#so multiply this all by eight to get the full total

[sometimesiwritethings]

figured i'd go ahead and share what i've been working on instead of Yeosang's incredibly late birthday fic time is a social construct from which i'm completely divorced

[sauleline2]

Maths, Gender, And a Number Bigger than the distance to Kepler 22-B

heads up this is loooong

so i was thinking about xenopronouns (pronouns which are impossible for humans to pronounce, mostly used by therians and otherkin. eg. a pronoun that is a lion's roar, bird chirp, or alien language, etc.) while trying to fall asleep. well, i thought, couldn't an example of a xenopronoun be a normal pronoun set, like she/her, but with a different coloured font? well. i got to thinking. how many colours are there? well it depends on what format you use. an RGB colour has 255 ✕ 255 ✕ 255 colours. that comes out to 16,581,375 different colours. HSV on the other hand, has 3,600,000 different colours (360 ✕ 100 ✕ 100). but why stop there? underlines! bold! italics! the possibilities are (almost) endless! (btw im gonna stick with the rgb colour list, because it's a bigger number and i, an idle game player, find that cool) well. im just going to stick with the stock word formatting options (bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, subscript, and superscript). all of these options can be toggled all together, with the exception of superscript and subscript. now. how do we calculate that? well we take how many options there are (8, not counting the subscript and superscript (we'll get to that)) and multiply that by our number of colours. this gives us 132,651,000. we quickly multiply that by 3, to get our full total formats. 397,953,000. now i could say something sappy about how there are infinite combinations of letters, to make infinite pronouns, but that's boring in my opinion. so. there are 149,186 unicode characters (in the current version). sure, not all of them can be made into bold, or some don't have italics. who cares? they still have the italics information. or the bold information. you get the point. well. we take our amount of format options, and multiply that by the amount of unicode characters. 59,369,016,258,000. fifty nine trillion, three hundred and sixty nine billion, sixteen million, two hundred and fifty eight thousand different combinations. now. to make these into pronoun sets. to make this easier for myself, im gonna cap the maximum length of one of these at 7 characters, and the minimum at 1 (invisible characters are cool, like U+2064 or U+2063, for example). each set will be in the format of "she/her/hers", so that means each of the sets will be between 3 and 21 characters long (forward slashes are excluded). i wasn't sure how to do this with a calculator, so i did it by hand. or at least, i was going to. then i realized "wait the way im doing this is shit, and i could very easily have calculated this like the way you calculate how many different states a combo lock has. 343 different combinations of characters. we multiply that by the amount of characters we have, and boom. the total amount of robot pronouns. 20,363,572,576,494,000. twenty quadrillion, three hundred and sixty three trillion, five hundred and seventy two billion, five hundred and seventy six million, four hundred and ninety four thousand. now. most of these will be unintelligible messes of characters in different colours.

i may as well repeat the final number that i got. 20,363,572,576,494,000. think about that. if you want to put that into perspective, there are approximately 100,000,000,000 stars in the milky way galaxy (at a lowball. it goes up to around 400,000,000,000). or, 3,154,000,000 seconds in a century. (im gonna put these numbers up next to each other at the end of this, under the cut, just to help you look at them.

(up to date (as of writing)) (most of these are approximates btw) (distances are in kilometres)

"Pronouns": 20,363,572,576,494,000 Kepler 22-B's Distance: 6,055,000,000,000,000 Distance of All Human Veins: 772,485,120,000,000 Cells in the Body: 30,000,000,000,000 Elon Musk's Net Worth: 205,200,000,000 Stars in the Milky Way: 100,000,000,000 Baby Shark's Views: 14,118,385,910 Earth's Population: 8,100,000,000 Seconds in a Century: 3,154,000,000 Listens my Friend has to Sum 41: 18,306

if this looks like shit... lmao? i guess. it was formatted for web view. idk how it looks on mobile, don't care to check. (Yes i did put elon musk there because i hate him and want to point out how fucking rich he is and i think that we should kill him) (yes i did put my friend's Sum 41 scrobbles there to make fun of him)

[imkazz]

Pink and Green Hair (trendy in the taisho era)

We all know that Mitsuri ate a crazy amount of it to get her signature pink-green hair, but just how many would she have theoretically eaten?

To start, we have to look at the numbers. She ate 170 mochis per day for 8 months straight.

It's already crazy enough of a number, but imagine just how much that the Kanroji family would've spent on that mochi even before Mitsuri was a part of the Corps with her own salary, not to mention the fact that hashira can choose how much money they recieve. We can prove this fact by Mitsuri having her hair at a pre-pubescent age, when she beat that sumo wrestler at arm-wrestling.

First, since all months but one (mumbleaugustusmumble) have 30 days, we multiply it by eight for the eight months she spent eating the mochi. Then, I estimate by adding 4 for half of the months having 31 days. Since this is a bare estimate, these numbers can't be perfect.

244 days. This is, according to Mitsuri/Gotuge, how long it took until the Kanroji family started to notice Mitsuri's hair turning pink OR when her full transformation ended.

Now. We can multiply those days by how many sakura mochi she would eat in one of those days.

41,480.

If you wanted anime hair from eating a sweet, that's an estimated amount of how many sakura mochi you would have to eat.

Since this is unreliable information because there's not enough data given about this, and Mitsuri herself wasn't keeping track of this specifically, there's not much of a way to tell how many sakura mochi to actually eat, and this is also really unhealthy because duh it's a dessert that any normal person who isn't a girlboss like Mitsuri should eat more than three.

We also have to think about the actual sakura mochi. This sweet is made with pickled sakura leafs, which are edible, along with anko (red bean paste) and glutinous rice coloured pink, the same as sakura blossoms. Sakura are already notorious for only blooming for a week or two before fading for the rest of the year. This is why this wagashi (sakura mochi) is only designated as a spring treat.

Of course, it can still be eaten year-round. It's simply customary to eat in springtime, late March. You would just have to have loads of ingredients all the time in order to make it. Since, as I talked about Japanese tradition of only eating this in spring, it's probably that the Kanroji family would pickle their own sakura leaves, in the same way that they also make their own honey. Yet another way of telling us how well-off they are.

Other than that, anko (the filling) and glutinous rice (along with the pink colouring) is relatively easy to find because other types of wagashi are served year-round, and I believe that many of them have those two core ingredients (such as ohagi or manjuu). The main thing that makes sakura mochi special is the pickled leaf that can only be harvested in springtime, hence why it's only really served in the time that there are blossoms.

And finally, it also happens to be that I'm currently in Japan in middle-late March. I got to visit a (romantic) love temple nearby, prayed that I would find a Mitsuri gachapon before I leave Japan (because that's what you do when you go to a love temple, pray to see the love hashira), then it so happened that three doors down, there was a wagashi store!!

They also happened to serve ohagi (despite that being an autumn wagashi, in spring ohagi would usually be called botamochi), mitarashi dango (which will totally calm Haganezuka-san down), and of course, the reason for this post, sakura mochi!! Three character's favourite foods, so we obviously got some!!!

Taste test.

Mitarashi dango, as per usual, is amazing. I love warm mochi and the sauce is always great, especially when it's served fresh or you can watch the storeperson dunk the mochi into the sauce. I also got to have a huge version whilst exploring Odawara-jou, and before that too.

Ohagi, I was very excited to try some, but surprisingly, out of these three, it was my least favourite. That's not to say it wasn't good, but I don't think I really liked the anko being on the outside. Thinking back, it's probably unhealthy for Giyuu to hold it out to Sanemi with his bare hand.

Finally, sakura mochi. The leaves are edible, and they don't give any sort of taste or reliable texture, they seem to more be there as an ornamental piece, it was just the stem that could be a little pokey. The glutinous rice is light pink and on the outside, wrapped in the leaf. It's sweet! A bit sticky too, which is probably the reason for the leaf-holder. The anko on the inside is also very sweet, and this sweet was my favourite out of the three types of wagashi that we got. They are relatively small, maybe 10cm from a rough estimate, but they have a lot of density from being packed tight. While I really enjoyed this, I don't think I could ever eat 170 in a single day, much less for eight months.

I also forgot to mention, but there's two types of sakura mochi. First is the type with glutinous rice, the type Mitsuri is shown to be eating in the manga and anime, and the one I just tried. Second type is made with a pink pancake wrapping the anko, which is also wrapped in the sakura leaf. I think maybe two or three days after the first type's taste test, I got my hands on the pancake ones, but I was so tired that it got stuck in the fridge overnight. Let me tell you. Those pancakes were solid. If anyone has a taste of the pancake sakura mochi, feel free to give your actual impression!

Since, as I've already said, sakura mochi is the main type of wagashi served in spring, in the sakura season, there's loads of shops selling it nearby. I even got to try this taiyaki with sakura mochi filling instead of anko, which was... interesting, I suppose, but not terrible.

So try some sakura mochi if you're ever in Japan for the March season! I'm pretty sure that people sell this wagashi for the entire month, for more sales. (unfortunately, the sakura will only bloom in the week after i leave japan) (talk about a letdown, i always have to leave japan the week before they bloom for school)

Unfortunately no photos, but I did get to go on a train called the RomanceCar!! I immediately thought of Mitsuri with this, and I did get photos of that! Then, I searched up why it's called that, and the only reason is that there's two seats side-by-side with no armrest between, which gives room for couples to cuddle. Imagine modern Mitsuri with Iguro or Shinobu on one of these!!

[ledenews]

Santorine: 'We Have a Spending Problem'

There are lots of issues before us in this election, and I can’t help but think the 800-pound gorilla in the room is the national debt. It’s $35,681,221,900,999 dollars and climbing, so, let’s say, $35.6 Trillion dollars. That’s over $100,000 for every man, woman and child in our great country, including even the illegals. It’s over one- and one-half times our Gross Domestic Product. We have spent the future generations wealth. Or we have yoked them with a crushing debt. Or some combination thereof. Just servicing the debt on this massive amount consumes more money than we spend on the national defense. I have trouble wrapping my brain around this gigantic number. The old trick is to think of this in seconds. Units of time that we all know, so 1,000 seconds ago was equal to almost 17 minutes. It would take almost 12 days for a million seconds to elapse and 31.7 years for a billion seconds, therefore, a trillion seconds would amount to no less than 31,709 years. Think of it this way – a trillion seconds ago, there was no written history. The pyramids had not yet been built. It would be 10,000 years before the cave paintings in France were begun, and saber-toothed tigers were still prowling the planet, likely preying on humans. Now, multiply that by 35.6. Our national debt, in seconds would be 1,128,840 years ago. It’s an enormous number. Inconceivable. The Democratic Keynesian economists think it’s not a big deal. Of course, Keynesians are almost never right when predicting micro- or macro-economic trends, so we need to see what the Hayek and his Austrian economists have to say, and their predictions are dire. We have already seen the economic collapse that would follow a default in Greece. They had the rest of the world, including us, bailing them out. If we were to run into trouble, we would risk losing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, and let’s face it, there is no one capable of helping us out of what would be a dreadful position. There are limited ways we can escape this insanity. We can inflate our way out of it, but that’s a painful option. Or we can grow our way out (every time we start, we have a change in Washington, and we spend everything we repaid, plus some). The Democrats think we can tax our way out of this situation, which is a fantasy in itself. The “rich” only have enough money to support the overgrown beast that is our government for about eight months, and that’s if we confiscate every penny from the 550 billionaires we have for a grand total of roughly $2.5 trillion dollars. The Republicans have demonstrated that we need limited government to get there. Austerity.  We need to spend less. The problem is that neither party has done a good job of reining this beast in and spending less. They have done an absolutely superb job of raiding the national treasury in a way that helps them get elected. And hey, let’s face it, they don’t spend OUR money on the right things. Instead, they spend OUR money and run up the limit on OUR national “credit card” doing what gets them elected. We have given them no other imperative, and in the meantime, they are squandering our children’s and grandchildren’s future. We know the Chinese will be brutal taskmasters if they decide to call the loans we have taken from them at above-market rates. Our only option is spending less. A lot less and doing it right now. Being in debt is never good, and at the level our government does so, it could become a national economic hurricane that not even our great nation can escape. We don’t have a taxing problem. We have a spending problem. Read the full article

[reimalebario]

Character Creation Challenge 2024 - Day 5

Up until now I’ve been doing fairly simple characters for fairly simple systems because, although I do want to do this, I haven’t had a lot of time or energy because this month is frankly horrific. So I also haven’t really talked much about the games or the character creation process within them.

But tonight I have a bit of time to myself and I’m going in.

So, read along as I create a character for … (duhn duhn DUHN!) … Powers & Perils! Not a recent game but also not one very many people would describe as “a classic” so much as “a relic best forgotten”. But I do own the core set, the setting box “The Perilous Lands” (which, to be fair, is very good and I used it as the setting for a long Rolemaster campaign) and the module The Tower of the Dead. But I have never dared try to convince my group to actually play P&P.

Well, let’s get started!

The first thing I have to do is roll 2d10 for each of my ten Characteristics to determine my “Native Ability in each. Well, the actual first thing is to open Excel because there’ll be a lot of shit to keep track of here, but the second thing, then, is to roll Characteristics. OK, I actually first need to choose Race and Sex before I roll as this game gives you characteristic mods for both. Which isn’t great but there it is. I’m going for a human woman. Human to keep this from getting too complicated (the other choices are Elf, Faerry and Dwarf). Woman because, all in all, women get slightly better modifiers than men. Anyway, I get 7, 15, 15, 16, 13, 13, 6, 10, 7 and 13 for Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Will, Eloquence, Empathy, Constitution and Appearance respectively. 

You may be wondering what “Native Ability” means about which the rulebook has this to say: “Native Ability represents the phenotypic potential of

the Character.” I think this makes it very clear. Thank you.

Constitution and Appearance are special. For these, I need to roll on a tablel to determine a multiplier to determine my Current and Maximum Ability as, for some reason, these values can’t change. I get multipliers of 5 and 2 so my Current and Maximum Ability in them are 35 for Constitution and 26 for Appearance. For all of the others, I simply roll 2d6+14 for a number of Multipliers that I must assign to the other eight Characteristics in blocks of 0.5 to get the numbers by which I must multiply the Native Ability to find the Maximum Ability. I get 19 which isn’t great. I assign them in a way that mainly focuses on my character’s physical stats as I see her being, perhaps, a thiefy sort.

Next I need to roll a d100 twice to determine Age and Station. She’s 18 years of age and Station 1 which translates to Free man, Common soldier or servant. I now roll for Initial Increases on 2d10 plus Station plus double Age. I roll 17 on the dive for a total of 54. These must be assigned to the four categories Characteristic Points, (Combat) Experience Points, Expertise Points (for Skills) and Wealth. At least 5 points must be assigned to each category and I start by putting that minimum into Wealth because with the lowly status I enjoy, I’ll get virtually nothing for them anyway. I’ll put 7 into Experience to be Combat Experience Level 1 but i imagine being less of a fighter than a runner awayer, so I’ll split the bulk of the points not quite evenly between Characteristics and Expertise giving me 76 Characteristic Points and 340 Expertise Points for use in buying Skills later. I’ll spend the 70 Characteristice Points to boost my Characteristics closer to their lofty potentials.

I can optionally roll for Special Events where I roll once on a table for every full ten years of my character’s life so far (so: once). I will totally do this. I get a 41 meaning my character (whom I will now name Fela) has been imprisoned in the nation where the adventure is starting until she escaped 1d6 (4) days ago and is a wanted criminal. Oh, there’s a table to determine the severity of the crime that Fela committed. I roll a 31 – Felonious Theft. There’s a reward of 1d10 (10!) Gold Coins for her return. She could turn herself in and be rich! The reward is dead or alive, so Fela better watch her back.

OK, I need to determine a lot of boring ficured characteristics based on her stats. I’ll spare you the detail and just do it in Excel and get back to you.

There, done.

I need to get some skills now. I didn’t say, but earlier I need to choose to be either Barbarian or Civilized and just quietly chose Civilized without mentioning it but this affects my starting Skills. As a Civilized character of Station 1, Fela gets the following for free: either maximum possible EL (Expertise Level) in City Survival and EL 0 in Rhetoric or maximum EL in Survival in a different native terrain and EL 0 in Tracking. I see Fela as more of an urban type so I opt for the former. She also gets to choose between Husbandry, Forester or Miner or any two skills with a cost to learn of 15 (Exp points) or less. I’ll just take Miner. No wonder a life of doing crimes seemed more alluring.

Okay, now I finally get to spend my 340 points. There’s a confusing skill list where some of the skills are actually bundles of other skills. One such skill is “Thief” which is also the first skill I want to get for Fela. Its cost to learn is 100 for freelance thieves but only 75 for Guild thieves. But to become a Guild thief, Fela must roll equal to or less than her maximum possible EL as a thief (on a d100) to be accepted! This number is 48 and I roll a 60. She’ll have to go freelance and pay full price. It was probably the guild that shopped her to The Man! She pays 100 for a Starting Level which, due to a peculiarity of how Starting EL’s are determined and her Characteristic values is 51 – greater than her Maximum of 48. I’ll just give her the 48. I’ll also get her the Dancer skill to give her something to fall back on when crime isn’t paying enough. I’ll pay 76 Exp Pts for Dancer at her maximum EL (6). Why not let her learn to Read & write? I’ll spend 45 points on a starting EL, so she can read and write very poorly. Finally, I should probably get her some Combat Skills. I’ll get her Dagger – Fight and Dagger – Throw at EL 2 and 3 respectively and Scimitar at EL0 because why not? (That leaves Fela with 2 Exp pts unspent which I’ll just say are put into Scimitar to help her pay for her next EL in it.

I suppose I should buy her some equipment for her 10 Copper Coins and it’s late and I want to go to bed. 

Here’s a screengrab of as much of her character sheet as I could be arsed to fill out:

To be completely fair to P&P, this is actually a pretty compelling character, I think. Maybe I should give running it a go?

Speedy, continued

Speedy helps Fela get away from the countless people pursuing her for the rich bounty on her head and they go on many hilarious (mis)adventures together in The Perilous Lands after which Speedy’s stats increase to this:

Speedy Maledict

Apprentice

Muscle 44, Speed 59, Stamina 31, Mental 54, Luck 16, Total 204

Damage 5, Init 6, Heal 4, Power 6, Luck Roll 7, Force 20

Physical 45 (19x2)

Life Points 38

Skills: Pilot-1, Mechanic-1, Street Criminal-3, Unarmed-1, Rapier-3, Theatrical-1, Wilderness-2, Gamma Raygun-1, Futuristic-3, Magical-3, Stage Magician-1

Powers: Magneto-1

Rapier, Gamma Raygun, Backpack, Mechanic’s tools, 4 Gold Coins cash, Lockpicking tools

He’s starting to pick up some arcane abilities. Perhaps these will come in handy in the strange alien site he finds himself transported after foolishly picking up a strange beetle-shaped artefact in a dungeon? Perhaps, but almost certainly not.

[dreamescapeswriting]

Silent Treatment ~ OT7 [M] [Request]

WORD COUNT: 3.3K

PAIRING: ot7 x reader

GENRE: ot7, non! Idol, family relationship, smut, oral f recieving, female appreciation, we’re sorry sex,

A/N: I’m still not 100% there with ot7 smut, I am trying though so I hope that this is okay for you! I didn’t add too much smut as you only said a little. I hope you like it!

If someone had told you that you would be in a happy relationship with seven men, you never would have believed them. You never took yourself as someone who would be into polyamorous relationships but when you met the boys it all changed. They were kind, sweet, caring and they all loved you equally so it was no wonder you fell hard for them. Eventually moving into a huge home together and having a child. The only difficult part about that was explaining to your daughter’s teachers that she had different people going to pick her up from school. The dirty looks you would get from other people who thought your business was automatically their business when it had absolutely nothing to do with them.

“Mummy!” You snapped out of your daydream when you heard the familiar cry of your daughter’s voice. The more she grew older the more she began to look like you. Which you were thankful for. Neither you nor the boys knew which of them was the father, none of you wanted to know either. Collectively she was your child and that was the only thing that mattered.

“Hey sweetie, how was your day?” You questioned as you bent down to pick her up, placing her onto your hip as she began to list off everything she had been doing in class that day. You couldn’t believe she was almost seven years old, time flew by so quickly with her. 

“We did maths! I learnt how to multiply up to 10 today.” You giggled as you began heading back to the family car. It was supposed to be Yoongi’s turn picking her up today but it turned out he was busy and stuck at work. No big deal, you were mostly a stay-at-home mum and wife anyway since seven of them earnt far more than you knew what to do with.

“Are my dad’s at home?” A filthy look flew in your direction from the woman in the car beside your car. You weren’t stupid. You knew how everyone felt about your relationship with her fathers. Even the teachers in the school weren't best pleased that your daughter understood that she had more than one father. They expressed that they would rather have her know them as her uncles but who were they to tell you how to raise your daughter?

“Daddy Namjoon and Jungkook are but they’re a little busy, sweetie.” You strapped her into the back of your car, taking her book bag from her to check if she had homework to do. 

Normally it was Namjoon’s job to help with the homework, something you were trying to make happen so she knew it was okay as she grew older but not tonight. Tonight he and Jungkook were making renovations on the house so it was going to be you that helped her out.

“Okay, I’ll ask daddy Hoseok to teach me some dance moves when he comes home. We have an end of the year dance coming up and I want to ask Jaylyn and Katie to go with me.” You smiled weakly at her. The boys were all busy with their own things tonight but you nodded along, not wanting to upset her too much before you got home for the night. 

“Shall we put on some music or would you like to keep telling me about the dance?” You looked in the mirror at your daughter who pointed to the radio. One of her favourite things to do was listen to music. Something she had gotten from Yoongi. He was a radio jingle maker/ producer on the side which meant he was almost always busy with work. 

“Maybe we’ll hear daddy Yoongi’s radio jingle,” You told her with a laugh as you turned up the radio and began your drive home for the night. 

Your daughter had something from each of the boys, Yoongi’s love for music, Hoseok passion for dancing. Namjoon’s brain, Jungkook’s ability to be good at literally everything that she set her mind at. Jimin’s duality, Taehyung’s art skills and she took after Jin with her loud rambling in Korean. There was so much of them in her it was hard to believe she was only one of their children.

Once your daughter had finished her homework you allowed her to go and play while you cleaned up the house. It seemed that no matter how much you tidied up it would end up a total mess again. Clothes were strewn about on the top floor where everyone would come home and dump everything they had on. Shoes were piled up at the bottom of the stairs in front of the front door. Somewhat of a safety hazard. The floors seemed to always get dirty no matter how many times a day you cleaned them.

“What do you have planned for dinner?” Was the first question that flew from Jimin’s mouth once he entered the house. Shoes on messing up your freshly moped floors. Staring at him you almost wanted to slap him with the wet part of the mop.

“Jimin! I just moped!” You called out as you sat him leaving dirty shoe prints all over the place, seeming to have no care in the world as he made his way into the kitchen and heading into the pantry.

“Relax. It’s just a bit of mud.” He grumbled as he continued to go through the cupboards for snacks. Dropping different packets onto the floor that he didn't bother to pick up once he came out with what he wanted. 

“What did you say you had planned?” He questioned when you began cleaning up the mess he left and then began putting everything you had been using away.

“I didn’t, I don’t have anything planned.” You grumbled as you put the cleaning products away into the kitchen cupboards. Standing back up and looking over at Jimin who shrugged his shoulders.

“Nothing planned?” Jungkook’s voice chimed in as he heard you speaking. By now all of the boys were home and expecting something to eat as if you were the only one that knew how to use the oven. 

“Yes, nothing planned because guess what? I’m not the only one that knows how to cook.” You snapped as you glanced at each of their faces. You hadn't meant to snap as nastily as you did but it was getting to be exhausting being the only one that cooked and cleaned everything in the home.

“You’re the only one that has nothing to do all day. You've done nothing, the least you could have done was made dinner,” As soon as the words left Jungkooks lips the air seemed to turn cold and thin. Everyone turned to stare at him as you scoffed at the statement. The only reason you didn't work was that they had convinced you that they earnt enough, there was no need to work because who would look after your daughter all day.

“I did nothing all day?” Your hand rested on your hip as you tilted your head to the side. The boys said nothing leaving Jungkook to dig himself a bigger grave.

“I didn’t mean-”

“I do nothing? So I don’t clean all day, make breakfast and lunch for you, or take our daughter to school..." Jungkook turned pale as he realised how angry he had made you. 

"I don't pick her up even though it’s everyone else's turn. I don’t do the laundry, make sure the studies are clean or go food shopping, parent and teacher meetings?” Jungkook was taken back by everything he realised you did. He had no idea that you did so much leaving them to get on with whatever they wanted to do. 

“Y/n you’re being dramatic,” Taehyung mumbled as he shook his head, to him this was all easy work. Nothing about what you had said seemed as tiring as you were making it out to be,

“You know what...I don’t even have the energy for this,” You began making your way to the door when you heard Yoongi speak out this time,

“It's not like you work a full-time job, we would help but we work more than you do.” There it was. The "you don't work but we do" line. Something you had been anticipating since the moment they told you that you didn't have to work. Looking at each of their faces you knew from the moment you saw them they agreed with Yoongi.

“So you think being a mother isn’t a full-time job? That everything I do around the house is easy? Oh, please I would love to see you fucking try it for once.” You countered,

“You’re being stupid, they didn't mean it like that." All that you heard fall from Jin's lips was that you were stupid. You stared at him mouth hanging open a little but nothing came out. You just shook your head and stormed out of the room.

Ignoring them all as you stormed up to your bedroom. Normally you would share it with one boy a night, or two if you needed the extra cuddles but right now you needed to be alone. You walked past one of the studies to find your daughter fast asleep holding her barbies. Luckily she was away for the fiasco going on downstairs so you picked her up and carried her to your room. If they saw she was with you they wouldn't bother trying to get into the bed with you. 

Days passed by and the boys barely noticed you were giving them the silent treatment. They were all so busy with their jobs that they didn't speak to you. Meanwhile, you played the role of the pretty little housewife that made everything perfect for them while they were away. The house was spotless, your daughter was at school on time and picked up at the same time. 

"Darling, go and tell your dad's that dinner is waiting for them." You told her as you set the table for eight. Making sure your daughter's spot was right at the top of the table before putting their plates down and heading up to your room. There were piles of laundry sitting on the bed waiting to be put away. 

"Daddy," She called out as she walked into the back garden. They were all working on a new wendy house for her. They were trying to make it bigger than the last one so that everyone could fit into the house for tea parties. 

"Yes, sweetie?" Jin called out as she came bounding over to him, jumping into his arms and smiling.

"Mummy told me to tell you that dinner is ready," She looked at all of them and Jungkook clapped loudly. 

"Break time!" He chuckled rubbing his hands together and heading into the house. 

The dining room was empty and only eight placemats were set at the table. 

"Where is mummy?" Namjoon questioned your daughter who was sitting in your usual spot. She simply shrugged her shoulders before eating.

"I haven't seen her much and when I do she's silent which isn't like her," Jin mumbled as he began to eat the food you'd made, everything tasted fantastic like it always did when you cooked for them. 

"I tried to speak to her this morning but she ignored me," Jungkook mumbled as he pushed food into his mouth, 

"I don't blame her, you were rude on Tuesday." Hoseok reminded him of the day of the fight. That wasn't really a fight more like a disagreement. 

"We all were." Namjoon corrected him as they continued to think back on it. 

The weekend continued on just like that. You were sending messages to the boys through your daughter using her as a messenger owl while the boys did the same back. Monday morning came around and you were standing outside the school gates with your daughter. 

"Mum?" You looked at her as you zipped up her coat, grabbing her bookbag. 

"What is it, sweetie?" You questioned as you made sure her hair was perfect and she looked good to go. 

"Are you and my daddies going to spilt up?" You looked at her and then over at the school as the bell rang. 

"No, we're just having a small fight baby that's all." You whispered as you kissed her forehead. If you tried to explain it now she'd be late for school. 

"Go, I promise we'll make up while you're at school." She began rushing off in the direction of her class and you waved goodbye until the doors completely shut and you could head home. 

Home where all of the boys were waiting for you. They had collectively decided to take the day off from work so they could get to the bottom of whatever was wrong with you.

"So what's the problem with you?" Jungkook questioned earning a slap around the back of the head from Namjoon who was trying to be the levelheaded one throughout all of this. 

"What he means to say is, why are we getting the silent treatment?" Namjoon reiterated the question but in a different manner.

"Let me see...Tuesday night ring a bell?" You questioned as you walked past them and into the kitchen. Beginning to get started with the housework when Hoseok pulled you into a tight hug from behind. Your whole body seemed to melt into his as you missed the contact from each of them. 

"We were being idiots, we were tired and irritated with our jobs and we took it out on you." He whispered in your ear as he kept his arms around your tightly never once letting go. 

"Let us make it up to you," He whispered again, his breath making your back tingle as you shook your head. Getting away from him as quickly as you could. He knew what his whispers and touching did to you. 

"You think I'm just going to forget what you said with a simple, "we were irritated?" Because that's not how it works!" You snapped at them all, glancing over all of their faces to see if they truly meant what they were saying. 

"We didn't mean for it to be so mean and we're sorry," Yoongi told you as he stepped closer to you, holding your hand and running his fingers over your knuckles.

"We know how much you do and how hard you work," Jungkook stood up from the sofa and made his way into the kitchen to look at you.

"Now, please...Let us make it up to you." Yoongi told you again as he stepped closer to you. Running his hand up and down your cheek as you relaxed into his touch. 

"None of you have actually said sorry except for Yoongi." You moved closer to Yoongi, wrapping your arms around the back of his neck as you giggled. 

"So maybe I should only forgive him." You looked at the boys as your lips slowly began to kiss up and down Yoongi's neck, biting down softly right at the nape of his neck. His weakest point. 

"No! We're sorry! I'm sorry." Taehyung whined out desperately as he so wanted to have your body on his. It had been so long since any of you had been together intimately it was starting to become too much to be away.

Seven apologies later and you were laid on the bed making out with Yoongi while Namjoon's hands ran down your naked body. Massaging your breasts while his mouth wrapped around the other, sucking and nibbling on your nipple as you let out small moans of pleasure. 

"L-Let me touch you," You complained as you reached out to touch Yoongi but he moved your hand away. 

"It's about you tonight and only you," Confused by what he meant you went back to kissing him. Your lips moving in sync with one another as he held your face in his hands.

Suddenly you felt Jimin's lips on your core making you cry out at the sudden contact, 

"Seems like someone has missed us almost as much as we've missed her." He chuckled as he began to slowly lick stripes up and down your folds, nibbling at your clit whenever he could.

"Jimin!" You whined out, back arching a little as he continued with the slow movements of his tongue which almost had you begging for more.

"Hmm so good," Jimin moans out as he begins to dip his tongue in and out of you. Taking his time as he slowly licks your pussy, tasting every bit of you he can get. 

"So fucking good," He growled deeply, your whole body shaking as he continued to lap up your juices. Repeatedly flicking your clit with his tongue causing you to cry out his name, hands buried in his hair as you pushed him closer to your cunt.

"Jimin right there!" You cried out as he inserted two fingers into you, curling them up as he continued to suck on your clit. 

Your whole body was on fire as you could feel yourself getting closer to the edge. The curl of his fingers making you moan out, every now and again he would let out growls causing your pussy to clench around his fingers. 

"Don't take away all the fun," Yoongi pouted as he took your breast into his mouth, sucking harshly while Namjoon did the same to the other. Your head was spinning so fast you'd forgotten the other boys were in the room.

Watching as you were eaten out so carefully and lovingly.

"J-Jimin!" You warned as you could feel yourself beginning to get closer. The coil in your stomach was beginning to tighten with every bite, lick and thrust from him. 

"I-I can't-" You couldn't even finish your sentence before your orgasm ripped through your body. Your eyes shutting tightly as you cried out his name. Hips bucking against his lips begging him not to stop until you rode out your high.

"My turn." Jungkook chuckled as he began to kiss up and down your body. Hands travelling down to your core as he began to rub your already sensitive clit. Each touch felt intensified from your previous orgasm. 

"J-Jungkookie," You moaned out as he kissed you sweetly, two fingers rubbing small circles into your core.

"Shh, let us take care of you tonight, it's not about us." Jin's whisper filled your ear as he began to kiss and suck on your neck. Hoseok's hands made their way to your breasts as did Taehyung's. It was going to be a long and very good day.

By the time they were finished with you, you were panting and dripping in sweat...As well as other substances. You'd finally convinced them into letting you please them. Girls couldn't have all of the fun after all. Whining out as you held onto Jin you looked up at him,

"Someone needs to go and pick our little girl up, I don't think I'll be able to walk straight for a week." You laughed softly as Jin helped you into the bathroom. He'd already drawn you a hot bubble bath with a mug of hot chocolate waiting for you. 

"I'll go and get her, we can stop by the library before we come home," Namjoon said as he watched you sink into the hot water, eyes rolling back as you finally relaxed.

"I'll come too," Jungkook said as he looked at Namjoon and then at you. Making sure you were okay before they headed out to go and pick up your little girl.

"J-Jin." Your hand reached out to touch him and he turned to look at you. 

"Can you come in? I don't want to be alone." You told him, the others had all gone to wash up and you would have been alone. 

"Sure." He whispered as he stripped down, getting into the bath behind you and holding you close.

"I really love you guys," You mumbled as you closed your eyes. Listening to nothing but his heart beating against his chest.

"We love you too," He whispered as he began to slowly wash your body off carefully.

Tagline: @lyoongx​ @mitzwinchester​ @rjsmochii​ @sw33tnight​ @taestannie​ @sweeneyblue1​ @jin-from-the-block​ @acciocriativity​ @mwitsmejk​ @taeechwitaa​ @justbangtanthingz​ @stillwithlix​

[rosemarypasta]

➤ pairing : oikawa tooru x female reader (karasuno manager)

➤ chapter warnings : slowburn (?)

➤ summary : You just recently joined the Karasuno boy’s volleyball team as their first year manager. As you grow closer to your teammates, you also unexpectedly grow closer to one of their biggest rivals, Oikawa Tooru

➤ chapter word count: 2762

-ˏˋ chapter two ˊˎ-

SATURDAY

8:00 AM

You woke up the next day super early to get ready for the practice match. Eight hours ago before collapsing due to an energy shortage, you made sure to set up an alarm for eight AM so you could have a full hour to get ready before going to the morning practice. You showered, brushed your teeth and ate some breakfast first thing in the morning. As soon as you finished your last bite of toast, you said goodbye to your parents and set off to school with thirty minutes to spare. You knew you could've used the remaining thirty minutes to chill for a second or do your homework that you didn't get to do yesterday but you figured that you'd start to freak out and question why you were doing all this in the first place if you didn't go immediately.

Physically, you felt tired and worn out from dodging stray volleyballs yesterday but you were oddly pumped and energized to go to practice. As you began to question your sudden surge of enthusiasm, your brain quickly reminded you of a reason why.

Oikawa Toru was a reason why.

You felt like a thirteen year old having a crush on the popular boy all over again. You've only seen him once and you find it ridiculous how much he has already been occupying your mind. He didn't even acknowledge you last night. He couldn't at least pretend to be interested in who you were and ask for your name. "Whatever." You mumbled to yourself as you tried to push the image of the Seijoh student away. But there is nothing wrong with finding a stranger hot anyway.

As you entered school grounds and walked towards the gym, you could already hear the squeaking sounds the volleyball shoes made. You looked over to see the time on your cell phone and confirmed with yourself that you were fifteen minutes early. So how are there already somebody practicing? You peaked through the open door and caught a glimpse of the red head sprinting to the opposite side of the court in a blink of an eye. HInata suddenly jumps vertically up but falls shortly, a volleyball joining beside him a second later.

"You jumped too fast!" A familiar voice yelled. There was somebody else in there this early too aside from Hinata. "Well maybe you just tossed too slow." Hinata pouted as he crossed his arms and legs like a toddler throwing a tantrum on the floor.

You giggled to yourself as you found the sight of a high schooler to be ridiculous.

"Ah! Y/N, good morning!" The redhead greeted you as he noticed you creeping from the door. "Hey." Kageyama greeted you briefly before picking up another ball from the cart you and Shimizu organized after yesterday's practice. Judging from the amount of balls already scattered throughout the gym floor, you could tell they have started way earlier than you previously thought.

The rest of the team quickly started to pile in the gym one by one. BY the time coach Ukai showed up, the whole team had already started their stretches. They seemed more fired up than yesterday.

You weren't the type to keep up with sports but you do know that your prefecture was quite well known for some of their volleyball players. You've heard of powerhouse schools like Shiratorizawa and Aoba Johsai but you've never heard of Karasuno's outstanding volleyball team. So if this is the performance and morale of a team full of nobodies, you wonder how insane the training is in the powerhouse schools.

The practice went by smoothly, no yelling or fights and most importantly, no injuries. They took frequent breaks to drink and rest in between different types of training. Despite it being a Saturday morning, you didn't feel worn out like you did during yesterday's practice. In reality, it was pretty entertaining watching them play a sport they are all so passionate about. Well, most of them seemed passionate. Tsukishima, the first year, seemed to be pretty good but anyone could tell that he was doing the bare minimum compared to Nishinoya and Hinata who were pretty much begging the coach to keep playing during breaks.

And before you knew it, twelve o'clock came around and the black and orange uniformed boys met their rivals for the day. Around the same amount of players in white and turquoise walked in the gym but as much as you scanned the crowd, you didn't find the familiar face you hoped to see. You sank into the bench you were sitting on and sighed. Was he not a regular? Then why was he so confident in beating Kageyama when he isn't on the team to begin with?

You contemplated whether you should ask Kageyama about him but you pushed that possibility away as you watched him do his final set of stretches to prepare for the match. You also thought it would be embarrassing if he knew you had an interest towards someone that was so ridiculously rude towards him. Though while debating with yourself, you caught Kageyama looking through the room and looking concerned for a while but shook it off swiftly before serving in the first set of the day. You knew Aoba Johsai has a pretty big volleyball team and they only brought twenty people to Karasuno so maybe Oikawa really wasn't a regular.

Two sets went by and both Karasuno and Aoba Johsai each had a win which means the last set they played would determine the first win of the day. With a blow of a whistle, Asahi was already throwing the ball in the air to serve but got distracted by the sudden entrance of a brunette in a white jacket.

"Sorry for being late everyone, it took me a while to get the ok from the doctor." He graciously announced as he leaned on the door with a white supporter on his right knee. "So you can finally play?" An Aoba Johsai player with spiky dark hair asked Oikawa to which he replied with a sparkly smile and an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"You guys lost the first set to them huh?" He casually spoke with a bright smile on his face that seemed sinister with the context and tone of the words he spoke. "Leave the rest to your captain." He smirked. He pulled the jacket off his back to reveal his white uniform with the number one printed brilliantly across his chest.

As if the whole ordeal was pre-planned, the timid looking boy that made Aoba Johsai lose their set point the last set moved back and joined the rest of the white uniformed team on the bench with a simple hand gesture from the coach. Oikawa swiftly moved to the back of the court. His legs parted and arms wide open, ready to accept the ball his black uniformed opponent was about to serve.

As soon as the ball left Asahi's grasp, Aoba Johsai was quick to react, even quicker than the last two sets they played. Each move the players made on court was filled with confidence and no hesitation was shown, as if a single person like OIkawa multiplied their skills by three just by setting foot on the polished wooden floors riddled with sweat. The brunette captain was quick to react when his name was called. He ran up to the front of the net, tossed the ball towards his teammate and allowed him to spike with all his might.

Watching the whole ordeal was mesmerizing despite being on, what seems like now, the underdog's team. As the ball left the spiker's palm, it zoomed in the air. You held your breath as you saw it in slow motion touch the area beyond the white line.

It was out.

You sighed in relief and sank back into the bench beside coach Ukai and Shimizu. You felt relieved that no one on the Karasuno team touched the ball since it looked like it was strong enough to break an arm. You turned to see them cheer as usual every time they win a point but the celebrations seemed to be duller than usual. They seemed tense, not letting their guard down as they briefly high fived each other.

"It's the grand king's turn to serve now." You overheard Hinata mutter to himself as he wiped sweat droplets from his forehead. The grand king? Who's the grand king?

You turned to the opposite side of the court and saw the pretty brunette spinning the ball on his long and slender finger. The Aoba Johsai captain threw the ball in the air lightly then proceeded to hit it to the point where the side where the ball touched his palm grew flat, parallel to his hand. You thought the last ball they hit was powerful but this time, you were sure that this one was strong enough to put a hole in the middle of the gymnasium.

The whole practice match went on for another hour and a half. The two teams played six sets in total. Two went to Karasuno while the other four went to the fashionably late captain's team. You felt bad that your team lost, despite how much practice they put even before the official practice hours had begun but you assumed that losing four sets in a six set game to a powerhouse school wasn't so bad.

Right?

Though, you thought the fired up ones like Nishinoya and Hinata would be bummed after losing a practice match but they seemed fine. They were mopping the floors as usual and were mingling with some of Aoba Johsai members who were still cooling down before journeying back to their school.

For your part of the clean up, you carried a crate of empty water bottles outside to the back of the gym to fill them with water. Carrying twenty empty bottles and filling them to the brim was no problem, but carrying them full back in was one. You took a deep breath in before focusing all your strength you had onto your fingertips but before you could even attempt to lift them, they seemed to float up on their own.

You realized the pair of hands on top of yours.

You startled yourself and dripped the heavy plastic crate to the ground as you jumped away in shock. "Sorry for scaring you, I just saw you struggled with it and wanted to help." The captain of the opposing team spoke, rubbing the back of his neck. "Ah! No, it's fine. Thank you for your concern and help." You frantically replied back. You could feel your cheeks heat up in shame. You stepped away from the crate as he crouched down and picked it up like it was nothing.

"I'm Oikawa Toru, though I suppose Tobio-chan filled you in with that information last night?" He introduced himself as he began to carry the bottles in the gym. Your heart skipped a beat pathetically. He remembered you from last night. You let out a small sigh, disappointed at how easy it was for Oikawa to impress you this much by doing the bare minimum.

Though, despite your conflicting inner thoughts, butterflies unwillingly started to fill your stomach. "So are you Tobio's classmate? You two seemed pretty close yesterday. Was he walking you home?" OIkawa set the crate down carefully on the floor, speaking casually as if you were already acquaintances for a long time. "Yes he did but it was nothing special- Shimizu-senpai told me to have someone walk me home since it was already dark outside." Your face paced answer seemed desperate compared to how chill he was acting. "And we aren't classmates, I'm just in the same year as him." You didn't know why you were so eager to answer each and every question he asked. You knew he was just making small talk but you answered as if they were the final words he would ever say to you.

You could tell he was the popular type. The way he acted and played screamed like the jock pride and joy of Seijoh. His perfectly styled hair, charismatic smile and toner body had the ability to make anyone, whether they liked men or not, drool.

"OIkawa get your ass in the bus, we're leaving." The dark haired boy in the number four uniformed yelled from the opposite side of the room. "Well, I guess this is goodbye for now, Y/N-chan." He winked before running off to join his vice-captain who hit his head in response to Oikawa patting his hair once he caught up to his friend. You giggled at the sight of them bickering childishly as two of your seniors slid behind you.

"Don't be fooled by that pretty boy's charms, Y/N." Tanaka warmed, his face contorted in intimidation in an attempt to scare the rival's captain, which went unnoticed as he was already out of the gym, busy talking with his friend. "You two! Cut it out, don't spread rumours about Oikawa." Daichi sighed as he hit the two boys with odd hairstyles on the head. "They aren't rumours if they're true, Daichi-san!" Nishinoya managed to say as he winced in pain, rubbing the top of his head in sync with his buzzcut haired partner. "So what's the deal with Oikawa-san?" You replied in curiosity without thinking further. Tanaka and Nishinoya snickered at your response, satisfied with the reaction they sparked and straightened their posture, before clearing their throats. "Well aside from the fact that he nearly beat up poor Kageyama when he was only in his first year of junior high just because he wanted advice on volleyball, I'd say he's a decent guy." Tanaka informed in a low voice, looking around to make sure Daichi wasn't around to scold him.

Oikawa? Beating up Kageyama? He may look like someone from the popular side but he didn't seem the type to bully someone, let alone an underclassmen who was two year younger than him. You wanted to ask more from the two troublemakers but given the look on your face and how the three of you were bundled up like a group of moms gossiping about their neighbour's scandals, Daichi walked up to the second years with a sinister grin on his face but they were two steps ahead and dispersed on their own, pretending to be busy with cleaning up to avoid their captain.

After another hour of running practice outside, Daichi and Sugawara treated the whole team to some popsicles to cheer them up from the loss of the practice match and the team was shortly dismissed. You and Kageyama started to walk home together unintentionally and made small talk throughout the journey. You knew he was a nice person but you did pick up that he more or less lacked some social and communication skills. As the two of you talked about normal stuff, his answers sounded awkward and short but you were quick to realize that that was not the case when it comes to talking about volleyball so you switched the topic of the conversation to the practice match. You let him ramble on about his serves, Hinata's failed attempts at a block, and other various things you barely even noticed in the match. It was a nice way to familiarize with volleyball terms so you didn't mind. Besides,, he seemed pumped to talk about volleyball despite having just played it a while ago.

You were tempted to bring up oIkawa but you decided not to as you began to enter your neighbourhood. Although what Tanaka and Nishinoya said explained why Oikawa behaved superior and confident towards Kageyama the other day, it seemed more like harmless banter rather than petty bullying. Besides, a full three years have gone by since the supposed bullying so you were sure he has changed.

Right?

4:00 PM

"What's with that face, you look constipated." Iwaizumi abruptly spoke, sitting up on his bed as he pushed away a manga he was reading to narrow his eyes at his childhood friend.

Oikawa rested his head on Iwaizumi's bed and smirked, "That Karasuno girl seems like she's close with Tobio-chan." He sneered, shortly feeling a sharp pain on his forehead.

"Don't get any childish ideas, Shittykawa." Iwaizumi spoke sternly in his signature monotone voice as he retreated his fingers after flicking his captain on the forehead.

next:  -ˏˋ chapter three ˊˎ-

previous:  -ˏˋ chapter one ˊˎ-

[mst3kproject]

The Flame Barrier

I’ve got an awful lot of movies from 1958 on my resume, don’t I?  Why is that? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. Apparently it was just a bumper year for cheap, crappy black-and-white films.  This one stars Kathleen Crowley from The Rebel Set and Rodd Redwing from The Mole People, in a movie written by George Worthing Yates, who also penned Earth vs the Spider.  Also featuring a blob from outer space, with motives even less clear than the one in The Space Children.

Over yet another stock-footage rocket launch, one of those deep-voiced 50’s narrators informs us that there’s a layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the Flame Barrier which destroys everything it touches. This particular rocket was no exception, and its crash-landing in the Mexican jungle may be related to the disappearance of explorer Howard Dalman, whose wife Carol has now come looking for him. She seeks out a pair of prospectors, Dave and Matt Hollister, to guide her to his last known location.  As they go deeper into the bush, they find they’re wandering into something unknown… something that can make men burst into flames!

This movie isn’t terrible.  It’s not great, but it’s not irredeemably awful.  It reminds me a lot of The Giant Gila Monster, in that there’s a story going on and it’s not a bad story per se, but it’s one that’s got nothing whatsoever to do with the title and premise that drew us to the film in the first place.  When the supposed main plot pops up again at the end, it makes for a sudden and jarring shift.

The Flame Barrier starts off all right.  We have the inevitable narrator to give us the backstory, and then it gets right on with meeting the characters.  They’re introduced one by one, telling us their personalities and goals: Carol is naïve and spoiled but she’s trying her best, Matt is a drunk fool but he’s got a good heart, and Dave is a gruff, cynical realist who loves his brother but is tired of his bullshit.  None of them are exactly nice people but you can see where they’re coming from, and they each get an arc.  Carol struggles with whether she really loved Howard, whom she barely knew, and the movie allows her to toughen up and learn how to survive in the wilderness. Dave spends much of the movie being a jerk to Carol but eventually realizes he judged her too harshly and apologizes.  Matt gets a chance to be a hero and takes it, believing that he owes it to Dave for never giving up on him.  The writing is frequently unsubtle but the actors are competent, and these little stories work just fine.

The movie that surrounds them, however, is often very sloppy.  The narrator tells us that the space probe from the opening crashed because ‘it unexpectedly lost its gravitational force’.  What?  What is that supposed to even mean?  The narrator also tells us it’s been six months since Howard disappeared, then mere minutes later Carol says it’s been four. There’s a bit where Carol is menaced by an iguana… the creature is never actually in the shot with her, so they couldn’t find anything scarier?  The stock wildlife footage on their trek through the soundstage sets of Central America includes hyenas.  I can hear Crow saying, “boy, are we in Afri… wait a minute…”  And, pet peeve, they describe a snake as poisonous instead of venomous.

This being a jungle movie, obviously there are ‘natives’.  I think most of these are actual Mexicans, although Wikipedia says Rodd Redwing may have been from India (if so, I like to think his entire career in Westerns was based on just walking into casting directors’ offices and announcing he was ‘an Indian’, and letting them draw their own conclusions).  Being as this is a movie from the fifties, the natives are there largely to provide a body count – white people aren’t allowed to die until the climax.  To its credit, The Flame Barrier mostly (though not entirely) avoids the trope where the natives have interpreted the mysterious happenings as supernatural, leading the white characters to scoff at the whole thing.  There is some of this, but Dave clearly knows these people well and respects their culture and their warnings.

Then there’s the love story.  Obviously this is a movie, so Carol’s gotta fall for one or other of these idiots, but neither of the Hollister brothers is a good choice. Matt is sweet to her but he’s also a useless drunk who only has a job because his brother puts up with him.  Dave spends eighty percent of the movie being an asshole and I have no idea what Carol sees in him.  At least the two men never fight over her.  I guess the love affair is important to the plot, because it spurs the party on to finish their search for the missing Howard Dalman despite the odds being stacked against them… but that basically boils down to Carol and Dave needing to be sure she’s a widow before they can bone.

After all this messing around in the jungle, with the run time half over we get to the plot, and the movie changes gears with an almost audible ka-chunk.  Now we’ve got this space blob sitting in a cave (how did it get in there when it’s still attached to the rocket?) doubling in size every two hours, which must be destroyed before it can consume the entire earth!  Suddenly we have a laboratory, because all the scientific equipment Howard brought with him is still in perfect condition despite having been sitting in the jungle for either four or six months.  Suddenly Dave the rugged survivalist is a scientist and mathematician.  It’s like they took the same actors and sets and started trying to make a totally different movie.

Honestly, I think this is more or less what happened. I think the multiplying space blob was the movie somebody originally wanted to make – it starts out as a tiny thing in a test tube, growing bigger and bigger until it consumes the whole building and will destroy the entire city if it isn’t stopped!  That sounds like a pretty fun 50’s sci-fi movie in itself. It also, however, sounds like an expensive 50’s sci-fi movie, needing miniatures destroyed and screaming extras and other stuff The Flame Barrier just didn’t have the money for. Hence the need to spend so much time wandering around in the jungle swapping tragic backstories before the characters are allowed to get to that point.

The unfortunate thing about this is that the movie doesn’t really have time to get into the nature of its alien.  In Spacemaster X-7, the Blood Rust was offscreen much of the time but we still had a good idea of what it was and of its capabilities, and the explanations we were given made a reasonable amount of sense.  In The Flame Barrier, we’ve got this blob that apparently lives in the rarified and super-hot outer atmosphere (the writers seem to have confused Earth’s atmosphere with the Sun’s corona), but can also survive on the ground… and its effects are all over the place. Sometimes when things get too close to it, they’re just electrocuted and disintegrated, as happens to the rocket’s original passenger, a very young chimpanzee.  Sometimes people get horribly burned and then burst into flames and are reduced to skeletons hours or days later, as keeps happening to the natives. And then there’s Howard, who somehow managed to get close enough to be swallowed up by the thing and his corpse is still completely intact inside it.

None of this makes any sense.  If the blob has that protective electrocution barrier that the humans must be so careful to avoid, how did Howard get close enough to be trapped in it?  How did the chimp get out to end up wandering around in the jungle?  What the heck is happening to the natives who get burned and then skeletonized and why doesn’t that ever happen to the chimp or any of the main characters?  And how do they manage to kill by electrocution a creature that uses lethal amounts of electricity without any harm to itself?  ‘It’s an alien – we don’t understand it’ can cover a multitude of sins in movie writing, but the blob’s random effects don’t even feel like they could potentially make sense.

The Flame Barrier reminds me of other MST3K movies, too. Prominent among them are It Conquered the World and The Crawling Hand, both of which ended on the same unintentionally depressing note: they suggest that the dangers of going into space are so great that humans will never be able to overcome them.  It Conquered the World tells us that there are eight more Venusians just waiting for their own turn to invade.  The Crawling Hand says that exposure to outer space causes mutations that will turn astronauts into mindless murderers.  The Flame Barrier posits that not only is space itself deadly, but is also full of deadly creatures, and the only way to avoid them is to stay on the ground.

This has always interested me because movies like this stand alongside things like the tales of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger!, in which humans have an exciting future among the stars. Stories set in space can be about either the exhilaration of discovery or the terror of the unknown, and this dichotomy seems to be as old as science fiction – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is considered the first work of proper sci-fi, and it encompasses both.  Frankenstein tells us that if we let our fear over-rule our curiosity, we’ll miss out on something potentially wonderful.  Movies like The Flame Barrier, and even modern space monster flicks like Alien, seem to say the opposite, that we shouldn’t meddle with the unknown at all.

This movie was kind of a compromise on my part.  I’ve had a lot on my plate lately and I picked The Flame Barrier as a movie that was kinda stupid but wouldn’t be either a test of my endurance or particularly challenging to write about.  I’m hoping to have something a little juicier for you next time.

[theonetheycallhannah]

The Treatment of Capt. Syverson-Chapter Two: Therapeutic Procedure

Pairing: Captain “Sy” Syverson x OFC (Shane Benton)

Summary: Shane and Sy share some moments during their treatment sessions…and a phone call that could set the tone for the next few weeks.

Word Count: 2.6k

Warnings: None, yet… ;)

Author’s Note: Sorry, I was so eager and excited to post the first chapter of this last night, I totally put some inaccurate info in my description notes. I will correct that in the original post and  try to do better henceforth! Hope you enjoy Sy and Shane totally flirting some more and getting more friendly in this chapter. Feedback is appreciated! Even constructive criticism! :D

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, Henry is not mine, le sigh, and all mention of him, his characters, any characters from his films, or his precious doggy, Kal, are strictly for transformative and recreational use. I neither ask for, nor accept payment for the work I post on Tumblr or AO3. Unbeta’d because this is for fun and escapism. 

Tags: @onlyhenrys @cavillryarchive @summersong69 @titty-teetee

Let me know if you wish to be added to the list! I’m happy to do it!

Shane woke up that morning with knots in her stomach. She dropped every product she picked up in the shower, she was shaking so much. She accidentally ordered the wrong coffee on her way to work and was now drinking something much less caffeinated and far too sweet for her taste. The barista had informed her it was a grande caramel macchiato with an extra pump of vanilla and extra caramel drizzle…with only two shots of espresso…she couldn't begin to describe how wrong that drink was for her. But it was better than nothing, she told herself, not fully convincingly.

She had chosen her clothes with extra care, even though, with the dress code, her options were limited. And she had made sure to put on a bit of mascara and just a touch of perfume, even though they weren't strictly supposed to wear it…she didn't know why she was bothering.

Well, actually, she did know why. She had been checking her schedule extra diligently lately to make sure she didn't look like a hobo when Sy was coming in. He'd been coming for three weeks now, and after the initial bellyaching about Jordan not being as pretty as her…her heart!...and his feeling extra sore after his visits with him, they were on a roll and had a great chemistry together as far as their treatments went…she tried not to think about…beyond the world of therapy.

She thought back to their first session after she got back from her trip. And the conversation they had.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I think the next time you can't see me, I'm just going to cancel." he had sulked as he wiggled his mass of muscle onto the mat.

"Sy, no. you need therapy. Don't be like that to Jordan. He's an excellent therapist."

"He ain't you though." he smirked, sending her heart racing with that smile that somehow managed to look both boyish and rakish under his full, dark beard. Fucking hell. He needed to stop.

"Well, we can't fault him for that, can we? Lay back, Mister." She demanded. Done with the niceties of the evaluation and onto the treatments where she was in charge. The boss.

"Yes, sir!" she laughed at his clear avoidance of calling her ma'am.

"So where'd you go last week? Vacation or stay-cation?" he asked, the term "stay-cation" sounding downright comical coming out of his country-boy mouth.

"I went to the beach. Gulf Shores."

"I thought you looked like you got some sun."

"Yeah," she pretended his noticing the detail of her awesome tan did not send her reeling. "My folks rented a condo right on the water for my siblings and I to come and stay with them. They're still there. It was tough to leave all that beauty." the beach, pretty much any beach, was her favorite place to be.

"I bet…" he looked at her, something dreamy in his eyes, but he looked away before she could process it. "I thought I had my fill of sand and sun when I was over in Iraq. But you make it sound…like paradise." he smiled softly up at her as she worked on his knee, trying to break apart some of the scar tissue from the injuries and surgeries he'd had…and focus on that, and not the warmth rising in her.

"That's the perfect way to describe any place on the Gulf of Mexico. I doubt it's anything like Iraq, since there's so much water around. It's my favorite vacation destination. Well, apart from London."

"Them British folks always seem so stuck up. Don't know if I'd get along with any of 'em."

"It felt like a second home for me. Everyone was very kind and polite, for the most part. At least it was no worse than it is here."

"Maybe it's just because you're so nice."

"Wait 'til about week eight or ten of your protocol. You won't think I'm nice then. You'll be cussing me out and ready to ring my neck."

"Promise?" he asked, a dark grin on his lips and in his eyes…she faltered for a moment, gulping.

"Cut it out, Syverson." she rolled her eyes, covering…without great effect the way he made her feel.

"Yes...ma'am." he smirked with satisfaction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now, today, she'd be treating him again, fairly early in the day, and she had to prepare herself. She'd checked the policy, and although there wasn't anything strictly against dating a patient, it was clearly a conflict of interest, and would be frowned upon by her frigid tyrant of a boss. Best to let things remain platonic for now.

Her 9:30 was a no show, so she finished up some notes and was working on some continuing education credits when messenger popped up around 10:00.

Sergeant Sexypants is here. He's quite early and he knows it…*smirk emoji* he must like you, Shane!

Heather, come on, be respectful…he was discharged at the rank of Captain! *rofl emoji* and I think you might be right about him liking me…*nervous emoji*

Oooooooooh!!! You guys are gonna *couple kissing emoji* *eggplant emoji* *okay emoji* *explosion emoji* *baby emoji*

Omg…*three facepalm emojis* I am going to go ahead and start him early since my 9:30 was a NCNS.

Don't finish him too early. Make it last. *smirk emoji*

Jeez. She closed the chat and went to grab him from the waiting area.

"Hey Sy, you ready?"

"You bet, sunshine!" he flashed her a crooked smile. He was calling her sunshine now…ad that to the list of things she'd have to pretend didn't make her swoon.

"Great. Let's start on the bike. How's the knee feeling today?"

"Oh, it's…about the same. Stiff. Lil' sore."

"Well, it's a slow process, like I told you at your eval. You've got a lot going on in there."

"I know…just…it hasn't taken me four weeks to do anything in my life." he sulked. "So���thinking about this taking…twelve or more…" he grimaced as he sat down on the bike, and adjusted it for his longer than average legs, putting his feet in the pedal stirrups.

"You may not see it, Sy, because you're so close to it, but trust me, you're making progress. I can tell you're doing your exercises at home, and you're always willing to put in the work here. You have no idea how much that sets you apart from…some of these other people." she leaned in closer and spoke the last part more quietly to him. It was true. So many of her patients were either lazy or just in it to appease their MDs into writing them scripts for pain meds. That wasn't Sy.

"You really think so?" he gave her the side eye with his baby blues, crushing her with the color like the waves of the ocean she'd just returned from.

"In fact, I know so." she placed a reassuring hand on his broad and thick shoulder. She felt the tension between them hum, like electric current.

"Now, level one, and a steady pace. You're not trying to win any medals here. I'll take those crutches."

"When ya think I can 86 'em damn things?" he griped as he handed over the assistive devices.

"Well, you see Potter again tomorrow? I'll write an update today and send it to him. If he likes what he reads, or more likely pretends to read, regarding your progress, he may discharge them. Do you feel like you can be good to the knee and treat it nice without using crutches? I don't want you to regress and re-injure yourself. That's not gonna get you into your running shoes any sooner."

"I'll be nice. Real gentle." he winked at her…he wasn't just talking about the knee. And she knew it. But again, she pretended she didn't, ignoring once more those butterflies threatening to choke her they were multiplying so fast in her belly.

"Okay, I'll put that in my note. Patient compliant with instructions to be nice." she laughed.

They talked as they biked, Shane sat on the one next to him and pedaled along with him for something to do other than be idle. She thought it made him feel better as well. Like he wasn't doing it alone. They covered the subject of her siblings, an older brother in IT and a younger sister who was an MA, and his German Shepherd, Aika, which he was allowed to bring home from Iraq after they were both honorably discharged. Music, both of them completely in agreeance about the superiority of classic rock.

"I noticed you've worn a Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt a few times and meant to say something before now."

"Yeah, they're one of my favorites. But there are a few newer groups that I like a lot, too. Kings of Leon got me through some tough times, honestly."

"Oh, they're great! I love their sound. And their lyrics…poetry."

"No shit. Sorry." she shook her head and raised up her hands to indicate that he didn't need to apologize to her for swearing. She'd been known to make sailors blush when she was off the clock. "Only by the Night…that whole album is…it's just in my blood, ya know? Ya ever have an album do that?"

"I have. Whole artists catalogs, actually."

"Which artist?" he prodded.

"The Beatles. Pretty much every song. Like you said, it just, like, I dunno, it's almost deeper than the veins. It's in the marrow. My soul." she stared off out the windows ahead of them, thinking about her favorite band in the world and how magical it was to experience Sir Paul McCartney playing some of her favorites live…twice…and the timer on the bike went off, pulling her from her daydream.

She looked over at him, startled by both the noise, and the dreamy look in his eyes that was becoming all too familiar.

"Sorry." she stood, grabbing his crutches for him and handing them back to him from where she had leaned them as they rode.

"Hey, don't be sorry for…ahem…for loving what you love. We should all…hold on to the things that make us feel like that." she nodded.

"Thanks…I don't think a lot of people…understand the way I…my tendency to take things like music, movies, and shows…books…so deeply to my heart." they walked to the treatment room from the gym, taking their time, since they had it. A rare occurrence for Shane, always needing to capitalize on every spare minute. To make productivity a priority.

"I think…that…well, seeing a pretty grim side of the world like I have…seems like there's enough darkness and bullshit making everyone miserable. If we find something…or…someone…that brings us some happiness or even just makes that misery bearable…we oughta hang onto 'em real tight. Cherish it like gold." the silence in the small room was loud with that electrical hum of their tension again. He'd said all the right things, as he always seemed to, but under the absolute wrong circumstances. She just nodded.

"They teach you philosophy in Basic?" she giggled. He laughed back in response.

"Oh, no, Basic was way easier than…whatever goes on inside of us."

"Speaking of which," she segued deftly, "lay back, and let my try to get some range out of that knee before I take new measurements for this update I'm gonna write."

"Yes, ma'am!" he chuckled.

"You get some sick thrill out of calling me that, don't you?" she scowled playfully at him.

"Oh, you have no idea…ma'am." he winked at her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Shane was wondering how Sy's appointment went as she ate her soup at lunch and caught up on her morning notes. She got a ping on messenger.

You have a gentleman caller…*eggplant emoji*  hehe, he's on line three.

Geez…thanks Heather.

No need to ask for a name. She knew Heather meant Sy.

She picked up the phone at her desk in the treatment room.

"Hey Sy! How'd the appointment go?"

"Hey, sunshine…eh…he said I'm doin' good, but he wants me to stay on crutches another two weeks." she could hear grave disappointment in his voice. She felt for him.

"Aww, I'm sorry Sy. I know you wanted off those. And I know they're a pain. Literally and figuratively."

"Why wouldn't he want me off 'em?" he was so frustrated. He must have just left the office.

"Did you ask him that question?"

"You know doctors, Shane. Not like I would have got an answer in plain English. Figured you'd know."

"Well, I haven't seen your post-visit report, but it's my presumption that he wants to play it safe. You know he spent most of his day in the operating room with you, right? An eight hour surgery, you had. He probably doesn't want to undo all that by d/c'ing the crutches too soon."

"I was gonna be careful though, Shane!" he was worked up properly, and she could hear it over the roar of his pickup in the background.

"I know you were, Sy. I'm sure you were going to take all kinds of precautions. But what if you're walking into your kitchen, during a storm, and there's a loud clap of thunder, and Aika gets startled and busts past you? What if you're feeling good one day, and forget about it, and jog to catch up to someone holding the door open for you and miss a stick or something under foot? You can't prepare yourself for every pebble or patch of mud in your path, Sy. Accidents will happen. Some circumstances are beyond our control…we just have to do the best we can. The crutches are going to help you until we get you stronger. That's what we'll focus on until those two weeks are up."

"Why is it you can calm me down like this?" he asked, sincere and truly calmer than he had been.

"I'm just a good therapist, is all."

"Ya don't think that's really all, do ya?" the sound of his deep drawl in her ear from the receiver made her shiver. He was implying something that she just couldn't entertain. It wasn't possible for them right now. Maybe…down the road…in a few weeks…

"I'll see ya tomorrow, Sy. Come ready to work that knee."

"You didn't say no…" he was too hopeful. Damn it, he was cute when he was hopeful. She was glad she couldn't see his face light up like she knew it was doing.

"You may have noted I didn't say yes, either."

"Yet. See ya in the mornin', sunshine."

"Bye, Sy."

She put the receiver in the cradle and her face in her hands.

"Shit."

She had a feeling this particular patient was about to become much more complicated.

Up Next: Chapter Three-Therapeutic Activity

[ahkaraii]

You're a doctor, right? Or studying to be one? (Idk if that changed, sorry.) Thoughts on the Kaioken and how much it would wreck Goku's body from using it? Especially after his first fight w/ Vegeta in the Saiyan Saga. Just, saw your Future Gohan comic and wanted to ask. (That was really great, btw! I love your writing and art style! 💖)

Yeah, I’m a recently graduated medical doctor <3 (thrust neck deep into the pandemic wahoo life is not fun rn 4 of my staff have covid and =chuckles nervously= i think i’m next)

Ahem, on topic: I know the anime later has Goku spamming it willy nilly but if we take manga as canon then the last time he uses is it against Vegeta I think. And hoo boy, I absolutely think Kaioken fucked Goku’s body up something gnarly: our boy was hospitalized nearly immobile for months until the deus-ex-machina Senzu bean miracled him back to full health, just in time to go to Namek.

Had it not been for that, I fully think Goku would have been crippled if not totally paralyzed for the rest of his life. Kaioken appears to force the muscles to react faster, contract harder, and bulge to roid-rage levels of unhealthy in seconds, which at the very least would’ve caused Goku massive muscle damage at the end of it, let alone all the soft soft tissue damage (tendons, ligaments; heck, bones even; i bet Goku had crush/compartment syndrome after Vegeta stomped on him).

I drew a comic some time back about Goku post-Saiyan Saga, where I basically had Goku suffer renal failure due to rhabdomyolysis (fancy words for you have too much muscle detritus in your blood that blocks your body’s filtering system, aka your kidneys) and implied he had multiple fractures that pretty much immobilized him in the intensive care unit for a while, so that’s my personal explanation for some of kaioken’s devastating effects.

Though that gets all thrown out the window when Goku turns Super Saiyan because magical space monkey powers xD

(If you think about it, Kaioken is very similar to Naruto’s Eight Gates/opening chakra gates technique that supposedly should not be spammed because it fucks up your body but the shonen trope of Gotta Get Stronger somehow makes the character immune to the supposed repercussions of the technique to the point where it feels like a cheap unearned strength multiplier lmao)

[musab-12]

7 ways to lose weight fast

It's that time of year again when many of us regret the diet decisions we made over the summer as we realize our jeans are too tight! The all-inclusive vacation and trips to the beach and pool can often lead to some unwanted pounds by September and, as a result, poorly fitting jeans. Look your best, and get ready to slip into your skinny jeans with these tips to help you shape up quickly.

1. Eat protein at every meal. Eating enough protein will help you stay satisfied and resist the temptation to snack excessively between meals. If you want to lose weight, aim to eat approximately .7 grams of protein for each pound of your body weight. Just multiply your body weight, in pounds, by .7 to determine the number of protein grams to eat each day.  Protein also helps boost your metabolism, since it takes more calories to metabolize compared to fat and carbohydrates. Some high-quality protein sources include: lean beef, chicken breast, fish, lentils, beans, and Greek yogurt.

2. Don't drink your calories. You've heard it many times before, but drinking your calories, with sugary drinks, juice, or alcohol, is an easy way to sabotage your diet. Dehydration, though, is an underlying cause of food cravings, so do drink plenty of water! Water helps to keep you full and is a key way to detox your body. To calculate your water needs, take your body weight and divide by two. This is the number of ounces of water you need to drink every day. If plain water sounds boring to you, flavor it with fruit or veggie slices for a fun twist.

3. Just log it. Writing down your food and beverage intake is critical to weight-loss success, because it keeps you accountable. My clients often tell me their eating habits get worse when they stop logging their food intake. Many great apps, such as My Fitness Pal, can help you keep track of your diet.

4. No eating after dinner. Late-night snacking is a problem for many people, especially when it's done mindlessly while watching TV or browsing the Internet. When you snack after dinner, your body will be busy digesting your food while you sleep instead of burning the fat. You want your body to be burning fat while you sleep so stop eating after dinner. This is a key to losing weight more quickly!

5. Eat three meals per day, not five or six small ones. As a registered dietitian for over 16 years, I have seen many people who are trying to lose weight graze all day long and never stop eating except to sleep. Shifting to a three-meals-per-day mentality helps them to focus on eating a good source of protein and a whole grain along with fruits and vegetables at mealtime. Eat a satisfying meal, and wait to eat again until the next meal. That also puts your body into the calorie deficit you need to start losing body fat.

6. Try high-intensity interval training (HIIT). without getting the results they crave. If you want change, you must try high-intensity interval training, which is an excellent way to help you lose fat. Getting your heart rate above 75 percent of its maximum rate has been shown to increase your metabolism, which helps you burn more calories. High-intensity exercise burns nine times more fat per calorie than low-intensity exercise does. One of my favorite methods of HIIT is doing Tabatas, which were developed by Izumi Tabata, former training coach for the Japanese speed skating team and now dean of the Graduate School of Sport and Health Science at Japan's Ritsumeikan University. The basis of his method is to work at an extremely high level for short periods of time. Each workout is four minutes long, consisting of 20-second, high-intensity work followed by 10 seconds of rest; this continues for a total of eight cycles. This method has been transformational for the women in my Adventure Boot Camp class. Some examples of these exercises would be jump squats, burpees, and mountain climbers.

7. watch this video

https://bit.ly/3BFrqBn

[leechtwinsfling]

Twisted Wonderland @ DISNEYLAND  [ Chapter 3 ]

✨ Twisted Wonderland FanFiction ❤

[ Disneyland Date Series - HEARTSLABYUL ]

-----------------------------------------------

We are lead another portion of the garden as I find decorated tables inside the tall wall rose bushes. A few people are already seated as a server dressed similar to a butler heads our way before bowing.

“Welcome, for two?” 

“Ah, no, we actually have five more coming. So it’ll be a total of seven.” I answer getting the butler to nod before leading us to an empty table of eight. 

The table has a black tablecloth with three rounded plants in a row on the middle of the table. Each golden seat has a red ribbon wrap around with roses behind. There are three sets of different size plates, and neatly organized cutlery along with tea cups.  

Since the size of the table is similar to the seating back at the Heartslabyul’s Unbirthday Parties, I take my seat at the middle of one side as Riddle takes the head. We wait patiently for the others to come as I find small snacks already on the table.

Trying not to drool at the appetizing food, I hear familiar voices nearby getting me to look over to the entrance to find Cater and Trey. Smiling, I wave them for their attention as they are looking around. Seeing us, they inform one of the butlers who was welcoming them before heading over. 

“Hey guys.” I greet.

“Hey, the Queen of Hearts mentioned you two.” Trey informs with a chuckle, “Said that it’s a shame Riddle doesn’t have a lover.”

I laugh hearing this as Riddle sighs, “If I have a relationship, I don’t want it to affect my learning.”

“What, is there a rule that doesn’t allow you to date?” I ask.

“Actually -” 

“WOW! THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!” a distinct voice shouts getting all of us to instantly know who it is. 

Looking over to the entrance again, we find the three stooges grabbing everyone’s attention. I couldn’t help stifle a laugh watching them running everywhere as the butlers try to calm them down. Seeing Riddle getting annoyed, it seems like the three could feel his glare as they stop and look over to us. They halt their crazy running before heading over to us quietly. With how they act reminds me of children who know they’re in deep trouble from their parents. 

“There are other people here, don’t bother them.” Riddle lectures them for minutes as I find Cater sitting between Riddle and I. 

Trey sits across from him having an amused smile on his face watching the three as usual getting a scolding. When the second year finally finishes with a huff, the three take their seats. Grimm sits beside me as the other two sit across, all with guilty glum faces.

“So where did you go?” I ask Grimm wondering where he went when we were at the theater. 

“I smelled tuna, but in the end it turned out to be tuna scented eraser.” the cat sighs as I react with a horrified face.

Tuna what eraser?!

Just when I am about to comment about such an absurd product, trumpet horns ring as I realize that every table is now full of people. A red carpet rolls down the entrance as the mascots that we saw minutes ago walk down towards the larger table at the end. It’s design is near the same replica as all the other tables except for the parts where it’s bigger for the mascots’ hands and size.

“Presenting! Queen of Hearts!” a soldier-like dressed staff shouts as the Queen is the last one to walk down the red carpet.

When everyone is seated, the Queen stands up, “I welcome you all to my Unbirthday Party. Please enjoy yourself!”

With that, people dig into the tea and food offered getting me to wonder how do we pay for all this.

“I’m pretty sure all this is not free, so where do we pay?” I ask Cater who’s munching on a bite-size sandwich.

“Oh, we paid it beforehand. Trey reserved it once we were told we’re coming to Disneyland for a field trip.” he answers.

Okay, not a shock.

“Isn’t she amazing?” Ace asks staring at the Queen like a love-struck boy.

“Ace... you do know she ain’t real, right?” I ask concern for his well-being.

He dramatically gasps at me, “Don’t say that! What if the children hear you? It’s like saying Santa is not real!”

Turns out, someone must have heard him as a nearby table a child begins crying saying that Ace said Santa isn’t real. The parents look over to our table before giving a disapproving glare.

“Good job, Ace. You ruined a kid’s childhood.” I shake my head disappointingly at him.

“Hey! You’re the one who started it!” Ace blames.

“Quiet, let’s all just enjoy the tea please?” Riddle sighs already used to our bickering during times like this. 

With us enjoying some small talk about our experiences so far, along with the tea and snacks, I hear Cater soon humming along with the music which I recognize is the ‘Unbirthday Song’. Couldn’t help myself, I decide to hum along getting his attention. He breaks into a smile before singing along with the music and raising his tea cup to me. Laughing, I clink my tea cup with his as we both begin singing the song.

“A very merry Unbirthday to me !” he begins singing loudly that other people look over to us.

“To who?” I sing back deciding that it’ll seem fun despite being embarrassing. 

“To me!” 

“Oh you!” I point to him looking shocked.

“A very merry Unbirthday to you!” he offers me a hand which I take after putting my tea down.

“Who me?” I question.

“Yes, you!” he quickly touches my nose.

“Oh, me!” I gasp in surprise.

“Let's all congratulate us with another cup of tea! A very merry Unbirthday to you!” he cheers as people begin applauding and cheering.

Laughing at how he amazingly hit that high note, he then pulls me off from the table as he continues singing. Instead of being a small show to each other, it then becomes a huge performance for the whole party.

“Now, statistics prove, prove that you've one birthday.” I speak looking over to a group of children enjoying the unplanned performance.

“Imagine, just one birthday every year!” Cater adds.

“Ah, but there are three hundred and sixty four Unbirthdays!” I cheer.

“Precisely why we're gathered here to cheer!”

“It’s also my Unbirthday!” a child from the crowd raises his hang getting Cater and I to look over at each other before smiling and heading over to the small boy.

“It is?” Cater asks picking the child.

“What a wonderful world this is!” I pat the boy’s head.

“In that case!” Cater puts down the boy.

He puts the boy’s hand with mine before grasping the other boy’s hand and mine. We begin dancing in a circle as we continue to sing.

“A very merry Unbirthday!” we sing as children become rushing over to join the circle.

“To me?” the small boy asks.

“To you!” I smile finding the circle growing big as adults are cheering from the sidelines.

“A very merry Unbirthday!” the audience then begins singing.

“For me?” the children asks.

“For you!” we all shout.

“Now blow the candle out my dear and make your wish come true! A merry merry Unbirthday to you!” we all sing together.

Once the music ends, I can’t help but laugh as the children demand another performance from Cater and I.

“One more time! Can we please?” a child begs pulling down my shirt.

“Please!” other children chorus.

“Okay! Okay!” Cater agrees, “Everybody get ready!”

Everyone heads back into a circle as another child grabs my hand. I smile at the small girl who smiles widely back at me.

“You have a nice boyfriend, Big Brother/Sister.” she speaks.

Okay, stop right there. How many times has it been that people mistaken me to be with these boys.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” I laugh.

“Eh? But you’re holding hands with him!”

“Yes, and everyone else is holding hands with others too, right?”

“Ah!” she realizes, “Yeah!” 

After many repeats of singing and dancing, the parents decide to help us as they see the exhaustion on Cater and I. Giving a relief sigh, I feel Cater lean on top of me with his chin on my head.

“Ah~ I didn’t expect to be so tired this early in the morning.” he  hugs me, “[N/A]~ Carry me~!”

“You think I can carry your heavy-butt?” I ask feeling tired on my own.

“So mean~”

“Can’t help but tell the truth.” I laugh before feeling him actually put all his weight on me, “Ugh, oh my god, what did you eat?”

“Trey~! [N/A] called me fat!” Cater tattles as I’m trying to support us from not falling face down on the ground. 

“I didn’t! How do you expect me to carry a grown man?! I’m still growing!” I argue dragging us towards our table.

“I’m still growing!” Cater gasps.

“Ha, not with your age.” I laugh obviously fooling around.

“I’m only two years older than you!” 

“Two years! You’ve eaten more than 2190 meals than me!” 

“How did you get that number?” 

“Well, there’s 365 days, and the average amount of meal is three. So 365 times three is 1095. Then multiply with two since it’s two years, and that’ll be 2190.” I easily explain.

The boys can only stare at me as the first years look at me like I’m talking gibberish as the older two didn’t expect this from me.  “Okay, I might be not that smart at school but that’s only because everything I’m learning is entirely new to me! Remember, I’m from a different world than you guys.” I remind getting them to snap out of their daze.

“Awe, our little transfer student continues to surprise us all still.” Cater hugs me tighter. 

I let out a choking sound, “Can’t breath. Can’t breath!”

He releases me allowing me to gasp for air before relaxing, “I thought I was gonna die just then.” “Am I that strong~?” “With the addition of your body weight, then sure~” I continue to tease getting him to gasp and sulk before slapping me playfully.  Laughing, I sit back onto my seat as he does the same. The party continues as the mascots visit each table to talk with the children. I, personally, am stuffing myself with this delicious food in front of me.

“Y/N~! Try this!” Cater offers a bite of his small chocolate cake on his fork. 

Without hesitation, I take a bite and can’t help but moan from the richness it melts on my tongue.  “Right~! It’s so good! Here, have another bite.” he offers another spoonful which I once again eat from.

“This scene reminds me of a mother feeding her baby.” Grimm comments.

“Don’t be jealous that Mother loves me more than a stray cat.” I stick my tongue out at Grimm playfully. 

“Ah! There’s chocolate on your cheek.” Cater takes a napkin and gets ready to wipe it but stops.

Instead he smirks and leans in before licking the chocolate off my cheek. My eyes widen as I can’t help but blush like a tomato. The others saw this and are frozen into place as they can’t believe what happened. “There~” Cater smiles acting like nothing happened but knows what chaos he just started.  And the party ends with a food fight started by the first years. 

[ to be continued ] 

[toastedricecakes]

How loud would the combined buzzing of every bee alive bee?

Short Answer: This is impossible for any one person to calculate.

Long Answer:

Ah, the bee. A yellow vibrating bug that generates sweet treats and has a kamikaze poison knife built into its butt. Some are fuzzy. Some burrow tunnels. Some produce the yummy honey we humans gather in a mutualistic business transaction that has surprisingly rare sting rates despite personal and universal fears of the opposite. If dog is man’s best friend than the bee is a close second. Or third, depending on your opinion of cats.

For calculating ‘Loudness’ we will be using decibels. Now, decibels are added logarithmically. You can’t just get two instruments going at 50 decibels and add them together to get 100 decibels. Logarithms in a nutshell is how much a certain number (x) has to grow exponentially to get to another number (y). The equation looks a little like this:

Logx(y) = Logarithm

Here’s an example in action:

Log2(8) = 3

This means you need to multiply three 2’s (2x2x2) to get eight. Three is your logarithm. If I want to get to 8 decibels and I have bees that emit 2 decibels each, the logarithm would be 3. So I have to take the bee population and add it exponentially to the decibel amount:

(decibels emitted by (1) hive) Total hives = HLEBCI (How Loud Every Bee Combined Is)

Why am I using hives instead of bees? It was very hard to find the exact number of decibels a single bee vibrates at with my limited online resources. The decibels of an individual bee's buzzing changes drastically with their age, size, species, and how angry said bees are. A bee’s volume, much like humans, varies wildly depending on their mood.  

So, if you hear a particularly loud bee, it probably has anger issues that spawned from underlying emotional struggles from its childhood as a little bee larva. Recommend said bee a good therapist, listen to said bee vent over coffee, or just communicate your sympathy for the bee via interpretive dance and vibrations.

I found several different accounts with measurements ranging from 60-80 dB per hive. Now that we have how loud a bee hive is, let’s talk population. Currently, the population of bees ranges wildly.  

Like, it’s fucking bonkers, dude.

Estimates suggest that there are around 80 to 100 million domestic bee hives, which are mostly honey bees. That doesn’t even include the feral bee colonies, which experts estimate to be around 400 to 900 million hives for just honey bees alone. Never mind trying to calculate populations for other species, whose hive populations vary from 100,00 to 1 (Yes! In certain cases, bees can be antisocial lone wolves. These bees can be found in shady bars down in the wild west, having a hard drink on the rocks and making edgy one-liners like “Osimia Lignaria? I haven’t heard that name in ages.” or “Real bees don’t drink honey. Real bees drink nectar.”)

Okay, okay. I’m getting a little stressed at all the numbers here. Let’s just try to start small. And by small, I mean just honey bees alone. There is about 480 million to 1 billion honey bee hives total. Each hive vibrates at 60-80 dB. That leaves us with the following equation:

(60 – 80) 480,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 = HLEBCI

So here is our answers:

Minimum: 60 (48 x 10^7) decibels

Maximum: 80 (1 x 10^9) decibels

...That’s a lotta zeros. More than can fit on your average calculator (trust me, I tried my darndest, but I think my computer will explode if I attempt any more)

For reference, a gunshot is about 140 dB.

Now that we have the pure raw statistics, lets talk consquences. What effect would be combining the power of every bee buzz on Earth do?  

Picture the scene:

A mad scientist steps back from their masterpiece, tears welling in their eyes. Their most prized possession: The Beeinator 2000 (Don’t ask about what happened to the other 1999, it’s not a happy story). If it works, it will consolidate the buzzing power of every bee on Earth, funneling it through a tube and recreate it right there in his office. They extend a hand, fingers trembling as they grasp the knob and crank it to full power.

For a moment, every bee in the world goes silent. They look up from their hives, from their flowers, from their underground burrows. Bee keepers watch in amazement as every bee on their farm hovers in midair or on a flower or on top of their hive.

The bees look one another in the eye, twitching their antennae towards one another in a silent sign of solidarity.

The Beeinator works. From the brass trumpet comes an earsplitting burst of noise. Millions of bees joined in symphonious buzzing. The scientist is thrown backwards by the shockwave, landing onto their desk and making paper’s fly loose.

The soundwave travels like a jet, compressed sound honing in on a certain building nearby. It’s a pesticides factory, which pumps out fungicides that poison local bees. Currently, the owner was razing a meadow filled with wildflowers the local bee population are dependent on for food in order to build more labs to manufacture his toxic product. Larges fumes of dense greenhouse gas smoke puffs out in fumes from the factory's chimneys, contributing to global warming and further collapse of the humble bee’s ecosystem.

The bullet of sound crashes through the building, destroying concrete. Breaking glass. Breaking the ear drums of the wealthy factory owner and the pesticide chemical scientists and exploding their brains. The last thing they ever hear? The buzzing sound of millions upon millions of bees, hungry for vengeance. The owner clutches their ears, and the last thing they register is the faintest bittersweet scent of nectar...

…Or at least, that’s what the scientist imagines happening as they flick on the dial. When really, all they do is kill everyone on Earth that ever existed and also maybe destroy the planet probably.

That’s science, baby!

[backlinkc48-blog]

How many work hours in a year

How to Sort Out How Many Hours You Work in a Year

 Figuring out your work hours in a year is important for various reasons, including figuring out your time-based compensation on the off chance that you get a salary. The calculation is relatively basic when the same number of hours are worked each week, although you may want to take vacation days and holidays into account. In the event that the quantity of hours you work is distinctive consistently, at that point a running log may be the best way to know without a doubt how many hours you work in a yea

 Calculating Full-Time Hours

 An all day work week is assumed to be 40 hours of the week. For all day workers, you can rapidly calculate the quantity of hours worked in a month by multiplying 40 hours times a month. The outcome is 160 hours out of every month.

 Since there are a year in a year, we can increase multiple times 12 for an aftereffect of 1,920 hours out of every year. However, this calculation isn't totally accurate because each month doesn't include exactly a month. A more accurate figure can be calculated by multiplying 40 hours out of each week times 52 weeks in a year, for a more accurate aftereffect of 2,080 hours out of every year.

 The U.S. Federal Government utilizes 2,087 as the average number of hours of all day work every year. This number takes into account the fact that the quantity of workdays in a year fluctuates because of leap year, with certain years having 365 days and some having 366. Spending legislation enacted in 1982 mandates that the quantity of workdays every year over a 28-year time frame be utilized to concoct the average number of work hours out of each year. This is how the number 2,087 was determined.

 Adding Extra time and Subtracting Downtime

 In the event that you want to know the exact number of hours you worked in a given year, you ought to subtract for vacation time, wiped out leave and different days spent away from work. For salaried representatives, these days are generally paid, so you may want to simply tally them along with different days worked. In the event that these days are unpaid, they can be subtracted from total work hours by deducting eight hours for each vacation and day off. For example, in the event that you were away from work for 10 days of vacation, subtract multiple times 8, or 80, hours from your annual total.

 You ought to also add in extra time hours that surpass your usually planned work hours. This may be because your workload is seasonal, with certain seasons requiring extra hours. So in the event that you work 10 extra hours out of each week for about a month, you would add multiple times 4, or 40, extra hours to your annual total.

 How to Calculate Annual Salary Using an Outlay Contract Rate

 On the off chance that you are a contract worker receiving a routine set of expenses salary, you are paid a particular amount of cash for each day that you work. There are times that you may need or want to know your annual salary, and this can introduce a challenge because you may not know how many days you are actually going to work in a year. Calculating a yearly salary from a routine set of expenses page requires a little guesswork and some basic math.

 Step 1

Increase the quantity of days you work every week by 52. For example, on the off chance that you work 5 days seven days, at that point 5 X 52 = 260.

 Step 2

Subtract the quantity of days' vacation every year you are qualified for or hope to take from the amount you calculated in Sync 1. For example, in the event that you anticipate taking 10 days off, at that point 260 - 10 = 250.

 Step 3

Subtract the quantity of holidays you are qualified for or hope to take from the amount you calculated in Sync 2. For example, in the event that you realize you won't be working for Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, at that point 250 - 5 = 245.

 Step 4

Increase the number you calculated in Sync 3 by your routine set of expenses wage. For example, on the off chance that you earn $70 every day, at that point 245 * $70 = $17,150.

 How many billable hours are there in a year?

  Specifically as the quantity of billable work hours in a year is central to the agency human asset approach to expenses it has been revealed that many agency staff are working strangely extended periods of extra time, typically without pay, and on several occasions has been implicated in the death of agency representatives. This is regularly viewed as a cultural issue, yet in fact as you will read beneath, this behavior also rewards the agency financially.

 One of the criteria in developing an asset based retainer model is the quantity of hours one individual could be reasonably expected to charge in a year. This turns into their 100% billable time level or one FTE (Full time equivalent).

 Take a year = 52 weeks.

 In Australia a month of that year are for annual leave (so no billing there)

 fourteen days a year, or all the more absolutely ten working days, for debilitated leave (heaven restrict)

 Seven days of public holidays (go on tally them up, in many states there is somewhat more than five)

Unexpectedly we are down to 45 weeks of work a year.

 In an average week how a significant part of the time is it reasonable to charge? 30 hours? 40 hours? 50 hours? 60 hours?

 Recollect this isn't how much time the individual is at work, it is how much season of that work time would they be able to be beneficially and actively on your business. That is removing all the internal non billable meetings, latrine breaks, general non-business conversation, internal administration (like timesheets) and so forth, how much genuinely billable, gainful time is left.

 Well at 36 hours and forty minutes this equates to 1650 hours a year. Which is reasonably all around accepted. A few people utilize 1600.

 The least we have seen is 1,200 a year and the most noteworthy is 2,080 a year.

 To make this considerably easier we have created a calculator for calculating how many work hours in a year:

 In any case, for what reason is this important?

 There are two important reasons why billable hours should be calculated and managed successfully.

 The first is to guarantee that the advertiser is getting what they pay for in their agency retainer.

 In the event that the agency is using 1600 hours and the finish of year audit says the individual did 1870 hours or 13% over the FTE does this mean 1.13 FTE ought to be charged? No, it just means that the individual involved didn't take their annual leave or wiped out leave and continued working at the same billable rate 51 weeks of the year.

 Or on the other hand is the retainer is based on a gathering Account Chief at 100% or 1650 hours a year and they 3060 hours a year does this mean that you need almost two Gathering Account Chiefs on your business? No, almost certainly, rather than keeping a real timesheet they recorded 12 hours a day, five days seven days for 51 weeks. Yet, the work was done and the GAD didn't get paid additional time, so it cost the agency no more. Additionally, the issue in this case was not resourcing, it was poor timesheet measure.

 By understanding how FTEs are based on billable hours you can start to perceive how to interpret the agencies' timesheet and asset utilization reports.

 The second is to guarantee that the agency is providing the degree of resourcing required. In 2017 this report showed that agencies were regularly overworking their staff, particularly in Asia. The phenomenal unpaid extra time hours worked by some agency staff individuals lead to the death of a couple and medical affliction for many.

 The fact is that the agency charge model actually rewarded the agency for having their assets work these ludicrous hours of unpaid additional time, which the agency at that point charged to the advertiser customer.

[linkysmommy]

Let’s talk gems.

There are exactly 587 chapters out total in the Choices app. In each chapter, you can assume there are:

One 25 gem outfit choice and approximately two 20 gem narrative/other choices (romance scenes, outings with friends, decorations etc).

Based off this assumption, it would take approximately 65 gems to unlock each premium choice per chapter.

If we multiply 65 by 587, we get 38,155. That is approximately how many gems you would need to unlock every single premium option in choices.

Thirty eight THOUSAND one hundred fifty-five gems.

The purchase that gets you the most gems with each individual gem costing the least is $100 for 1,500 gems, valuing $0.06 a gem. In order to pay for the 38,155 gems, you would need to make this $100 purchase 25 times. That’s $2,500 just on gems. This isn’t even mentioning the additional cost of keys. However, I bet most of us can’t justify paying $100 at once, and are more likely to pay $20 or less at a time. So, if someone only purchased the $20 option for 250 gems, they would have to spend $3,000 for the 38,155 gems.

It would be between $2500 and $3000 total to pay for each premium choice in Choices

That’s double the amount of a regular sized iMac, more than double the amount of the phone you’re using to play the game. It’s 41 times more expensive than a $60 brand new PC or PlayStation game, and not to mention eight times more expensive than a platform console itself.

Listen PB. We know you need to make money but this is a robbery. Your gem choices are becoming more important to the quality of narration in the stories, you’re taking more time to set them up only for us to be forced to not be able to use them, and you are limiting the player experience by a paywall, more now than ever before. But please excuse us if we aren’t able to pay $2500 just to play your game!

You don’t have to get rid of options for us to pay. You don’t have to get rid of diamonds. Just make them affordable. Don’t make it so only Jeff Bezos’s kids can have an opportunity to play your app and actually enjoy it because only they’re crazy rich enough to be able to pay for the full experience

@playchoices

Just take a look at this and consider it. All I’m lobbying for is more fair and economic pricing to enjoy your stories.

[tamarajohnsonca]

How Long Does a Weed High Last?

I’m imagining you sitting there, trying to focus as you type “how long does a high last” into the search bar. Or you could be on your phone pacing back and forth anxiously or crawled under covers hiding from the world. I hope you’re okay; I hope you’re not having an overwhelming experience. But if you’re looking up “how long does a weed high last” because you want yours to end, take heart. No high lasts forever, and you’ll probably be right as rain in an hour or so.

Why Worry How Long Your Weed High Will Last?

Maybe things aren’t as dire as I’m imagining. Maybe you need to get behind the wheel eventually and want to know how long you should wait to drive. Perhaps you just want to know what kind of experience to expect from different cannabis products and delivery methods.

Perhaps you’re thinking strategically: that awesome band goes on at 10 p.m. and you want to plan your session before they hit, so you peak when they rock your favorite track. Or maybe you’re a medical patient who wants to leave space in the day for your treatment without compromising your productivity.

After all, there are all kinds of reasons you might be asking yourself “how long does a marijuana high last?” If you have some experience with weed, you probably already have a sense of how long your high sticks around. But you might still want to know how you can take control over that aspect of your experience.

And if you’re relatively new to cannabis, having an authoritative answer is an important part of making sure you have an enjoyable session. For everyone who enjoys cannabis, timing, as they say, is everything.

How Long Does A High Last? Use the “Highness Equation” to Find Out

It might not get past the peer review board of a medical journal, but here’s a more-or-less scientific way to “calculate” how long you can expect your weed high to last. Call it the “highness equation.”

The highness equation incorporates the four major aspects that determine how long your marijuana high will last. Here it is:

Length of High = ( (dose x concentration) / (metabolism x tolerance) ) x delivery method

So that’s the dose you take multiplied by the concentration of the product, divided by your metabolism times your tolerance, all multiplied by the delivery method factor: ingestion or inhalation.

In other words: how much weed you put in your body, divided by how your body processes and responds, all shaped by the specific path the weed takes through your system.

It’s less complicated than it sounds. And if you’re looking for a bottom line answer—the median, the average, the “ballpark,” then your answer is simple.

After you get high from inhaling weed, expect to stay high for about one to two hours. If you’ve eaten your cannabis, your high will last about 3 to 4 hours, maybe longer.

But if the tl;dr version doesn’t satisfy, read on to find out the factors that influence how long your high lasts. Then, once you figure out where you fall, you can start experimenting with ways to prolong, or if need be, shorten your high.

The following guide breaks down each component of our highness equation to help you figure out how long you’re going to be high after you smoke, vape, eat or otherwise consume your cannabis. But first, let’s take a deeper look at how different cannabis delivery methods can influence the answer to the all-important question: how long does a weed high last?

How Long Does a Weed High Last After Smoking Flower?

Despite the rising popularity of edibles and concentrates, flower still reigns supreme. So how long does a weed high last after smoking a joint or a bowl? This is a tough question to answer, because the THC concentrations of flower can vary dramatically from as a low as eight percent to as much as 35 percent. In general, a high from smoking flower is going to last up to two hours. But your high won’t be at the same level over that time-span.

Smoking flower will make you high fast, and THC levels in your blood will peak within a half hour of your first puff. Then, you’ll stay around that peak for another half hour before you start to taper off. From after the first hour, your high will diminish fairly quickly until you no longer feel the effects of THC. Again, that ranges, but a typical taper runs about another hour, putting the total length of your high from flower at about two hours, give or take.

How Long Does a Weed High Last After Dabbing Concentrates?

There’s no more potent and fast-acting delivery method than dabs. THC concentrations in concentrates like shatter, wax and budder are much higher than they are in even the most potent flower. As a result, a weed high from a dab can last a significant while longer than a high from smoking weed.

Still, it’s all relative. Typically, dabs attract experienced cannabis consumers with an appetite for potency and therefore, a higher tolerance to THC. For some, then, a dab high can last just as long as a high from flower. For people new to dabs or who dab only occasionally, however, a dab high can be a very long-lasting experience.

But this doesn’t necessarily apply to concentrates in things like vape pens and THC cartridges. Yes, these oils have higher THC concentrations than flower. But you usually don’t vape as much oil as you would smoke flower, so a high from a vape pen tends to last just about as long as a high from flower. In fact, a high from a cartridge can be a shorter experience than smoking flower, especially if you just sip small amounts throughout the day.

How Long Does a Weed High Last After Eating Edibles?

Edibles like brownies, candies, gummies and other THC-infused treats easily provide the longest lasting high of all the deliver methods. And that’s because the entire process of getting THC into your bloodstream is different. First, there’s typically a long onset time for edibles, anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple hours. It’s hard to predict and depends on all kinds of digestive and metabolic processes in your body.

But once that THC hits, it hits hard, because the activated form that makes it into your bloodstream from your liver is a more “potent” form—technically, it’s more pharmacologically active and bioavailable. Depending on your dose and how fast your body processes THC, a high from eating edibles can last up to 8 hours. But if that sounds like too long, don’t worry. You’ll experience the peak of the how for about two hours after onset, and it will gradually taper down from there. In other words, the high is fairly mild during those last few hours.

Now that you’ve got a ballpark sense of how long a weed high lasts with various forms of cannabis, let’s dive into the specific factors that make weed highs last longer for some and shorter for others.

Really, it’s all about getting to know your unique body and how it all reacts and responds to the compounds in cannabis and the effects they all produce.

William Casey/ Shutterstock

Your High Lasts As Long As THC Meets Up With Your Endocannabinoid System

Your weed high is the sum of an infinitely complex series of metabolic and chemical reactions occurring all throughout your body.

Whether we perceive the effects of those reactions depends on their intensity and our sensitivity to them. And that’s why you’ll find studies claiming that the effects of cannabis can last from 5 hours up to a full day.

That may be true on a chemical level. But THC can interact with our bodies without giving us the experience of feeling high, especially at low levels.

And that’s where the bottom of our “highness equation” comes in: metabolism x tolerance. Being on the bottom of the equation means these are the factors that work against your high, shortening how long you feel the effects of THC.

Metabolism x Tolerance

There’s a common misconception that a person’s weight determines how high they get and how long that high will last. But in fact, it’s a person’s metabolism that plays a major role in the length of a high.

The length of your high depends on the presence of THC in your bloodstream. Your blood carries that THC to the network of cell receptors it binds to, the endocannabinoid system (ECS).

Your body is also in the business of metabolizing the stuff you put into it, breaking it down, taking what it needs, and expelling the rest.

So if you’ve got a high metabolism, your highs will tend to be shorter. Or at least, your body is working against the clock a little bit.

Then, there’s that elusive and hard-to-quantify factor of tolerance. In common parlance, we say we have a high or low tolerance to weed. But in reality, what we mean is that we have a higher or lower tolerance to dopamine and other neurotransmitters our brain releases when THC meets up with the ECS.

The good news is, cannabis doesn’t so thoroughly deplete our dopamine supplies that we have to chase ever larger quantities to get the same effect.

But that also means THC’s powers are limited. Hence the ceiling effect frequent users experience, where no matter what they do, they can’t get higher than a certain point. If you’re hitting that ceiling, the answer to the question “how long does a high last?” is probably not long enough.

For most regular cannabis users, however, the same dose will produce roughly the same experience time after time. For heavy users, even a short “tolerance break” can restore your tolerance levels to their low defaults, making your next high feel more like your first.

However, if you’ve built up a tolerance over time or with frequent use, your high is going to feel shorter for sure.

If You Want a Longer High, Consider Upping Your Dosage or Using Higher-Potency Products

Now that we’ve covered what shortens the length of your high, let’s look at what extends it. This is definitely the simpler part of the equation.

Put more weed into your system, and in all likelihood, you’re going to have a longer high. That means smoking strains with higher THC concentrations. Or vaping concentrates—or even better distillates, with upwards of 85 percent THC.

It also means taking a larger dose. Not only will your high last longer, it will stretch out your peak so you enjoy your high as long as your body allows. How long does a high last for you if you smoke flower versus vape concentrates?

How Long Does A High Last: Calculating Dose x Concentration

The top of our highness equation is pretty self-explanatory. But a few points bear repeating.

If you’re new to cannabis, it’s really a good idea to start with smaller doses. Don’t feel like you have to take huge rips or smoke multiple bowls just because the other kids are doing it. If you want that, you’ll get there in due time.

For now, appreciate what you have, that veteran weed enthusiasts often sorely miss: those early, heady days when a single puff sent you to outer space. (Maybe that’s part of what drives dabbing culture: that desire to recreate those first encounters with weed—that inimitable intensity and euphoria.)

The rest of us are busy chasing that dragon with ever-higher concentrations and tech that makes huge doses possible. Rip a 2-gram dab in one sitting and you’ll be high for the better part of the day, probably. Rip 20 grams and you’ll probably feel high for the rest of the week.

So when it comes to dosage, that’s easy. Smoke or vape more for a longer high. Even better, spread out your sessions. That will keep tossing you back up to the peak of your high when you’re on your way down.

And in terms of concentration, look for high-THC strains and strains with ultra-low CBD. (CBD can counterbalance the effects of THC on your system, shortening your high.) Or just stick with concentrates and extracts.

The Delivery Method Factor: Inhale or Eat?

We’ve covered all the parts of the highness equation. Except for the one that shapes them all: delivery method.

Those who’ve tried them know that edibles tend to produce a much longer-lasting high than inhalation methods.

That’s because of the metabolic pathway that THC takes through your body when you eat it versus when you inhale it. To make a long story short, your digestive tract converts THC into a different active form than heating alone.

How long does a high last from consuming edibles? Well that form, THC-COOH, or carboxy-THC, has some serious staying power. But your body takes some time to produce it. That’s why you have to wait 45 minutes to an hour or so for an edible to really kick in.

Once that THC-COOH is pumping through your bloodstream, you’re along for the ride until your body is finished processing it. Again, that can be about three to four hours on average and sometimes longer.

So for those truly looking for an extended high experience and who have the patience for an edible or drinkable cannabis product to kick in, ingesting your weed is the way to go.

How Long Does A Weed High Last For You? Your Mileage May Vary

How long does a weed high last if you eat your cannabis? How long does a marijuana high last if you smoke flower? Just generally, how long does a high last? If you’ve come away with anything from this article, hopefully it’s an appreciation for the complex chemical dance that is a weed high, and all the factors that make up the answer to those questions.

Of course, there’s no definite, constant answer. The lengths of your own highs will change. No need to compare them to other folks’.

So, how long does a high last for you? If you plan on one to two hours for inhaled cannabis and three to four with ingested weed, longer with higher doses and concentrations and shorter with higher metabolisms and tolerances, you’ll be all set.

(Updated from a previous post.)

The post How Long Does a Weed High Last? appeared first on High Times.

The post How Long Does a Weed High Last? appeared first on FunPot.ca - Marijuana Blog.

from Marijuana Uses https://blog.funpot.ca/how-long-does-a-weed-high-last/