#point number 32 sums it all up I think

[idkwhatimdoingbutslay]

… I can’t imagine that we actually watched the same show. Like I REALLY AISNSOSNWKMEJDND

hold on I’m gonna need to calm down.

Let me just make a list of why I disagree and at least organize my anger. Long post incoming.

Vander was friends and had a deal with Grayson. The sheriff. Idk what else to even add to that

Caitlyn is more than a cop and Arcane isn’t copaganda. Genuinely don’t know what kind of progress some of these people are looking for. Real allies are a necessity for real progress.

SILCO IS A CLASS TRAITOR. HE FUNNELLED DRUGS INTO THE UNDERCITY AND PUT POOR KIDS IN FACTORIES FOR THAT DRUG FOR PROFIT!!! HE PAID THE ENFORCERS TO LET HIM DO IT WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE

Vi is not as much as an activist as you would like to believe

WHY IS EKKO NEVER EVER BROUGHT UP IN THESE CONVERSATIONS????

Silco was not good for the Undercity

Silco was not a great guy. Ekko had to build an entire separate hidden community for the people he hurt and stepped on for his own benefit

Caitlyn is ignorant and naive. That’s ok. That’s what character development is for.

Loving imperfect characters like Silco and Jinx then hating characters like Vi and Caitlyn is peak media illiteracy to me

FOR THE LAST TIME: VI DIDNT ABANDON POWDER!!!!! Silco literally wanted Vi DEAD for trying to stop him from killing Vander??? How could you possibly say silco was there for jinx when Vi refused to be???? SHE WAS IN PRISON BECAUSE OF HIM???

Silco’s manipulation is working wonders on y’all

Embracing all the outrage without at all looking out for the people harmed by bigotry is not activism

SILCO IS A CLASS TRAITOR x929282929394

Caitlyn was the first person in years to show Vi kindness and care. She listened and stuck by her and took care of her after Vi was locked up for years and beat up by cops (i wonder what led her to be thrown in there?). Cait being a cop stopped being a point of contention once Vi recognized her naivety and genuineness.

NUANCE NUANCE NUANCE. ITS NEVER EVER BLACK AND WHITE

The only way I can see Vi touching ‘class traitor’ in season one was the shimmer raid. Guess who the hell put those kids in there in the first place.

Just hanging out with Caitlyn isn’t being a class traitor if Vander’s allowed to be friends with Grayson.

Critical thinking is very necessary for watching shows like Arcane

What the hell did Silco really do for the Undercity???? What changed over the 7(ish) years he was basically in power of the place? All I’ve heard was he made the air cleaner, which would be great except for, you know, shimmer and the child factory workers

Jinx is unwell and feeding into it like this in a fully serious manor would not help Arcane as a show at all

What do you want Arcane’s message as a full show to be? ‘Screw cops’? That’s a little boring and unproductive isn’t it?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT EKKO AND HIS IMPACT PLEASE???? x9382728283

Caitlyn is trying to make Piltover and Zaun a better place. Is that not allowed? Am I missing something?

Caitlyn and Vi’s arcs have only just started. Season one is basically fully set up except for characters like silco and Jinx. This is far from the end.

Genuinely think Vander would appreciate Vi for being friends (using this term loosely because they are in love) with Caitlyn considering he was the one who was opposed to war and Vi wasn’t.

Silco should NOT be your idea of Undercity independence and respect. He oppressed the Undercity the same way the Council and the Enforcers did. He helped no one but himself, his team (barely) and Jinx.

You’re allowed to like and dislike any character you want but pretending like Silco is better for the Undercity than others is just so ridiculous to me. Everyone is of course completely allowed to like Silco, but we can’t pretend like he’s this stand up guy. If you have to pretend like he was, maybe you don’t like him as much as you think.

“Because Cait’s pretty” is also incredibly incorrect. Go check point #14.

Vi never stopped loving and caring for Powder. Powder’s mental health issues were amplified and utilized by Silco because he couldn’t even heal himself.

If all of your opinions of Caitlyn and Vi start and end with “cops suck” and “class traitor” then you genuinely don’t respect Arcane as a show enough to show you nuance.

The misinterpretation of characters is just so … it’s like you go out of your way to love and/or hate characters no matter how much they show you who you are.

Your closed mindedness is clouding your judgement and making you out to seem like you don’t actually want the Undercity’s triumph, you want Silco and Jinx’s, even if it means ruining the Undercity. And that would be fine because father/daughter evil duo but trying to say you’re all for this duo because you want what’s better for the Undercity when they continue to hurt it is simply not correct and very harmful (to fictional characters in a fictional universe 😭)

Only being able to understand how Silco and Jinx were oppressed and therefore should be able to not just destroy Piltover but also Zaun is not the eat you think it is

Why is Viktor never called a class traitor? I think he's great (I also think Silco and Jinx are wonderfully written) but we hardly saw him in the Undercity/ interact with people from the Undercity plus he killed someone (Sky) from there (accidentally)

EDIT TO ADD ANOTHER POINT: Caitlyn has shown little to NO malicious intent and has no real negative impacts other than Jinx’s attachment issues and insecurities being amplified by her mere existence. Again, this is her story and development. Throughout the season she is exposed to reality and recognizes her and her peers/ families wrongs. I have no idea what you want from this character. Should Piltover just be gotten rid of in the story? Then what? Should Caitlyn have just never gotten involved and continued to embrace her privilege? Should she have left Vi in prison and stay ignorant?

[physicallyimprobable]

what's the 3-dimensional number thing?

Well I'm glad you asked! For those confused, this is referring to my claim that "my favorite multiplication equation is 3 × 5 = 15 because it's the reason you can't make a three-dimensional number system" from back in this post. Now, this is gonna be a bit of a journey, so buckle up.

Part One: Numbers in Space

First of all, what do I mean by a three-dimensional number system? We say that the complex numbers are two-dimensional, and that the quaternions are four-dimensional, but what do we mean by these things? There's a few potential answers to this question, but for our purposes we'll take the following narrative:

Complex numbers can be written in the form (a+bi), where a and b are real numbers. For the variable-averse, this just means we have things like (3+6i) and (5-2i) and (-8+3i). Some amount of "units" (that is, ones), and some amount of i's.

Most people are happy to stop here and say "well, there's two numbers that you're using, so that's two dimensions, ho hum". I think that's underselling it, though, since there's something nontrivial and super cool happening here. See, each complex number has an "absolute value", which is its distance from zero. If you imagine "3+6i" to mean "three meters East and six meters North", then the distance to that point will be 6.708 meters. We say the absolute value of (3+6i), which is written like |3+6i|, is equal to 6.708. Similarly, interpreting "5-2i" to mean "five meters East and two meters South" we get that |5-2i| = 5.385.

The neat thing about this is that absolute values multiply really nicely. For example, the two numbers above multiply to give (3+6i) × (5-2i) = (27+24i) which has a length of 36.124. What's impressive is that this length is the product of our original lengths: 36.124 = 6.708 × 5.385. (Okay technically this is not true due to rounding but for the full values it is true.)

This is what we're going to say is necessary to for a number system to accurately represent a space. You need the numbers to have lengths corresponding to actual lengths in space, and you need those lengths to be "multiplicative", which just means it does the thing we just saw. (That is, when you multiply two numbers, their lengths are multiplied as well.)

There's still of course the question of what "actual lengths in space" means, but we can just use the usual Euclidean method of measurement. So, |3+6i| = √(3²+6²) and |5-2i| = √(5²+2²). This extends directly to the quaternions, which are written as (a+bi+cj+dk) for real numbers a, b, c, d. (Don't worry about what j and k mean if you don't know; it turns out not to really matter here.) The length of the quaternion 4+3i-7j+4k can be calculated like |4+3i-7j+4k| = √(4²+3²+7²+4²) = 9.486 and similarly for other points in "four-dimensional space". These are the kinds of number systems we're looking for.

[To be explicit, for those who know the words: What we are looking for is a vector algebra over the real numbers with a prescribed basis under which the Euclidean norm is multiplicative and the integer lattice forms a subring.]

Part Two: Sums of Squares

Now for something completely different. Have you ever thought about which numbers are the sum of two perfect squares? Thirteen works, for example, since 13 = 3² + 2². So does thirty-two, since 32 = 4² + 4². The squares themselves also work, since zero exists: 49 = 7² + 0². But there are some numbers, like three and six, which can't be written as a sum of two squares no matter how hard you try. (It's pretty easy to check this yourself; there aren't too many possibilities.)

Are there any patterns to which numbers are a sum of two squares and which are not? Yeah, loads. We're going to look at a particularly interesting one: Let's say a number is "S2" if it's a sum of two squares. (This thing where you just kinda invent new terminology for your situation is common in math. "S2" should be thought of as an adjective, like "orange" or "alphabetical".) Then here's the neat thing: If two numbers are S2 then their product is S2 as well.

Let's see a few small examples. We have 2 = 1² + 1², so we say that 2 is S2. Similarly 4 = 2² + 0² is S2. Then 2 × 4, that is to say, 8, should be S2 as well. Indeed, 8 = 2² + 2².

Another, slightly less trivial example. We've seen that 13 and 32 are both S2. Then their product, 416, should also be S2. Lo and behold, 416 = 20² + 4², so indeed it is S2.

How do we know this will always work? The simplest way, as long as you've already internalized the bit from Part 1 about absolute values, is to think about the norms of complex numbers. A norm is, quite simply, the square of the corresponding distance. (Okay yes it can also mean different things in other contexts, but for our purposes that's what a norm is.) The norm is written with double bars, so ‖3+6i‖ = 45 and ‖5-2i‖ = 29 and ‖4+3i-7j+4k‖ = 90.

One thing to notice is that if your starting numbers are whole numbers then the norm will also be a whole number. In fact, because of how we've defined lengths, the norm is just the sum of the squares of the real-number bits. So, any S2 number can be turned into a norm of a complex number: 13 can be written as ‖3+2i‖, 32 can be written as ‖4+4i‖, and 49 can be written as ‖7+0i‖.

The other thing to notice is that, since the absolute value is multiplicative, the norm is also multiplicative. That is to say, for example, ‖(3+6i) × (5-2i)‖ = ‖3+6i‖ × ‖5-2i‖. It's pretty simple to prove that this will work with any numbers you choose.

But lo, gaze upon what happens when we combine these two facts together! Consider the two S2 values 13 and 32 from before. Because of the first fact, we can write the product 13 × 32 in terms of norms: 13 × 32 = ‖3+2i‖ × ‖4+4i‖. So far so good. Then, using the second fact, we can pull the product into the norms: ‖3+2i‖ × ‖4+4i‖ = ‖(3+2i) × (4+4i)‖. Huzzah! Now, if we write out the multiplication as (3+2i) × (4+4i) = (4+20i), we can get a more natural looking norm equation: ‖3+2i‖ × ‖4+4i‖ = ‖4+20i‖ and finally, all we need to do is evaluate the norms to get our product! (3² + 2²) × (4² + 4²) = (4² + 20²)

The cool thing is that this works no matter what your starting numbers are. 218 = 13² + 7² and 292 = 16² + 6², so we can follow the chain to get 218 × 292 = ‖13+7i‖ × ‖16+6i‖ = ‖(13+7i) × (16+6i)‖ = ‖166+190i‖ = 166² + 190² and indeed you can check that both extremes are equal to 63,656. No matter which two S2 numbers you start with, if you know the squares that make them up, you can use this process to find squares that add to their product. That is to say, the product of two S2 numbers is S2.

Part Four: Why do we skip three?

Now we have all the ingredients we need for our cute little proof soup! First, let's hop to the quaternions and their norm. As you should hopefully remember, quaternions have four terms (some number of units, some number of i's, some number of j's, and some number of k's), so a quaternion norm will be a sum of four squares. For example, ‖4+3i-7j+4k‖ = 90 means 90 = 4² + 3² + 7² + 4².

Since we referred to sums of two squares as S2, let's say the sums of four squares are S4. 90 is S4 because it can be written as we did above. Similarly, 7 is S4 because 7 = 2² + 1² + 1² + 1², and 22 is S4 because 22 = 4² + 2² + 1² + 1². We are of course still allowed to use zeros; 6 = 2² + 1² + 1² + 0² is S4, as is our friend 13 = 3² + 2² + 0² + 0².

The same fact from the S2 numbers still applies here: since 7 is S4 and 6 is S4, we know that 42 (the product of 7 and 6) is S4. Indeed, after a bit of fiddling I've found that 42 = 6² + 4² + 1² + 1². I don't need to do that fiddling, however, if I happen to be able to calculate quaternions! All I need to do is follow the chain, just like before: 7 × 6 = ‖2+i+j+k‖ × ‖2+i+j‖ = ‖(2+i+j+k) × (2+i+j)‖ = ‖2+3i+5j+2k‖ = 2² + 3² + 5² + 2². This is a different solution than the one I found earlier, but that's fine! As long as there's even one solution, 42 will be S4. Using the same logic, it should be clear that the product of any two S4 numbers is an S4 number.

Now, what goes wrong with three dimensions? Well, as you might have guessed, it has to do with S3 numbers, that is, numbers which can be written as a sum of three squares. If we had any three-dimensional number system, we'd be able to use the strategy we're now familiar with to prove that any product of S3 numbers is an S3 number. This would be fine, except, well…

3 × 5 = 15.

Why is this bad? See, 3 = 1² + 1² + 1² and 5 = 2² + 1² + 0², so both 3 and 5 are S3. However, you can check without too much trouble that 15 is not S3; no matter how hard you try, you can't write 15 as a sum of three squares.

And, well, that's it. The bucket has been kicked, the nails are in the coffin. You cannot make a three-dimensional number system with the kind of nice norm that the complex numbers and quaternions have. Even if someone comes to you excitedly, claiming to have figured it out, you can just toss them through these steps: • First, ask what the basis is. Complex numbers use 1 and i; quaternions use 1, i, j, and k. Let's say they answer with p, q, and r. • Second, ask them to multiply (p+q+r) by (2p+q). • Finally, well. If their system works, the resulting number should give you three numbers whose squares add to 15. Since that can't happen, you've shown that the norm is not actually multiplicative; their system doesn't capture the geometry of three dimensions.

[avinaccia]

A Completely Objective and Logical Ranking of Every Hetalia Character Song

New character songs are dropping,  I have too much time on my hands, let’s go. 

Also here’s a Youtube playlist for the ~✨nostalgia✨~

Bring it on in the tags 

71. Ah Legendary Class⭐The Awesome Me Highway [Prussia]: Absolutely tearing it up on the drums and on the vocal cords alike (I pray for Atsushi Kousaka). Great for the memes. 

70.  Happy Thoughts Museum [???]: This is listed as an official song but I had literally never heard of the title. Then I listened to it and BAM! Smack back to 2013 watching the teasers for the show on Funimation. Not sure I’d count it as a character song though...

69. (Nice)  My Song that is written by me for me [Prussia]: Deafened me but I can appreciate the industrial grind.

68.  My House is...Quiet. ~With the Trolls~ [Norway]: I have never heard this song, nor can I find any version of it online. By default it goes here and I am so sorry Norge.

67.  Make a Wish to Santa♪ [Sealand]: The discordant notes and childish exuberance only serve to make this sound like a demonic plea to Santa to eliminate the singer’s enemies.

66.  Heaven and Hell on Earth [Rome]: Rome sounds like he’s been in the corner of a restroom. Extra points for the metal version, minus points for the fact that the beach scene was replayed like 1764 times.

65. Canada Complete Introduction [Canada]: Quiet af until Kumacheerio shows up and blows out your speakers. they did you dirty my darling 😔

64.  It’s Easy!!! [America]: I don't think any video of this has ever stayed up for more than 20 seconds. Sounds cool, but like I was listening to 20 different genres at once, someone make him calm down.

63.  Bù Zàiyì the Small Stuff ☆ [China]: I cannot for the life of me find the complete song anywhere, clips have a cool beat though

62.  Let's Boil Hot Water♪ [Italy]: Exactly what it says on the tin..though a bit too close to elevator music for my tastes.

61.  The Fragrance of Early Summer [Japan]: Very ‘from the books’ Japan-esque song

60.  Peace Sounds Nice…[Baltic Trio]: All well and good until the radio demon shows up

59.  W●D●C ~World Dancing~ [America]: How a song can sound like it’s from 4 different decades at once is beyond me

58.  Overflowing Passion [BFT]: This is just drunken karaoke and I have 0 clue what’s going on #iconicforallthewrongreasons

57. Ren●Ren●Renaissance♪ [Rome+Chibitalia]: Wholesome Grandpa with Grandson content - barring the fact that Italy sounds on the verge of a nervous breakdown and Rome has had too much wine.

56.  Roma Antiqua [Rome]: Similar energy to any one of China’s songs - there’s a part of the song where it sounds like he’s singing in the shower, and I will never not laugh at [CENSORED]

55.  Country From Where the Sun Rises, Zipangu [Japan]: Very chill, very Japan, but just meh for me.

54.  Moon Over Emei Shan [China]: Good message, okay song.

53.  My Friend [England]: What a mind palace you must have Mr. Kirkland

52.  With Love, from Iceland [Iceland]: Three words: Heavy. Metal. Puffin.

51.  Having Friends is Nice...♫ [Russia]: Russia is the cutest thing ever

50.  Mm. [Sweden]: Smooth transition from WWE Smackdown to shopping at IKEA.

49.  Why don’t you come over? ~Beyond the Northern Lights~ [Iceland]: I don’t want to be mean but...this does sound like the second closing theme to an anime whose first closing was much more popular (à la Soul Eater)

48. Gakuen☆Festa [Germany, Italy, Japan]: Sounds like a 60s song of the summer but oh dear their voices do not go together. Hella cute though.

47.  Wa! Wa!! World Ondo [Main Cast]: One time I travelled 10 hours in a coach bus with a bunch of teenagers to a city of note in my country, and the only souvenir I bought was the fucking PAINT IT WHITE DVD. Perfectly chaotic, UN ĐĕùX~~

46.  In the Bluebell Woods [England]: In the album cover for this song he’s holding a guitar but this is not a rock song. Still has ‘running through the hills’ levels of dramatism though.

45.  Poi Poi Poi♪ [Taiwan]: You’re telling me that Taiwan, someone whose has *ONE LINE* in Beautiful World (which is criminal tbh what kind of representation-) managed to get an eNTIRE CHARACTER SONG???????

44.  White Flame [Russia]: There’s something to be said for a song that is 3x the length of any Hetalia episode

43.  Ich liebe… [Germany]: Baking cakes for your friends has never been so wholesome.

42.  We Wish you a Merry Christmas [America, China, England, France, Russia]: Nice to see they’ve gotten their shit together since United Nations Sta-hmm.

41.  Ah, Worldwide à la mode [France]: Sounds like a Disney Princess song, hard not to picture France frolicking in a field of flowers.

40.  Che Bello! ~My House is the Greatest!⭐~ [Italy]: Would not be out of place in an advertisement for Sea World.

39.  May You Smile Today [Japan]: THE feel good song of the summer

38.  Let’s Look Behind the Rainbow [Italy]: I will protect you.

37.  I'm your HERO☆ [America]: “Anyone who’s sad or sullen will be arrested” did NOT age well.

36.  Mein Gott! [Prussia]: Alternating headphone effect at the beginning is cool, so is the confidence...the actual singing on the other hand...

35. Nihao⭐China [China]: Listen, all of China’s character songs are great, I just can’t vibe with this one like some of the others.

34.  Pechka ~Light My Heart~ [Russia]: I’m still having difficulty wrapping my head around the fact that this and Winter were released at the same time.

33.  Pukapuka⭐Vacation [Germany, Italy, Japan]: Seems just a bit too much like they’re running on a treadmill that’s picking up speed and trying to sing at the same time. Peppy.

32.  Santa Claus is Coming to Town [Germany, Italy, Japan]: This is unironically the best song sung by this trio; can only vibe with for two months out of the year though.

31.  Excuse Me, I Am Sorry [Japan]: Japan’s character traits speedrun. Gives me barbershop quartet vibes for some reason but is catchy as hell.

30.  The Story of Snow and Dreams [Russia]: A superhero anime opening in the making

29. England’s Evil Demon Summoning Song [England]: Sir that is not how you roast a marshmallow, don’t cut yourself on that edge.

28.  Moi Moi Sauna♪ [Finland]: Exactly the type of song you’d expect and it’s wonderful

27.  United Nations Star⭐ [America, China, England, France, Russia]: This isn’t as much of a song as it is a four minute struggle for everyone to sing without America yelling every 5 seconds...Like a particularly musical episode of Hetalia.

26.  Paris is Indeed Splendid [France]: Paris-pa-pa-pa-paris

25.  Absolutely Invincible British Gentleman [England]: Poppy, rocky, polka-dotty

24.  Vorwärts Marsch! [Germany]: To quote the comment section: “This sounds like a German version of I’ll Make a Man out of you.” There’s some truth to that.

23.  Hamburger Street [America]: The product of America’s rapper phase. 8/10 because he’s trying so hard and because I can unironically sing along to all of this.

22.  Hoi Sam☆Nice Guy [Hong Kong]: A song that would absolutely destroy the ankles of anyone in DDR.

21.  I Am German-Made [Germany]: There was once a version that had Germany and Prussia singing at the same time and it sounded positively demonic and Broadway could never

20.  La pasión no se detiene ~Unstoppable Passion~ [Spain]: Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping...

19.  Fall in Love, Mademoiselle [France]: Sounds like it should be in Mozart Opera Rock, I have kiss kiss falled in love.

18. Embrace the Très Bien Moi [France]: This is the definition of SELF LOVE PEOPLE. 

17. Carrot and Stick [Belarus&Ukraine]: Absolutely DRIPPING in 2000s power ballad energy. The type of song that plays on repeat in the mind of the widow whose millionaire husband ‘mysteriously disappeared’ (and the only legit character song ever acknowledged by the anime)

16. C.B.C (Cowboyz Boot Camp) Vol. 1 [America]: AH MAH GAWWDDD

15. Winter [Russia]: Heavy metal fever dream and the perfect song for an angst-ridden teenager

14.  Seychelles Here ⭐ Vacation Island [Seychelles]: UN👏DER👏RA👏TED SONG👏OF 👏THE 👏SUM👏MER👏

13.  Nah, it will settle itself somehow [Romano]: One day I aspire to reach this level of chill

12.  Let’s Enjoy Today [England]: I will never not feel happy when listening to this.

11.  Einsamkeit [Germany]: Ludwig manages to air every single one of his worries about not being good enough compared to his friends and always being perceived as mean or uptight when he’s actually just a softie and now my heart hurts. 💔

10.  Aiyaa Four Thousand Years [China]: A very poignant and beautiful song about the passage of time and the inevitability of its passing; comparable to an ancient ballad complete with explosive crescendos and meaningful lyrics.

9.  Bon Bon Bon❤️C’est Bon C’est Bon! [France]: Peppy, cheerful, adorable, groundbreaking; has been my alarm tone for six years and I’ve yet to tire of it. 9/10 The moaning interspersed throughout has been an interesting wake-up call.

8.  Let’s Enjoy! Let’s Get Excited! Cheers! [Denmark]: This is on par with Everytime we Touch by Cascada in terms of rage potential unlocked (the good kind)

7.  Dream Journey [Japan]: Whoever’s playing the shakuhachi is absolutely KILLING IT. Dramatic, wonderful, great metaphors.

6.  Gourmet’s Heart Beginner Level [China]: Absolute banger, I’m a vegetarian but this would inspire me to eat shumai.

5.  Always with you...Nordic Five! [Nordic FIVVVVVEEEE]: Everyone harmonizes beautifully except for Denmark. Extremely catchy, number placement seemed appropriate. 

4.  Pub and GO! [England]: I love this trash man

3. Maji Kandou⭐Hong Kong Night [Hong Kong]: If you thought Denmark’s song was a banger JUST YOU WAIT. I WILL BLOW OUT MY SPEAKERS LISTENING TO LO-HA-SU.

2. Steady Rhythmus [Germany]: THIS SONG IS METAL AF. Seriously, if it can be classified as ‘hardcore’ by my father and his group of 50-somethings who have decided to single-handedly gatekeep the metal and hardrock genres, it can do anything.

1.  The Delicious Tomato Song 🍅 [Romano]: Beautiful, absolutely awe-inspiring, poignant, catchy lyrics with an extremely deep meaning that only years of meticulous research and analysis can unlock, Romano I love you.

BONUS: Closing Songs

5. Hatafutte Parade (World Series) 

4. Hetalian⭐Jet (The World Twinkle): The song is good, the dancing is cursed 

3. Chikyuu Marugoto Hug Shitainda (World⭐Stars)

2. Marukaite Chikyuu (Hetalia: Axis Powers): nE NE PaPA

1. Mawaru Chikyuu Rondo (The Beautiful World)

[tiramisiyu]

【未定事件簿】 Tears of Themis: Main Story 7-24 Translation

Translation Masterlist | Video

Chapter 7 – Rains of Monte Cristo: 7-1 / 7-3 / 7-5 / 7-7 / 7-9 / 7-11 / 7-13 / 7-15 / 7-17 / 7-19  ♦️ ♦️  7-20 / 7-22 / 7-24 / 7-26 / 7-28 / 7-30 / 7-32 / 7-34 / 7-35

Content Warning: This section contains topics that may be uncomfortable to some readers (mentions of abuse). Please proceed with discretion. 

Vincent found out about the relation between Hang Fei and the boss of the Abyss bar through the moon ornament in Room 1001. The boss requested to see Marius and stated that he had important information. After thinking things over several times, Marius and I decided to meet him as agreed upon.

 Abyss Bar

There was no one in the bar when Marius and I arrived.

Bar Boss: Master von Hagen, Miss Lawyer, please come this way.

The boss pointed us to a spot in front of the bar table. We sat as he indicated.

Marius: You must be the one that Vincent said wanted to meet me?

Bar Boss: You’re being quite direct, Master von Hagen. Shouldn’t you exchange a few pleasantries with me?

Marius: My time’s precious, and I don’t want to use it to speak in a roundabout way with you.

Marius: Tell me, what do you want?

Bar Boss: Nothing major – I simply want Master von Hagen to owe me a “favour”.

The boss took a document envelope from under the cabinet and placed it in front of Marius and me.

Bar Boss: Including that foster care contract from before, these are all of the Hang family’s secrets.

Bar Boss: As long as you get this, all of your current questions will be answered.

Marius: You told Vincent that you got these because Hang Fei owed you money.

Marius didn’t follow along with the boss. Instead, he changed directions.

Marius: What happened between you and Hang Fei?

Bar Boss: Nothing much. Hang Fei merely spent some money here, but ended up unable to pay up.

Bar Boss: Master von Hagen, you’re also a businessman, so you should get that no one can enjoy a service without paying up, right?

Bar Boss: So I thought up of a compromise for him.

✼ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ ✼

[Flashback]

Hang Fei: B-boss, give me a few more days. I’ll definitely get all the money needed.

Hang Fei looked at the few guards around the boss, starting to mumble subconsciously.

Bar Boss: Mister Hang, you’ve been dragging this on for a long time. Time waits for no one.

Hang Fei: No, boss, please just trust me once more and give me more time. I’ll definitely get you the money this time.

Hang Fei: I can go get them…

The boss looked at Hang Fei, his eyes moving back and forth.

Bar Boss: Mister Hang, after seeing your sincerity, I do have another idea to give you time.

Hang Fei: What idea?

Bar Boss: In this world, there are things worth more than money, such as… secrets.

Bar Boss: If you can find a secret like this as temporary collateral… I don’t mind collecting my “service fees” a little later.

Hang Fei: …

Hang Fei went silent for a moment.

Hang Fei: I do have secrets like this – they even have to do with me.

Hang Fei: If this secret were exposed, I wouldn’t even be able to continue living.

Hang Fei: Boss, this is temporarily sufficient, isn’t it?

Bar Boss: Of course. If you give it to me, I can give you more time.

[Flashback]

✼ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ ✼

Marius: …

MC: Boss, to be frank, this is extortion.

Bar Boss: Extortion? Miss, you’re exaggerating.

Bar Boss: I merely wanted the money that Hang Fei owed me – this is what I’ve done for so many years.

Bar Boss: And no one’s ever been able to lay a finger on me.

MC: You…

Bar Boss: Plus, what Hang Fei has done is much worse than me.

Marius: What did Hang Fei do?

Bar Boss: After the first time he left these things as collateral, he quickly found Xu Yin and the other “protagonist of the secret”, then extorted them of money.

Bar Boss: He immediately gave this money to me and got his secrets back. But…

Bar Boss: He started to get “addicted”, maybe because of the “sweetness” of that particular experience…

Bar Boss: Whenever he owed me money, he’d leave the “secrets” as collateral, then would once again extort those two of their money.

Bar Boss: At the end, he even demanded money from those two that far exceeded the amount owned, for his own frivolous squandering…

Bar Boss: See, aren’t I much more law-abiding than he is?

MC: …

MC: (Although, this does explain why Hang Fei’s family life didn’t deteriorate, despite his gambling.)

Bar Boss: How about it, Master von Hagen? Want to do business with me?

Bar Boss: You just need to owe me a favour to get what you want – it’s a great deal.

Marius: Oh? You know what it is that I want?

Bar Boss: Of course. What you want…

The boss looked at Marius, then at me.

Bar Boss: Has to do with Hang Fei’s daughter, Hang Jiahe, correct?

MC: …

Marius: How did you know?

Bar Boss: Master Lu, aren’t you curious about why I wasn’t stressed at all, despite Hang Fei’s half-year disappearance?

Marius: …

Bar Boss: That’s because someone was repaying money “for” him.

✼ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ ✼

[Flashback]

January 29th.

Bar Boss: You’re right, Hang Fei did leave some things as collateral here.

The boss looked at the woman in front of him, his smile as steadfast as ever.

Bar Boss: But, Miss Hang, you won’t be able to take those things just because you’re his daughter.

Bar Boss: If you want to take those things, then return the money first.

Hang Jiahe: How much does he owe?

Bar Boss: This much.

The boss drew out a number.

Hang Jiahe: This much?!

Bar Boss: I’ll give you those things as long as you repay the money, Miss Hang.

Hang Jiahe: How would I be able to take out this much money right now?!

Bar Boss: Then…

Bar Boss: Like your father, Miss Hang, you can use secrets as collateral.

Bar Boss: You must be someone who also knows many secrets.

Hang Jiahe: …

Hang Jiahe lowered her head in thought.

Hang Jiahe: I can’t. The things I know can be used elsewhere.

Hang Jiahe: Boss, please give me some more time. I’ll definitely get enough money within half a year to a full year.

Hang Jiahe: Within this time, please don’t give these things to anyone else.

Hang Jiahe: I can hand over some money right now as a deposit.

Bar Boss: Ah, alright. I’ve never rejected the pleas of a beauty.

[Flashback end]

✼ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ ✼

Marius: …

MC: (Based on Hang Jiahe’s actions, it seems like the boss really does have what we need.)

Bar Boss: How about it, the two of you? Have you thought things over?

Bar Boss: With all I’ve said, you must believe that what I have is what you need.

MC: As the condition you gave to Hang Jiahe was paying money, we can also pay you money.

Bar Boss: That was the condition for Hang Jiahe, not you two.

Bar Boss: My condition for you is something more valuable…  that is, a promise from Master von Hagen.

MC: …

I snuck a glance at Marius. But he looked completely calm, even somewhat disinterested.

Marius: Thank you for the information you’ve given us. I will have Vincent compensate you shortly.

Marius: Let’s end things here for today.

Marius then tugged me up from my seat to leave.

Bar Boss: Wait, Marius von Hagen, don’t you want what’s in the bag?

Marius: I do, but I hate being threatened even more.

Marius: I seriously doubt that there’s anything in the world that Pax can’t find out about.

Bar Boss: Of course you’d be able to find out about it with the power of Pax – but you have no time.

MC: What do you mean?

Bar Boss: You’ve already met Hang Jiahe, haven’t you? Plus, I bet that the police have already overturned the charges against Wang Chunchong.

Marius: …

Bar Boss: Then, did you know that Hang Jiahe suddenly came here yesterday with a large sum of money, and bought away a portion of the things in this bag?

MC: !!!

Bar Boss: I saw that she looked very anxious, so I warned her – out of the goodness of my heart – that it would be best to not destroy it for now.

Bar Boss: These are unusual times, after all…

Bar Boss: Based on how she reacted, she listened to me, but…

Bar Boss: Say, if I called her right now and told her everything that just happened…

Bar Boss: How would she deal with those things?

MC: …

Marius: …

Though we didn’t want to admit it, what the boss had just mentioned was at the very bottom of the list of things we wanted to happen.

Marius: …

Marius looked around. When his sight swept over the bar table, he stopped for a moment. Seeming like he’d thought of something, he spoke with a smile.

Marius: If so, boss, would you perhaps be interested in playing a game with me?

MC: !!!

Marius: If I win, you give those things to me unconditionally, but if I lose…

Marius: We’ll go with your deal – I get those things, and I’ll owe you a favour. As long as it isn’t illegal, I can help you once in the future.

Marius: Also, you cannot tell Hang Jiahe about what happened between us today.

Bar Boss: Master von Hagen, you sure have thought things through – no matter what the result is, you can still take those things away.

Marius: But this is your one opportunity to establish a relationship with me and Pax, isn’t it?

Bar Boss: … What do you want to play?

Marius: Since this is a bar, you must have dice here.

Marius: One die per person. Whoever throws the higher number wins. How about it?

Bar Boss: I’m fine with it, but Master von Hagen, I have never lost this game. Are you sure you want to play it with me?

Marius: We haven’t even played yet, so who knows who the winner will be? Plus, isn’t it better if you win?

Bar Boss: Alright, then.

The boss took out two dice and two wooden dice holders, giving one each to Marius and himself.

Bar Boss: One round decides all. Then, let’s…

MC: Wait. I have to inspect the dice and holders.

Bar Boss: …

Bar Boss: Alright, please do, miss.

The boss gave all items to me. I examined the two holders – nothing stood out to me. But when I examined the two dice, I noticed a slight difference between the two of them.

MC: …

MC: This…

Marius: No abnormalities, right, great lawyer?

I was just about to speak when Marius cut me short. He winked at me, as if hinting something. I understood.

MC: No abnormalities. Please start.

Bar Boss: Then, Master von Hagen, one round decides all. Go ahead.

Marius and the boss cast their dice simultaneously. The night-coloured holders flew up and down in Marius’ hand as the die slammed on the walls of the holder, creating a clear sound.

Clack.

Both of them sealed off the holders simultaneously.

Bar Boss: Master von Hagen, open?

Marius: Wait.

Marius pressed down on both holders.

Marius: I will confirm again – you haven’t forgotten the conditions from before, have you?

Bar Boss: Of course. The one with more dots wins.

Marius: Good.

Marius opened the two holders. The two dice displayed a massive difference in dots.

Bar Boss: This… impossible!

Marius: I got 6, you got 1… looks like my luck’s pretty decent.

MC: You won!

Bar Boss: …

The boss looked at the dice and pondered for a moment.

Bar Boss: Hah… as expected of Master von Hagen. I lost.

Marius: Hand those things over.

Bar Boss: Don’t worry, I won’t go back on a deal. Here you go.

Bar Boss: Although… aside from that psychiatrist, it’s been a very long time since I’ve experienced this feeling of defeat.

Bar Boss: I can’t help wondering if you know him.

Marius: You’re overthinking.

MC: …

Marius took the file envelope and tugged me up, preparing to leave the bar.

Bar Boss: Also, I’d like to let you know that there is a portable hard drive and several photos in the envelope.

Bar Boss: There’s a connection between the contents of the hard drive and the photos.

Bar Boss: Hang Jiahe bought a portion of the hard drive’s contents.

Bar Boss: And she appears the most in the photos.

Marius: Noted.

✼ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ ✼

In Marius’ Car

When we returned to Marius’ car, I couldn’t help showing how excited I was.

MC: Marius, you were way too awesome just now!

Marius: No big deal – just some insignificant talents.

MC: But how did you win? The boss’s die…

Marius: You probably also noticed when inspecting them that his die was heavier than mine.

MC: Yeah, so I was wondering if there was something placed in it.

Marius: In that die, right behind the 1 dot, there’s a magnet.

Marius: When shaking the die, as long as the boss secretly holds another magnet…

Marius: He’d be able to use the opposite attractive force and the relative locations of the different dots to throw a result he wants.

MC: But if so, shouldn’t he have cast a 6? How did it end up as a 1?

Marius: About that…

Marius spread his left hand at me. There was a little brooch there, with a magnet at the bottom of it.

MC: !!!

Marius: Since I know how he plans to cheat, I naturally have to counterattack.

Marius: So before he revealed his die, I touched his holder.

Marius: Thanks to my magnet, the die will change again.

MC: Oh… then how did you cast a 6?

Marius: About that… even the rich sons of the so-called upper class can’t evade the allure of dice.

Marius: I do have to learn a few things to maintain my indulgent rich son persona.

Marius: There’s a certain method to guarantee a chance of rolling the amount you want.

MC: Is that so…

Marius: Mere little skills – nothing to show off about.

Marius: Let’s not talk about these for now – instead, we should see what’s in the envelope.

I opened the envelope, taking out a stack of photos and a portable hard drive.

MC: H-how could this…

Marius: …

When I saw what was in the photos, my hands started to tremble. 

There were many photos of children, most of whom were around 6 or 7, and their bodies were covered in numerous purple marks. The photos were taken in hidden, dark conditions from awkward angles, and those children, who should have been running free under the sun, had faces covered with tears. Each one held old toys covered in dust, and some toys were even missing sections, looking utterly broken.

MC: Marius, aren’t these toys the same ones as the ones we saw in the Room 1001 toy display cabinet?

Marius: Yes.

MC: Could it be that… Hang Fei would collect these toys for his own enjoyment?

Marius: Or maybe these toys were what Hang Fei used to kidnap them.

Marius: But regardless of which it is, based on what the boss said, what’s in this hard drive…

MC: The contents have to do with the photos… these photos come from the contents of the hard drive…

MC: Against these children, did Hang Fei…

Were these children victims of Hang Fei’s abuse?!

I couldn’t even finish my sentence.

Marius: It’s not just children – there are also photos of Qi Yu. The only difference is that she’s not holding any toys.

Marius: Also, just as the boss said, one child appears particularly often in the photos.

Marius: If this child really is Hang Jiahe, then…

MC: We’ve found Hang Jiahe’s motive for murdering Hang Fei.

[Obtained Photos of Abused Children]

[Obtained Portable Hard Drive]

[eelhound]

"We need only look in the Acts of the Apostles (4:32-37): 'All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had . . . There were no needy persons among them. . . '

The main teaching of the ancient church followed this line. The church fathers were united. A studious Spanish layman collected the social thinking of the fathers in a book entitled Doctrina economica y social de los Padres de la Iglesia. Coleccion general de documentos y textos (Compi, Madrid, 1967). He found that only four texts spoke in favour of private property, three saying it was allowed and one, from Theodoret (fifth century) that it was necessary. The rest were in favour of the 'communion of goods'. St Ambrose's aphorism is worth quoting here: 'Community comes from God; property comes from theft.'

The medieval doctors, especially St Thomas Aquinas, at root follow the great tradition: objects are intended for all, and private property is legitimate only to the extent that it does not conflict with the common use of goods. The thesis which sums up earlier Christian thought is expressed in St Isidore's maxim: 'The common possession of everything and freedom for all are part of natural law' (Etymologias, V, 4, quoted by Aquinas, Summa theologiae 1-11, q. 94, a. 5).

It is true that the subsequent evolution of Thomism, especially neoscholasticism, which resulted in the 'social doctrine of the church', got entangled in regrettable errors, as a number of scholars have shown (J. M. Dfez Alegrfa, F. B. de Avila, J. Comblin and others). What happened was that, in polemical reaction against an extreme socialism, the church defended private property, intending in this way to defend not just capitalist property as such, but human beings threatened by the depersonalising effect of a totalitarian economy. What was at issue was the human person as the 'subject' of production, and not at all the defence of capitalism, with which, if the truth be told, the Catholic Church never had good relations.

In the meantime, since the encyclical Mater et magistra (1961) of John XXllI, the church's social teaching returned to emphasis on the great tradition and began to give priority once more to the 'social function' of property. This is the emphasis of the current papacy. We have already seen, moreover, that Laborem exercens explicitly admits a 'socialisation of the means of production' provided that it is 'satisfactory'. In other words, in the encyclical's terms, from the point of view of Christian ethics, socialism is possible (para. 14). No pope had ever gone so far.

What can we say after all this? It is clear that Christianity is rediscovering its socialist roots. At the same time socialism is becoming open to the moral and religious dimension. Well-known socialists of today, such as Roger Garaudy and Lelio Basso, insist strongly that socialism needs to be reconciled with religion. Basso, an Italian politician, used to say that 'Without religion there is no true socialism, taking religion not in the denominational sense, but as a desire for transcendence, an openness to the ever greater.' I myself heard the following from the lips of the 'Minister for Religion', K. Kharchev, when we were in the Soviet Union: 'Socialism will be complete only when it responds to all human needs, including religious ones.'"

- Clodovis Boff, from "A Theological Letter about Socialism Today", trans. Francis McDonagh. Religion, State and Society, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1993.

[baoshan-sanren]

Chapter 33

of the wwx emperor au I’m thinking of calling “Wei Ying, you’re so stupid”

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 Part 1 | Chapter 8 Part 2 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 Part 1 | Chapter 15 Part 2 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 Part 1 | Chapter 22 Part 2 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 | Chapter 31 | Chapter 32

HuaiSang is angry.

Wei Ying passes him the jar as often as possible, hoping that the wine may mellow him out. Three jars later however, Jiang Cheng is leaning slightly sideways even while sitting down, Wei Ying is beginning to see two of everything, but HuaiSang’s anger is still present, an unpleasant fourth addition to their drinking circle.

The fire had been put out; the stench of burning lays heavy over the majority of the Immortal Mountain City, and although Wei Ying had washed up and changed his robes twice, it seems to linger at the back of his throat, bitterly mixing with the sweetness of the wine.

Lan QiRen is unharmed. No one else has been hurt. All in all, for an incident that could have claimed dozens of lives, a small palace burned to the ground is the best possible outcome they could have hoped for.

A-Sang swears. Explicitly.

Wei Ying does not think that fucking the arsonist’s ancestors to the eighteenth generation will do anyone any good, but he keeps his mouth shut.

“I should have doubled his guard,” A-Sang says.

Wei Ying says nothing to this either.  

Two separate traps had been set. They had required time, and planning, and full cooperation by the people in the Immortal Mountain that A-Sang actually trusts. Unfortunately, the number of people A-Sang trusts is limited, and nearly half of them had been to sent to YiLing.

They had given the assassin three targets. Two in the Immortal Mountain, and the Emperor himself, seemingly alone and unprotected in YiLing. The assassin had chosen a fourth target, something that no one could have predicted.

Except that A-Sang believes he should have predicted it, and is furious to have been outmaneuvered.

“Let us sum up what we know,” Wei Ying says.

Jiang Cheng groans, “Not again.”

“Yes, again,” A-Sang says, snatching the jar out of his hands, “We should go over the information we have as many times as necessary. We are obviously missing something.”

Jiang Cheng groans again, and keels over, sprawling on the floor. Unlike Wei Ying, he has not had a chance to wash up or change before being pulled into A-Sang’s chambers. Earlier in the day, A-Sang had stuffed him in the Emperor’s robes to play the bait, but now the robes are singed and filthy, and will likely need to be thrown away.

Wei Ying wonders if this is where the lingering scent of stale smoke is coming from.

“Do we agree that nothing suspicious occurred before the Lan Sect arrived?” A-Sang says.

They have gone over this already, but Wei Ying forces himself to think about it again.

“There was nothing,” Jiang Cheng mutters from the floor.

“Nothing,” Wei Ying agrees firmly, “nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Good,” A-Sang says, “then we start at the beginning. The Lan Sect arrives the night before the first day of the festival. They are escorted into the Immortal Mountain by da-ge. They settle into the Peach Blossom Pavilion. Wei Ying goes to liberate the Six Fans Pavilion of its hidden stash of the Emperor’s Smile. Lan WangJi sees him running across the rooftops, and tries to stab him. A decision I still respect, by the way.”

Jiang Cheng snorts.

“Day one,” A-Sang goes on, “the Greeting Ceremony, during which Wei Ying blatantly ogles Lan WangJi--“

“Hey!” Wei Ying exclaims.

“Shut up,” Jiang Cheng says, invisible on the other side of the table, “You did do that.”

“--then the Sect Leader meeting, during which Wei Ying displays obvious favoritism toward the Lan Sect, ensuring that even those sect leaders who had been ambivalent before, now have an entirely new set of reasons to despise them,” A-Sang says.

Wei Ying buries his head in his hands.

“Then the banquet, where Wei Ying singles out Lan WangJi again.”

“I just wanted to talk to him,” Wei Ying groans through his fingers.

“Do not forget the part where Wei WuXian drinks so much that he tries to piss into a potted plant,” Jiang Cheng adds.

Wei Ying snatches the jar out of A-Sang’s hands, “I thought we were talking about suspicious events.”

“He is right,” A-Sang nudges Jiang Cheng with his foot, “the Emperor getting stumbling drunk and trying to piss in inappropriate places is hardly out of the ordinary.”

A snort drifts up from the floor. 

Wei Ying hates them both.

“Day two,” A-Sang goes on, “The picnic. Someone tries to poison Lan WangJi. The Jin Sect tries to pin the poisoning on Lan XiChen. Two servants are killed, their bodies stuffed in the stairway of the old north-west watchtower. No poison is found in their quarters. The sword fighting competition is postponed. Day three. The Immortal Mountain is searched top to bottom. All the servants are questioned. All the sects willingly submit to the search. Nothing suspicious is found. The Council decides it is safe to resume the competition the following day. The Emperor goes pining across the rooftops until Lan WangJi pays attention to him. He tells Lan WangJi that he means to enter the competition in secret. Lan WangJi tells his uncle and brother. The only other people aware of the ruse are A-Cheng, shijie, Wen Qing, and myself.”

“I did not pine,” Wei Ying grumbles.

“Day four,” A-Sang says, ignoring him, “Every sect and clan is present at the competition. The Lan Sect arrives on time, and is placed at the Nie Sect table. Lan XiChen fights da-ge and wins. The Emperor almost gets himself killed because he is too distracted by Lan WangJi to compete properly. An arrow from the West watchtower nearly costs the Empire its most valued subject. The Jin Sect tries to pin the assassination on the Lan Sect, again.”

“That is hardly suspicious,” Jiang Cheng says, hand reaching up to grab the wine jar, “the Jin Sect is terrible by rule.”

“Wait,” Wei Ying says, “wait. While I was competing in the West Gate courtyard I spoke to the little demon from the Nie Sect, Nie XuanYu. He said that only three of the Jin Sect disciples had signed up to compete with the rest of them, but that none had actually shown up.”

Jiang Cheng sits up suddenly, then sways.

“Gossip,” he says, then thinks for a moment, as if gathering his drunken thoughts, “There was gossip among the smaller sects about the Jin being too proud to compete in the bottom four tiers. Yao MingYu was told by one of the Jin disciples that the Jin Sect does not produce below average cultivators.”

Wei Ying snorts, “Bold of them to say that, when Fan XiaoHu keeps wiping the floor with Jin ZiXuan.”

“Shut up,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, “that girl is a menace.”

Wei Ying bites his tongue so he would not laugh. He had forgotten that Fan XiaoHu had wiped the floor with Jiang Cheng a few times too.

A-Sang taps the table with his fan, “Focus! Who has the list? A record must be kept of those who signed up to compete, whether they ended up participating or not.”

“Uncle Jiang should have it,” Wei Ying says, his heart immediately sinking.

He still needs to have a very unpleasant conversation with his High Councilor, one he is definitely not looking forward to having.

“Good,” A-Sang says, “We must get our hands on this list. See? We are making progress. Where are we now? Ah, yes. Day four. The day I was almost killed.”

Wei Ying is pretty sure that he is managing to look sufficiently contrite. Jiang Cheng only looks drunk and disgruntled.

“The Jin Sect tries to blame the assassination attempt on the Lan Sect. Lan QiRen reveals a note warning him to remove the Young Masters from the Immortal Mountain. A note that was placed in the Peach Blossom Pavilion before their arrival. Wei Ying cannot seem to keep away from Lan WangJi, even at the cost of ruining his virtue and good name--“ A-Sang points his fan at Wei Ying’s half-opened mouth, “and I am specifically speaking of  Lan WangJi’s virtue and good name, because Heavens know you have none.”

Jiang Cheng chokes on the wine, adding more stains to the already ruined Imperial robes.

“Anyway,” A-Sang says, snatching the jar back, “this brings us to day five. Which is today.”

Jiang Cheng drops his forehead onto the table, “These have been the longest five days of my life.”

“Hey,” A-Sang snaps, whacking him on the back of the head with his fan, “Has anyone tried to kill you? No? Then stop complaining.”

Jiang Cheng half-heartedly pushes the fan away, but does not lift his head.

“Day five,” A-Sang repeats, “This faithful subject bears the agony of a deadly, grievous wound, obtained in the service to the Emperor, to take control of the situation. Two traps are set in motion. The first is set in the Imperial Gardens, the second in the North Watchtower. If the assassin has connections among the major sects, he should have fallen into the first trap. If he has connections among the smaller sects, he should have fallen into the second. If he has eyes and ears among those we explicitly trust, he should have gone after Wei Ying. But instead, the assassin opts to kill Lan QiRen.”

“So the assassin does not belong to any of the sects,” Wei Ying says, “otherwise, he would have walked into one of the traps.”

“Not true,” A-Sang says, his voice hardening, “it is also possible that the assassin saw three targets as clearly as we had presented them, and having no way to discern which one was real, had simply decided on the fourth. We also now know where his priorities lie. I no longer believe that the purpose of the second assassination attempt was to kill the Emperor. I think it was only meant to frame the Lan Sect for his murder, which would have been a death sentence in itself.”

Jiang Cheng lifts his head, “You think all of this is just-- to kill the Lan Sect? Why? Why would someone go through so much trouble to kill them?”

A-Sang does not have an answer to that.

“Any words from the Wen Sect?” he asks instead, and Wei Ying shakes his head.

His own message had gone out to Wen RuoHan only a day ago; it is much too soon for a response.

He takes the jar back from A-Sang, but finds it empty, and fumbles around for the last full one, still stashed underneath the table.

“Lan QiRen probably hates me even more now,” he grumbles, “I will be lucky if he still allows Lan Zhan to marry me after this debacle.”

The wine tastes less bitter now. He cannot tell if the stench of burning has grown less, or if he is finally too drunk to notice. He offers Jiang Cheng the jar, only to find Jiang Cheng staring at him with a wide, incredulous gaze, devoid of the earlier drunkenness.  

“What?” Wei Ying says.

“Repeat what you just said,” A-Sang says slowly, his voice careful.

Wei Ying blinks at him and thinks back. His head is swimming a little bit, but he is not yet so drunk that he should be speaking nonsense.

“What?”

“Before that,” A-Sang says.

“Lan QiRen hates me? He will probably refuse to--“ Wei Ying chokes slightly, “--Oh. Erm. I-- we did not speak of this yet, have we?”

“You intending to marry?” A-Sang says sweetly, snapping his fan open, “No. It seems you had forgotten to mention that little detail. To me. Your Royal Companion.”

“Or me,” Jiang Cheng growls.  

“Uh, this--” Wei Ying fumbles, “there were-- other things? You were nearly killed! I was-- uh-- distracted?”

“But not too distracted to decide to marry.”

“You have known him for five days!” Jiang Cheng bursts out.

“Hey!” Wei Ying snaps back, “These have been-- very long five days! You said so yourself!”

“Who else knows?” A-Sang asks.

Wei Ying wishes that A-Sang would yell at him. At least then, this may actually be a little less awkward, and he may feel a little less guilty.

“No one,” he says quickly, “only Lan QiRen.”

“Lan WangJi does not know? You have not asked him?”

“No, I-- I thought I should speak to his uncle first. It is the proper thing to do.”

“The proper thing to do,” A-Sang repeats.

“Yes,” Wei Ying says, feeling defensive, “Lan Zhan loves his uncle. If Lan QiRen disapproved, Lan Zhan would never agree.”

“You cannot just-- go around asking people to marry you!” Jiang Cheng exclaims, “You idiot! There are rules! Traditions! People who must be informed ahead of time! The Council--!“

“I am not going to ask the Council for an approval to marry,” Wei Ying snaps, indignant, “Lan Zan is the Second Young Master of the Gusu Lan Sect, not some farmer I picked up in YiLing.”

“He is the Second Young Master of the Gusu Lan Sect!” Jiang Cheng shouts loud enough to make A-Sang flinch, “The Lan Sect! Do not play stupid about this!”

“I am the Emperor!” Wei Ying thunders, “I make the rules and the traditions! The Council exists because I allow it to exist!”  

The empty wine jar flies across the room and shatters on the door frame, making them both flinch.

A-Sang closes his fan.

“Are you both done?” he asks.

Jiang Cheng opens his mouth, but closes it when A-Sang turns to him with raised eyebrows.  

Wei Ying, who knows better, remains quiet.

There is a short, uncomfortable silence, interrupted only by A-Sang’s fan tapping on the table. Finally he sighs.

“We have leverage to use against the Council. Admittedly, I never thought to use it in this way, but it will certainly not be a waste if you are determined to marry him.”

“I am,” Wei Ying says immediately.

Jiang Cheng opens his mouth again, but A-Sang smacks his knuckles with the fan, silencing him, “Shut up. Use your head. If the Emperor marries a Second Young Master of a traitor sect, this sets a precedent. One that you, in particular, might find useful.”

Jiang Cheng splutters, his face turning red.

“Can this wait until we have caught the assassin?” A-Sang asks.

Wei Ying squirms, “I did try to speak to him in YiLing, but I may not have made myself as clear as I should have, so-- if I do not ask him to marry me, he is likely to assume that I do not have honorable intentions. Towards him. In the future.”

“You are so stupid,” Jiang Cheng mutters, squeezing his eyes shut.

“A-Cheng is right,” A-Sang says, “You have been very stupid about this. You should have come to me first, before talking to Lan QiRen.”

“In my defense,” Wei Ying says, “I did not plan to speak to Lan QiRen when I did, it just-- happened.”

Jiang Cheng groans, turning to A-Sang, “How is he the Emperor? How?”

“The Heavens watch out for the idiots, because the rest of us can watch out for ourselves,” A-Sang says promptly.

“Okay,” Wei Ying says, “Okay. Can we, just-- move past this?”

“No,” A-Sang says, “I am fairly certain that we will speak of nothing else but your stupidity for the remainder of the night.”

“Fine,” Wei Ying says, getting up, “I am going to find Lan Zhan. You know, the man I am going to marry. Who does not think I am stupid.”

“Would you like to place a wager on that?” Jiang Cheng mutters, and A-Sang smacks his knuckles again.

“I want the list of the Jin Sect disciples first thing in the morning,” A-Sang reminds him.

Wei Ying flaps his hand in acknowledgment. He is a little unsteady, but manages to find the door without too much fumbling.

Jiang Cheng’s voice follows him out, “Try and not piss in any flower pots!”

[firemama]

Took a break from original content shit for tonight, and instead focused on this guy. Vanadinite: little absolute creature.

When threatened, will hunch forward like a little creepy goblin and transform hands v big (which isnt necessary, they kinda already got those big hands babie) to fight with. They look and move like a brawler or a boxer, and frankly their an extremely defensive fighter. They look short, with nothing around to compare them to, but they’re actually at least 5′6, possibly taller; the largest he’s ever come out is 7′4, but that’s not the norm. Two short gems = one ‘upsized’ short gem.

Because Trapiche Ruby is naturally very fragile, Vana tends to keep their first right hand closed and inward, to keep the gem safe and out of sight. The nature of keeping the fragile gem out of sight has mislead others into thinking Vana is a single gem, vut they’re definitely a fusion.

They’re usually grinning, smiling, or smirking. This means nothing. They grin threateningly, they grin happily, they grin smugly, they grin hatefully.

Also he’s got fucking freakily flexibly elbows that bend backward, and their back shoulders are also freakily flexible, but cant move in the direction of the forward arm. He can kinda reach his back arms up under his front ones, but only because he can bend his elbows really far, and it’s a strain to do so. His first arms can move with all the range of an average person’s, but his front elbows are just as freakily flexible as the back once and can bend all directions and it’s nauseating tbh.

Fun notes:

The inside of his mouth/mouthes is black, except for his teeth and tongue(s) which are lustrous and shiny.

Their hair floofs threateningly like a cat’s tail.

Vanadinite is an expert at sign language, which is great, cause they often have nonverbal bouts. despite having a grand sum total of 32 digits, Vana does not have any ‘pinky’ fingers.

Vana also likes having black ‘nails’ although sometimes they forget to form them.

Outside of facial features, hair, and the cracks, vana does not ‘personalize’ anything or alter their base form; he’s remakrably simple and no one is sure whether it’s because he’s corrupted and cant or because he just doesnt see fit to.

Vana has never been to the gem homeworld- they were first fused on earth but have mostly existed on mars.

They’re a semi-permafusion, spending equal amounts of time fused as unfused.

I havent actually settled on their color pallete, but Vana will be mostly red, which is the signature color of Vanadinite.

Many humans and quite a few gems call them “vanadite” which is not a gem; it’s the salt formed from using Vanadium-based acids, with Vanadium being the most notable chemical in Vanadinite. Vanadite has become a joking nickname of sorts, to call Vana ‘salty’ or cranky or grouchy.

Vanadinite, or rather, Corrupted Vanadinite, gets their ‘corruption’ from their counterpart, Corrupted Tiger’s Eye. The corruption is from francevillite, and it’s presence in both Tiger and Vana makes them very radioactive, although Vana is less radioactive than Tiger.

Vanadite has a natural alignment with the number 8. 8 fingers, of course. but also his sets of cracks come in sets of 8, as do the extra mouths. his eyes have a total of 8 lens-layers each. He tends to do things in sets of 8, like tap on things 8 times, take 8 steps at a time, or knock 8 times.

Vanadinite’s back arms are notoriously rough; their grip is firm at it’s gentlest, and crushing on average.

Both their mouth, and their “second” mouth which always forms at the throat, have three sets of teeth. These teeth are pointed, but are not expressly sharp, except for the very back row in each; those teeth are thinner, sharper, and jagged looking.

All of vana’s mouthes are capable of biting, breathing, and consuming. Aside from the main and second mouth, the other mouthes are very poor speakers, but can speak, although slurred and gravely. None of the mouthes except for the first and second ones ‘emote’ naturally- they dont smile or grimace on their own, but they can be made to intentionally. Results can vary on how well.

Vana has fond feelings for the human transgender culture. he/him sexless alien says Mood.

[as-rare-as-trees]

Ok, so. I've just finished watching the cdrama My Roomate is a Detective and I wanted to share some thoughts I've had for a while. If you haven't seen it, read on at your own discretion. I'll focus on the relationship between the three main characters, so I'm gonna mention some specific scenes, but I'll put a warning if I talk about one of them in detail (both at the beginning and at the end).

I find quite interesting the way their relationship and its dynamic was handled, but I honestly also found it confusing at times in a way. What I mean is, it was kinda obvious since the beginning what the romantic pair was going to be (because of the usual storytelling that makes it almost certain that if there are a male and female lead they'll end up together), but still I feel like first of all they focused on building the friendship between these three. It's great to see honestly, instead of seeing how from the exact first moment the male and female lead meet there's romance or the shadow of it.

I feel like Lu Yao and Bai Youning's relationship (like my sister kindly pointed out) was treated more like a siblings' relationship: they tend to bicker most of the time, getting physical too, and only saying to each others' faces how annoying the other one is, but actually caring and worrying about each other. That's how it is most of the time, except for some more serious moments in which it becomes clear that they're going to become a couple. (Honestly, I need to think some more about their dinamics, because there are some things, particularly in the later part, that leave me a bit hesitant) But the thing is: they don't get a lot of those clicheé romantic scenes. They do have bonding moments, for example when they talk about their past, or drink together or things like that, but there aren't any stereotypical romantic tropes. And here comes the confusing part, because you know where you can notice them instead? In Lu Yao and Qiao Chusheng's relationship. I did stop to wonder whether I was just looking for a way to see a m/m relationship, also because half of the cdramas I've seen are based on bl novels, but I wasn't. There are quite a number of scenes that are usually played by het couples, (the closeness, casual touches, that whole romantic dinner...) and I felt like their chemistry/dinamics were more on a flirty level let's say, above all on Qiao Chusheng's part. I don't know honestly, maybe it's just his face, but that smile he gave Lu Yao sometimes did look kinda flirty. Then there's the way he dotes on him, and actually protects him no matter the cost (but so does Bai Youning later on). This doesn’t mean that it has to go past the point of friendship, because there are friends that flirt jokingly or buy each other stuff out of the blue (I wish I could do it) etc, but I think it’s interesting that they gave them these kind of scenes. And let me talk a little about that romantic dinner because it's ridiculous:

*SPOILER FOR EP 15*

Qiao Chusheng brought Lu Yao to a restaurant whose main target is made up of couples, paid a violinist, bought him an expensive gift and insisted on putting it on him himself (and tell me if the shot in which he is putting the watch on Lu Yao doesn't look like those scenes in which the main lead puts a ring on the female lead's finger) and then acts confused when Lu Yao is embarassed?? And then Lu Yao's friend passes by them and basically gives them thumbs up? I mean...

*SAFE TO READ AGAIN*

I feel like Lu Yao on his part is a little more oblivious in a way. It's true that he was the one to joke about being Qiao Chusheng's boyfriend that one time, but for most of the time he looks more passive let's say, meaning that he doesn't do much, he takes more than give. And maybe it's bound to his own personality, the way he starts off being self centered and selfish and saying it clearly, (And I could talk about how through the show he starts caring about his two new friends, do we wanna talk about how he says he can't leave Shanghai because he has two people he has to look after?)

However, even through the differences, the super interesting and quite refreshing thing for me is that these two relationships were put on the same plane. Maybe it's just that I'm used to the idea of romantic relationships as The Ultimate Relationships, meaning that they're the highest level of relationships and are on a sort of pedestal in relation to friendships. There's a clear distinction between the two. It's like there's a sort of hierarchy, and your romantic partner (singular because I think it's something more tied to monogamy and the whole idea of your lifelong love) is at the top, while your friends are a little lower. Which for some people works just fine, I'd lie if I said that I don't consider my relationships at different levels. But the point here is that I feel like the way it is portrayed usually is that once you get a romantic partner things change abruptly, and the division between your romantic relationship and your other ones is obvious. And it must be like that.

In this show instead it's different.

To sum up a little: Lu Yao's relationship with Bai Youning is built more like a siblings' relationship, but it's directed towards a romantic relationship; between Lu Yao and Qiao Chusheng there is a flirtier vibe let's say, with more stereotypical romantic details, but going forward it's in theory just the relationship between two best buddies/brothers. But still, no matter how they're built, it's never shown as if one of these relationships is more important than the other one, and once the romance starts, friendship ends.

I think there are some moments in which it is said in a more direct way:

*SPOILER FOR EPS 21-22, 31-32, 34 and last 2 eps*

-the one I mentioned before, before Lu Yao almost gets kidnapped. Jiang Zhiqing asks him whether he wants to stay in Shanghai because of somebody and he says there are two people he can't leave, not only one. I was honestly surprised because I feel like normally a moment like this would have been used to build on the main romantic relationship, showing how the main lead actually feels deeply for his love interest. Instead they used it to state how both Qiao Chusheng and Bai Youning have become greatly important to Lu Yao.

-the second moment is when in ep 32 (or 31?) they are in the hospital and when the nurse asks Bai Youning and Qiao Chusheng who between them is Lu Yao's family they answer at the same time that they are.

After that there's the first distinction in the two relationships because Bai Youning says she is Lu Yao's wife. And there's also a greater focus on their romantic relationship. But it still isn't portayed as being more important than their friendship with Qiao Chusheng, there isn't a "Oh well, now we are together so let's forget him". (Even from the point of view of production, he doesn't just disappear as a character, I'm thinking about the way there's a lot of shots of his expressions during the wedding and when Lu Yao and Bai Youning leave)

+ I loved when Qiao Chusheng says that he'll probably have to be a full time gangster again because of the tension with the British, and they immediately ask him where he wants to move to and basically offer him an alternative choice when he's just stated that sometimes you can't choose.

*SAFE TO READ*

So look. The thing is that I find their trio quite interesting, I love their dinamics, and the way they are built in quite a complex and sometimes ambiguos way. I think these three work pretty well together.

I know this is probably going to sound like a contradiction to what I said about how I like the way they put the two relationships on the same plane even if they're different etc. But because of the way said relationships are built throughout the show, I feel like these three could also either stay all friends or be in a poly relationship. Even though in this last case it'd be more like "Lu Yao gets both a boyfriend and a girlfriend who are ready 24/7 to threathen people on his behalf and actually act on it", because I feel like between Qiao Chusheng and Bai Youning things really do stop at friendship, maybe also because it is stated from the beginning that Bai Youning is like a younger sister to Qiao Chusheng. Or maybe like I said they all stay friends and that's it.

[Sorry if it got this long, I don't even know how it is possible. I hope what I wrote makes sense and I haven't been analysing all these things in a completely wrong way. I am open to talking about it politely. And if I've said anything ignorant or offensive or senseless from a cultural point of view, please do tell me. Thank you if you've got this far, wish you a great day and more!]

[rintheyordle]

Writing/RP Prompts!

Here’s one to start! Linked to me by a friend, so I copy pasta’d from reddit! (THANK YOU JACKALOPPY!): 

Pick a number between 1 and 100, and I’ll write either a snippet or response to it as my OC! (BONUS: Ask it as your own OC and I’ll make a little dialog :D)

This is a pretty big list of 100 prompts, so PLEASE CHECK UNDER THE READ-MORE TO SEE IT ALL! Or you can just ask a random question and I’ll go find it. Oooooo RNG!!!

01: If your character wasn’t an adventurer, what livelihood would they lead?

02: Who in the party would your character trust the most with their life?

03: What are your character’s core moral beliefs?

04: What relationship does your character have with their parents and siblings?

05: Does your character have any biases for or against certain races?

06: What is your character’s opinion on nobility? On authority?

07: Describe your character’s current appearance: clothes, armor, scars they’ve picked up along the journey, etc.

08: What location encountered in the campaign has your character felt the most “at home” in, or just generally liked the most?

09: What deity, if any, does your character worship? What’s their opinion on other people’s worship?

10: If your character had time to pick up any artisan’s tools, game set, instrument, etc., what would it be?

11: Describe your character’s current relationship with the player character sitting to your right.

12: What is your character’s current goal, summed up in one sentence?

13: Does your character ever want to “settle down” with a spouse, children, house, etc.?

14: Has your character ever been in love?

15: What battle in the campaign has been most memorable to your character?

16: If your character wasn’t whatever class they are, what would they be instead?

17: What is your character’s favorite season?

18: What would your character’s Zodiac sign be, following stereotypical astrology?

19: Where in the world does your character most want to visit?

20: What is the biggest mistake your character has ever made?

21: Does your character have any noticeable scars? If so, what are their stories?

22: What animal best represents your character?

23: If your character could go back in time and change one thing about their life, what would it be?

24: Which other player character does your character find themselves having the most in common with?

25: Does your character regret any particular choice the party has made?

26: What would your character say their best trait would be?

27: What is your character’s greatest fear? Deep, irrational?

28: What is currently motivating your character to stay with the party?

29: What are your character’s hobbies and interests outside of their class?

30: What would most people think when they first see your character?

31: What stereotypical group role does your character play in the party? (The Mom, the Mess, the Comic Relief, etc. Optionally: What role would your character play in the “Five Man Band” structure?)

32: What is your character the most insecure about?

33: What person does your character admire most?

34: What does your character admire and dislike the most about the player character sitting to your left?

35: Why is your character’s lowest stat their lowest (the in-character reason, not “because there’s no reason for a wizard to have 16 strength, duh”)?

36: What would be your character’s theme song/favorite band/favorite genre of music?

37: What stereotypical role would your character play in a high school AU/if they attended a normal high school? (Nerd, jock, bully, goth, etc.)

38: What treasure/item/artifact that your character has collected during the adventure is the most important to them?

39: Is there any particular weapon, item, etc. that your character longs to find?

40: Where does your character feel the most at home?

41: Does your character care about how they’re perceived by others? How do they change themselves to fit in with other people?

42: What does your character think is the true meaning of life?

43: What is your character’s scent? (Bonus points for a description that sounds like it could be from a bad [or awesome] fanfic.)

44: Does your character think more with their heart or their brain?

45: What is your character’s most recent or frequent nightmare?

46: What opinion does your character have on [CERTAIN ESTABLISHED GROUPS/AUTHORITIES IN THE GAME WORLD]? (Dragonmarked Houses, royal crown, etc.)

47: How did your character spend their childhood? Where did they grow up/who were their childhood friends?

48: What aspect of your character’s future are they most curious about? (If they could know one thing about the future, what would it be?)

49: What colors are associated with your character?

50: Who in the party would your character prioritize rescuing, in dire circumstances?

51: Is your character the most swayed by ethos, pathos, or logos?

52: If your character was granted a single use of Wish, what would they use it for?

53: What is your character’s favorite spell? If they don’t use spells: what is their favorite personal weapon/combat maneuver/skill/etc.?

54: How does your character feel about keeping secrets from the rest of the party?

55: What type of creature in the world is your character the most intrigued by?

56: When they were a child, what did your character want to be, or think they were going to be, when they grew up?

57: The player character to your left admits that they’re passionately in love with your character. How would your character respond?

58: If somebody (an NPC, someone from their backstory, etc.) your character trusts/loves asked your character to do something against the party’s best interest, who would they side with?

59: Does your character value their own best interest more than the party’s?

60: What decision would the party have to make in order for your character to consider splitting off from the group?

61: How does your character imagine the way they will die?

62: What is your character’s greatest achievement?

63: Is your character willing to risk the well-being of others in order to achieve their goal?

64: What is your character’s opinion on killing others?

65: What is your character’s favorite food? Beverage?

66: How generous is your character? Especially to those they don’t know?

67: What is your character the most envious about, regarding anyone in the party?

68: The player character to your left and the player character to your right are both telling your character two different versions of the truth. Who does your character believe?

69: What is your character’s sexuality/relationship with sex?

70: What is your character’s biggest pet peeve?

71: Describe how your character feels about the party’s current situation/objective/etc.

72: Who in the party would your character trust the most to keep an important secret?

73: If your character knew that they were going to die in a month, how would they spend the rest of their life?

74: What makes your character feel safe?

75: If your character had the chance to rename the party/give the party a name, no questions asked, what would it be?

76: What memory does your character want to forget the most?

77: If your character had to multiclass into a class they currently aren’t the next time they level up, what would it be and what reason would they have for doing so?

78: What television/book/video game/etc. character would your character be best friends with? (Or: what media character is your character the most influenced by/similar to?

79: What unusual talents does your character possess?

80: How does your character feel about receiving/giving orders? Are they more of a leader, or a follower?

81: What does your character’s name represent to them? (Or: why as a player did you choose your character’s name?)

82: Is your character more of an introvert, or an extrovert?

83: How far is your character willing to go to pursue the “greater good”? Do they believe in a greater good at all?

84: What does your character want to be remembered by?

85: What would be your character’s major in college?

86: Does your character consider themselves a hero, villain, or something else?

87: What major arcana tarot card best represents your character?

88: Where does your character see themselves in 20 years?

89: What is your character’s relationship with magic? Are they scared of it, wish to know more about it, indifferent to it?

90: Who is your character’s biggest rival?

91: What is your character’s guiltiest pleasure?

92: What does your character hope for the afterlife?

93: Who in the party does your character trust the least?

94: What is your character’s biggest flaw?

95: How did your character learn the languages that they speak?

96: What is your character’s favorite school of magic/type of weaponry?

97: What is most important to your character: health, wealth, or happiness?

98: What advice would your character give to a younger version of themselves?

99: Are there any social or political issues your character feels strongly about?

100: What, currently, is your character the most curious about?

[padfootagain]

Hello everyone! I'm so happy to host a new event for my blog! It has been a while since I made one of these writing events, and I hope you will enjoy it! I've organized it to celebrate my blog hitting 4.7k followers!!! This is unbelievable, tbh, I have no idea what you guys are doing around here, but thank you so much for it anyway!!

So, for the coming weeks, I'll be writing your requests, that you can send me using the prompts I'm proposing in this post, under the cut! I hope you'll have fun!

 Carole, what is going on now?

 For this event, I'll be answering some prompts! The idea is simple: you choose one of the characters I write for and a few prompts, and I will write a one-shot for the character you have chosen, using the prompts you have chosen. You can also indicate more details that you would like to be included in your request (a specific AU or situation… ). It's super easy, and it makes you choose what I'll write for the next 2 or 3 weeks!

 How do we request something?

 In order to send a request, all you have to do is send me an ask through my inbox (please, do not use the dms, it is much harder to manage for me and I will probably forget about your request…). You can choose between 1 and 5 prompts amongst the prompts listed below the cut. The prompts are pieces of dialogue, and it will be my job to imagine a scenario where the characters use these lines. Choose also a character. It has to be a character in my masterlist (at the exception of Billy Russo and Regulus Black, their requests are closed). If you're a little shy, don't hesitate to switch on the anon function, I will still accept your request! Please, only ask for one request, because I want to write for as many people as possible.

And that's it! Super easy, isn't it?

 A sum up?

 In order to get a one-shot:

-Choose a character in my masterlist (except for Billy Russo and Regulus Black, their requests are closed)

-Choose between 1 and 5 prompts that you would like to see appear in your one-shot. There are 100 of them, and they are all gathered below the cut! No need to send me the whole prompt, just send me the number corresponding to your prompts!

-Send me a message through my inbox (no private messages)

-You can only make one request, so choose wisely ;)

-You can ask as an anon if you're a little shy

-I'll be working hard on your request, so a little nice message or at least a 'hello' would be lovely :)

 The requests will be open for 48 hours (September 8 – September 10 2020), and they are open beginning… right now! The duration for the opened requests for the event might change, depending on how many requests I receive.

Please, be understanding that there is no way for me to judge if this event will be popular or not. If I receive too many requests, I won't be able to write all of them. I'm sorry if I don't have time to go to your request, please, be understanding if that happens. But maybe I'll have time to write all of them! It is hard for me to judge beforehand.

I hope you have fun with this event, and thank you all again for your support!

The prompts for the event are listed below. For a few of them, they might include several lines. All prompts are given a number, all you have to do is send me the number corresponding to the prompts you want, no need to type the whole thing in the ask.

Have fun!

NB: I have no idea why so many of those give off some serious idiots in love and idiots to lovers energy, but… it happened…

 1."KISSES!"

 2. "You are too far away."

"I am literally on the couch with you..."

"But are you in my arms? No. See? Too far away."

 3. "If you weren't so cute, I would break your legs right now."

 4. "Wait… are you jealous?"

 5. "Stars and tequila. It's perfect."

"No. Stars, tequila and you. That it perfect."

 6."I think I've made a mistake. Very big mistake. The kind that makes me wonder if I should escape to another country..."

 7. "I WANT MY COOKIES!!"

 8. "Maybe I love you a little too much, and that's why it hurts sometimes."

 9. "Does it hurt?"

"Not that... OUCH!"

 10. "I can't believe you got punched in the face."

"For you. I got punched in the face for you."

 11. "It's dark, and it's late, and I'm cold and I'm drenched with this freaking rain and yet all I can think about is that I love you."

 12. "I know you don't love me. It's okay. I will be whatever you want me to be."

 13. "You don't need to love me for me to love you, you know? That's not how loving works. It would save us all from a lot of pain if it did."

 14. "What do you mean you have a date?"

 15. "I propose that we get excessively drunk and then ruin our lives as a consequence. Sounds good?"

 16. "I'll always be here for you. Don't you know that by now? That I'll never leave?"

 17. "I think we need... to make something explode."

 18. "I'm pretty stupid, aren't I?"

 19. "Huh... is that my shirt you're wearing?"

 20. "I miss you. I hate it. I hate you. I love you."

 21. "I'm proud to be with you."

 22. "So... huh... are we gonna mention that you've just snogged me or...?"

 23. "What do you mean lying to your family about us? What do you mean you need a 'plus one'?"

 24. "I have only one thing to say: that is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Let's do it."

 25. "Huh... were you going to... propose?!"

 26. "Will you marry me?"

 27. "Look... I don't mean to be blunt but... you and me, it's a forever kind of thing. And there's no escape from that."

 28. "Fate? Me loving you, you think it's fate? Nah, it's not fate. It's a choice. I choose to love you and to give you everything I own and everything I am every single day. And that's why what we have is true love."

 29. "Do you have ANY idea of how worried I was about you?"

 30. "I think you've just… puked on my shoes."

 31. "I swear, if you die, I'm going to kill you."

 32. "You're perfect."

 33. "I love you. Do you think you could ever love me too?"

 34. "Cuddles, cuddles, cuddles!"

 35. "I'm sorry. For everything. I'm not going to ask you to forgive me though, cause I know that I don't deserve it."

 36. "Just… shut up and kiss me."

 37. "Please… stay."

 38. "But if you leave now, what am I going to do with the rest of my life?"

 39. "I don't want anything but you."

 40. "You deserve so much more than what I can give you."

 41. "I wish I did, but I don't deserve you."

 42. "You make me so happy, it hurts a little."

 43. "What if we don't make it?"

 44. "Are you… are you bleeding?"

 45. "I… I'm begging you… if you must kill someone, then kill me. But please, please… let him/her go."

 46. "I can't lose you."

 47. "What do you mean… you're pregnant?"

 48. "You are so annoying…"

 49. "You're an idiot. I love you."

 50. "Don't leave me. Don't ever leave me…"

 51. "Well… that was hot."

 52. "So… good morning?"

"We're in the same bed. What the fuck are we doing in the same bed?!"

 53. "I mean, we don't have a choice… there's only one bed. And I am not sleeping on that dirty carpet."

 54. "Us being together, it's a terrible idea."

 55. "LOOK! IT'S SNOWING!"

 56. "This is the worst Halloween costume I have ever seen."

 57. "Promise you'll always love me."

 58. "I need your word. Promise me that you'll come back to me."

 59. "So… does that mean… farewell?"

 60. "I think we’re excellent at making memories.”

 61. "Did you… did you sleep with him/her?"

 62. "Where are you?"

 63. "BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!"

 64. "Dear God… I'm surrounded by idiots…"

 65. "I don't want you to go with him/her. I want you to choose me instead."

 66. "What if we stayed in bed all day?"

 67. "You fool! Fear my wrath!"

"Babe, you're threatening me with a broccoli, it is not very convincing."

 68. "Karaoke night!"

 69. "I am full of surprises!”

“Sadly, yes, you are...”

 70. "Dance with me. Please?"

 71. "I would do anything to convince you to give me a chance."

 72. "I know it's hard. I know that life keeps on getting in the way. But I love you. I love you with my entire being, and I'm willing to fight for you. I'm willing to fight to keep you."

 73. "Are you… are you crying?"

 74. "Stop stealing my blanket!"

 75. "Happy New Year!"

 76. "Merry Christmas!"

 77. "Is that for me?"

 78. "Happy birthday!"

 79. "So… is that… a date?"

 80. "What do you mean it was a date? It wasn't a date!"

"Of course, it was a date!"

 81. "Well… that… was a good kiss…"

 82. "I'm a complete moron! I'm an idiot! I am the epitome of stupidity! It took me forever to realize it, but now I see it, and I'll be damned if I let you walk away. Because it took me all that time to realize it, but I love you. I love you so much. It's always been you."

 83. "Are you drinking my cocoa?"

 84. "Please, just… hold me. Please, hold me close."

 85. "I'm cold."

"I'll keep you warm."

"Nice try!"

 86. "It hasn't stopped snowing. We're stuck. We're gonna die."

 87. "I AM NOT DYING HERE! IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! WITH YOU!"

"I know that the important information here is that we're gonna die, but I'm very upset that you don't want to do it specifically with me. Why not? I'm a dream!"

 88. "Can I try some of your food?"

 89. "I should have told you long ago."

"Tell me what?"

"That I love you."

 90. "I am not going through a thirty-hours drive with you. There is absolutely no way."

 91. "I used to hate you. Then, I simply disliked you. Now, I hate you all over again."

"Well, the feeling is mutual. But maybe it'll change."

 92. "I really like you."

"I love you."

 93. "Well, if you really were that clever, then you would know that I love you!"

 94. "You have fever, you need to drink this. Come on, now."

 95. "I just… I feel like I'm truly myself when I'm with you. I want to be myself when I'm with you. So now, if you're scared, don't call it love yet. But whatever you want to call it, it's incredible, and I'm not going to give up on this. I'm not going to give up on us."

 96. "You're my home."

 97. "Why is summer so hot?! I'm melting!"

 98. "Have you ever felt like… memories get attached to a word and they almost change their meanings? Like… whenever someone says 'apple' I think of my grandma's pies, to the point that I almost forget that they're talking about the fruit. Well… your name… it's the same for love. When I think of love, I think of you."

 99. "What wish did you make?”

“To spend the rest of my life with you.”

 100. "If you only let me spend the rest of my life with you, I'd be happy with that. I don't ask for anything else, really. My life is complete as long as you're in it."

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Hey! Hope you doing okay :)) I was just reading the latest chapter, remember the theory that Umeko could be within Tsurumi’s grasp? Well when you wrote about Sugimoto being Peter in that one panel and how he may “betray” Asirpa for a third time, now that Asirpa is the one in Tsurumi’s grasp, I wonder if she might not be the one meeting Umeko instead of Tsurumi threatening Sugimoto with Umeko? After all, Asirpa’s crush on Sugimoto is still going strong and maybe it needs addressing through 1/2

Considering the world’s situation I can say at the moment I’m lucky enough to be fine. I hope you’re doing okay as well!

As your ask touches various points please allow me to break it in parts but first, a premise.

To readers who aren’t familiar to it but still want to read this reply, the Umeko theory is based on this bit in which it turns out Tsurumi fits the description of the man who’d like to marry Umeko (For more info you can read @midnight-in-town‘s full theory here)

The theory is extremely cool because the foreshadowing was placed at a point in time we’ve no idea Tsurumi tended to plan in advance nor that he lost his wife and child so if proved to be true the revelation would be very surprising DESPITE the early foreshadowing (chap 35).

On the other side it’s absolutely true we’re so very early it seems unbelievable Tsurumi would go to such lenghts to ensure he could control Sugimoto later.

It’s not impossible he did, he has proved he’s a long term planner and was interested in Sugimoto as he remembered him from the war and, while I’m pretty sure it’s unlikely Ogata managed to told him Sugi was doing that for the woman he loved and Tsurumi figured it was Umeko, he could have still sent some of his men (Tsurumi is in the intelligence so he can have allies/men in the rest of Japan) to investigate in Sugimoto’s village as well as among Sugimoto’s old army companions and while they might not have figured Sugi is in love with Umeko, they could have still managed to draw a connection between him, Toraji and Umeko that would make Umeko the perfect material to blackmail Sugimoto.

He didn’t even had to go there personally as back then people didn’t need to see each other to propose, so yes, it’s possible but again... it’s a lot of effort in such a time in which Sugimoto was apparently not a serious threat so... I don’t know.

Okay, two premises.

For who’s not familiar with the Sugimoto= Peter thing it comes from the famous scene in which Noda placed the characters in a way that mimicked the famous Da Vinci’s painting ‘L’ultima cena’ (The last supper) and gave Kiro the place in which Judas sat, while Asirpa had the one of Jesus’ foreshadowing Kiro being the one who would betray her.

Well, Sugimoto is at Peter’s place and if you want a full analysis of the characters’ positions well, here it is.

Okay, end of the premises as I think now everyone can follow and back to your ask.

I’ll dig a bit into the parallels between Peter’s denial of Jesus and Sugimoto’s breaking of his partnership with Asirpa first, to explain how I think they will keep on paralleling each other and what I expect for the last denial.

Narratively speaking the story of Peter’s denial is pretty cool.

To sum it up all four Canonical Gospels state that during Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples, he predicted that Peter would deny knowledge of him (basically leaving him to his own fate), stating that Peter would disown him before the rooster crowed the next morning. Following the arrest of Jesus, Peter denied knowing him three times, but after the third denial, heard the rooster crow and recalled the prediction as Jesus turned to look at him. Peter then began to cry bitterly. This final incident is known as the Repentance of Peter.

I’ll quote the two bits from Matthew 26 (because Ogata is in Matthew’s place and Noda himself referenced Matthew in other occasions).

This is the prediction:

31 Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:

“‘I will strike the shepherd,    and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’[c]

32 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

33 Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”

34 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

35 But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

(It’s not really a parallel more like a similarity but remember how in GK’s Last Supper Sugimoto attacks Ogata’s loyalty, as if to imply he’s not the sort who would switch side, kind of like Peter insists he’ll never deny Jesus?)

And this is the denial.

69 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.

70 But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

71 Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

72 He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

73 After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.”

74 Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed.

75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Matthew makes of the third denial a pretty big deal as Peter curses and swears and makes everyone a witness of how he’s not Jesus’ disciple.

Even if one isn’t a believer and wants to see this as just a story, the whole narration is awesome in its progression (denying it to a girl, denying it with a oath to a girl and bystanders, cursing and swearing his denial to a crowd) and in its humanity.

Peter, previously claiming so proudly he wouldn’t fail Jesus, just fail utterly and completely not much later he has said he wouldn’t fail, all not because he really wanted nothing to do with Jesus (he actually was there because worried for him) but because he was afraid for himself, afraid to be arrested as well.

More than betrayal this is failure, as Peter didn’t mean to betray Jesus... he was just scared and so he didn’t manage to find inside himself the courage to stand up with him.

And in all this there’s the match with Sugimoto.

Sugimoto makes an oath of partnership with Asirpa and, through the story, Sugimoto also attacks vehemently all those who can’t stay loyal.

Yet first he denies their partnership by leaving her in the night, without talking with her or anyone else first, taking away the skins they’ve collected and leaving no explanation behind.

He’s not doing this because he’s a jerk or because he wants to betray her... he’s doing this because he’s scared.

I’m pretty sure Sugimoto left planning to return part of the gold to Asirpa, that he left believing he was helping her, without even realizing he was breaking their partnership unilaterally, that his act could be seen as betrayal (as Shiraishi will say later to Asirpa) and that by not discussing it with her he was stepping all over her agency.

In short I’m sure Sugi had good intentions but he still denied their partnership.

The second time this happens Sugimoto first makes an agreement with Tsurumi in which he promised he’ll entrust Asirpa and the Ainu gold to him without asking Asirpa about her opinion, then he’ll try to pressure her in just letting herself and the gold be handed to him. It’s meaningful how the first denial is quoted by Shiraishi as Sugimoto’s motive for his second denial comes up.

And again, what moves Sugimoto? Fear.

Only this time is worse than the previous.

Why?

Because before he was leaving her home, a place in which she was safe and there were people who loved her and Sugimoto would gain nothing immediately and would probably return part of the gold to her were he manage to find it, now he’s leaving her in the hands of Tsurumi, a man who’s clearly not trustworthy (in fact he plans to jail Asirpa so as to make sure no one will get her), he’s taking 200 yens for himself and the rest of the gold goes to Tsurumi.

So here too there’s a negative progression... and since it’s already pretty bad, if there were a third time... well it would need to be even worse.

This means that if Umeko is tied to Sugimoto’s third denial of his partnership with Asirpa, things won’t be pretty, they will be like Sugimoto completely dumping Asirpa in Tsurumi’s hands and possibly even the people she cares for solely to save Umeko because, do you remember the story in the gospel? It was an escalation and so far it had been an escalation in GK too.

Honestly I’m very worried of how the third denial could be because things can end up pretty ugly, never mentioning in the gospel of Matthew the Crucifixion of Jesus takes place in Matthew 27 and guess at which volume we’re now?

27.

Not a good number.

Of course seeing the man she’s crushing for would break unilaterally their partnership for a third time, leaving her in troubles only to save the woman she loves might give to Asirpa, who instead wanted to become a human shield for Sugimoto and murder people to protect him, some perspective on how her love is utterly unrequited and she would do better to move over and find someone who’ll stick with her instead.

(Note that I think if this will happen Sugi will then regret and come back for her too as he’s not this kind of jerk but the fact he prioritized Umeko over her might still be a wake up call for her)

However, maybe I’m misunderstanding you but you seems to think at something different taking place:

“...now that Asirpa is the one in Tsurumi’s grasp, I wonder if she might not be the one meeting Umeko instead of Tsurumi threatening Sugimoto with Umeko? After all, Asirpa’s crush on Sugimoto is still going strong and maybe it needs addressing through. Asirpa meeting Umeko and understanding why Sugimoto is so hung up on bringing gold back for her surgery. I’m not even talking about Sugimoto being in love, but rather the fact that he’s trying to go home from war. Maybe Asirpa wil understand if she hears Umeko herself talking about it since Sugimoto is rather silent on the subject. He won’t say what Asirpa wants to hear so maybe we should not wait for him to make Asirpa realize that she may have to let him go.”

I’m not really sure how you want this to happen but ultimately Sugimoto talked with Asirpa about how the person he said he loved is Umeko, how he wants to go back to her...

...and to be utterly honest Asirpa wasn’t against Sugimoto going back home, her original wish was for him to bring her along.

She switched her mind only when she realized Sugimoto didn’t just ‘want to go back home’, but ‘wanted to go back to another woman’.

Remember the whole discussion she had with Ogata on the ice field when he told her his own fanfiction about Sugimoto’s last moments.

What Asirpa wanted to hear from Ogata was that Sugimoto would say him he wanted to eat dried persimmons WITH HER.

And I think Ogata could figure this out pretty well but instead gives her the version of what HE wanted his father to say in his last moments, that he wanted to eat anglerfish nabe with his mother... I mean Umeko, as Asirpa thinks he’s talking about Umeko (when Ogata instead is totally talking about his mom, Ogata TOME).

This is interesting because it actually plays at Ogata’s disadvantage, that Asirpa should help him because by helping him would mean to help Sugimoto, the person Asirpa loves... but in itself plays at Asirpa’s advantage as, by that conversation, she could see even in his last moments Sugimoto wouldn’t think about her.

Ogata’s sole mistake was about failing to guess Sugimoto’s favourite food.

Anyway this is very likely what she wants Sugimoto to say, that he wants to eat dried persimmons with her, be it by going back home and then returning to her with them or by carrying her with him too.

Long story short, sure, meeting Umeko would cause Asirpa to ponder on her crush for Sugimoto because, simply put, Umeko is her rival but... I don’t know how Umeko, who hadn’t been seeing Sugi from 1899 and therefore knows next to nothing about him and how he’s living his life currently or what he needs, could talk to Asirpa about what Sugimoto needs... nor I like the idea Sugimoto won’t have to fix this because Umeko will do all the work for him... never mentioning if Umeko will be in Hokkaido for the above theory... well, this would mean she has accepted to marry Tsurumi... or had married him already since more than a year has gone by from when supposedly Tsurumi asked her hand.

So... I don’t know, it would really depend a lot on how the discussion would go and I realize I’ve bias because I don’t want Asirpa to give up on Sugimoto  SOLELY because she would sacrifice for him but because she would understand he’s not right for her... and I don’t know how Umeko can help her with this if not by telling her how she married Toraji because she understood Sugimoto wasn’t right for her.

This though wouldn’t be much Asirpa letting Sugimoto go back home, but Asirpa understanding tying herself to Sugimoto would be bad... as well as ensuring Sugi can’t get Umeko anyway because Umeko has understood that, no matter how much she used to like him, he wasn’t right for her.

On a second though I might like this idea... though I would be sad for Sugimoto as, despite all his faults, he loves Umeko, losing her hurt him and he’s been fighting so hard to find a way to go back her so... I would feel bad for him.

But whatever, we’ll see.

I doubt Noda will let his main character alone.

Thanks for your ask!

[hobbylogics]

Ideas: Overall Effects in Style

Pen spinning is complicated and it can be really helpful to break it down into concepts like notation, speed, difficulty, and so on. Using these concepts, we can try to understand how they work together to make an overall effect.

Which “Part”?

Learning concepts in pen spinning are really helpful. Things like notation, difficulty, and execution. Concepts help us understand pen spinning by expressing them into smaller, and easy-to-follow chunks.

Except, all of these parts are seen together, not one at a time. You can’t watch pen spinning separately by extracting the difficulty from the spinning in the same way that a video can be experienced separately in audio and video. The only way to watch pen spinning is by watching every part together. Unless, of course, we try really hard to focus on analyzing one particular thing in a pen spinning video.

In the big scheme of things, each concept we come up with to describe something about pen spinning only slightly affects the performance because there’s a too many things that make up that final performance.

Greater than the Sum of its Parts

The relationship between all pen spinning elements ultimately creates an overall effect or feeling. The feeling that a pen spinner creates makes us use different words like “ugly” or “pretty”. This overall effect or feeling is something that can’t be described by the final numbered scores in a World Tournament, because we need to read the judges’ comments to really know how they feel.

Often times, the overall effect of a pen spinner is something that we can’t even put into words, it’s only something we feel when we watch it. The reason why we feel a certain way is more about how certain elements in pen spinning work together to contribute to that final feeling.

Creating an Effect

Let me use an example with style elements to help explain effects.

Mesi’s combo for “All Highlight Promo” has a harshness to the finisher (0:11/mm:ss) that is very eye-catching to me.

I’m also aware that the final catch with his thumb looks a bit misplaced, but considering the era and the confidence of this combo it doesn’t bother me too much.

Personally, I’ve always thought the way Mesi does Scissor Spin to FL TA is one of the best. And there’s a reason for why it feels that way to me.

I looked into some of Mesi’s other clips, and it isn’t one particular thing he does that creates that harsh effect in his finisher. Instead, there’s a lot of different things that are happening that help contribute to this feeling in his “All Highlight Promo” finisher:

The speed of the pen is not consistent during the finisher.

Scissor Spin to FL TA is typically a linkage that will always slow down during the Scissor Spin, and the ThumbAround is usually executed a lot faster. This gives a feeling of a slower build-up to the final payoff. A slower Scissor Spin that builds up to the final ThumbAround.

The pen shakes from the force of the ThumbAround, even as he holds on to the pen.

The arm and wrist movement during the FL TA moves his hand upwards, as if exaggerating the final trick to give it more impact.

Whether this was intentional by Mesi or not, it tells us that an intuitive understanding of how to influence the final effect can help you accomplish it.

Side Note: I used the word effect in this section of the article even though I talked about overall effect. This is because the overall effect is more about the general feeling, and the effect that Mesi created in this example is more about the finisher than the entire combo.

Final Words

Pen spinning is not just about the elements that it is composed of, such as execution, but it is about how everything fits together. How these elements interact and support each other is why pen spinners might feel “powerful” or “elegant”. It can be a good idea to improve your creativity or your presentation, but sometimes it can be more useful to remind yourself what your original goals were.

“Ideas:” is part of a series I mentioned in a previous blog post where share some of the ideas I have about pen spinning. Unlike some of my other articles, this one was not written with the goal to teach. Instead, it’s my way of sharing some of my own personal discoveries as I keep learning and practicing pen spinning. Hopefully I explained my ideas well enough for you guys to follow!

Extras

This video explains an idea about how our physical laws never cause anything, they only help describe it. Very helpful for me in order to find the right words to explain my ideas in this article.

There’s a moment in this interview (16:32/mm:ss) where Michael League talks about how he thinks music theory explains music, but it isn’t a formula for music. He also talks about how he writes music better the more abstract he thinks about it. Some interesting points that stuck with me because of how it can apply to pen spinning.

[annabelledarcie]

Start Your Own Online Food Delivery App Like UberEats

The Crucial Part of Online Food Conveyance Applications

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Development Pace of Online Food Conveyance Applications

At the 2020 end, it is obvious that the business arrives at the value of $32 billion and expected to arrive at a yearly development pace of 9.3%. This number invigorates many blossoming business people to hop into the online food conveyance systematic UberEats.

Even though the effective online food conveyance plans of action like UberEats, Swiggy, Zomato, Food Panda, Grub Center, Entryway Run has not reach and establish a few districts, some food requesting organizations achieved their accomplishment in a specific locale. For example, NoCo Grub in Northern Colorado and Digital Food Conveyance Administration in Fijians.

All things considered, as a result of its amazing effects, trust you got that beginning a food conveyance business is not a simple work. Correct? The succeeding advances are should have been followed to start a food conveyance efficient UberEats.

1. Mix with neighbourhood cafés

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2. Set Practical Commission Rates

You need to set practical commission rates than the effective plans of action like UberEats, GrubHub, Food Panda, Zomato to contend with the huge players of the business and to engage your online food requesting and conveyance business. To call attention to, this outcome in incorporating more cafés into your foundation.

3. Get from Cafés

Pickup from the café alternative is essential since a portion of the clients like to arrange food through the application/web and pick the food without anyone else and dislike to pay for home conveyance.

4. Search engine optimization for the Business

Website optimization, the most pivotal movement which you need to perform for your business which allows you to engage more neighbourhood clients who are looking for food. Then again, it outfits an entryway for the people groups to thoroughly understand your offers and limits.

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To bring up, the stage reach relies essentially upon ease of use, rich highlights, etc. What makes a stage easy to use? The innovation you utilize to construct your application/web. Along these lines, using the correct innovation answer for dispatch your online food requesting and conveying stage is exceptionally more significant.

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One of the superb strategies is, to focus on the locales where the huge players like UberEats, Zomato, and so on have not reached. Covering the uncovered territories may make your business a mainstream one in that specific locale, at that point, it turns into a passage to expand your business to different areas with the popularity you got in the past district.

Presently, the online food conveyance business has arrived at its pinnacle. Consequently, this is the correct chance to launch an online food conveyance business. The business visionaries who are captivated to venture into their online food conveyance web and portable based applications can get down their business with Turnkey Town highlight rich clone script. Here I have extended the absolute most imperative highlights of our UberEats Clone Script.

7. Automatic Passage Assessment

This quality allows the client to arrange their food on their financial plan. You can see every one of the arranged food sources of your client and your clients likewise can perspect the arranged food sources list and their cost with the aggregate sum which will appear on the screen before requesting the food. If you need to dispose of a particular food from the rundown, you can eliminate them.

8. Multiple Dialects

The client can incline toward their agreeable language to arrange their food. Different dialects highlight to allow the client effectively to appreciate the highlights of the application/site.

9. Live Notice

With this quality, the client gets a warning when the café acknowledges the request, who is allocated for their conveyance, and so forth Similarly, the client will likewise get advised when the food is set up by the eatery and the conveyance leader begins his ride from the café with your food. To put it plainly, this will help the client to encounter everything about their request in a split second.

10. Live Following

This assists the client with thinking about the conveyance chief's area. With this property, the client can go for some other work and return on time when the conveyance chief arrives at their area.

11. User-Accommodating

Anybody can book their food varieties effectively in UberEats Clone scripts applications. This is a result of the reasonable cycle stream. The great motivation behind why individuals respect online food conveyance administration is a direct result of their effortlessness and straightforwardness. With these people, groups began to choose what to arrange, where to arrange, how to pay and when to convey.

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[malkaleh]

Fic Year In Review

I stole this one from @cosmictuesdays - in which I realise I wrote 32 fics this year (a lot of little pieces though) that are on AO3. And  83,424 words. 

Leitmotif of the year: It’s okay for you to be a person (there’s more than that but that’s what it starts from - for me and for writing).  My best story of this year: Maybe To Be Loved As To Love  My favorite and/or truest story of this year: My own personal favourite among my complete works is probably To Be Loved As To Love.  Story of mine most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Look I really really love my Tiss and Yen in my Witcher Hunger Games AU verse fic a whole whole lot actually because THESE FEMALE CHARACTERS OH MY GOSH. Also Yen is so gloriously fucking angry.  Most fun story to write: Me writing the first chapter of Consorts which is my version of @eidetictelekinetic Handmaid (which is one of my favourite pieces of fiction) in my OT3 Verse OT4 and giggling: OBLIVIOUS BISEXUAL THOMAS CROMWELL! Guess who holds all the braincells!  Story with the single sexiest moment: Darling Don’t Be Afraid (I Have Loved You For A Thousand Years) (Tudors OT3 Verse) definitely.  Most “Holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: I’ve been trying not to say that I’m doing that because...okay I have a lot of terror around writing at all because Wait I’m Allowed To Be A Person???!!!??? so I just sort of try to not apologise for writing things that are stupidly self indulgent/about living with chronic trauma/depict stuff that is disturbing from my life? (I think it helps to have good friends like @findingfeather @beyondthisdarkhouse @lemonsharks @kawuli @shes-a-voodoo-child @bibliothekara @pearlsthatwereeyes @wheresonichedgehogwnt @bygodstillam who could be like ‘...LIL YOU CAN WRITE THE THING IT IS OKAY THAT YOU WRITE THE THING’ 

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I’m not sure if this is entirely what this question is meant to answer but I was writing a Witcher Hunger Games thing and Eist just adopted victor!Jaskier and I was like....this makes so so much sense.  Hardest story to write: I had so much trouble with the world building for Consorts (not actually with the writing). SO MUCH TROUBLE. It eventually did click but I very nearly just went ‘...not writing this’).  Story I cried writing: Look did I cry writing To Be Loved As To Love? Absolutely.  Biggest surprise: Okay I wrote this little Kushiel Ficlet and now I’m like I WANT THE ENTIRE AU VERSE BUT NOT LIKE, ME WRITING IT (I may put in a very specific Yuletide request next year) Most unintentionally telling story: Unintentionally telling. I think at this point I’ve just embraced the fact that all my stories are telling. But if you wanted to pick out the most telling about me characters/stories? Everything about Triss in Witcher Hunger Games is essentially drawn from my life (not the Hunger Games aspect the stuff with her abusers) and Pippa and Thomas Cromwell in Tudors OT3 verse.  Drop in a fic title, and a number or two, and I’ll answer to the best of my abilities. 1. What was my inspiration for this fic? How did it come to me? 2. What’s my favorite part of the fic? 3. What’s the part of the fic I’m most proud of? 4. What part of the fic was the hardest for me to write? 5. What part of the fic am I still dissatisfied with? 6. Who’s my favorite character in the fic? 7. Were there any major decisions I made about the fic that could have made it go a whole different direction? 8. Was there anything I only learned about the fic after I had finished it? (themes, motifs, symbolism, etc) 9. Did anyone in the fic surprise me by doing anything? If so, what? 10. If I had to sum up this fic in a sentence, what would it be? 11. If I were to rewrite this fic, what would I change? 12. Did any thing about this fic’s reception surprise me? 13. What were my beta’s major comments about the first draft of this fic? 14. If I were to write a sequel to this fic, what would it be about? 15. Any other question about the fic.

[cashforrester]

rank all the songs on the trolls soundtracks!

Alrighty! Since there's 33 total, I'm going to start at #33 and go up to #1, aka the best song in both Trolls combined soundtracks! Please note that I'm not up to debating any of these placements and if you try, I'll scream -- I'm not an expert on much, but I am on the world of Trolls and that's absolutely final. Also worth noting is that even #33 is a masterpiece; this list really isn't from bad to good, it's more from 'pretty good' to 'absolutely rocked my world and changed it forever more!'.

33. The last place spot goes to "Rainbows, Unicorns, Everything Nice" from Trolls: World Tour! It’s a fun little bop and it got a small chuckle out of me but in the end, it’s super short and a little too obvious.

32. “The Other Side” by SZA and JT has to score low. I know it was used to bookend Trolls: World Tour or at least the instrumentals were, but it’s one of the more boring songs on the soundtrack which is the closest to a criticism of one of these songs I’ll have.

31. “Just Sing”, the non-film version, goes here. I know this seems low and it kind of is, but that’s because outside of the context of the movie, the song doesn’t have the same punch! The movie version will be higher on the list!

30. Next goes to "What U Workin' With?" by Gwen Stefani and Justin Timberlake from Trolls! It wasn’t super utilized in the movie so it’s just kind of a spare song on the soundtracks, even if it is a fun bop! I still dance along when it comes on my playlists but the other songs are more integral to the plot.

29. The next spot goes to "Don't Slack" by Anderson Paak and Justin Timberlake, aka the voices of Prince D and Branch! It’s used in the credits of Trolls: World Tour and they’re cute little credits and a cute little song but because it wasn’t used in a more relevant way, it has to rank lower than the others.

28. "I Fall to Pieces" by Sam Rockell, aka the voice of Hickory from Trolls: World Tour comes next! It’s a short but totally funny country tune that’s used well in the plot and made me smile. It is very short though and more of a joke than anything else, but the music isn’t bad so here we go!

27. "Rock N Roll Rules" by HAIM comes next and it’s a really REALLY good song, don’t get me wrong! I love the instrumentals and how they’re used in Trolls: World Tour and I still wish they’d gotten the lead singer of HAIM to voice Queen Barb instead of Rachel Bloom, but ultimately it just reminds me we didn’t get a great rock vocalist for the most important character in the sequel.

26. "It's All Love" by Andersen Paak has to come next! I love this song actually but there’s two versions on the soundtrack and this is the non-film version so it’s got to score lower than songs actually used in the movies, but holy heck, it’s a really good song, I’d highly recommend it.

25. Another song that’s just used as a joke is "The Sound of Silence" by Anna Kendrick, aka Poppy in Trolls and this ranks higher than the others because it was the first real joke song and it made me laugh so hard I cried!

24. "Barracuda” is the worst of Rachel Bloom’s vocal performances in Trolls: World Tour and I hate to say it, I really do, but at times on this one, you can definitely hear that she isn’t a rock singer. It scores higher than the others so far because it was used in a super plot relevant moment and super effectively! AND the most offensive part of the song to my ears, when she says the titular word horribly, was cut out of the film, so it gets 26th instead of last place for being a song that’s hard for me, the King of Suspension of Disbelief, to take seriously.

23. “They Don’t Know” by Ariana Grande comes next. It’s a fun bubbly song that fits Gristle and Bridget’s first date in Trolls perfectly and it made me really really want a roller-skating date at some point in my life. It gets points off for not being able to understand the words and also because none of the characters actually sang it. Songs in the backgrounds of musicals score lower with me.

22. I have to put “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by Justin Timberlake here. It’s one of my favorite songs ever but the film version is even better! It gets higher than other non-film versions because of how much it was used for advertising, it basically became synonymous with the Trolls franchise and that sparks joy.

21. And on that note, I have to put “True Colors” the non-film version, before we get to our top twenty. It’s such an amazing song but in the scope of the Troll world... well, the film version is going to score way higher, you’ll see.

20. "Trolls 2 Many Hits Mashup" in Trolls: World Tour has to come next. It’s the last joke song, and the highest scorer because at least they committed to the joke of pop music being way too much! The scene in its entirety is hilarious and all the voice actors really did their best! 

19. "Leaving Lonesome Flats" from Trolls: World Tour comes next! It loses some major points for not being sung by a character in the movie but it’s basically sung by the location that is Lonesome Flats and I love that! It’s a fun little country dirge that really makes us feel transported and it also slaps.

18. "Crazy Train" is maybe the average of Rachel Bloom’s performance as Barb in Trolls: World Tour. It’s over the top and not necessarily in a good way but it’s inoffensive to the ears and a good song notwithstanding whether it’s a cover. 

17. "Trolls Wanna Have Good Times" has to come next which isn’t fair, really; the only reason it’s not higher is because it’s clearly trying to do as well at an opening medley as its predecessor Trolls did with their opening medley. As it often is with sequels, the opening number really didn’t measure up. It was made up of some really fun parts and it gets points for having personalized lyrics (’lived underground away from the world till I had my life changed by a beautiful girl. Just need the guts to tell her that she’s the one’? Amazing!)

16. "Hair Up" from the opening of Trolls comes next! It’s purely sentimental that its this high but every time I hear this beat, it’s like I’m about to start watching Trolls and my whole mind and body get happy so it had to be top twenty, although not fifteen because it’s not the best of the best.

15. "Born to Die" by Kelly Clarkson, aka Delta Dawn, from Trolls: World Tour comes next. My favorite songs from the sequels were the introduction songs for the most part, and this song did a great job of summing up the differences between country trolls and pop trolls. It was great for plot, character, and conflict! It’s just not the kind of music I bop to - ironically, it’s lower than the other introduction songs for me because it’s not fun, which I know is their whole thing, but my whole thing is having fun!

14. "Atomic Dog World Tour Remix" is the funk trolls introduction song in Trolls: World Tour and it’s funky and fun and fresh and I love it! There’s not that much to say about this one, it’s used pretty quickly but very effectively from a storytelling standpoint! It quickly puts us into the world of the funk trolls.

13. "One More Time" is a very nearly perfect introduction song for the techno trolls in Trolls: World Tour! I love how the emphasis of this song is the instrumentals and the dancing more than the actual words -- the techno trolls are big on synchronicity and beats and it’s something that differentiates them from the other kinds of trolls and also makes them a devastating first colony to attack in the movie. They’re all about unity and togetherness and something about attacking and tearing apart the group that’s all about syncing up is so tragic.

12.  “Rock You Like a Hurricane” is the best Bloom sounds in the movie as Barb, and it’s also her introduction song, not surprisingly. The instrumentals are amazing both as a display of talent and power and her voice lends itself well to the moment; it’s a great opener for the rock trolls and it made me so excited to see more from them!

11. “Perfect for Me” is Trolls: World Tour’s answer to the excellence that was the True Colors duet and it was really cute! It wasn’t quite as perfect for the moment as True Colors was, which is funny because this one was written for the movie but I don’t know, since it was written for the movie, I’d have hoped it’d be better? More fitting? It’s a fine enough song that sometimes I listen to sadly while lying down in my bed but in the Trollverse, it’s not top ten material.

10. “September” comes next! It’s the song that the Trolls start singing as soon as they escape the Bergins and it’s their celebration song and I love it for that! It’s also used in the credits of the first movie which makes me love it more; I don’t know, it’s performed and sung really well and makes me really happy. The top ten all spark MASSING amounts of joy.

9. “It’s All Love (History of Funk)” is one of the best songs in the sequel! I love the way the funk trolls go through the history of funk and music, and the beats are amazing and the lyrics are so good and the movie’s scene is SO GOOD. I can’t articulate how much I love that the funk trolls show their history through album covers instead of scrapbooks like the pop trolls. All the vocalists are crazy talented and something about the beat just...yes. It’s just a yes.

8. “Yodel Beat”! It scores surprisingly high if you haven’t seen Trolls: World Tour but if you HAVE seen it, you’ll understand why! It’s one of the best songs for musically punctuating a moment that the entire franchise has and I still get goosebumps thinking about how that scene was executed and how this song played such a massive role in it. Big fan, big fan!

7. "I'm Coming Out" / "Mo' Money Mo' Problems" is just hilarious! I love this scene in Trolls, as it’s the first example we have that Trolls and Bergins can work together, as well as the fact that Bergins can be happy without eating trolls, since Bridget is so confident and awesome! I also give lots of points to mashups and medleys and this was an unexpected one that just worked!

6. "Just Sing (Trolls World Tour)" is the best song in the sequel, hands down! When all the leaders of the different troll counties sing together? It’s amazing, every single time! It’s so meaningful, the fact that music is the most important thing in all of their lives and how it’s what ultimately unites them. I shed a tear every time, honestly. I’m tearing up thinking about it right now.

5. "Hello"  in Trolls is performed EXPERTLY by Zooey Deschanel. Did anyone know she was that funny? Because holy carp! She’s hilarious! I love this song and scene, it was one of the first scenes in Trolls that made me realize this movie was on a whole other level! It had to be top five!

4. "Get Back Up Again" by Anna Kendrick aka Poppy has to be a high scorer! It’s an original for the movie and it’s so damn good! It’s optimistic and encouraging and I love it for the movie and the character but I also love to listen to it when I need some help getting up or feeling like it’s going to be a good day. I will get back up again! It’s a great philosophy and a fantastic reminder that life can knock you down but that you’ll be good!

3. Top three times! The best medley in the movie has to be here, and that’s "Move Your Feet" / "D.A.N.C.E." / "It's a Sunshine Day"! It’s our introduction to the Pop trolls in the first movie and it’s crafted so good! I love it! No matter how many times I listen to it, it makes me so so happy the way the songs flow together. Any world where these songs exist and fit together as well as they do is a world I want to be sucked into for at least the next two hours of my life.

2. THE FILM VERSION OF “TRUE COLORS”! Is my number two pick! It has to be! It’s so impactful and emotional and romantic and if I ever get somebody to want to marry me, an instrumental cover of this has to be our first dance song, I’m sorry. It’s so beautiful! And the film version somehow makes an amazing song even better! WHEN THE TROLLS HUG TIME WATCHES CHIME OFF IN THE TUNE OF THE SONG?! AS THEY FACE THEIR IMPENDING DOOM?! IT’S AMAZING, SHOWSTOPPING, LEGENDARY, ICONIC. I’m getting sweaty just thinking about it!

1. If you know me, you knew “Can’t Stop the Feeling”, the film version, was gonna be number one! The buildup to that moment in the movie is cinematic perfection, the performance is dazzling, and the feeling it leaves in you is unforgettable. It’s the song that’s played when the trolls teach the Bergins that you don’t need to eat other sentient species to be happy, you just need to find the magic and music inside of you, and it’s a lesson I learned while watching -- this movie and this song unlocked a power inside of me to smile and be happy with just myself and it’s absolutely... it’s just everything. It’s everything and I love it and I love you, whoever you are, who sent me this ask, because getting to think about and go through all the songs in Trolls that I love, it was awesome.

honesty hour!

[matthdsss-blog]

Marine products

Safety Standards for ships and all watercraft date back for centuries and have mainly been associated with Naval Authorities but since the advent of commercial craft, and then, latterly recreational craft, Safety Standards have become the domain of specialized civilian National bodies. To bring it up to the recent past, the formation of the European Community started a complete harmonization of the National safety standards of the Member States covering most consumer products and this is where we can pick up the origins of our current Standards for RIBs and Inflatable Boats.

The European Union issued a Directive 94/25/EC, called the RCD (Recreational Craft Directive), stating that all craft distributed for sale in the EU must be compliant its essential requirements of the RCD. The ISO 6185 Standard is the voluntary tool that is used by RIB builders, RIB importers and RIB surveyors to ensure that the requirements of the RCD are met. It controls the safety aspects of the design and testing of RIBs and inflatables up to 24m. This is not about how operators use or maintain the craft, neither is it about manufacturer's production quality assurance system. It is focused on protecting the consumer from buying a poorly conceived or constructed craft or a craft made from sub standard materials.

The enforcement of the RCD in Europe varies from State to State but is usually monitored by each member's appropriate Organization such as National Marine Authorities, Trade Associations, and Standards Institutes. In the UK, it's the Dept of Trade and Industry through their networks of public works offices. In some cases, even manufacturers, distributors and consumers themselves have been quick to point out potential non compliance as every craft available for sale in the EC must show that it complies with the Directive by showing a recognized Builders plate for everyone to see and verify. Usually, a Boat show or other public displays are good venues to check craft. However, I will not dwell too deeply on the machinations of the why's and how's but suffice to say that every member state of the EU has adopted and should enforce the RCD.

I have been the Convener of the Working Group of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) which has been maintaining the ISO 6185 series of safety standards for inflatable boats and RIBs since 1988. Members of the WG (called Experts) are normally nominated by the appropriate Authorities of the Member States. The UK, for example, is represented by Experts from the RYA and the BMF. In the "old days" Experts were a mix of individuals from Standards Organizations such as the BSI and DIN as well as actual Boat manufacturers but in recent years, the Experts are marine professionals practiced in Standardization.

There are 4 Parts to the current Standard; each Part covering a certain size of boat and motor rating from 2.5m up to 24m.

We have only recently been finishing the work on the relatively new Part 4 which concerns RIBs from 8m to 24m. This then led to revising Part 3 which covers RIBs up to 8m. These 2 Parts concern the vast majority of RIBs in use today.

Each Part is scheduled for review every 5 years to determine if a full revision is required or not. As RIBs have become bigger and more complicated; some having covered decks and cabins, the task of determining safe levels of buoyancy and stability become more complicated. In fact, this evolution of RIB design has helped change the profile of the Experts in the Working Group. We are lucky to have been able to call upon the expertise of other ISO Working Group Experts who are tasked with Standards for all types of boats up to 24m.

Safety is the single concern for the Experts of the Working Group and governs every decision. A very valuable source of safety information concerning safety incidents at sea is the UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch. They have an open and thorough reporting system and any incident concerning a RIB gets discussion in the Working Group. There are an increasing amount of accidents concerning RIBs and some of this can be attributed to their increasing numbers. There are also more commercial "Adventure rides" in RIBs which increase exposure to accidents involving fare paying passengers getting injured. This could surely lead to more stringent controls of design and construction by other Authorities such as the MCA...

I have to say that when I looked at the MAIB 2009/1 Safety Digest covering Small Craft, RIBs were prominent in the "lessons learned" case studies. Whilst some of these incidents were attributable to human error, some of the problems were compounded by design and installation failures. The Working group therefore tries to bring in sensible corrections in the safety Standard where possible.

I have spent over 45 years driving small craft, mainly inflatables and RIBs and I, like you maybe, think that the fact we have large inflatable buoyancy tubes around the hull gives us a large safety and performance margin over our "non inflatable" cousins of similar length. One of the fears that I have in the evolution of Standards is that this margin will be lost in the tendency to harmonize standards for all small powered craft. There are some who think that ISO 6185 should just concern just the inflatable parts of the craft! They fail to realize the sum of a well designed and constructed hull and tube working in harmony is far more efficient than the characteristics of the individual parts.

The process of getting an ISO Standard created, drafted, agreed, finished, voted and published is sometimes quite long and arduous. The Working group has to be tasked by the appropriate ISO Technical Committee, in our case it is TC 188. Small Craft. Resources are scarce, especially these days, so new work items are only taken on when necessary. There is a TC 188 Plenary meeting every year which reviews the Work of the 27 active Working Groups, discusses future projects, reports on liaisons with other ISO Technical Committees and generally updates all the plenary participants.

There are predefined Marine products  formats and structures for all International Standards that the Working Groups must follow. Experts collect and decide on the relevant technical data and then make decisions about what will be a Requirement in the Standard and the appropriate test method or calculation to ensure that the Requirement is met. In our case, we always try to keep in mind the resources available to typical RIB manufacturers who must perform the test or the calculation to satisfy themselves or the Examining Surveyor that the requirement has been met.

Once the Working Group has finished a first Draft of the Standard, which may have already taken a year to achieve, they submit it to the Technical Committee as an ISO DIS, which means it's a Draft International Standard protected by Copyright laws. The DIS then goes to the 32 EU Members for review and a vote. 19 Members have vote status, the others are Observers. If there is a majority vote to pass the DIS, it is then returned to the Working Group to deal with any corrections or comments that may have arisen during this process. The DIS then becomes an FDIS which means it's a Final Draft International Standard and submitted again to the Members for Voting. If it passes again, then it is returned to the Working Group for any final corrections and then its on its way as a full ISO Standard. If the Draft fails to pass at any time, it is sent back to the Working Group to address the reasons why it was rejected. The publication of the Standard is organized by CEN which is the European Committee for Standardisation and it is then made available to the public for a fee.