#so i think i truly managed to achieve maximum visibility for this one

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 90

happy tdov here's the faves who, incidentally, i do headcanon as all being various flavors of trans

[minaim-blog]

DaTr Date Night - Part 1 - At The Arcade

There’s school tomorrow but it’s date night for Dib and Tak. As a break from their usual night out Dib brought her to the local arcade, but there Tak finds something she can’t beat down or pause for later. Will she be able to overcome or this truly unbeatable?

Tak reviewed the state of her vessel meticulously through its computer console. She noted a stable life-support system and defense array at near maximum power, its sensor’s registered itself atop an atmosphere-less asteroid hurling through space with her opponent nowhere to be found. She concluded the disappearance was caused by a cloaking device attached to the enemy’s ship which she had noted lend itself quite nicely to their tactic of minor aggression followed by hasty retreat, repeating until victory was achieved. It had only succeed in dealing minor damage to her vessel both now and at an earlier encounter, but she knew her opponent would need more than a cheap trick to take down an Irken Invader, and also that her opponent (for all she could tell) could not supply anything else beyond that.

Still, she was just as cautious as she was assured of her own victory, as only a fool would let themselves be defeated by their own overconfidence. Contrary to the greatest annoyance on this dirt ball of a planet, which she’s been existing on now for more than six of its solar cycles: Zim. Whose very existence breathed overconfidence, and yet also possessed an infallible tenacity that refused to perish no matter how far to the brink of devastation it was brought. While she did think the later was an admirable trait, she never would have said this openly to him, as it would have only made him that much more insufferable. She was hesitant to call him an ally, more so a neighbor in banishment, and he could still inspire within her a feeling of deepest frustration and malcontent whenever he dared to proclaimed himself as anything besides incompetent.

“Zim is neither here now, nor the reason for coming out.”

She had to tell herself this to refocus on the enemy at hand. Thankfully just as she brought herself back to the battle the enemy provided her with a means to its end. While her enemy’s cloaking device mostly obscured it from her ship’s sensors it was not completely unidentifiable. In their previous encounter Tak noted that her sensor array, while unable to detect the enemy ship, could pick-up any projectile based artillery fired on the battlefield, and thanks to the now incoming fire she was able to pinpoint the general location of her enemy. Maneuvering her vessel past the incoming missiles she utilized her ship’s ability to release a focused EMP based attack at the location of fire, while it deals no damage it makes up for it in its useful ability to remove any buffs the target possess. In one swift motion Tak was both able to avoid the enemy fire and release the blast towards it source leaving two ships now visible on the battle field. Pleased with her accomplishment but rather annoyed at the lack of challenge Tak revealed her disgruntlement,

“Alright, hide and seek is done. Let’s get this over with quickly, my boyfriend and I had the rest of the evening planned.”

Saying this however seemed to anger her opponent, which while it was not her intention, helped in ending their confrontation. Her opponent charge forward blindly in an attack that was easily dodged and Tak followed it with one of her own, dealing major damage to his ship. The vessel she was piloting possessed relatively weak firepower and average defenses but exceled at maneuverability and close quarters combat. Her opponent’s ship lacked firepower, defenses, and had only average maneuverability at best. Its only strength was its cloaking device, which was now useless.

“You know when I said, ‘get this over with’ I didn’t think you would just throw yourself at me. I thought you said you wanted a rematch?”

A display showed up on her screen with a video feed of her enemy, and she was surprised that even with the filter it provided the human looked just as greasy and disgusting as normal. Perhaps even more so, if that was possible. Her opponent roared,

“This is our rematch!”

Goading her enemies was something Tak had trouble avoiding and hated to admit it, but she chastised herself saying that Zim was rubbing off on her and hated that even more. In the instance she thought this to herself her opponent had already charged at her again and was able to land a blow. Tak quickly brought herself to attention and used her opponent’s over extension against him as he spurred a flurry of attacks, and was able to land a powerful counter. The blow was not fatal but the stun it provided allowed Tak to finish him off in her own sequence of attacks or “COMBOS” as Gaz had corrected her before. Tak even tried to remember one of the strings Gaz showed her last time they played together.

“Down, down, up, up, right, left, right, left. Or was it reverse? Was there an ‘X’ somewhere? Or was it ‘B’?”

She continued thinking like this to herself while she was attacking and complained that humans should streamline their attack commands if they ever wanted a chance against a more efficient species. True to any video game however, simply mashing buttons brought her to victory without even focusing and her opponent’s ship was rubble in no time at all. The computer screen on her ship beamed “PLAYER 2 WINS!” and an electronic fanfare blasted into her ears which together with the strobe lights was almost making her nauseous. Thankfully her work was done, and she removed the virtual reality helmet she had been wearing during the fight and found herself in the familiar arcade Dib had managed to drag her into.

Her opponent: the greasy, sweaty, and annoying human, was banging his fists on the computer console and his helmet, managing to hurt himself doing so. He tore off his helmet and glared at Tak while shouting again,

“I want a rematch!”

“That was your rematch.” Tak responded. “And like the first one, it wasn’t much of a match.”

“I would have beaten you, if it weren’t for your bullshit!”

Tak pricked up her brows at that. “Really? Cause from where I’m looking the ship you choose could probably be called ‘bullshit’. I however would call it more of a crutch.”

“It’s not a crutch! It’s a perfectly fair and balanced mechanic! Your ship was the one that’s unfair, it completely counters anything I could throw at it.”

“Why didn’t you pick a ship that was better equipped at fighting it then? I choose the same ship twice.” She removed the gloves to the simulation and got out of her seat while saying this, as indifferent towards him as was physically possible.

“Because I don’t need bullshit like you to kick your ass!”

“Evidently you do, or else you would have won.” She ended their conversation honestly, but her opponent didn’t appreciate it and was now spewing Earth profanities at her as she went away, which she did not care to pay attention to. She wasn’t upset at the profanities, it just made him that much more annoying, but she did feel sorry for him. She knew his emotions would only distract him and never let him improve, and just thinking about that concept made her stomach turn over. The crowd that had surrounded them during their battled seemed to be disappointed and pitied her opponent, but knowing humans she doubted it was for the same reason as her.

“Come along Mimi, let’s find Dib. I’ve had enough of this place.” Her loyal SIR unit, disguised as a cat, followed her in suit after collecting tickets that came from her machine, the purpose of which, still eluded Tak. She then made her way through the crowded and began the search for her big-headed boyfriend.

She had agreed to come to this arcade at request of Dib in hopes of having a “normal” date night. “You know without fighting off intergalactic threats, or hunting paranormal creatures, or having to make sure Zim doesn’t blow up the universe with one of his inane schemes.” She could hear him speak in her memory, and she still didn’t understand what was so much better about a “normal” date. Those fights were at least exciting and even if the enemy was smelly or annoying she was allowed to hit them. The bigfeet stalking he took her on typically ended in the two of them just walking through the forest and talking about anything, which was perfect as far as she was concerned. And not having to worry about Zim depended on Zim, and the probability of him taking a night off to make sure he didn’t spoil their night was about as likely as either one of them ever being allowed within a parsec of Irk again. Their entire night had been a let down from the beginning. As soon as they had set foot into the arcade she was overcome by the smell of old popcorn and stale candy, with jarring sound effects coming from every corner she looked. The dim lights contrasted by the bright consoles reminded her of a miserable city-planet she saw long ago, and the patrons where just as charming as they were clean.

Dib had tried to win her over when he saw how disappointed she knew she looked, he tried to tell her that the real attraction to the place were the games, not the ambiance. Though she had trouble seeing how any of the games could pass for recreation. The first game he brought them to was called ��Sky Ball” or some other such nonsense, the purpose of which entailed rolling balls up a ramp into goal posts. While that may have proven a challenge for humans an Irken smeet could probably play that game, and she had been able to beat Dib with a perfect score using fundamental physics. Not to say Dib did horrible, but not perfect. Another game they played involved a battle simulation and Tak was confused how such a thing was meant as recreation and not military training. Another one involved playing as a yellow circle gathering pixels while avoiding ghosts, or one of Dib’s other interests, that clearly followed a predefined path, and so were easily avoidable to the point where she could have beaten the game in her sleep. Every other game they played followed suit similarly, if Tak was playing she found it either too easy or uninteresting, and if they played together Dib didn’t provide an adequate challenge for her. She was very happy that losing didn’t seem to bother Dib too much, definitely not as much as the human she just beat. Eventually he was just as bored by the arcade as she was and the two of them left to the food court section of the arcade to sit down and eat. Dib ordered a plate of nachos for them to split which were adequate except for the cheese which tasted more like syrup than cheese, and she had gagged on it. She then tried to wash it down with a drink from there which she nearly threw back up from the taste and way it burned her throat. While she had spent some time on the planet and built up a resistance to its filth, it didn’t do too much to help. Dib freaked out more than she did and probably would have carried her all the way back to her base if she let him. Tak was able to compose herself though and told him she was fine, but having had enough of their food she told him she needed a moment to walk it off. It was during that time that she ran into the apparent “champion” of the ship battle simulator, which she of course found to be anything but.

Right now she was exhausted of the arcade and just wanted to find Dib and maybe enjoy the walk home together. She made her way back to the food court but was only able to find the empty table they sat at before she left. She was just about to call him and save herself the time looking for him when Mimi grabbed her attention and pointed to familiar trench coat at the far end of the food court. Dib was on a small platform connected to a console doing what she assumed (and dreaded) was some sort of Earth dance, but it seemed that he couldn’t decide if he wanted to be fluid or firm in his movements. His feet were moving up and down the platform in a sporadic manner, but his upper body for the most part wasn’t doing all too much except for when he occasionally brought up his arms for emphasis of a move. While normally she would have been annoyed at him making a fool of himself, after the fiasco their date night had been it was refreshingly humorous. Still, she wasn’t in the mood to stay there any longer than she had to and made her way over to him. As she got closer she could make out on the main screen was a series of arrows overlaid on graphics scrolling from the bottom of the screen to the top and on the platform were corresponding symbols. Blasting out of the consoles speakers was the most jarring music Earth had to offer. So her fears were right and it was a dancing simulator, if the humans could even call it dancing. She approached Dib just as the music was reaching its climax and didn’t try to hide the bewilderment in her voice.

“What on Irk are you doing?”

Dib was caught off guard and immediately spun around to her voice. “Tak! Are you feeling better now?” He was leaning over the guardrails on the platform, evidently a little tired out from his excursion.  

“I’m fine.” She answered tersely, “But I’m ready to leave. I’ve had enough of this arcade.” She was looking past Dib at the machine, unable to hide her sickening curiosity of it. “What is this ridiculous contraption?”

“This? It’s DDR. Do you want to play a round before we go?”

Tak double checked herself to make sure she heard him correctly. “Are you serious? I just told you I’m ready to leave, I’m not in the mood for ‘a round’ of another one of your dumb Earth games!”

“Yeah, but…This one’s different.” Dib pointed behind him as he spoke sheepishly to her.

“Different?”

“Yeah all the other games we’ve played have been pretty straight forward. Applying physics, shooting stuff, avoiding AI patterns-”

“-Basic combat strategies.”

“Which one did we play that was about that?”

“I was playing against someone else when I went for my walk. It’s not important.” She waved her hand away as she said this, brushing the subject aside. “How is this one different?”

“Well this game is really about testing timing and coordination, you have to keep your feet to the beat, and also you need the stamina to last till the end of the song. So really its more about your physical fitness than anything else. This is also probably the game I’m the best at here, it’s the only one I’ve ever been able to beat Gaz on.”

“You’ve beaten Gaz on this?” Tak’s interest was piqued, Gaz was incredibly skilled at video games and on the few ones she liked to play against her Gaz always provided an excellent challenge. Gaz hadn’t beaten her every time they played of course, Tak was constantly improving herself and knew it was only a matter of time before she could beat Gaz consistently.

“Yeah, really just because she doesn’t really like this game.”

Tak knew Dib had an ego, but she also noted he tried to diminish it when he was hanging out with her, which she thought was sweet and also good for him. She felt better about not telling him this, in case it would counteract the attempt he was making.

“Well I still don’t know if I want to play this.” Tak said standing with her arms crossed staring at the machine.

Dib grew a grin after she this, “You’re interested in it though.”

“I’m not.”

“Ah, see? There’s that Irken stubbornness I’ve come to admire.”

“I’m not being stubborn. I’m just not interested.” Tak said this even though she was interested in the game a little bit, if only because Dib said he was able to beat Gaz at it, and that is was different from everything else she tried tonight. Even while thinking this, she still wasn’t sure she was interested enough to try it.

“Come on, we’ll play one game and then I’ll walk you home.”

“One game?” Tak asked still folding her arms over her chest, but saying and doing not much else.

“One game. And then I’ll take you home or anywhere else you want to go for the night.”

Tak stood there weighing her options, and eventually it seemed to Dib that Tak’s curiosity got the better of her.

“Fine.” She dragged out, “One game, then take me home.”

Dib did a small fist-pump after hearing this and started setting up the machine.

“The game’s really simple Tak. I’m going to pick a song and on the screen arrows are going to scroll up. When they reach their outlines at the top you just press the matching buttons on the floor. You get extra points for staying in rhythm so if Irkens have any sense of that you’ll have to show me tonight.”

“We don’t have music on Irk Dib, any such distractions are viewed as detrimental to productivity. And so doesn’t go well for the Empire. Even so, I doubt this will be an issue for me.”

Dib made a small raspberry, “Wow. You Irkens really are a happy bunch? I’m honestly surprised Zim’s one of your species.”

“Dib. It’s bad enough for me that you interact with him when we’re all in the same room. Please don’t make this date even worse than it’s already been by bringing him up.”

Dib rolled his eyes at that but didn’t say anything further to the point. “Do you care which song I pick then?” He said this as he took off his trench coat and hanged it on the platform railing.

“They’re all equally hideous to me Dib, but pick something with a bit less ‘pop’ in it. I find those kinds of songs completely unbearable.”

“This one is probably more your style then.” Dib said as he choose the song on the menu, “Techno-Something” or some other nonsense Tak didn’t bother to read. Before they completed the setup Dib noticed Tak taking a long look over the screen then was usually normal for her.

“This should be easy Dib.”

“Don’t sound too sure of yourself Tak, you know I’m full of surprises.”

She grinned slyly at that but didn’t say anything. Dib asked her a final time if she was ready, and after she said she was the game started and a techno mashup blasted through the speakers. It wasn’t one of Dib’s favorite songs, and it didn’t help that the track had a difficult sequence in the beginning. He was putting in his all regardless, and was able to do decent at first but noticed a fall in his quality as the song drew on.

“What’s a matter sweet Dibble, getting tired already?” Tak cooed over to him.

Dib was so focused on his own screen that he hadn’t looked over to Tak at all, when he did he was stunned to see her screen performing a perfect score but her not moving at all. More so from the shock he hunched over and grasped for breath while asking how she was doing that. Then Dib was reminded that his girlfriend was an Irken Invader. She let out a laugh that would send him into a panic if he still thought of her as an enemy. While she was doing so he saw her pak legs fade in and out of visibility as they flawlessly performed the sequence on the screen.

“That’s cheating Tak.” Was all Dib could say.

“Cheating? I’m not cheating. I’m just using my own advantages to my benefit. It’s not my fault you’re a weak human.”

“Yeah but the purpose of the game is to use your own body. I could probably disassemble this whole thing and reprogram it to always give me a perfect game, but I wouldn’t be actually playing the game at that point. Same as you using your pak to play it for you.”

“Yeah, well too bad. Looks like neither of us are playing now, so there’s no point in arguing over technicalities. And I believe our agreement was you’d take me home after we were done. So let’s get going.”

Tak stepped off the platform as she said this and began walking away before Dib interrupted her.

“It’s okay Tak, I get that you need a crutch.” She didn’t say anything but she stopped in her tracks and visibly tighten. “I mean hell, if I had a robot backpack attached to me my whole life, and I depended on it to do all my physical work for me, I don’t think I’d feel too confident in my ability to play this game either. But hey like you said, we’re not playing anymore. But don’t worry we won’t be coming back here so you won’t have to worry about this catching up to you.”

Dib stepped off the platform as he said this and went next to Tak after he grabbed his trench coat off the guard rail. He could see her shaking slightly, he thought from anger, and was worried for a second that he may have touched a sore spot for her. His concern didn’t last after she spoke to him.

“Dib. Make no mistake. I am way stronger, faster, and more agile than you.”

“Right, which you totally just proved.”

“I don’t need to prove anything to you!” She said spinning around to him. The anger in her voice would have sent him into a panic years ago but since then he’s learned a thing or two about her.

“Oh what’s a matter? The little Irken’s afraid of losing to the human.” He teased her.

The two of them were both facing each other as they talked, and Tak after hearing this came close to him and forcefully pointed into Dib’s chest repeatedly for emphasis as she said,

“Never call me little. Ever. Again.”

“Alright, alright.” Dib laughed off. “The very tall, smart, and pretty Irken is afraid of losing to the small, dumb, ugly human.”

Dib leaned over her as he said this and even picked himself slightly off his tippy toes for a moment. Dib was a good bit taller than she was even with how tall she had become while staying on Earth. Tak hated the fact that Dib had grown to be so tall, and hated that she liked it so much.

“You don’t really mean your pak does all the work for you.” Dib tried to say this as smoothly as he possibly could.

Tak backed away from him for a moment and squinted while bringing her hand to her eyes. “Dib, I know exactly what you’re trying to do-”

“-and it’s working?!” Dib interrupted her sounding very hopeful.

She brought her hand over her head and brushed it through her hair. “You are the most annoying human on this planet, and the second most annoying thing overall.”

“Careful Tak, keep talking like that and you’ll end up making my ego bigger than yours.”

“Please. It’s only an ego if you can’t back it up.” Without another word she stretched herself and stood back up on the platform, the previous song having already ended while they were talking.

“Let’s just get this over with. I don’t care what song you pick. Let me just beat you so we can both go home.”

“If that’s the case then I’m going to pick my favorite song on here. I want to give you a real challenge.”

“If you manage to actually do that, that’ll be the biggest surprise this evening.”

Dib glared at that but didn’t say anything related to it. He set up the game and the two of them were preparing themselves.

“And no cheating this time.” Dib said.

“I don’t need to.” Tak hissed out.

There was silence between the two of them as the game counted down before beginning, and Tak could feel the tension between the two of them growing unbearable. Right before it did Dib said playfully,

“I love you Tak!”

Tak was caught off guard by his statement, if only because she didn’t know if he meant it sincerely, if he was just loosening the tension by being weird, or if he was trying to distract her. She was ready to say something in response, what she was going to say she wasn’t sure, but she was interrupted by the start of the round before she could say anything. A gushy pop song blasted through the speakers, it seemed Dib was throwing all the cards against her now, but she was more determined to win now than she had been before in a very long time. The first opening seconds of the song was easy as all the movements followed a predictable sequence, and Tak was able to land all the movements. She noticed she wasn’t earning a perfect score, as the system indicated she hit the correct buttons but not in “beat”, which she now assumed was a more precise timing.

“This is your song Dib? I’m falling asleep here, if that was your plan it’s working.”

“Don’t boast too soon Tak, it’s about to heat up.”

Not a second after Dib said this, the music faded from its current style to a rest. Tak thought it sounded like the low rumblings before an avalanche, and then the song blasted into a crescendo. Tak attempted to follow along but the previous sequence the song followed briefly in the beginning was gone, and the new one seemed almost random, and the music jarring to her. Her feet shuffled trying to hit the pattern, but she was losing all over the place, and felt clumsy on her feet like she had never used them before.

“Not so easy now, is it Tak?”

She could hear Dib goad next to her. She looked over to him for a second and found he was just as clumsy as she was, probably even worse. She didn’t say anything to this though, she just gritted her teeth and growled slightly while trying to focus. She would win this yet. She tried to recover and find the beat, but every time she got the pattern down it seemed the song would change it just to mitigate her progress. She found herself lifting her arms in emphasis of her movements subconsciously, like how she saw Dib do earlier. She was not going to give up, an Invader would never give up even in the face of total defeat. She eventually found a pattern to the madness, and while she wasn’t hitting every note the song threw at her she felt she was a far cry away from losing. The song had only been going on for a minute or less but she felt it had lasted ages and was already feeling drained. Imagine her joy when she looked over to Dib again and saw he looked more tired than her.

“Give it up Dib.” She started, panting for breath slightly in between moves. “I’ve studied your human physiology, your body can’t produce nearly the same amount of energy as an Irken. You may have been fine at the start of the song, but there’s no way you can beat me now. Without a squeedlyspooch it’s just not possible.”

“Yeah Tak?” Dib started panting just as hard as Tak, “Well it seems like your knowledge of humans is totally off. I’ll have you know we humans get what’s called an ‘adrenaline rush’. Which is this big burst of energy that makes us like fifteen times stronger. It happens all the time, and old ladies can use it to pick cars off of babies.”

“Really?” Tak asked clearly disbelieving.

“Yeah. And you know what? I think mines about to kick in!”

Dib picked up his pace for as long as he could after he said this to help the illusion. He wasn’t sure if Tak bought his bluff, but he could have sworn he saw her try to match his speed and swore under her breath. He couldn’t have chosen a better time to do what he did. The song had ended right when he felt like he would have collapsed if he went on any longer. The two of them weren’t mouthing off at each other after it ended, they had been too tired to do so, and where instead hunched over the guard rail facing the console panting heavily. Tak’s score shot up first: “C-”.

“Hah! Beat that Dib!”

While Tak had said this as boastfully as possible Dib could tell she was extremely disappointed with her score, and hoped it wouldn’t bother her too much later. Dib’s score showed up next, he wasn’t sure what he was hoping for before it came up, but it was on the screen before he could decide: “C+”.

“I… I won?”

Was all Dib could say, as he felt there were eyes burning into the back of his head. If any were though it wasn’t Tak’s. He looked next to him and saw she was still staring at the screen and watched her expression change from shock to complete anger. Dib wasn’t sure if he was more scared of or worried for her.

“Hey Tak, don’t worry about it. It’s only a game.”

He said trying to mitigate the situation but worried he only made things worse. She was breathing heavily, a look of anger still on her. She grabbed the metal guard rail and Dib thought for a moment she was going to crush it with her hands. She must have realized she couldn’t (or decided not to crush it) and instead brought her hands to the rubber padding at the middle of the railing and slowly tore that off, which Dib knew was no easy feat. Her breathing seemed to quite after she did this and Dib hoped she calmed herself down, but right after that Tak turned around and walked away from the console. Dib called out to her but she was ignoring him completely, and not wanting to lose sight of her he went after her without even grabbing his trench coat. He didn’t get more than a few steps before he tripped over something.

“Really Mimi?”

He called out looking around him, but Tak’s Sir unit was just collecting tickets from the machine. It gave Dib a quizzical and angry look as she did so behind her disguise, seeming to state she didn’t trip him but was happy he did. He got up and grabbed his trench coat before going after Tak, glaring at Mimi the whole time. He looked around and called for Tak again but she was nowhere in sight. He assumed she went to the exit and was headed there when he saw Mimi go off deeper into the arcade. Knowing Mimi was a bit more loyal (or at least more obedient) than Gir would be in a situation like this and that she had a sixth sense for Tak’s general whereabouts he followed her in tow. They ended up in the section of the arcade that had the older cabinets that weren’t as popular, and as far as Dib could tell it was just him and Mimi there. He heard a sound like something banging hard against the side of the metal cabinets and he and Mimi both went towards the sound. They found Tak, her head buried in a corner between a wall and an old cabinet, and she wasn’t saying or doing anything. Mimi went up to her and padded at her legs with her paws while mewing, but Tak did not respond in anyway.

“Tak?” He called out cautiously to her.

“That was horrible.” Was all she said.

Dib rubbed the back of his head as he said, “Really Tak it wasn’t that bad.”

“Yes. It was.” Tak stated this flatly, and Dib could sense the frustration in her voice. “It’s bad enough that I lost to you by two whole grades, but the fact that you weren’t in peak condition and I was means I would have lost worse if we were even.”

“I wasn’t tired Tak, that was me giving my all. And you did play really well for the first time. I mean, I’m nowhere near good at that game, I’ve seen people play it before that’ll destroy anything I got, and you really didn’t do as bad as you think.” Dib was nervous and stumbled out his words as he tried to cheer up Tak.

“Don’t fucking patronize me! You know how stupid I looked out there! That thing made me feel like I’ve never used my feet before!” Tak slammed the side of the cabinet again, and turned around to glare at Dib.

“Okay, okay Tak! It’s just a game. You don’t need to get angry.” He brought his hands to his face as he said this and felt a familiar sense of self-preservation taking over him. Tak girted her teeth and clenched her fist harder as she turned around to stare into the corner again.

“I am not angry about the game.”

“You’re-You’re not?” Dib said dumb founded.

“No. I’m not, I’m furious, but it’s not about the game. It’s about how much I’m letting this thing get to me.”

“I don’t understand.”

Tak seemed to curl inward of herself and became smaller before she spoke, “Irkens don’t get mad. Or if they do they don’t let it get in their way. The fact of the matter is that I failed, and when that happens one of two things follow for an Irken: you’re disposed of. Either demoted or removed. Or, you learn from it, and never let it happen again. I shouldn’t be so angry that I can’t focus on what I did wrong and how I fix myself. I should be calm, focused, and determined.”

Tak lowered her voice as she finished and tried to remain collected, brushing a hand through her hair, but Dib saw frustration return to her face before she even finished.

“I shouldn’t be thinking about how much I hate that game, and how stupid it is, and how I never want to play it again, but I just feel angry and I CAN’T STOP FUCKING FEELING THIS WAY!”

Tak punched the side of the cabinet again which made an incredibly loud noise and Dib saw it leave a dent that would definitely be noticed by someone later. Tak didn’t do or say anything else after this, and Dib didn’t know how to try to comfort her, or if he really knew what she was going through. Mimi stopped padding her legs after her final outburst, and went away into the arcade again, Dib wasn’t sure what she was up to “Maybe she’s giving us some time alone?” He thought to himself, and so tried to make the most of it.

“Tak.” He started awkwardly not knowing what to say. “I get it, you’re angry.”

“You think?” She responded harshly through her teeth. Which Dib thought was better than her just being quite, but he wasn’t entirely sure.

“Yeah but I think you’re angry for the wrong reasons. I get, you know, losing at a game sucks. It’s normal that you’re angry about it, but don’t be angry about being angry.”

“I’m not angry about being angry.” She said this with a bit less malice in her voice. “I’m angry that I can’t focus.”

“Right which I think is dumb. What does it matter that you’re not set on getting better at a game you said you’ll never play again?”

“Because an Irken would never be like that,” Tak turned away from her corner to look at Dib as she said this, “an Irken would rise to the challenge no matter what!”

“Well you’re a far cry from Irk now. Maybe you should stop living like you’re under the Empire still. Maybe you should live the way you actually want to now and not the way they would want you to. Here on Earth you can do that.”

Dib thought what he said was pretty inspirational, but Tak didn’t seem too convinced and shook her head slightly before continuing.

“Dib, do you remember when I went to walk-off that disgusting Earth food? I said I was playing another game with someone else. The human I was playing against got so angry when I beat him. So angry that all he could focus on was how angry he was, when I could see, and I knew he could see, how he could have done better if he just looked at what happened objectively and not emotionally. That’s me right now, I’m so focused on my anger that I can’t get better.”

“Well…then I’d say you’re better than he was, at least you’re self-aware.”

“What does it matter that I’m self-aware if I’m still like this, that I’m still def-. That I’m still angry?” Tak turned away from him again into the corner, the faintest look of sadness in her eyes that was almost invisible.

Dib didn’t need to be his dad to figure out what was bothering Tak the most (actually he doubted his dad could figure it out, he never really was much of a people person). Dib knew the “D-Word” was a really sore topic for Tak, one she rarely ever brought up, and if she did she would never want to go any further into it than the length of the conversation brought it. So he tried to cheer her up one last time.

“Well then just be angry. The game’s stupid anyway.” This was all he said to her, and for a moment there was a period of silence in which neither of them spoke or did anything else. Eventually Tak was the one who broke the silence.

“I really hate that game.” She said this with deep loathing in her voice, and turned from her corner to Dib again.

“You’re not the only one, I’m sure.”

“Can we go destroy it?” Tak said with joyous anticipation in her voice, and turned fully away from the corner to face Dib.

“That’ll probably get us kicked out of here permanently, so no.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“I mean the four of us will probably want to come back here again when we all want to hang out. And I know you’ll want to keep trying you’re hand at beating Gaz again.”

“I’ve already beaten her before.” Take said annoyed crossing her arms.

“Beating her some more is what I meant. Gaz would love to play against you on one of the games here.”

“I’m not playing against her on the dancing game.” Tak said almost growling, and Dib tried to back pedal to save himself.

“I never said you would. I said Gaz hates it too, remember?”

Tak still had her arms crossed while they were talking, and she looked more annoyed than upset or angry, so Dib thought she was better but not completely. Even while she looked annoyed she couldn’t manage to look at him in the eyes. Right as they were done talking Mimi came back mewing at Tak’s legs again, but Tak completely ignored her. Dib noticed she was holding a receipt paper in her mouth.

“What do you have here Mimi?” Dib said and reached down for her, and was pleased and surprised that Mimi gave it to him. He looked over it before showing it to Tak.

“It looks like Mimi’s been collecting all of our tickets for the night. I honestly forgot this arcade even had them, and we got over 25,000 to spend.”

Tak tore the ticket out of Dib’s hand and looked over the receipt herself.

“I have no basis for this currency. Is this a lot?”

“Probably enough for us to get anything we want at the prize counter.”

Tak tossed away the receipt towards Dib. He caught it as she started walking away.

“Is that supposed to interest me?”

“We could probably find a toaster or something for you to fiddle with and make a bomb out of if that interests you.”

“Dib, you know the device you call a ‘toaster’ doesn’t have near enough parts to turn it into a practical improvised explosive.”

“Well, you could probably find something else and turn it into something to prank Zim with next time we see him.”

Tak grew a huge grin at the mention of that. “Maybe I can find something to scar or frighten him.”

“So we’ll go to the prize counter and get something?”

Dib went up next to her and grabbed her hand. Tak then leaned into his shoulder and sighed before saying,  

“Do that, and then take me home.”

* * *

“Man… the ticket prices sure have gone up since I was a kid.” Dib said as he scanned the prize counter from top to bottom.

“Inflation is typically a natural course for an ungoverned economy, and this place hardly seems like the type to have any regulation.” Tak said condescendingly.

The two of them were standing next to one another, their hands still intertwined. Tak was leaning her head against Dib, but looked more exhausted than affectionate.

“Is there really a point to us being here still? I don’t see anything I like.” Tak said, once again not hiding her annoyance.

“I’m trying to find you a gift remember?"

“Gift? Last I checked Dib I earned us most of the tickets we have. Doesn’t that make you more of an Indian giver?”

“No, that’s when you give something away only to take it back later.”

“Whatever! My point is I don’t need anything from here.”

“Yeah, but you’ve been having a shitty night. I just wanted to get you something to make up for it.”

Tak sighed in resignation, “Just pick something quickly, and let’s get out of here.”

Dib was looking as hard as he could, but he wasn’t finding anything he thought Tak would enjoy. She liked to dabble in examining “primitive Earth technology” every once in a blue moon purely for fun, but all of them were in the upper millions. They did have a toaster funnily enough, but that was half a million, so also out of budget. The only items they could afford where the small to medium sized stuffed animals, and some other toys. Thankfully it was just the two of them at the prize counter and the employee running it was preoccupied on his phone, so he spoke to Tak freely about what she’d really use the potential gift for.

“What about that can of slug?” He said pointing to a cheap toy labeled Biohazardous Waste, “I’m sure it’ll burn Zim a little bit, or you could poison his lunch with it.”

Tak came to attention at his suggestion and was considering it for a moment but said, “Nah, I could probably synthesized something worse on my own.”

“Okay well how about that laser?” He said pointing to a plastic laser toy on the wall which boasted the ability to shoot real lasers.

“Really? I could make better firearms in my sleep. Even if I was just going to examine it for amusement I doubt I’d get any enjoyment from it.”

“Okay well how about that?” Dib said, this time pointing to a box for a cat leash with a picture of little girl towing a cat along. “It would help you keep an eye on Mimi.”

Mimi hissed and scratched at Dib’s leg at the suggestion, which prompt a small laugh from Tak, afterwards she said playfully,

“Oh, I don’t know Mimi, Dib’s got a point. You’ve been awfully rambunctious lately.”

Which earned a low growl from Mimi in response.

“So I’ll get that for you?” Dib said hopefully.

“If you want to sure, but honestly I’ll never use it.”

This was becoming a difficult decision for Dib. He didn’t want to get a gift for Tak, just for the sake of it. If he was going to get her something it would have to be something she’d actually want or at least used everyone once in a while. He’d might as well just get her a stuffed toy at that rate. When that idea flashed into his head, he thought that could work, so long as he got her something novel enough that she’d want to keep. He looked briefly at the lineup of stuffed toys on the shelf when he saw one he thought she’d enjoy.

“How about a stuffed toy?”

“Really Dib? I know it’s human tradition for the male to purchase a stuffed creature for his mate and it matches your theme of a ‘normal’ date, but that would be the absolute last thing I’d want from here.”

“Really cause I was thinking of getting you that one.” Dib said pointing to a stuffed toy in the shape of a flying saucer, complete with the traditional green alien sewed onto the glass dome. “Is does kind of match you.” He said teasingly.

“Honestly Dib that’s…” Tak sounded like she was going to berate him at first but after she saw the toy she grew a curious expression on her face. “…actually, I never noticed it before. But that ship design does look frighteningly similar to the style Žertians typically use, and the pilot doesn’t look too different from one of them.”

“Really?” Dib said with fascination before he took out a note book from his pocket and started writing down.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting the name down, so next time I see one of those on the radar I can call them by it.”

“I would be cautious before you do that, the Žertians are a pretty unpredictable species in how they act. They’ve taken to interstellar nomadism since the Empire conquered their home planet, and they’ve been known to abduct other species for all kinds of purposes.”

“Really? Well that would explain a few things if it’s not just a coincidence.”

“Hey are you two going to buy something or what?” The clerk said annoyed from behind the counter, still engrossed in his phone.

“We’re busy deciding.” Tak replied angrily.

“Well could you hurry it up?”

“We’re not preventing you from playing on your primitive little phone by being here.”

“Uh… are you sure about that?” The clerk raised his phone up to them so they could see it as he spoke but neither of them could see what he was doing on it.

Tak let out an annoyed grunt, but before she could say or do anything else Dib yelled to the clerk, “We won’t be much longer.” And then turned to Tak to say, “Do you want the spaceship?”

“No, but for the sake of getting us out of here I’ll choose one of the stuffed monsters.”

“You really want one?”

“Not really, but if I’m going to get anything here it better be something I could see myself actually wanting, even if it’s just to throw out later.”

Tak stepped away from Dib and went up to the clerk and said,

“Service drone-”

“I have a name you know?” The clerk replied.

“It’s not important.”

“It’s Karl.”

“Carl…” Tak said, bringing her hand to her eyes to squint in exasperation.

“Karl with a K.”

“The spelling of your name has no determinable affect to how I pronounce it. But, Carl with a K, I’m in need of an ugly stuffed toy to complete my date with my boyfriend. So show me the best stuffed monsters you have.”

“Uh, can’t you see them for yourself?”

“I don’t know what their significance is, so I need you to dictate them to me so I can select the superior one.”

“You’ve never been to zoo, or looked at these animals in a book before?”

“I probably have, but I couldn’t have been bothered to remember them.” Tak said crossing her arms with an air of indifference.

Dib walked up to the counter and said with only a small sense of concern in his voice, “That won’t be needed Tak, I can just tell you about them myself. What about that one there?” He pointed to a small stuffed black cat on the wall, which earned him another hiss from Mimi.

“Exactly, I have already have Mimi for that. Honestly Dib that one’s  a worse suggestion than the spaceship.”

“Well how about that one? It’s a lion, they’re hunters on the top of the food chain where they live.”

“Better, but too similar to Mimi.”

“The gray one next to it with tusks and a long nose? They’re called elephants and they’ve been known for their intelligence.”

“How intelligent? Do you have a written language or use weapons?”

“I’ve heard they use sticks and shit as tools, and might have some sort of language they use.” Karl said without looking up from his phone.

“I thought you said you were too busy to educate me on the stuffing’s?”

“I can still commentate.”

“Forget him.” Dib said, “How about that one, a honey badger right?”

“Honey badgers are the best. They just don’t give a fuck.” Karl said.

“Their nihilism doesn’t impress me. Next.”

The three of them went on like this until they exhausted all the stuffed animals they could afford, and Dib was ready to give up when Tak pointed out a small one they missed.

“How about that one?” She said pointing to a small rodent like animal, it was so small but it costed 27,500 tickets.

“The uh…muskrat?” Dib said, bemused both at her interest in it and at its price.

“Hey man that one’s a mongoose, they’re like super tough and fight rattle snakes and shit.”

“They fight cobras.” Dib said, who had become more irritated with Karl than Tak had.

“And these cobras?” Tak started intrigued. “They’re some genus of snakes, correct?”

“Yeah, they’re big, venomous, and prey on humans and other animals all the time. But they’re mongooses prey and they kill them easily.”

Tak pondered on what Dib told her for a moment, after which she said, “That one will do.”

“We’ll take the it then.” Dib said not missing a beat.

After he said that Karl finally got off his phone and grumbled something about ‘choosing one he had to get a ladder for’ and went into the back room presumably for said ladder.

“So why the mongoose?” Dib asked her once he was out of sight.

“I actually find it very similar to an Invader: small and unassuming, but a powerhouse within!” Tak said  bringing her hand up into a fist for emphasis, “Plus I do like its aesthetic if I’m being honest.”

Karl came back out, pulled the stuffed toy off the shelf, and ask them for the tickets for it. Dib provided the receipt to him and Karl was handing it to him when Tak came over and snatched it out of his hands.

“Uh? That still leaves you with 500, if you guys want anything else.” Karl said perplexed by Tak’s actions.

“I think we’re good but thanks.” Dib started but was interrupted before he finished by Mimi pawing at his legs. She then pointed to a small shelf on the counter with Gummy Bears candy.

“Gummy Bears?” Dib said in disbelief turning to Tak. He saw her intently fondling her new toy, and was distracted by his sudden question.

“Huh? Oh right. Mimi’s taken a liking to them. Get them for her if you don’t mind.” She said barely taking her attention from the toy.

Dib purchased them and presented the opened bag to her but Mimi let out a disgusted meow after he did.

“Oh right. She doesn’t care for the green ones.”

“Why doesn’t she like the green ones?”

“I don’t know why she likes anything. Just take out the green ones so I don’t have to hear her on the way back.”

Dib complied with the request sorting out the green ones in his hands, and was surprised to see Mimi eat directly out of his once the green ones were gone. He felt Mimi’s course tongue brush and tickle against his hands, and was surprised by how much detail Tak put into their disguises. Mimi purred with satisfaction upon finishing and even let Dib pet her. After they were done she went over to Tak, brushed against her legs, and purred again.

“Great. Are we done here?” Said Tak without looking up from her toy.

Dib said that they were, and after throwing the wrapper along with the green Gummy Bears into the garbage (and missing) the three of them left the arcade and began their walk back home. Their walk back was very uneventful, it mostly consisted of them talking about anything besides what happened that night. They talked about recent happenings at High Skool, Zim’s most recent hijinks which Dib had to bail him out of, that fact that Miss Bitters had died recently (which Dib still couldn’t get over), and that Gaz had entered into a video game tournament. They were almost to Tak’s home, but while they were talking Dib couldn’t help but feel like he was the one carrying the conversation. Tak had only supplied the odd comment here and there and was still very much fascinated by her stuffed toy she got. Dib was actually happy she was enjoying it so much, but he also thought is was uncharacteristic of her and was worried. So trying to ail his worry he said to her:

“You’re really into that mongoose I got you.”

“Huh? Yeah it’s strange actually.” She started saying, “Normally I’m very indifferent to any Earth toy, but this one specifically has captured my fascination. It’s like, I don’t know, like I have this gravitation towards this thing and I can’t help but fondle it.” Tak said while playing with it as she had done the entire walk home.

Dib guessed she was experiencing a new feeling and was relieved when he figured it out. “I think the word you’re looking for is ‘adorable’. As in you find the toy adorable.”

“What?” Tak said looking away from the toy, somewhat concerned.

“That feeling you’re describing for the toy. You can’t pull yourself away from it and all you want to do is ruffle it a bunch. That’s you finding it adorable.”

“Adorable…” She said the word to herself  while looking at the toy and then her eyes beamed. “Yes! Yes that’s it that’s exactly it. I find this toy adorable. Oh my tallest it’s so adorable!” and then she giggled as she brought the toy to her face, playing with it the whole time.

If Dib wasn’t surprised already, he was now. He couldn’t remembered ever seeing her so giddy over anything the whole time he’d known her, but he wasn’t the only one to notice. Mimi went up to her and started mewing and rubbing up against her try to get her attention, but all Tak did was shoo her away. Disgruntled Mimi then went to Dib and started doing the exact same thing to him. He was very confused and asked what Mimi was up to, but before he could finish Mimi jumped right at him and into his arms. Dib brought his arms up instinctively and wound up carrying her, after which she began purring and caressing him profusely. He was thoroughly confused again, but pleasantly surprised as she rarely let anyone but Tak carry or pet her.

“Why are you so friendly all of a sudden, was it the Gummy Bears?” He said playfully to her, but all she did was purr louder to him in response. “Oh I get it. Somebody’s jealous, you poor kitty.” He said this and then brought Mimi down from his face and cradled her in his arms to pet her. While he was doing so Mimi was looking at Tak the whole time, who by now was glaring at Mimi with daggers. She stopped playing with her toy then and walked up to the two of them, Mimi was overjoyed at her coming over, but it was not for the reason she thought it was.

“Mimi here, hold this for me.” Tak said as she pushed the stuffed mongoose into her, and grabbing Dib by the collar of his coat pulled him in for a kiss. Tak always felt bold whenever she kissed him. She wasn’t sure if it was because he was a human, or if was because she was an Irken and Irkens weren’t supposed to kiss. At any rate she wasn’t focused on why she felt that way, and was preoccupied with exploring her dumb human’s mouth. While normally the planet’s filth irritated her she was thankful Dib’s bodily fluids never did, he body must naturally filter it out, she could still feel something when they exchanged saliva, but only a slight tingle. His teeth always interested her whenever she got the chance to examine them. They weren’t like hers, which where hard cartilage, but instead bone with slicers in the front and round mashers in the back. His tongue interested her the most, while hers was long, firm, and cord like, his was flat, soft, and so very warm. She felt like she could wrap her whole tongue around his. She imagined her tongue as a cobra and his tongue as a mongoose, and that thought sent shivers over her body. After a moment they separated from each other and caught their breathe, immediately after which Tak said,

“Who’s jealous?” To which Dib replied,

“I don’t know I can’t remember.”

Mimi replied with a low growl to both of them, and then Tak gave into her.

“Fine.” She drawled out, “Come here, and hold my mongoose for me Dib.”

Tak took Mimi in her arms while Dib held onto her toy. She cradle Mimi while petting and rubbing at her, and Mimi responded with satisfied purrs.

“Oh Mimi. And you say I’m going native. Just as well though, I don’t think the two of us will be leaving this planet anytime soon.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Dib responded slightly miffed.

“It won’t be, with the right company anyway.”

The three of them had reached the gates of Tak’s home as they talked.

“Guess this is goodbye for the night, I hope you had a good time.” Dib said.

“I didn’t really, but it was bearable.”

“Well I hope I’m bearable to you.”

“You are, most of the time.” She teased him as she went for another kiss.

She turned away from him after they finished, and she went into her estate as the gates opened for her. Dib stood by and watched her as she made her way into her home. When she was out of sight he began his walk home. He was going over the night as he did, he thought it went well for the most part, and wasn’t completely ready to rule out the arcade for another one of their date nights. A few days later though, it would be him, Tak, Zim, and Gaz at his house playing video games. So he hoped Tak wasn’t completely tuckered out of them, but that was for another day.

* * *

This fan-fiction was largely inspired by this artwork. Made by ZimGalForevah on Deviantart.

[the-pontiac-bandit]

catch your dreams

in which amy santiago and jake peralta watch a presidential primary debate with their children, and one of those children is enamored with governor knope of indiana. 

also on ao3

“Welcome to the first debate of the 2036 election! My name is Cecile Stafford, and with me tonight is my co-moderator Cooper Liddell. We’re thrilled to welcome you to this exciting primary contest--”

“MOM!” Ana’s shout from the kitchen table drowns out the TV. “I CAN’T FIND MY FOLDER!”

“Oh! I think I saw it earlier!” Jake shouts back from the master bedroom down the hall.

“Um...where?” Ana sounds surprised--his father loses things even more frequently than he does, and only twice in the thirteen year-old’s memory has her father ever been the one to find something lost.

“UNDER YOUR BUTT!” Jake’s uproarious laughter draws eye rolls from his wife and older daughter, seated side-by-side on the couch, and a giggle that matches his own from the small boy seated between them. Rey has a journal open on her lap, a pencil (she would never dare use a pen on the couch--those things can stain) already scratching away at the top of a new page. Her social studies teacher promised her extra credit for her thoughts on the debate, and she’ll be damned if she isn’t going to earn it.

Her mother pipes up from next to her, for the benefit of eight year-old Eli, curled up in the crook of her arm. “Jake, potty words stay in the…?”

“Potty,” comes the somewhat subdued response from the bedroom. Satisfied, Amy turns her attention back to the kitchen.

“Ana, did you check your backpack? It’s by the front door.”

Ana’s sigh of annoyance is audible, even over the audience applause coming from the TV’s top-of-the-line surround sound speakers (Jake had purchased them in order to better appreciate Avatar in all its cinematic glory). “Mom. I already checked there.”

“Well--” Amy starts to reply, ready to list the other places where her seventh-grader habitually leaves her possessions (it’s truly a miracle how easily the Jake and Ana manage to lose things in an apartment so small she has to share a bathroom with her teenage daughters).

“AHA!” Ana cuts her off triumphantly. Then, her voice turns sheepish. “I found it.”

“Where?” Amy asks, a hint of smugness in her voice betraying her certainty that the folder was in her daughter’s sequin backpack, thrown unceremoniously by the door five hours before.

Ana’s voice is sheepish. “...I was sitting on it,” she admits reluctantly, sticking her head around the door to the living room.

Then, a clatter from the bedroom startles all of them. Jake emerges with a triumphant shout, “I was right! It was under your butt!”

None of them hear him, though. They’re all too busy staring--while they’d been peacefully doing the dishes, Jake had been pulling a Tupperware bin of costumes out from the hall closet and adorning himself with every bit of red-white-and-blue attire the Santiago-Peralta family possessed.

“What?” he says, in response to the four pairs of eyes trained on him. “I had to get ready for the debate!” On the word debate, he leaps into the air, doing his best to imitate his fifteen-year-old ballerina daughter. He lands loudly, rattling the decorative plates hung on the wall behind him, and looks up at his family, a mohawk wig worn six years ago to Charles’ Fourth of July barbecue sitting crooked so his graying curls are visible underneath.

The entire family pauses for a second, a commercial about some adult-onset asthma medication droning on in the background. Then, everyone is laughing. Jake hops on the sofa next to his daughter, bouncing everyone around while his son’s cheeks turn rosy pink with his deep belly laugh and his more serious daughter’s soft giggle fills the room.

Jake and Eli are still laughing, Jake’s wig now perched on Eli’s much smaller head, covering his eyes, when a sudden swell in patriotic music and applause jerks them back to reality.

Rey has her hand on the volume button, eyeing them defiantly. “It’s starting,” she informs her father seriously as the speakers approach their maximum volume.

Ana, now laying on the floor with the previously-lost folder full of crumpled pages of math homework, grabs a pillow to cover her ears with an eye roll as Amy snags the remote from Rey. “Quick, turn it down!” she says, still breathless from laughter. “Before the neighbors call again!”

She switches the volume back to acceptable levels, but Rey doesn’t even seem to notice. Jake leans over and notices that she has columns for each candidate in her notebook, with her neat handwriting listing names, previous qualifications, and current offices.

“Our senator’s running, you know,” Rey announces. “Foster Cromwell. He’s supposed to win. It’d be cool to have another New York president. I think I’d vote for him.”

“You shouldn’t vote for someone just because they’re from your state,” Amy explains. “You want to vote for the person with the best ideas.”

“But you think he has good ideas! You voted for him last year!” Rey retorts.

“I do,” Amy concedes. “Senator Cromwell is very smart. But let’s see who else is on stage before we start committing our votes!”

Rey nods, writing furiously in her notebook as Harris finishes his opening statement. Seven candidates follow him, with opening statements so rehearsed and identical that Jake starts to nod off by the time the eighth candidate gets her minute.

“My name is Leslie Knope, and I’m the governor of Indiana. I may be new to the national political scene, but I’ve worked in government longer than any of the people on stage with me. My career began in the local Parks and Recreation department in--”

Something in her voice makes Jake snap to attention. His eyes open, and out of the corner of his eye, he can see Amy sitting up straighter, too. Even Ana, pretending to be entirely disengaged from her spot on the carpet, has stopped writing.

The moment only lasts a few seconds, but it captures Jake’s attention. The tiny blonde woman on the far edge of the stage is electric, and her story about a swing, national parks, conservation, and hard work feels like it could be much longer than a minute.

The audience in the room seems to agree, with a swell of applause so loud that Amy has to turn the volume down another few notches.

“Who is she?” Amy asks her daughter.

Rey consults her notebook. “Governor of Indiana. She used to work at the Department of the Interior, and in the National Parks Service before that. She’s from...Pow-nee, I think is how you say it.”

Eli laughs. “Pow-nee’s funny.”

“Pow-NEE, Pow-NEE,” Jake repeats, poking his son in the stomach on each syllable while his son giggles.

“Shh!” Rey shoots a death glare--scarily like Amy’s--at her father as the moderators ask the first question.

Jake rapidly gets lost again in the technical language about public options, data privacy, and global trade pacts, so he settles on watching his wife, who clearly seems to know what’s going on. She’s enthralled, fascinated by the detailed policy discussion. Meanwhile, Rey is scribbling furiously.

“Governor Knope, one of your most-discussed achievements in Indiana is your prison reform bill, which aided the state’s recovery from the opioid crisis and restructured policing in the face of drug crimes. “Which such reforms are necessary at the national level, and how would you pursue them?”

As Governor Knope launches into a response about her work with the local police chief and how that translated into statewide work on bias training and accountability, Rey stops writing, her jaw slowly dropping.

When Governor Knope finishes, the debate cuts to a commercial break, and Rey turns sharply to her parents.

“Grandpa Ray talks about that stuff all the time!”

Amy smiles at her daughter. “He does. He’s worked hard on some of those policies in the NYPD for years.”

“But government people do it, too?”

“They can.”

“Do government people in New York do it?” Ana pipes up.

“Sometimes, but not as much as we want them to. That’s why Grandpa Ray has been working so hard--to change those things from the inside, since people aren’t changing them from the outside.”

“Oh.” Rey looks thoughtful. “Do you have to be a governor to do that? Change it from the outside?”

Amy looks thoughtfully at her daughter before starting an explanation about the endless nonprofit groups, researchers, and government employees who help elected officials make decisions like Governor Knope’s. She’s quickly cut off, though, by the music indicating that the debate has returned, which cues her daughter’s attention back to the candidates and her notebook.

----------

Amy’s surprised the next day when her daughter brings home five books from her high school library about the history of government and criminal justice reform. Rey dives in headfirst, and it’s all she talks about for months. Later that year, Amy’s just as surprised when Governor Knope surges from behind in the polls and captures the nomination, and even more surprised when she denies a strong Republican president a second term.

By April of her oldest daughter’s senior year, Amy’s only a bit surprised when Rey confidently announces that she’d like to turn down NYU and move to Washington, D.C., and study political science. When Jake and Amy are on a train back from Georgetown the next fall, having just moved Rey into her new dorm, Jake can’t stop crying about their baby moving away. Amy smiles as she pats his shoulder as their two younger children roll their eyes.

And six months after that, when her daughter calls screaming about an internship with President Knope’s special commission on national criminal justice reform, Amy’s hardly surprised at all.

[snazzyo]

In praise of J2M’s handling of the decision to end Supernatural

Supernatural has always been special.  And the way that they managed the news of the shows ending is another example of the care and skill they bring to the Supernatural experience.  This decision could have rolled out in so many different ways or different times that would have been much more devastating. But it’s clear from start to finish, the boys deftly managed this announcement in expert fashion.  Long ass post - skim the bold for the gist.  

Ways that showed careful attention to managing o this decision:

They unambiguously ending it versus the CW or the WB.   This is a victory for the show, for fandom, and for the boys.  And J2M didn’t just randomly make a decision. At some point this past year, they started to believe it was time to end.  But in order to make it a #SPNFamily choice they had to have some things fall in place and they had to time when they let people know in order for this to be a ‘choice’ rather than ‘cancellation’. Specifically:

They had to be renewed.  And renewed for 20 episodes.  This means the CW was prepared to continue at the ratings level they had achieved.  Once that happened, then J2M could take over the narrative.  Timing: renewal followed the traditional timeline of late January - which would give TPTB enough time to rewrite the last 4 episodes into a series finale if they needed to.  This has been a consistent pattern since S4.  The last time they totally flew off the cliff without a net was S3 (bless them!).  

They needed to time when they told Dabb & Singer. I’m pretty sure they told Andrew around the 31st of January - when CW made the renewal announcement. Some have made a case that this decision happened earlier and Andrew’s absence on Nov 16th (300th party) was related to him hearing S15 was ‘the end’ news.   BUT I'm thinking they did not share - or maybe hadn't even cemented the idea yet.  First, it would really dampen the mood.  Second, they wanted renewal.  Any hint of hanging it up at that party would have been hard to keep quiet. Too much press.  Too much alcohol.  So, I can't totally get on board with a final decision at that point.  Even if the boys were seriously talking about the remotely sad -- so they weren’t certain they were going to end at that time. These guys are good actors but not robots.  I think it would have shown.  BUT Andrew had to know how to shape the last 4 episodes of S14 (again end of January).  Which means the boys would have provided him the information that they were going to wrap in S15 and he should target the last 24 episodes as supporting that eventuality about that time.  

Either the CW was prepared to let the boys decide on duration or they waited til relatively the last minute so that the CW didn't restructure a shorter season.  I'm torn on this one.  Pedowitz has been respectful of the boys BUT there's definite bad blood on not picking up Wayward Sisters -- and the fan backlash. If Pedowitz did know early enough to weigh in on duration, he only did it for the boys.  Not the CW and not the fans.  He was visibly pissed at the fans backlash on Wayward Sisters.  And I'm 100% certain that him sticking the knife in the back of any other spin-off (which he did last fall by saying Supernatural is just the boys and he doesn't see another spin-off) is because Warner Brothers financial deal was not what he wanted.  Never underestimate the grudges that develop after failed negotiations (which is what the Wayward Sisters was -- it was all about the money).  So, I'm inclined to believe that Pedowitz knew before the announcement but not as quickly as Dabb and Singer did. The boys were more likely to hedge their bet here. THEY controlled the narrative by how they informed key players.

  They strategically timed the public announcement - literally the DAY of the wrap party. This accomplishes two important things for the crew. 

One, the crew WILL get new jobs but this gives them a full year to line up something new.  Some will jump early, some will jump no later than pilot season.  Others will go sporadically based on their intent. The point is that they have a rich portfolio to show and time to show it off to prospective bosses. 

Second, they gave the cast and crew to have one big happy cry-off/celebration.  The boys both stayed this year - which hasn't been the case in a while.  The party was immediately after the announcement - which meant they could have the bulk of the crew there before they headed off to various summer activities. And some now won't come back (as they leap to other jobs).  So it was a maximum crew party.   If there's one thing I'm confident of, it's that J2 understands they hold the livelihoods of so many in their hands.  You really couldn't have asked for a better handling of the end announcement from a crew perspective.   

  They clearly informed key recurring cast members before they made the announcement. This is a fitting professional courtesy to a trusted few.  Especially the ones that were likely to come back on the show.  So Speight, Benedict, Rhodes, Buckmaster, Connell, Smith.  Those guys knew for sure.  And knew no later than SPNNash.  But maybe not much earlier.  If these people were going to get a pilot during pilot season, their recurring role wouldn't have stopped them. 

Unambiguously, Misha was always part of the discussions IMO right from the jump.  He would have been engaged in the actual debate about what to do with J2 and when.  Because while it may be J2's show, Misha is IN that circle of trust.  He has a large dedicated fandom, he's got a huge international charity. And they just love him dearly.  Seriously, they ran a marathon cause he asked them to.  IMO if Misha needed more time, they would have given it to him.  But that's not Misha. He has zero sense of entitlement.    

But this also lets the recurring cast have a private freak-out because the show IS likely their primary professional income stream.  Veterans like Benedict & Rhodes have already been taking other gigs but the conventions mean big dollars too.  It's a nice testament to their friendship that they told them personally and early.

I think JDM was the exception.  I think Jensen told him that this was a real possibility before he signed onto the 300th.  I don't think they had made the final decision that early (pre-Christmas) but they were leaning that way.  

  The timing and approach of the public announcement ALSO massively helps the the fandom - They truly care about fandom. They understand this is going to be actually life-changing hard for some. But with this timing/approach they optimized it as best they could with a staggered process.

We get four more episodes this year while we are 'actively engaged'.  Versus some announcement during Hellatus when there's less folks on line.  It shifts our view of the last four episodes. 

It's done right before a massive con (SPNLV) where Jensen will sing (always a treat).  So it's really good pacing for us.  We get to react to the news and then hear MORE detail from them.  This is also the con that is broadcast via Stage-It.  Could be coincidence.  Maybe not. 

It keeps Comic Con a celebration not a bummer.  We'll start to 'wind up' versus be crushed. 

The announcement was a 1+1+2 strategy.  I don't know if they realized that. They said one positive (yay! S15), they got immediately to the bad news (it's the end), and then followed up with at least two positive statement (we're excited, this family doesn't go away).  Maybe it's instinct but it's a tried and true method.  (Full disclosure: 2+1+1 is the classic method, but I think they knew the jig would be up as soon as they started talking on the video so they ripped off the Band-Aid quickly).      

  All which leads me to the following speculation:

When they signed the S14/S15 contracts, they were prepared to walk away then.  It wasn't how they would want to end it, but they were going to prioritize family time.  Note: the timing of when they were 'asked back' was much later than I think they were hoping.  Based on things both Jared and Jensen said, I get the impression they were hoping to orchestrate the next two contracts earlier than Nov 17 (when they were 'asked back').  They had been talking 'mini-series' or other event-like content. I think understanding when/how they have leverage was informed by this relatively traditional November 'ask back' and this shaped how they went about the end announcement strategy.  But the 20 episode contracts with clearly more time off was both a necessity and a bit of a test -- would it hold up with that level of involvement?

I think they really expected Wayward Sisters to be picked up.  They thought crossovers with Wayward would help make a two-year transition smooth.  That they didn't get picked up, that Pedowitz crushed any spin-off hopes was significant in how they played the S15 decision.  Without Wayward, a S15 was necessary to give the crew time to land elsewhere IMO.  That also includes writers, producers, and recurring guests.  But the unexpected failure to pick up Wayward DID shift some storylines early in the season.  I think there is literally NOTHING left of Wayward tie-in after mid-season.  Except for a general "they exist in offscreenville' commitment.  As mentioned elsewhere Kathryn Newton was gonzo right away.  Yadira is on an Apple show with Jason Mamoa.  Kim has had guest appearances on other shows.  Briana has music going and probably actively looking for work for the last year.  The other 3 are back in the hopper, looking for acting gigs as far as I can tell. And I honestly think Berens still has a gaping chest wound from the loss of his hopes and dreams. I think Dabb has moved on but also feels the loss.  But without Wayward, the boys lost their structured soft ending for Supernatural. Maybe something pops up later (a special or movie) but that's dependent on how they end the series.  We won't know if it's even viable until 2020.  

They are truly ready to move on.  They've been prepared since Nov 2017.  I think they were open to more (under the 20 episode, less time contract terms) but they sense "now" is the time.  It could be the storylines, it could be the fan reaction to their less involvement (which has been understanding but generally unhappy), and it could be a variety of things.  Unless they say something specifically about the ' why now', I think it's fair to say they didn't see enough momentum to make it extend. Hence the 'go out on a high note'.  I'll be shocked if they ever criticize anyone or any story specifically.    

Bottom Line:  They brilliantly played the hand they were dealt.  It's so nice to be part of a fandom where the stars put such a priority on taking care of others.  It's why I buy in, completely, on the #SPNFamily concept. 

[everyday-effing-therapy]

07/08/19

Hello, hello,

Well, it takes me a while now to write.

I am afraid that writing this post will be a long process, cause... I have my nails short.

I know, I know, a huge surprise. But look, I’ve had my nails done for past two years, I believe and I never liked them short. Especially last year I had an amazing nail tech, to whom I still go and she makes my nails look super cool and strong, so I didn’t really feel like cutting them down.

Unfortunately, due to my adventures by the seaside and my nails being absolutely long for about a month, some of them broke and I had to cut them as much as it was possible.

They still look cute for me, somewhat shocking, cause I hadn’t seen them like that for such a long time. What is more, I am so not used to using my phone or computer keyboard like that. 

Because of that, I sent a lot of unwanted or wrong messages on messenger yesterday and writing this post could be a bit of a burden, but, from what I can already tell, I am able to write so much faster, I just have to check the spelling more often. 

It actually surprises me, how big is the change of pace. For the longest time I thought that there was something wrong with me, that I couldn’t write just as fast and now it turns out that I actually can. I mean, hello?

There are a lot of thoughts that I have had recently.

First of all, I am trying to exercise regularly. I do a 100 reps butt challenge from blogilates, day 9th today, cause I started earlier (I am leaving next week and I wanted to achieve as much as it was possible beforehand) and I also do a 30 day plank, squat, push-up and crunch challenge.

Apart from that, it is day three of my diet, as I realised that exercising brings results, yes, but it mostly builds muscles, while reducing your fat only for, like, bare minimum. It is mostly dieting that helps with fat loss, especially around stomach region as it is widely known that you build your abs in the kitchen.

Abdominal muscles aren’t really that hard to build, for them to be visible, as I have had them visible for about four years now. It’s just that you have to put a lot of effort to actually make your stomach lean. 

I am working on my thighs a lot too. I am mostly self-conscious about my face, acne on said face, my breasts or rather lack thereof and my thighs.

Honestly, if I could take some fat from my thighs and put it in my boobs, I would do so 100%. 

But, it’s not possible for me for now. So, I am at least trying to make my thighs lean.

It’s just that, I’ve been a dancer for about 8 years. I had very long, harsh Saturday trainings that took up the majority of my day and later, they became Friday and Saturday trainings. 

I had a very lean, slim body at the time, but also my thighs started to grow as a natural result of putting a lot of work into your legs.

Then I quit, the muscles stayed and I also started eating a bit more, which made the thighs grow even more.

So, now we’re here.

It’s quite funny, how I don’t like the plump thighs on myself, but they are my favourite thing on Internet models and I always love how beautiful they look.

I just can’t comprehend it, how much I can love something on somebody else and completely hate it on me. 

Anyways, yesterday I got my glasses. I had an optometric check-up on Monday, although I overslept and I had to schedule another one. 

Basically, when I went to the doctor for the check-up I needed for my driving school, they sent me to a different optometrist, who said that my glasses were too strong for me and I should have my eyes checked. 

I decided to do so and I was postively surprised with how fast i was able to schedule that. I mean, I scheduled the meeting via Internet after gym on Sunday and it was scheduled for Monday, 4 pm. Since I overslept, I had to reschedule, but I did that quite easily and my next meeting was at 5:30pm. I went with my dad and an hour later everything was pretty much done, I chose how I wanted my glasses to look like and I paid. 

Turns out that the doctor was right and the glasses were actually a bit too harsh and strong with power and obviously it is unhealthy to wear glasses or contact lenses that are not suitable for you.

I also desperately needed new glasses, because the previous ones were very beaten-up.

The new ones are super pretty. I actually had trouble picking them, because there was the other pair that I also liked and it was cheaper, but, I have always wanted glasses that would somehow resemble cat eyes and I think I look super pretty in them, even without make-up and with messy hair, which speaks volumes to me. I didn’t know that it was actually possible to feel so powerful with glasses, but well, here we go. 

Besides, I actually passed the theoretical driving test yesterday. It was all a long journey, as at first, I thought that the school was closed, then it turned out that the really nice lady who works as a receptionist had her heart broken and she cried a lot, so I talked it over with her a bit. Later, we had problems with the computer and it shut down in the first half of the exam, which made me mad, cause I was doing well and was pretty sure of the answers. In the second half of the exam that nice lady started weeping really loudly and I was so sad for her, because I remembered how hard I wept after a break-up with my ex. In turn, that made me sort of unable to focus and I got really scared that I won’t be able to pass.

I did pass though, with maximum score, which made me so happy. I can schedule my theoretical exam from tomorrow, the one that actually counts. 

In the meantime, on one of those nights, Black sent me a snap that he was sad. I didn’t reply, cause I have to fix my sleep schedule, gosh darn it, but even later, when I was deep asleep, he sent me another one, which was showing that he was listening to our song and I nearly lost my shit when I woke up.

It’s so easy to throw me off balance, let me just tell you, but I’m working on at least not showing that to everybody.

So, I still haven’t told anybody about my crush on Black. I think that maybe I’ll do it next week, when I will be leaving with my friend to Ukraine. It’s entirely possible that she’ll come to visit me on Tuesday, we’ll go to the movies together and then she’ll come over for the night and her dad will pick us up very early on Wednesday’s morning. 

I think that could be really awesome. Last year’s trip was one of my favourite trips ever, truly freeing and I managed to somehow let go. I remember being in love, but I didn’t love anybody real. I was happy, though.

We’ll see how it will be this year, but I hope that even better than last year. Besides, I wonder whether talking some things out will make me feel better, but I think that it just might.

I’m going to the cinema today, to watch The Hustle with V. We are also going with Su to the cinema next Monday to watch Yesterday and A Rainy Day In New York. I’ll let you know how I liked them. Moreover, I finished the second season of Money Heist and let me tell you, I loved the ending so much.

I am also planning to donate blood on Tuesday, but that requires my dad and my grandma to help, cause my dad will drive us to the blood donation centre and my grandma will stay with me to reassure that I’m okay, since that will be my first time and besides, you might always feel weak and drained after donating. 

So, for now I think I covered all the topics I wanted to cover. It’s really funny, how unmotivated I felt to write yesterday, but how motivated I feel today, after I’ve been woken up and I know I’ll have to leave my house tonight. I might just do my makeup and all that jazz. I am excited, you know. 

Wish me luck.

Today’s light I’m sending to...

Well, maybe I’m going to explain first.

The idea of sending light stems from my acting classes, when our director said that it’s important to send light to people, imagine yourselves giving them light, cause you open yourselves up for possibilities of conversing and working with them.

I tried that as a way of prayer maybe, you know, having someone in your thoughts and wishing them all the best, keeping positive thoughts and creating positive actions because of that. I do have a lot of unhealthy, bad thoughts, like everybody, I believe, so I wanted to make my mind a brighter place as well.

The thing is, often, when I send light to people, something bad happens. I don’t necessarily connect the events, I just believe that I pay more attention to anything bad that might be happening to them and that’s what makes me hurt.

Besides, I also saw a beautiful drawing that sometimes, when you send the light to someone who has been only sucking everything good inside like a black hole their entire life, then also your light will get eaten up and it might not be never-ending.

But, if you give your light to the person who knows how to return it, then you will both blossom and flourish.

It’s all really nice, but well, I will keep on sending light to people that I believe that deserve it and so far, that’s what I’ve done.

Today’s light I’m sending to one of my close friends, Tulip. I have never introduced Tulip to this blog, but she’s one of the people that I am so, so blessed and grateful to have in my life. She is so smart, amazing, loving and organised. I will always keep on wishing her all the best, cause talking things out with her always makes everything so much better. I can’t even remind myself of a situation when I would have been mad at her.

Take care of yourselves,

Love,

C

[tsukifairy]

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How Flight Simulator delivers maximum fidelity visuals • Eurogamer.net

Microsoft’s Flight Simulator is every bit as spectacular as we hoped it would be. Footage released to date has highlighted its almost photo-realistic approach to rendering – and yes, the game fully delivers there – but what’s more difficult to illustrate is the unprecedented detail level from the macro to the micro level, on a literally global scale. This is one vision for the next generation of graphics: it looks incredible but at a price: be prepared for daunting PC system requirements to deliver anything close to 60 frames per second on its highest quality presets. Flight Simulator will run relatively well on the hardware of today, but it’s designed to scale onto the PC components of the future.

Beyond the visuals, what I like about Flight Simulator is the level of accessibility. The basic gameplay is similar to previous series entries, albeit embellished with even more detail and simulation. Flying an Airbus A320 is complex in real life and can be just as complex in the game, but you can scale down the simulation input and automation to a level of difficulty of your choice: the easy mode is great to play with a standard controller, for example. However, the physics and world simulation remains the same, so don’t expect it to feel like an arcade game, it’s just less ‘manual’. The core gameplay loop is simple: it’s all about flying from place to place – and that simplicity is the game’s strength. For me, at its best, this game is very relaxing – I spent my more than 10 hours with the preview learning how to pilot the plane, exploring the planets and enjoying the sights. I did this for hours on end without really thinking about time – much like you might in the real world while hiking, for example.

At the technological level, the new Flight Simulation is built off of the simulation engine of its predecessor but with extensive improvements and a brand new rendering engine on top, architected by Asobo Studio. That’s the developer of the excellent A Plague Tale: Innocence, so it’s a studio with a pedigree in delivering bespoke rendering solutions – and the team has truly gone overboard with this one. Delivering the entire world in a game is no mean feat: the engine leverages satellite imagery or fly-by image scans as the basis for height and terrain texture data. An offline procedural generation AI then reads these textures based on their own parameters and properly populates terrain with materials, roads, buildings, bushes, trees and more based on brush set assets the team has made. After this step, the artists can go in and embellish specific locations with even more detail with photogrammetrically captured materials and textures. So, you can expect something a little more lavish with capital cities, specific culture heritage sites or natural landmarks.

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Breathtaking visuals – Digital Foundry’s video breakdown of the incredible Flight Simulator 2020 preview.

When playing the game, you’re essentially looking at an extremely high resolution image of the entire globe in 3D – think Google Earth but of a much higher quality. Conceivably, we’re looking at multiple terabytes of texture and height map data that you’d never have the hard drive space to store to deliver the achieved effect. The developer’s solution is ingenious. This is a simulator and therefore the speed of flight is accurately depicted – and it’s rather sedate by arcade standards, of course. Using a base mesh and textures, the game utilises your internet connection to stream even higher quality terrain data onto your PC as you play, via the Azure cloud. It is a novel way to boost the game’s fidelity and diversity that I’ve yet to see in any other release. This is indeed a fully fledged ‘power of the cloud’ implementation that delivers something that just wouldn’t be possible to the same fidelity with a conventional download. It’s a system that’s also relatively efficient: over 10 hours of gameplay, I noted downloads of around seven gigabytes in total.

It’s not just environment detail that’s streamed in either. Flight Simulator also accurately renders the real-time world location of actual planes in your vicinity. Weather is accurately simulated based on other real world data too, down to thunder storms and cloud rendering. The aim is to represent real world flight and weather conditions 24/7 – it’s ambitious, it’s unique and it works. In terms of rendering that weather, the engine delivers near and distant fog, light scattering and cloud volumetric coverage to cover the wide variety of weather scenarios the game presents. Flight Simulator is – obviously – a game about altitude and as around half of the screen is typically rendering the sky, a lot of the rendering budget is spent here.

Massive volumetric cloud formations stretch as far as the eye can see with no visible detail transitions or ‘pop in’. Clouds cast shadows onto themselves, onto clouds below them and onto the ground, while they form and dissipate based upon wind and weather conditions. On ultra settings the volumetric clouds are of such a high resolution, the realism is breathtaking. When the atmospheric rendering, clouds and light combine it leads to something very special.

Lighting and cloud rendering is sublime. Yes, this is indeed a real-time screenshot. And yes, the HDR support is stunning.

Terrain below the clouds is also given a great attention to detail with bushes, trees, buildings, roads stretching out very far into the distance on the ultra settings. On a technical level, some areas hold up better than others depending on the quality of the satellite data driving them – or whether or not they use streamed in photogrammetric assets, but on the whole most locations hold up beautifully. Flying close to the ground outside of cities reveals highly detailed assets, right down to individual blades of grass. Needless to say, at altitude, the results are almost photo-realistic. Not only that, but the world is not static below you. Cities have their own day-night cycles with rendered cars and buses flowing through their streets, with thousands of light sources and other dynamic elements that all affect the volumetric light rendering in the game. If you fly over a city at night, you can even see the bottom side of your jet or plane being ambiently lit from the glow city below you. Needless to say, the aircraft and cockpit rendering is second to none too. Ray tracing is mooted for a future upgrade and I’m fascinated to see how that pans out.

However, a generational leap in fidelity obvious comes at a cost. On a Ryzen 9 3900X with an RTX 2080 Ti, ultra settings at 4K means frame-rates in 30-40fps territory for most of the time. Variability in frame-rate depends on how close to the ground you are, or how close to the clouds you get. The cloud system, for example, is very heavy on the GPU, while low altitude flying at ultra is more CPU-intensive, to say the least. But fear not, because Flight Simulator scales very well both on the GPU and CPU, based upon various graphics options they offer here.

We’ll go into more depth with an optimised settings selection when the game actually launches, but there are some easy wins here. For example, in a completely CPU-limited scenario I could double performance by dropping down to the lowest settings from the highest – so there is definitely some granularity for CPU scaling in these options. At 4K, in GPU-limited situations, dropping from ultra to high settings increased performance by 32 per cent, rising to 61 per cent if you opted for medium settings. I intend to look at each setting in a more granular way, but right now, I think the high preset offers the best visual bang for the buck: the hit to visual quality is minimal and the performance increase is palpable. The internal resolution scaler is also worth looking at – particularly as it may well be using image reconstruction when set to lower than 100 per cent. For a mainstream PC, dropping to 1080p at medium settings saw a Core i5 8400 system equipped with GTX 1060 or RX 580 running in the 30-40fps window, with Nvidia having a very significant 25 per cent performance advantage. I’d hope to see some settings magic from AMD here, as it seems that its Polaris champion is under-performing somewhat.

As you would expect, cockpit rendering is astonishingly good. Note the excellent use of screen-space reflections on glass to the left.

But the point is that this is basically a next-gen game with a different, more taxing hardware requirement and while the scalability is there to run the game well enough across a range of hardware, you are not seeing it at its best on a mainstream level PC. With that said, like Red Dead Redemption 2 before it, the medium settings here are honestly better than many games out there in terms of the quality of the overall presentation, so it’s just as much about scaling your perception of the quality settings with a game where ‘medium settings’ looks better than many running at ultra.

In my short time with this preview version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, I have seen a level of ambition and craft that is monstrously high. I think the developers have done a good job in terms of graphics scalability (though I really would like to see Nvidia DLSS support for a welcome step-up to performance) but it’s important to note that Flight Simulator also stresses your CPU too, something that may improve in the future as the game transitions from the current DirectX 11 renderer to DX12.

But ultimately, what I loved best about Flight Simulator is that it genuinely feels like a PC exclusive. Yes, an Xbox version is coming, but the game is built primarily for the PC and the immense plurality of hardware supported by the platform, something that goes beyond CPUs, GPU, keyboards and mice. I played with a controller, a mouse and keyboard, HOTAS, a flight yoke with pedals – everything. The game automatically recognises each input system and has default mappings for almost everything, just like the great flight sims before it. The flight yoke with pedals and throttle was the best and most enjoyable way to play the game due to how sturdy and precise it is, but even a basic Xbox 360 controller was very relaxing on the easy difficulty setting.

The game maintains this level of support while also being intuitive to customise: you can edit every single thing you can think of in the game view window itself, turning off widgets and moving their location around like an RPG game of old or a military sim. In this respect, it is simply incredible. You can play via a third-person camera, first-person, or you can watch your plane fly around in a free camera with no restrictions, moving multiple kilometres away if that’s what you feel like doing. This isn’t just a game and I feel that it’s much more than a simulator. In more than one sense of the word, this is a journey – and it’s a beautiful one.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/how-flight-simulator-delivers-maximum-fidelity-visuals-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-flight-simulator-delivers-maximum-fidelity-visuals-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[a2bcrafts]

Home Improvements: What to do with shells from the beach

When you think of home improvements, you would most probably think about them costing you a dime or two. Well it doesn't have to be that way, all it takes is getting your hands dirty, some elbow grease and our help to improve your home in a number of ways by using the seashells from your favourite beach.

You’ve most probably collected shells before with your little one, perhaps for one of their own art projects or easy shell crafts they can do at home. But we bet you’ve never collected them to improve your home. There are plenty of ways you can use shells to add attention to detail in a bathroom or dining area, keeping you up to date with the latest home decorating trends 2019.

Here are just some of the things you can do with them.

But before we get into that, you’ll want to know how to properly clean your shells so you can get a spotless look which will match perfectly with the rest of the home...

How to Clean Shells from the Beach

There's actually quite the debate always going on about how to clean seashells from the beach, do you use baking soda? Regular fresh water? How about the water the shell was found in?

There are many different opinions across the web, here is ours;

MURIATIC ACID, shells will finally have their natural colour back and you’ll see a more beautiful side to them!

But don’t worry, muriatic acid for those of you who don’t know is just another word for hydrochloric acid. Which can be found in many household products such as toilet bowl cleaner and tile cleaner. This exact acid can be used to clean your shells.

Here is a safe solution for you and your shells and how to get them clean;

¼ cup of muriatic acid and ¾ cups of water.

Dip for a maximum of 3 seconds and neutralize in fresh water straight after.

Avoid contact with skin and stainless steel

If you want to see the process of cleaning shells from the beach and you want to be mesmerized by the dirty to clean to shells, check out the how to bring back color to seashells tutorial.

How to make Seashells shine

It's one thing cleaning your shells and making them look like they would in the sea, but it's another thing completely to have them featuring their natural shine. With some mineral oil, you're going to want to rub over the shell to give it a deep clean, it does 2 things:

It restores the natural shine of the shell

It preserves the shell

How to keep Seashells shiny

Finally you’ve got that shine back, but how do you go about keeping that beautiful shine so that after you’ve created your masterpiece, you can be happy knowing nothing is going to ruin ti design?

You can spray satin-finish polyurethane or coat with clear nail polish. Although this may be a lengthy process for each shell you have, you’ll be able to reverse the shells organic shiny look and give it an even extra glossy shine.

Decorating with Seashells in a Bathroom

Just like using old storage pallets to create your very own DIY furiture, there are plenty of ways you can use seashells to bring out a natural vibe in your home, especially in the area of your bathroom where these shells will fit the most.

Here are some end results, from the people who are already using this cost efficient way of bringing stylish design to their homes.

Seashell Display Jars

You’ve probably seen plenty of these from the image above, seashell display jars are one of the most common and probably the most stylish way of bringing the beautiful gems of the ocean into your home. Without compromising on the design of your home.

The best part about beach in a jar is that there is no limitation to what you can do and no two jars look the same so this way you can have something unique that only you own.

Jars with sand and shells are not limited to a bathroom, although we think they do look the best in there, these wonderful creations can also work to work with their environment, making them great in kitchens and lounge areas that feature ocean colours.

Now, we bet you’re excited to go ahead with going to your local beach, picking out some decorative shells and making your own sand and shells in glass jars. But we also know you’re probably wondering how the hell you go about gluing your shells to glass? Or how you even managed to get the sand to stick without it looking complete without purpose?

Read on to get some pro tips on how you can achieve your seashell in a jar dreams.

How to Glue Shells to Glass

Less is always more, as they say. Applying glue to shells is no different, there are many different techniques and practices for going about this. You’ll need some form of hot glue, typically that will from one of the craft glue guns from your local craft store.

Once acquired, you’ll want to squeeze a sizeable amount of glue on the outside of the glass, then you’ll want to take your best looking seashell and press down firmly on the glue. Hold for a minimum of 60 seconds to ensure the glue can harden around your shell. Repeat this process till you’re happy with your final design.

How to Glue Sand in a Jar

It's important you get the consistency right, with to much glue you’re going to look you made this with a blindfold on, alternatively with not enough glue your sand won’t stick to the glass and you won't get the desired effect.

To get the desired look, you’re going to want to follow our golden rule:

For every 1 cup of sand, you’ll want to have 1 cup of glue.

Doing this, you should get a thick mixture, with a little mixing you’ll be ready to add your gooey sand to the surface of your jar, spread out evenly for a balanced finish.

Other creative uses for seashells in your home

Beyond the basics of using shells and sand to make glass shell jars, there are other creative uses for seashells that you can use within your home, outside of the bathroom area.

As a side note, seashell crafts for adults is fun but it's even more enjoyable once you get your kids involved. Allowing them to help you create something that is going to be a cherished part of your home for potentially many years.

Seashell Display Case

For collectors out there, this is one of the ways you can proudly put your favourite seashells on display.

These seashells were probably left over from your glass jar projet, you’ve probably thought to yourself ‘these are just too beautiful to use’ and instead just threw them in a draw never to be seen again.

Making something out of them and putting them on display gets you the best of both worlds. You can admire a natural resource whilst adding a personal touch to your home, wherever you choose to feature your brand new display case.

There are many ways you can come up with to add shells to a display case, one of them would be to use a wooden, sort of like a larger display cause would be used from and assigning compartments for your favourite seashells. Maybe in order of size, type, or even colour.

We have yet to cover how you're going to manage to add shells to the display cabinet, so here’s how to glue shells to wood.

How to Glue Shells to Wood

Just like glueing to glass, you’re going to want to get a hot glue gun from your local craft store, so that the shells you attach will stay attached. However it is advised that you clean your wood before hand as dust and other particles can be visible even after the job has been completed, mostly this goes unnoticed with glass surfaces.

Seashell Shadow box

Similar to display cases, using a shadow box to display your shells will offer you another way of bringing in the natural design. However, these should be used as an alternative if you truly take pride in the design of your home, and you’re looking for a way to add shells that won’t compromise the general design.

This is because, unlike display cabinet, shadow boxes feature a more organized finish making them ideal for people who like to have a modern home looks like each decor piece was placed with purpose.

Shell Shower Curtains

You’ll most probably see some form of shell shower curtains in your home, but I bet they are all printed designs and not the real thing. Well why not use the real thing and create some fabulous curtains from them?

Whether you start off with a blank curtain or you use a shell design that is going to compliment the actual shells which you’re going to feature. However you choose to go about this fun craft, make sure to glue everything down properly and have some fun with it.

Seashell Animal Crafts

With seashell crafts, with usually think about larger designs, whether that's shell curtains or seashell jars. But what about little dinky ornaments that can fit on any tableside in your home that can bring you some unique style that has been made from seashells?

These little dicnky ornemants are seashell animals, whether you’re a lover of foxes, ladybirds or any other animal in existence, we are sure you can achieve the design with a couple of sea shells, some paint and a great deal of imagination.

How to make Seashell Animals

Now, this would depend on what sort of animal you’re looking to create. Thankfully we live in the age or internet so having resources for this information won’t be too hard to find, however we want to give you a head start, here are some tools you’re going to need if you want to create one of these beautiful pieces for yourself.

Hot glue gun

Some of your favourite paint and paint brushes.

And a creative mind

If you’re unsure what to create, perhaps you don’t have a favourite animal or you’re just looking for a unique idea, here is over 100 seashell animal crafts to inspire you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbKUhTBb2TE

Broken Seashell Crafts

When we’re looking for seashells, we usually look for the most pretty and eye catching ones, I mean that's just the way we are naturally as humans to seek out the most beautiful thing as possible.

But that means we waste materials that could add to our home, such as broken seashells.

Broken seashell crafts are unique in the sense that they take something that seems to be at the end of its life time, soon to be washed away or thrown away and turn it into something that is elegant yet charming and a piece that could become a great addition to a bathroom, lounge or bedroom area in a home.

[49scribes-archive]

It Was So Real [Archive]

{--hcllion--}

{ ⚜ } – @49scribes

With a click and momentary lapse of static, a transmission came to life, a distorted baritone hurriedly requesting confirmation of something clearly vital over the line. The abrupt cut in the connection signaling the end of the inquiry, however, wasn’t met with the same urgency on the other end. No verbal response accompanied the quiet echo of footsteps over linoleum, and even a second prompting didn’t accomplish anything by way of provoking a reply, not until a cold thumb gently uplifted a droopy eyelid to compel the redhead on the hospital bed to groan and roll away from the contact, away from the glaring lights of the operating room, a reaction Kisaragi had been waiting for since about six hours prior.      

Full lips found the metallic edge of her radio transmitter, stretching into a feral grin.

❝I owe you a twenty. Over.❞

Admittedly, Yuffie bet as much on the boy she dragged out of Deepground’s catacombs, the same boy currently shying away from his surroundings, not making the night, but only because he was blue when she found him. Naturally, Reeve, ever the humanitarian and optimist, begged to differ with her assessment of the odds, and he steadfastly maintained that the green-eyed wonder would persevere. It turned out, the commissioner was right, but in this case, Kisaragi wasn’t loathe to concede defeat.

Even so, though clearly still breathing, the redhead wasn’t out of the woods just yet. The sluggish lilt to his movements coupled with the confusion of the attending surgeons over what exactly was causing his not quite coma didn’t exactly spell out a happy ending. On the other hand, the no gaping wounds thing and the slowly returning lucidity affair didn’t exactly equate to certain doom either, so it was probably a bit too early to go picking coffin colors.

Those would hopefully stay out of the near future, but as for right now, well, the ninja was quickly growing concerned over her ward’s reaction to the lamps overhead. He may have winced away from the harsh lighting initially, but the longer he was exposed to the fluorescence, the more violent his dislike for it seemed to become. The young man’s one visible eye, the other safely hidden under an impenetrable layer of cotton and gauze, remained so convulsively tight shut, Yuffie had to wonder in just how much pain the stranger was.

Fortunately, tracking the source of his discomfort was easy business, and the brunette was quickly led by her deductions to the light switch, which she flipped with little thought, plunging the room into inky darkness. Impulsive to the maximum, Kisaragi didn’t stop to consider how little she’d initially be able to see once the lamps shut off, but the thought weaseled its way into the girl’s consciousness once her eyes were rendered useless. It occurred to her then that the redhead would likely be better able to follow her movements than she his, at least for a time, at least while she adjusted, but the fact didn’t make the prospect of letting him continue suffering in the light any more appealing.

Yuffie left the far wall of the room, taking a few searching steps in the direction of her ward’s bed, calmed, somehow, by his shallow, panting breaths, much less alarming as compared to the jerky inhalations he was taking while the room was illuminated.

❝How we feelin’, Red? Better?❞

{--49scribes--}

                                     🐰 [[[♠] ⅩℒⅠⅩ [♥]]] 🐰

Waking is not usually an unpleasant affair for Lavi. If anything, the worst part of waking is normally deciding he hasn’t had enough and going back to sleep, which is barely worth even noticing really, except for the fact he rarely sleeps enough, at least on missions.

Then again, he seldom ever wakes up to glaring bright lights in his face, which definitely makes the act of sleeping both a bit more difficult and definitely unpleasant, squinting his eye shut as soon as its opened.

It hardly helps. The lights are just too damn bright, and he can still see them past his eyelids, and he squints his eyes shut so tight a small ache starts to form behind his temples, and he turns and tries to bury his face into something light-blocking in rebellion of the invasive glare.

Its an astounding relief to have those damn lights turn off. Apparently someone caught the hint, and he can only be grateful for that, breathing that he hadn’t quite realized had hitched starting to even out again.

He hears movement nearby, of shuffling and the light bump of feeling around things in the dark. He finally allowed an eye to flutter open, though there was little point to it with nothing to see by, barely able to tell if his eyes were truly open or closed.

One thing he did know, as he was addressed by a voice that he did not recognize at all, was that something was wrong.

Exactly how so, he couldn’t quite pin down. Not like a threat, per se. More just that his senses were… convoluted? Different? Off?

Things didn’t sound exactly like they were supposed to, the smell in the air had a certain sharpness to it that was foreign to him, and he had no idea what that taste was in his mouth but he didn’t like it, running his tongue against his teeth, which also gave off a strange sensation that wasn’t quite right.

And he felt weak. Deep fatigue in his limbs and mind that made it hard to move, but oddly lacking any signs of physical pain he would normally expect… like maybe if he’d lost a lot of blood. It certainly felt cold enough.

Habit of course has him fingering for his hammer at his thigh, finding nothing – literally nothing besides a thin sheet and bare flesh – and going still with a sense of dread. While he went most of his life without Innocence, he’s grown rather fond and dependent on his weapon, and feels wrong without it. More than that, he feels vulnerable, and not just for the fact of being naked, though that raises some questions of its own.

This better not be another fucked up dreamscape thing.

Had he been fighting Road? Or one of the other Noah? Was it an Akuma? No one at the Order called him “Red”, and it didn’t sound like a nurse, and the odd way in which he awoke set off little alarms in his head to be wary.

Even opening his jaw felt strange, and difficult, and the words came out as a hoarse rasp that he didn’t think even sounded like himself, catching himself off-guard.

❝  Whhoo’s t'ere? Wh're ’m I?  ❞

{--hcllion--}

The redhead’s raspy attempts at communication made it quickly apparent that the crash course on bedside manner that Kisaragi never quite finished was going to become a little too relevant for her liking. Near unable to show more delicacy than strictly necessary for the sake of decorum, the ninja sure as hell didn’t make for the best first face that Experiment D1LV7 would see upon waking. This was precisely why she pushed to wash her hands of the entire ordeal the moment she delivered her ward to Headquarters, but Reeve’s absence made it difficult for a department head, a title Yuffie wasn’t even aware she held until her identification card was printed all of two days ago, to sneak off à la English exit style.  

It crossed the brunette’s mind briefly to call for a doctor or nurse, surely more adequately trained to handle the situation without traumatizing the poor boy further, but the noise out in the hall kept her from following through.

Deepground’s base, or what remained of it under the rubble of the old Midgar, was a more expansive location than anyone anticipated. Along with the sensory deprivation tank in which Kisaragi discovered the redhead, prisoners were retrieved from the deeper reaches of the catacombs. Most of them were well on their way into their graves, but hope is an incessant thing, and if the medical staff hoped to save even a few of those unlucky bastards, then she would have to field this green-eyed curve ball on her own best she could.

❝You’re in the Hospital Wing of the WRO.❞

That seemed safe enough to say, right? Hardly anyone didn’t know about the World Regenesis Organization, though that was mostly due to the funds it threw at any and every charity that rose up in the wake of the Meteor Crisis. On the other hand, depending on how long ago the redhead was misappropriated for Deepground’s purposes, there was a good chance he wasn’t ever aware that the Meteor Crisis had happened.    

Stiffly clearing her throat, Yuffie dropped that line of thought, resuming her unsteady progress towards the young man’s bed.

❝And as for me, the name’s Kisaragi. Kisaragi, Yuffie. In case y’didn’t know, I’m the greatest ninja ever.❞

The boast left her lips easily enough, a simple way to lighten a heavy conversation, but the bang that followed it wasn’t quite as calculated. The brunette’s two-sizes-too-large boots caught on the edge of her ward’s bed in the dark, sending the girl careening forward into the uncomfortable seat by the headboard, elbows and forearms hitting the wooden chair hard enough to pulse.

That’s right. Eat your heart out.

Sluggishly, the young woman pulled herself up into a position somewhat recognizable as sitting, large hazel eyes unseeingly turning towards her companion’s silhouette. As much as she would have liked to say that the whole show was nothing short of a masterfully comedic performance, that definitely wasn’t the case. Then again, if her bruised elbows achieved the effect of reducing her next question’s gravity, Kisaragi wasn’t going to complain. Much.

❝D’you remember your name?❞

There wasn’t an ounce of emotion, good or bad, accompanying the inquiry. The few files that the brunette managed to retrieve with her ward did suggest a specific name, but experience dictated that not everything written in official logs could be trusted. Either way, something told Yuffie that this matter wasn’t going to wrap itself up as neatly as Reeve had hoped.

Gaze dipping until it met one green hue, the young woman leaned forward in hopes of discerning a reaction from within the pool of shadows wandering the redhead’s features, face set in an expression unusually serious behind a mess of heavy bangs and raven strands that fell against pale cheeks.

{--49scribes--}

                                   🐰 [[[♠] ⅩℒⅠⅩ [♥]]] 🐰

Its undeniable that his mind is quietly panicking, desperately hunting for clues as to Where, When, How, and most importantly Why. Finding answers fast is made a bit harder due to how sluggish he feels, body and mind not responding how he thinks it should, but he’s trying not to let any of that be too apparent.

Its not entirely unfamiliar, but its not a place he likes to be. He’s had missteps, and injuries, and knock-outs where he woke up somewhere he didn’t know, in the company of people whose intents weren’t immediately clear. The battlefield is a dangerous place. Things like getting thrown by an explosion and waking up with a concussion among the wrong side weren’t entirely unheard of. He had just been lucky that he’d woken up amongst soldiers who didn’t fancy murdering a wounded child.

His mind immediately skips to wondering about injury. Nothing especially hurts, like a broken limb or a gash, but fingers subtly trace for something he might be missing, considering the possibility of pain killers or some other numbing agent, but there’s not much to find. He still doesn’t discount the possibility of a head injury or something beneath the surface.

He doesn’t find much need to ask for an explanation of Where, at least. “Medical Wing” at least reinforces the idea of having been injured or knocked out at some point, somehow. Less helpful is “WRO”, the acronym that he figures it to be doing nothing in terms of summoning even a spark of recognition.

Far be it from the first time he ended up amongst a group he didn’t know, if he had to take a shot in the dark, probably some kind of militia group. There were enough cultures and wars going on in the world that every so often he did stumble upon people and causes he never knew existed, much as he likes to boast Bookmen specialize in knowing all of the secret happenings and history of the world.

All of it he listens with a mostly-clear head, letting the girl do most of the talking and sifting through the information, not trusting his shaky throat to speak until he has something important to add. What finally puts his guard up more fully is when the girl gives the name Kisaragi.

It doesn’t mean anything, personally, but its a name that sounds definitely Japanese, and if there’s one thing he knows of Japan without doubt, its that the Earl has a very, very strong presence, considering most of its population is overrun by Akuma.

That leads his mind to jump immediately into two most likely possibilities by simple process of elimination: either he’s in the hands of Akuma who don’t think he’ll know or be reasonably wary of, or he’s, quite possibly, among what little of the human population exists. That he isn’t yet dead makes a human presence more likely, but–

It hits him like a flash, that mission in the East with Bookman and Chaoji, fighting that Noah with the weird tongue full of eyes. Outside, he’d come out just fine, but inside, infected with that thing’s parasites, he’d felt like he was dying. His mind quickly tries to scramble to put the pieces together, to patchwork hazy recollections of being amongst the Noah and trusting Bookman to find some solution to their problem, as the old man always does.

It leads into another question that doesn’t help matters, that being Where IS Bookman?, and it doesn’t help his state of mind already trying to make sense of his current predicament.

Calm down, he bids himself. Breathe. Don’t panic, just breathe and think.

This could always be Road’s doing, but… there was something important that suggests otherwise. What was it? Think.

Road’s dream broke, and she vanished. Then Sheryl–

Right. Sheryl. The bastard that threw him against the wall and nearly did him in. Apparently that failed, but what came after that? Beyond that, its a haze, and trying to force his thoughts through like normal feels like running into a wall and forces him to leave it for now.

So the next matter of business is who he’s amongst. Akuma? Noah? Human?

If its human, and they aren’t with the Order, maybe, possibly, they could be what remains of Japan’s population. Most other places, humans go about their daily lives blissfully unaware of Akuma, until recently, but Japan is a hive of them. Surely the people would know, and maybe even try to form their own means of combating the Akuma that exist there. So maybe that’s what the WRO is, though what it stands for, he’s still not sure. If that be the case, there’s the possibility they might think he is an Akuma as well, which would make things tense for them.

The one hitch in this train of logic is that he’s not having to interpret or speak Japanese… which repeatedly keeps trying to trip him and derail any semblance of conclusion that at first glance appears like it might make sense.

Lost in spiraling thoughts, he barely notices the trip and bang of her falling, and only barely catches the question for a name, which leads into another process of thinking what he should say. He assumes, anyway, that this current Name must still be “Lavi”, but he hasn’t left the possibilities of present company being the enemy, and wonders if its a test. Maybe he isn’t meant to remember. Maybe they did something to him.

He considers saying “Lavi”, but he could always simplify it down to “Junior Bookman”. Maybe its best he use neither until he gets a clearer picture, just to be safe. He’d really rather not be thrown into another wall.

It would be great to have his weapon back too, but to ask for it would be to possibly give away that he remembers more than he’s letting on, at least at first. He can always feign it coming back to him later if he needs to.

Dismally, he shook his head much as he could manage, trying to find words to add. Maybe he can try testing them himself and see where that gets him.

❝  …ca’nt r’call… y’u know i’ tt?  ❞

[fillthevoid-with-space]

This episode’s been a long time coming because the topic’s come up before. I originally conceived of this podcast as a way for me to learn about space things I’d always taken for granted, and truly, there is nothing closer to home that I’ve just agreed to believe than the statement that the tides are affected by the Moon. What? How? Why? All these questions and some I didn’t even realize I had will be answered in this episode on tidal forces!

Below the cut are my standard glossary, transcript, sources, and music credits. Send me any topic suggestions via Tumblr message (you don’t need an account for it!). You can also tweet at me on Twitter at @HDandtheVoid, or you can ask me to my face if you know me. Subscribe on iTunes to get the new episodes of my maybe now monthly-updated podcast (we’ll see how the weeks unfold), and please please please rate and review it. Go ahead and tell friends if you think they’d like to hear it, too!

(My thoughts on the next episode are Stephen Hawking and his theories, or famous comets. The next episode will go up in September—ideally, September 10th!)

Glossary

barycenter - the common center of mass between two objects that allows them to orbit.

Roche limit - the distance in which a celestial body will disintegrate because of a second celestial body's tidal forces exceeding the first body's gravitational self-attraction, or the force that’s holding it together. Within the Roche limit, orbiting material disperses and forms rings, like how Saturn’s rings are within the Roche zone; outside the limit, material tends to coalesce.

spaghettification - when extreme tidal forces pull an object apart in space.

tidal force - an apparent force (sometimes also called the differential force) that stretches a body towards another, more gravitationally-strong body’s center of mass. This can cause such diverse phenomena as tides, tidal locking, breaking celestial bodies apart to form ring systems within a Roche limit, and in extreme cases, spaghettification. It arises because the gravitational force exerted on one body by another is not constant across its parts: the nearest side is attracted more strongly than the farthest side.

Types of ocean tides:

diurnal tide - a daily tidal cycle with only one high and low tide each lunar day, and a period of a little over 24 hours.

meteorological tide - a tidal change due to weather patterns. Wind, or unusually high or low barometric pressure causes variations between the actual sea level and its predicted height.

mixed tide - a daily tidal cycle with two high and low tides that differ in their peaks. This difference in height between successive high or low tides is called the diurnal inequality. They have a period of 12 hours and 25 minutes.

neap tide - a type of bi-monthly tidal cycle that occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are positioned at a 90-degree angle, so the tidal forces of the Sun are acting against the tidal forces of the Moon. During a neap tide, the difference between high tide and low tide is the least extreme.

semidiurnal tide - a daily tidal cycle with two nearly equal high tides and low tides every lunar day. They have a period of 12 hours and 25 minutes.

spring tide - a type of bi-monthly tidal cycle that occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up so that the gravitational forces of Sun and Moon are working together to form a large tidal bulge. During a spring tide, the difference between high tide and low tide is at its maximum.

tidal locking - when long-term interaction between two co-orbiting astronomical bodies causes at least one of the bodies to rotate in such a way that one face of the body is always pointed at the body it’s orbiting. This is also called gravitational locking or captured rotation. An example is that the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth, and its synchronous rotation means that it takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around the Earth.

Script/Transcript

Sources

Tidal Cycles in Tides Explained via beltoforian.de

“a tide is a distortion in the shape of one body induced by the gravitational pull of another nearby object.”

Meteorological effects on tides via the New Zealand Government website

Tides and Water Levels via the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Tides by R. Nave, my dude, my guy, my friend and yours, of Georgia State University

The Tidal Force by Neil deGrasse Tyson via Hayden Planetarium (Nov 1995)

“A mild increase in distance between two objects can make a large difference in the strength of the tidal force. For example, if the Moon were just twice its current distance from us, then its tidal force on Earth would decrease by a factor of eight. At its current average distance of 240,000 miles from Earth, the Moon manages to create sizable atmospheric, oceanic, and crustal tides by attracting the part of Earth nearest the Moon more strongly than the part of Earth that is farthest. (The Sun is so far away that in spite of its generally strong gravity, its tidal force on Earth amounts to less than half that of the Moon.) The oceans respond most visibly in being stretched toward the direction of the Moon.” 

“When Earth's rotation slows down until it exactly matches the orbital period of the Moon, then Earth will no longer be rotating within its oceanic tidal bulge and the Earth-Moon system will have achieved a double tidal lock. In what sounds like an undiscovered wrestling hold, double tidal locks are energetically favorable (like a ball coming to rest at the bottom of a hill), and are thus common in the universe.”

Forget “Earth-Like”—We’ll First Find Aliens on Eyeball Planets via Nautilus (Feb 2015)

High Tide on Io! via NASA (Mar 2012)

Tidal forces and spaghettification via NASA handout

Spaghettification via Cosmic Funnies

Single atoms feel tidal force via Physics World (May 2017)

Robbins, Tom. Still Life with Woodpecker. Bantam Books: New York, 1980.

“Being four times larger than the moon, the earth appeared to dominate. Caught in the earth’s gravitational web, the moon moved around the earth and could never get away. Yet, as any half-awake materialist well knows, that which you hold holds you.”

Sobel, Dava. The Planets. Viking: NY, 2005.

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Background Music: ‘Sad Business’ by Patients aka Ben Cooper, who primarily releases music as Radical Face but also has at least three other bands or band names he’s working with/has released music as.

Filler Music: ‘It’s Getting Boring by the Sea’ by Blood Red Shoes off their album Box of Secrets

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

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Hey - Pat from Starter Story here with another interview.Today's interview is with Cameron Olthuis, the founder of Sawyer, a brand that makes clothing for kids.Some stats:Revenue/mo: $12,000Started: August 2017Location: Park City, UtahFounders: 2Employees: 2Hello! Who are you and what are you working on?Hi there, I’m Cameron Olthuis, owner and operator of Sawyer. Sawyer is a high-quality kids clothing brand that makes soft, durable products with timeless designs that inspire them to get outside and explore the natural world.We discovered a striking statistic:Kids today spend less time outside than maximum security prisoners.The average child spends 8-10 hours a day in front of a screen and less than one hour per day outside. Spending time outside is important for kids as it’s a healthy way to develop, learn, and grow through experience. We are a mission driven brand encouraging a balance of technology and nature in kids lives. Go outside and play!We operate a direct-to-consumer business model that’s completely bootstrapped and our fulfillment is done entirely in house. This allows our brand to be in control of all customer touch points, something we feel is extremely important when building a brand.Our products to date have largely consisted of graphic tees, hats & beanies, and hoodies. We’re now moving into custom cut & sew apparel products. Our long-term vision includes technical outerwear and other functional outdoor products exclusively for kids.What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?My online entrepreneurial journey started when I was 21 and my then girlfriend was pregnant with our first child. That was almost 17 years ago. I was working a minimum wage customer service job, had no post high school education, and knew that I needed to make big changes in order to provide a better life for my family. It’s been a long journey that’s seen its share of ups & downs, with times where I literally wasn’t sure how I would be able to feed my family the next day. Somehow, it worked out, and I always knew the sacrifices would pay off if I stuck with it.Most recently, my role was VP, Audience Development at CBS Interactive. During my 6 1/2 years at CBS, we grew from the #13 Comscore property to #6. That’s an elite group: Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, Microsoft and then CBSi. Prior to my role at CBSi, I ran audience growth at a startup called Clicker, which was acquired by CBS for a nine-figure sum. That was quite a learning experience.The entrepreneurial spirit in me was calling the entire time I was at CBS Interactive. I never expected to be there for as long as I was, but incentives in the form of stock options that hadn’t vested and a big paycheck helped keep me around. That and I also enjoyed the learning experience, challenges of working on the biggest internet properties, and working for the CEO, who’s been a great mentor to me. But, my time had come. CBSi was running like a well-oiled machine and the excitement was no longer there for me. I needed to work on something that was meaningful to me again. I was also a partner in a content arbitrage business at that time with yearly revenues of around $7.5 million at its peak. That helped make the decision to leave easier. This was, of course, non-conflicting to my work at CBS.The idea for Sawyer roots back to when my kids were much younger. My wife and I had a hard time finding quality made products for our own kids that would stand up to the rugged outdoor lifestyle we were so fond of. Our favorite brands had a very limited kids’ selection and most everything else was poor quality with over-the-top designs. We’d always talked about doing something in this space but never acted on it until recently. I had started staffing up an office anticipating my departure from CBS and wanted to run that as a sort of skunkworks type lab. Together with my team and the idea from many years ago, Sawyer was born.Describe the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the product.We go through a tedious process of testing fabric materials and cuts for quality, softness, fit, and durability before finally settling on products we’re comfortable putting our name on. As consumers, we believe in buying well, which to us means spending more on quality products that will last a really long time. Buying poor-quality products usually ends up costing the consumer more in the long run. Every product we sell needs to live up to this standard. This takes more time and additional costs, but we’re able to charge a premium because of it. Additionally, we can be proud of everything we make.Our customer feedback tells us we’re doing a pretty good job. We get a lot of reviews that praise the quality and softness of our products. Kids appreciate it as well. We’ve been told many times that our stuff is a kids favorite and they want to wear it everyday, or even sleep in it. We’ve also had many repeat purchases, some customers have now ordered 7-8 times from us in less than a year.The other test all of our products must pass is; would we wear it ourselves? This again goes back to the over-the-top designs that plague the kids’ apparel industry and our mission to create timeless designs. We’ve worked with local artists to transfer their watercolor paintings to clothing, hired graphic designers from freelance sites, and created designs in-house, even though none of us had any previous background in design.We have several boxes of manufactured products in our office that we refuse to sell. Maybe that’s because of a blemish in the design or a mis-labeled tag. Whatever the reasons, we believe that absorbing that cost now is better than losing a customer or tarnishing our brand name. We’ve donated some of those products to various causes like the recent Houston floods or Sub-for-Santa, and we’ll continue doing more of that in the future.Describe the process of launching the online store/business.Building out the actual store was pretty simple for me, thanks to Shopify which makes that part really easy.From there we had prototype products made and we hosted a BBQ in the mountains where we invited all our friends to bring their kids to do a photoshoot. This gave us a bunch of high-quality photos that we could use on the website and in our advertising at launch.We didn’t want to launch to crickets, so we started building our social accounts a few months prior to launch. We used Facebook Ads at launch as well, so right from the start we were selling some product.Sawyer is self-funded, which is challenging at times. Because we do our own fulfillment, we have to always be stocked with inventory. So every time we sell a t-shirt, we have to turn around and buy another one for inventory. This makes cash flow management difficult. Don’t underestimate this aspect if you plan to carry your own inventory.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?A lot of tactics and strategies from the "playbook" I’ve developed over the years haven’t worked out as well as I’d planned.While we’ve had some success with Facebook & Instagram Ads, I haven’t been able to achieve the massive scale that we did in our arbitrage business. Maybe that’s because of my refusal to become a discount brand. However, I will say it’s hard to always properly attribute what channels are driving the results. I’ve heard that a customer has to see your brand at least seven times before buying and I think this runs true for us. For us, we try to be visible across all platforms that our customers use.The area on Instagram that we’ve had success with is working with influencers. We’ve been able to attract some popular ambassadors by providing them with free product for their kids. Again, it really helps that we make a quality product and they truly love our brand ethos. Not only has this been an effective way to get our name out there, but we’ve got so many great photos that we can turn around and use for our own marketing & advertising.The biggest surprise to me has been how well email marketing has worked. Email wasn’t one of my strong suits, but I’ve been schooled over the last year and now I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of it. Our revenue per email far exceeds any other traffic channel up to this point, so now we’re doubling and tripling down on it. Viral email giveaways have been a successful way for us to acquire emails. We also focus a lot on email segments and flows and we put a lot of time into our newsletters and other promotional emails. I recently heard a quote that says, "People don’t hate getting emails, they hate getting bad emails." I always think about the value we’re providing prior to any emails or communications we send out.How is everything going nowadays, and what are your plans for the future?I’m proud of the loyal customer base and raving fans we’ve developed a relationship with in the short 10-months we’ve been in business. Our sales numbers aren’t as high as I had projected when starting out, but we have a healthy growth trajectory that we continue to build on. I’ve been focusing on making the right decisions for the long-term instead of short-term sales numbers. I’m looking at this business in terms of decades, not years, as I feel like I may have found my calling in life.We’ve recently scaled back our number of full-time employees, but this in no way reflects the state of the business. I made mistakes early on in hiring for growth instead of hiring because we really needed the help. I also made the decision to shutter some of our other projects so that we can focus on this business.In terms of what’s in the near future for Sawyer, we’re close to releasing a line of basics, starting with blank tees made in the USA from 100% organic cotton. We may try and offer that as a subscription service as well. We’ve also started working on producing a functional sweatshirt and sweatpant set. Aside from that we’re finalizing our fall line of new designs, hats & beanies, and sweatshirts so we’re ready to roll that out in time for back-to-school.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?In hindsight, I probably wouldn’t have started a kids’ clothing business to be honest. But there’s a saying that sometimes it’s better knowing what you don’t know. The kid’s apparel industry is brutally competitive and consumers today are trained to wait for promotions to buy. That makes being a premium brand hard. Convincing a mom to part with her family’s hard earned money for a $25 t-shirt isn’t easy, especially when she can shop at Target or Walmart for $5 t-shirts. Again, this goes back to selling a quality product and having a brand that stands for something meaningful. The products we make are ethically produced from premium materials and magnitudes better than what you’ll find at a discount department store, but convincing people who can’t see or touch that product first takes work.I’m learning a lot about product development as it relates to apparel. It’s exciting and gratifying to work on a physical product you can touch and feel, which is so different from my previous experience working exclusively with digital properties and products.Something that’s helpful for those starting out or trying to optimize their e-commerce business, is making sure you spend enough time and effort on conversion rates. You can dramatically increase revenue without increasing traffic. We spend a couple hours every week going over our copy, website, and checkout process to continually make improvements in this area. We’ve been able to double our conversion rates since starting.What platform/tools do you use for your business?We use Klaviyo for email and we love it. It has great reporting and segmenting, and it’s easy to create different email flows.A few other apps and tools we use:Yotpo for customer reviews, which are super important for a new product and/or brandShipstation for shipping & printing labelsKickoff Labs for hosting viral email giveawaysBack-in-stock for customers to be notified when sold out products are availableWhat have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?Let My People Go Surfing: Written by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia.I’ve recommended this book to a lot of people. It’s the story of how the brand Patagonia was started and the journey of the business over the last 50 years from the founder’s perspective. Patagonia is a brand I respect, both for the quality of products they make and their dedication to social responsibility. This book covers everything from running a meaningful business, to product development, to creating a company culture that inspires people to love coming to work.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Written by Mark Twain.This classic American novel may sound a bit silly to include here, but the name of our brand, Sawyer, came from Tom Sawyer, whom we all know as the quintessential youth explorer. I hadn’t read this book since my own youth, but doing so recently has really inspired and helped shape the direction of our company. It’s an entertaining book as well, with all his antics and clever mischief and whatnot.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Whether that’s fear, laziness, or whatever reason that’s holding them back, it’s the only way to move forward. Once you start you can see what works and what doesn’t and you can always improve from there. Whether you’re successful in your ventures or you fail, and believe me, I’ve failed a lot, you always learn something and feel better for trying.Hanging out in relevant online forums or Facebook groups is a great way to learn. There’s usually a general wealth of knowledge already in there with so much to learn. And it makes asking questions and getting help really easy when you get stuck or need advice. And then there’s Google, we literally have all the information in the history of mankind at our fingertips, so there’s no excuse. Aside from that, listen to podcasts and read books, but again, you will learn more from doing than you will listening to other people’s stories.

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Ladies, their Property and financial rights in Kashmir

The Judeo-Christian lifestyle certainly extends the management of the husband into ownership of his wife. Rabbis asserted the husband’s right to his spouse’s belongings as a corollary of his possession of her: “In view that one has come into the ownership of the female does it not observe that he need to come into the possession of her assets too?”, and “Considering he has obtained the lady have to he no longer gather additionally her property?” As a result, marriage brought on the richest female to grow to be almost penniless. The Talmud describes the financial state of affairs of a spouse as follows.

                                         Financial Rights

Propwall

“How can a girl have whatever; anything is hers belongs to her husband? What’s he is his and What’s hers is also his…… Her earnings and what she may additionally locate in the streets are also his. The family articles, even the crumbs of bread on the desk, are his. need to she invite a visitor to her house and feed him, she could be stealing from her husband…” (San.71a, Git. 62a)

The fact of the problem is that the property of a Jewish girl become intended to draw suitors. It turned into this dowry that made Jewish daughters an unwelcome burden to their fathers. Hence, a woman in a conventional Jewish family was a liability and not an asset. This liability explains why the birth of a daughter was no longer celebrated with joy in the antique Jewish societies. Christianity, until these days, has accompanied the identical Jewish culture.

Both religious and civil authorities inside the Christian Roman Empire (after Constantine) required a assets settlement as a situation for recognizing the marriage. Families supplied their daughters growing dowries and, as an end result, guys tended to marry in advance at the same time as Families postponed their daughters’ marriages until later than were customary.

It’s miles very exciting that during most components of the arena Christians and Jews were able to do away with this discriminatory exercise, however, Muslim communities nevertheless education those pre-Islamic traditions. Many still see a woman as a burden, improve dowry from girl’s start, actively insist that Girls bequeath their belongings and jewelry to keep members of the family. Kashmir is not any exception.

Islam on Girls’ right to assets

Islam, for the reason that seventh century C.E., has granted Girls and married Women especially an independent persona. Traditionally in Islam, the bride and her family are underneath no responsibility in any way to present any present to the groom. The girl as consistent with Islamic thought is no liability. A woman is so dignified via Islam (at the least in principle) that she does no longer need to offer items in an effort to entice potential husbands.

It’s far the groom who have to present the bride with a wedding gift. This gift is considered her property and neither the groom nor the bride’s circle of relatives have any percentage in or manage it. In some Muslim societies lamentably we nevertheless follow the age old and discriminatory practices below which a girl infant is handled as a legal responsibility and after her delivery, dad and mom begin traumatic approximate dowry and marrying her off. Even today, a woman is acculturated into becoming a spouse more than turning into an intellectual and religious man or women, which Islam encourages us to grow to be, no matter our intercourse or gender. The Quran has stated its position on this difficulty pretty genuinely:

“And give the Ladies (on marriage) their dower as a loose gift; but in the event that they, in their own precise pleasure, remit any a part of it to you, take it and enjoy it with proper top cheer” (Quran four:4)

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We have a tendency to examine the verse backward and strain on how obtaining the lower (Mehr) from a female is criminal underneath Islam, however, forget that It’s far absolutely below unfastened will. Ladies need to decide their dower and their right to possess it. Their fathers and different male spouse and children do no longer have any right to do that for her The spouse’s assets and profits are underneath her complete control and for her use by myself Considering that her, and the kid’s, preservation is her husband’s duty.

No matter how rich the wife might be, she isn’t always obliged to act as a co-provider for the circle of relatives until she herself voluntarily chooses to achieve this. Moreover, a married lady in Islam retains her unbiased criminal personality and her family call additionally. This is every other primary violation Muslims in today’s world luckily do. A girl neither keeps her name after marriage nor does she often collect a share of her parental property.

Women and ordinary economics

In these days’ Muslim societies maximum of the men need to marry Ladies who paintings such that they are able to utilize their spouse’s incomes closer to the family prices, which truly isn’t bad however What’s understated is the ‘loose will’ of the female. Any debate about free-will of a lady is visible as Western or current, whereas unfastened will to work, to spend on own family and to maintain lower is in entirety a girl’s absolute unfastened will, in religion. On one hand, men search for incomes spouses but however shy away from helping their other halves in family paintings.

Also, many respected men take away their Women’s salaries and deliver them a pocket cash to spend, based on the belief that Girls can’t be prudent with price range which has its origin in denying the fame of a complete questioning person to a woman. Prophet Muhammad’s lived enjoy is again rejected for example inside the feel that prophet who used to do all his paintings on his very own is aspect covered and some form of hyper-masculinity is challenged if a running girl needs her husband to help in kitchen or with infant rearing. In my very own extended family, I have visible guys name their other halves whilst the diapers of the child want to get replaced. That is a subject of discussion for another time however it connects here in our speedy rejection of actual Islam in terms of the actually said rights of Girls.

While properly-described assets rights are one of the fundamentals for Women’s monetary protection as well as wider economic improvement, we pick to deprive our Ladies of this. It’s miles no exaggeration that standard regulation prevails in Kashmir on the subject of the belongings distribution amongst siblings. Ladies from rural regions are told that Due to the fact they can not contend with the rural land, they better give it to their brothers. In most instances they are now not even informed that their percentage in property exists. Inland revenue places of work, in many instances men quietly get the property transferred in their names leaving out their married sisters who if at any time need to fall back on their parent’s proportion, do now not discover it there. I have been a witness to this during my walk. The officers and those do it below the apparel of preventing agricultural land from turning fallow. It’s far an implicit expertise that On the grounds that land is immovable assets, It’s far higher that it stays with the circle of relatives, i.E the male contributors.

Similarly, in urban areas, when it comes to property distribution and assets basically includes a residence, the girl who’s married in most instances is informed that her room (that’s her proportion in the belongings) shall stay intact, which in less complicated phrases method, not anything. In Each instance, maximum of the instances Women are not the owners of property, which religion and even felony gadget guarantee them.

I’m sure that many humans will say that their parents or Families deliver their Ladies a share in assets however that is an exception in place of the norm. In truth, It is an important element approximately which consciousness within the society need to be raised and since it comes below Muslim Private regulation, its application in exercise have to be ensured. We want to make sure that standard laws that implicitly justify the financial deprivation of Ladies’s discouraged. In those subjects, most of the society is quiet while Muslim Non-public law isn’t always followed, in reality, because it serves the need of the effective and unfortunately Girls give in so quietly.

Kashmir Conflict

The prophet of Islam was probably the first feminist guy and came up with the modern rights for Women to very own belongings inside the time whilst Girls had been themselves taken into consideration houses in Jewish and Christian traditions and nowadays, Muslims are racing backward and even justifying this backwardness beneath the clothing of faith simplest. Following Islamic standards, these days we ought to have had granted extra rights to our Ladies in the mild of recent time and age but irony is that we need to remind our community to even practice the loose will and empowerment that Islam mentioned loads of years in the past and that they’re bent on rejecting thinking that It’s far western idea.