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stellophiliac · 9 months ago

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how to build a digital music collection and stuff

spotify sucks aaaass. so start downloading shit!!

file format glossary

.wav is highest quality and biggest

.mp3 is very small, but uses lossy compression which means it's lower quality

.flac is smaller than .wav, but uses lossless compression so it's high quality

.m4a is an audio file format that apple uses. that's all i really know

downloading the music

doubledouble.top is a life saver. you can download from a variety of services including but not limited to apple music, spotify, soundcloud, tidal, deezer, etc.

i'd recommend ripping your music from tidal or apple music since they're the best quality (i think apple music gives you lossless audio anyway. .m4a can be both lossy and lossless, but from the text on doubledouble i assume they're ripping HQ files off apple music)

i also love love love cobalt.tools for ripping audio/video from youtube (they support a lot of other platforms too!)

of course, many artists have their music on bandcamp — purchase or download directly from them if you can. bandcamp offers a variety of file formats for download

file conversion

if you're downloading from apple music with doubledouble, it spits out an .m4a file.

.m4a is ok for some people but if you prefer .flac, you may wanna convert it. ffmpeg is a CLI (terminal) tool to help with media conversion

if you're on linux or macOS, you can use parameter expansion to batch convert all files in a folder. put the files in one place first, then with your terminal, cd into the directory and run:

for i in *.m4a; do ffmpeg -i "$i" "${i%.*}.flac"; done

this converts from .m4a to .flac — change the file extensions if needed.

soulseek

another way to get music is through soulseek. soulseek is a peer-to-peer file sharing network which is mainly used for music. nicotine+ is a pretty intuitive (and open-source) client if you don't like the official one.

you can probably find a better tutorial on soulseek somewhere else. just wanted to make this option known

it's bad etiquette to download from people without sharing files of your own, so make sure you've got something shared. also try to avoid queuing up more than 1-2 albums from one person in a row

tagging & organizing your music

tagging: adding metadata to a music file (eg. song name, artist name, album) that music players can recognize and display

if you've ripped music from a streaming platform, chances are it's already tagged. i've gotten files with slightly incorrect tags from doubledouble though, so if you care about that then you might wanna look into it

i use musicbrainz picard for my tagging. they've got pretty extensive documentation, which will probably be more useful than me

basically, you can look up album data from an online database into the program, and then match each track with its file. the program will tag each file correctly for you (there's also options for renaming the file according to a certain structure if you're into that!)

there's also beets, which is a CLI tool for... a lot of music collection management stuff. i haven't really used it myself, but if you feel up to it then they've got extensive documentation too. for most people, though, it's not really a necessity

how you wanna organize your music is completely up to you. my preferred filestructure is:

artist > album > track # track

using a music player

the options for this are pretty expansive. commonly used players i see include VLC, foobar2000, clementine (or a fork of it called strawberry), and cmus (for the terminal)

you can also totally use iTunes or something. i don't know what audio players other systems come with

i personally use dopamine. it's a little bit slow, but it's got a nice UI and is themeable plus has last.fm support (!!!)

don't let the github page fool you, you don't have to build from source. you can find the releases here

click the "assets" dropdown on the most recent release, and download whichever one is compatible with your OS

syncing

if you're fine with your files just being on one device (perhaps your computer, but perhaps also an USB drive or an mp3 player), you don't have to do this

you can sync with something like google drive, but i hate google more than i hate spotify

you can get a free nextcloud account from one of their providers with 2GB of free storage. you can use webDAV to access your files from an app on your phone or other device (documents by readdle has webDAV support, which is what i use)

disroot and blahaj.land are a couple providers i know that offer other services as well as nextcloud (so you get more with your account), but accounts are manually approved. do give them a look though!!

if you're tech-savvy and have an unused machine lying around, look into self-hosting your own nextcloud, or better yet, your own media server. i've heard that navidrome is a pretty good audio server. i unfortunately don't have experience with self-hosting at the moment so i have like zero advice to give here. yunohost seems to be a really easy way to manage a server

afterword

i don't know if any of this is helpful, but i just wanted to consolidate my personal advice in one place. fuck big tech. own your media, they could take it away from you at any moment

#stel speaks #music piracy #soulseek #fuck spotify #media piracy

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2hdedmthr · 3 months ago

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𝑃𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑠𝘩

mother miranda x vampire!reader

・❥・E(xplicit), 3200 words

✧༺ ❥ ༻∞

A wave of indescribable bliss came over you with the squirming of Mother Miranda’s gift in your abdomen. It was nesting deep in your nervous system, having found purchase along your spinal cord. Slowly it crept up, up, up towards your cranium— then finally, the neurons in your brain began to synapse; and before you knew it, endorphins were flooding your system.

“Mother, oh!” you giggled, your forehead drenched in sweat, delirium roping your mind. The torches that lined the dank laboratory walls began to, in your vision, dim and blur. You looked toward your priestess— who had been sitting at your bedside since finishing your operation, silently monitoring your condition. She was jotting something down in a leather-bound journal. You continued, even though she did not look up at you: “I’m so terribly content! Comfortable, even— I think we ought to do away with these restraints.” You tugged a bit at the thick leather straps keeping your wrists bound up on either side of your head, and your ankles to the bedposts. They were uncomfortably tight.

Mother Miranda simply continued to write, no doubt documenting your hectic state. “You are in the rudimentary stages of transformation,” she returned dully. “You are to remain bound until I’ve seen proof of your fortitude.”

Excitatory chemicals were still running rampant through your body, so you’d no clue what Mother Miranda was going on about. All you could focus on were the warm streaks of color snaking, leaping, pulsing through your vision: you were in a weightless, feverish state of bliss incomprehensible to the ordinary human mind. Until, of course, small bursts of ineffable pain began to spark and flower across every inch of flesh your body had to offer. You’d fallen painfully from your high in less than a millisecond.

“Mother!” you wailed, arching your back up off the bed. The pain that came merely from lying still was too agonizing to bear. You began to sob, and, shortly thereafter, to plead: “Please, please, please, Mother! I cannot suffer this— I cannot endure this hell! Oh, what is happening to me? I beg of you, I beg: my heart will give out if you do not make it end!” You were pulling and tugging against your restraints, trying to reach for Miranda.

Your priestess merely dipped her pen into the pot of ink, continued writing, and said: “Your body is dying,” she paused, tilted her chin slightly upwards, and met your eye; “and your mind is trying to comprehend it. That is all.”

“No!” you cried out, still arching your torso, twisting every appendage and extremity against your restraints. You were desperate to flee the touch of the bed. “No! It cannot be, Mother! I cannot be—!” You stopped to sob for a moment, then finished, hysterically, “Oh, I beg you to kill me! Truly kill me!”

“Ah-ah,” returned your priestess, who had, at last, flipped her journal shut and set it aside. Her affect remained unfeeling as ever as she reached to splay a palm over your abdomen, and then pressed your squirming body back against the mattress. “You must endure. Find the source of your agony, and it shall be quelled.”

Despite your continued sobbing, you dug deep inside yourself to root out your pain; when had Mother Miranda’s advice ever led you astray? Within, you were met with a hunger so primordial, so physical— so carnal— you’d no idea what, exactly, it was that you were hungry for.

“It hurts,” you managed; “I am starved, Mother; famished. Yet I know not for what.”

But Mother Miranda already knew exactly what you needed. It was in her preternatural nature, after all, to know everything that her subjects did not. She stood to retrieve a sharp, silver dagger from somewhere deeper within the lab, then returned to stand beside the bed with it in her grasp. At that point, she began, unaffected, to cut a deep gash into her wrist. The spine of the blade flashed keenly as she carved, blinding you horribly for a split second; though, as soon as your sight returned, you found yourself wishing to be blind again! Miranda was hovering her gashed wrist just above your mouth. Thick, black blood dripped and trickled down, steadily, onto your trembling lips.

“Drink,” she ordered— and that was all.

Your stomach churned: you felt extremely ill at the notion of drinking from another’s wound. But… you neither could deny the inherent temptation of it: the way your gut twisted was, in a way, perversely pleasant, subtly craving that which Miranda had offered you.

Should you… drink?

Oh, you couldn’t, you shouldn’t!— but your body was begging for it.

You couldn’t refrain. You ravaged the laceration with your mouth, latching onto it like an emaciated animal, sucking and biting as Mother Miranda pressed her arm into your want. She tasted dull— as if her blood had been stagnant for years; but even then, you simply couldn’t stop drinking. The bliss was coming over you again, washing clean away the pain of cell death. All you had to do was slide your tongue along the gash, suck, and the endorphins came rushing back. It was that easy.

Miranda observed aloud as she watched you feed: “Yes, an insatiable appetite, indeed.” She put a hand down round the back of your head to support your neck, then continued, “I’ve seen it a manifold of times before; though you are certainly my strongest to date.”

After a few more moments of starved suckling, panting, and licking, you fell back against the pillows in order to catch your frail breath. Your face was still half-drained of color— perhaps a lasting side effect of death— and your soft flesh glistened with sweat; though, you were invigorated as ever. Once you’d caught your breath, you licked a bead of Miranda’s blood from the corner of your mouth, leaned back up (as best you could against your restraints), and began to trace your tongue along her wound again.

But as soon as muscle met muscle, Mother Miranda pulled her arm away. She kept it a tentative distance from your face, where you could not reach, but still could ogle.

“You must learn discipline, if you wish to remain in my service,” she said. The wound then healed near instantaneously, and she brought her hand to her side. “No more puerile indulgence.”

‘Puerile’? you thought. But how could the need to sate your hunger be deemed puerile, or an indulgence, when there was a very real, very terrible ache in your gut for more of your priestess’s blood, her flesh? It was an ache so great that a whine had begun to creep up your throat; though, luckily, you managed to swallow it in time to prevent its escape.

No indulgence. For now.

“Of course, Mother,” you replied breathlessly, still half-leaning up. “As you wish.”

Pleased enough with your compliance, Miranda reached for the nearest of your bound wrists. “Now,” she began, freeing the restraint, “undo the other.” She waited, and then— “Sit up straight.”

As you straightened to your full sitting height, your head pounded, and swam with a tumultuous current of warmth. Everything was slipping in and out of view as your vision darkened, then returned, then darkened again: the dank stone walls, the scattered medical equipment, the dark holding cell in the corner. The minimal lighting couldn’t have been helping. It was like the time you’d had too much wine before bed, and woke the next morning feeling more ill than ever you’d felt before; only this time, it was amplified twentyfold— and had come merely from fixing your posture! You rubbed your eyes; Miranda began toward the end of the bed. Her stride was meticulously slow, each deliberate click of one heel identical to the last.

Once her steps had halted, she unstrapped one of your ankles, then the other, and asked, “What do you feel?”

You breathed out— only once, very weakly.

“Like… I’ve had too much liquor,” you replied. Your gut still ached with a dismal sense of vacancy, and you knew that you should not beg, or pry, but you could not bear the pain: “And I am still very hungry, Mother. If only I could have—“

“Patience, dear child,” Miranda interjected. Her tone of voice was as strategic as her stride. Once she’d retaken her post at the side of the bed, you looked over at her. “You’ve a far more acquired taste than the Countess: not just any petty, virgin flesh will do.” She wiped a bit of sweat from your forehead with her palm, letting her cool hand linger there as she went on, a bit quieter, “I am your lifeblood; and if you come to prove yourself as vexingly greedy as the aforementioned Lady, know that I will not hesitate to sever your access to nourishment.”

A weak, “Yes, Mother,” was all you could muster before your priestess was ordering you to get out of the bed; she’d like to see how you held yourself, now that your mind was not so clouded with bliss nor hunger.

You will only be fed if you obey. That is what Miranda’s keen, steel-blue eyes silently conveyed.

Once you’d managed to stand (your legs were incredibly weak, hardly able to withstand the scant weight of your deathly frame), Mother Miranda began to circle you. Again, her steps were slow and deliberate, as she was being very thorough in her scrutinies of your appearance.

“You hunch your shoulders; push out your chest. Yes, like that. No— now you’ve an unpleasant look about your face. Don’t allow yourself to appear so bothered. Fine, I suppose that…” This went on for the better part of a minute, Miranda fixing your posture, your face, your hands, your hair— until she had, at last, come around in front of you again, and quit her prowling.

Your eyes darted between her fearures, vision blurring, clearing, blurring again. Gods, were you hungry! Famine had consumed your every thought, poisoned your mind so that you could think only of feeding. You soon found yourself staring over-covetously at the pulsating artery along the side of Mother Miranda’s neck. You hadn’t even considered the possibility that she might still have a living, beating heart; but, considering, it must’ve been true. And what heaven it would be, you dreamt, to gnaw right through her soft breast, and tear her heart from its calcic cage. But your dull maws would be ill-fit for such carnivorous endeavors… Oh! who gives a damn? The experience would only be prolonged.

Your fantasies of soft, sacred flesh were cut short when you realized your quivering knees were about to give way. You breathed out another small plea to your priestess for more of her blood: without it, you did not think you could hold yourself upright any longer.

Begging again.

But she only tsk’d, and said: “If you are no longer able to stand without aid, perhaps you should kneel.” Mother Miranda emphasized her final word as a command, tilting your chin up with the gold-razored tip of a single finger. “I will not simply hand over my blood as if it were some meager commodity; you must earn the right to feed.”

To feed. The subtle promise of sweet sustenance— flesh, blood— spoken into existence by your priestess was a spell you could not help but fall under. So, as if it were in your very nature to serve, your knees came down in a bruising tumble onto the stone floor. In lieu of asking, though, in plain words, ‘What might I do next?’— you simply looked up into the eyes of your Creator, and let your softening gaze speak for you.

Anything at all, it said; I shall do anything for another taste of your blood.

This pitiful display of obedience made Miranda’s keen eyes dull just a bit with pleasure, and an arch little smile crept across her lips— “Greedy, yes,” she mused, threading her fingers through your hair, “but so very eager to please.”

You sucked in a quiet breath. “Please, Mother. I don’t…”

She pulled your face closer to the apex of her thighs. “Quiet,” she hissed. “How much can you take?”

For a moment, you were too stunned to reply. Had you any blood still coursing through your veins, your cheeks would’ve been flushed deep and hot. “I— Probably very little, Mother. I’ve never…”

“Good.”

Mother Miranda ordered you to hike up the skirts of her robe, and, of course, just as you’d been conditioned to do, you obeyed. Inch by tantalizing inch, her legs came into view: they were smooth, pale, and firmly toned— and they made you forget, for a split second, how carnally starved you were for flesh and blood. You clasped your thighs together unconsciously, not caring to brood over the indecency of your current thoughts. The thick, heavy fabric of the robe continued to creep higher by your hand: you pushed it up over her knees, her thighs. Once you’d hiked it up to her hips, you found that she’d been wearing no undergarments at all; for the patch of blonde hair covering her mound was at perfect eye level, and you could not look away. Earn the right to feed. You quickly tried to lean in, but Miranda yanked your head back, forcing you to look up at her once more.

“My true form: another privilege you’ve yet to earn.” While she spoke, the quiet sounds of transmutation came from between her legs; but she kept your head tilted upward so that you couldn’t see a thing. How cruel. “You will prove yourself another way, tonight.”

At last, she loosened her grip on your hair, allowing you to drop your gaze between her legs again. Though, instead of her cunt, you were met with the sight of a thick, erect cock. You swallowed hard, and found yourself short of breath.

“Do not fret,” Miranda soothed, gently scraping her talons over your scalp; “it is entirely artificial.”

“I…” You were at a loss for words. You’d never done anything so… base before, so salacious. And you wanted to, really; you wanted to please your priestess, so that she might grant you another quart of her blood. But you simply didn’t know how.

Miranda, though she could, at times, be effortlessly malevolent, did not disregard your apprehension: “There are other ways you may please me, if you so wish,” she said.

But you’d already gotten this far, hadn’t you? Knees pressing deep into cold stone, face inches away from your priestess’s cock— one mouth-fuck away from being fed? You shook your head no, managing a quick, “I want this, Mother.”

A faint grin flashed across her lips, and she wasted no time in pushing your face a bit closer to the newly-formed appendage. Then, she began to guide you:

“Open. Yes— good girl. Keep it just there.”

Your priestess pulled your head forward again, silently ordering you to wrap your virgin mouth around her cock. So you did. You’d not a clue what you should be doing; but you absentmindedly pressed your tongue along the bottom of Miranda’s shaft while she pushed into you— and, sure enough, it created a pleasant amount of pressure between her and the roof of your mouth. At least, you supposed as much from the way she gasped.

When the head of her cock finally bumped against the back of your throat, you gagged quietly, and your eyes welled with tears. There was still about a quarter of her length to go before she was fully sheathed; and you hadn’t a clue how you were going to take it.

“That’s it. That’s good,” Miranda praised. She rocked her hips forward, trying to coax herself a bit further down your throat. You gagged again, and she chuckled. “Is it too much?”

A moment passed wherein you thought it was; perhaps you weren't ready for her. Though, just as you were about to pull back, you felt your throat ease up a bit. That’s when you knew you could take her all. And, oh, the whine Mother Miranda let out as your warm mouth enveloped the entirety of her cock: it was utterly delectable. When you began to suck, her thighs quivered, and her fingers tightened through your tresses. You went slow— in part for the sake of your throat, seeing as you’d never sucked cock before; but also because you wished terribly to savor this moment of worship. It was languid, raw, intimate: the way Miranda allowed you to slowly ease her dick back into your throat then out again, never forcing you to take more than you could handle. You’d grown terribly aroused.

Though, this gentleness, this intimacy that you’d so quickly become accustomed to, lasted no longer than two minutes. Soon Miranda was fucking your face with abandon, grunting breathlessly out of exertion with every forward thrust of her hips. Each of her hushed groans were trailed by short growls of pleasure, usually when the head of her cock hit the back of your throat just right. At one point, she even uttered your name, to which you replied with a surprised gag. You continued working your flattened tongue over, under, along her shaft the best you could, desperately trying to keep up with her sporadic and vigorous pace. Until, finally, she came. Hard.

Hot ropes of cum shot down your throat and coated your tongue, all while Mother Miranda tipped her head far back, and let you suck her dry. She was drowning, and fast, in the throes of pure bliss: breathless, uninhibited moans tumbled dryly from the depths of her trachea in a manner quite unlike anything you’d ever heard before. And you, too, had become more vocal upon her release: you whined ceaselessly around her hard cock as it throbbed, and twitched and pumped your mouth full of cum. You were struggling to swallow it all (it was so unpleasantly salty and thick!) but felt you should not waste any part of your priestess’s pleasure, either— and so, you swallowed, and gagged, and swallowed some more until she’d no more cum to fill you with.

Mother Miranda pulled out of your mouth with a long, outward breath, and, at that point, you let her skirt fall back over her legs. She yanked you to your feet by your hair, and told you to clean yourself: your mouth, as well as your chin, were coated in a diluted amalgamation of spit and cum.

Immediately embarrassed, you began to wipe your face with the back of your hand, licking away any excess fluid that got into either corner of your mouth. Jesus, you’ve already begun to like the taste. Meanwhile, you noted the familiar sounds of transmutation from between Miranda’s legs, and her cock dissipated into the rest of her flesh.

“That’ll be enough, little dove,” Miranda said finally, grabbing your chin. Your face was clean. “You’ve proved your merit for the night.” She then slipped her hand round the back of your head, guided your mouth right to her cold neck, and gave one last order:

“Drink.”

✧༺ ❥ ༻∞

#ao3 #mother miranda x reader #mother miranda #resident evil village #thinking ab turning this into a full fic #idk tho #resident evil 8 #resident evil fanfiction #x reader #fanfic #ficblr #writeblr

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olomaya · 2 years ago

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Private Clinic - Psychiatry

18 August: This mod has been updated. Please refer to this post for more information before downloading.

Ever want to do something to help all the messed up Sims in your town? With this mod, your Sim can run a private clinic as a therapist.

You can join the Psychiatry career, buy a Therapist couch and start treating patients for all their emotional and mental maladies. Using a clinic controller object, patients will be pushed to your clinic lot in need of treatment. Active patients can be identified by the orange and white symbol over their head (pictured above).

This is the first part of a larger game mod that allows Sims to be more active doctors similar to what we have in TS4 Get to Work. Your Sim will be able to run a clinic out of their house or from a commercial lot and treat patients for different ailments. Eventually you'll be able to play as a Psychiatrist, Optometrist, Ob-GyM, or a General Physician.

This mod also adds two additional features:

Medicine - Sims can buy prescription or over-the-counter medicine to treat various mild ailments. Medicines can be purchased at the grocery store (Home section) or Buy catalog. There is also a collection file where you can find all available objects. Prescription medicine can only be obtained at the grocery store or hospital with a prescription.

Drug Addiction - Sims can get addicted to the prescription medicine if they overuse it. This can lead to withdrawal symptoms and potential overdose. There is an option to go to rehab at the hospital for Sims that need the help to kick the habit.

You need NRaas Careers (for the custom career), University, Island Paradise, Ambitions EPs.

Download instructions:

The Private Clinic main module has all the medicines, the clinic controller and addiction system. You need that to play as a Therapist but if you just want the medicines, you only need to download these files. Note that you cannot write prescriptions or do anything doctor related without downloading the Psychiatry module. Download here

There is also a collection file which has all the available objects

The Psychiatry module is required to play as a therapist. The career is optional but some features won't be available without it. Download here

There are documentation files in both folders that go through the features in detail so PLEASE READ through them before downloading.

Credits/Thanks: All the objects except for the Couch which is EA's are from @aroundthesims so thanks as always to Sandy for her wonderful stuff and generous use policy. Buff images are courtesy of Freepik. Thanks to everyone on the S3 Creators Discord that did early testing for the mod, especially @misspats3 who tests like it's her job with photos, videos, detailed notes. 👌 Also to Battery who helped me with the manager system.

As always if you have any issues (resets, missing strings, etc.) please let me know.

#download #s3cc #s3cc download #sims 3 cc #privateclinicmod #therapistmod

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softerseasons · 6 months ago

Note

Juno, out of curiosity, what does an accountant DO? What does it mean to be one? Because I know there's math involved. I've heard it's very boring. But I don't know anything else and I'm curious because you're very good at putting things to words.

Okay first of all, I cannot express just how excited I got when I first saw this message. There is nothing I love more than talking about things I know about, and usually when my career is mentioned I don't get questions so much as immediate "Oh, bless you" and "I could never"s. Which- totally fair! For some people, accounting would be boring as all hell! But for a multitude of reasons, I adore it.

There are multiple types of accounting. The type most people tend to be more familiar with is that done by CPAs- CPAs, or Certified Public Accountants, are those that have done the lengthy and expensive process to be certified to handle other peoples' tax documents and submit taxes in their name, amongst other things. Yawn, taxes, right? Well, the thing with that is that there's a lot of little loopholes that tax accountants have to remain familiar with, because saving their clients a little more here or getting a little more back there can really add up, and can do a lot for people who, say, have enough money to afford to hire someone to do their taxes but not necessarily enough to be going hog wild with. Public accountants can work for large firms or by themselves, and also do things like preparing financial statements for businesses, auditing businesses to ensure all of their financial transactions are true and accurately reported to shareholders and clients, and consulting on how finances can be managed to maximize profit (money in - money out = profit, in very simple terms).

The type of accounting I do is private accounting! That basically just means that I work for a company in their in-house accounting/finance department. Private accounting tends to get split up into several different areas. My company has Payroll, Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable.

Payroll handles everyone's paychecks, PTO, ensuring the correct amount of taxes are withheld from individuals per their desires, and so on. Accounts Receivable handles money flow into the company- so when our company sells the product/service, our Accounts Receivable people are the ones who review the work, create the invoices, send the invoices to the clients, remind clients about overdue invoices, receive incoming payments via ACH (Automatic Clearing House- direct bank-to-bank deposits), Wire (Usually used for international transactions), or Check, and prepare statements that show how much revenue we are expected to gain in a period of time, or have gained in a period of time. This requires a lot of interfacing with clients and project managers.

My department is Accounts Payable. Accounts Payable does basically the other side of the coin from what Accounts Receivable does. We work mostly with vendors and our purchasing/receiving departments. We receive invoices from people and companies that have sold us products/services we need in order to make our own products/perform our services, enter them into our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning, a system that integrates the departments in a company together- there are many different ERPs, and most people simply refer to their ERP as "the system" when talking internally to other employees of the same company that they work at, because saying the name of the system is redundant) using a set of codes that automatically places the costs into appropriate groups to be referenced for later financial reports, and run the payment processing to ensure that the vendors are being paid.

To break that down because I know that was a lot of words, here's some things I do in my day-to-day at work:

- Reconciliations, making sure two different statements match up: the most common one is Credit Card reconciliations, ensuring that there are appropriately coded entries in the system that match the payments made on our credit line in our bank.

- Invoice entry: this is basic data entry, for the most part. This can have two different forms, though

- Purchase Order Invoice entry: Invoices that are matched both to the service/product provided from the vendor and the purchase order created by our Purchasing/Receiving department. We ensure that the item, the quantity, and the price all match between our records, the purchase order, and the invoice, before we enter this.

- Hard Coded Invoice entry: Invoices that we enter manually due to there being no Purchase Order for them. This is often recurring services, like cleaning or repairs, that may happen too often or have prices vary too much for Purchase Orders to be practical.

- Cleaning up old purchase orders: sometimes Purchase Orders are put in the system and then never fulfilled. Because this shows on financial statements as being a long-standing open commitment, it looks bad, so we have to periodically research these and find out if the vendor simply didn't send us the invoice, if the order was cancelled, or if something else is going on.

- Forensics! This is my personal favorite part of the job, where someone has massively borked something that is affecting my work, and so I go dig into it, sometimes going back as four or five years in records to find the origin point of the first mistake, and untangling the threads of what happened following that mistake to get us to where we are today. There's an entire field called Forensic Accounting that is basically just doing This but for other companies (it's a subset of auditing, and often is done via the IRS) and that's my dream position to be totally honest. I loooove the dopamine hit i get with solving the mystery and getting praised for doing so faster than anyone else has even begun to realize the problem to start with.

- Balancing Credits/Debits: This is more of a Main Accountant role thing, but the long and short of it is that every business has Assets, Liabilities, and Equity. Liabilities and Equity are what we put into the company/what we owe, and assets are what we have received/what we are owed. Anything that increases Assets or lowers Liabilities or Equity is a Debit. Anything that decreases Assets or raises Liabilities or Equity is a Credit. Every monetary change we process has to include an equal Debit and Credit. This is its own whole lecture, so if you wanna know more about double-entry accounting, let me know, but it's yawnsville for most people.

- Actually cutting checks or initiating bank payments to vendors for amounts we owe them.

- Vendor communication: I'm on the phones and email a lot with vendors who are wondering where their payment is, or why something was short-paid, or if I can change some of their info in our system, and so on and so on. Every job is customer service, unfortunately. I don't love it, but I do a lot less of it in private accounting than I would have to do in public accounting.

- Spreadsheets: I make so many spreadsheets I am a goddamn Excel wizard. I love spreadsheets. This isn't necessarily accounting-specific though, most people in Finance jobs love spreadsheets, or at least use them to make their lives easier. I make them just for fun, because I'm a giant fucking nerd who finds that kind of thing enjoyable lol. So if you ever need a spreadsheet made for anything, hit me up.

As for math, that's a pretty common misconception. While there is math, it is very rarely more complicated than "I paid $3 of the $8 I owe, now I owe $5" for me. There are some formulas you learn in school (Business Administration with a focus in Accounting is what I studied), but they're also pretty standard and rarely include more than like... basic algebra. Which. Thanks @ god because I flunked so hard out of pre-calc in college. I could not have done accounting if it really were all that math heavy.

Aaaand yeah! That's all I've got off the top of my head- if you have any more questions about it, do let me know, I'm happy to ramble on for hours, but I'm cutting it here so I don't start meandering on without direction lol.

#juno's musings #velvetvexations #accounting

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subdee · 2 months ago

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Five alarm fire in the social security administration.

And under a policy that DOGE has applied at many agencies, front-line Social Security staff have been restricted from using their government purchase cards for any sum above $1. This has become a significant problem at some field offices, especially when workers need to obtain or make copies of vital records or original documents — birth certificates and the like — that are needed to process some Social Security claims, one management-level employee said.

Meanwhile, DOGE, which Musk has portrayed as a squad of techno-efficiency geniuses, has actually undermined the efficiency of Social Security’s delivery of services in multiple ways, many employees said. Under DOGE, several Social Security IT contracts have been canceled or scaled back. Now, five employees told ProPublica, their tech systems seem to be crashing nearly every day, leading to more delays in serving beneficiaries. This was already a problem, they said, but it has gotten “much worse” and is “not the norm,” two employees said.

Sounds like low-income seniors and people on disability will be hit first.... Especially for new claims, the processing times will go way up, and they were already pretty long.

Then of course the privatization starts, beginning with the privatization of customer service. And you know they'll find savings by denying disability claims, the same way for-profit medicine does ...

#us politics

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glowettee · 3 months ago

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Hi Mindy!!! I hope you’re doing well, and I just wanted to say that I love your posts. Really well written and thought out!

I just wanted to ask.. can you create a guide for preparing to a completely new school which isn’t, like basic? Not in a mean way, but lots of the advice on the internet is generic.

For any extra info, I’ll be joining in the second semester, so there’s plenty of time to make long term changes. It’s also a private school, but I don’t know if that will make a difference.

Thank you in advance 💖 love you!

hi sweetness! @prettieinpink thank you for your adorable ask 🌸 i'm so happy to see this from you!!!!! i'd love to help you from personal experience, and things i documented being in private school. please make sure you look at the 10 secrets because they're super helpful and things i've personally used. i'm going to pour my heart into this comprehensive guide for you. transitioning to a new private school mid-year can feel overwhelming, but i've got you covered with everything you need to know! love youu <333

the ultimate guide to conquering your new private school journey: a glowettee exclusive

by mindy ♡ @glowettee

pre-arrival preparation (1-2 months before)

academic groundwork:

request detailed course syllabi from your future teachers

create a comprehensive academic portfolio of your previous work

research the school's grading system and academic expectations

familiarize yourself with any specialized learning platforms

set up digital organization systems (i use notion + google calendar + xTiles)

purchase textbooks early and start preliminary reading

research the school's academic support resources

understand the homework and assignment submission policies

social preparation:

create a private social media presence specifically for school

research student organizations and clubs that accept mid-year members

join class-specific group chats or discussion boards

study the school's social media presence to understand culture

prepare conversation starters based on school activities

research any school traditions or special events

understand the social hierarchy (yes, private schools have these!)

identify potential mentor opportunities or buddy systems

practical essentials:

develop a morning routine that starts 30 minutes earlier than needed

create a capsule wardrobe that aligns with dress code

invest in high-quality school supplies that last

organize your study space at home

set up a dedicated homework station

create emergency supply kits for your locker and bag

establish a meal prep system for lunch and snacks

plan transportation routes and backup options

digital organization:

set up a comprehensive notion dashboard (i'll share my template soon!)

create specific folders for each subject in google drive

download all necessary academic apps

set up a digital calendar with color coding

create assignment tracking spreadsheets

establish a backup system for important documents

organize email folders for school communication

set up notification systems for important deadlines

mental and emotional preparation:

start journaling about your goals and fears

establish healthy boundaries for social interactions

create a stress management toolkit

develop positive self-talk mantras

plan regular self-care activities

identify potential support systems

create a growth mindset framework

establish regular check-in times with parents/guardians

first week survival guide:

day one essentials:

arrive 30 minutes early

bring extra supplies

wear something comfortable but polished

pack emergency essentials

keep your schedule easily accessible

bring a small notebook for important information

have your introduction speech ready

prepare questions for teachers and peers

social navigation:

observe before participating

sit in different locations to meet various groups

join lunch conversations naturally

show interest in others' experiences

take notes on names and interests

identify potential study partners

respect existing social dynamics

be authentically yourself while observing school culture

long-term success strategies:

academic excellence:

create weekly study schedules

establish relationships with teachers early

join or create study groups

maintain detailed notes from day one

schedule regular review sessions

utilize teacher office hours

keep a detailed assignment tracker

create subject-specific study guides

social integration:

participate in school events

volunteer for school activities

join at least one club or team

attend school sports events

participate in school traditions

create study groups

organize small social gatherings

maintain connections with existing friends

personal growth:

set monthly academic and social goals

maintain a gratitude journal

create a personal development plan

establish healthy stress management techniques

develop time management skills

build positive relationships with staff

create a balance between academics and social life

regularly evaluate and adjust your strategies

pro tips from my experience:

keep a spare set of supplies in your locker

create a school-specific emergency kit

maintain a digital photo of your schedule

establish a homework routine from day one

create a support network outside of school

document your journey through photos or journals

maintain open communication with teachers

celebrate small victories and progress

10 secret tips that transformed my private school journey ♡

the bathroom rule always scout out the least-used bathrooms in your first week, but don't just look for any quiet bathroom - look for one that's strategically located between your most stressful classes. trust me on this - i found my favorite quiet bathroom on the third floor of the science building, and it became my secret sanctuary for quick meditation breaks, makeup touch-ups, or just moments of peace between classes. the lighting there was immaculate for those confidence-boosting mirror talks, and it was far enough from the main hallways that you could actually hear yourself think. i even started keeping a small essential oil roller in my bag to make these mini-breaks feel more spa-like. this space became my personal reset button during hectic days, especially during exam seasons or when social dynamics felt overwhelming.

teacher connection hack bring a small notebook specifically for writing down personal details teachers mention (their favorite books, coffee preferences, hobbies, their children's names, or even their pets). this isn't about being a teacher's pet - it's about building genuine human connections. i started bringing my teacher's favorite starbucks drink on presentation days, remembering to ask about their weekend plans they mentioned, or sharing articles related to their interests. not only did it make their day, but it also showed i paid attention to details. these small gestures created authentic relationships that made a huge difference during finals week, college recommendation season, and even when i needed extensions during tough times. remember, teachers are people first, and when they see you acknowledging their humanity, they're more likely to understand yours.

social currency secret keep a small emergency kit with hair ties, bobby pins, bandaids, mints, tampons/pads, tide-to-go pens, pain relievers (if allowed), small sewing kit, clear nail polish for tights runs, double-sided tape, and even a phone charger in your locker. nothing creates instant friendships like being the person everyone knows they can count on for emergency supplies. i actually met my best friend because i had a spare hair tie when she desperately needed one before her presentation, and that simple moment turned into a three-hour conversation after school. this kit isn't just about having supplies - it's about being the person who thinks ahead and cares enough to help others. i started keeping track of what people borrowed most often and would stock up accordingly. it's like having your own little convenience store of kindness.

the popularity paradox here's something no one tells you - in private schools, being overly eager to be popular actually makes you less popular. the social hierarchy in private schools is often more subtle and complex than in public schools. i learned to focus on being genuinely interested in others instead of trying to fit in, asking thoughtful questions about their interests, and remembering small details about their lives. surprisingly, the moment i stopped trying to be part of the "it" crowd was when people started naturally gravitating towards me. i focused on developing my own interests and passions, which made me more interesting to others. the key is to be confidently authentic rather than strategically social. this approach not only helped me build real friendships but also protected me from the exhausting game of trying to maintain a carefully crafted social image.

the uniform advantage even with strict uniform rules, there are always creative ways to stand out while staying within the guidelines. i invested in high-quality accessories that complied with dress code but made my uniform look more polished - pearl earrings, delicate necklaces, classic watches, and subtle hair accessories. these small details helped me feel more put together and confident. but it's not just about the accessories - it's about how you wear the uniform itself. i learned that having my shirts professionally pressed, skirts properly hemmed, and shoes well-maintained made a huge difference in how put-together i looked. i also kept a small steamer in my locker for emergency touch-ups. this attention to detail showed respect for the school's traditions while allowing my personal style to shine through in acceptable ways.

the lunch table strategy don't commit to one lunch table for at least two weeks, and be strategic about your rotation schedule. i created a subtle system where i would sit with different groups each day, making mental notes about the dynamics, interests, and personalities at each table. i rotated between different groups, which helped me understand the social dynamics better and prevented me from being boxed into one clique too early. pay attention to how each group interacts - some tables are for studying, others for gossip, and some for genuine conversations. i kept a small note in my phone about each group's interests so i could contribute meaningfully to conversations. this strategy gave me the freedom to form genuine connections across different social circles and ultimately helped me choose where i truly felt comfortable. by the third week, i had a clear understanding of where i naturally fit in, rather than where i thought i should be.

the academic alliance create study guides and share them with classmates before they ask, but make it systematic and sustainable. i started a google drive folder with my notes and study guides, organized by subject and topic, with clear summaries and practice questions. it naturally evolved into a collaborative study group where everyone contributed their strengths. i became known as someone who not only shared resources but also helped others understand how to create their own study materials. this approach created a reciprocal learning environment where everyone felt comfortable asking for and offering help. i even created templates for different types of assignments that we could all use, which saved everyone time and helped maintain consistent quality in our work.

the extracurricular edge join at least one unexpected club that's not typically "popular," but don't just join - become actively involved in ways that showcase your unique talents. i joined the astronomy club despite it being small, and instead of just attending meetings, i started organizing stargazing events and creating instagram-worthy posts about our activities. this not only helped grow the club but also showed others that you can make any activity exciting if you're passionate about it. the unexpected benefit was meeting people who shared my genuine interests rather than just social aspirations. these authentic connections often lead to the most meaningful friendships and impressive college application stories.

the social media strategy create a finsta (private instagram) specifically for close school friends, but treat it as a carefully curated space rather than just another social media account. wait at least a month before adding anyone - this gives you time to understand the social dynamics and ensure you're connecting with the right people. i used my finsta to share study tips, funny school moments, and support for others' achievements. it became a safe space for sharing real moments with trusted friends, away from the pressure of maintaining a perfect image on main accounts. i also used it to organize study groups and share helpful resources, making it both social and practical.

the legacy link learn about your school's history and traditions from older students, but go beyond just knowing the basics. i spent time talking to seniors, alumni, and even teachers about the school's evolution over the years. understanding why certain traditions started, knowing the stories behind school legends, and learning about notable alumni helped me feel more connected to the school community. i created a digital notebook of these stories, which became a valuable resource for other new students. this knowledge made me feel like part of something bigger than just my current school year and helped me appreciate the school's culture on a deeper level.

personal advice from my heart to yours:

sweetness, i want you to know that the first few months at a new private school can feel like you're learning a new language - everyone seems to know the words and customs except you. i remember feeling so out of place during my first semester, constantly second-guessing myself and wondering if i was "doing it right." that feeling of being an outsider would hit me hardest during school traditions or inside jokes that everyone else seemed to understand instinctively. i spent countless nights journaling about feeling like i was watching my school life through a window, wondering when i would finally feel like i belonged. but here's what i learned: that feeling of being an outsider is actually your superpower. you have fresh eyes to see things differently, and that perspective is valuable. you notice things that others have become blind to, and you bring new energy to old traditions. your unique viewpoint can actually help breathe new life into established social circles and activities.

the most important thing i wish someone had told me is that it's okay to take your time finding your place. private schools often have students who've been together since kindergarten, and it can feel impossible to break into those established circles. but here's the truth - while everyone else is trying to maintain their image and social position, you have the freedom to be authentically yourself from day one. you don't have to carry the weight of years of expectations or predetermined roles. focus on building genuine connections rather than strategic ones. keep your grades up, but don't let academic pressure steal your joy. document your journey - take photos, keep a journal, save little mementos. these will become precious reminders of your growth. remember that every single person who seems perfectly adjusted now once stood exactly where you are, feeling exactly what you're feeling. and most importantly, remember that the version of you that walks into that school on day one isn't the same version that will emerge at the end of the year - and that's exactly how it should be. you're not just adapting to a new school; you're growing into a newer, stronger version of yourself. embrace this transformation with open arms.

sending you the warmest hugs and all my support! feel free to message me anytime for more specific advice or just to chat about your journey 🤍

mindy x

p.s. would you loves be interested in detailed posts about my notion templates and organization systems? let me know in the reblogs/replies!

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mariacallous · 2 months ago

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On February 10, employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) received an email asking them to list every contract at the bureau and note whether or not it was “critical” to the agency, as well as whether it contained any DEI components. This email was signed by Scott Langmack, who identified himself as a senior adviser to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Langmack, according to his LinkedIn, already has another job: He’s the chief operating officer of Kukun, a property technology company that is, according to its website, “on a long-term mission to aggregate the hardest to find data.”

As is the case with other DOGE operatives—Tom Krause, for example, is performing the duties of the fiscal assistant secretary at the Treasury while holding down a day job as a software CEO at a company with millions in contracts with the Treasury—this could potentially create a conflict of interest, especially given a specific aspect of his role: According to sources and government documents reviewed by WIRED, Langmack has application-level access to some of the most critical and sensitive systems inside HUD, one of which contains records mapping billions of dollars in expenditures.

Another DOGE operative WIRED has identified is Michael Mirski, who works for TCC Management, a Michigan-based company that owns and operates mobile home parks across the US, and graduated from the Wharton School in 2014. (In a story he wrote for the school’s website, he asserted that the most important thing he learned there was to “Develop the infrastructure to collect data.”) According to the documents, he has write privileges on—meaning he can input overall changes to—a system that controls who has access to HUD systems.

Between them, records reviewed by WIRED show, the DOGE operatives have access to five different HUD systems. According to a HUD source with direct knowledge, this gives the DOGE operatives access to vast troves of data. These range from the individual identities of every single federal public housing voucher holder in the US, along with their financial information, to information on the hospitals, nursing homes, multifamily housing, and senior living facilities that HUD helps finance, as well as data on everything from homelessness rates to environmental and health hazards to federally insured mortgages.

Put together, experts and HUD sources say, all of this could give someone with access unique insight into the US real estate market.

Kukun did not respond to requests for comment about whether Langmack is drawing a salary while working at HUD or how long he will be with the department. A woman who answered the phone at TCC Management headquarters in Michigan but did not identify herself said Mirksi was "on leave until July." In response to a request for comment about Langmack’s access to systems, HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett said, “DOGE and HUD are working as a team; to insinuate anything else is false. To further illustrate this unified mission, the secretary established a HUD DOGE taskforce.” In response to specific questions about Mirski’s access to systems and background and qualifications, she said, “We have not—and will not—comment on individual personnel. We are focused on serving the American people and working as one team.”

The property technology, or proptech, market covers a wide range of companies offering products and services meant to, for example, automate tenant-landlord interactions, or expedite the home purchasing process. Kukun focuses on helping homeowners and real estate investors assess the return on investment they’d get from renovating their properties and on predictive analytics that model where property values will rise in the future.

Doing this kind of estimation requires the use of what’s called an automated valuation model (AVM), a machine-learning model that predicts the prices or rents of certain properties. In April 2024, Kukun was one of eight companies selected to receive support from REACH, an accelerator run by the venture capital arm of the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Last year NAR agreed to a settlement with Missouri homebuyers, who alleged that realtor fees and certain listing requirements were anticompetitive.

“If you can better predict than others how a certain neighborhood will develop, you can invest in that market,” says Fabian Braesemann, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute. Doing so requires data, access to which can make any machine-learning model more accurate and more monetizable. This is the crux of the potential conflict of interest: While it is unclear how Langmack and Mirski are using or interpreting it in their roles at HUD, what is clear is that they have access to a wide range of sensitive data.

According to employees at HUD who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity, there is currently a six-person DOGE team operating within the department. Four members are HUD employees whose tenures predate the current administration and have been assigned to the group; the others are Mirski and Langmack. The records reviewed by WIRED show that Mirski has been given read and write access to three different HUD systems, as well as read-only access to two more, while Langmack has been given read and write access to two of HUD’s core systems.

A positive, from one source’s perspective, is the fact that the DOGE operatives have been given application-level access to the systems, rather than direct access to the databases themselves. In theory, this means that they can only interact with the data through user interfaces, rather than having direct access to the server, which could allow them to execute queries directly on the database or make unrestricted or irreparable changes. However, this source still sees dangers inherent in granting this level of access.

“There are probably a dozen-plus ways that [application-level] read/write access to WASS or LOCCS could be translated into the entire databases being exfiltrated,” they said. There is no specific reason to think that DOGE operatives have inappropriately moved data—but even the possibility cuts against standard security protocols that HUD sources say are typically in place.

LOCCS, or Line of Credit Control System, is the first system to which both DOGE operatives within HUD, according to the records reviewed by WIRED, have both read and write access. Essentially HUD’s banking system, LOCCS “handles disbursement and cash management for the majority of HUD grant programs,” according to a user guide. Billions of dollars flow through the system every year, funding everything from public housing to disaster relief—such as rebuilding from the recent LA wildfires—to food security programs and rent payments.

The current balance in the LOCCS system, according to a record reviewed by WIRED, is over $100 billion—money Congress has approved for HUD projects but which has yet to be drawn down. Much of this money has been earmarked to cover disaster assistance and community development work, a source at the agency says.

Normally, those who have access to LOCCS require additional processing and approvals to access the system, and most only have “read” access, department employees say.

“Read/write is used for executing contracts and grants on the LOCCS side,” says one person. “It normally has strict banking procedures around doing anything with funds. For instance, you usually need at least two people to approve any decisions—same as you would with bank tellers in a physical bank.”

The second system to which documents indicate both DOGE operatives at HUD have both read and write access is the HUD Central Accounting and Program System (HUDCAPS), an “integrated management system for Section 8 programs under the jurisdiction of the Office of Public and Indian Housing,” according to HUD. (Section 8 is a federal program administered through local housing agencies that provides rental assistance, in the form of vouchers, to millions of lower-income families.) This system was a precursor to LOCCS and is currently being phased out, but it is still being used to process the payment of housing vouchers and contains huge amounts of personal information.

There are currently 2.3 million families in receipt of housing vouchers in the US, according to HUD’s own data, but the HUDCAPS database contains information on significantly more individuals because historical data is retained, says a source familiar with the system. People applying for HUD programs like housing vouchers have to submit sensitive personal information, including medical records and personal narratives.

“People entrust these stories to HUD,” the source says. “It’s not data in these systems, it’s operational trust.”

WASS, or the Web Access Security Subsystem, is the third system to which DOGE has both read and write access, though only Mirski has access to this system according to documents reviewed by WIRED. It’s used to grant permissions to other HUD systems. “Most of the functionality in WASS consists of looking up information stored in various tables to tell the security subsystem who you are, where you can go, and what you can do when you get there,” a user manual says.

“WASS is an application for provisioning rights to most if not all other HUD systems,” says a HUD source familiar with the systems who is shocked by Mirski’s level of access, because normally HUD employees don’t have read access, let alone write access. “WASS is the system for setting permissions for all of the other systems.”

In addition to these three systems, documents show that Mirski has read-only access to two others. One, the Integrated Disbursement and Information System (IDIS), is a nationwide database that tracks all HUD programs underway across the country. (“IDIS has confidential data about hidden locations of domestic violence shelters,” a HUD source says, “so even read access in there is horrible.”) The other is the Financial Assessment of Public Housing (FASS-PH), a database designed to “measure the financial condition of public housing agencies and assess their ability to provide safe and decent housing,” according to HUD’s website.

All of this is significant because, in addition to the potential for privacy violations, knowing what is in the records, or even having access to them, presents a serious potential conflict of interest.

“There are often bids to contract any development projects,” says Erin McElroy, an assistant professor at the University of Washington. “I can imagine having insider information definitely benefiting the private market, or those who will move back into the private market,” she alleges.

HUD has an oversight role in the mobile home space, the area on which TCC Management, which appears to have recently wiped its website, focuses. "It’s been a growing area of HUD’s work and focus over the past few decades," says one source there; this includes setting building standards, inspecting factories, and taking in complaints. This presents another potential conflict of interest.

Braesemann says it’s not just the insider access to information and data that could be a potential problem, but that people coming from the private sector may not understand the point of HUD programs. Something like Section 8 housing, he notes, could be perceived as not working in alignment with market forces—“Because there might be higher real estate value, these people should be displaced and go somewhere else”—even though its purpose is specifically to buffer against the market.

Like other government agencies, HUD is facing mass purges of its workforce. NPR has reported that 84 percent of the staff of the Office of Community Planning and Development, which supports homeless people, faces termination, while the president of a union representing HUD workers has estimated that up to half the workforce could be cut The chapter on housing policy in Project 2025—the right-wing playbook to remake the federal government that the Trump administration appears to be following—outlines plans to massively scale back HUD programs like public housing, housing assistance vouchers, and first-time home buyer assistance.

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satoshi-mochida · 10 months ago

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Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster now available for PC

From Gematsu

Publisher Bandai Namco and developer logicalbeat have released Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster for PC via Steam for $49.99.

All purchases made by July 17 will be automatically upgraded to the “Month 1 Edition,” which includes a digital art book featuring concept art, character designs, historical documents, and the latest visuals for both games included in the collection.

Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster first launched for Switch on September 14, 2023. It includes remastered versions of Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean and Baten Kaitos Origins, which were originally released for GameCube.

Here is an overview of the collection, via its Steam page:

About

Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean and Baten Kaitos Origins are now on Steam with improved graphics and new features to aid game progression, making them even easier to play! Delve into the world of Baten Kaitos as you strategize with the unique card-based battle system in these two immersive RPG masterpieces. Play as a guardian spirit who guides the colorful cast as they struggle against destiny itself. A long time ago, there was a great conflict between the evil god and the people. After a fierce battle, the people managed to seal off the evil god, but what was left behind was only a desolate land. The people thus chose to abandon the land and live in the sky. Such fairy tales were passed down as legends. At this time, people had wings called Wings of the Heart and lived a peaceful life. It was an era of long-lasting tranquility… But the collapse had quietly begun. When a young man calls your name, the name of the spirit, the story begins to unfold. A story set on a floating continent in the sky, where thoughts and prayers intersect.

Unique Magnus Battle System

In the world of Baten Kaitos, the true essences of all manner of things, including equipment and items, can be extracted and stored inside cards called magnus. A magnus’ contents can be released at any time, returning the magna essence sealed inside to its original form. These magnus form the basis of the Baten Kaitos battle system. Battles run in real time, so you’ll need to employ quick thinking to select the right magnus for the situation. Strategize against enemies of various elements using elemental magnus of your own, and experiment with mixing and matching different magnus to discover and unlock powerful combo attacks!

Vivid Graphics Remastered in High-Definition

The two titles have been fully remastered in high-definition, including retouched battle backgrounds, character graphics, and user interface. Enjoy Baten Kaitos with even more vibrant visuals.

Aspect ratio expanded from 4:3 to 16:9 for play on wider screens!

Main character and boss graphics have been completely renewed in vivid detail!

All-new menu screens! Enjoy smoother gameplay with refreshed menu layouts, newly added sorting features, and more.

Pre-existing graphics have been used for in-game maps as well as some screens and character models.

New Features for Better Gameplay

Along with improved graphics, the features below have been added to make game progression much smoother!

Auto-save feature

Help menu containing terminology and hints for progressing through the game

New Game+ mode, unlocked after clearing the game once, which starts a new game while retaining all magnus, levels, and ranks

New Game- mode, a mode with level restrictions for an extra thrilling challenge

Six new game system options have now been added, including adjustable game speeds and no-encounter mode.

Save your settings as a Custom Set and turn them on or off at any time.

Watch a new trailer below.

PC Launch Trailer

youtube

#Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster #Baten Kaitos #Baten Kaitos II #Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean #Baten Kaitos Origins #Bandai Namco #logicalbeat #RPG #Gematsu #Youtube

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huitzilinthebudgie3 · 2 years ago

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Nuestra Flor

Summary : Marc had a shitty day…and suddenly there's a Baby waiting at his doorstep………

What's Marc gonna do ? What's a guy to do ?

Notes : I know it's kinda out of order but , my minds kinda like a squirrel and this is kinda theraputic for me. I hope you guys like it , because it's not really what is seen in Para ti Papa..this is just a bit into how i think Marc , Steven and possibly Jake would've handled raising a baby girl.

And i know it's not mentioned but , it is not as canon to the show as it should be…i caught it and Steven and Marc know about eachother….but Jake is still hidden.

So it'll be interesting …..

⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆

Marc was having a shitty day , he was getting home from work. He had to make dinner before Layla got home …he had laundry…a room and bed to clean ….he sighed slumping down onto the couch down and someone was ringing the doorbell. He frowned and sighed walking over to said door as he opened it glancing around to find it empty. Before he was met with small coos…he blinked at the small bundle wrapped in a bright red soft blanket that was wrapped with a teal and gold quilt that supported the baby in the carrier. The baby was blowing raspberries and cooing to itself as it stared at him with a curious look before giggling and kicking it’s small plush toy out of the carrier.

Marc frowned, leaning down to read the note on the baby’s lap, as the baby babbled at him reaching out to touch him as he shrunk back and read the note that had a birth certificate. Social Security and all the paperwork that a baby its age would need to travel.

The note made Marc glance from the note back to the baby as he repeated the action twice before sighing deeply “There is no way , your mine” he murmured before flipping to the next page with a full blown paternity test confirming that he was indeed the father of said baby.

He sighed as he shut the door and getting ready to call the cops to take the baby as he threw the papers down. Well as soon as the door closed , the speed and sound of the old heavy door was enough to make a loud slamming noise that apparently startled the baby as it began wailing at the top of their lungs.

His already shitty day was much worse as it didn’t stop after 5 minutes..nor 10 mins or 15..and at 20 it did stop but , he was curious so sue him. He opened the door to find the baby sniffling as it whined for the small plush. The baby according to her birth certificate was around 4 months old , and according to the note…sent to him as a last resort. To let the little one to get to know her father, as her mother apparently (Shitty mother in Marc’s opinion) couldn’t keep her and knew she deserved better.

So he sighed grabbing his keys to at the very least leave her at the Fire Station. Give her a chance to live a normal life with whichever family member was written on the letter.

And he was mind made up , on the steps of the fire station when the baby babbled softly reaching out with big wide brown eyes touching his hand before giggling at his attention and fixed him with a toothy smile (as much as a 4 month old could manage).

Fate has a really crazy way of throwing you hurdles…for Marc it was Steven fronting as soon as the baby touched his hand. Emotionally he couldn’t handle the idea of his blood in the broken system possibly suffering just as much as he did to someone not related to her or even getting dealt a worse hand as he sighed mentally letting Steven take the reigns. So he decided to take her to a family member and ensure she was safe with said family member.

*2 weeks later*

It was interesting that the baby had appropriate traveling documents , as he stared at the baby . He’d purchased a set of clothes for it according to age and food, it didn’t like the car. He was currently in a diner eating breakfast as the baby cooed happily in his direction …so far other than being car-sick or teething it seemed , it wasn’t a very cry crybaby.

“Aww she’s cute , how old is she ?” Marc quirked a brow “4 months ?” he said as the waitress hummed “Oh i’ll just wait for your mama , pumpkin” she smiled booping her nose as the baby yawned stretching out to bat at her toys hanging from the handle “Oh just us , we’re heading to visit mama” he explained.

The waitress nodded, taking his order as he stared at the baby again “Don’t go getting attached , half-pint. You're going straight back to your mom or whoever's at this address” he said firmly as the baby giggled and kicked in excitement. She babbled in excitement but not yet having the articulation to quite form cohort sentences.

Steven was strongly against taking the baby back to her other family members or back to her own mother. He also called the baby by its name clearly looking to get attached in his opinion.

Marc sighed distracted by his ringing phone that had Layla’s contact…ringing and eventually stopping as another voicemail found it’s way into his contacts. In the grand age of 2008 , this baby couldn’t have chosen a worse time to make their presence known. He glared wondering exactly where this baby came from , Steven had no recollection of being with someone or even getting intimate…which Marc confirmed …as Steven ..had yet to get a girlfriend.

And Marc had only been with Layla for months…except the kidnapped…and drunken portion of the…past few months before Layla had saved him.

…..

… And suddenly this small being before him made sense…clearly he’d been with someone..he’d put that together a few days ago……………..

But how the hell was he going to explain that one ? To his wife , when it’d been his fault to begin with that he’d taken and more so that ….*sigh* he didn’t have time for this.

The small little being was cute..he had to give her credit for that “Flora..what kinda name is that ?” he murmured as the baby cooed at that reaching out for him “Flora…you look more like a y/n …but i’m not keeping ya..so thats that” he sighed drinking the black coffee as she blew a raspberry his way.

*2 months later*

He finally found the mother of the baby , he was currently trying to talk her into keeping the baby….but she ignored him and kept walking. Refusing to acknowledge him before he set the baby down “Hey i returned her ! I’m married , you psycho !” the woman quirked a brow…she was beautiful in way that was different to Marc.And it hurt Marc…for some unknown reason…well at the time…that he could see how torn she was as she squated down and caressed the baby's cheek. Cooing words of love and affection as the baby giggled , knowing the face and kindness of her mother as she reached out ..probably craving it from a lack of it in a month. He could tell that her soul was hurting as she glared at him “I can’t keep her…she’s your responsibility now.” she said firmly “You must swear that she must never been an avatar” she said softly as Marc snorted “I’m an avatar smart ass” the woman rolled her eyes “Pues si pendejo ! I’m talking about Khonshu…Khonshu has a soft spot. He has no relation to her outside of her being your daughter. My deity is related distantly …and unlike Khonshu…she will never be able to be free of mine. I do not give her to you lightly!” the woman yelled as the baby cried out at that as the woman sighed deeply.

Her anger melting away as she picked her up briefly rocking her gently muttering a small lullaby , Marc presumed as she walked over to him “I can’t have her live my life. And i can tell her soul and heart will be kind…she will be unable to deny her birthright” she sighed softly “And as much i want to keep her and see the person she grows into…i can’t…she can’t be tied to me . I fear he’ll be able to claim her” she said softly “So take , my sweet little flor. And grow her into the strong little rose bush that she will be” she said softly as tears dripped down her cheeks “Because i know my father will , and if you want he can help..but as the current avatar until i have a child or i die..i’ll be the avatar of my god” she sniffled setting the baby into his arms.

Marc hadn’t even realized that he was crying until the woman kissed their daughter cheek and left apologizing once again.

*2 months later*

Marc sighed as he sat in his and Steven’s shared apartment …he let Steven front over…and so far so good. He helped from time to time…and they had the baby and were going to try and get used to her and the idea of her before bringing Layla into this…because it was a pretty fucked situation no matter how you spun it…….

And the baby just barfed on herself…sigh…whelp enough journaling for today.

Talk to you soon , Baby Girl.

I hope you know I love you , and even if i’m not around…and if our start together wasn’t the greatest…i love you , bud…

….My Y/n

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾

End Notes :

Thank you again for reading , let me know if you like it.

Here's a link to my AO3 : https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huitzilinthebudgie

And have a wonderful day or night :)

#moon knight x reader #my masterlist #jake lockley x reader #marc spector x reader #steven grant x reader #marc spector #moonknight #khonshu x reader #o.c #khonshu #BABY!READER #BABY! OC NAME

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pdqdocs · 2 months ago

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darkmaga-returns · 2 months ago

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Gun Owners of America just caught the FBI coercing more people into giving up their Second Amendment rights!

Thanks to a FOIA request by GOA's lawyers, we uncovered even more evidence on the FBI's unconstitutional and unlawful NICS Indices program.

In 2019, it was discovered that the FBI was using a document titled "NICS Indices Self-Submission Form" that purported to allow American citizens to "voluntarily" waive their Second Amendment rights.

By completing this FBI form, law-abiding Americans allegedly "consent" for the FBI to enter their names into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, marking them as permanently prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms or ammunition. And as the form warns, once an individual waives their rights, it's impossible to get them back.

Now, the mere existence of this form was troubling, and it clearly violates the Second Amendment and even the Gun Control Act. But at that point, we weren't sure how extensively the FBI was using the form, if in fact it was being used at all.

Fast-forward a few years to 2022.

GOA published our initial findings that the FBI had provided these forms to agents for use on American gun owners, who were pressured into signing and therefore "voluntarily" relinquished their rights to purchase, possess, and use firearms.

These FOIA records painted a vivid picture of FBI agents showing up to people's homes, place of work, etc., presenting to them these forms, and "asking" them to declare themselves to be a "danger" to themselves or others, or lacking the "mental capacity to adequately contract or manage" their lives.

You can imagine how coercive these sorts of FBI visits must have been. The FBI's use of this secret form has occurred during recent years when the bureau has become increasingly politicized and weaponized against Americans, including gun owners.

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pilawturkey · 20 days ago

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A Comprehensive Overview of Turkish Citizenship by Real Estate Investment

For global investors seeking second citizenship, Turkey has become one of the most attractive destinations. The Turkish government offers a direct and streamlined process for acquiring citizenship through real estate. Known as the Turkish Citizenship by Real Estate Investment program, this initiative provides individuals and their families with access to Turkish nationality by purchasing eligible property, with no requirement to reside in the country.

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The real estate investment for Turkish citizenship route was introduced in 2017 and modified in 2018 to reduce the minimum investment threshold to $400,000 USD. Foreign nationals can apply for Turkish citizenship by purchasing residential or commercial property in Turkey, provided the property is held for at least three years and not resold within that period.

Applicants must also obtain a valuation report confirming that the property’s worth meets the required threshold. Once the property is registered with the Land Registry, investors receive a Certificate of Conformity from the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, which allows them to proceed with the citizenship application.

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The Turkish Constitution and Law №5901 on Turkish Citizenship outline the framework of the program. Citizenship can be acquired either by birth or post-birth through naturalization. For property-based acquisition, the law stipulates clear documentation and eligibility conditions, all of which are managed under the supervision of competent Turkish authorities.

Turkey’s legal system ensures that the Turkish citizenship by real estate process is not only secure but also legally binding under both domestic and international norms. The investment must be real, verified, and registered. Legal assistance from a qualified law firm is recommended to ensure full compliance.

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There are several reasons why this pathway is increasingly popular:

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Choose Eligible Property worth at least $400,000 USD.

Obtain Valuation Report from a certified appraiser.

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Turkey offers a rare combination of geopolitical importance, economic potential, and cultural richness. Through the Turkish citizenship by real estate investment program, the government invites foreign investors to contribute to its economy while offering a valuable passport and second home in return.

If you’re seeking a secure, efficient, and rewarding way to obtain a second citizenship, the real estate investment for Turkish citizenship route is worth serious consideration. With professional guidance from a Turkish citizenship law firm, the entire process can be seamless and straightforward.

For more information about this topic, please click to https://www.pilc.law/turkish-citizenship-by-real-estate/

#citizenship #turkish citizenship #real estate #investment

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i-wanna-linger · 1 year ago

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i keep getting emails from campdoc (the system that my camp uses for health documents) telling me to purchase labels for my "child" to label all of my "child's" belongings... like yes, i, the 20 year old kitchen manager, is going to buy labels with my full government name to stick on all of my belongings 😂

#summer camp #forest rat thoughts

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texasdreamer01 · 9 months ago

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Atlantis Expedition - Science Division: Chief Science Officer

So I've gone through all of my proposed headcanons on how the Science Division would break down into different departments, the roles of each departments, and the personnel composition (original post here, which contains links to posts on individual departments). But what is a division without its division leader? Thus, a post on the Chief Science Officer (AKA Rodney McKay).

Below is a brief list, in the same style as the department posts, which I will articulate further under the read-more:

> Head: Rodney McKay, Radek Zelenka (extra-canonical) > Contains: 1 person > Function: Implements department policies, decides upon division and department priorities, disseminates tasks according to expedition needs, reviews employee performances, manages employment of each department, secures and approves all procurement requirements for operations, reviews ethical and legal boundaries on research and resource requests, prepares documentation for review on research progress and results, estimates research project requirements and demands, gives/receives recommendations and feedback to expedition leader and military commander according to mission parameters > Examples of function: Hiring and firing of employees, dispute arbitration between employees, disciplinary measures, creating purchase orders for equipment and department supplies, reviewing research proposals and giving feedback on proposals > Personnel quantity: 1 person > A/N: Technically speaking, the department heads fall under this "department" as sub-administrators (and produce the paperwork that will give Rodney headaches)

Radek being the CSO is part of the Legacy book series, which is a pseduo season six (I don't listen to it, for various reasons), but he's mentioned here as a nod to the books.

As for that big block of text about a CSO's function, it helps to separate things into a few categories. Below is that, with commentary:

> IOA/SGC requirements » Prepares documentation for review on research progress and results » Reviews ethical and legal boundaries on research and resource requests » Maintains documentation of projects for auditing purposes ⇛ Such as project results, allocation and defense thereof of resources, pertinent stopping and starting points » Maintains documentation of division personnel usage and other important events ⇛ Such as field assignments, project assignments, etc » Maintains documentation of field science research ⇛ Such as first contact missions, cultural research, etc > Expedition administration » Gives/receives recommendations and feedback to expedition leader according to mission parameters ⇛ Such as resource allocation in terms of division personnel, technology, and physical resources (i.e. consumable lab resources, such as testing equipment, reagents, medical resources, etc) > Military relations » Gives military commander feedback and advice on mixed-context situations ⇛ Such as situations when expedition leader is unable to perform duties, or when needing to defend critical components, spaces, or personnel ⟹ i.e. When personally in the field (AR-1, other field assignments), attacks on Atlantis, non-military critical situations on Atlantis » Gives assessments on non-expedition personnel in regards to permissions on division resources ⇛ i.e. lab access, database access, critical systems access, etc ⇛ Functionally makes the CSO a super-user and systems administrator of the digital architecture that comprise the expedition ⟹ The head administrator and military commander will have their own logins with similar, but not identical, privileges > Division administration » Implements department policies ⇛ Such as safety protocols, proposal formats, project documentation formats, etc » Decides upon division and department priorities ⇛ Based upon IOA/SGC, expedition leader, and military commander priorities (in that order, unless under a military context) » Disseminates tasks according to expedition needs ⇛ May contain separate categories of priorities, according to the needs of varying timelines (i.e. long term, short term, etc) » Reviews employee performances ⇛ Ideally according to a rubric of IOA/SGC requirements, department policies, and expedition needs ⇛ Can mark an employee for a review period, limit access based on negative incidents, recommend merit-based pay increases and pay bonuses, etc » Manages employment of each department ⇛ Hiring, firing, inter-department reassignments » Estimates research project requirements ⇛ Based upon proposals submitted, expedition mission parameters, resources available for allocation, and IOA/SGC requirements » Secures and approves all procurement requirements for operations ⇛ Creates, reviews, and submits documentation to expedition head ⇛ Items such as equipment (i.e. computers), consumable materials (i.e. pens, cotton swabs), and miscellaneous (i.e. lab coats, uniforms, chocolate for morale)

These main categories, as you can see, are IOA/SGC requirements of the CSO, expedition administration, military relations, and division administration. They are, to the best of my assumptions, listed in order of importance - division administration is necessarily at the bottom because the CSO, ideally, ought to be able to trust the department heads to make sure the division runs well. The main job of the CSO is to liase between the division and the overlords people who make the expedition run.

A lot of this ends up rather convoluted due to competing priorities. The IOA pays the expeditions bills and supports its somewhat dubious legality on the international stage, but the SGC does as well, and to boot is also the group that creates and maintains the supplies and supply lines (see: the Daedalus, primarily, and also the Apollo). As this is a civilian expedition, more weight will be put on the CSO than the Military Officer for a return on investment.

What this results in is a lot of paperwork. Every employee, petri dish, and scribble on a whiteboard must be recorded, accounted for, and justified. This would then be forwarded to the expedition leader, who collates it nicely and gives it to the SGC and IOA for a general accounting, but it's up to the CSO to prepare this documentation.

Accordingly, this means that if there's a request from either side (top-down or bottom-up), the CSO must process the paperwork for that. Requests to perform experiments, usage of employees on things like field assignments, requests for materials to perform the experiments within adequate parameters are the work du jour. And, crucially, it must be legal (as much as one can with something like a Stargate program, at any rate). There's a lot more wiggle room for the expedition, given its project background, but not very much with the introduction of international oversight.

In a practical, daily sense, department requests for experiment/research and expedition leader and military commander requests for the same or for personnel must be balanced by the CSO. If, say, Carson Beckett wants to work with the Life Sciences department to develop a hydrogel infused with Pegasus plant extracts for IFAK use that requires many iterations of testing but would then require less supplies procured from the SGC, and Elizabeth Weir wants Carson Beckett to join an away team to help some recently-culled village with their injuries or a persistent illness that had left them originally vulnerable to a culling, Rodney McKay will be the one to weigh in on priorities for the division and devise a compromise on his employee's time based upon what can be done and what ought to be done. (Elizabeth will likely already think of this conundrum, but as she was not the only expedition leader, the ability to say no is a critical tool in Rodney's arsenal for properly fulfilling his duties.)

Likewise, the CSO has obligations to the military contingent of the expedition. While the Wraith were not an expected enemy, the SGC probably assumed something of the Goa'uld caliber was statistically likely, and thus the CSO is there to also offer technical advice to the military commander. This is important because nobody had any confirmation on what they would find regarding Atlantis, only that the Ancients had abandoned their city and didn't seem to pack much up with them. Mixed-context situations like a technical emergency on Atlantis, or field missions, will require CSO input on technological expertise and personnel assignments from the Science Division.

A working relationship with the military commander will also mean some back and forth, particularly for instances of assessing who ought to have access to critical systems, and whether such previously-given permissions ought to be revoked. Teyla, the Athosians, and Ronon are popular examples, but also situations like Doppelganger where members of the expedition might be compromised and require a change, however temporary or permanent, in security.

In order for the CSO to assist in maintaining expedition security, being a super-user and systems administrator is a pre-requisite of the position. This means such things as inherent back-door access to all expedition systems, ability to manage user login profiles for all systems, screening of technologies that are inputted as peripherals or adoptions of infrastructure, and the design of the infrastructure systems that make up the overall architecture. As the military commander would be in charge of the physical security of the expedition, the CSO would be in charge of its digital security.

Management of the division itself rests upon the above listed duties, and will influence how the division and its various departments are handled. This is very much a daily, intensive part of the job, but if things with the departments are set up well, typically they would be the least worrisome of the duties.

Based upon the various institutional and situational demands upon the expedition, personnel movement and research projects will be delegated accordingly, with the CSO creating the division policies on things like research parameters, experiment ethics, and the minutiae of funding and resource allocations.

Long-term projects, such as the inherent reasons why the expedition exists at all (figuring out Atlantis and developing technologies and knowledge bases from the information they prise from Atlantis), will generally receive priority outside of some form of emergency, and will get the most resources. Short-term projects, which might run for a few months or a year at a time of active experimentation, are dependent upon spare resources, time, and personnel that aren't already assigned to work of a higher priority.

For example, documenting the plants of a particular planet in the Pegasus galaxy would rank lower than decoding and documenting extant examples of Wraith language, based upon the multiple variables of military commander demands on the safety of the expedition, diplomatic demands from the expedition leader for the safety of the expedition, and if there are similar plants already being studied that were cultivated from other planets.

An inherent part of the management of a division is the personnel, which includes performance reviews, hiring of employees, firing of employees, disciplining of employees (if the department head requires CSO assistance or it is the department head which requires disciplining), and re-assignment of employees based upon expedition or other needs. Part of the personnel is the work the personnel do, which wraps back around to paperwork - if someone wants to do research on attempting to duplicate a particular alloy, then those materials need to be purchased or otherwise required, which means the CSO must fill out all the purchase request forms and other pertinent documentation (even if it only amounts to "found on the ground because AR-1 crashed the Wraith Dart, put alloy samples into backpack").

I imagine a CSO in this sort of position would probably be running a rough calculation in the background of how many cups of coffee to substitute for hours of sleep, because there will not be a lot of sleep to be had, even without all the various emergencies happening because Atlantis is Atlantis. A little bit of stress-induced yelling from time to time is to be expected, I think.

Total Overall Science Division Personnel

> Chief Science Officer: 1 > Medical Department: 23 > Life Sciences: 13 > Field Sciences: 12 > Applied Sciences: 16 > Total total: 65

Due to the revisions made in some of the department headcanon posts, the personnel estimations rose from the original post's 58 to the current 65, a difference of 7 people and also a nice, easy to calculate number. If we keep to the assumption of 200 expedition members, this would make for 135 leftover for the rest of the expedition, and the Science Division at 32.5% of the expedition.

A CMO post will be written and posted at some point, as I forgot about it, and additionally canonical character headcanon posts will also be posted at some point in the future in an undetermined order. After this will be headcanons on the Military Division, Gate Teams, and the Expedition Leader/Civilian Division (currently undecided what that will be).

#stargate #stargate atlantis #atlantis expedition #sga fandom headcanon #mine #long post

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enigmaticexplorer · 1 year ago

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I Yearn, and so I Fear - Part II - Chapter IX

Masterlist | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

General Summary. Nearly a year since the Galactic Empire’s rise to power, Kazi Ennari is trying to survive. But her routine is interrupted—and life upended—when she’s forced to cohabitate with former Imperial soldiers. Clone soldiers.

Pairing. Commander Wolffe x female!OC

General Warnings. Canon-typical violence and assault, familial struggles, terminal disease, bigotry, explicit sexual content, death. This story deals with heavy content. If you’re easily triggered, please do not read. For a more comprehensive list of tags, click here.

Fic Rating. E (explicit)/18+/Minors DNI.

Chapter Word Count. 4K

A Like without a Reblog will result in an automatic block.

“To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.” – Bertrand Russel

22 Helona

The lake was nestled in a clearing down the hill from the house.

Kazi discovered it the first week she moved to Eluca. Fehr said the lake was an old fishing hole used for sport; however, over the decades, the fish population deteriorated and died. Today, the sole creatures that visited the lake were various aquatic birds and the occasional frog.

Roughly a hundred meters in length, the lake’s deepest point was no more than six meters. The water was translucent blue, a unique feature most Elucan lakes claimed. Even the pit of the lake was visible and served as an illusion, making it appear shallower than it truly was. Fehr had warned her about the deception, and Kazi had made sure Neyti knew to never visit the lake alone.

Beneath a gray sky bloated with coming rain, Kazi swam laps.

The swim was, obviously, different than her morning swims on Ceaia. Fresh water. Visible depths. Water contained. Waves and currents a nonexistent issue. Sometimes a monkey perched on the branches of the trees overlooking the water and appraised her routine. The brown, furry creatures scurried away the moment she noticed them.

Lazily backstroking, Kazi studied the skies above. Her neck still ached and the skin was raw. Bruises still painted her skin purple and blue. She couldn’t even swim properly—twisting her neck to the side to breathe hurt too much, which was why she had taken to backstrokes. She needed a bacta salve if she wanted the bruises to heal quickly. But bacta was too expensive.

Carefully regulated by the Empire, bacta could only be found on the black market. It was one of the Empire’s first laws—to prevent “Separatist rebels” from receiving efficient medical care.

All bacta production sites were managed by the Imps, and a large purchase flagged Imperial security systems. Only med centers and military bases received a substantial amount of bacta supply, and even those were carefully documented. Planetary systems could request large quantities separate from med centers, but it was unlikely the Empire would supply them.

One of the benefits of Ceaian culture was the emphasized importance of apothecaries and herbal medicine. Hence Daria’s bruise salve Kazi used last night and this morning. Herbal medicine wasn’t effective like bacta. But it was more useful than nothing.

Another lap completed, body fatigued and stomach cramping from renewed menstrual pain, Kazi called it. She surveyed the darkening sky once more and then started toward the shore. Until she noticed the person sitting on the log where she kept her shoes and towel.

Unease pinched her stomach. She inhaled a slow breath to calm the sudden race of her heart. Wolffe was watching her, his expression unreadable.

The fallen log bordered the edge of the lake, water lapping at its smooth trunk. Kazi stalked through the thigh-high water and stopped a meter before Wolffe.

“What are you doing here?”

Rather than his usual morning attire, he was outfitted in gray sweats and a black long-sleeve. Dark marks smeared his under-eyes and the lines on his face were more pronounced. He looked tired. Like he hadn’t slept. And yet his gaze remained as attentive as ever.

Forearms pressed to his thighs, Wolffe scanned the lake. He seemed to be intentionally avoiding her direction. “Why do you swim?”

His purposeful ignorance irked her and she rolled her eyes, glaring at the trees behind him.

“I like the water.” Sliding into her flipflops, she grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her body. “My father took me sailing almost every day. And since I can’t sail here, I might as well swim.”

Finally, Wolffe looked at her. “Is your father on Ceaia?”

“He’s dead.” Kazi considered him. “He died when I was ten. It’s been a long time.”

An uncomfortably long moment passed. Wolffe searched her face. The assessment in his gaze felt like a knife cutting into her, peeling her open.

A breeze, chillier than usual, whispered along her skin and she fought a shiver.

“Your mother—”

“Is dead. Everyone is dead.” She didn’t like this line of questioning, and she didn’t like the calculation in his expression. “Loss is a normal part of life and some have experienced it more than others. As you’re familiar with.”

His lips pressed in a disapproving line. “I don’t want your pity—”

“Likewise.”

“I was asking to figure you out—”

“It’s really none of your business.”

Wolffe pushed himself to his feet. “You say that a lot.”

They were standing far too close and Kazi wanted to step back. To create distance. Wolffe was taller than her. Broad shoulders and healthy fat sculpted the body of a battle-hardened soldier. This close proximity was intimidating, but her pride kept her glued to her spot.

“You tell me it’s not my business,” Wolffe said, voice low and edged with restraint. “But you come back here with a fucking handprint on your neck, Ennari. Tell me how that’s not my business.”

Kazi stilled. Her teeth gritted.

“I have assumptions.” Wolffe ran his tongue along his teeth. “None of them are good.”

“If it’s your brothers’ safety you’re worried about,” she said, “I can assure you I haven’t betrayed you—”

“Don’t. Don’t do that.” The annoyance in his tone was overt and he released a sardonic exhale. “I thought we were past that.”

“I did too,” she said sharply. “But you’re out here, in my space, accusing me—”

“I’m not accusing you of anything,” he snarled. “You have a handprint on your fucking neck and I need to know what happened.”

“And I told you it doesn’t concern you or your brothers, so you can fuck off—”

“You can trust me.” Wolffe worked his jaw, his voice quieting. “I want you to trust me.”

Shaking her head, Kazi looked toward the lake, toward the visible depths where sunken trees and aquatic plants mossed the lake floor.

It wasn’t a question of trust. More a question of her own pride. She didn’t want Wolffe to know what happened yesterday simply because she was too raw from it. Not yet disconnected and numb.

A look in the mirror this morning was too much. She saw a broken version of herself—eyes sunken, skin dull, mouth flattened. The woman she saw this morning was a version of herself she worked hard to hide from the world.

A woman who yearned for things she didn’t deserve. A woman who wanted so much and yet refused to accept good things out of fear they would disappear. A woman who was tired and no longer wanted to rely on herself.

For a majority of her life, Kazi had carefully cultivated and nourished a façade. A façade of disinterest, aloofness, and absolute control over her emotions. She was unflappable and independent. Disciplined and level-headed. She bore responsibility for Neyti and Daria; she couldn’t be weak and broken.

But it was lonely. To rely on herself, to maintain the pretense she was competent and in control. Perfect.

It was so fucking lonely.

“I told you,” Kazi murmured, eyes fixed on Wolffe’s shoulder, “it doesn’t concern you.”

“What do you want?” Wolffe lowered his head, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Do you want me to beg?”

She recoiled. “No.”

“Tell me what I need to do to learn what happened.”

“I don’t understand why you want to know.” She released a shaky breath. “I can handle it on my own.”

“That’s the problem with you.” Wolffe cut a hand through his hair. “I don’t doubt your competence. But if you’re being abused by the network, we’re going to have a problem—”

“It was the magistrate.” She glanced at the surrounding trees again. “Not the network. They wouldn’t do that—”

Wolffe scoffed. “Those people have a goal in mind. And they’ll use whoever they can to achieve it. Even at the expense of your life.”

The truth in his words was brutal, but Kazi had always assumed it of the network. It was easier to pretend the rebels were moralistic. That they were the opposite of the Empire and would never use people to their advantage. Refusing to acknowledge the truth allowed her to pretend she wasn’t digging her own grave.

“It wasn’t them,” she said.

Tentative fingers lifted her chin. Wolffe eyed her neck, his focus intense. “Was he trying to kill you?”

“I don’t know.” Softly, a finger traced her bruises and she swallowed. “He’s paranoid. He doesn’t know who he can trust. I think he was trying to threaten me to convince me of my loyalty to him.”

“I have bacta—”

Pulling away, she frowned. “How?”

“Our missions aren’t solely rescue-based.” He shrugged. “We do have a need for certain resources.”

It made sense. He and his brothers needed the efficacy bacta provided.

“Save it,” she said. “For something more important.”

Wolffe cocked a brow. “Do you really want Neyti to see that?”

“Of course not,” she said. “But I have clothes that can hide it.”

Seemingly unconvinced, Wolffe looked away, rolling his shoulders back. The silence between them was awkward and strained.

“Quit your job.”

The statement caught her off guard and she blinked dubiously at Wolffe. The seriousness in his features, the insistence in his tone, made her retreat a step.

“I can’t.” She gestured to the house behind him. “I have to work to provide for my family. And I’m spying for the network.”

“The network is dangerous. You know that. You don’t owe them anything.”

“Do you really believe they’ll let me go?” She smiled ruefully at his stony scowl. “Unless I left Eluca, they won’t let me quit.”

Moving wasn’t an option either. Both she and Wolffe knew it. The information she had on the network, even if it were minimal and her interactions confined to few members, was a problem. The network wouldn’t risk their existence for a single person.

Kazi shrugged. “Like I said, it’s—”

“Don’t tell me it’s not my concern.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “The magistrate is looking into deserted clones. He suspects a spy in the Institute. Lack of information about possible rebel spies and deserted clones will further increase his paranoia. All of this concerns me.”

“I’m doing what I can,” she said defensively. “I think this was a fluke. He believes I’m loyal and it won’t happen again.”

“And what if he doubts you again? What happens then?” His gaze returned to her neck and his nostrils flared. “You could have died—”

“I know.” Her voice was trembling but she couldn’t stop it. A phantom touch—like the magistrate’s hand was once more squeezing her neck—brushed her skin. “I was the one there. I know what could have happened.”

“We can get you out—”

“And take me where?” Throwing up her hands, she laughed. “There’s nowhere else to go.”

“There are remote places—”

“Yes, there are. Planets without the education Neyti needs. Planets without the medical care my sister needs.”

A muscle flexed in his jaw. “This is dangerous.”

“Your missions are dangerous. I don’t understand how this is any different.”

“Because it’s my life on the line,” he snapped. “And my life doesn’t mat—”

An uncomfortable grimace contorted his features and Wolffe scowled at a point behind her. Kazi could only stare at him, too tired to respond, too numb to comfort. Anyway, she doubted Wolffe would care for her response. He despised pity.

A handful of raindrops pricked her arms. Small and cold. Just like how she felt on the inside.

“If something happens to me,” she started, voice brittle. Empty. “Will you make sure Neyti and Daria are okay?”

Wolffe exhaled a strained breath, rubbing the back of his neck. His eyes returned to hers. His gaze was unwavering. He studied her for a long time; she was surprised there was anything left to see.

“Nothing’s going to happen to you, Ennari.” He squared his shoulders. “Nothing.”

The static of galactic news hummed in the sunroom. Clouds a dark gray, like the charcoal used to start a fire, layered the sky. Hours ago, solid sheets of rain watered the jungle’s rolling hills. Now, the skies were somber. The quiet and emptiness after a good cry.

Kazi stood at the windows overlooking the dreary afternoon. Tucked among the knee-high ferns sat Neyti and, to her bemusement, Nova. The man held a neatly tied collection of bird feathers. A myriad of colors, from moonless black to opaque white to a rainbow of blues and indigos, the feathers ranged in length and thickness.

Nova said something to Neyti. The youngling scrutinized the feathers, eyebrows knitted and mouth wrinkled. She reached for the largest feather, cerulean blue with sketched lines of black.

Nodding, Nova set the feathers on the ground, all except for the cerulean one. He stroked a finger down the rachis, and then offered the feather to Neyti who mimicked. A small, toothless smile lit her face.

Kazi felt herself smile similarly.

From the kitchen, a timer beeped. Muffled voices spoke and a quiet laugh drifted to the sunroom. Daria was teaching Cody one of the sisters’ favorite recipes—Ceaian sea-cakes, a traditional breakfast more common during the winter holidays.

Why Daria wanted to teach Cody the recipe was beyond Kazi. The dish was nothing more than tradition—even if it was a staple of their childhood—and tradition only those from Ceaia could appreciate. She doubted Cody had any interest in Ceaian culture. Why would he care?

A twist of the radio and the staticky voices loudened.

“…in an astonishing turn of events, Emperor Palpatine made an unannounced appearance at the Galactic Senate…

“…after the shocking news that an Imperial admiral ordered the destruction of Kaminoan cities…

“Emperor Palpatine was quoted: ‘With this momentous act, we shall usher in a new era. Heralded by the Imperial stormtrooper.’...”

Searching the backyard, Kazi redirected her attention to Wolffe. Beneath a canopy of thick trees, he and Fox had outlined a perimeter of short stakes. The area was around fifteen meters in length and five meters wide.

The two men were out there for hours. Ever since the rain released its hold. Currently, Wolffe knelt on the ground, hammering two pieces of wood together.

Kazi had half a mind to ask him what he and Fox were building. But, after this morning, she was avoiding him. She regretted their conversation, and she regretted revealing certain fears and uncertainties. She didn’t want him to think she wasn’t good enough to—

“I was wondering where those two had gone.”

Kazi jerked away from the window and spun around. Standing at her side, close enough she could elbow him, was a freshly-showered Fox.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your blatant staring.”

“I wasn’t staring,” she muttered. Smoothing an unwrinkled spot on her shirt, she ignored his amused look. “I was wondering where Neyti had gotten to.”

“She’s a remarkable kid.”

Outside, Neyti held the stack of feathers, mystified by whatever Nova was showing her on his datapad. The man had a particular interest in medicine and trauma therapy, according to Daria who had gifted Nova one of her old medical books to study. Based on Neyti’s blatant confusion, Kazi assumed Nova was showing her something related to the biological breakdown of bird feathers.

“I’m sorry,” Kazi said quietly. In the corner of her eye, Fox stiffened, carefully scanning the green mass beyond the windows. “For snapping at you when you were obviously joking.”

“We’re all protective of family,” Fox said. His words were contemplative, but a hint of warning underscored his tone.

Seemingly satisfied with his assessment of the backyard, Fox took a seat in a chair across the room. A position where he could see the partition, backdoor, and anything outside the windows. It was then that Kazi noticed the objects in his hands. An old, rusted knife and a chunk of wood.

Intricate lines carved the wood into a simple shape. Kazi appraised the figurine, her lips parting in surprise.

The carving was a familiar black bird. The same bird Neyti had insisted on burying two days ago.

“Do you think she’ll like it?” The intense concentration on Fox’s face belied his casual demeanor.

“I think she will.” Kazi took the seat beside him. “You know, she would probably like you more if you didn’t tease her so much.”

He breathed a quiet chuckle. “I know.”

The solemnity in his answer was begrudging, and it revealed something she hadn’t yet known: Fox didn’t want to get close to Neyti. The teasing remarks—the soft glares and adorable scowls he received in return—were his way to maintain a distinctive line. A barrier not to be crossed.

Kazi recognized it. Because she did it too.

Over the years she had distanced herself from everyone. Family. Friends. Coworkers. Similar to Fox, she had distanced herself on purpose. Because closeness, companionship, created a vulnerability, a happiness that could easily be stolen the moment the companion left.

“The Senate is still debating the decommissioning of clones,” she said, changing conversation. “It seems they’ll vote in favor.”

“They’d be real stupid to do it.” Fox flicked the tip of his knife. “But it makes sense why they’ll go through with it.”

Kazi frowned. “I thought you would support the bill.”

He slid his eyes in her direction. “And why would you think that?”

“The Empire will no longer use clone soldiers. They’ll be free from service.” She paused, hesitating. “That’s the entire purpose of your missions, isn’t it? To free those men?”

“The purpose of our missions is to rescue.” Setting aside his knife and block of wood, Fox lounged back in his chair. “We’re rescuing the ones who want out.”

Static from the radio chirped and Kazi lowered it.

“Decommissioning is the Empire’s way of cleaning up a mess they don’t want to deal with anymore,” Fox said. “Clones don’t have a pension plan. They don’t have retirement savings. They’ll be decommissioned and tossed aside. Forgotten by the galaxy they fought to protect. They’ll be jobless, homeless, and left without a purpose.”

Kazi glanced at the half-finished puzzle littering the table—the puzzle Wolffe had been working on the last two weeks. “I don’t understand why the Empire wants to decommission clones. No natborn can compete with your training and skillset. Clones will always be superior soldiers, and for a government that desires power, the most efficient and effective military is a clone military.”

A wry smile darkened Fox’s face. “You’re forgetting the aging gene.”

“I thought the aging gene was degenerative.” She leaned forward. “The Ceaian government intercepted Kaminoan intel and we were told the aging gene stopped acceleration at twenty-six. Is that not true?”

“It is.” Fox shrugged at her exasperated scowl. “The aging gene’s degeneration was kept quiet. The Kaminoans were pressed their experimentation was faulty. And one bad gene raised questions of other possible degenerations.”

“Which could lead to an investigation into the chips, and if the general public knew about the chips’ existence, it could lead to questioning of the Empire’s authority. Even questioning Palpatine himself.” Kazi scoffed, tapping the plush armrest of her chair. “So Palpatine is cleaning up his mess.”

Fixing the cuff of his gray button-down, Fox appeared insouciant to the revelation. Then again, he seemed to have already considered and assessed the situation at depth.

“Clones aren’t droids,” Fox said, rolling the cuff on his right wrist. “We have minds of our own. And Palpatine is starting to wonder if the clone army will remain loyal to him. He thinks it’ll be easier to decommission them. He’ll create a new army from those propagandized to support him.”

They lapsed into brief silence, Kazi musing their conversation. Something about his tone struck her.

“You talk about Palpatine like you knew him,” she commented. Years of training kept Fox’s features composed, but Kazi had also spent years studying the subtle changes in posture and expressions. She noted the sudden wariness in his eyes. The slight tightness around his mouth. “Did you know him?”

“Does it matter?”

“I’m only curious.”

Shaking his head, Fox shifted his attention to the windows, tapping a finger against the armrest of his chair. He sighed.

“I served Palpatine.”

The guarded reticence in his face reminded Kazi of Wolffe’s mistrust, and she realized he expected her to react poorly. Probably accuse him or stalk away.

A month ago she would have. A month ago, she would have considered this proof the men were hiding their true motivations and they weren’t to be trusted.

“I’m surprised you aren’t yelling at me.” Fox chuckled bitterly.

She shrugged. “I’m not one for yelling.”

“That’s not what Wolffe said.” Kazi rolled her eyes, and Fox relaxed marginally, dark brown eyes searching her face. “I wouldn’t blame you. If you went to Wolffe or Cody and told them I couldn’t stay.” He grinned. “Some of the men we rescue don’t trust me.”

The words were flat, bored and uncaring, and yet Kazi noted a hint of exhaustion.

“Why not?” she asked.

“I was a good soldier,” Fox said. “I obeyed my orders. I didn’t question them. I took my job seriously, and I made hard decisions not everyone agreed with. I earned a…certain reputation among the ranks.”

His deceptive casualness was well-practiced, and she couldn’t help but wonder how often he pretended to be in control. How often others overlooked his collected appearance.

“I was loyal to Palpatine. Until the very end.” His gaze grew unfocused. “I did things I shouldn’t have.”

“We all do bad things,” she said, “and we all make mistakes—”

“These weren’t simple mistakes.”

For a long moment, Kazi and Fox sat in pensive silence, the shifting of pans from the kitchen and the static from the radio serving as background noise. Kazi watched Neyti play with her bird feather, smiling smally at the little girl’s enthusiasm. Her attention shifted to Wolffe. He was drinking from a bottle, his long-sleeved shirt matted with sweat, the white fabric clinging to his dark skin.

“What will you do,” she said, “once decommissioning starts?”

“Decommissioning can mean a number of things.” Fox ran a finger down the stem of the spindly plant sitting beside him. One of Daria’s, the dark green plant almost reached Kazi’s shoulders when she stood. “Certain units will be kept in service. There will be clones forced to train new soldiers. We’ve even heard reports of possible clone detainment centers. We’ll keep busy.”

“How long will you do this for?”

Outside, the breeze stole a feather from Neyti, carrying it to a tree branch. Neyti chased after it. But the branch was too high for her to reach. Before Kazi could help, Wolffe plucked the feather from the branch and returned it to Neyti.

Hugging the feather to her chest, Neyti patted Wolffe on his arm and raced back to Nova who was absorbed in something on his datapad. Wolffe looked from his arm to Neyti, bemusement wrinkling his forehead. Kazi bit her tongue to stifle her amusement.

Sudden movement from Fox drew her attention back inside. He approached the windows, slipping his hands into his trousers’ pockets. “We’re committed to these missions for one of three reasons: responsibility, guilt, and atonement.”

Still seated, Kazi surveyed his side profile.

“Cody believes it’s his responsibility to correct his wrongs, and that starts with his men. And Wolffe does it out of a twisted sense of guilt.” Fox rolled his shoulders in a move so similar to Wolffe it was eerie. “The missions give us purpose.”

Kazi could relate to the sentiment. After University, her career gave her purpose. Meaning. It kept her alive, especially on those lonely nights when she didn’t understand why she existed. Those lonely nights when she questioned if someone would miss her—

Hesitantly, Kazi joined Fox at the windows. “Wolffe goes on every mission while you and Cody switch. Why is that?”

Fox chuffed a strained chuckle. “Wolffe is single-minded when it comes to his goals. He’ll run these missions—and run himself ragged—until he either shifts his focus elsewhere or learns to live with the guilt.”

Kazi frowned. “Guilt for what?”

“Surviving the war.”

Masterlist | Chapter 8 | Chapter 10

A/N: I’m afraid Fox’s words might get misconstrued: Fox is arguing that Wolffe’s guilt is an unhealthy coping mechanism that’s driving his life. He is not arguing that Wolffe needs a romantic partner to 1) fix him and 2) bring meaning to his life. Romantic relationships do not give purpose; they do not give someone a reason to live. And when it comes to the clones, I think any similar rhetoric reduces their personal aspirations, individualism, and humanity.

#I Yearn and so I Fear #commander wolffe x oc: kazi ennari #commander wolffe #oc: kazi ennari #commander wolffe x ofc #commander wolffe fanfiction #commander wolffe fan fiction #star wars fanfiction #star wars fan fiction

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