on their ability to pick out, cultivate, and take advantage of the core abilities that make growth feasible – certainly, they’ll rethink the concept of the company it self.’

C Ok Prahalad and G Hamel 1990

Organizations do not exist in the vacuum. They function inside an aggressive industrial environment. Studying its competition no longer best enables a corporation to identify its very own strengths and weaknesses however additionally assist to become aware of opportunities for and threats to the business enterprise from its industrial environment. SWOT analysis is a systematic analysis of these elements and the strategy that reflects the first-class in shape among them.

Let us examine these principals when it comes to the center competence of McDonalds, certainly one of the biggest food chain groups Inside the international. Let us first begin with the strengths and the effective factors which outline the overall performance of this organisation. How are we able to define the company’s strengths? Energy is a exclusive competence that gives the company a comparative advantage Inside the marketplace vicinity. For instance financial resources, image, market leadership and purchaser dealer members of the family etc

McDonalds is the no: 1 fast meals chain shops with a forty million clients journeying it in keeping with day

It has over 30,000 branches in one hundred twenty countries. It derives 80% of its revenues from eight countries like Canada, Brazil, Germany, France, Japan, United kingdom, Australia, and the US. The finest Energy became growing a picture In the minds of the people and introducing them to the short meals lifestyle. Transport velocity, client care, and cleanliness are the center strengths on which these shops multiplied. They created a corporate symbol and their advertisement campaigns were incredibly a success in setting up the logo picture and brand In the minds of the hundreds of thousands. Two predominant competitors usually diagnosed with McDonald’s are the Burger King and the KFC. McDonald’s advertising approach is involved with the inner resources, external environment and its fundamental capabilities at the side of its proportion holders.

Transport velocity, client care, and cleanliness are the center strengths on which these shops multiplied. They created a corporate symbol and their advertisement campaigns were incredibly a success in setting up the logo picture and brand In the minds of the hundreds of thousands. Two predominant competitors usually diagnosed with McDonald’s are the Burger King and the KFC. McDonald’s advertising approach is involved with the inner resources, external environment and its fundamental capabilities at the side of its proportion holders.