#ks ending part 1

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Anthony Robledo

The side effects of newly discovered COVID-19 strain XEC might not be as severe, but is part of the more contagious variant class, experts say.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines XEC as recombinant or hybrid of the strains KS.1.1 and KP.3.3., both from the Omicron family that became the predominant strain in the U.S. late December 2022.

The variant, which first appeared in Berlin in late June, has increasingly seen hundreds of cases in Germany, France, Denmark and Netherlands, according to a report by Australia-based data integration specialist Mike Honey.

XEC has also been reported in at least 25 U.S. states though there could be more as genetic testing is not done on every positive test, RTI International epidemiologist Joëlla W. Adams said.

"We often use what happens in Europe as a good indication of what might happen here," Adams told USA TODAY Friday. "Whenever we're entering into a season where we have multiple viruses occurring at the same time, like we're entering into flu season, that obviously complicates things."

What is the XEC variant? New COVID strain XEC is a recombinant strain of two variants in the Omicron family: KS.1.1 and KP.3.3.

The hybrid strain was first reported in Berlin late June but has spread across Europe, North America and Asia with the countries Germany, France, the Netherlands and Denmark leading cases.

Is the XEC variant more contagious? While there's no indication the XEC strain will increase the severity of virus, it could potentially become a dominant strain as Omicron variants are more contagious. However, current available COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots are particularly protective against XEC as it is a hybrid of two Omicron strains.

"These strains do have the advantage in the fact that they are more transmissible compared to other families, and so the vaccines that are currently being offered were not based off of the XEC variant, but they are related," Adams said.

Like other respiratory infections, COVID-19 and its recent Omicron variants will increasingly spread during the fall and winter seasons as students return to classes, kids spend more time inside and people visit family for the holidays, according to Adams.

How can we protect ourselves from XEC and other variants? The CDC continues to monitor the emergence of variants in the population, according to spokesperson Rosa Norman.

"At this time, we anticipate that COVID-19 treatments and vaccines will continue to work against all circulating variants," Norman said in a statement to USA TODAY. "CDC will continue to monitor the effectiveness of treatment and vaccines against circulating variants."

The CDC recommends that everyone ages 6 months and older, with some exceptions, receive an updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the virus, regardless whether or not you have previously been vaccinated or infected.

Norman urged Americans to monitor the agency's COVID Data Tracker for updates to new variants.

KP.3.1.1:This dominant COVID-19 variant accounts for over 50% of cases, new CDC data shows

What is the dominant strain of COVID in the US? COVID-19 variant KP.3.1.1 is currently the dominant strain accounting for more than half of positive infections in the U.S. according to recent CDC projections.

Between Sept. 1 and Sept. 14, 52.7% of positive infections were of the KP.3.1.1 strain, followed by KP.2.3 at 12.2%, according to the agency's Nowcast data tracker, which displays COVID-19 estimates and projections for two-week periods.

KP.3.1.1 first became the dominant strain in the two-week period, starting on July 21st and ending on August 3rd.

"The KP.3.1.1 variant is very similar to other circulating variants in the United States. All current lineages are descendants of JN.1, which emerged in late 2023," Norman previously told USA TODAY.

COVID XEC symptoms There is no indication that the XEC variant comes with its own unique symptoms.

The CDC continues to outline the basic COVID-19 symptoms, which can appear between two to 14 days after exposure to the virus and can range from mild to severe.

These are some of the symptoms of COVID-19:

Fever or chills Cough Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing Fatigue Muscle or body aches Headache Loss of taste or smell Sore throat Congestion or runny nose Nausea or vomiting Diarrhea

The CDC said you should seek medical attention if you have the following symptoms:

Trouble breathing Persistent pain or pressure in the chest New confusion Inability to wake or stay awake Pale, gray or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds

[alloutofgoddesses]

- Okay I avoided everything but the stills for the most part so I am Nervous but going in as blind as I can

- The ads shut the fuck up ads the fire fam is waiting for me

- 14 MINUTES

- EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

- this is rough and w just started

- OH BOY NOT THIS IMMEDIATELY

- I CANT EVEN BEGIN TO TRY TO EXPLAIN HOW I FEEL ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS OF ALL LF THIS

- EDDIE LOOKS SO BROKEN AND RYAN IS ACTING HIS GOFDAMN HEART OUT

- CHRIS CALLED THEM OH GOD

- AND THEN HEN

- HI MARA

- HATE THIS HATE THIS HATE THIS

- OOOOOOWWWWWWW

- Helena and Ramon I will get you

- AAAHHHHH

- I mean he’s not wrong but I still hate him

- SO BUCK KS SOMWHOW GOING FROM ALL LF THIS TO TMMY??? HOW

- Hi Maynard

- Oh god Athena can we just let other ppl do their jobs

- An “Ay, Dios” at least a apart of my prayer of “Eddie speaks more Spanish” has been answered

- Leave him ALONEEEEEEE ATHENA

- THAT MAN WANTS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU OR BOBBY JUST LET HIM LIVE IDCIF HE COMMITTED THE ARSON LEAVE HIM BEEE

- Oh god

- Athena put the gun back oh my god

- Who is Polly Martin

- Why are you here though

- You could have like knocked

- Where’s Harry also

- MADDIE HAN!!!!!!!!!

- At least we have one person making it out of this episode mostly unbothered

- HE IS READING THE PRAYER BOOK I AM FUCKED UP

- Also Hen Chim bestieism

- Athena is DEFINITELY the danger right now

- Leave him ALONEEEEEE

- ATHENA OH MY GOD

- Yeah he’s a travel nurse

- BOBBY ISN’T DEAD YET

- Can we all do a quick prayer circle for the demise of this fuck ass bob

- THE CARTEL AGAIN

- OH MY GOD 9-1-1 WRITERS THE ICE YOU’RE STANDING ON JUST CRACKED

- CAN WE NOT WITH THE FUCKING MEXICAN CARTEL STORYLINE I HATED IT THE MOMENT I REALISED IT WAS HAPPENING AND I HATE IT NOW

- Oh boy oh boy

- This is the reason Eddie doesn’t speak more Spanish bc the writers room is writing this shit instead

- Oh my god and bringing Herman in

- Over it over it over it

- Why do ppl keep projecting themselves onto Amir

- I hope he makes it out of this and changes his name and moves to the middle of the woods

- Let’s all leave Amir alone okay

- Athena are you for real right now

- Okay Mrs. Bobby Nash does kind of eat but really

- Really

- Setting a fire when there are still people inside

- Really

- Hi 133

- Amir now is the time! Leave! Go into witness protection so ppl will leave you ALONE

- Yeah Bobby’s fine

- Buck wouldn’t go have a date if he wasn’t

- Hi Bobby welcome back your wife went a little insane

- Hi Karennnn

- Madney side eye

- Oooooo they’re so gonna foster Mara until Henren can take her back

- And Phillip SUCKS ASS

- Sure bud

- Why? Would you want? Girl what

- He’s so weird. I’m so sorry but he keeps being so weird

- Ughhhhhhh hate this hate this

- OH NOOOOOO IT’S HAPPENING

- NO IT’S HAPPENING

- CHRISTOPHER BABEY

- I totally get it but why THEM Chris

- Hi Harry!

- Hi May!

- Aaawwwwww

- BUCK AND CHRISSSSS

- The little head shake oh god

- That’s his SOUL I’m gonna lose it

- HE WONT LOOK AT HIM AAAAA OW

- Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

- Augh

- OMG ITS HAPPENING

- IT’S HAPPENINGGGGGG

- Can this please be the start of MaddieKaren bestie time PLEASE

- HE CHOSE TO COME BACK

- AMIR CASEY

- I will accept it since he talked Bobby into not retiring

- HI RAVI

- BOOOOOOOOO GERRARD TOMATO TOMATO TOMATO

- oh god this is gonna be a MESS

- I hope it’s resolved by the end of the first episode of the season bc I don’t know how much Gerrard I can take

[fraternum-momentum]

killing stalking ramble belowww

!! tws for mentions of sa/rape, murder, abuse, etc. !!

(REALLY REALLY long, around 2k~ words. just be warned. also tmi in some parts.)

THIS IS NOT AN ANALYSIS !!!!! it def gets analytical in some parts, but i feel like i would need to reread ks a couple of times for me to feel confident enough to do a full blown analysis for it. these are just my thoughts that i want to get out of my head. really rambly for the most part, and separated into sections mostly for my convenience buy also to get my thoughts a little more organized.

what do i think about it?

it's great ! i really love the more thriller-ey aspects of it, esp when seungbae was investigating the whole thing. how he's trying to piece together everything and switching in between pov's was so so cool. love love love how extremely tense everything is, like ooo is he gonna get caught? is he gonna get killed?

ACAB but seungbae is the only police officer i'll salute to 🫡 (bc he's not real LMFAO)(and also he hates the police despite being one so)

season 1 is a great intro and it rlly gets u hooked, rlly went in super hard with the whole torture stuff. came in guns blazing n stuff. rlly rlly intense. the whole thing with jieun is just so sad man,,,,,,, like she was rude and all and she was an kind of an asshole to bum but i don't think she deserves to die over that 😭,,,,

there's also already a lot of foreshadowing and future callbacks planted into it. it makes me wonder how much planning went into the story :0 !! even early on it's pretty clear that sangwoo sees his mum in yoonbum, that's why he kept taking care of him after abusing him. he said ‘i love you’ out of the blue and bum thought he was talking to him and sangwoo replied ‘i was talking to my mom’. i mean, it's literally spelled out by the author in one of the qna's. i will be amazed if u didn't catch that somehow.

anyw season 2 is my fav because of reasons stated above. the tension is rlly great. when seungbae finally trespassed which led to the confrontation at the basement scene to when they were doing the interrogation was rlly rlly good. it shows how competent of a manipulator and a quick thinker sangwoo is. throughout it my heart was beating so fast i was so nervous JQHSHQ

seungbae rlly tried to pull through but unfortunately the people didn't believe him so woo and bum got away SCOT FREE,,,,,,, which caused seungbae to lash out on woo, then got laid off. DUDEEE i was so saddddddd, i mean i saw there were like 40 eps left so i knew he wasnt going to succeed but STILLLL i was cheering for him ykkk?

ep 34.

kinda tmi and i hope to fucking god it's not weird or anything but i can see myself in yoonbum.

LISTEN ok. not like the perverted stalker aspects. more of the whole jwhhr fuckk idk how to describe it without sounding pathetic or whatever but a while ago my brother and i had a talk about being careful with people bc of how bad my whole self esteem is and how easily i would be to manipulate and just how depressing my whole demeanor was or whatever and this scene in ep 34 where yoonbum was being interrogated by seungbae kind of left me a deep impression on me

i've def have asked myself something similar to this, idk maybe had talked to someone abt it when i was drunk as shit. but it i kind of started wondering if i would do that in his position. if i don't get any better, could i end up like him? eeeeeqjdb idkk its something i don't want to dwell on much but it's been at the back of my head ever since. i don't know. it's scary.

season 3 is more focused on characterization and developing the "relationship" between bum and woo. vv sangwoo centric. it deals with his past trauma and how it affected him. seeing how his childhood was initially and then the eventual reveal as to what really was happening in those scenes was so good. kind of shows how you never truly know what's happening behind closed doors. and it shows the extent of the abuse, how unstable his mother was, and how emotionally manipulative she was to sangwoo when he was a kid. then her eventual death in which she managed to gaslight him into thinking he killed her. at least, i think its implied that she drove the knife into her neck. and now, even when she's gone, her presence lingers and haunts him. quite literally too because its eventually revealed that her corpse was INSIDE THE FUCKING HOUSE.

i love how the dynamic turned from a dependency to a codependency. it's like watching a fire slowly spiral out and it becoming an huge shitstorm. it's interesting seeing that sangwoo needs bum too. right after he accidentally called bum 'mom' while they were having sex, that's probably the lowest he's been in, even begging yoonbum to not go and stay with him at home bc he's been so paranoid lately. even now i'm still not sure if bum was actually fucking the girl or if it was all a figment of woo's hallucinations.

there's a lot of particular scenes that i want to dedicate a small paragraph to but i don't want to make this longer that it alr is qkdh they're not anything life changing plus the implications are p clear anyway so,,

ending is insane. at first, i was kind of glad that bum seemed to be healing. like he was getting therapy, there was a person who was taking care of him, seungbae seems to be monitoring him regularly. i mean, he was still paranoid and stuff about being caught as an acomplice but he was fine for the most part. well, at least that was i thought until he started asking where sangwoo was and i kinda went oh no,,,

idkkkkk is it bad that i kind of felt bad for bum when he didn't get to see sangwoo for the last time? i mean, i want him to just move on with everything and heal but it was pretty clear he was still vv attached to woo so idkkkkk?? maybe its just me needing to have some closure or something? i was so sad that yoonbum didn't even get the chance to be truly happy in his life. even in his happiest moments with sangwoo, it was all just a skewed perception of love.

yk even if seungbae didn't go to woo's house one last time for that final confrontation, i feel like their codependent relationship would go to shit either way. but ahh,,,,,, bum deserved so much better,,,

seungbae my goat 🫡

small part abt him bc he's my fav

seungbae is interesting,,,, bc he def has violent tendencies much like sangwoo. i.e. lashing out at woo, wacking a guy out with a scanner (who, luckily, turned out to be a wanted criminal), hitting the guy who killed his father with a the golf club, dreaming and fantasizing about violently killing that said murderer multiple times, and probably more that i can't remember.. maybe a ‘two sides of the same coin’ kind of situation??? idkk

there's literally a part where seungbae said so himself that he and sangwoo were similar, immediately following it by saying that it was a dangerous thought. i think having a stable figure in his life (chief officer) helped him a lot. if he didn't have him, i feel like he could've easily ended up like sangwoo. all around green flag tho :3

my complicated feelings abt it:

idkkkkkkkkkkkkk like this is a thriller and it depicts a clearly abusive relationship but the fact that it feels so fanservicey to me feels so wrong to me ???????? like shit. i only started reading it bc i thought 'oh wasn't this bl or something? i don't remember lol. but sangwoo was hot, i should go read it' and proceeded to get my ass blasted with this is absolutely insane.

ok i'm gonna be completely honest i've always hated fanservice, so it's a completely biased take from me. like idkk it ruins the vibe of a scene. can't a good show just be a good show without all the panty shots and the weird ass angles?????? like okay, yeah, i literally draw porn but that doesnt mean i want porn/sexual in everything all the time.

like i get it. the sexual aspect of this is a necessary and integral thing. it's clearly there to depict that there's an imbalance of power. how sangwoo being on top feels more in control whereas when he's in a position of submission he gets angry or scared (a trauma response) and it's another aspect of abuse that a lot of characters experienced and it's all shown. but i think my issue is, when its with woo and bum there's like certain part to it where i'm just kinda like,,,,, you know that feeling when you feel like a sex scene in a movie is kind of going on for way too long? and ur just sitting there mildly uncomfortable by it and aughggyvh idkkk its weird,,,,,,, like should i keep watching or is this integral to the story???? am i going to miss any details or something anyone would say ?? and idk???????? like when bum or woo was sa'ed by adults they didn't depict it in such a,,,,,,, romantic?? light???? i'm not sure what to say but i feel like there's a difference in ambience and pacing and shit in a bunch of the scenes esp in season 3 but i guess it's bc they're in a 'relationship' ?????? idkk

in a way i can understand why they would present it like that ??? i'm probably reaching, but maybe it's to directly put the viewer in yoonbum's shoes and kind of see how sangwoo manipulates bum? like we as the viewer become victims ourselves of sangwoo's charms ????? maybe that's why it was psrticularly uncomfortable for me ??????????? dude idk,,,,

but like,, i've played btd/tpof before but i don't seem to have any problems with it, and that's literally torture porn or whatever but for some reason i draw the line at this apparently ????????

and i’ve thought about this really hard bc it was driving me nuts as to what the difference was. but maybe its bc it's kind of romanticizing it ??????????????? tbh i'm still not entirely sure. eh whatever i don't want to make it a big problem.

oh but fray, you draw noncon, dubcon, and gore ! arent you fetishizing it as well ? how is that any different ?

(this part is kind of tmi too) i think there's a fundamental difference between what i'm doing and having a cnc kink and depicting actual sa in a story.

no one is saying sa is not bad. for some people it's how they deal with the trauma they endured and for others its simply just a fantasy. cnc, in a real life setting, both parties are consenting and recognize that it's all just roleplay, if anything is out of the line you can opt out of it with a safeword and it's CRUCIAL that this safe word is respected. in a game like for example, dol, you can manipulate it into however you like. there's also cheats where you can just remove encounters altogether irrc. you're the one in control of the narrative.

i've had rape fantasies before (i play dol, don't be so surprised) but that doesn't mean i want to be fucking assaulted when i go out at night. and idk maybe like in ks it depicts all the gruesome and tragic parts of being abused, whether it be emotionally, sexually, physically, etc. and that's why it feels wrong framing it in that manner ????

idk my views about it aren't completely black and white. dude idfk i'm not an expert in anything. at the end of the day i'm just some random person who read killing stalking and just has some thoughts about it. anyw that's all 👍

[asexualbookbird]

It was not a great month for reading enjoyment. It did not start off strong, a book I was really looking forward to enjoying was boring as hell, and now my brain is too foggy to enjoy anything more complex I've been wanting to read. It WAS a good month in terms of volume, though. Two chonky books, and eight overall, if we care about those stats. Which I do a little bit. Numbers are arbitrary, but it does give me a sense of accomplishment when I read an 800 page book, I will not lie.

Eryie: Gryphon Insurrection by K Vale Nagle ⭐ - I'll admit, this is partially my fault. My brain skipped right over the Gryphon Insurrection part of the title, so I wasn't really expecting gryphon genocide, the children's novel. On top of that, it just wasn't well written! POV changes well over halfway through the book, no character is distinct, only thing it has going for it is it finally made me jump into Guardians of Ga'Hoole, but. uh. Well you'll see.

Dragon Pearl by Yoo Ha Lee ⭐⭐⭐- It was fine! Entertaining! I know YA and MG books don't have the luxury of going too deep into lore or anything, but it was really lacking here. She was sad about her brother being dead for like. One line. And then got over it. Kids deserve to read emotional depth! It was a cute adventure, but nothing I'd read again. It does make me more excited about Ninefox Gambit, though, because I can see the bones of good writing!

The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng by KS Villso ⭐⭐⭐⭐- Ow. What an end to a series. Everyone is awful, everyone sucks, except Khine, love of my life. It's always harder to talk about the books I like, but I did really enjoy this series. I'd like to reread it one day!

Legacy of Ash by Matthew Ward ⭐- I was sooooo looking forward to this. I even bought book two (at a secondhand shop thankfully) because I really thought I'd enjoy it. LOL. It took 800 pages to say nothing at all. It was long for the sake of being long. It was like four different plots trying to be one, and none of them really amounted to anything because the focus was so split. Really, similar problems as Priory, but at least that was gay.

The Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky (1-4) ⭐⭐⭐- Finally starting this series after a million years! It came highly recommended from many friends throughout my life, so I've naturally been putting it off. It's fine. I did really enjoy the first one, but reading more left me really picking it apart and it's a solid three stars for me. I think Animorphs is more well rounded, but it's still an entertaining series. My biggest gripe is the inconsistencies! Soren and crew decides to withhold information from the Guardians, and then the next book the Guardians have that information? And said they got it from the gang?? Not sure how th timeline works for Metal Beak to be Soren's brother when Metal Beak was supposed to be a Big Scary Enemy to all of owlkind. Thought it might be a Dread Pirate Robert's situation, but nope! Kludd has been the only Metal Beak! Kids deserve better lol I'll read what I have (eleven books) but probably nothing more than that.

I don't have reading plans or goals for February. I'm still sick, doing things is hard. I'm just trying to survive over here. If you have recommendations for easy to read silly books, I am all ears!

[h9o6]

[NEWS] Future Plans + 9 days left for our Kickstarter Campaign... Help us get funded!

Hello, this is H9O6! Today’s post is an announcement about the future of the game MY DEAR☆LOVE and its extended version, MY DEAR☆LOVE PLUS+.

We now have less than 9 days to reach our funding goal of $6,500 CAD, but we are only 20% funded. While we remain hopeful, we thought it is important to share our thoughts and plans for the future.

After careful consideration, we have decided we will not relaunch a campaign for MY DEAR☆LOVE.

What happens if the campaign is not funded?

Kickstarter will cancel all pledges. No rewards will be produced, however we plan to release the following for sale in the future:

Epilogue DLC “Wedding Day”: a new 3-part story with new sprites for the major characters. KS-exclusive CGs and content that are part of the backer rewards will not be produced.

Digital Artbook: will only contain contents of the free release. Any KS-exclusive content or content that were planned for the full extended version, MY DEAR☆LOVE PLUS+, will not be produced.

What does this mean for the game?

If we are not funded successfully, MY DEAR☆LOVE will be developed at our own cost and will be released as a free game for everyone! Consequently, the extended version MY DEAR☆LOVE PLUS+ will not be produced at this moment due to time constraints and the lack of funds.

Future Plans & Thoughts

We have a few announcements planned for the end of this campaign, including one that will be backers-only, so if you are a backer please look forward to it! There will be a small surprise :)

We are not discouraged at all by the lack of funding. In fact, we are very glad for the amount of support from the community despite us being fresh to the indie industry. We started our social media pages, game page, Steam page and etc. in such a short period (approximately 1 month and a half); everything was new to us and overwhelming at times, but we are proud of our tremendous progress and growth as an indie studio and as individuals. This journey has helped us to grow greatly and your incredible support drives us to continue! We would like to express our sincere gratitude for your belief in our work. Thank you!

We have many projects planned alongside with the free release of MY DEAR☆LOVE. Please stay tuned by checking out our Twitter and MY DEAR☆LOVE on Steam.

If you like our work and would like to support us, please consider making a donation through our Ko-fi or PayPal Me. Any support means the world to us!

In closing, we would like to share a rough draft of a side character, Tamami, a new classmate at Katsuya’s kindergarten. She has an important role in the story so please look forward to it!

[septicwriters]

It's still Pride Month, so here is my last contribution:

Good Omens s3 Musical

This egg has been hatching for a while, so here we go!

A tale of woe of star cross lovers. I shall give a brief description of the happenings for each song. The basic gist of the story is Crowley and Aziraphale mourning eachother, missing the other by looking at the past and the missed future. A story of madness, guilt, betrayal, and an apology long overdue.

1) Get back up again, Aziraphale moving through the motions of being Supreme Archangels, fixing problem after problem while trying to stop Armageddom part 2. He tries to keep a steady smile through it all, even with that small voice in the back if his head that says he won't fix anything, and it all comes to a head when he gets a letter from hell, that Lord of Hell, Crowley would like a meeting with him.

2) Gossip, after Aziraphale begs to hear why Crowley would rather take the reigns down here instead of heaven, Crowley snaps. He knows that the angel is attracted to them, so he dances around Aziraphale, spouting this song at him with acid on his tongue. He drags the angel around in a dance Aziraphale is not familiar with. Crowley does get his point across, that Aziraphle is viewing heaven, Hell, earth, and them through a visage and that he doesn't see the real picture. By the end, Azirphale is kicked out of Hell, on his knees with silent tears, feeling he doesn't even know the demon anymore.

3) The Phoenix, After their conversation, eachothers "trust advisors" (i.e. Metatron and Husker) try to get them tk forget the other, and outright fails. This song is a duet for the two, sort of, but it is sung to show their true colors. They plan to use Crowley and Aziraphale as puppets, figureheads, to get their war. This is them singing as they shape Crowley and Azirpahale as their chosen leaders.

4) Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Azirphale sneaks out of heaven and hunkers down at the bookshop. He is ever so tired and decided to try to Sleep, wanting to be close to the demon he used to know. But, his first attempt at sleep leads him to nightmares kf Crowley birating him, calling him a monster, and saying that Aziraphale should have fell instead. He wakes up and cries, deciding to put aside his feelings, the Metatron was right, he is a demon.

5) Freak on a Leash, this is sort kf Crowleys descent into Madness, it begins on him deciding to take the thrown of heaven and telling himself to forget Aziraphale while also pining for him. His eternal struggle leaving him waning and weak.

6) 21 Guns, this song is for Crowley and Aziraphale, struggling together. Trying to stop the oncoming war but utterly distracted by their shattered heart. They think back on their kiss, how close they came, before they fell away. This time, Azirpahle sends out and invitation to Crowley to meet at the Bookshop.

7) Krytpnite, Crowley sings this song after Azirpahle tries tk get through to him and he laughs like an insane person. He sings as a way to scare the angel away. This songs tells the angel that Crowleh is loosing himself and he knows it, but he can't stop, and the only thing that will stop his spiraling descent, is Azirphale, one way, or another. Once again, they do not part as friends.

8) Given up, Crowley returns to Hell fuming and this is him lashing out. He tosses his thrown, crushes his crown and yells at Hastur. He frightens all of hell as his pain is let out. Hastur smiles, seeing his work coming to an oncoming fruition.

9) Innocently Annoying, Hastur puts another step into his plan by sending demons down as Crowley. Azirphale sees these demons as hallucination and tries tk avoid these guilt tripping demons. By the end, he goes back up to Heaven we're he receives word that Hell has declared war.

10) Miss Murder, Crowley, shattered and broken down numbly rallies his forces. He doesn't even know what ks happening, but Hastur is thrilled, his armies are ready and the war is upon them. Both sides meet at a certain point at Hell and at the beat drop of the song, Crowley charges his armies.

11) Decode, Aziraphale watches with wide, unbelving eyes as Crowley sends Hell to fight. He wades his way through, trying to get to the demon and demand answers.

12) Fighting Myself, Crowley sings this song, once Azirphale amd him lock eyes. He let's the angel see him discoportate angels without a care, telling Aziraphale to stay back because he can't stop.

13) Apology song, Azirpahle gets too close and Crowley begins to fight him, not wanting tk hurt the other, he tries tk apologize, this is when he starts tk sing. He tosses his flaming sword aside and avoids Crowleys own sword. He pushes and pushes until he can reach Crowley, taking off tje crown and his glasses, he kisses him. Crowleu collaspes in his arms.

14)There should be another song here to show them stopping the war, but j have no idea.

15) All the Right Moves, Crowley sings this song, better and back tk normal, telling Aziraphle his plan for their future together at the cabin in the Southdowns, happy ending

If anyone would like tk add to this, or replace songs, please, add on, I'd love tk hear from others!

[msn-04iinightingale]

The Hanged Man: Rumor

/RECORDING TAKEN FROM NEARBY SURVEILLANCE STATION AROUND HAWK FOB PERIMETER

/BEGIN PLAYBACK

Voice 1 (ID Pvt. Fredrick Deerfield): ...hey...you hear about what happened at Utah?

Voice 2 (ID Pvt. Kennith Strumman): No, what?

Pvt. FD: Heard one of the mercs they hired executed one of the POWs.

Pvt. KS: What? No shit. Knew they were a dodgy bunch. Which one?

Pvt. FD: Yeah, I know. They say it was that McEvedy guy. The one from the company with that black dog logo.

Pvt. KS: Barghest Company.

Pvt. FD: Whatever, anyways, yeah, guess the POW was somehow responsible for the death's of two of his men, and then he just snapped, but that's not even the worst part, the worst part is how he did it.

Pvt. KS: He step on em in his mech or something? Saw that happen to a guy once...was sick for a week...

Pvt. FD: Nah. The way the guy I know tells it-

Pvt. KS: The guy you know, huh?

Pvt. FD: Yeah...well...ok the guy who knows the guy I know tells it, he dragged him out of his mech after he surrendered, and hanged him.

Pvt. KS: Hanged him?

Pvt. FD: yeah, and while he was up there, kicking and dangling, he sat down and had a drink and just watched him die.

Pvt. KS: Jesus...

Pvt. FD: tell me about it.

Pvt. KS: ...this guy the guy you know knows...he on the level?

Pvt. FD: Of course, heard it from an MP himself. Says they couldn't find any evidence or whatever, or that he knows something about one of the higher ups is the only reason he's out and about. Blackmail or some Politics or whatever. Guess one of his people's giving it to the Cameron or something.

Pvt. KS: Huh.......makes me glad he's on our side...

Pvt. FD: You can say that again...fuck it's cold out here...and this coffee sucks ass...

/END RELEVANT PORTION OF RECORDING

[lizziexmeow]

END OF THE DAY SUMMARY UPDATE (240814) LINKS

Just click and scroll through these links to check what post you’ve missed🤍

1

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[admiral-mason]

Destroy The System: Part 2

Read Part 1 here

As the game loaded in, you saw your starting army and the twelve buildings. The HQs, barracks, and workshops of all four factions were available at your disposal. Your population count was also huge with a max amount of 180.

You moved your vision to different areas of the minimap. The map is a forest, with a river dividing both sides. You had to cross two bridges, one on the right and one on the left, to get to the other side. There were few resource points to capture; only two iron mines and one oil pump. You were closer to an iron mine, and the enemy was closer to the oil pump. The other iron mine was to the left of the map.

You checked your starting resources, which were 750 iron and 400 oil. You also had an iron mine and oil pump at your disposal, which was the same for your enemy. Your first action was to upgrade both your iron mine and oil pump to their bigger versions for more resource production.

Then, you ordered your starting army to capture the iron mine. Using some of your starting resources, you upgraded the workshops of all four nations. You planned on using the M-29 Salems and S3-55 Ward exoskeletons the most.

Nahida informed you that these were only basic units; this meant that they lacked their machine gunners and Rycerz exoskeletons, but still had access to anti-armor gunners. You decided that the best things for you to currently produce were three M-29 Salems and a squad of S3-55 Wards.

I've got company!

Was what you heard when your Smialys ran into a squad of two Polanian riflemen. The rifllemen quickly got behind cover, and the Smialys fought against the infantry using their attack. You decided to move up your SHM-60 Groza exosuits to deal with the riflemen.

Quickly catching up to the riflemen, you used the Grozas' rocket jump ability to deal additional damage against them. With one squad distracted by the Grozas, you moved the Smialys to finish off the other. Both of them ended up retreating, with you moving your units back to your starting army. A few seconds later, an M-29 Salem was finished.

Union Model 29 reporting as ordered!

The SHM-86 Kolokol finished production shortly after, so you decided to push your army forward a bit as you waited for production to finish.

Meanwhile, back with Nahida, she was sending a telepathic message to all vision holder users, also known as your acolytes or your playable characters in Genshin Impact.

"Everyone! I managed to contact our grace and convinced them to help us be free! Come to Sumeru, and I can let us give them moral support."

All vision holders started heading to Sumeru. It didn't matter how, they just got there. Nahida revealed to everyone the area where Irminsul was located.

"I must ask, have you truly managed to gain our divine one's attention?" Ei asked.

"Mhm!" Nahida nodded in response. "I can show you his point of view if you all would like for me to do so." Everyone chatted for a while, before unanimously agreeing on Nahida's course of action. She used Irminsul and conjured up a screen to your perspective. Currently, you were attacking one of the System's PZM-9 Strazniks, which is apparently an idiot because it refused to move while attacking (which is the entire point of the mech). It was drained down to 100 HP before it tried to retreat, but it exposed its rear armor while doing so. Your Smialys attacked it and it blew up, leaving behind a wreck that an enemy PZM-7 Smialy ran over that was accompanied by some Polanian riflemen who promptly got knocked over by your ZR-3 Revere before they moved to cover.

"What are those things?" Bennett asked. "Whatever they are, that giant cluster of them looks to be our Grace's, while the enemy uses nearly identical ones," Ningguang asked.

Back to your perspective, you witnessed the Smialy retreat due to being critically damaged. Then a small force consisting of one of each: Rycerz, Grozas, and Wards, joined your main cluster. Two more mechs, an Sd. KS 49 Grimbart and an Sd. KS 78 Isegrim, also joined. You decided that this was a good enough squad, and crossed one of the bridges to attack the enemy's HQ.

A bunker manned by machine gunners, riflemen, and anti-armor gunners guarded the way to the HQ. You moved up all of your mechs and made the Grozas rocket jump to the enemy's backlines, letting them deal with the anti-armor gunners which caused trouble for your mechs. The System wouldn't go down easy though, as it used its forces defending the HQ to also fight against your main army. They consisted of two Strazniks, four squads of riflemen, and three squads of anti-armor gunners. But they lacked a hero unit as well, so that was a plus. You then set up the field cannon and dealt a blow to one of the Strazniks.

One of our units is now veteran!

One of the Groza squads became veterans. You quickly used their ability "Brothers in Arms" to add two more members. An M-29 Salem and a squad of Rycerz also became veterans, so you used both of their abilities.

Some of your units such as the ZR-3 Revere and infantry took heavy damage. You retreated them, not willing to lose some units capable of being veterans later on. the fight was won in your favor. You moved everyone to attack the HQ and win the fight.

You didn't care for the results and titles as those were for display in this scenario. When the time came for units to depart, you saw that you could also depart without paying prices. You departed with:

All of your infantry squads (3x Polanian riflemen, 1x Rusviet engineers, and 1x Saxon medics for a total of five infantry squads)

2x SHM-60 Groza squads

2x S3-55 Ward squads

2x M-29 Salems

1x Sd. KS 78 Isegrim

1x SHM-86 Kolokol

As you took over the enemy's first territory, you unlocked the artillery mechs of all four factions (PZM-13 Mocny, SHM-68 Nakovalnya, SLL 33 Erlkonig, and M-8 Attucks) alongside their tier 1 infantry heroes (Anna Kos, Olga Morozova, Gunter von Duisburg, and Sita Al-Hadid) with slots for all of them. The thing here is that all your heroes were MAX TIER. Jesus, Nahida has lots of tricks up her sleeve. However, your screen turned slightly black, and you were brought to another cutscene.

This time, it looked as if you were in Sumeru, in the area where Irminsul was located. Many characters were in the background, and you could recognize Bennett, Fischl, Beidou, etc. Nahida looked at you before smiling warmly.

"You managed to take down the first of the System's many seals. I'm grateful for that, your grace. Do you like the max-tier 'hero' units?" She said before everyone else turned to your screen and asked you tons of questions.

"What are those things? Where are you fighting the System at? Will we ever be freed?" These were some of the questions they asked, and Nahida calmed them down.

"I'll answer them," you said in the handy chat box that was located here again. "Those things you see are exosuits and mechs. Exosuits are the smaller ones moving in groups of three while the larger individual ones are mechs. I'm fighting this 'World System' as Nahida calls it in a game or perhaps a realm in your eyes known as Iron Harvest 1920+. As for the final question, I will try to free you all. The System can go eat my ass, it's going down one way or another!"

You sent the message and your acolytes read it, before cheering a bit in response.

"Nab that system! Take it down! Blow it apart, your grace!" were some of the things they said. Nahida simply closed her eyes and smiled as the screen started to slowly fade, ending the cutscene.

Your income production had upgraded to 600. Since the enemy lacked turns, you gained your coins and bought out six more slots. You also just noticed that EVERY slot cost 50 coins, so that was a benefit. You filled three of these slots with ZR-3 Reveres, and the other two went to two SLL 33 Erlkonigs and an SHM-68 Nakovalnya.

With this new tech by your side, you moved your army to the next region, with a defensive value of 8.

Genshin Impact is owned by miHoYo. Iron Harvest 1920+ is owned by Jakub Różalski and KING Art Games.

[bi-lavelent]

Brie Larson x fem-reader

Warning: Angst, Fluff, Cussing, Bullying

Thank God For Theater Chapter 3

Theater is Something that in compases many things not just acting, it's a way to put yourself out there.  It's a way to start not caring what others think and you don't have to be on Broadway for you to be able to be affected by theater. theater can move you in many spectacular ways."- y/n Y/L/N

My moms name was all over the news of the worldwide.  No matter where I went I would never be able to escape her. When I started theater I prayed that It didn't get any worse all the teasing and name calling. I knew that if I had memorized everyone in the 500 page play (holiday island a play about a bunch of brits on holiday.) I would finally be able to escape.After a while of feeling the escapism that theater provided to me. I realize that theater was what i wanted to do with my life no matter what, It was an escape from everything going on around me. So i was going to try everything to get there no matter what anyone told me even if i failed once i got there at least i got there at least i wasn't with my mother anymore. When I got home I found the letter that I had been praying for my mother was put in jail on a death sentence, Finally something good in my life. 

It was the first day of theater If I didn't see him  long Blonde hair, hazel eyes, Muscles, sunglasses, Button up plaid shirt, and Genes. I couldn't be falling for someone. Not again  I don't know  what I was thinks but I mean just one look at him and your in love. I Probably could have talked myself out of my  feelings if I hadn't heard him talk his voice could part the sea. But at the same time  put a baby to sleep. But the moment he spoke he hypnotized me with every word. But if he knew who I was he wouldn't want me. A couple weeks went by. I had gotten some friends there in the theater that did not judge because of my mother. 

Rose,Alaska,lucy,Zia,Indgo they were not at all like me they were dark and talked about murder a lot and later on I found out that they would wright letters because they were in love with my mother they found criminals hot. At one point in time one said that hitler was extremely hot. Un surprising to me well wrighting this they have all ended up in prison. But the moment they found out I had a crush on Markus(the ks silent) Daniel Amor Traydon. he had my heart in knots and I had nothing to lose hell even as an adult and I could lose everything I still do it. I got tired of waiting for him to ask me out why can't a women do it I had done it before given it was with another women but I mean if he said no what was the worse thing that would happen. 

"Hay" I yelled towards his direction

He walked over to me "Yes" 

" Do you wanna hang out sometime?" I asked

"sure." he said 

We heard the Director say "okay everyone go sit."

"Meet me after class, I'll give you my information." he said

I went and sat down the director had went around and asked everyone who he rounded on me and what about you ,"Mrs.Michael" he said

"Tina sir" I said

"Are you sure?" he asked

"1. As sure as I could ever be, 2. As sure as you were when you asked your ugly wife  to marry you,  3. As sure as you were when you asked your ugly wifes hot sister to sleep with you, 4. As sure as your wife when she divorced your ass.  Dose that answer you question?" I said

"You have confidence I like that It will get you far in this Job." he said

"Thanks sir." I said

"Okay work on that you got the confidence down but you need to not be a pushover." he said

 "I'm not a pushover. I'm stronger than you so unless you wanna get physically pushed over and hurt by me move on to the next person." I said

"Okay moving on is everyone ready for starting reading lines Ann why don't you start." he said

Okay im reading Act 1 Scene 1 Line 5, I looked straight blinked. "Yes, definitely with a pool-view and a telly weren't it Tone?" i said this with a very emphatically and a little concerned voice

"Moving on."

I looked down knowing that my British accent wasn't the best and that I was competing for this part with people who had done Theater before. But I really didn't care. I gave it my all and acted with my heart not my mind.

after class I walked up to Markus'' how's life?"

"great" he said

"yah mine too." i said

"Here mine and my mom's number." he said ,"call me when you wanna hangout." 

"Okay see you tomorrow." I said

I walked out to my grandmas car. and got in "hay grandma" I said she started to drive away.

"Hello kido, how was class today?" She asked.

"I think it's time I'm ready to go back to school." I said.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes," I said "I wanna go back to school." 

"Well I'll call John and will get you into a school." She said "What school?"

"The one I went to as a Kid," I said

"Okay i'll see what I can do." She said

"Thanks." I said as I looked out the window

My grandma must have called John and Told him because he showed up the next day to the house my grandma was out of the house

"Hay kido" John said

"JHON!" I screamed running up to him Hugging him

"Wow someone happy to see me." John said

"Your Like a father, a Best friend and a Brother so i'm always happy to see you." I stated with a smile  "How is everyone at the police station?" 

"Well Peter got married to his girlfriend, Liam got engaged, Roy adopted a puppy and got married to his boyfriend, Rodger and his wife had their third kid and Zack and Tony started dating each other and my wife's pregnant with our baby. Steve and Kyle aren't up to much." He said

"How long have i been gone?" I asked surprised 

"haha yeah alots happened your grandma told me that you wanna go to school i'm okay with this but we've got to get you accommodated back into school so a couple of us officers are coming with you to keep you safe." he stated

"No sorry I love you guys but I feel like I'll be made fun of a lot." I stated 

"exactly that's why we're going to be undercover." he said

"Okay fine." I said sarcastically

"You know we are your family i mean you said that i'm like a brother to you so what you worried about." he said

"Me trying to flirt with boys and girls or them trying to flirt with me and you guys beating them up." I said

"Me and the boys won't do that." he said

"Okay sure" I said sarcastically

"Okay you start school tomorrow so go sleep." he said

"thanks John" i said

The next day I got in the car with john in the morning, and arrived at school it was 8th grade  john walked me to the office and told them who I was they gave me someone to show me around school.

 "this is Markus." the office lady said.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Markus said.

"I go to school here now." I said.

"Oh hang out with me i'll show you the ropes." he said

"okay." I said "Bye John"

me and Markus walked out to the hallway.

“ hay i'll give you some tips don't mention who you are or Theater trust me I know its hard but The kids here are really mean they are really mean and need to be taught a bunch of lessons like how not to back talk teachers." He said

"You don’t need to tell me twice they can’t be worse than me buddy im it as nice as you think. But you might need to get closer to me to figure that out.  I said

We walked to class staring at each other 

"Here we are." I said

"Students please welcome our new student Mrs." the teacher said

 before I cut her off

"Lee I said Mrs.Lee." I said

"Okay students say hi." The teacher said

The teacher pulled me to the side when everyone was outside. "It says your last names Y/L/N why did you say Lee?"

"Because Y/L/N my moms last name yes I am being raised by her mom but I don't want to be connected with her my moms not a nice person and if people find out what she has done hell i'm scared of my mother she's a scary person so i've taken my fathers name i'm making it legal within the once my grandfather gets back from his hunting trip. In a few days. My grand,a dose not like the courthouse." I said

"Just because there's people that we hate in our lives does not mean that we need to get rid of things that connect us with them." she said,"you have a chance to take your last name's legacy and change it, don't throw it away." She said

"Well if I happen to change my names legacy and do what I want with my life and become famous there's already enough judgment in that job that with this hanging over my head then It might give me a heart attack but being famous will also make me happy and jump with joy all I want is to be old enough to move out and fall in love and start a family of my own. But I'm scared that I'm going to go down the same path as my mother." I said

"The more you say that to yourself the more you are going to fail you need more confidence." She said

"That's funny, my theater director says I have two lot of confidence." I said 

"Well we all have confidence, we just all spend it in different places so spread that confidence around." she said

"Hey Y/L, come hang out over here." Markus said

"Sure." I said

Later that day me and markus were in science chatting well the teacher was talking we didn't hear what she said

"Markus, Ann since you too are so chit chatty you too are partners."

She said

After school Markus said "come to my house and do the project there." 

"Okay" I said "let me call my lift my family is  a bit overprotective so they might come." 

"Okay that's fine." He said

I called John and He told me that he would have to come with me a couple minutes later. John was waving from the car.

 I said “see you in a few”

 to markus and went into the car buckled and drove to his house. Me and Markus were in the kitchen and his mom and John were in the living room talking. John had told me that we have to leave by nine. 

"So who is that guy?" Markus siad

"Well he's my best friend." I said

"I'm not your best friend." Markus said

"Well he's different." I said

"He's too old for you, you need to date someone your own age." Markus said

"Not like that. It's complicated." I said

"You can tell me anything." He said

"Well John was the Police officer; that arrested me when I was 7. I was a troublemaker and got in a lot of trouble; for threatening to kill a kid. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal, if Columbine had not just happened. My mom refused to pick me up from the police station. I waited there for a few years till a family member would pick me up. That never happened. When my mom got arrested for selling drugs. I went to my dad he started to drink and abuse me, I got really scared and ran back to my home the cops, there my home there my family. Then I went to my grandmother's house and wanted to know stuff about my family and it turned out that my mother had killed a bunch of kids and adults and was a child sexual predator. John is just a bit over protective of me. All of the cops at that station treat me like family.” I said

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't know." He said

"No it's okay. The court mandatory therapist said that I need to talk about it." I said laughing

"Do not worry I wont tell anyone." He said

"I'm not worried." I said we both started to lean in and look at each other's lips, "I think I should probably be going." 

"Okay see you tomorrow." He said

"Yah yah okay bye."I said

Me and Markus worked on the project for a couple weeks, and didn't talk about what had happened but then the day that we had finished the project.

"Hey, I really liked hanging out with you. Would you like to see a movie with me this weekend after our final theater performance." Markus asked

"sure." I said

John was okay with me going Markus. and I went to a horror movie. which I hated because of paranoia. I already feel like i'm being watched 24/7 so I try to avoid. Anything scary there was a big jump scare and I grabbed Markus Hand after the movies. He asked if I was okay. I didn't say anything I just looked into his eyes and then down at his lips I wasn't going to do it but then he kissed me and I kissed him back. 

"Hay do you want to come over to my house and watch a Superhero movie." he said 

"yah sure." I said

We started dating from there on into highschool senior year. I was a fresh 17 and he was 19. I thought we were meant to be together forever. That he was going to be the father of my children. I still remember freshman year I had gotten onto the Volleyball, Basketball, Wrestling, Boxing and Golfing team as well as still doin theater outside of school. He was a proud boyfriend; he was the one cheering the loudest at the games and performances and when I made the honor roll he was the first one to text me. It was my final Basketball game before summer junior year  and he had hijacked the sound system and started playing my favorite song as soon as I made the basket even though he knew he would be in trouble he told me he didn't care just as long as he got to see my smile. He caressed my face and kissed my forehead. I had my whole life planned out with him. When I turned 17 though everything changed he was 18 and politics were happening he asked me what I would do if i could vote and we got into a big fight that's why I don't vote know as an adult that one moment has ruined my entire life and also saved me I was able to pass all my classes with flying colors. But home life wasn't the best. At 15 my grandma had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer and Liver Cancer. She was fighting as hard as she could but she died a couple weeks before I turned 17. It was just me and grandpa. He tried to make me feel better but nothing helped. She was the only mother figure I had up till then, she was my everything. At 17 I graduated and John and all the cops came. I saw Ezra lee for the first time in a long time after the ceremony. I walked up to her and just said sorry. I didnt realize that she was not aware of what had happened and that our father had told her that her mother was just gone for work

(I need to catch up on all my story’s there will be parts posted by next week and I will figure out how to do a master list.”

[rainbow-string-tied-me-to-you]

Lyrics from 1989TV Vault that made me feel insane

Aquamarine, moonlit swimming pool/What if all I need is you? (The "Need" usage in 1989tv is gonna kill me, I swear)

Love thorns all over this rose/I’ll pay the price, you won't (DOUBLE STANDARDS AHHHHHHHHHHH)

And if they call me a slut/You know it might be worth it for once (STOP! STOP RIGHT NOW, TAYLOR MOTHER FREAKING SWIFT)

Everyone wants him, that was my crime (GOLD RUSH AHHHHH)

In a world of boys, he's a gentleman (YEAH, HE IS. THAT'S MY BOY. Also, Taylor can never drag Harry without saying something nice first lmao)

I've known it from the very start/We’re a shot in the darkest dark (HELLO, GETAWAY CAR???)

I’m standin' on a tightrope alone/I hold my breath a little bit longer (Not the mirrorball reference)

'Cause you kiss mе and it stops time/And I'm yours, but you're not mine (KILLED ME, I'M DEAD ON THE FLOOR)

I'm tryna see the cards that you won't show/I'm about to fold unless you (FINE LINE REFERENCE AHHH)

I said, "I love you" (I said, "I love you")/You say nothing back (HARRY FREAKING STYLES, YOU MASSIVE DONUT)

You went to a party/I heard from everybody/You part the crowd like the Red Sea (She said "Moses")

Remind myself the morе I gave, you'd want me less (STOP, I'M ALREADY DEAD AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)

I cannot bе your friend, so I pay the price of what I lost/And what it cost, now that we don't talk (To be so lonely parallelssjnckjsdbnjsd)

What do you tell your friends we/Shared dinners, long weekends with? (REMINDED ME OF CHAMPAGNE PROBLEMS' "How evergreen our group of friends/Don't think we'll ever say that word again")

I don't have to pretend I like acid rock/Or that I'd like to be on a mega yacht/With important men who think important thoughts (YACHT GATE)

You had people who called you on unmarked numbers/In my peripheral vision/I let it slide like a hose on a slippery plastic summer (HARRY YOU SON OF A BTCH!!! Also, reminded me of that scene from blank space mv)

You were so magnetic it was almost obnoxious (GORGEOUS AND GOLD RUSH PARALLELS)

When you hold me, it holds me together/And you kiss me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever (Wtf Taylor?? 😭😭😭)

I had the fantasy that maybe our mismatched star signs/Would surprise the whole school/When I ended up back at our class reunion/Walkin' in with you (AhHhHhHhHhHhHh there's still time please 😭😭😭 Also, someday parallels with the lyrics "Someday maybe when we're old and gray/We could be in love once more/'Til then I won't give my love away/Darling, I'm forever only yours) I broke my own heart 'cause you were too polite to do it (I'm gonna off myself)

I dash to the door/You don't knock anymore and my whole life's ruined (hits different parallels "I heard your key turn in the door down the hallway/Is that your key in the door?/Is it okay? Is it you?/Or have they come to take me away?/To take me away" I see your profile and your smile on unsuspecting waiters (the 1 parallels)

You dream of my mouth before it called you a lying traitor/You search in every model's bed for somethin' greater, baby (JDK VKJD KS KJNSVDKKJDBVKJSFN HE'S DEAD AGAIN)

Whеn you lost control (Uh-huh)/Red blood, white snow (Uh-huh)/Blue dress on a boat (Uh-huh)/Your new girl is my clone (HARRY STYLES SHOT DEAD AGAIN)

Oh, Lord, I think about jumpin'/Off of very tall somethings/Just to see you come running/And say the one thing I've been wanting, but no (Oh my god she said suicide just to spite you)

If she's got blue eyes, I will surmise that you'll probably date her (Oh no) (THE FACTS AHHHHHHHH HAHAHAHAHAHHA)

[covid-safer-hotties]

New XEC COVID subvariant poses potential threat heading into winter. Doctors urge vaccinations - Published Sept 23, 2024

By Rong-Gong Lin II

A new coronavirus subvariant is gaining steam and drawing more attention as a potential threat heading into late autumn and winter — a development that threatens to reverse recent promising transmission trends and is prompting doctors to renew their calls for residents to get an updated vaccine.

XEC, which was first detected in Germany, is gaining traction in Western Europe, said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. Like virtually all coronavirus strains that have emerged in the past few years, it’s a member of the sprawling Omicron family — and a hybrid between two previously documented subvariants, KP.3 and KS.1.1.

Past surges have tended “to move from Western Europe to the East Coast to the West Coast of the U.S.,” Hudson said. “So if this does take off more and more as we get towards the colder weather months, this probably would be the variant that will potentially take hold.”

XEC hasn’t been widely seen nationally so far. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, KP.3.1.1, a descendant of the FLiRT subvariants, is the dominant circulating strain nationwide. For the two-week period ending Sept. 14, KP.3.1.1 was estimated to comprise 52.7% of the nation’s coronavirus specimens.

XEC, by comparison, isn’t yet being tracked on the CDC’s variant website. A subvariant needs to make up an estimated 1% or more of coronavirus cases nationwide to qualify.

But there are estimates that XEC makes up 13% of coronavirus samples in Germany and 7% in Britain, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco infectious diseases expert.

“We’ll have to see how things go. If this does take off, probably we would start to see it more like November, December time,” Hudson said. “So like after Halloween — when the weather will probably get more reliably cool here, people start to go indoors more often — that’s when we’re more likely to see this potentially take hold.”

Any fall or winter resurgence, which has become a reliable occurrence ever since the emergence of COVID-19, would follow a prolonged summer surge that surprised doctors and experts with its strength.

One silver lining, though, is that the timing and strength of the summer COVID surge probably means it could be a couple of months before many people become more susceptible to reinfection, Chin-Hong said.

Last winter’s COVID peak in California — in terms of viral levels in wastewater — was the first week of January.

After the surprisingly strong summer surge, COVID is now declining or probably declining in 22 states, including California and Texas, as well as the District of Columbia, the CDC said Friday.

The COVID trend is stable or uncertain in another 22 states, including Florida and New York. COVID is projected to be growing or probably growing in New Jersey, Washington and Massachusetts, and there was no data for the three remaining states.

Still, new COVID infections remain relatively high in many parts of the country. Coronavirus levels in wastewater are still considered “high” or “very high” in 40 states, including California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio, the CDC said Friday. They were categorized as “low” or “minimal” in six states, including New York, Michigan, Nevada and Hawaii.

In Los Angeles County, coronavirus indicators are on a downward trend. For the 10-day period that ended Sept. 7, the most recent available, coronavirus levels in wastewater were at 56% of last winter’s peak. That’s down from the 10-day period that ended Aug. 24, when viral levels were at 75% of last winter’s peak.

An average of 239 coronavirus cases a day were reported for the week that ended Sept. 15, down 31% from the prior week. Officially reported coronavirus cases are an undercount, as they don’t factor in tests done at home or account for the fact that many people aren’t testing at all when sick. But the trends are still useful in determining how a COVID wave is progressing.

The share of emergency department visits classified as coronavirus-related in L.A. County was 2.8% for the week that ended Sept. 15, down from 3.5% the prior week.

The average number of COVID-19 deaths, however, is rising — an expected development given the surge in illness and the lag in reporting fatalities. An average of 4.9 COVID deaths were reported per day for the week that ended Aug. 27 in L.A. County, up from the prior week’s number of 4.3.

COVID levels in the wastewater of the San Francisco Bay Area are also settling down. Coronavirus levels were considered medium in the sewersheds of San José and Palo Alto, and low in Sunnyvale and Gilroy, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department said.

The rate at which coronavirus tests are coming back positive is falling in California. For the week that ended Sept. 16, 8.9% of reported coronavirus tests — typically those done at medical facilities — returned positive results. The seasonal peak was 12.8%, for the week that ended Aug. 10, according to the latest data.

It remains unclear how bad this winter’s respiratory virus season will be. COVID isn’t the only game in town, as health officials also are closely monitoring flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

The CDC in late August forecasted that this fall-and-winter season will either be similar to last year, or perhaps slightly less potent. But that forecast could be overly optimistic, the agency warned, if some assumptions are off — such as if fewer people get vaccinated than expected.

The situation may be improved because people may still have some residual immunity from flu and RSV, Chin-Hong said, which flared up the past couple of winters. Also helping matters is the rollout of vaccines against RSV, which became available last year.

Still, every winter carries its own respiratory illness risk. Circulation of a type of flu that’s different than the ones included in the vaccine would make those shots less effective, for instance.

And the experience from parts of the Southern Hemisphere for their winter suggests the respiratory virus season could be active here, Hudson said.

“Australia — they had a pretty robust and early flu season, and we are already starting to see a couple of cases of flu here in the U.S., which is pretty darn early,” Hudson said.

The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months old and older get the updated COVID-19 and flu vaccines. The immunizations are widely available, and the best time to get vaccinated is in September and October, the CDC says.

After a coronavirus infection, people may consider waiting three months to get the latest COVID vaccination, according to the CDC. But people can also choose to get it as soon as they feel better.

“I always have hope. And if folks get vaccinated — this is the perfect time now to get vaccinated against flu, get the new COVID shot — we could potentially tamp down on what will certainly be another more typical fall-and-winter surge. But I think the jury is out in terms of how bad it is going to be,” Hudson said.

Getting vaccinated “means fewer sick days and more time with your loved ones. We are stronger when we are all protected against respiratory diseases,” Dr. Tomás Aragón, the director of the California Department of Public Health, said in a statement.

Older or immunocompromised people who haven’t been vaccinated in more than a year are at highest risk for severe COVID illness and death, officials say.

Data show that people who got last year’s updated COVID vaccine were 54% less likely to get the disease between mid-September 2023 through January, according to the CDC.

A flu vaccine that’s well matched to the circulating viruses can also reduce the likelihood of becoming sick enough to require a doctor’s visit — by 40% to 60%, the CDC said.

There are needle-free options for getting the flu vaccine, such as FluMist, which has been available for many years as a nasal spray for non-pregnant people ages 2 to 49. On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved at-home use of FluMist — meaning adults can administer the vaccine to themselves or their children.

A prescription will still be needed for the at-home option, which is expected to be available starting fall 2025.

COVID remains a greater risk to public health than the flu, the CDC says. Since Oct. 1, at least 55,000 COVID-19 deaths have been reported nationally. At least 25,000 flu deaths are estimated over that same time period. Flu death estimates are expected to be updated in October or November.

The CDC recommends RSV vaccinations for all adults age 75 and older, as well as those ages 60 to 74 who are at increased risk for severe disease. The RSV vaccine, however, is not annual, so people who got one last year don’t need to get another one at this time.

An RSV vaccine is also available for expectant mothers at weeks 32 to 36 of pregnancy to pass protection to their fetuses. An RSV antibody is available for babies and some young children, too.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it will again make four free COVID tests available through the mail for households. You can register at covidtests.gov starting at the end of September.

Besides getting vaccinated, California health officials urged people to take other steps to prevent getting sick and infecting others. They include staying home when sick, testing for COVID and flu if you’re sick, wearing a mask in indoor public settings, washing hands, covering cough and sneezes, and ventilating indoor spaces.

[slasheru]

Heyyyyy Slasher Nation! 🖤 First of all - HOLY CRAP THANK YOU!! Even though the Kickstarter didn't hit the goal, the fact that 98 of y'all (!!) got us a SIGNIFICANT part of the way there (almost $3,000!!) is MINDBLOWING!! <3333 I can't thank you enough 😭

So What Now / Wait you had a Plan B the whole time?!

Yeah, man, you thought I was just gonna leave you guys hanging? ;) We're gonna try this again with a WAY smaller goal on Crowdfundr! (I'll talk more about this below!) Short pitch is: $1,125 goal (which we nailed in 48 hours here), keeps SU running, launches September 7th, Crowfundr is being hella cool and sponsoring it for SPX Spotlight, follow along HERE! [https://crowdfundr.com/slasheruact2]

But ALSO, holy crap, you guys are AMAZING:

I can hardly call this thing a wash, though, because the amount of love, attention, and SOLD COPIES OF SLASHER U: ACT 1 have been ABSOLUTELY FUCKING WILD. I just wanted to shout out to:

More than 600 new Slasher U: Act 1 players downloaded the game since the Kickstarter launched

Slasher U: Act 1: Alpha Edition maintains a whopping 4.9 out of 5 Stars average rating on itch (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I sold enough copies of Slasher U: Act 1 to cover MORE THAN HALF MY RENT THIS MONTH!! If this Kickstarter stopped right here, you guys would've been able to cover 4 MORE months of rent & production time! Which is HOG WILD.

We got shoutouts from:

Beautiful Glitch, the team behind Monster Prom, Monster Camp, & Monster Roadtrip!! Beautiful Glitch are one of my most inspirational/aspirational heroes of game dev, and the Monster franchise was a HUGE inspiration for SU, so I can't BELIEVE this happened!!!! Thank you guys SO MUCH!!! <333

WWAC (Women Write About Comics), where journalist Alenka Figa wrote SO MUCH NICE STUFF about my storytelling I'm gonna fuckin cry!!

Corinne Halbert of ACID NUN - she and I are actually gonna do an Acid Nun x Slasher U collab where you'll be able to unlock an Acid Nun player skin!! Shhhh!!

The crew at Lewdgamer who wrote an awesome writeup of the KS campaign!

Indiepocalypse - we made it into Issue #42 and Alex had us on his podcast, which was SO MUCH FUN!! According to Alex, Slasher U had one of the highest audience participation/engagements he's seen on Indiepocalypse Radio, and it was MEGA FUN watching him parse some of your saucy Sawyer questions, LMFAO.

And here's some Slasher U & SUKS stats for you:

More than 2/3rds of you ended up dating either Sawyer or Tate. >:)

In total, 94 of you backed the game here on KS!!! YOU ALL KICK SERIOUS ASS

Almost 1,000 new copies of Slasher U: Act 1 (both Regular and Premium) were downloaded during the campaign!

During the campaign, at least 3 people personally thanked me for Slasher U completely changing their life by discovering something about themselves or making them feel seen and heard, which is going to make me FUCKING CRY and is the ENTIRE REASON WHY I MAKE THIS GAME IN THE FIRST PLACE. I love you all so, so so sosososoososososos much, Student Disembody. :'))))))

So this "Plan B", eh?

Some of you know I'm a cartoonist by trade (I drew for the official FNAF franchise and more!). This year, I ended up talking to some sponsors for this upcoming SPX (Small Press Expo), which is like SDCC for indie comics, including Crowdfundr - one thing led to another, and now I'm partnering up with Crowdfundr and SPX to bring you a WAY SMALLER but also WAY MORE PERSONAL campaign to keep the lights on here at SU, as part of Crowfundr's SPX Spotlight event! For the non-comics folks here, Crowdfundr is basically the indie comics Kickstarter - I've been buddies with this crowd (pun vageuly intended) for a while and I'm psyched to be doing this with people I've been meaning to collab with!!

The new goal will cover the absolute bare minimum of making SU - $1,125, which includes font licenses, the Mac port, and taxes. Then, any EXTRA will go to more production time on Slasher U! Basically, I'm swinging the campaign around so the minimum amount is the goal, and the goal-goal's the reach goal. The GOOD NEWS is we apparently smashed this $1k goal within 48 hours of THIS Kickstarter, so I'm VERY OPTIMISTIC ABOUT ROUND 2 OVER HERE.

(You'll ALSO still be able to snag one of those custom player skins I'm drawing - there's gonna be only 5 slots this time!) Aaaaand you can click to follow when the Crowdfundr launches in a month, here:

P.S: estimating the first Early Access build with *just* Laila's Act 2 content, plus some core extras, in the next month or month and a half >:)))

xoxoxooxoxoxoxo, love you guys SO FUCKIN MUCH, and, as we like to say on campus:

STAY HORNY!! xxoxooxox Professor Plutonium

[astralartefact]

a nier reincarnation tierlist, but why make it easy if you can be annoying and write an analysis of every theme in the gacha game nobody cares about

notes

the following contains far too much analysis for my own good

for many of these you need to also at least know their dark stories to make sense of what i'm writing below the cut (but don't worry i haven't read them all either)

i just wanted a picture for my write up and was too lazy to draw 21 characters so don't take the tierlist too seriously

i call it reinkane for short bc that's its japanese hashtag (i know cane and kane are spelled the same in katakana but as a german i'm more comfortable with ks i guess)

also i know it's Gamer blasphemy to praise a gacha game but i think reincarnation is my favorite nier game im sorry okay i know that's a bad thing to admit but i need you to know i have bad taste

on reincarnation's theme

...and write an analysis of every theme in the gacha...

there is only 1 theme. probably more, but you'll see what i mean

it took me an embarrasing amount of time of going "well, but what is this game really about" (you know, since the other niers are about something too) to realize that it is indeed just about reincarnation - it's just thinking about it in a more abstract/straightforward way.

because the thing that tripped me up was that only about 2 and a half stories are actually about what I thought of as reincarnation (death -> next person) so it can't possibly be about that, right? but if we think about reincarnation as an abstract concept of "something is passed on to somebody else next in line" then basically every single one of these character stories is about that in some sort of way - and at the end of the day isn't having children some form of reincarnation? one of those things where i'm like did everyone else already notice this and its just so basic of an observation that nobody talks about it and i don't want to start the conversation in case it makes me look dumb

the core theme reinkane explores isn't just that though, it's more specifically the loss of agency through this "reincarnation" - it's about parents making decisions for their children, it's about people who don't get to decide for themselves because others already decided for them and in that the writers repeatedly pull from certain 'sub-themes' aside from familial ties:

royalty (basically a more overt version of loss of agency through birth/familial ties - children of reigning royals are born with certain responsibilities they never asked for simply by being children of their parents)

robots (beings created for a purpose by somebody who decides that purpose for them)

heavily enforced societal rules / decisions (rules you have to obey just by being born without any choice not to. it's more of a broader reincarnation in that entire generations make decisions that generations after suffer from instead of 1 person to 1 person)

war (similar to the above, war is basically about somebody forcing their decisions onto somebody else and especially the people who don't even have a say in it have to suffer for it)

and for the most part all of the stories (with a few exceptions) are to some degree about one or more of these. so let's get into some of my favorites:

sarafa

my love. it took a while for me to warm up to her, but once i put it all together i'm just... *chef's kiss* i hope they don't introduce new characters (aside from major ones like mama's true form or something) because she's the perfect book end character to end on.

not only is she a royal character like the very first character (rion), she's also one of the few characters to actually interpret this sort of reincarnation as a good thing!

it's very found family in that the "royal reincarnation" is still very very bad and even worse than rion's for example, but the reincarnation as part of this line of princesses sent to the slaughter also harbors a good thing, since only through their inter-generational sharing of knowledge that is built on all of the princesses that came before sarafa she can finally break the cycle, even if it ends up revealing something far worse.

saryu, hina & yuzuki

if you haven't noticed it yet, the current era of nier (starting after automata) is the "we're ruining our children" era. yorha:dark apocalypse, reinkane, all of voice of cards and even yoko taro's amazarashi (nier anime ed) music video is about it. like literally all of it.

anyways: all three of them (for saryu it's her ex story) are about how their parent's decisions influence their children's lives to a massive degree, in saryu's case it's the absence of her mother that shapes her entire life and with hina & yuzuki it's obvious i think.

hina & yuzuki get bonus points for being the most straightforward "this is how this theme looks in real life" about the theme even if them murdering their parents is obviously heightened for dramatic effect

also i have nothing to say about the hamelin lore except yuzuki turning into a red eye makes him canonically an incel and i won't explain why

priyet

another one where it took me a while to really get what is going on. at first i wasn't too keen on her story since i read her being a monster that wants to hide herself as one of those queer-werewolf allegories that I personally am just not really a fan of. but then i read her hidden stories (because yes. the first four hidden stories for every character are "lore" relevant. somebody is having an aneurysm as we speak foaming at the mouth over "kingdom hearts bullshit") and i like that a lot more even if it's probably more problematic?

basically since most people probably didn't read them bc unlocking them is a bother (if only there was a website for that) the guy who is friends with her and saryu (the one that priyet murders at the end of saryu's story) has a crush on priyet (literal love triangle!!!) and through misunderstandings and bad communication he keeps escalating their relationship until

His whisper played in my ears over and over and over and— "No! I hate this! I HATE it!" Every place he touched me was covered in filth. Every glance caused my hair to stand on end. "I'm gross! I'm dirty! I'm disgusting! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I'm going to be sick!" I took a pair of scissors and jammed them into my bed over and over. By the end of it, my room was a disaster and my throat raw from screaming, but I still felt no better. "Why...?" If things went bad between the two of us, what would happen to me and her? Oh, but I knew. She'd take his side— of course she would. And then we wouldn't be friends anymore.

her hidden story is a surprisingly nuanced look into what makes consent (or rather what doesnt) that i very much appreciate especially coming from japanese writers who are kind of universally handwaved as 'well it's a different culture, they're living behind the moon'

of course that boy is just a child and made a mistake, but society taught him - intentionally or not - to assume that her being nice (because they're friends) must mean she's fair game and her saying no is just her "not being confident" so he just keeps going and it results in her literally becoming a monster that needs to hide her sullied body beneath a table cloth.

and there's also something in there where this interacts so beautifully with her being gay. like it doesn't even occur to the boy that priyet might not even be into boys in general and now everything has gotten so much more complicated for her at a time in her life where everything is already complicated enough as it is, only because a guy decided he likes her and gave her no real choice about it - and all of that because society thought it was a good idea to demand eternal romance bonding at 14 because without that the boy wouldn't feel the pressure to establish a relationship in the first place (there it is, we took the long way back around to the theme of societal rule enforcement)

(side note: i fully understand if some people like this less than queer werewolves especially since it's a really sensitive topic. i personally think it's fine - since all of this game is about the fact that we learn/"reincarnate with" bad things from our predecessors i read priyet's story as that, a situation where all of these terrible values come together to utterly fuck her up - but if it's a no from you i think that's perfectly valid as well.)

also the absolute gall of reinkane to introduce a magic school and make one of the two protags meaningfully gay right when jk pops off

marie & yurie

these two are special because it's just one and zero all over again and i will take any dod3 reference i can get... their chapters are literally called "One Vow" and "Proof of Zero" - and yes that's also a binary code reference but yurie literally doesn't have a right eye how much more overt can it get... well maybe like this:

marie being the "heroic ruler" who wants to save everybody and do right by her people, who sings to spread her magic (of hope), but fails not only because it's not meant to be since the world doesn't allow for happy endings but also at the hands of her ruthless sister... why yes, I also approvingly nod my head at war crimes because they're drakengard references.

the only minus marie gets from me is that all of her concept designs are so much better. but this one looks so similar to hina. i get that her hairstyle looks more like one now but you could at least have given her black hair or something idk

they fit into the general theme that noelle and dimos (and F66) also partially explore, that robots are created with a purpose that benefits us humans - but if these robots are genuinely thinking beings, do we rob them of their agency by pushing our needs onto them? And Yurie only wants Marie's eye because humanity tells her that she "lacks it" - so even when she decides to take it because she knows she lacks something, is that really her agency? Fascinating stuff to think about.

(also the fact that humanity created a robot and took the robot's agency about taking humanities agency)

yudil

he is the bestest boy, he speaks to me as a ffxiv samurai main. i haven't read most his non main stories yet, but i have a feeling it's the one nier story that is at least in part about capitalism??

also it's nice to see that this game at least tries to not only have pale skinned characters. it's probably not a particularly noteworthy depiction of an arabian nights sort of setting, but i guess we have to set the bar low since a certain other insanely lucrative gacha game is planning to introduce a literal prison wasteland as the country all black people come from and a certain other recently released game that adds 2 more lore units to 14 can somehow literally be about the discrimination of minorities and slavery and still decide that the progressive option was to delete all black people from existence (honestly the writers/whoever else is to blame for that should be ashamed. can't call that anything but ludicrously tone-deaf and embarrassing.)

F66x

I'll be real. I appreciate F66x being here. I think it's really cool they commit to her bald head in all of her costumes (despite me loving her dark story 4 hairstyle...) And you can just tell she has it going on. Like Super Mario RPG levels of "I never really played this but I just know this is special and deserves all the praise it gets." But I just. Don't really care that much for some reason??

The thing is I really should!! She has the flowers, she has weird religious shit going on, all of the signs of some relation to the groteskerie queen - but I guess when her and 063y's chapters first came out the connection to dod3 was too obvious, which made it unappealing to me? idk it felt like a red herring (and it honestly still does) so i never really connected to it all that much

argo, 063y and gayle

the dads + gayle are interesting because they actually reverse our viewpoint on reincarnation. most of the other stories are from the reincarnated person's view, but these stories are about the characters that were reincarnated from and how that fucks them over too.

well, okay, argo not really, argo's story isn't about him it's about his daughter, which means technically it is exactly like the other ones, but i include him because the first part still applies (which is btw why he scores relatively high on my list, once you realize his story isn't about him i think that makes it more interesting. does it replicate the heightened value fathers get ascribed to in family dynamics or does it comment on it...?)

but 063y and Gayle also lose their agency because something happens to the person that reincarnated from them. Every version of 063y fights the flowers to protect his son - because that's what fathers do. But is that really agency? Is there really a choice in that? Same thing with Gayle even if it's about her sister instead.

of course that's also where the war theme comes in since it made this lack of choice even happen in the first place - but it's easy to imagine that without a sibling/child (/parent in the case of lars, who is very similar in that regard but from the other side of reincarnation) all of these people could have more easily chosen different and try and get away for example.

kaine's grandma

and this is where i announce that we have a special guest tonight, it's the one and only Kali from NieR Replicant and she's joining the ring with a steel chair!!!

no really though

when i first saw that scene at the end of sun/moon in the trailer for the final episode (the one where hina/yuzuki are trapped in the lunar tear meadow with kaine's shack) i sighed. is this necessary? literal reference for references sake. where does this come from. you just took that one scene people know and stuffed it in here. could you not come up with anything else that you could have referenced? like come on we're all only waiting for accord here.

turns out i was wrong, it's not just a random reference. it perfectly fits the theme :) with good-enough dreaming energy you too can explain away any plot inconsistencies

it took me until i did the scene again to get to the secret ending, but i realized that kaine's relationship to her grandma is one of those "reincarnations" that actually works. and while she does fall into a "revenge for dead relative" thing similar to gayle and lars, the things she learned from kali are the things that end up protecting her. without kali kaine wouldn't have become the person that would end up helping nier and emil.

it's a reincarnation story that never put kaine into a place where simply because she was kali's grand-daughter she was in a worse place than before - and unlike lars or gayle she can decide to go after hook on her own terms because hook isn't a literal war that she doesn't have any meaningful impact on. (i'm losing the thread here i think but i hope you get what i'm talking about)

(and yes i do think that was the point of including that scene since you find the key to the door next to where kali's picture is and also the replicant event quest is about kaine and kali too so it was probably already on their mind)

the rest (sorry season 1)

honorable mention to rikachimalu(fio's jp seiyuu) bc i love her, she's precious and i think it's kind of funny that she's voicing a nier protagonist and as such is one of the most frequent guests on reincarnation livestreams despite being kind of out of place lol (don't have much to say about fio though except that she's also firmly in "reincarnation through royalty" territory while also getting some "enforced societal rules" through the oppressive caste system she finds herself in)

kind of pains me that i don't have a seperate section for noelle bc i do think she's interesting, but i already said everything i wanted to say about her in the sections above

akeha is super straightforward family baggage, i think you can figure her out on your own

levania and his whole thing with his mom (hidden stories) tells me that they probably also fall into the entire theme of agency loss through reincarnation much more than i first thought, but i haven't looked into it enough to make any statement on it

i included mama since we finally get to know more about her in season 3 - which does look like it follows the established theme too btw! for speculations sake i do think it would be very in theme for mama to basically add her own story into the cage to help the fight and now this character mama - as a seperate version of the 'real' mama - has to deal with existing as a reincarnation bound to wander and defend the cage by her real version's choice

you couldn't pay me to care about rion and dimos, it's not happening and trust me i tried. it's an aesthetic thing, i liked rion's original design so much that i assumed he would lean into a different aesthetic and now all of his other outfits were disappointments and i don't like him. yes i do judge books by their cover too

finale

i know reinkane gets a bad rep bc it's a gacha game that god forbid expects you to play it and while i do think the gameplay is a dumb reason to hate it since some people - especially japanese players apparently - just love this style of game, i also won't be the person to tell you to play a gacha game.

it is some level of commitment to successfully free-to-play it and especially if you're prone to spending money on gachas please just stay away from it and check out videos or the stories on nierrein.guide. while they are still giving out lots of stuff every so often they also have in recent times added more and more stuff to push you to spend money (before awakening stones there was no reason to re-pull characters since you could upgrade the re-pull stuff with event items and before the character elements you also didn't need that many characters)

and while i can wish all i want that it wasn't a gacha game, at least with yoko taro i know that this thing i love wouldn't exist if it wasn't a gacha game. (no really the people who 'wish it wasn't a gacha game' need to realize that he wouldn't have made anything remotely resembling this if he wasn't told to make a gacha game. you can still wish it! but him being forced to make games and making the best of it is yoko taros whole thing)

also i know we attribute all of the nier stuff to just yoko taro as short hand - and he definitely deserves punishment for what he has done - but this is once more an invitation to also cuRSE YUKI WADA'S NAME!!! HE DID SUN MOON STORY AND VoC FORSAKEN MAIDEN TO ME!!! ALSO GIVE ME ANOGG YORHA DARK APOCALYPSE AS A REINKANE CHARACTER SHE FOLLOWS THE THEME PERFEC-----

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES AND STUDIES, early February 2023 (Part 1)

Yes, my latest news update is finally out - at least the first part of it. So much has gone on that breaking it into 2 parts seems like the best option for ease of reading. 

So the following contains the top news stories, all of the Etsy news, and general SEO information. The next update (coming in the next few days) will cover everything else that happened between the end of November and now. 

Since I am still a bit worried that Twitter will become unusable, I’ve begun posting more timely updates on LinkedIn, so please follow or connect with me there!  

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

As you may know, Royal Mail was hit by a ransomware attack that has restricted their incoming and outgoing international mail. Most international mail can now be sent, but things are still slow. Note that items entering the UK may also have taken longer than usual in the past month.

Etsy is continuing to refund buyers out of seller funds when cases are opened on orders $250 and up, even when tracking says the packages were delivered and some even signed for. I posted several of the Etsy forum threads and screenshots of deleted threads on Twitter. While many shop owners have received full refunds from Etsy after complaining, some of the recent examples are only getting 50% of the order value back. Let Etsy know what you think in this survey. Even orders below $250 are coming under additional scrutiny, with this news investigation [video and text] regarding a vintage shop that Etsy issued automatic refunds for without allowing the seller to comment on the cases. I am writing a blog post on the topic, so if you or anyone you know has been affected, please email me with the details - I promise to keep your details confidential if you wish. 

Americans who made at least $600 on a marketplace or through a payment processor/app in 2022 will not be receiving 1099-Ks for that income after all - the IRS has delayed that change for one year. The main reason seems to be the huge amount of new paperwork required for the platforms.

ETSY NEWS 

Etsy has had a bizarre checkout bug that only affects a tiny percentage of shops for a few weeks now with no sign of a solution for most of them. Shockingly, Support told one affected buyer “to go to another Etsy seller"! 

Hidden as a post in the Technical Issues section of the forum, Etsy announced that some non-US sellers would need to verify their bank accounts in 2023. They state that shops which opened after November 2020 do not need further verification, so I assume that means all of us non-US sellers who had to re-verify last year are ok as well. 

If you use the private listing option (even after Etsy removed most of the functionality), beware that those listings do not have a way to add estimated delivery times or return policies before publishing, so you need to rush to add them afterwards before the listing is purchased, or you lose seller protection. 

Etsy is testing (or doing a very slow rollout of) letting buyers make an offer on listings, but very few people have it. I did posts with a screenshot on LinkedIn, my Twitter account, and the Etsy Sellers subReddit. Here’s the Etsy forum thread started by someone who spotted this option. 

The “Updates to Etsy Search” article that came out mid-January is mostly coverage of things they did a few months ago, including an Add to Cart button in search, displaying the time remaining on expiring sales, video autoplay, and the Star Seller filter [don’t worry, the last one is hidden under the main filter button, so most visitors will never even see it]. They also mentioned the estimated delivery dates being displayed in search, but I haven’t seen that for at least a few weeks; right now I only see the filter they have had for a few years. [It’s pretty embarrassing when they make an announcement like this and it isn’t accurate - and they don’t even bother to correct it.] Remember, none of these things directly affect the ranking algorithm, and the elements of Star Seller - reviews, shipping on time and answering Messages promptly - are all part of the algorithm already, the latter 2 because they are part of the seller service level standards. If you are worried about the Star Seller filter, also remember that breaking any Etsy policy/rule can negatively affect your Customer & Marketplace Score. “to determine a shop’s Customer & Market Experience Score, Etsy considers a variety of factors that make up overall shop quality, including user reviews of products, whether or not a shop has completed an about section or its shop policies (e.g. returns), whether or not the shop may be able to fulfill orders in a timely fashion, and whether or not the shop may have violated any Etsy policies.” [my emphasis] 

January’s category updates includes 2 types of bags, plus changing “unisex” kids and baby clothing categories to “gender neutral”. 

The workaround to keep old written shop policies is now being removed, with many of us losing those old policies recently. You may be able to find caches on Google or Bing if you look quickly. Forum discussion thread. If you need to link to your new stripped down policies or your FAQs, here is how. 

Etsy is being sued for allegedly allowing counterfeit cashmere items on the site; expect the bots to start taking down anything with the word “cashmere” next. 

Etsy’s legal policies now include a page explaining their prohibition on “unsafe or recalled products” and including links to rules and reporting procedures for many countries’ reporting procedures. Recent recalls affecting Etsy include children’s pyjamas from Selfie Craft Company, and a baby rattle sold in one Etsy shop only. 

In the “bad publicity” category, part 1: US federal prosecutors say that an Etsy shop was used as a front for smuggling weapons components to the Russians. While the shop didn’t sell anything like that, they did sell gift baskets with commercial components, so Etsy could have avoided this bad press by following their own rules and shutting this shop down far earlier. See a screenshot of the shop in the comments of my LinkedIn post. 

Bad publicity, part 2: A shop's atrocious customer service went viral on TikTok, which then garnered more media coverage. That shop better be careful, because Harry Styles was already suing ecommerce sellers over products with his name and likeness (including on Etsy).

Also on the infringement front: Disney is suing a couple who have sold infringing items on multiple ecommerce platforms for years, including Etsy and eBay. My Twitter thread has screenshots of some of the products sold on Etsy. 

Etsy’s new Chief Legal Officer used to hold a similar role at Facebook. 

Etsy Strike spinoff group Artisans Cooperative is hoping to launch a new marketplace this fall, and now has organizing support from the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, including funding from the USDA Rural Cooperative Development Grant Program. 

Etsy trend “predictions” for 2023 include 2 colours (indigo and honeycomb), marble decor, and “over-the-top” wedding looks. They provide some search trends from August to October on Etsy, so check out what people have been searching for! 

Note that that trends post is different than this one, which includes more detailed search trends and addresses shopping holidays. For example, “56% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “personalize gift mom”. You also need to know that there was “1420% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “hot pink decor”. 

Etsy loves running tests so much they give out trophies for starting the most.

This article [soft paywall; Modern Retail] says that holiday sales were down on Etsy, but Etsy hasn’t released any numbers yet. 

This is perhaps my favourite Etsy story ever: how an unusual custom order ended up seen by millions as it hangs on the International Space Station. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Everyone selling online loves December algorithm updates, so Google started rolling out a new Helpful Content Update around December 6. “Google said this update will "tackle content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines." Both the Helpful Content and Link Spam updates finished rolling out on January 12. 

Ahrefs has updated its link building chapter in the Beginner’s Guide to SEO. “Links are incredibly important for ranking well. And it is quite rare that you will outrank pages that have a lot of strong links—unless you get just as many.”

Understanding basic Google SEO is not enough to have a successful website; understanding how to structure your website is also crucial. For more on that, here’s another article on pillar pages and topic clusters [semi-advanced; you need some basic knowledge of website structure and SEO to fully grasp everything.]

There’s often confusion on long tail keywords and how to use them - this article should clear that up. 

EAT has become EEAT: Google search quality raters now evaluate “experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness” instead of just the last 3. “Google explained that there are “some situations where really what you value most is content produced by someone who has first-hand, life experience on the topic at hand.” 

Repeat after me and Google’s John Mueller: the number of times a word/phrase is used on a page (aka keyword density) is not a positive Google ranking factor. 

Also, readability ratings do not affect Google ranking either, and John Mueller confirmed that as well. Writing for your intended audience is important, however, and that can include some elements of “readability”. 

Using artificial intelligence (AI) to write articles for websites is not against Google rules, but using AI just for SEO purposes is. Not surprisingly, more than one media site is already using AI to write content with SEO in mind: CNET is no longer solely about tech news, for example, and the articles apparently have a lot of plagiarism. Should Google be doing more to stop this junk from ranking? Maybe not - they are already working on using it themselves. 

Speaking of AI writing, Search Engine Land did an overview of ChatGPT and how it may affect the SEO industry. 

Yandex (Russian search engine) had all of its source code leaked. This Twitter thread goes through the different ranking factors and compares them to Google in particular. 

Yahoo Search is making a comeback. No, really. They are even hiring! 

You were probably busy in December, so here’s a summary of what Google was up to; here’s January as well (both including some things already covered in this news update). If you were busy all throughout 2022, then read the full year summary too. 

Here’s a change - was there a Bing algorithm update around January 18? (Usually this question is only asked about Google.)

[last-flight-of-fancy]

You seem like a good person to ask. Do you have a particular list of longer "Kingdom Hearts" fics or series that you would recommend that have a focus on either the Sea-Salt Trio/Family or the Destiny Trio (or both)? You tend to have a lot of good art and theories here, so I figured you might have some good fic recommendations too. (Self-promotion is absolutely acceptable)

*slams hands on table* my time has come

though as a pre-note i will say that everything i have is at least a few years old, not because i stopped loving fanfic, but bc my specific brand of adhd hyperfixation doesn't allow me to actively read much fic while i'm writing my own.. and anyone who's been following me for a while knows how long i've been working on Stand AU ^^; it sucks but so it goes. i've been trying to catch up before i start my next big AU, but man... adhd brain has not been co-operative -_-

Instinctively Family - Bookwormgal - Kingdom Hearts (Video Games) [Archive of Our Own]

First up is the Instinctive Family series by Bookwormgal, which i've been following for a long time (one of the few i manage to keep up with while working on stand au) and absolutely adore. part one is set during the games and is focused on axel/lea's developing role in roxas and xions lives. it's canon divergent, and part 2 focuses on lea (and isa) learning how to parent a pair of superpowered teenage toddlers while also managing their own boatloads of Trauma. it's a great read and i can't reccommend it enough.

Build a Home | Archive of Our Own

cute sea salt snippets about them building their new home in twilight town

Drops of Blue, Sky of Red - Chapter 1 - spiffyperson - Kingdom Hearts [Archive of Our Own]ks

incomplete, but really fluffy and cute. leaisa with bonus terrqua and of course the various kids doing what nosy kids do best.

From Radiant Garden With Love - BigDykeEnergy - Kingdom Hearts (Video Games) [Archive of Our Own]

a series of postcards sent between leaisa and the kids while leaisa are off on their honeymoon. extremely cute

(also just... everything BigDykeEnergy writes is phenomenal. seriously give their works a scroll)

The Stories We Tell | Archive of Our Own

dealing with axel and saix's past, ranging from radiant garden, through their horribly traumatic time in the organization, and then finally to the found family light at the end of the tunnel.

this one is very heavy, with topics and themes around neurodivergence, ptsd, failing friendships, and mental illness, and as such can be a little rough to get through. i definitely had to take breaks while reading it, but it's a great story if you don't mind a lot of angst before your happy ending.

Love In Every Moment | Archive of Our Own

its been a while since i read this one so the adhd has deleted it from my memory but its in my bookmarks and its tagged sea salt family, so that's a pretty good start i think

Life's Little Lessons - Inarchem - Kingdom Hearts [Archive of Our Own]

modern au! oneshot. isa is a kindergarden teacher and lea is a single dad. isa is his typical ornery self

late night in twilight - rivtco - Kingdom Hearts [Archive of Our Own]

cute little oneshot where axel helps comfort xion after a nightmare

A Grasping Hold - Chapter 1 - Splintered_Star - Kingdom Hearts [Archive of Our Own]

destiny trio and various parents deal with certain ways their journey's have changed them.

and by that i mean things like roxas and namine.

an old one (2013, so it's a post kh2 era fic), but one i still think about fairly regularly tbh.

Sora's Groupchat - Chapter 1 - Dragon_boi - Kingdom Hearts [Archive of Our Own]

i know chat fics can be hit or miss with people but i like this one, it's fun. low-stakes khverse where they're all hanging out at Keyblade School. silly and lighthearted

Stillwater - burymeonpluto - Kingdom Hearts [Archive of Our Own]

less destiny trio and more a kairi introspective character study, but a really good one imo. exploring kairi's feelings and her (very strained) friendship with riku after sora's dissapearance after kh3.

Suppose You Get to Another World - Chapter 1 - illa_dixit, Luxord52 - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own]

incomplete, but a fun read and concept! what if the destiny trio was raised by moogles? also features genderfluid riku and nonbinary sora, and a bunch of worldbuilding with the final fantasy characters



and of course i'm gonna self promo bc im shameless~

StandAU | Archive of Our Own

Stand AU!! my pride and joy <3333 definitely more heart hotel focused than destiny or sea salt focused specifically, but at 500k there's definitely plenty of both of those in there too. slooooow burn sorikai, themes of mental illness, trauma, and most of all healing from it.

all of which somehow sprung from the single prompt of: what if sora's heartmates could manifest themselves like jojo stands?



finally, cometverse

Cometverse | Archive of Our Own

and i'll be real with you, cometverse was both me and orion's first fic writing in decades, so it's a bit rough around the edges in places. but that being said it was written with a whole lot of love and even more hyperfixation, and i still reread parts of it from time to time bc it's just so perfectly self-indulgent to our specific interests.

so what is cometverse?

it's an outside-looking-in OC story where said OC a tendency to adopt every kh kid they come across. and ends up in a throuple with lea and isa. and also there are were-creatures everywhere.

it IS cringe, and we ARE free.