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stay-mon-army · 4 years ago

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The Soccer Incident

Warnings: A couple swears

Word Count: 2,534 words

Pairing: Junhoe x female!reader

Koo Junhoe was a contradiction. He was an anomaly in the usual order of things, and everyone seemed to love him for it. He was one of the most popular people in his university because he didn’t quite fit into any one category. He was a physical education major, he was the star player on the lacrosse team, the most sought after male player in the intramural soccer club on campus, he was arguably the most attractive jock in the whole school, and he was the reason there was a Jiu Jitsu club on campus. You would think hearing all of these accomplishments that he was a total meat head jock- there’s no way any man this invested in physical activity could ever be interested in more stationary, softer intellects.

However, Junhoe was also a creative writing minor. He was a part of a small writers group that he had compiled of poetry writers (like him) and fiction writers (a passion he deeply admires but didn’t have the same calling for). He had a few poems published in the school’s English journal, and was never caught without his leather bound notebook for his poetry.

Junhoe was one of the most versatile students in his university- but this never seemed to cross Junhoe’s mind. He didn’t see any reason why people would expect anything else from him. Why were people always surprised when they learned that the star lacrosse player was also a poet? Why were his friends in Jiu Jitsu club always laughing when they saw him scribbling away in his journal before meeting started instead of stretching like the rest of them?

Not everyone judged Junhoe so harshly, and there’s no way he could miss the way girls watched him when he walked around campus. Like he could ever be oblivious when the girls in his writing group created love interests that could almost be his doppelganger. Junhoe’s gay-dar was also almost flawless- it wasn’t just the girls that gave him heart eyes in passing.

However, there was one girl that totally ignored Junhoe— (Y/N) was the conundrum that Junhoe couldn’t figure out. He knew she liked boys- he’d seen her at parties with boyfriends, but she didn’t seem to notice him at all. He’d only tried to talk to her once, and she’d been kind, but she’d been late to class and had to rush off. Of course, it was just Junhoe’s luck that the only girl that Junhoe had eyes for was also the one who looked right through him.

He didn’t know much about her— it wasn’t like he was some stalker. He did know, however, that she was also a creative writing minor and was a junior- just like Junhoe. They had previously been in two classes together, which was how she had managed to catch his eye. She would come to class either dressed to the nines- perfectly designed outfits that matched all the way to the jewelry- or looking like she’d just rolled out of bed- her hair in a messy bun, a pair of sweats baggy and hanging from her waist haphazardly. To him, she always looked beautiful.

The thing that really won his heart, though, wasn’t her look or their similarities; it was the way that she always gave him blunt, brutally honest feedback on his pieces. Most of their others in his creative writing classes either don’t know enough to give good feedback, or were so infatuated with him that they gave nothing but blind praise for everything he wrote. (Y/N) was the only person except the Professor who could give advice that Junhoe could use— ideas that sparked Junhoe’s mind to make even better, deeper poems that expressed exactly what he meant.

Her straightforward nature had won him over, but was also the thing that stopped him from shooting his shot. Nothing scared him quite like the idea of being rejected by her— he could imagine it now and it gave him chills. His mind paints the picture without his consent; asking her out the next time they pass, her blank face staring before it morphs into one of pity, her soft voice explaining she’s not interested, her turning away— scurrying off before he can make it more awkward.

No, he’s perfectly fine admiring from afar. It hurt less; he’d rather her not know he exists than to be another weird boy hitting on a classmate he barely knows.

Fate seemed to have other plans for Junhoe, however. Or, more accurately, his best friend, who happens to run the intramural club. He had shown up slightly early for the club meeting that day and was surprised to see Donghyuk with (Y/N) and her best friend, (Y/BF/N), who was the best female player on the intramural team. He really was contemplating running in the opposite direction as quickly as he could, but he was a second too slow.

“Yo, Jun, come here!” Donghyuk waves him over, a wide grin on his face, knowing exactly what he was doing to the poor man.

With a deep breath and a lot of internal cursing of Donghyuk’s existence, he slowly jogged towards the trio.

“Dong, what’s up, man?” Junhoe had no idea what was coming out of his mouth, or why he suddenly sounded like some of the more asshole boys in his sports classes, but he was too focused on remembering to breathe and not trip to care much. Donghyuk’s eyebrows bounce at the greeting, obviously making the same judgement that Junhoe did, before nodding at him, playing it off.

“You know (Y/B/F/N),” Donghyuk gestures to the two women beside him. “This is her best friend, (Y/N). She’s going to take up Miyoung’s spot while her wrist heals.”

Junhoe nods at (Y/B/F/N), who smiles at him. He doesn’t know where he gains the confidence, but he looks directly at you and says, “Don’t we have a creative writing class together?” The automatic look of confusion makes Junhoe’s heart freeze, then instantly knock impossibly fast against his rib cage.

But then your eyes burst with realization, a huge grin splitting your face. “You mean Dr. Scott’s class? God, I’m barely alive for that class; how are you awake enough that early to know the other kids in that class?” You were laughing with him— though it took him a second to laugh along because wow you were having a conversation.

“I just really like the class— I zone out in most other classes.” It wasn’t a lie, he just didn’t point out you were his favorite part of the class. All his other writing classes over the semesters without you had been almost torture with all the fawning, ass-kissing girls.

“Yeah, Jun is actually a pretty shit student because he’d rather write poems and join every sports club on campus than do his damn homework.” Donghyuk nudges Junhoe, laughing as Junhoe balks at his words.

“Well his poems are good so it must pay off a little! I’ll be the judge today if the same can be said about his sport skills.” You chuckle, and try to ignore the look that (Y/B/F/N) is shooting you that Junhoe thankfully doesn’t catch.

Junhoe is too busy having to physically restrain himself from fawning over your praise. Luckily your friend jumped in just before he could combust with the effort.

“We should go get ready. Let’s go stretch under the shade over there, (Y/N)!” She loops her arm around your bicep, lightly tugging you away from the boys. You wave at them, looking simultaneously absolutely adorable and like you were afraid your friend would kill you when you reached the aforementioned shade.

When you finally turned to look at (Y/B/F/N), Donghyuk whacks Junhoe’s bicep hard, making him wince and rub the abused spot. “Make a move already, idiot. Are you blind, or just stupid? Did someone put you in a particularly tight chokehold recently?”

“Wh-what?” Well that told Donghyuk all he needed to know and he sighed as he rubbed his face.

“She likes you too, dipshit. Just ask her out already.” Junhoe stared at his best friend for a solid minute before he burst out laughing.

His eyes welled with tears as he gasped around peals of laughter, holding his ribs as his sides spasmed from the force of his laughter. He couldn’t believe Donghyuk had said that when he’d just done so much to try not to seem like a crazy person.

“You’re hopeless, I swear.” Donghyuk shakes his head, leaving Junhoe’s still cackling figure to go greet a couple other students in the club who had arrived.

Although Junhoe is able to physically calm himself down and begin to stretch for the game, his mind wouldn’t stop thinking of Donghyuk’s words, and he repeatedly had to stop himself from looking over his shoulder at you to see if you were looking at him too. Finally Donghyuk called everyone to the side of the field to split into teams.

Just Junhoe’s luck that he was on the opposite team as you. He had wanted to work with you to win— the idea of you two playing soccer together and beating the other team made his heart race in a way that confused him. It was just a little passing crush on you, why was he so invested in doing things with you?

Get yourself together, Junhoe, and get your ass out there.

He took a deep breath and huddled up with his team, splitting up positions and delegating who would play when, since there were so many members on both teams that they would change out players. Junhoe was to be the first member in the goal, which he wasn’t ecstatic about, but he accepted it with a grin. He could play any position just as well as the next person, so he knew he could keep the goal safe from the other team. He really would’ve preferred to be out on the field to show off his skills though—especially with you out there. You had pulled your hair from your face and you had shed the light jacket you had on previously to show off a band t-shirt, a group he absolutely adored to listen to while writing that he never would have expected you to like as well.

As he took his place in the goal at their end of the field, he watched you stand next to your friend, laughing at something she said, pushing her lightly. He couldn’t help but smile wide at how happy you looked—totally at ease despite the fact you were about to play soccer with a group that you barely knew.

Donghyuk shouted out a “start game” from his position on the sidelines (he was sitting out this first half, but he would later take Junhoe’s position, as he preferred to stay on the side, watching the action instead of running around). Junhoe’s team was a surprisingly good mixture of members; while not the best players, they seemed to work together beautifully today, and Junhoe’s job was mind-numbingly easy.

The ball almost never came to their side of the field, except for a handful of close calls that Junhoe quickly dispatched with calculated ease. His team was winning 3-0 with only about 10 minutes left for this half before they switched out the members. Hearing this minute warning seemed to light a newfound fire under your ass, however, and you suddenly seemed to learn exactly how to play soccer like a pro. Your goalkeeper had kicked the ball at you after saving it from another goal. Seemingly in a matter of seconds you were one with the soccer ball as you effortlessly handled it all the way across the field to his goal until you were only a few feet from him. You made eye contact and he could see the fire and drive in your eyes for a goal, and he made a conscious decision in that second to let you make the goal. He would let the ball through—what was one small goal anyway, and it was only an intramural game.

However, his plans changed quickly when you punted the ball—hard. Instead of going into the goal cleanly, like he was expecting, it went straight for his forehead, knocking his head back with a sharp thwack sound. He fell to the ground with a harsh groan, his hands coming up to rest on his face as the world spun and warped, pain spreading across his whole head. He lay on his back, cradling his head in his hands, as he grunted out swears that would make his mother smack him harder than the soccer ball had.

“Oh my god, are you alright? Jesus, I’m so so sorry.” Your voice was high and anxious, and racing closer to him. He moved his hands and opened his eyes, squinting against the harsh sunlight to see your face looking down at him. You were sweaty from all the running, and your hair was starting to fall back into your face, but he still couldn’t help smiling.

“God, you’re beautiful, (Y/N).” He didn’t know what that ball did to his head, but he didn’t really mind the sudden courage it gave him.

Your face dropped into shock before you burst out into glorious laughter, your face lighting up into the widest and most adorable smile Junhoe had ever seen.

“You’re crazy, Junhoe.” You brush a strand on his hair from his face before pressing a hand softly to his cheek. He closes his eyes and leans into the touch softly. “No, no, don’t close your eyes. We don’t know if you have a concussion yet.”

His eyes flutter open and look at you with soft eyes. He gathers the last bit of pain-drunk courage to blurt out, “Go on a date with me?”

You nod, looking down at his splayed figure. “It is the least I can do after almost taking your head off with a soccer ball.”

“Good kick, by the way.”

You both laugh at that as you stand, slowly taking his hands and helping him to his feet as well. He winces and places the heel of his hand between his eyebrows, where the most pain is currently radiating.

“Let’s get you an icepack.” You chuckle, putting his arm around your shoulder and walking him towards the nurse’s office. Donghyuk didn’t seem to even ask if Junhoe was alright, he was well aware that he would be fine with some rest and ice. Instead, he just jumped into his place with an accomplished grin on his face, starting the game right back up.

You didn’t need to help Junhoe all the way to the nurse, or stay with him for the 20 minutes he sat there with an icepack to his forehead, but the conversation you had was funny and sweet. And truth be told, you had noticed Junhoe many times in the past and had been drawn to him. You were more than happy for any excuse to interact with him outside of class. And thanks to this upcoming date, you would finally get the chance to get to know him that much better.

#koo junhoe imagine #ikon imagine #ikon #koo junhoe #ikon imagines #koo junhoe imagines #ikon ju ne #ikon june #ikon june imagine #ikon june imagines #ikon fluff

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starlit-serenade · 4 years ago

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Dance With Me | Chapter 5

💙 Summary: After visiting the members of ONEUS during their dance practice, you find yourself inspired to learn to dance. You ask your friend Kim Geonhak to teach you.

💙 Chapter 5: 2,242 words

💙 Pairing: Reader x Kim Geonhak (Leedo) / Characters: GenderNeutral!Reader; Kim Geonhak (Leedo); Son Dongju (Xion); Yeo Hwanwoong (Hwanwoong); Lee Keonhee (Keonhee); Lee Seoho (Seoho); Kim Youngjo (Ravn);

💙 Rated: T for some minor swearing / Warnings: Minor Swearing; Jealousy (Later in the fic) / Genre: Fluff; Minor Angst (Later in the fic); Friends-To-Lovers; Happy Ending;

《 Series Masterlist // ONEUS Masterlist // Boy Group Masterlist 》

You arrive to practice with your mind buzzing. Hwanwoong had texted the Team B party planning group chat that today is the day where you would meet with Team A--Youngjo, Seoho and Keonhee--to finish planning Geonhak's birthday party next week. The meeting is only ten minutes after your practice with Geonhak ends, so you'll have to hurry to the ONEUS dorm after practice.

You open the door, and Geonhak is inside. A song that you don't recognize is playing, and Geonhak is dancing intensely, watching his own movements intensely as he dances this unfamiliar choreo. While the song isn't familiar, you known the voices of ONEUS well enough to guess that this is an upcoming song, or at least a work-in-progress.

Geonhak is so focused on the dance that he doesn't notice that you've walked in. His eyes are so focused on his own body in the mirror that he doesn’t see you enter. You laugh to yourself.

Payback for those times he's come in and watched me dancing without me knowing, you think. You sit down on the ground to stretch silently and watch him, impressed. His voice comes on in the song, and you have to prevent yourself from saying wow out loud. You admire the choreography, the way Geonhak's shoulders move.

Perhaps someday I'll learn this choreography, you think.

The song comes to a close, Geonhak throws his head back in exhaustion. He runs his hand through his hair, breathing heavily as he turns around.

He freezes in his tracks when he sees you sitting on the floor. His eyes widen in surprise, then he looks really shy, then he goes back to his normal self in a matter of seconds. "How long have you been here?"

"A bit. Your part is amazing. Was that the new title track?"

He lets out a chuckle. "Thank you. Yes, that was the new title track, coming out later. Do you like it?"

"I do. It's cool. Your dance is really pretty," you say.

Geonhak looks away from you. "Thanks. Let's finish up stretching, and decide what song you want to try next."

He sits down in front of you and watches you with a smile. His eyes on you make you look down at the floor for some reason. "So what song would you like to learn next? Another ONEUS song?"

You smile. "Of course."

"What songs did you have in mind?"

"I mean. Lit is a fun one. Valkyrie, too. Twilight. Zigzag--"

"You've just named all of our title tracks, Y/Nie!" Geonhak chuckles. "I have an idea. We can go with two songs. We'll spend the first two hours learning the first one, and then the second two learning the second one. How does that sound?"

"That sounds fun."

"Great," Geonhak says, humming. "What two songs would you like to try?"

You think for a long moment. "Can we do Lit?"

Geonhak smiles. "Sure. We'll do Lit first."

"Great!"

"Let's start with the pre-chorus this time," Geonhak says, standing in front of the mirror.

"So you're gonna start with your legs in sort of a front stance, turn all the way to your left and put your arm over your leg with your hand against the outside of your thigh. Like this."

You copy his stance. Arm over leg, facing the left wall. You glance at the mirror and make sure to adjust your knees and position.

"Good. Now, you're gonna twist your body in a loop, lean back, and lower your body to kneel like this with your left arm down--"

You immediately do the move, so you're kneeling like him. This move, you've seen and done so many times that it comes somewhat easier to you. You check the mirror and see that you're correct as he continues to demonstrate.

"--and then straighten your back quickly. Lift your right arm, eolssu, and then your left arm, eolssu."

You follow his demonstration closely, which isn't too hard. This song, you've tried to do in your living room, so while you're not good at it yet, you're certainly familiar with it.

"Good. Now," Geonhak says, "lift your back knee off of the ground. Shift your weight back to face the left side of the room again and now put both of your hands over your thigh in an X. Then lean back, and slide your hands behind your back and down with the beat."

You nod, copying the movements.

After a couple hours of learning the rest of the pre-chorus and the chorus, and after taking a ten minute break, Geonhak starts teaching you Valkyrie, starting with the pre-chorus.

"Face the right wall, and put your hand back like this, palm up. You're going to have your right toes and your left heel facing toward the front of the room and off of the ground, so that your feet are positioned in a V."

You copy him. It takes you a minute to get your feet positioned correctly, but Geonhak waits patiently with a smile on his face.

The end of practice nears, and you and Geonhak sit down to stretch together. You look up from your stretches to smile back at Geonhak, and your eyes land on the clock on the wall behind him.

"Oh, shit," you mutter, quickly getting up from your stretches. You start scooping up your stuff. "I have to go."

"What? So soon?" he asks.

"Yes, Dongju's waiting for me," you say.

"Dongju?"

You blink, realizing what you said wrong.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I have a, uh, a doctor's appointment, and Dongju's taking me."

"Oh." He looks sad. "Take care! See you soon."

As you reach the door, you frown. "Aren't you going to be heading home?" you ask. Geonhak shakes his head.

"No. I have . . . some extra stuff to do."

"Okay. Bye, Geonhak," you say. He smiles softly and waves goodbye. You wave back, before you run down the hallway to change in the bathroom, before hurrying to the ONEUS dorm for the birthday party preparation meeting.

You arrive and knock on the door and wait. Dongju opens the door after a moment and smiles.

"Y/N, you're almost late," he whispers.

"I was at practice with Geonhak! I had to change," you explain. Dongju rolls his eyes and drags you inside.

When you had pictured a surprise party meeting, you had imagined that the five members would have set up a space in the bedroom so that it'd be harder for them to be accidentally walked in on by Geonhak. However, they've simply set up at the dining table, Team A on the left and Team B on the right. Youngjo, Seoho and Keonhee are seated on Team A's side, with their phones on the table with notes. Hwanwoong sits on Team B's side with his phone open to the group chat. Dongju sits in the middle chair so you sit on his left, facing Keonhee.

"So," Youngjo says. "We have gathered here today to figure out how we want to celebrate Kim Geonhak's birthday before. We will have opening statements from Team A."

Keonhee opens his phone and clears his throat.

"Our plan for Kim Geonhak's birthday morning includes the following," he says, leaning forward in his chair. "We will spend time at either RBW or the dorm. We'll practice a bit, and then relax."

"Then," Seoho continues, "we will eat lunch at the dorm."

Team B applauds Team A, clapping as Youngjo, Seoho and Keonhee bow before sitting back down.

"That is all Team A has planned," Youngjo says. "We sort of . . . didn't spend as much time on this as you three. Now, Team B, your turn to present your proposal for the afternoon."

Hwanwoong stands up in his chair and clears his throat. "Hello. I am Yeo Hwanwoong of Team B. I am joined, today, by my colleagues Son Dongju and Y/N. Today, we will be presenting our proposal for the afternoon of Kim Geonhak's birthday celebration."

Seoho is laughing in amusement at how seriously Hwanwoong is taking this.

"Our plan includes snacks such as ice cream, sweets, fruits and small meat appetizers," Hwanwoong continues.

"We have multiple afternoon activities planned, including a random play dance, several guess-the-song challenges, and other music and dance related games. We are open for additional suggestions at any time. Then, for dinner, we will go out to that restaurant Geonhak loves so much."

"As for decoration plans," you say, "we propose a silver, gold, black and white color scheme, with streamers and balloons."

Keonhee starts the applause, followed by Seoho, then Youngjo. You, Dongju and Hwanwoong take your seats once again.

"Does anyone have any feedback or questions?" Youngjo asks. Keonhee raises his hand.

"Hwanwoong, what ice cream flavors will there be?" he asks.

"Rainbow Sherbet, Geonhak's favorite," Hwanwoong says. "Don't worry, Keonhee, I know all of ONEUS's favorites. They'll be there."

After questions conclude, you six decide roles for party set-up.

"Dongju, Y/N, can you two be in charge of decorations?" Youngjo asks. You both nod, and Dongju gives Youngjo a thumbs up.

Keonhee ends up in charge of making lunch with Hwanwoong. Seoho is in charge of finding and putting together the activities, and Youngjo ends up in charge of getting snacks. After all of the roles are decided, you all put your hands together.

"1! 2! 3! Let's go!"

As you all start cleaning up, you realize how late it is. The sky is dark, almost black.

"Why hasn't Geonhak come home? Shouldn't he have come sometime during the meeting?" you ask.

"No. He actually has to catch up with some practice choreography," Dongju explains. "He's started staying late for extra practice since he started teaching you."

You blink. "What?"

"Usually, after you head home, Geonhak stays at RBW practicing for hours on the new choreos. Since he spends so much time with you, he has to find extra time to do his own practices. And he also comes in early mornings to prepare for your practices. Has he not told you?"

You shake your head.

Dongju frowns for a bit, confused, before his expression morphs into something like shock or surprise.

"I . . . probably shouldn't have told you that then."

You frown. "What do you mean?"

Dongju waves the question aside. "Don't worry about it. Anyway, you should get some rest. Let me walk you home."

You and Dongju walk home comfortably, like you did with Geonhak a while ago. You think about what Dongju had said. Had Geonhak gone and practiced at RBW after dropping you off at your home? Has he really been coming in extra to catch up with the other members and prepare to help you?

"How's your practice with Geonhak going?" Dongju asks after a while.

"Oh, it's going really well," you say excitedly. "I just finished learning Geonhak's part in A Song Written Easily last practice, so now Geonhak is helping me learn Lit and Valkyrie."

Dongju is smiling widely. "You seem to be enjoying it a lot. Maybe as much as Geonhak is."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

He chuckles. "I know you very well, Y/N. I've known you for years. And I've rarely seen you this excited about something for this long. Often times, when you get excited by a hobby, but then your excitement dies down after a week or two. But it's been several weeks, and you're still smiling like a fool whenever you think about it."

You place your hand on your cheek and realize that they hurt from your smiling so hard and excited chattering about how practice has been.

"Geonhak, on the other hand. You should see him after he comes back to the dorms after practicing with you," Dongju continues. "Or even during our practices before practicing with you. He's always smiling like an idiot on your practice days."

You blink.

"Y/N. How do you feel about Geonhak?" Dongju asks after a moment. You stare at him, unsure of how to answer that question.

"I mean. I like him. He's my friend. He's a good dance teacher. He's kind and sweet and funny, just like the rest of you."

"But do you like him?" Dongju asks, emphasizing the word like.

You frown. "Why would you ask me that?" you ask. You don't have an answer, though. You think back to all of the butterflies that you've had, fluttering about in your stomach for the past few weeks. Maybe you do have an answer.

"Like I said, Y/N. I know you very well. There's definitely something going on in that head of yours, whether you know it or not," he says, poking your head gently. "I've seen you two interact. Just from hearing you talk just now, I can hear that there's something. Even if you don't know it."

You blink. "Dongju, I don't--"

"Oh look, we're here!" He stops, and you realize that you two are, in fact, right outside your door. Dongju smiles at you softly. "Go sleep, Y/N. Get some rest. I'll text you tomorrow to figure out a time to go decoration shopping for Geonhak's birthday, okay?"

You nod. "Okay."

He waves goodbye, and you sigh, watching him leave. As you turn to go inside, you turn over the past few minutes in your head. As you shower and get ready for bed, you continue to consider your feelings.

You don't like Geonhak like that.

Do you?

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pronoova · 5 years ago

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15 Healthy Habits to Get Skinny Fast

Ever wondered what the nutrition secrets of athletes or celebrities are? Well now you don’t need to because below are 15 healthy habits to include into your get-in-shape regimen which will not only assist you to get skinny fast, but within the most healthiest way possible. For starters, change your attitude about food. Lastly, your goal to urge skinny should come second because it’s more important to enhance and maintain your overall health. confine mind the subsequent habits that have helped me stay track of my very own weight loss goals.

1. SAY “NO” TO A RIGID DIET

When most of the people start a diet, they typically eliminate foods or place certain foods as off-limits. you would like not to start a rigid diet for the purpose of depriving yourself of foods you're keen on. specialize in what you'll eat. I always say the key to the way to get skinny fast is accepting diets don’t work. you'll want to consult a nutrition expert and update your knowledge on foods laden with essential nutrients to assist correct years of poor diet.

If you retain labeling certain foods as off-limits, you finish up looking for them even more. ‘Not eliminating certain foods’ doesn't mean continuing to gorge on bad stuff, though. Regular consumption of meat-containing nutriment, as an example, can cause accumulation of LDL or bad cholesterol within the body. If you’re a coffee drinker or have an appetite, you would like not abruptly stop the caffeine or sugar intake. you'll make sugar an occasional treat, but not a diet staple. Eat (or drink) carefully, and confine mind other health tips, so read on.

2. FIND HEALTHY ALTERNATIVES FOR FAVORITE FOODS

Healthy food substitutes are often easily obtained. All-natural food stores in your neighborhood may offer a good assortment of healthy options which will replace old favorites and inflammation-causing and cholesterol-laden ingredients in your meals.

If you can't resist eating a slice of cake every day, choose a light-weight, flavorful, or maybe a sugar-free option. Just a couple of cautions, though. you'll be ditching high-fat foods and choosing low-fat products, but some food manufacturers have added sugar to form their offerings more palatable, causing some effects when consumed an excessive amount of, like making the body go haywire.

Avoid the pesky insulin spike which will be triggered by the consumption of straightforward carbohydrates. rather than eating polished rice every day, choose rice, a posh carbohydrate that has more nutrients, and can keep you fuller longer. Healthy fats also are important. rather than regular mayonnaise, choose a healthier condiment like mustard. to assist control blood glucose and support your weight loss plan, switch to safflower oil or other healthy cooking oils.

Instead of regular hamburger, you'll choose extra lean. Choose natural spread over reduced-fat spread which will contain more sugar and additives. If you always buy milk, switch to part-skim milk. rather than buying instant oatmeal, get the steel-cut type. rather than flavored yogurt, choose plain yogurt and add fresh fruit or two with a touch honey. Your body will enjoy the friendly bacteria.

The list goes on, when considering food substitutions. address authoritative health sites for a comprehensive guide to healthy substitution. albeit you’re eating out, you'll find healthier versions of your favorite foods.

3. DEVELOP A ROUTINE AND persist with IT

It is easy for many people to start a healthy eating plan, but follow-through is vital. you would like to convince yourself that you simply can lead an authentically healthy life, and it starts with a firm resolve to urge healthy & stay healthy. If you only tell yourself that you simply actually need to reduce and start eating carrots, greens, tofu, and rice, you would like to stay thereto a healthy eating plan. Online articles and videos may offer motivation and inspiration, but taking note of your body signals, realizing the advantages of healthy eating and feeling an entire lot better, depend upon you.

You can start developing an influence eating plan by knowing which foods offer you antioxidant protection, which of them can give brainpower boost, and which of them can energize. A high-performance nutrition plan may incorporate your old favorites, like mixing ice-cream as an example with a top-quality protein shake. the quantity of not-so-healthy stuff can gradually be reduced. Once your body gets familiar with healthier foods, you develop a taste for them and the likelihood is that, you'll not yearn for the unhealthy stuff.

Another routine you'll want to start out, after consulting together with your doctor, maybe a weight loss management program that’ll assist you attain a trimmer, healthier physique.

4. REDUCE STRESS

Keeping stress at a minimum can benefit your body in some ways. Stress, doctors say, inhibits the system. By beating stress, you retain illnesses corner. There are countless ways to scale back stress, like taking note of soothing music, yoga/meditation, getting a massage, or getting to the beach or another tranquil place. most of the people melt away stress by sleeping or hanging out with friends. Avoiding people that tend to empty your energy with their complaints and problems can also be an efficient thanks to reduce stress.

There are other natural ways to market relaxation, like twiddling with your pet, doing simple stretches, taking a stroll, and taking an opportunity from email, TV, cellphones, and other things that cause information overload.

When overwhelmed by numerous things to try to, hit the pause button. you'll break down an enormous task into small, manageable chunks, Being more conscious of stress triggers — be it money, co-workers or bosses, health issues, `toxic’ friends, and other factors — will assist you to manage them and reduce stress.

5. run through EMOTIONAL ISSUES CAUSED BY EMOTIONAL OBESITY

You may project a robust persona, but there could also be times once you don’t feel fine, otherwise you cannot seem to purge it all at once. you'll head home with feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, resentment, anger, or with feedback loops. rather than expending time on illusion or other non-productive stuff, you'll check out your own emotions and find how to repair what’s bothering you.

Problems linked to your interpersonal relationships that contribute to worry may prompt you to succeed in for comfort foods or overeat. this will cause weight gain. By learning the way to manage your emotional problems, you're in effect taking food issues and unhealthy weight gain out of the equation.

6. EAT CLEAN FOODS

Clean eating has far-reaching benefits. If you’ve long been eating convenience foods or foodstuff like burgers, all that food can end up to be your enemy. you'll begin to feel sick. Power eating is all about putting good food into our bodies. Think organic produce. Think pork from real pastured pigs with more omega-3s, and beef from grass-fed cows.

You can celebrate albeit you decide for all-natural or organic eats. Just mix them up a touch. rather than regular eggs, try free-range eggs with more micronutrients, cooked & serve with other healthy eats. Purchasing clean/wholesome foods could also be costly, but they really offer more bang for the buck.

7. HAVE AN ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM

When you’ve begun a weight loss regimen, remember that you simply are in charge of your own actions. A fitness trainer, a nutritionist, or a naturopathic doctor may assist you. you'll prefer to be a fit & trim product of your healthy decisions, instead of thinking that you simply are destined to be fat.

Once you determine an orderly and healthy eating plan, you'll devise other ways to achieve it. you'll use a pairing when understanding, to assist you not only to lose the surplus pounds but keep them off.

Once during a while, you'll get lax and desire to indulge a touch. A weight-loss partner may remind you of your goals, but the choice to succeed in a healthy weight ultimately depends on you.

8. CONTROL YOUR PORTIONS

For most people, portion control could seem easier said than done. Veer faraway from super-sized meals and upsize offers. At buffets, it is often pretty challenging to resist filling your plate with different sorts of food, but believe how sick you’ll feel if you gorge. Let several minutes pass after eating, before going back (if ever). When buying food at the grocery, read labels.

Remember that portion control is one effective thanks to blast fat, so try to not ignore this tactic which will cause a trimmer figure.

9. TRACKING FOOD

You can track your nutritional intake, which isn't just a matter of counting calories, using several ways. you'll jot what you often ingest during a food diary. you'll also use online tools to log and track your food consumption. By tracking what you eat, you'll more easily get the proper balance of nutrients

10. EXERCISE!

Much has been said about the myriad health benefits of exercising. Yet many of us, including those that want to urge skinny fast, need constant reminders about how incorporating regular exercise in their schedules won't only raise their metabolism and burn calories fast, but also improve their overall wellness. once you attain a particular level of fitness thanks to regular, vigorous activity, your mind also improves, and you are feeling more responsive & hooked into life. My favorite gadget to possess available is that the Fit bit (great gift idea!) because it can tell me how active I’ve been throughout the day. It tracks your steps, distance, and calories burned.

11. EAT EVERY FEW HOURS

Eating small meals frequently, which can be around five to 6 meals every day, can assist you control food cravings. It’s a time-tested technique employed by individuals concerned about their expanding waistlines. you'll make sure that each small meal you're taking has quality protein sort of a boiled egg. Complex carbohydrates like rice, a bit of fresh fruit or vegetable, also as nuts, are nutritious and filling options. eating small meals several times each day will help keep your blood glucose in check.

12. DETOXIFY YOUR BODY

Your body can better absorb the nutrients it needs if you’ve lightened up the toxic load. Expelling toxins from the body is often done by drinking many purified water and loading abreast of superfoods. Veggies like artichoke, cabbage, kale, carrots, and garlic help purge the liver of poisons.

Blueberries, beets, avocados, beans, seeds (like chia seeds), and nuts that contain important nutrients also help eliminate toxins from the body here also are detoxifying beverages, like tea, that aid in weight loss. crop on refined sugars, saturated fats, alcohol, and caffeine.

13. HYDRATE YOUR BODY

Staying hydrated keeps the body in good working condition. Drinking enough fluids, including purified water, protein shakes, tea, and freshly squeezed juices also help cleanse the body of poisons. Drinking many water also can suppress appetite and aid in weight management.

14. COOK reception

If you cook reception, you've got the whip hand in ensuring that you simply and your relations will get sufficient nutrients. Cooking reception also removes the worry about hidden ingredients like gluten, which can trigger an immune reaction.

15. NEVER STOP TRYING

If you’ve tried everything and zip seems to be working to blast fat, seek professional help. albeit you’ve ruled out health issues, don’t stop trying to succeed in a healthy weight.

There are products, foods, techniques, and experts who can guide you towards getting a trimmer, healthier body. Seek help or devise an all-natural plan tailor-fitted for you, but don’t throw discipline & determination out the door

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dragonshoard · 5 years ago

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Some more on DimensionHop!AU

I probably should’ve said this earlier: Lillian is non-binary. Pronouns are they/them. They don’t tend to get overly offended at being called Lillian by their parents (which includes our world’s Alastor - which, again, is another tipping point) and Ada (who sometimes calls them Lily), but with other people reacts the same way Alastor does when someone touches him: ready to cut a bitch.

(I may accidentally use she/her sometimes so sorry about that and any confusion xD)

okay, more on the story (before i get back to working on my personal statement xD)

Ada will eventually inherit her mother’s holy weapon (a bladed cane gifted by Alastor)

The only other person who can touch it is their mother. Not even Lil can touch the blessed thing (this is on the premise that holy objects burn demons).

Lil used to be able to touch it, but as they got older and more proficient with their abilities, that faded.

Lil is most involved with the cannibal district in Hell, partially through Rosie who is still trying to bring them over to the dark side.

Charlie is not very happy with it, but she recognizes demons who are, more or less, semi-trustworthy as she’s been dealing with them through Alastor for decades.

There were worse options, tbh.

Lil ends up learning to cook at a very young age from another demon that is semi-trustworthy (but was guilty of murder-cannibal crimes in life so, um, ya knOW?).

They’re actually really good at it - one of the reasons they’re so good with knives

Lil isn’t a cannibal themselves (unlike Ada who IS for purely dietary reasons) but does learn to cook multiple types of demon meat (mostly imps or mindless-helbornes)

They suck at baking though (partially because you can’t really get good baking ingredients without some posturing/improvising and Lil doesn’t care THAT much)

On another note, Ada can’t stand eating most anything other than meat. She’ll gag on most other foods (which results in a lot of finagling on both Charlie and Lil’s part to find what Ada could and couldn’t eat).

If she does force down something that doesn’t agree with her palette she gets violently ill for days after.

Lil has a side job that involves doing some catering for different high end clients/parties.

Kind of how they get involved with the Hotel in the first place.

They’re one of the servers for the official opening. Rosie pretty much volunteers (throws) Lil to Alastor without Charlie/Lottie knowing.

Lil just wants the money. That’s all. They don’t expect to be accosted by Daddy Lucifer (who has been keeping tabs on them) to keep trying to talk and get into their personal space (short of straight up hanging off of Lil).

That, of course, gets Alastor’s and canon!Charlie’s attention.

Alastor and Lil interacting is actually... kind of funny? Like, their powers are incredibly similar; however, they function on slightly different wavelengths or frequencies (due to originally being from different universes). Their powers flare up unintentionally around the other and things have a tendency to break as a result

Being around each other causes a sort of feedback loop to occur between the two of them. The energy/power wants to flow in between them (what we see as Alastor’s “audience” and Lil’s more subtle shadow puppets) but, again, due to being on slightly different frequencies the energy doesn’t flow easily and creates imbalances.

This shows in Alastor’s radio background changing to different channels without him meaning to.

Lil’s own channels become louder but are more prone to be staticky.

Both their shadows act up and sometimes switch without the other noticing. Lil has taken home Alastor’s shadow once by accident and vice-versa (it’s as bad as you’re thinking considering how I see Alastor’s shadow as sentient while Lil’s isn’t)

If they were in sync, it would result in them have their powers boosted.

#origin #dimensionhopAU #hazbin hotel #hazbinh

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setaripendragon · 5 years ago

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Never Simple - Chapter 2

[Chapter 1] Given that I got distracted by another fandom half way through writing this, I wasn’t actually sure whether I was going to manage to finish it or not, but I came back to it just yesterday and tah-dah~ So, have some more ridiculousness. (Warning for references to... pseudo-cannibalism? Human-possessing monsters that eat humans, anyway, although there is no actual cannibalism going on, just discussions on the subject.)

Ed sat, silent and tense, as Granny checked Al over once again. This time, instead of just frowning deeper, she had a grim smile on her face. “Well, that one seems to be doing the trick.” She announced, and Ed slumped, hanging his head and pressing his eyes shut against yet more tears. He was tired of crying.

We really do need food. Truth insisted, in time with the pang of bottomless hunger that echoed through his stomach.

“Granny?” Ed asked, wiping his nose on the back of his hand and looking up. “Can I have something to eat?” He asked, unable to quite keep the touch of resentment out of his tone. He didn’t like being told what to do at the best of times. Granny snorted at him, giving him a look that was probably for the tone rather than the question, because she was also nodding.

“I’ll bring you boys some stew.” She said, patting Al’s knee before heading for the door.

That’s dead meat. It won’t help. Truth sighed, just as resentful as Ed felt. Ed tried to give a voice in his head the side-eye. It didn’t really work, but it did, at least, manage to get the message across. In case it escaped your notice, oh so clever one, we are not human, we do not need the same things human bodies need to function. We need living meat, preferably grey matter, if we can get it.

“Grey-” Ed choked out, horrified. He was even more horrified by the fact that the thought didn’t actually cause his stomach to turn over like it would have only hours ago. No, instead, his traitorous stomach let out a hopeful little gurgle. “You eat brains?!” He hissed under his breath.

Ideally, yes. The more complex the better. Truth explained, and Ed froze, because he didn’t need to be a genius to understand what that meant.

“No.” He said, a little too loud, and dropped his voice to a vicious whisper as he continued. “I am not killing people just so you can eat them, and I don’t care what you do to me!”

A grumpy silence followed that pronouncement, until Ed was all but vibrating in his seat in a combination of righteous indignation and creeping dread. I will not force you. Truth said, and it felt almost… resentfully apologetic. I am not your master, nor will I punish you if you defy me.

“You literally vivisected me once.” Ed hissed.

I shared with you the knowledge you sought! If you did not like what you learned, then maybe you should have thought twice before asking. Truth retorted coolly, and Ed flinched. You are an aggravating little bastard, and I do not like you. That does not mean that I wish you ill.

Ed… didn’t really believe that, and he knew Truth could tell, but he could at least accept the tentative truce for now. “So… okay. Okay, if- if brains are off the table-” Ed shuddered, dismayed at the fact that that sentence had just come out of his mouth. “-which they are, what… what’re the alternatives?” He asked warily.

After a momentary pause, he could feel Truth relent, uncoiling through Ed. It was weird and invasive, and yet strangely not unpleasant. We can subsist on lesser foods. Truth acknowledged. Eggs, nuts, meat, and fish. But only raw. Cooking it destroys the chemicals we need. Chocolate, as well. Chocolate is good. If Ed didn’t know better, he’d say Truth was purring at the thought of chocolate. That much, Ed could get behind.

He did know, though, that cooking food did alter it at a chemical level. And he supposed, whatever type of being Truth was, it probably didn’t have humanity’s long history of cooking food, so even if it could adapt to it, it hadn’t had the chance. “Raw meat?” Ed asked, despairing.

Grey matter would be best, but yes, raw meat will do in a pinch.

“Raw meat can make humans sick.” Ed pointed out, although he had a feeling it wasn’t going to do him any good.

Sure enough, Truth seemed to find that funny. It will not make me sick, and since I will be the one doing all the digesting, you have nothing to worry about, little alchemist.

“Fuck, fine.” Ed sighed. “But you better not make me throw up the stew either way.”

That was not me. Truth explained, feeling weary and frustrated. Ed couldn’t be bothered to question that out loud, but he focused very intently on his scepticism and incredulity. Just as he seemed to be able to feel Truth’s emotional state, it clearly picked up on his, too, and responded with an explanation that wasn’t so much words as it was concepts and dynamics. The way that the human immune system responded to Truth like a threat, and sought to purge it, and yet it could not, because Truth was everywhere, in every part of Al. This had resulted in a feedback loop, sending the immune system into over-drive, attacking Al as much as Truth, and that was why Al had thrown up the food.

“Is my immune system going to do that?” Ed asked with a grimace.

I do not think so. We are more compatible than I had expected. Truth mused. Ed wanted to ask what the hell that even meant, but before he could, Granny came back, with Winry on her heels, each of them carrying two bowls of stew each. Ed took his gratefully, and watched with relief as Winry poked Al awake, and Al managed to actually keep the food down this time. He had no idea how he was going to convince Granny to feed him raw meat, but any trouble it gave him would be more than worth it for his brother’s life.

Al only got half way through his stew before he was yawning, and Winry gently took the bowl off him. Ed put aside his own bowl to hop up and tuck Al in. “You rest and get better soon, okay, Al?” Ed prompted, and Al nodded, frowning at him slightly.

“You… Don’t do anything stupid, Brother, okay?” He checked, voice gone soupy with encroaching sleep. Ed wanted to scoff and make some grand pronouncement about how he never did anything stupid, but… but just the thought choked him, because it had been his stupid idea that had got Al into this state in the first place, that had- No. Not thinking about it.

“I’ll try.” Ed managed, a little hoarse.

Al gave him a look, a tired smile, and then drifted off.

“Let’s finish our meal in the living room, so we don’t bother him.” Winry suggested, stepping up and grabbing hold of Ed’s elbow, tugging lightly. Ed let her tow him out of the infirmary, Granny following on their heels. “Ed, I-” Winry began once they were in the living room, depositing their dinner on the table and then turning to face him, looking at him all earnestly. It made Ed shift uncomfortably. Winry didn’t finish the thought though, just looked at him for a long moment, brows furrowed, and then threw her arms around him without another word.

Ed tensed up at first, not wanting to give in and allow himself to accept the comfort. He didn’t deserve it. Truth took the matter out of his hands. Literally. His arms came up without his intent or permission, and wrapped around Winry in turn. It’s not about whether we deserve it or not. No one deserves what they’re given. But kindness is rare, and acceptance doubly so. We should take it with gratitude when it’s offered to us.

“Yeah.” Ed agreed, reluctant, but… understanding the wisdom in it, sort of. “Thanks, Winry.” He added, squeezing her, and feeling relieved when he found he could do it without issue. Winry just squeezed him back.

“You’re not alone. You know that, right, Ed?” Winry checked, finally drawing back.

Ed almost managed to muster up a smile for her, but it wobbled and fell away before it could quite make it. “Yeah, I-… Yeah.” He agreed, swallowing back the pain her words provoked. He felt very alone right now, even though he was less alone than even Winry knew. He wanted his mum, and her absence – and his own guilt – made everyone else feel miles away, even the voice inside his head.

Sitting down to finish his dinner, Ed wished that Granny and Winry would talk about something, anything, so that he could distract himself from his thoughts. From the memories all clamouring for his attention. But they weren’t, they were maintaining sombre silence, as if they thought Ed wanted them following his lead or some shit. He felt Truth prod at his memories, not quite taking control like it had before, but clearly calling his attention to its desire to… What? See what he remembered?

Yes.

Ed almost wanted to laugh, bitter and hysterical, but instead, he just let go, let the memory play out, and tried not to loose his dinner at the remembered sounds of bones snapping one after the other. Oh, now that was just cruel. Truth muttered with scorn, but, Ed realised after a moment, not scorn directed at him. Instead, it was aimed at… Sloth. It told him, quietly, offering up a memory of it’s own, of a small amorphous puddle of what looked almost like the clearest, purest water, if water had the consistency of liquid flesh; crystalline blue mottled with glints of white and pale, pastel yellow like light reflecting off the strange ripples of its movement. That one is called Sloth. It is the one you freed when you tried to pull apart things that were never meant to be divided.

Ed put aside the rest of his stew and curled his knees up to hide behind them. Guilt surged up his throat, threatening to bring his half-digested dinner with it, but he swallowed it down. He was also remembering that awful stone doorway and the horror sealed within. It was… one of… one of those? He wondered, struggling to structure the thought into something coherent, and not just an incomprehensible mess of emotion. Truth returned a feeling of assent. How… How many are there? In there?

Uncounted thousands. Perhaps a million or more.

Ed shuddered. That was a horrifying thought – that there were that many of the things – but it was easier to think about that than about Mum and what had happened – what he’d done – to her. What… are they? He wondered.

The insane remnants of my people. Truth told him, and Ed flinched from the undercurrent of age-old grief and guilt that rang through the thing, mirroring the feelings swamping Ed and creating a painfully acute feedback loop. They are ours to watch over, ours to guard, ours to keep contained, lest they break free and ravage your world. I did it to preserve your world, your people, and yet you all persist in tearing at the prison I built. In your ignorance, in your arrogance. Too many are already-

A sudden banging on the door interrupted Truth’s rant, which Ed was both resentful of and a little grateful for, because Truth still scared him a whole hell of a lot, and the thing’s temper was almost as bad as his. On the other hand, Truth had been sharing information, and like any good alchemist, Ed craved knowledge. Especially forbidden or obscure knowledge.

“Who the bloody hell could that be at this hour?” Granny groused as she went to get the door. Ed peeked up over his knees, curious despite himself, as she opened it and revealed two military officers standing outside. “Yes?” Granny snapped. “What do you want?”

The man opened his mouth, spotted Ed over Granny’s head, and closed his mouth in favour of pushing past her and walking right in. His gaze was fixed on Ed, fierce and almost angry, ignoring Granny’s yelled protests. “What have you done?!” The man demanded, one hand coming up as if to grab Ed.

Ed’s body moved without his permission again, flinging him backwards so violently the arm chair actually started to topple even as Ed rolled right over the arm, staggered back, and hit the wall, hands raised defensively. But the man wasn’t coming after him. In fact, he’d frozen where he stood, looking- conflicted. That was the best Ed could describe it. And when it became clear that he wasn’t actually going to attack, Truth relaxed, which meant Ed’s body relaxed, which meant he could control it again.

Are you… scared of him? Ed asked as he straightened warily. The notion of Truth being scared of anything felt wrong to him. It could take people apart at the molecular level, what the hell did it have to be scared of? Which meant that anything that could scare it scared the hell out of Ed just on principle. Or it would, if this guy didn’t just look like a normal guy. Military, sure, but nothing that ought to scare Truth, he didn’t think. Nothing that scared Ed, which meant he kind of wanted the guy to stick around. If he had to put up with Truth inside his mind, then it would just be karma if Truth ended up having to put up with this guy in the same room as them.

“Hey! Leave him alone!” Winry shouted, getting to her feet as well. The military guy barely spared a glance for her, but he did back off a little, his posture changing from something bristling and looming to a straight-backed military type of stance.

“I saw the array at your house.” He said crisply into the silence. “I saw what was left in it.” Ed flinched, throat locking up, and then shot a half-hearted glare over at him. “I’ll ask again. What did you do?” He enunciated every word very clearly, like he was tossing them out like knives, aiming to wound.

Ed closed his eyes, words sticking in his throat. Answer the man. Truth murmured, snide enough that Ed was pretty sure it had detected his earlier thoughts about wanting it to know what it felt like to be stuck with someone who scared the shit out of you.

“Oh, fuck you.” Ed snapped half-heartedly. He said it out loud for the military man’s benefit, but it was equally pointed in Truth’s direction. The guy’s eyebrows rose at the insolence, but he didn’t lose his temper again, so at least there was that. “I-” He choked, gritted his teeth, and tried again, shoving down the awful churning emotions that were threatening to steal his voice. “I fucked up, alright? I fucked up, and-” Ed’s throat closed up despite his best efforts, and his legs gave out on him. He sank down the wall to sit on the floor and buried his face in his knees, so at least no one would see him crying, even if they all had to know that he was doing.

“If you wouldn’t mind not harassing my patient?” Granny snapped into the silence.

“My apologies.” The military guy offered smoothly. “There appeared to be… biological matter inside that circle, and that, you understand, is… concerning.” He pointed out, and Granny grunted in a way that was probably acknowledgement and agreement. There was a long pause. “Who was it?” The man asked, which meant he clearly understood enough of what the array was for that Ed was in deep shit anyway.

“Our mum.” Ed rasped out.

The military lady, who’d so far been a silent shadow to – Ed guessed – her superior, sucked in a sharp, horrified little breath. “I see. And, forgive me, but what happened to your brother?” The memory of Al’s face wearing Truth’s grin flashed through his mind and he flinched violently and curled in on himself, guilt making any explanation feel impossible.

Granny picked up his slack. “He’s not well, but he’s recovering.”

“What happened?” The military guy asked.

Granny made a dubious noise, but answered the question as best she could. “I’m not entirely sure, to be honest, but-” Ed tuned the rest of the explanation out, because he didn’t want to hear his failures spelled out in Granny’s brisk, practical way.

We are getting very hungry, little alchemist. Truth warned him.

Fuck’s sake, I can’t just- Granny is right there! Ed retorted, peeking up over his knees to where Granny was gesturing for the military goons to join her at the dining table as she talked.

Yes. She is, isn’t she? Truth responded ominously.

What’s that supposed to mean?!

It means that we must eat something, something nutritional for me, or our hunger will consume us. I could start eating bits of you, but then you will start to fail, and I will fail with you. Better to eat somebody else. Truth explained, still with that edge of dark impatience.

You piece of shit, fine! Ed hauled himself to his feet, resentful and reluctant, but not actually willing to keep pushing Truth, in case it did follow through on it’s threat. Granny cut off mid-sentence to look over at him, but he waved her off.

It was a warning, not a threat. Truth groused.

Sounded like a fucking threat to me! Ed snapped back, lacing the thought with all the impotent fury he felt. He yanked the freezer open and crouched down to see that Granny actually had a huge bag of already chopped- something. Probably lamb. He grabbed the whole thing, slammed the freezer shut, and emptied it out into one of the big mixing bowls.

We do not want to harm people! Truth exploded, just as furious as Ed. It was loud enough, even inside Ed’s head, to make him startle. Truth’s next thoughts were far less aggressive, quieter, almost soft. We don’t want to simply consume everything in our path like some kind of plague, but I am a living creature, just as you, and we must eat to survive. One cannot help one’s nature, and no creature should ever have to apologise for existing.

…That’s fair. Ed acknowledged gracelessly, and apologised by way of shoving a handful of frozen lamb chunks into his mouth. Before he could do more than register that this was going to be gross, something changed. Truth surged up, and the next thing Ed knew, his teeth had grown into points designed for rending flesh, and his tongue felt… weird. Different. But at least the difference meant that instead of tasting gross, the frozen meat actually tasted like sunshine felt. You gave me fucking synaesthesia. He complained half-heartedly.

Your human senses are so limited. Truth mocked. You can’t even tell when someone is approaching you from behind. It added, and Ed turned to see Winry standing in the doorway, watching him with wide, worried eyes.

“…Ed?” Winry asked tentatively, eyes flicking from his face to the bowl he was cradling in his arm.

Ed decided there was literally no way he could explain this without worrying her even more, and if he did that, she might start crying, and that would be unacceptable. So belligerence it was. “What?” He demanded, mustering up a scowl.

“Are you… um…” Winry trailed off, not even bothering to try and stay focused on his face anymore. “What are you…?”

“M’hungry.” Ed snapped defensively, and then pushed past her back into the front room, trying to escape. Of course, he’d forgotten that there were even more people to explain himself to in there, but he was here now, so he set his jaw and went to join the grown-ups at the dining table. They all accepted his presence without comment for the first three seconds, and then Granny did a dramatic double-take.

“What he hell are you eating, pipsqueak?” She demanded, leaning forwards to try and get a look at the contents of the bowl.

“Food.” Ed retorted, entirely truthful and entirely unhelpful.

“Is that- Edward Elric, what do you think you’re doing, eating raw meat straight from the freezer?! You’re going to make yourself sick! As if one of you coming down with something isn’t bad enough!” Granny exclaimed, trying to grab the bowl off Ed. He jerked it out of her reach and curled around it defensively.

“It’s fine!” Ed protested, and proved his point by shoving another handful into his mouth, chewing the bare minimum, and then swallowing. “See?” Granny made a noise like a boiling kettle, and then threw her hands in the air. In the back of Ed’s head, Truth was laughing. You’re an asshole. Ed informed it resentfully, and popped another chunk of raw sunshine-flavoured meat into his mouth.

The problem was, Ed could already tell that Truth hadn’t been fucking him around. Not even a quarter of the way through the bowl, and he could already feel the difference. Truth had been starving, maybe even to the point of dying of it, if Ed hadn’t gone along with it’s demands.

It is very, very difficult for one of us to die of starvation. If we become too diminished, we simply… hibernate. We can maintain that state for a very long time before even that takes too much from us, and we perish. But I have gone a long, long time without sustenance.

How long? Ed wondered, as the adults hesitantly picked up their conversation. Military guy was saying something about human transmutation being illegal, and Granny was snapping back defensively. Ed thought he probably ought to care about that, but it was hard to muster up the energy.

We can’t actually remember. Truth admitted.

That… had to be a long time. Ed shook the thought off, and listened to the military guy giving Granny soothing platitudes with half an ear. He caught more of Ed’s attention when he looked over, and Ed forced himself to actually pay attention when the guy switched to talking directly to him. Ed was a little impressed that, despite one, faintly pained glance, the guy didn’t show a hint of being disconcerted by Ed’s choice of snack. “I first came out to Risembool with the intention of offering to sponsor your application for the State Alchemist program. I reconsidered once I learned how young you were, but in light of everything, I think perhaps you might benefit from applying, regardless.” Ed blinked, too stunned to react.

We should do it. Truth decided.

“Wait, what?” Ed blurted out before he could stop himself.

“You – and your brother – are clearly alchemical prodigies, and-” The guy began, but Ed lost track of what he was saying in favour of listening to Truth.

We must find Sloth, and the others, and return them to the Gate. The military is as good a place to start as any. They have resources we could use, and given that the others will be as hungry as we are, your military is bloody enough to be prime hunting grounds. Truth explained.

Ed went very, very still. I thought that thing- that- Sloth. I thought it had- died, or- or gone back to the Gate already. He thought in horror. It had dissolved, hadn’t it? Turned into a puddle of biological ooze, and slipped back into that place.

No. Your mother’s body ‘dissolved’, as I showed you yours could be. But that is our natural form. It is not anathema to us as it is for you. It would not have harmed Sloth to return to that state. To remain so without a host would eventually kill it, so Sloth would not have remained in your house for long.

Shit, okay. Ed thought, closing his eyes for a beat. He didn’t even need to think about it, really. If the thing that killed Mum was out there, he wanted to find it and put it back behind the Gate where it couldn’t hurt anyone else ever again.

And this man will be very useful. Truth added.

Ed closed his mouth without letting the affirmative answer that had been on his tongue spill out into the air. The military guy gave him a curious look, but then kept talking, a little more keenly, pushing a little harder to convince him. I thought you were scared of him? Ed questioned.

He is very dangerous to my kind. But we are hunting my kind. Truth pointed out, a little amused at Ed’s expense.

Ed wanted to pull a face at it, but didn’t dare, with the military guy’s attention fixed so thoroughly on him. Dangerous how? He wondered, to which Truth responded with a feeling of suspicion and mistrust. Ed actually did roll his eyes before he could stop himself. I already agreed that I want to find Sloth as much as you do. He pointed out, and Truth relaxed.

“Something the matter, Mr Elric?” The military guy drawled, unimpressed.

Ed blinked, and then realised he’d gone and rolled his eyes, and this guy had no way of knowing it was at the voice in Ed’s head, not him. “Uh…”

Ask him who he is. Truth suggested.

Right. “I just realised I don’t even know who the fuck you are.” Ed pointed out.

The guy huffed faintly, amused. “Fair point. I’m Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang, The Flame Alchemist, and this is my adjutant, Major Riza Hawkeye. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He offered dryly, holding out a hand for Ed to shake like they were both respectable grown ups. Ed almost wanted to laugh, but before he could, Truth moved his body again, reaching out to shake the man’s hand, and then, with a faint sense of amused trepidation, used the grip to turn Mustang’s hand over so Ed could see the array stitched on the back of his glove.

It was an impressive piece of alchemy, that was for sure. Simple and streamlined to the point that Ed was certain there was a lot more to it that Mustang was doing in his head, on the fly, for every different transmutation. Fire was notoriously tricky to do anything with, with alchemy, after all. Ed wished he was better studied in that arena, because even though he could pick out a few details from the circle, it was simple enough that he couldn’t even begin to put the pieces together and figure out how the thing even worked-

And then Truth was unspooling the knowledge inside his head. Fire at the heart, of course, integral but small because all that was needed was a spark, because the key ingredient, the main function of the array wasn’t to create fire, but to create fuel. Air and earth, interwoven and interlinked, because- Oh, fuck, of course, Ed thought, eyebrows rising in incredulous awe. Fire needed to breathe, and with enough flammable gasses concentrated in one place, the air could be the fuel.

There was so much more to it than that, so much excruciating detail was necessary to make it work, but with enough experience and knowledge, that could be done on the fly, and adjusted as needed to the circumstances. The basics, though, were there, so fucking simple Ed felt stupid for needing help to figure it out. Not stupid. Reverse engineering something like this would be the work of a lifetime for any normal alchemist.

“Okay, now that’s amazing.” Ed breathed. I didn’t know you knew alchemy. Other than… biological alchemy, anyway.

Truth laughed at him again. Arrogant little alchemist, it said, and it sounded almost fond, I invented alchemy.

Ed had no idea what to even do with that statement, so it was a bit of a relief when Mustang spoke up and distracted him from the increasing laughter inside his head. “Ah, thank you.” He said, sounding a little bewildered. “You, ah… can decipher it?”

“Enough.” Ed acknowledged with a grin. “It’s pretty sneaky, though.” He added.

Show off. Truth huffed, no longer laughing. Ed projected an imagining of him sticking his tongue out at it, to the tune of gloating laughter of his own.

Mustang pinched the bridge of his nose like Ed’s admission physically pained him, which was also pretty funny. “That is actually terrifying.” The man muttered. Hawkeye, too, looked entirely stunned, her mouth was actually a little agape as she stared. Ed looked at her a little curiously.

“Are you an alchemist, too?” He asked.

She blinked once, and then offered him a faint smile. “No, but my father was.”

Ed nodded, and tried not to pull a face. That just made him think of his own deadbeat dad, and he didn’t want Hawkeye thinking it was directed at her. To his surprise, he felt the same rolling disgust and scorn that he was feeling coming from Truth at the thought of his father. Why do you hate him? He wondered, baffled, but only for a moment, because, well, it was obvious. Hadn’t Ed gotten the idea to- to do what he did from one of his dad’s old books, from a handwritten note in one of his dad’s old books? Oh, right, did he, uh… free one of those things, too?

Yes. Truth projected the affirmation forcefully. More than one.

Ed wasn’t sure whether to feel horrified or vindicated by that, and settled for just letting Truth share his anger. Funnily enough, it did seem to help them both. “Well, Mr Elric?” Mustang asked, breaking Ed out of his thoughts – his conversation with Truth – and drawing him back to the present. Ed raised his brows at him, and fished around in the bottom of his bowl for the last few bits of meat. “Have I persuaded you to apply for a State Alchemist licence?” Mustang asked with a hopeful, encouraging smile.

“Yeah, sure, whatever. I’ll do it.” Ed agreed.

“You what?!” Winry yelped.

“Edward…!” Granny added, entirely thrown and vaguely appalled. Even Hawkeye looked unhappy, lips pressed into a thin line.

Only Mustang didn’t seem shocked, instead hiding a smug bastard little smirk behind his interlaced fingers. “Excellent. The next Exam is in eight months. I suggest you come to Central a little earlier, to give yourself time to adjust and perhaps get a little studying time in the libraries there.” Ed shrugged, because he really didn’t care about the logistics. Mustang eyed him for a moment, then without comment turned to Granny to discuss the details. That was fine by Ed, really, and he let their voices drift out of focus as he contemplated the empty mixing bowl. Still hungry? He asked tentatively.

Yes. Truth admitted. But we will survive a few more days without proper sustenance.

Ed didn’t really want to think about the logistics of that, either, so he didn’t. “I’m going to go check on Al.” He said out loud, and slunk away with the feel of Mustang’s assessing gaze prickling on the back of his neck.

#Fullmetal Alchemist #Edward Elric #Winry Rockbell #Roy Mustang #Truth #Venom crossover #alien symbiotes #I'm pretty sure the whole 'eats brains' thing #comes from fanon #but Venom was a bit spefically keen on heads in the movie #and it does ramp up the horror factor by a few degrees #so I went with it

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bladekindeyewear · 6 years ago

Text

Boots reads Homestuck Epilogue(s) Part 6 - Meat Page 16

==> (Whoa, went a long while before splitting posts, there. Dangerous, with how often I’ve lost stuff to Tumblr page reloads in the past.)

Oh, you’ve realized Zazzerpan’s relevance as foreshadowing for the trolls or whatever, Rose?

Oh my god, PLEASE don’t put Rose inside a fucking robot. >:|

Oh SHIT wait. That one wizard Roxy named her cat after who wanted all the knowledge in the world, got overloaded and then crushed by the giant textbook or whatever??? That’s disturbingly Rose-similar here. D:

Rose, puns. Please.

Hm, you think it applies to you all now instead of the trolls? Huh. Do you think some of you might become villains and get Just deaths?

..Huh, wait. Numerological significance? Are we actually learning what 413 means? Or learning that it was meant to be bullshit all along instead? I’m “Hmmm”ing loudly either way...

Ow, ouch. So a Light player wasn’t designed to properly live outside of canon significance, or??

Ooh. She’s not sure that if she opens herself up to all the knowledge of her other selves, that it’d be “her” anymore. A pretty legitimate fear... and one Dirk is perfectly disposed to disabuse her of. As a Heart player, he’d understand better than most that the entire combination of one’s various states over all timelines IS you, and the unique direction your will and uniqueness embodies across whatever it touches. Or something.

...Wait, wait a minute. Before I keep reading........ I didn’t actually CLICK the candy button yet. What if Candy just redirects to AO3 or something. Like, the candy bit is all of our fanfics. Oh jeez.

Okay reading on before that possibility drives me insane.

DIRK: I’m not sure anyone should be allowed to have that much foresight. Especially a guy like me.

...Mhmm, especially since in part that’s how we got Doc Scratch, yeah.

Reading to the end of this page, and........

Yeah, what the FUCK just happened.

So... is this Dirk BEING a villain? Doing some sort of weird almost cherubic Eye thing to kind of supplant Rose as he becomes a Scratch-like fanfic narrator or... Let me reread these last few paragraphs a couple times...

Is he really sort of “puppeteering” Rose? Is this like the birth of a god-tier villain or just a temporary respite he’s giving her sort of underhandedly for an actual good cause to help her out of her situation?? Or is “death” or a death of the self the actual solution he had for her mess??? I mean... the metatextual awareness bit that he’s speaking through in the last sentence is clearly something like what comes of ascending completely and going beyond the story to be able to write it like Caliborn or Doc Scratch might or... y’know what, fuck it. I’ll understand it in later pages. I have to keep reading if this is going to make sense to me.

This next button better not lead straight back to the fucking selection screen again.

==>

Oh shit, a giant Dirk section. Only fitting that he might have been writing most of this all along possibly.

Undercurrent of narrative significance. Oh shit. Is he going to go off about Light, about the story parts not mattering? Or that the fact that this IS a story and... from what I accidentally skimmed in sentences below before reading further, how we’re trapping them in a story by reading it or something??? Hence the idea that their existences are being “blighted” by the subtext of narrative significance, and would be better FREE of it?

Huh. Is this really going to work? As, like... a body slam of people who were too caught up in the forest of narrative purpose to see into the trees of the point he wanted to make with the finale? It’s practically Andrew talking to the audience from within the story about their frustrations, heh.

Yeah, this whole rant is pretty awesome so far. I forgot to mention it a few paragraphs ago, but when you look at the story list, the Epilogues are listed as “stories of dubious authenticity”, so is this whole thing like... how DIRK might have written the ending out? Just to emphasize further that this whole thing is kind of pointless compared to the infinite possibility that was the reward for their escape from the confines of such story-stuff?

Cool. Sounds like we’re seeing the “good end” that Dirk would have written for this story if he were to write one that still answers plotlike questions, or something similar to it. That and/or he’s also engineering things in-canon -- or as “canon” as the victory planet is -- to follow all this for the end result he has in mind, and it comes across as practically Doc Scratch-y in the way it ties in metatextual awareness and stuff. Either way, it DOES feel like Andrew might successfully be making his point.

==>

Pff. This is going to be a bit interesting. And, of course, unstuck-in-canon John can hear the narrator speaking.

And now John has ANOTHER story to get annoyed at the narrator of, heh.

The tooth is poisoned? Really? Did you just make that up or?

Okay, why suddenly the wallet, fanfic writer? Is he going to find touching pictures or just captchalogue the black hole?

This is all starting to feel a whole lot less serious, and I can’t help but figure that’s the intent.

==>

Pff, back to the B plot. Yay Jade! --Please don’t be metatextually aware like John and let’s get more actual story.

Phew, seems to be the case

...Is Karkat going to remake this post-scarcity society to be more Communist? Is that where we’re going here?

Alright, Roxy’s gonna be all voidy and Neutral and not want an impact on the election, from the sound of it?

GAAAHHH Jade is in love with all her friends and afraid of being alone. AAAH FEELS

--Oh huh, so because Jane’s been in the distance putting on the Perfect act she thinks she has to pull, she’s gone down in her friends’ opinions even if that isn’t really her??? That’s pretty reassuring as an alternative, actually. Leave it to Roxy to see everything crystal goddamn clear as usual.

Ooh, pronoun mishap.

Holy SHIT Roxy’s gonna go along with it. That’s nonbinary-awesome! And Dirk’s just fucking flabbergasted, I love it.

Pff, Dirk’s screwing it up outside too

yep, everyone ectobiologically had kids with everyone, really.

Oh, ow. Something about the whole black hole green sun thing is fucking with her. That, or, like... Huh, might the whole metatextual ascension thing mean that she actually BECOMES that other Jade floating about for a hot minute, the one in the A-side plot??

==>

Ow this excellent narrative is pretty painful. Like, empathetically inducing pain through really good description of pain and angst. Ow.

Oh shit, alt!Calliope has a plan. Maybe she’s able to use this black hole to re-begin Paradox Space and close the loop once everything’s absorbed or something, and needs a Jade’s help for it?

==>

Phew, some relative silliness with some of the others. That vivid description of a Jade’s suffering was starting to give my stomach a cramp. Actually, ANY vivid description of Jade’s suffering gives my stomach a cramp. Or any allusion to it, even, heck even without WORDS. I saw a Jadey song redux show up on my Youtube dashboard a few nights ago and had to turn it off after less than thirty seconds because I was about to throw up listening to the tune and staring at the image from my stomach clenching SO HARD. I am WAY too attached to Jade in particular to tolerate her suffering without serious emotional feedback on my part.

Okay, breathe. Breathe deeply, and keep reading...

....PFF, yes, Karkat. Finally acknowledge it’s disgusting. Birth is disgusting from any species really.

Yaaaay Kanaya! :)

Pfffff, Dave does record scratches with his hands mid-conversation like a fucking dab. He would.

KANAYA: I Am Impressed That You Managed To Be Seen In Front Of That Many People Without Spontaneously Bursting Into Flames

I’m laughing

We internalize and project the quality in very different ways, however, which is why I’m going to win.

Win?!????

Win WHAT, the election??? Is that your only grand plan or... I mean fuck, way to be Doc-Scratch-like ominous! Reading on...

...Yeah, Feferi was definitely a proto-Fascist too. :)

Oh, huh. “Power Corrupts In Small Steps”... is this whole President thing going to be a big-ass metaphor for gaining your God powers without abusing them?? And pointing out that Jane is hella abusing her status in a way that COULD become villainous if it goes too far? Victory is supposed to give you the ability to create a universe, but you’re not necessarily supposed to lord over it with an iron fist...

KARKAT: WHEN I HEAR ABOUT HOW HUMAN GRUBS CHEW THEIR WAY OUT OF THE FEMALE MATESPRIT’S ABDOMINAL HOLE BEFORE CONSUMING THE WOMB MEMBRANE IT MAKES ME WANT TO VOMIT.

Pffffffff

KANAYA: He Is Beloved In The Troll Kingdom For His Perky Ass DAVE: seriously? KARKAT: I TOLD YOU IT’S NOT JUST ME! KANAYA: It Has Some Terrible Arcane Power KANAYA: I Have Never Seen Anything Like It

I am laughing out loud here

pff dave’s doubtlessly imagined this at least as much as the rest of us

YESSS make fun of ship names some more, especially the ship names I’m not a fan of even though I’m such a fan of the pairing :D

KANAYA: Im Going To Call My Wife And You Are Going To Stop Talking

Why do I love that sentence so much. Is it just because it has the word wife in it. Probably.

At the other side of the cavern, Dave and Karkat bicker about what their combo kids would look like, in the event that they decided to stop being such laughable wusses and began fornicating like two cartoon animals of different species who have given into their lust.

Pffff. Yeah, Dirk would put it that way.

Pffffff. Not as adept at handling all sides of the story at the same time as you were as part of Doc, eh?

==>

Reading reading reading... Oh, adorable, he tried to slip a fish pun into Meenah’s name but couldn’t think of one.

...Oh SHIT, is he going to give Meenah the ring of life she wanted??? :D

Oh pff, that works too. :D

==>

Okay, time for maybe at least a SLIGHT explanation of whatever the FUCK Dirk might have or might not have done to Rose or something????

...Huh. What exactly are you trying to “fix” about Kanaya and Rose’s relationship, Dirk? Something that didn’t fix itself with just the two of them together?

I mean...... Rose’s substance abuse never fixed itself when it was just two of them together on the first-run meteor. And she’s been taking pills and trying to stave off her destiny out of fear while her wife hasn’t really been digging into her insecurities... I mean maybe he has a point.

SHADOWS around her?????? D:

==>

Yeah yeah, John drifting. I just remembered what one of those “server beacons” they were mentioning actually is, too, visually. Knowing it had an escape route helped.

What are you even gonna do with the slippers, gift them to Terezi when she comes flying in? (Also, right, just remembered he’s a Breath player so it’s only natural that he actually finds whatever there is to find “coincidentally” around here, like that wallet.)

Ooh, you REALLY were thinking about Terezi over the past years from the sound of it. And here she is or whatever. :)

1 C4N ST1LL TOUCH TYP3 1N H3R L33T SP34K W1THOUT 4NY 4SS1ST4NC3 3XC3PT C4PS LOCK ON 4FT3R 4LL TH3S3 Y34RS >:]

==>

Okay okay okay wait. Her shadow is talking??? Is this, like... Jungian shadow stuff? Inversion shadow stuff? What the fuck is going on. It better not be Inversion-related.

Let me read that again.

Her shadow has faded to light behind her, assuming the shape of a Rose-like apparition. I nod to her, and she continues. When she speaks, it’s almost as if it’s the apparition that’s doing the talking.

That’s weird and I don’t entirely know what it means. I’d better just keep fucking reading.

Fun philosophical banter. I didn’t know what “Hegelian dialectics” were until I read some big rant on someone’s Fallout New Vegas playthrough earlier last month.

ROSE: I think free will is a thing, sure. DIRK: Are you sure about that? ROSE: ... DIRK: Haven’t we spent the entire day having a feelings jam on how none of us got here by accident?

Ah, here we’re going with some Ultimate Riddle-y stuff.

Or wait, are we adding a bit on to that concept now? Because it now seems like a large PART of the Ultimate Riddle stuff I covered (FUCK dropbox for breaking all the images) that might be revealed in this part of the damn epilogue is the whole the-only-way-to-have-true-free-will-is-to-escape-the-narrative-imposed-on-us or something along with the rest of it.

Hm, that whole “become One God” bit that Dirk ranted about in the beginning of one of the John sections... is that his ambition here? I didn’t comment on the rantparagraph earlier because the “one” part of it threw me as possibly just some philosophical stuff he was musing about, but it’s like... I mean Dirk is the narrator right now, and it sounds like he wants to *BE* the narrator. Like, become the one truly in control of this whole story. With his orange Andrew-colored text or whatever. Is that what he meant by “win”, winning control of the entire narrative, turning everyone else in the story into mere extensions of himself that he was “writing” by virtue of being the only author?

And him getting thwarted in that task, showing that it’s better if there really is NO narrator and the characters can do whatever they imagine in infinite branches and our imaginations, is the victory that proves the point of the story. Or something. Hmm.

Also, huh. Like... I mean that IS a natural extension of a Prince of Heart if he were to turn to villainy. A grand ambition to destroy everyone’s individuality until they’re nothing but Himself. Right?

DIRK: Your Ultimate Self, that which is revealed when the mind’s partitions are stripped away, and all potentiality of who you are and what you could have been flow together. DIRK: Those are the experiences and processes that are refusing to stay bundled, that’s what your body can’t endure. The unbundling itself is your mind coming apart. DIRK: Because you’re not as strong as me. Not yet. DIRK: But you can be. DIRK: I’m working on that.

Because she’ll “BE” you? Because you’ll be everyone? Hm.

DIRK: But for now, I’m focused on stabilizing you with my own expanding consciousness. DIRK: It’s enveloping you now, in a way you can’t see. Keeping your thoughts solid, your identity anchored to your physical form as it strains to hold itself together. DIRK: You can’t see it, what I’m talking about. But I can help you. DIRK: I can help you see what I see, if only for a little while. DIRK: All you have to do is open your eyes. DIRK: Maybe what you see will help you through this.

Okay so maybe this all ain’t TOTALLY fucking sinister. Just partially. Hmm.

I’m not going to describe what she sees. First of all, that would be spoiling it. Unless you already know, in which case, I guess what’s taking place here qualifies as something closer to dramatic irony. But if you really want to see it for yourself, stop what you’re doing, flip the whole thing over, and begin again. I’ll be right here when you get back, waiting. Trust me, no one’s going anywhere.

Hahahahah. So the candy part IS written. I mean I was pretty sure, but it’s nice to have it acknowledged here. Pretty awesome. I won’t stop here to read it, I’ll get to the candy part eventually as a nice dessert.

All she needs is a nudge in the right direction.

We’re family. We belong together. And after years of micromanaging the inconsistent and confused desires of total imbeciles, wouldn’t it be a relief to have someone by my side who understood me?

Stop being so incestuous. Dirk, you’re just getting off on the CONCEPT of incest being part of the flavor of all this, aren’t you. That’s why you kept pushing things this way, you want it to be as uncomfortable as possible.

...wait, yeah he’s just talking about being a metatextual ascended, isn’t he.

Her body should be dead now.

I’M SORRY WHAT THE FLYING FUCK.

And Rose has... what, ascended but somehow given in to Dirk’s puppeteering of existence, or? Ugh.

Next post, I wanna keep reading already to get through all this bullshit. Then once I’ve figured it all out, I can rest comfortably back with the Candy side which Rose practically just promised me is potentially TOO SUGARY which is really enticing as a prospect.

#Homestuck #Homestuck Epilogue #Homestuck Liveblog #upd8 #bladekindeyewear #BlastYoBoots

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colpeia · 6 years ago

Text

Sungrass Oasis

~ Music ~

The crisp ocean breeze felt revitalizing and abrupt in such sunbaked air. Beneath an otherwise lavender sky, peach colors streaked around the sun as it hid behind a glittering turquoise horizon. Salty sea turtles roamed the shore.

On a large wooden deck overlooking the beach, a pair of tawny blood elves squatted over the sides of opposite lounge chairs.

A pensive sigh escaped Colpeia as she gazed up. “Well, at least we’re no longer hated for what we’re not.”

The solemn nature of Roholly’s nod didn’t stop the characteristically peppy bounce of her ponytail. She said nothing.

“What are mother and father going to do?”

“They’re returning to the glass forge,” Roholly said. “It’s still there, thankfully, and undamaged. So they’re going to continue running Beamgully Crystal like before.” She hesitated, an uncomfortable thought tugging her lips. “I’m honestly not sure whether Eversong Woods is going to welcome them back with awkward guilt, or the same scowls that made them leave. You know how they are about their craft, though.”

“Passionate.”

“I mean, it’s just as well. Finding a suitable place in Dalaran never got easier. Not for them at least.”

“Are you’re staying, then?” Colpeia asked.

There was gratitude in Roholly’s smile. She glimpsed at her feet. “Mhmm. I’ve already settled in, so it’s like, why return to Silvermoon? Why return to a place that was so quick to cast us out? People I had worked with for years acted like they’d never known me... It hurt.” The echo of grief leaking into her voice dropped to bitter sarcasm, “Really, I’d love to see how they deal with telling patients they need a root canal. They were far too sour. The people I work with now are a lot nicer.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“What about you though? Enough clientele?”

Colpeia huffed a laugh, “They haven’t stopped. Though, most of them have been architects. Civilians want to rebuild and protect themselves. After Lordaeron and what happened in Teldrassil, I’m not surprised.” She stopped, her humble expression heralding a confession. “Actually, because of the extra money, there is something else I want to do.”

“What’s that?” Roholly blinked, bewildered. “And honestly, why? Why work any harder when you’ve already such a solid income?”

“When this war started I was already tired. I’ve rested. Now I see a lot of other people tired. Tired, injured, and very sad. I want to give them a place to rest.” Unthinkingly, she turned to the hills winding just behind and beyond the beach house. They resembled dried and knotted-up honeycombs. “A place with soft seats and hot tea. Maybe somewhere in Gadgetzan.”

“That sounds ambitious when you don’t have a tribe to help you,” Roholly joked.

Colpeia looked back at her and returned a knowing smile.

She sat on the bed, her room under the blue blanket of midnight. A silvery glow brushed every contour. The window behind her was open, revealing distant waves glittering under a nearly full moon. Their rhythmic whisper was a soothing but everyday nostalgia to her while a cool draft carried its hush inside. Colpeia’s long stare sank into the vanity mirror against the wall. She looked as dazed as she felt.

Her motivation wasn’t purely altruistic, and she knew it. This was a time of war. She was plagued by an addiction only battles could feed - not for bloodlust or power, but an insatiable redemption she didn’t need in the first place. It spiraled her into a desperate black hole of this-still-isn’t-good-enough-to-absolve-me. If she dedicated herself to soothing survivors, it meant she couldn’t go to wanton lengths rescuing people in danger.

The mathematician knew a negative feedback loop when she saw one. Colpeia was Tildalune’s curse, which made her feel guilty, which piled onto her continued self-blame, which was Tildalune’s curse. She projected her acquaintance’s death onto people in danger only to re-experience severe personal failure if they weren’t saved. This trigger was unavoidable in wartime.

It was fortunate her tribe offered so many methods of mind-healing; they were helping. It couldn’t stop there, however. Constant over-exposure didn’t help to desensitize her, but a change in environment might.

How does one stop a negative feedback loop? Replace the causing variable. After Tildalune’s death, she had fantasies of nurturing her back to health and providing comfort. What if Colpeia frequently did something that she would associate with this ‘fake memory’? She could soothe people who survived danger, instead of succeeding or failing as their white knight.

She could learn to stop. She could focus on how she’d grown to care about Tildalune instead of how she’d failed her.

Tildalune’s spirit could be free to move on. She promised.

A vague breath of a silhouette flashed the corner of her eye, and a honeyed voice beamed in her head:

It’s time. Run, my sweet desert gazelle. It’s waiting for you. You know I’ll be right behind you.

For the next week Colpeia was a montage of sending proposal letters, receiving terms, ordering equipment, and huddling over a floor plan.

In an eclipse-like flash, holding a crescent pendant, she vanished. Colpeia reappeared amidst the celestial themed tents and Silithus-esque crystals floating above the ground. Presenting her floor plan to a gradually swelling group, she delved into thorough detail - the aesthetic, the business plan, the modest building she’d be renting, the spirit of the lounge. The appraising eyes mulling over her words eventually exchanged amenable glances.

Several yards from the shore, a herd of camels sped majestically across the gold sand, their hooves kicking up clouds in their wake. Thick ribbons of cloth gracefully fluttered behind their human and elven riders. Gadgetzan drew nearer.

Slowing to a saunter through the dusty port town, the half-dozen Shafise approached the clay dome building Colpeia had described. Knicks of moderate wear greeted them.

The following month was a slew of repairs, painting, tiling, heaving furniture, positioning lights atop secured ladders, and repositioning ornaments. Regularly catered at the entrance were water and food fine enough to convey a grateful gesture.

Sungrass Oasis was ready to open.

Colpeia sat over the bar scanning over a collection of slender menus. They catalogued an overwhelming list of loose-leaf and blooming flower teas. The rest were fanciful snacks: clamlette magnifique, clam chowder, goblin deviled clams, firebloom crab cakes, cactus fruit salad, Shafisian desert dumplings, hot roc wings, fried scorpid, and prickly pear sorbet. She wasn’t initially pleased about needing a supply of meat, until a goblin explained they always had these ingredients leftover after pest control and harbor maintenance. It was good they didn’t go to waste. This would also give the Shafise tribe the opportunity to showcase some of their traditional recipes along with blends.

Though a hole-in-the-wall, it was contemporary chic and polished, a message of modern class that she knew would hook the landlord’s interest. The floor was tiled in sleek black, and the walls painted white, brought to life by voguish artwork. Framed in thick, black frames, the paintings were as soothing as they were stylish. They depicted modern abstract, turquoise beaches, and desert blossoms. A few were pieces that might have been pretentious in another setting, but somehow felt innocently trendy here. Two of them were offset by equidistant sandstone bowls resting in tasteful square impressions on the wall. Sweeping glass sculptures ribboned with solid colors, some glittering in the light, added bold character. Most of them were feet tall and stood on the floor.

On each black chair was a plush, pale yellow cushion. Filled with sand, sea glass, and shells, a candle resting in a glass bowl embellished every table, along with a daisy in a white vase. A handful of firebloom petals were strewn about them.

Outdoor seating overlooking the beach waited behind a thick curtain. It ironically had more space than inside. Fit for a posh vacation photograph, a pergola strung with lanterns hung over the display, with translucent lilac curtains draped to the sides. To keep customers warm in the chilly desert evenings, a gemstone fire pit sat in the middle. The area was lined with potted, flowering cacti and a low wicker-weave fence. In place of daises were

One task remained before it opened: Reach out to old friends.

#stories #new tea lounge!#won't be a huge thing #might host a casual event or two with it idk

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nelliievance · 4 years ago

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Healthy Eating and The Pleasure Trap

I just finished reading The Pleasure Trap by Drs. Doug Lisle and Alan Goldhamer. This is a fascinating book about factors that affect our eating behavior and the health effects of our diets, both psychological, neurological, biological, environmental, and evolutionary. The authors explain complex topics well, and sprinkle in fascinating examples and historical references to keep it entertaining. Dr. Lisle is a clinical psychologist and Dr. Goldhamer both a Chiropractor and Osteopathic Doctor. They work together at TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, California. I learned about them though Chef AJ, who considers them to be mentors.

The main idea of the book is that all species, including humans, have a “motivational triad” described below which drives our behavior. This formed as we were evolving, and works superbly in our natural environments. Unfortunately, unnatural factors can short-circuit this mechanism, and make us fall into “the Pleasure trap”. This has severe consequences to our health and longevity. An obvious example is cocaine, which seizes control of the pleasure centers of our brains. But, more importantly to the topic of nutrition, various unnatural foods have “drug-like” effects. Strong evidence is given for this. A couple of caveats before I get to the details:

The book emphasizes a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) diet, with no animal products, as our natural diet. The authors do admit that while it was evolving our species ate some meat, but argue that the lean game or fish consumed in the ancestral diet bears little relation to meat from modern industrial sources, so modern meat is unnatural for us (a point I made in a previous post). You may think “why can’t we eat healthier versions of modern meat, from lean animals raised in a more natural environment,, fed their natural food?” But the main points of the book are still valid even if you’re skeptical that we need to eat no animal products. Some leaner meats are also less than 700 calories per pound, an important point because part of the authors’ reasoning is that too high caloric density is part of what is unnatural in our modern diets. I think it’s important not to get stuck on this controversial point because the evidence and reasoning about the pleasure trap and its effects are well worth hearing. They remain valid if you use a looser definition of our natural diet that include some not-too-calorie dense animal products, more analogous to those from a natural environment, like say pasture-raised meat or wild fish from a clean source.

The authors are enthusiastic proponents of medically supervised water fasting. That is a big part of the contribution of their TrueNorth center. They give compelling arguments and scientific evidence of its health benefits. Still, some may find this too extreme. You don’t have to believe in, or want to try, water fasting, to get the benefit of the main part of the book. It is only discussed at the very end of the book. I will go over the evidence about water fasting at the end of this post.

The Pleasure Trap

The first thing explained in the book is the motivational triad: all species are designed to

seek pleasure

avoid pain

minimize energy consumption

You may see right away where this might be going. Fruit is pleasant to eat because it’s nutritious. “Froot Loops” hijack this feedback by making us think an unhealthy food is pleasant. Minimizing energy makes sense if you’ve been working for hours foraging, but not if you’re in an environment that allows you to do very little physical activity. Others have made this argument. But there’s a lot more detail to it in the book.

Fruit vs “Froot Loops”

First, there’s a whole additional layer. Intensely pleasurable experiences, like from eating exquisitely ripe berries or mating, are designed to be occasional rewards. Finding a mate is an end goal. But there is intermediate feedback on the way to keep us on the path, that cause “the moods of happiness”. Further, the actual mechanism for the intermediate feedback is different than the intense pleasure feedback. It involves chemicals like serotonin or endorphins, for example, while intense pleasure involves ones like dopamine.

The fascinating example of a bird, the male desert shrike, illustrates all of these concepts and how superbly it works in the natural environment. But now suppose we introduce something unnatural, like cocaine. This completely short-circuits the mechanism. All the health-promoting intermediate behaviors are skipped, and you jump right to the intense pleasure feedback. It gets worse. The dose needed to get the high keeps increasing. Eventually those caught in the trap care about nothing but the next hit of the unnatural substance. The sad example of lab rats, who are trained to press a lever to get a serving of a drug, is given. They will get hooked and neglect eating, and eventually starve, because they keep pressing the lever. We all know that this can transfer to humans unfortunate enough to be victims of addition. And we know how incredibly hard it is to escape the pleasure trap into which they have fallen.

Next the authors explain that unnatural foods have a drug-like effect. This has gotten steadily worse with the progression of the industrial revolution. First the fiber was stripped from wheat to make white bread, for example. But in this century it has gotten much worse with over-processed manufactured foods. This is relentless, more and more overtaking our modern diet by increased amounts of over-processed foods, and crowding out natural foods, How this happened increasingly in the 20th century and into the 21st was chronicled by Michael Moss in Salt, Sugar, Fat. Now we have food scientists who know how to find the “bliss point”, the perfect combination of substances in food that cause the most hyper-palatability. No wonder they are trigger foods!

And back to the motivational triad, modern society, with the automobile and fast food restaurants, has for the first time in history made it possible for us to be couch potatoes, so we are able to truly maximize pleasure while minimizing effort, which we have a strong evolutionary instinct to do.

Our Exquisitely Tuned Satiety Mechanism

The authors describe in amazing detail our finely tuned elaborate mechanisms for eating just the right amount to stay at the optimum weight for our health. No species, including humans, gets thinner or fatter than is healthy in its natural environment. It’s really hard to summarize and do the details justice, but the mechanisms includes stretch receptors in our stomachs and various hormonal mechanism.to detect fullness. This is related to the “set point” mechanisms you’ve probably heard of. Various elements in our modern diet defeat it, including foods that tend to be much higher in calorie density, outwitting the stretch receptor, or have unnatural substances in them that mess up satiety. And don’t forget the “drug-like” hormonal effects of the trigger foods that lead to the pleasure trap with addictive results or, even for those fortunate to be less sensitive, something close to it.

Taking various foods and separating them into natural foods, with low calorie density, and high nutrient density, vs. unnatural foods with high calorie density and low nutrient density, is where Chef AJs red line came from. I did not explain this well in my previous post on it. These are not being arbitrarily assigned as “good or bad” foods, they are simply foods we evolved to thrive on vs. those that we were not. There are some natural foods to the right of the red line, like avocados, nuts, and seeds. These would have been harder to come by in our ancestors’ natural environment so if we overate them it would only have been occasionally. Also, even for many plant foods, the natural form in our ancestral diet was probably much less calorie dense than modern cultivated forms. These natural foods, (AJs “purple foods”), are likely the only foods to the right of the red line it might be safe to eat “in moderation” (at least for some).

This explains why people have so much trouble eating the modern over-processed diet in moderation. Some of us can get away with it on occasion, while for others it can trigger bingeing. I can get away with it sometimes, but it sure feels like “playing with fire”.

The authors finish up by describing how water fasting has worked out for patients at their center. It has been shown for example, to reverse high blood pressure in a matter of weeks. And there is the added benefit that after you come off from the fast, your taste buds have reset themselves so more natural foods taste good. They emphasize that water fasting needs to be medically supervised or it can be hazardous.

Healthy Eating and The Pleasure Trap published first on https://steroidsca.tumblr.com/

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organiclifestylemagazine · 4 years ago

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Natural Pain Relief for Athletes

Being an athlete can take quite a toll on the body, even with a great diet. Over weeks of training I’ve found that even on the best diet, I’m bound to run into injuries and soreness. That being said there are several things that make a big difference in how I feel the next day and rather or not I’m able to train the next day.

Currently, I’m training for a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu competition in May. I’m new, and my workload isn’t nearly that of a seasoned professional athlete, but for the average person, it’s intense.

Every day I do a full body weight lifting workout, yoga, stretching and breath control, 100 bodyweight squats, three sets of push-ups and pull-ups, drilling and training with my dad for about 20 minutes, a mile run, and training at the gym for 3-4 hours a day.

Most injuries I get heal quickly. Since starting Brazilian jiujitsu I’ve suffered jammed toes, a bruised trachea, a pulled quad muscle, and most recently a pulled muscle in my rib area near my spine. Every other injury has been quick to heal, gone in three days at the most. My rib injury took longer to heal. Even after it got better, I spent weeks being sore in that area and having to pay special attention not to reinjure it.

I’ve got a competition soon so extended time off isn’t an option, nor is any sort of pain management that would slow my healing long term. I don’t take pain medication of any sort, nor do I use recreational pain relief like cannabis. Cannabis and over-the-counter pain relief, as well as prescription pain medication all slow down the healing process exponentially for temporary relief.

I view my pain (and many other things in life) like a credit card. Using medication to relieve pain temporarily means dealing with a longer lasting injury, and more pain in the long run. For instance, if I have an injury that hurts at a 6 out of 10, I can smoke some weed or take some other pain medication. But once it wears off that 6 becomes a 7, maybe an 8. And of course, the next dose of pain relief won’t be as effective unless you up the dosage. That’s not my idea of a desirable feedback loop.

To promote healing, we do hot-cold compresses switching back and forth to attract blood flow and inflammation for healing. In the end, we use lots of deep tissue oil on the area. Deep tissue repair oil is my number one recommendation for pain relief and healing if you’re only going to use one thing to aid in the healing process. I use it multiple times a day when I feel sore and before or after a workout. Deep tissue oil has menthol crystals, cayenne, wintergreen oil, and other things to promote healing and attract blood flow to the target area.

I also do hot epsom salt baths as often as needed. It’s nothing revolutionary, but epsom salt does help release tension, relax the muscles and prevent soreness.

Many people recommend Boswellia, an herbal extract, to help with inflammation and pain. Although I’ve never used it, you can read more about it and its benefits in this article.

I stretch and do yoga every day to work on flexibility and aid in healing as well. Even if I’m injured to the point of being unable to workout, I still stretch for movement and healing.

Many other athletes have done down similar paths of using natural remedies to help heal, but very few go deep enough to get the full benefits. Acupuncture and chiropractic care are two examples of holistic routes that some people go down, but as great as they are, they’re really only temporary pain relief. Acupuncture and chiropractic work can be great aids for the body in addition to a healthy diet and routine, but they don’t fix any problems on their own.

Diet

Without a healthy diet, I wouldn’t be able to do this every day, but I’ve learned that there’s a difference between fueling my body for everyday life, and my diet when I’m training. When I’m training, I eat a high caloric diet with lots of protein. My main sources of protein are eggs, meat, and cheese. I generally eat less than a pound of meat a week. I have a little bacon in every salad, and between one and three nights a week, we’ll have sausage or bacon in dinner. I also eat homemade beef jerky for protein in between classes.

Eating an anti-inflammatory diet is probably the most important part of my healing process because it goes beyond just healing. My diet is even more strict than it was prior to fighting, although prior to fighting I ate better than almost anyone I knew. I have to eat a diet that not only aids in healing but prevents me from getting injured frequently. With the right diet, you can make your body impervious to injury. I don’t sit around and wait for an injury to start eating a diet that promotes healing.

Every day I eat a large salad with lots of different vegetables. Diversity is an extremely important part of a healthy diet that many people are missing. There are lots of professional athletes who have figured out that a healthy diet allows them to perform radically better, along with recovering faster and overall feeling better. That being said, not many people have figured out that there’s a big difference between eating some kale salad and eating a 10-cup salad with kale, collards, rainbow chard, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, and more. My salads have at least 10 different vegetables and herbs in them. This article goes into how I make my salads and cranberry lemonade.

Three to four times a week I drink my “anti-inflammatory smoothie“. I make it with an abundance of anti-inflammatory foods like ginger, pineapple, cranberries, tart cherries, and turmeric (to name a few). I drink lots of cranberry lemonade to flush out toxins and inflammation, as well as stay hydrated. Lastly, I obviously avoid inflammatory foods. I limit my grains and avoid corn (although occasionally we make homemade tortillas). I don’t even eat oatmeal anymore, because it’s too similar to gluten in the way it digests and causes inflammation.

Many fighters and bodybuilders eat lots of oatmeal as a good source of protein and fuel. For many people, it’s great. But, like most other grains, it’s inflammatory. I feel it when I eat them. I’ll bet if you’re paying attention, you can too. When I’m in need of protein and fuel I stick to things like eggs, homemade beef jerky, walnuts, chia seeds, and raw sheep’s cheese.

It seems like the list of foods I can’t eat is extremely long, but the list of foods I can and do eat is even longer. The guidelines are pretty simple, make everything from scratch, eat tons of raw veggies, eat tons of cooked veggies, and avoid any and all things processed.

Supplements

With a healthy diet the average person shouldn’t need to take supplements everyday when they’re healthy, but someone who’s pushing their body on an athletes level may find that they function better with supplements.

Currently, I take Sf722 every day, generally because I eat a lot of fruit. Sf722 also helps pump my body full of good stuff similar to salads. Without Sf722 my skin can be prone to breaking out from rolls on the mats, and my healing and recovery slows. I also take Abzorb, or other enzymes to help with digestion, especially if I eat pasteurized nuts. I take vitamin D, Vitamin B, and thyroid and/or pituitary glandular supplements to prevent endocrine system crashes.

When you’ve taken antibiotics or medication or done anything to eradicate your gut microbiome, your gut isn’t producing enough vitamin B. This can be one of the last things to correct itself after you’re healthy. Taking vitamin B helps heal your gut and helps the endocrine system by providing your body with vitamins that your gut should be producing.

When you’re overweight, even just a small amount your body has a hard time assimilating vitamin D from the sun. not to mention most of us don’t get enough sunlight anyways. Being overweight also leads to extra stress on the kidneys (and lower back) and the endocrine system.

Sleep

Diet and sleep are equally as important for overall health, and when it comes to how sore I am and my recovery time for an injury. Unfortunately, it can be hard to get a good night’s sleep when my injury is severe enough, but it’s always a top priority.

I always get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep. Regardless of the quality of sleep, I’m in bed trying to sleep for at least 8 hours. Sometimes depending on the workout the day before, or how an injury is healing, I can get more than 10 hours of sleep.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Training

While training anything contact or combat related it’s extremely important than you learn how to protect yourself from injury while drilling and rolling. It took me way too long to learn how to fall properly in jiujitsu, and it’s still a work in progress. Falling down wrong was the number one cause of injury for me while training.

Related: Running Without Knee Pain

That being said, once I learned how to protect myself from injury I found that training was actually extremely important for healing my most recently injury. So, if you can move, move. Staying active and using your body is extremely important for working your muscles and building them back stronger after an injury.

Generally, I use the rule use it or lose it. Broken bones often don’t need casts (and strong healthy bones are harder to break). Staying active is usually your best bet for healing quickly.

Conclusion

Some days I wake up barely able to move! Training this hard has been really intense, but I know that with the way I do things, my recovery time is radically faster than anyone else I know doing the same thing as me.

In my experience the most important thing to do is to be in tune with your body to an extreme. The moment something isn’t right I can tell, and I can feel a difference in the way certain foods fuel my body. I track my sleep and my diet, and when things aren’t working the way they should I back track and examine where I might have gone wrong.

This takes time, and it takes mistakes. I’ve experimented with lots of different foods and routines and I’ve seen how certain things make me feel, and how they effect my performance. Working out and being active is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t mean much if you’re not healthy enough to sustain it.

Natural Pain Relief for Athletes was originally published on Organic Lifestyle Magazine

#Muscle Soreness #pain relief #running #Sleep

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thiswillbereportedtomanagement · 7 years ago

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The Streetwear Startup forum lets aspiring creative directors figure out whether their graphics are cool—and where they can get blank tees to print them on.There is absolutely no good reason the words “yo pierre, you wanna come out here?” should be here pinned on the page for Reddit’s Streetwear Startup subforum. Clicking on the words leads you nowhere, and the phrase—first heard on the Jamie Foxx Show and more recently popularized by hip-hop producer Pierre Bourne—doesn’t have anything to do with the page’s function: convening an unusually friendly online community to help burgeoning streetwear designers launch their brands. But it turns out that “yo pierre” is a perfect symbol for a genre of clothing that thrives on coded imagery—ranging from Coca-Cola to Dragon Ball Z—to signal to other people you’re hip, you’re in the know, and yes, you would like to come out here.The streetwear startup aims to dissect the very concept of cool. Can the designs and signals that have catapulted brands like Supreme and Kith into the fashion stratosphere be focus group-tested until you’ve found the thing that resonates with customers? After all, if the almost-14,000 users on the page think your piece is a must-cop, it’s also possible that Miami Dolphin Jarvis Landry will too, and will then wear it on ESPN, like he did with streetwear startup success story Rude Vogue. And if this chorus of voices say fire, there’s a decent chance the streetwear press will join in, like Hypebeast did with the brand Deadnight.Anyone with an Instagram account would be forgiven for thinking that the streetwear market is oversaturated with streetwear brands. But others see the endless stream as a siren call to jump into the fray. But the rush with coming up with a catchy name—seriously, it can be anything; the most popular streetwear brand in the world is called Supreme—can make you forget there are logistics to be dealt with. How do you get your vision on the screen? How do you make other people fuck with that vision? How do you get that art on a T-shirt? And, wait, where do you even get those T-shirts from? And once you have the T-shirts and someone willing to shell out the cash for it… what then?How do I get these printed?Streetwear Startup is built to answer those questions. “I want to keep it as open as possible and for it to be for anyone curious about brand startup as a whole,” says Dustin Wilkie, a recent UNC-Asheville grad who moderates the subreddit. The subreddit was formed, in November of 2013, and Wilkie, who was working on a brand of his own at the time, joined almost immediately. Wilkie says the person “who actually made it just doesn't use it, and I don't even have contact with them any more”—a poetic start for a page that’s all about trial and error. Wilkie was put in charge because he was the longest-tenured member.The subreddit’s main services can be broken down into two parts: beginner questions (What’s the best ecommerce site?) and brand feedback (What logo do you like most?). Wilkie’s goal is to eradicate the first part by compiling a How to Streetwear 101 handbook that will contain everything you need to get from idea to brand. “We have a pretty big problem with people posting the same beginner question over and over,” Wilkie laments. The ”wiki” currently covers four topics but “we're creating a how to beginner's guide that should handle all of those questions,” Wilkie says.“The subreddit is filled with people who are grinding away every day in the same way as me,” says Slade, a 20-year-old college student studying graphic design in Missouri who founded the brand VVID. “Oftentimes, they've stumbled and had to learn during their journey, too, and they're nice enough to impart that knowledge to me, and in turn I get to circumvent those mistakes.”Wilkie says the page has been growing quickly recently, though he can’t pinpoint the exact reason for all the newfound subscribers. Jaffry Mallari, a 19-year old Geomatics Engineering Technology student at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, says that when he joined almost two years ago, there were only around 2,000 followers. He took a break after his first brand went to that friendly Shopify site in the sky, but when he came back around a year ago the number of subscribers had tripled to 6,000. Now it stands at around 14,000 members—and more people means more voices. “There is more information now,” Mallari says. “So now it's like more of a struggle [to get to the top post] but since there's more competition now it made me push harder on my designs.” Mallari dubbed his new brand Resurgence: “To fix the mistakes that I’d made and to do twice as well as before—that's the meaning of the brand.”When I catch Slade on email he tells me he was getting “sewing 101 tips.” Others start by sponging up even more rudimentary knowledge. Mallari recounts his first experience on the page: “I just kept putting in designs and kept asking questions, like, ‘What websites do I use? How do I get these printed?” Mallari says that the first brand he made “crumbled and fell off” after a bad business decision. “But back then I was still new to it and I thought [I’d found] an easier way. That's when I learned the hard way that's not how you need to run something.”Everyone started from the bottomBuilding a career in fashion takes time: Alessandro Michele worked anonymously for more than a decade at Gucci before being handed the reins. Building a career on r/StreetwearStartup is a considerably quicker process. “I have been posting in the subreddit showcasing my collections for about 18 months now,” says Sam Hall, a 27-year-old living in Manchester. In that span, his brand Deadnight has been featured on Hypebeast. Well-followed DJs like Example and KuruptFM requested clothing from him. Now, he says he’s in talks to be stocked “across Asia for a very large organization.” That’s thanks to the subreddit, he says: “Each time I have received high praise from members, but most importantly vital feedback which I have used each and every time to improve.” And therein lies what’s truly one-of-a-kind about this page: unlike most internet enclaves, most people on Streetwear Startup aren’t total assholes.A large percentage of the posts request feedback on a design. Amateur designers posting their best efforts to an audience granted internet anonymity should be like throwing red meat to a pack of hypebeasts. But the group on Streetwear Startup is almost entirely supportive, and only intends to nurture when it does give feedback. Compare the top comment on a recent Hypebeast article—”Looka ma stickers bruuuuuuuh. Fucking f*****s”—with a comment the brand Anomaly received when its founder asked for feedback on a tee: “I really like the original to the point where I'll cop rn if you release.”And that’s just one of the 33 comments offering advice on what the graphic should look like (“If you're going for the water reflection look, I feel like you should make the water a little more recognizable,” writes one commenter) and ways to add small details (“Would like to see something really simple on the back of the shirt,” reads another post). Anomaly’s founder Adam has been on the subreddit since 2015 and describes it as a key resource in building his brand. “It's the first place I turn to whenever I need feedback on a new design, tips on marketing, or just advice in general,” Adam tells me via email. “I'm not exaggerating when I say I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the supportive, albeit critical, community.”That sentiment is echoed by other users. “I personally value when people on the sub are a bit ruthless,” says VVID’s Slade. “It may often hurt my feelings at first reaction, but I also find harsh critique to give my subconscious a new perspective when approaching design.”What feeds the harmonious atmosphere is the fact that everyone has some skin in the game. “Everyone has the same perspective,” says Mallari. “So it's much easier for them to praise others, keep it up, this is good. It's a supportive environment because everyone started from the bottom.” Wilkie says he’s only ever banned one person.The whole community is reliant on this continuous feedback loop. “If you give to the community, we're going to try and give back to you,” says Wilkie.But this isn’t just a fun hobby; those who stick with the subreddit are serious about their success and the page can act as a fast track to it. “This is the future for me,” says Slade of his brand. “I'm hoping when Volume 3 releases I'll be able to drop out of school and do VVID full-time. I don't think it’s a long shot.”Adam, a 17-year-old who runs a brand called Anomaly with his friends Omar and Abdullah, echoes that thought. “Every brand owner within the subreddit wants the same thing: to make it big,” he says.It’s the amount of experience that all of us combined can bring to one person's ideaThe subreddit’s greatest strength, though, is the sheer number of voices and people it can bring to bear on an issue. “We have [14,000] people now but even if 10 people talk to you about a design that may help you decide to start over or decide that, ‘Wow this is really something I can work on.’” says Wilkie.When I ask Slade what the most valuable thing he gets from the subreddit is he says opinions. This is what’s most disruptive about the page: it lets burgeoning designers to crowdsource their designs rather than coming up with designs in isolation, investing the money, then plopping them on the web in hopes of finding an audience for the work.The process by which the clothing is made is different, but the resulting products have a lot in common with brands we’re familiar with. In the world of streetwear, the difference between what we consider hot and not oftentimes has a lot to do with the name behind it, rather than the strict aesthetic appeal of whatever’s on the front. The reasons we lose our collective shit over a white tee with a red box on it isn’t because of its unprecedented design quality; it’s because of everything that red box signifies. Anomaly recently featured paintings that were criticized for looking too similar to those used by popular streetwear brand Heron Preston. The factor that makes one cool and another unoriginal can often come down to the name. There’s nothing inherently uncool about the brands on the streetwear subreddit except maybe that they’re just not cool yet.Sorting out all the signals is why the streetwear startup can be so helpful. “I needed a place to gauge the response a larger audience would have to the collection and I wanted to know if it would stand out the way I wanted it to,” Slade explains. “What better way to test that than post in a community of people who look at or create streetwear designs all day, and see what they think?” You can feel out a customer base before needing, you know, a customer base.And because these are people who also have brands, it makes them the perfect target market. “If the majority of them like it, it will mostly likely at least sell a few pieces,” says Mallari. Streetwear Startup offers people a testing ground for items and designs before they ever put real monetary investment into anything. And you can keep taking the community’s advice until you’ve smoothed out the edges enough that someone—probably a number of someones on Streetwear Startup, who have now all helped you make a garment closer to their tastes—might actually buy your product. Fashion isn’t a science, but in Streetwear Startup you can play a game of addition and subtraction based on feedback until you’ve got something at least one person will wear.And you can keep adding and subtracting until someone like Jarvis Landry wears your clothes on ESPN. Matt Nicholas, a 30-years-old supplement store manager in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada and the designer behind Rude Vogue, says that the subreddit vaulted him in front of a larger audience, but the Landry placement is on a different level. “It was a pretty amazing feeling, just growing up always watching ESPN daily and then to see your brand you've worked so hard for making a cameo on SportsCenter,” Nicholas says. The rest of the subreddits users are hoping to find the same kind of streetwear success — with a little help from their 14,000 friends.Watch Now:How Kinfolk Became One of the Coolest Designers on the PlanetMORE STORIES LIKE THIS ONE

https://www.gq.com/story/reddit-streetwear-startup

#IFTTT #Feedly

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gmoblog-blog · 8 years ago

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Having a bold word will assist search engines like google to find your keyword and to find additional appearances of it on your page. the top washington dc seo When putting together the Title tag around the pages of the site you must leave off your organization name unless it really is a well-known name. Many people is not going to hunt for the name of the company directly plus it could limit the volume of hits your site receives. One way to improve internet search engine visibility would be to provide plenty of internal links inside your site. Have a summary of content links around the side in addition to frequent links for your archives as well as other pages within the content itself. Linking to your site inside the site makes search engine listings more prone to pick you up, but take care not to over link to avoid being flagged as being a spammer. When establishing your web site, avoid flash. It may well look pretty to obtain Flash, but it does not do a thing for the search engine marketing. With Flash much like AJAX and Frames, you are going to struggle to backlink to just one page. For maximum SEO results, usually do not use frames, and merely use AJAX and Flash sparingly. Create internal links over which you have control if you make several small URLs with relevant content to improve SEO. Offsite links will almost always be better for boosting your search rankings. If you create small URLs that you control the information, you can ensure that the content provides the right keywords to operate a vehicle additional traffic to your site. A web page meta tag is the place you add a description of the items the page is all about. Rather than just several words like you would include from the title tag, the meta tag has room for a couple of well constructed sentences. For effective search engine marketing, don't simply repeat what you already possess from the title tag! Never forget to keep your customers in mind when writing blurbs that have search engine optimisation language. This keeps your customers considering what you must say along with the products and services you must offer. Remember only using search engine optimisation words is likely to make your blurbs sound spammy. Be sure you show patience in terms of search engine marketing. You may strive changing things around and never see a fast reward from this. Don't get discouraged. Just keep at it and you will ultimately see some results. Remember it really takes time for your personal blog or site to increase. Ensure that keywords have been in your HTML. Once you have strong keywords to your website, it is essential to make certain that they can be easier for search engines like google to discover. Place them in the HTML. Put them in description and title tags. Be sure you include them in every blogs or online videos that hyperlink to your blog as well. A great idea with regards to solid search engine optimisation is to try using your primary keywords and phrases towards they beginning of your own title tag. Keywords near the start of your title tag receive more importance as opposed to those right at the end so ensure you write your title tag accordingly. Try and help make your website dynamic. If you website has a lot of content, you need to use a content management system to build and manage your site. These systems make use of a database-driven architecture to call items of content from the website to create a webpage around the fly as being the web user requests it. This makes certain that your online pages will always be up to date if you change some information. Search engine marketing involves making your internet site more accessible and visible when people use sites like Yahoo! or Google. If you want to increase site traffic, using common keywords is a means to have your site appear on the 1st page inside a list. Remember these guidelines to use search engine marketing for your benefit. Everything You Should Learn About Maintaining A Good Business Reputation Exactly how much does your reputation mean for your needs? This means much to your customers and potential future customers. It is very important make your reputation high as well as your customers happy. If you need help managing your reputation, use the following advice. They will certainly change lives inside your future success. Eliminate it if you find negative content relating to your brand online. It it is on a Web property you control, just like a comment on your website, just delete it. Send a request for the Webmaster where content is if you need to. Once they do get rid of it, ensure it not any longer shows up by utilizing the Google URL removal tool. Take your time and think carefully before addressing any complaints. Keeping cool and thoroughly contemplating the way you will respond online will keep your reputation intact. Read your answer several times, before posting a reply to your complaint. If you can, have an employee read the reply to ensure it is actually appropriate. Be personable online. To make tweets and updates work, you need to actively engage your followers. Respond to questions when you possibly can. Tell the follower you would like a response should you aren't absolutely clear on the answer. Understand that your internet and also in-person reputations both matter just as much. There are several people who are excellent in person yet they are not very great with customers online. You should be nice in either case because you do not know if this customer will spread negative information that will destroy you. Post moderation guidelines on each of your websites and social websites sites. Your visitors will be aware of precisely what is and what exactly is not acceptable responses in your website and social websites sites, by posting guidelines. When someone posts something which will not be inside the guidelines, eliminate the post and provide a description of why the post was removed. Bring people who are seeking your website directly to your website. You can do this by making use of your organization name as well as other identifying words as much on the website as possible without having to be annoying. This will likely bring searchers for you as opposed to websites with negative and possible untruthful reviews. Remember that there is no method to please everyone. There are lots of company owners that will get so discouraged whenever they get negative feedback they give it time to mold the contour of the business. Even though it doesn't feel happy to find out negative aspects of you, do not let it to help you get down. Do not forget that your offline presence also affects your online reputation. This really is generally the start of your reputation. Men and women will trust you more when you provide good customer support, offer good goods and services, and keep good relationships together with your client base. Happy customers generally will not likely post bad reviews, so do what you could to ensure they are all happy. The simplest way to manage your company's reputation on the internet is by being conscious of what's being said regarding it. To be able to nip any negative buzz from the bud, Staying in the loop is important. This can be achieved by having Google Alerts in the name of the company or working with a company to check this to suit your needs. Use a plan available to deal with those who post numerous poor reviews using the intent of harming your organization. It is advisable to possess a plan and not want it than to realise you are the victim of these an attack and become not aware of your rights without having idea concerning how to manage the situation. As soon as your company makes a promise, stick to the regards to the promise. When you change these terms, you won't be trusted. Others will feel your online business is dishonest, that can give your business a poor reputation. Improving it requires a long time should you get that kind of reputation. Always admit whenever you produce a mistake, don't make an effort to hide it. Customers will realize. Instead, admit the mistake and apologize sincerely. You customer is likely to forgive you if you compensate them properly for the mistake. Learn which review sites are popular, and check out your organization on those sites first. These are the basic sites that get the most traffic. Exactly what is written in them is normally fed for some other search engine listings. So, you would like to make certain that any negative reviews or comments on your own company be addressed appropriately. Execute a survey to gauge the level of satisfaction that the people are feeling about your business. You must figure out the reason why it is far from higher in case the satisfaction is average or lower. Study from this and then make your business better. This is the way your enterprise will get an improved reputation. Adopt operating principles that embrace sustainability in the environment. Customers are more sensitive today towards the protection of the environment. They have a tendency to refrain from doing business with firms that are wasteful and who do not manage to try and conserve resources. Discuss what your company does in sustainability, and make a positive impact. Make good consumption of key phrases. This is certainly text that may be hyperlinked to another pertinent web site. When search engines like google rate your blog, they evaluate the anchor text to make certain it really is relevant. Relevant hyperlinks help increase your websites authority. Conversely, when other sites link aimed at your website this too builds your credibility and builds your internet reputation. Lacking any reputation at all in running a business can be nearly as bad as having a negative reputation! Especially with the amount of people chatting up a storm on social websites, you've got to ensure somebody is referring to your enterprise. Post casual comments from time to time. Alternatively, launch a serious PR campaign to obtain a buzz going and develop your small business reputation. To improve gauge your own personal business reputation, monitor those of the competitors. Look into the blogs and websites of other relative businesses, and see the way your company measures up. Additionally, you will get some great ideas on how to increase your products, customer support and public relations - all of these are very important to the main point here! Usually do not overlook cultivating your company relationship together with your suppliers and sub-contractors. They could affect your company reputation also. Always take care of them the best measure of fairness and professionalism. Always honor your commitments. You need a good reputation among your colleagues in the market hence they may wish to work with you. Time to start up the ignition switch and obtain these ideas into action. Ensuring you possess an upstanding reputation in your own sector is what it's all about. Now that you have these tips, you may have some things you should be doing. Keeping your small business image where it must be keeps those customers coming to your home. Website marketing is certainly a massive and varied subject, that it is easy for you to get lost when you first consider it. Take heart and remain calm. Marketing your organization or your website online, is not really an operation that needs formal training. You could start increasing your internet promotion savvy by reviewing quick tips like these: Use social media marketing in an effort to publicize your blog. Research differing people in your industry and send them public messages, or much better, try this: do a search for your keyword and answer any questions many people have about this. They are going to likely follow you, and you may obtain a reputation for as an authority with your field. Take time to learn how to develop an engaging e-newsletter when your e-newsletters aren't driving the traffic you desire. Look at the successful e-newsletters that competing brands are offering and cherry pick several of the better ideas that you simply see with them. After that you can develop those ideas into your own voice. Real-estate website marketing can benefit greatly through the use of Google Maps. Google Maps can show visitors where your open houses are. Having this information instantly accessible makes it much simpler for the website visitors to quickly add your properties with their "must see" list. It could therefore equal large business gains. Include a frequently asked questions section to your website, particularly if you tend to obtain the same questions in emails repeatedly. This may let readers realize that not just are you presently playing them, you might be responding. Making a great rapport along with your customer can be just as essential as every other marketing technique. Don't forget to call your prospects out. They are certainly not unintelligent. Customers understand that the aim of your internet site is to promote them something, so tend not to be afraid to inform them so. Add buttons that tell them the best places to buy, and promote yourself! They are not going to be irritated together with you for doing whatever they are actually mindful of. Go on a careful review your competition. Ensuring that there is a good knowledge of the competition is essential. Visit their websites. Have a look at the keywords they are using. Have a look at your very own keywords and compare them. Improve upon your keyword usage up until you realise you are featuring more prominently searching results. Successful web marketing isn't nearly maintaining your competition " it's about outshining them. In order to do this, you should be mindful of the things they are accomplishing. Have a look at their webpage designs and product prices. Read their sales copy to find out its quality and keyword content. Do their sites take too much time to load? Could they be consistently offering new services? What sort of external links is it employing? The greater number of you learn, the higher prepared you might be to work with that information in your favor. A unique and eye-catching ad will usually succeed better than something you copied from someone's website. People are constantly bombarded by advertising internet and you have to stand above the audience. A straightforward, honest ad is sometimes just as good as a flashy one that's packed with empty promises. Find others like you, and let them know you are looking. Linking to other websites that share similar types of unique and interesting content is a great way to play off the other person. Should you link forth and back to one another, anyone in search of content from either site is probably going to find the both of you. Adding a phone number to your website's contact info can be a good marketing tactic. Some visitors enjoy the option of conversing with a merchant vocally. A few of your less tech-savvy visitors may require help with your internet site. Be sure that the telephone number you add, is to establish professionally. Whoever answers the calls, ought to do so inside a businesslike way and there should be a suitable voice-mail system in position, as a way to catch off-hours calls. Host your personal blog to communicate with your clients and potential clients. You may retain control over it if you host your own personal blog. You could put a whole lot of work involved with it only to get it canceled through the host without explanation if you are using a totally free blog. You would have wasted a great deal of time and effort and lost credibility. You are able to avoid unpleasant surprises, by hosting your very own blog. An important part of your web marketing strategy, will include communicating the particular performance and level of quality that prospective consumers should expect to experience when using your product or service. Your target audience should not need to guess what your products or services does or how quickly it can undertake it. Use detailed metrics, like "ten days or less," "50 percent more" or "100 dollars lower than our competitor", by way of example. One excellent internet promotion tactic would be to offer your website visitors plenty of informational options that operate by email. newsletters, product and Wishlists availability notifications all provide visitors with helpful info automatically, requiring little effort on your side. Additionally, they present you with emails of prospective customers that have voluntarily demonstrated a genuine fascination with your products or services. Add high ticket items to your listing of items you sell. It will take the same amount of effort to offer an increased priced product as it does to promote a minimal priced one. You might be happily surprised in the people who will invest in a product that is higher priced. When it comes to fully leveraging Website marketing techniques, the tenure of your respective site is important. Take into account the contract length when choosing a domain focus and name on keeping the website address for as long a period of time since the site is viable. A tenured site has more credibility than a new site, plus historical information posted gives visitors a sense of your own personal purpose. If you would like men and women to take your marketing efforts seriously, any time you join a community online, you should actively participate. A fly-by linker is seen as nothing more than merely a spammer. But an engaging, thoughtful poster will probably be treated as legitimate. It's information on how you're branding yourself. Should your primary e-mail list includes the 1st name and last initial for each recipient, be sure you include the first name from the subject brand of your sales message. This personal touch separates your brand's marketing communications from the impersonal spam that a majority of consumers find highly irritating and invasive. That doesn't mean you shouldn't improve your techniques, however the Internet could help you reach a broad audience. Employing different tricks and tips will assist your marketing remain fresh as opposed to feeling stale. Apply the advice in this article next time you're searching for a interesting and new method to advertise your goods or services.

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