#there should be unlimited likes available

[damnitiloveyou]

I understand that I have already left kudos and comments on every single chapter but that fic is a masterpiece and I will hit that kudos button as often as I like, thank you very much. Your red denial will not detour me.

[poorlittlevampire]

idk what im supposed to do abt my order i cant find anything on their site abt backordered preorders

[catgirl-kaiju]

workplaces should have to legally provide unlimited paid sick leave available immediately upon hire. the limits that companies that even provide paid sick leave put on it is so fucked up. no one can control when they get sick, how often they get sick, or how long they are sick for, and they shouldn't have to suffer for the transgression of being ill.

"oh, but some people might take advantage of that and just stay home all the time and get paid for it!" if there is really a statistically relevant amount of people you have hired staying home on paid sick leave for months or years on end, perhaps your workplace sucks to be at, and you need to change.

give them reasons to come in to work. make it safer and easier to do their jobs. give them work that they can get invested in and talk to them about what that looks like. make sure you aren't overloading them with too much work or making unreasonable demands. pay them an amount that makes the work worth doing to them. actually form a working relationship with your employees instead of treating them like infinitely exploitable wage slaves.

only allowing your workers to accrew "2 hours a week of sick time starting after 6 weeks of employment" or some shit just doesn't match the reality of how sickness or human health works

[rachaelthemes]

Ocular — Version 3

Preview // User Guide // More Info & Install

your favorite sidebar theme just got an upgrade, babeyyy

I went to update Ocular to make it NPF post-compliant and then my hand slipped and I redesigned the whole thing lmao. here's a brief update about Ocular 3; if you're looking for a full list of changes between versions 2 and 3, click the "Read More" below)

Ocular comes with the following features:

Colors: easily change the color scheme of your sidebar and posts using any colors you want

Post sizes: 400px, 500px, 540px, 600px, 700px

Sidebar: can be on the left, right, or above the posts. pick from a list of sidebar sizes, header image heights, and avatar shapes

Fonts: 20 different fonts, sizes 13px to 18px

Background: solid, gradient, full-size image or repeating image

Links: choose either regular navigation or drop-down navigation. unlimited custom links (visit the help desk FAQ for a tutorial) and ability to rename home, ask, submit, and archive links

Endless scroll, custom ask box text, Tumblr's full-width controls and search bar, optional header, avatar, and favicon images

if you already have Ocular installed, version 3 should be coming at you as soon as the update passes the theme garden. if you installed this theme with GitHub, you'll have to re-install manually.

now let's get to the fun stuff. what's new in version 3?

wow, do I have some updates for you!

1. goodbye color schemes, hello post background and text colors

you can now directly control the color of the posts rather than relying on color schemes to do it. want your posts to be a very specific shade of navy? all yours, buddy. go wild (make sure it's readable tho)

2. hello, color schemes! wait I thought we got rid of that guy

a lot of the color schemes I made became redundant now that the new post background/text color options exist. if you were married to the old color schemes, all of them can be recreated using those options. so the new color scheme options are as follows:

"My colors" — uses the colors you picked for post background/text

"Light preset" and "dark preset" — sets the posts to white with black text, or off-black with white text

"Translucent" — uses the colors you choose for post background/text, but makes the post backgrounds semi-transparent. there are NINE different translucent color schemes, ranging from 90% (only slightly see-through) to 10% (VERY see through)

3. navigation dropdown option

you can either use the sidebar links like they were before, or you can turn them into a cute little dropdown (helpful if you have lots of links or links with long titles!) you can enable this using the "use dropdown navigation" setting. you can also customize the label for the dropdown using the "dropdown menu label" setting. for instance, the dropdown on my blog currently says "oooh you wanna click me"

4. RIP google fonts I always hated your load times

decided to stop using Google Fonts and instead I'm providing the font files directly in the code. this will help speed up load times drastically when using custom fonts, plus I don't have to use Google. win-win! there's quite a bit of coverage overlap with the old fonts, but some of them that were too similar to each other got the ax. I also added all of the system fonts as options (hit classics like Arial, Georgia, and Comic Sans MS are now available TO YOU!)

5. more layout, sizing, and spacing options

the sidebar used to be either on the center-left, center-right, or above the posts; now it can go in the top-left or top-right! you can now control the border radius on the posts and sidebar. the header height, sidebar width, and post spacing all have additional options.

6. some options have been renamed for additional clarity

"background color 1" -> "background color"

"background color 2" -> "gradient background color"

"background" -> "background style"

"font override" -> "use body font everywhere"

"title" -> "sidebar title"

"description" -> "sidebar description"

"ask box text" -> "custom HTML above ask box"

7. removed some options

you win some, you lose some. I removed the uppercase sidebar links, theme credit, and inline media spacing options, mostly for redundancy reasons or because they produced unclear results.

8. as previously stated, now NPF-compliant

Ocular was ALMOST compliant with Tumblr's new post format, but had a few tweaks that needed to be ironed out. they're now ironed.

9: now user-friendly right out of the box

I updated the default color and content options, so new users installing this theme will have a much easier time using and customizing it immediately. no more ugly ass green background!

10. and finally, new JS

I had to rewrite some of the javascript for this theme, which turned into me rewriting ALL of the javascript. doing so meant that I could eliminate dependencies on third-party JS libraries and run the whole thing on plain JS. that should improve load times!!

bonus: custom CSS can do some nifty stuff now

want to change the size of your avatar? you can do that now! just do this to your Advanced > Add custom CSS section

super helpful if you're using the Avatar shape: Uncropped setting and you need your image to be a specific size (like a pixelated GIF)

for more info, check out the Ocular user guide. thanks for reading my updates!! hope you all have a fantastic start to your 2024 ❤️

[sleepyghostuwu]

The Artist and the Gem: Part 1

"I'm pretty sure this only happens in dreams."

Synopsis: An IPC member part-timing as an artist unknowingly spices up her life when a certain colleague comes to her for a leisurely art commission.

Notes: Fem! Reader POV since it's what I'm more comfy writing in for this series. I also have no clue how art commissions work so apologies if it isn't lore-accurate ^^"

Ping!

You groan as you reluctantly reach for your phone for the umpteenth time today, bracing yourself to read your client's incessant texts about your work progress despite it being mere weeks since they first contacted you. Combining that with the fact that your supervisors were piling you with more paperwork these days made it all the more frustrating to deal with.

"Hi again! I feel the need to mention that I have a full-time job outside of my artist life, and also take note that it takes time in general to complete multiple people's commissions over time. I will send you more WIPs once I'm available to do so. Thanks for your patience!"

As cordial as the text sounded when you sent it out, you were like a pot filled with boiling water, ready to burst in fury in the event that client continues to add fuel to the fire. Too angry to continue doing work properly, you excused yourself to get a drink at the pantry.

As the coffee machine whirred to life on the counter, you hear your phone ringing again. Doing your utmost to keep your composure, your trembling hands open your inbox. This time, it was not your current client who texted you, but a new one.

"Hey (username), I find your artworks to be rather intriguing. I saw on your webpage that you're still taking in commissions, so I was wondering if I could trouble you to do one for me."

"At least this one's polite about this," you muttered as you replied to their message with equal respect.

"Hey there! Happy to know that you appreciate my art! My commission list is quite full at the moment, so I'm afraid that it will take long while to complete yours. Would you mind if your commission took a longer time to complete, or would you rather contact me another time instead?"

That should do, you think to yourself as you retrieve your coffee cup from the machine and take a sip of your drink. Your phone rings again.

"It's all good. Take as much time as you need. I'm not in a rush :)"

Your eyes practically lit up upon reading that message. Unlimited time for a commission? In times like these? Is this heaven?? You quickly shoot back another text.

"Very well. What would you like me to draw, then?"

"I would like you to draw a portrait of Aventurine from the IPC."

...

You've got to be kidding me.

You blink furiously at your client's art request, trying to make sure that you did not misread whatever they sent to you.

"That's an interesting request you got here."

Who even is requesting for this from me? A fan from the Aventurine Fan Squad? For all you knew, any of your colleagues could have either chanced upon your art account or decided to knowingly exploit your creativity for their own pleasure. As you type out the default reminder for them to pay up as per your terms, your phone rings twice.

[100,000 Credits have been transferred to your bank account.]

"Say less. Wishing you the best of luck ;)"

You take a huge gulp of coffee as you switch off your phone, evidently more stressed about your artistic career than you already were before. With such a hefty sum of money transferred to you for a singular drawing, chances are that you will have to pool in all of your creativity for this particular commission if it means that your mystery client would be assured to get their money's worth. Taking a glimpse at the nearest clock within your hindsight, you quickly down your coffee before rushing back to your cubicle, ready to check off your task list if it meant more time to draw later on.

---

As you briskly return to your cubicle to work, a certain blond man in green glances at you from a distance and smiles.

[msmc-796-official]

I... have a confession to make, of sorts. There won't ever be a good time to admit this, unfortunately, so it's best I get this off my chest now, and ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

It has not been easy speaking with all of the flashclones who have made themselves known in the wake of Union's latest raids; both for myself, and the squadron at large. I must commend my squadmates for handling themselves with the utmost professionalism - while my own correspondences with these newest members of the Omninet have been what I would consider adequately polite, I've been biting my tongue the entire time, and I fear that my personal discomfort with the issue is starting to slip through the cracks.

To this end, I wish to share my thoughts publicly, that I might better express my own emotions towards this complicated, frustrating, and highly nuanced issue. I only ask that you hear me out in full before you render judgement, and pronounce your sentence carefully.

First: an observation.

MSMC policy requires that all pilots dictate an end-of-life plan at the time of their recruitment, that their final wishes may be carried out by the company in the event of their death under MSMC's employ. The options provided for this are effectively unlimited, allowing the pilot a great deal of choice and freedom in planning their postmortem arrangements. These plans may also be altered in the future should circumstances change, provided the pilot is of sound body and mind.

Under MSMC policy, in compliance with the policies set forth by Union, one of the available postmortem options is flashcloning.

In my fifteen-odd years serving under MSMC, I have only heard of three pilots who have willingly chosen to be flashcloned after death (thus prolonging not only their life, but their term of service under MSMC as well). Of these, I have only personally met one, affiliated with MSMC-808 "5Q8R3 L00P3RZ" - I believe their current iteration goes by callsign Lemniscate. While I do not know how many times they have been cloned during their term of service, their current iteration seems happy enough, and their squadmates reassure me that they've maintained a consistent identity (plus or minus the odd quirk, as is typical of flashclones) throughout their life (lives?).

Second: a digression.

I purchased my Dusk Wing, And The Voice of Apollo Spoke From On High (Apollo for short), from an SSC showroom on a planet whose name I no longer recall. The curated atmosphere called to mind the high marble pillars and lush green-blue waters of some distant Cradle mythology where gods roamed the earth and mortals strove to emulate them, punished and rewarded for their folly in equal measure with gifts and curses beyond name. Each frame was posed as the statues of old on Cradle, too-human limbs arrayed in too-human poses, each a machine of war turned living art piece.

Apollo, true to its future name, was arrayed in flight; hover-jets draped with sunlight-yellow gossamer, veil rifle aimed in its middle tier of manipulators with the same care and precision as an archer would take with their bow. To see it lowered to the floor after its purchase was to see Icarus fall; to climb inside its cockpit for the first time, to don wax-and-feather wings of my own and fly.

The old tales caution that divinity has a cost, and I too paid the price. A vial of blood, drawn with silver needle and spirited away into an unseen cooler before my pen ever touched paper. Apollo was mine, but SSC had received a far greater gift in its place: a sample of my DNA, unwillingly donated as the price for my divine armament.

Even now, this price weighs heavy on my head like the sword which hung above Damocles, poised to drop without a moment's notice with each new Union raid on yet another forgotten cloning facility. Who can say on what distant planet the children I did not birth sleep in stasis - children with my eyes, my hair, my nose, my smile; sons and daughters who will never be called as such because, to their creators, they are slaves, weapons, property - anything but human.

Third: an explanation.

I believe that flashcloning, in its current state as of 5016u, as approved by Union's Third Committee (and exploited by the likes of SSC, HA, and several countless others across the stars) is an inherently unethical practice; both for those who donate their DNA (willingly or otherwise), as well as for those persons produced by it.

To see countless lives created, manipulated, slaughtered, and recycled in the name of so-called "progress"; to see inherently human beings stripped of every vestige of humanity but the body in which they reside and then forcibly brainwashed and molded into soldiers, medics, mechanics, weapons, machines, slaves, property - it is an abominable and inhumane practice that should have died a slow and painful death in the darkness from whence it was birthed.

This being said: I cannot stand idly by as the products of this inhumane practice continue to suffer. No matter whether it is beneath the apathetic gaze of Union, the dehumanizing bootheel of HA, or the eugenicist scalpel of SSC, I will not allow my fellow persons to endure another day of abuse at the hands of those who would abandon their own creations as little more than imperfect failures for daring to remind their creators of their sentience.

Alone, I can do nothing. I too am but a cog in this great uncaring machine humanity has built, one which prospers on suffering and bloodshed and the work of hands which have forgotten the body to which they are attached. Even if I were to risk life and limb and reputation to make my position known, it is a battle which lies dead in the water - it is impossible to halt the wheels of progress without irreparably damaging the future which relies on their turning.

And so I fight. I fight for those who have forgotten their humanity, both willingly and unwillingly, that they might find something of their own - identity, purpose, desires, connection, life - that reminds them of what they were and are and always have been: human.

-- Angel

[elumish]

My Experience With Digital-First Royalty-Only Publishing (Part 2)

Disclaimer: just my experience, may not reflect other people's

Part 1 (What is this sort of publishing; how did I get published; what does the submission, contract, and editing process look like)

Book Release:

My [redacted] book came out in April 2024. It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the publisher's own website, where it is listed for a couple dollars less than on Amazon/B&N. It's available both digitally (in multiple different file formats) and for print (paperback).

I can't speak for whether this is standard across these sorts of publishers, but it probably isn't unusual. This does mean that the book can't be available on Kindle Unlimited, given how Kindle Unlimited's requirements work.

The timing for this sort of publishing is extremely fast compared to traditional or even small-press print publishing. I signed the contract in late August 2023 and sent in the final draft to my editor in late October 2023, and the book was released in late April 2024.

Book cover:

For designing my book cover, they pointed me towards where they pull stock images from and asked me to describe the sort of cover I would want, including possible stock images. They also asked for physical characteristics of my characters, which is when I realized that I had no clue what my characters look like.

The stock image website included AI art, as well as regular non-AI stock images. I specifically requested no AI art, including no AI-generated stock images. As far as I am aware, they respected that request.

Once they created one, they sent me a mock-up and asked about minor changes (typography, etc., from what I remember). I didn't have any changes. Overall, my cover looks like what I described to them, and I'm really happy with it.

Marketing:

My marketing experience with my publisher has been decidedly underwhelming. They seem to have started to revamp their marketing process right around when my book came out, so my book didn't receive/hasn't received a huge amount of marketing support from them.

What they gave me marketing-wise: a few marketing images for pre-release/post-release, including Twitter and FB header images, etc.; general marketing guidance for what I could/should be doing; a couple of mentions on their publisher Instagram post-release and a mention in their weekly newsletter

What they didn't give me marketing-wise: connection to reviewers, including sending an ARC or providing a list of reviewers that might be good to work with; marketing materials for sites like TikTok or Instragram; a meaningful amount of airtime/mention on their accounts; a large following of their own

Overall, the marketing is what is probably most like self-publishing--a huge amount of it is on me (and I am terrible at it). It will be interesting to see what their revamp brings, but they are starting from a minimal following and not a lot of previous activity on their accounts, and so they also need to build their reach to make their marketing on their accounts more effective.

Royalties/payment:

I get paid on a monthly basis through PayPal. I also receive a royalty statement that lists days, amount/type sold, etc. so I can reconcile with what they have paid me. From what I have seen this royalty statement is pretty standard.

So far, they've been prompt and haven't had issues with payments.

However, because of (among other things) their general lack of marketing, my royalty statements have been fairly low. So far (and, granted, the book came out less than 2 months ago) I have made very little money on this.

My Path Forward:

I've thought a lot about whether I will continue to do this sort of publishing. I am currently querying my "main" books, and I don't plan to publish them through this sort of publishing, even if the publisher would likely accept them.

My contract stipulates that my publisher has right of first refusal for the rest of the books in this series. I am currently writing book two, and I plan to also write a third, as I had initially discussed with them. Beyond that, I'm not sure. I don't mind working with them as a company, but I don't know if they have the processes in place for me to make money publishing with them.

One thing I will likely do is explore other romance publishers that accept unagented submissions. They have a much lower barrier of entry and they are often willing to accept books that trad publishers might not want to spend money/reputational risk on.

As such, I would likely submit to these publishers stories that I don't think traditional publishers/agents would likely to be willing to publish, including more niche subgenres and less standard lengths that are easier to publish digitally.

Why do I redact the name of my book?

Honestly because I'm a coward and because people are weird about romance, especially certain subgenres of romance. I also plan to use this account for my main agented publishing, if I ever reach that point, and I don't necessarily want those two pen names associated.

Any other questions about this sort of publishing?

[kafus]

how to transfer your old pokemon to pokemon home before it's too late!!!

the wi-fi services for the nintendo 3DS and WiiU are shutting down in early april 2024, and while it specifically lists pokemon bank and poke transporter as being available post-shutdown, there is no guarantee of how long that may be for. there will likely come a time when these services shut down, and it could be in the relatively near future.

it is also pretty much impossible now to transfer pokemon to the switch's Home service with alternative methods such as PKHeX (popular pokemon save editor for the uninformed) due to the implementation of server-side Home IDs tracking pokemon at all times - the details of that aren't super important for this post, but point is, whenever bank shuts down, unless nintendo makes an offline way to transfer to home, it will be impossible to move pokemon from the old gens to the new, even with alternative/hack-y methods.

i write this guide with the intention of making this process easier for people since transferring pokemon has changed so much over the past two decades that it's a bit of a mess, and in a timely manner to give people time to finish the process. i'll be organizing by generation so feel free to skip to any part of the guide you need. (keep in mind that transferring is permanent, your pokemon cannot go back afterwards!!)

(by the way it would mean a lot to me if you weren't overwhelmingly negative of pokemon in the tags/reblogs. i get that pokemon transferring being an online service sucks but reading that stuff in my notifications constantly is really tiring </3 make ur own post to talk about that)

to walk you through, i'll be transferring this random shiny spinda i hatched in emerald version all the way up to pokemon home. her name is Moss :]

below the cut since this is long as fuck sorry LOL

GEN 1/2 -> 3 (aka RBY/GSC -> RSE/FRLG)

this is impossible! as for the Virtual Console releases of the gen 1/2 games on 3DS, more on that later in the gen 5 -> 6/7 section.

GEN 3 -> 4 (aka RSE/FRLG -> DPPT/HGSS)

what you need:

a copy of RSE or FRLG

a copy of DPPT or HGSS in the same language as the RSE/FRLG copy that has beaten the champion and has access to post-game areas, preferably HGSS because it lets you transfer unlimited times as opposed to DPPT's once-per-24-hours limit (unless you happen to have korean DPPT/HGSS, which is not language locked in terms of transferring)

either an original DS or a DS lite, the old ones with the GBA slot at the bottom

the steps:

#1. you can only transfer 6 pokemon at a time, so get whatever 6 pokemon you want to transfer up together in gen 3. if you're intending to transfer less than 6 pokemon, you'll need to catch some extras since you have to transfer the full 6 every time (i usually just catch a bunch of extra mons on the first route, which is what i've done here with the poochyenas/wurmples)

#2. put the gen 3 game into the GBA slot of the DS, and the gen 4 game into the DS slot. both games should appear on the home menu after turning on the DS.

#3. load the DS game and spam A past the title screen. before loading your save, scroll down. you should see a "MIGRATE FROM (GAME NAME HERE)" option. if you don't, either the GBA game isn't reading properly, or you have not visited Pal Park in your gen 4 game of choice. in HGSS, the Pal Park is located in Fuchsia City, and in DPPT, the Pal Park is located at the end of Route 221 below Sandgem Town.

#4. select the aforementioned migration option and pick the pokemon you want to transfer.

#5. navigate to the Pal Park and complete the Catching Show, where you re-catch your transferred pokemon in the wild. this does not overwrite what pokeballs they were originally caught in! you will need to bring a pokemon with Surf if you have any Pokemon that spawn in the water areas. you can check what location the pokemon you transferred will be in on bulbapedia.

#6. say yes to storing the caught pokemon in your PC boxes and they'll be there!

important things to note:

pokemon with HM moves will be blocked from transfer, so make sure to use the Move Deleter to remove HM moves from any pokemon you're transferring in gen 3 before trying to transfer. in RSE, the Move Deleter is in Lilycove City, and in FRLG they are in Fuchsia City.

gen 3 -> 4 is the only step in the transfer process where held items transfer up as well, meaning that if you attach a valuable item such as a rare candy, master ball, or TM to a transferred pokemon, you can take it off that pokemon and put it in your bag in the gen 4 game.

an aside about colosseum/XD gale of darkness on gamecube:

you can transfer pokemon from colo/XD as well! unfortunately you'll need to have beaten colo/XD, and then you will also need to beat the gen 3 game... in FRLG, you even have to complete the postgame ruby/sapphire quest on the sevii islands to unlock trading with the gamecube games. once you do all that though, you can navigate to the pokemon center basement in Phenac City to trade with your gen 3 GBA title. to do this, you'll need a gamecube or wii with gamecube compatibility, a GBA (or GBA SP), and a GCN -> GBA link cable to connect the two consoles.

GEN 4 -> 5 (aka DPPT/HGSS -> BW/BW2)

what you need:

a copy of DPPT/HGSS

a copy of BW or BW2 in the same language as DPPT/HGSS copy that has beaten the champion (or N in the original BW) and has access to post-game areas.

two DS consoles of any kind (3DS is also fine!)

the steps:

#1. get the pokemon you want to transfer together in your gen 4 game's PC boxes. you can only transfer 6 pokemon at a time. if you have less than 6, catch some extra pokemon, since you need to transfer the full 6 every time. save it and turn off the DS with the gen 4 game.

#2. turn on your gen 5 game and navigate to the Poke Transfer Lab. personally i just fly to Black City/White Forest and head west.

#3. talk to the NPC in the lab to start the transfer process. you will be prompted to turn on your other DS again and open DS Download Play with your gen 4 game inserted. do that and download the Poke Transfer app that comes up.

#4. select the 6 Pokemon you want to transfer when prompted.

#5. play the transfer minigame! just drag the... bow? (lol) on the bottom screen to aim your pokeballs. there's technically a time limit, but it's very generous, and your final score doesn't matter.

#6. say yes to transferring the pokemon once you're done and they'll be placed in your PC boxes!

important things to note:

pokemon with HM moves will be blocked from transfer, so make sure to use the Move Deleter to remove HM moves from any pokemon you're transferring in gen 4 before trying to transfer. in DPPT they're in Canalave City, and in HGSS they're in Blackthorn City.

the level the pokemon was obtained at and the date it was obtained is changed upon transfer to gen 5 - it will have the met date of your DS clock and the met level of the level it was at the time of transfer. if you'd like to preserve a pokemon's met date, make sure to change the DS clock to the proper date.

GEN 5 -> 6/7 (aka BW/BW2 -> 3DS TITLES/BANK)

what you need:

a copy of BW/BW2

a copy of any 3DS pokemon game (XY/ORAS/SUMO/USUM)

a 3DS (or 2DS, i'll just be referring to them all as 3DSes here) with the poke transporter and pokemon bank apps installed. these were free apps that were once downloadable from the 3DS eShop, but the 3DS eShop is no longer available, so if you don't already have them installed you will need to explore alternate methods, AKA hacking your 3DS and injecting them in. that's outside the scope of this guide but you can find more information here on 3ds.hacks.guide. (do not attempt to follow any 3DS hacking guide not on this website, they could be outdated and harm your 3DS!)

a nintendo network ID that your 3DS is logged into (also outside the scope of this guide but if you don't already have one, it will prompt you during the process to make one)

internet connection

the steps:

#1. poke transporter defaults to trying to transfer every pokemon located in Box 1 of your PC, so go into your gen 5 game and put every pokemon you want to transfer into Box 1, and take anything you don't want to transfer out. if you want to transfer more pokemon than you can fit in one box, you'll have to transfer multiple times.

#2. open poke transporter with your gen 5 game inserted into the 3DS' cartridge slot. after pressing A through some menus and selecting the gen 5 game when prompted, it should ask if you want to transfer the pokemon in Box 1, with a preview of the pokemon inside. confirm and let it do its thing. after poke transporter is finished, the pokemon you transferred will be in the special Transport Box in bank.

#3. make sure you either have a 3DS pokemon title downloaded onto your 3DS, or swap out your gen 5 cart for one, it doesn't matter which.

#4. close out of poke transporter and navigate to pokemon bank. at the time of writing this guide, bank is still online and is free for everyone without a subscription - the main menu has an infinite "free trial" period number.

#5. select "use pokemon bank" and pick a 3DS game to connect with when prompted. it doesn't matter which one, but if you're looking to see your pokemon in a gen 6/7 game right now, pick the one you want to move it into. viewing a pokemon in a gen 6/7 game isn't required to move to home later, though!

#6. the Transport Box is located one box to the left of Box 1 - navigate to it and drag your pokemon out into a normal bank box. now you can move them to any gen 6/7 pokemon game you want, or home later!

important things to note:

even though bank connects with both gen 6 and gen 7 games, once you place a pokemon into a gen 7 game (SUMO/USUM), you cannot transfer that pokemon back to a gen 6 game (XY/ORAS), so be careful!

an aside about the VC releases of RBY/GSC:

poke transporter can also be used to transfer pokemon out of the VC releases of RBY/GSC. these pokemon are changed pretty heavily, converting all their old gen data into pokemon's modern data structure. you can find more information about all the changes/conversions made on bulbapedia. these pokemon are considered gen 7 pokemon afterwards, and cannot be moved into XY/ORAS. pokemon with held items also cannot be transferred from VC titles and will fail to transfer.

if you want to transfer pokemon from cartridge RBY/GSC and have a save dumping device, it is possible to inject the cartridge's save file into the VC versions with Checkpoint on a hacked 3DS and then transfer that way. for GSC specifically, you'll need to edit your save slightly to make it compatible with VC GSC's save format. i personally made a converter for that here that you're free to use in-browser.

GEN 6/7 -> GEN 8+ (aka BANK -> HOME)

what you need:

a 3DS (or 2DS, i'll just be referring to them all as 3DSes here) with the pokemon bank app installed. this was a free app that was once downloadable from the 3DS eShop, but the 3DS eShop is no longer available, so if you don't already have it installed you will need to explore alternate methods, AKA hacking your 3DS and injecting it in. that's outside the scope of this guide but you can find more information here on 3ds.hacks.guide. (do not attempt to follow any 3DS hacking guide not on this website, they could be outdated and harm your 3DS!)

a nintendo network ID that your 3DS is logged into (also outside the scope of this guide but if you don't already have one, it will prompt you during the process to make one)

a switch with Pokemon Home installed, which can be downloaded for free from the switch's eShop. a nintendo switch online subscription is not required.

unfortunately, you WILL need a subscription to home's premium plan to do bank -> home transfers.

internet connection

the steps:

#1. open pokemon bank and make sure all the pokemon you want to transfer are in their own boxes, and any you don't want to transfer are not in the same boxes as the to-be-transferred pokemon.

#2. go back to the bank home menu and select the "move pokemon to pokemon home" option. when you get the notice about the transfer being one-way, you'll need to scroll down to hit "Begin".

#3. you will be prompted to select what boxes of pokemon you'd like to transfer, so pick all the applicable ones.

#4. you will then be prompted to put in the moving key from home, so turn on your switch, open pokemon home, and select the icon that looks like a 3DS on the main menu. when prompted, choose "Ready!" to get the moving key.

#5. input the moving key on the 3DS, submit it, and wait for both apps to do their thing. once bank goes back to its title screen, you can turn off the 3DS.

#6. home will go back to its title screen as well, and depending on how many pokemon you moved, you may have to wait a few minutes to get back into the app. once it's done, the next time you open home, it'll prompt you to choose how to organize your transferred pokemon into home. pick whatever you see fit.

#7. congratulations, your pokemon are safe in home!!

important things to note:

unlike all pokemon games before the switch, pokemon can actually go backwards in generation on switch, so don't worry about transferring a pokemon into scarlet/violet locking you out of moving it to sword/shield, for example. (the exception to this is LGPE - nothing can be moved into LGPE and once a pokemon is moved out of LGPE, it can't go back.)

pokemon home actually has decent hack checks, so be careful when transferring hacked/glitched/otherwise illegitimate pokemon around.

pokemon from a gen 3/4 game will have their met location set to "Poke Shifter" - this is an alternative translation of the japanese name for the Poke Transporter.

pokemon on switch can only transfer into games that contain that pokemon in its dex, so not everything transferred can go into scarlet/violet, for example.

and that's it!!

there's a lot of other quirks to the pokemon transferring process at pretty much all steps, so if you run into an unusual issue or have specific questions about how pokemon data is changed in minute ways across the franchise, i would encourage you to do your own research, all of this stuff is pretty heavily documented by the fanbase. this is just meant to be a guide for casual users, and a quick reference.

this guide of course does not cover options for transferring in alternative ways, but it's worth mentioning that if you have a hacked 3DS and the ability to back up save files at any point from gens 3 -> 5, you can use PKHeX to transfer pokemon into the 3DS titles, then move them to bank and transfer to home normally from there. that's outside the scope of this guide and i'd also encourage you to do your own research for that.

happy transferring!

[theangrycomet]

black and white 3: gear station

If Gamefreak makes the inevitable Black and White remake another sequel (like honestly all the others should have been) than I think the best way to address the Ingo situation would be for the Player to have almost no involvement at all.

Have it be a background thing when the Player first makes it to Nimbasa City the Battle Subway is temporarily closed due to… circumstances with the Bosses’ pokemon.

Elesa’s not at her Gym because she’s helping Emmet grab all of Ingo’s pokemon, as they are scattered around the city looking for their Trainer. Have some of the residents trying to guid them back, making comments that this has been the regular occurrence for almost a year now.

Have it where the Player finds a Chandelure approach them, when they enter the city, and end up following them around as they make it to the battle Subway. Then you have to help gather the rest before Elesa can return to her gym and Emmet, Gear Station. This is how you get a Unlimited Subway Pass (as a token of thanks from Emmet) that grants you full access to Gear Station (to the places you already have been like the ride pokemon/flying taxi)

The Battle Subway is then reopened, but you can only do the Singles Monday/Wednesday/Friday and the Doubles Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday or whatever since there is only 1 Subway boss to run the both lines at the moment.

Postgame, the Singles and Doubles lines are available no matter the day of the week, as Ingo has inexplicably returned, with a whole new set of pokemon to boot.

Lady Sneasler can be found as a Challenger on the singles line or meandering Gear Station, depending on the time of day. If you beat her and Ingo X amount of it would trigger a cut scene where she, with some translation on Ingo’s part, gifts the player an Egg, with Ingo making a comment that the Player reminds him of a bit of a trainer he new from where he was before.

[wrdn-tabris]

BATMAN BEYOND/TERRY McGINNIS; a reading list

So, you're interested in the Batman of the future! A series which takes place in the far off year of... 2039? Listen, the original show came out in the nineties, you gotta give it some slack.

Hopefully here I've compiled a nice list of the comics, as well as any extra appearances of Terry, Batman of Neo-Gotham.

Who is Terry McGinnis?

Terry McGinnis is our seventeen year old protagonist. He meets Bruce Wayne after the old man helps him in beating back a gang who take after the late Joker, and in helping Bruce into his manor discovers that he was formerly Batman. After his father's murder, Terry steals the hi-tech batsuit in order to hunt down the people responsible for his death. In doing so he sees Gotham for how corrupt it really is, and becomes the Tomorrow Knight and Batman of the future.

Where to start?

The best place to start is with the 1999 animated series of the same name. It takes place firmly in the DCAU, alongside Batman: The Animated Series and The Adventure continues, Superman TAS, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.

The show goes over three seasons, with cameos in a spin off called The Zeta Files (which only ran for a season) Static Shock (ep, Future Shock) and Justice League Unlimited (The Once and Future Thing; part 2, Epilogue) and a movie, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

While the cameos are more optional, you don't really need to watch them, though Epilogue is treated as the 'end' of both JLU and Batman Beyond. ROTJ also has two different versions, a censored and uncensored one.

You can watch it on WatchCartoonsOnline, though I'd be a little careful with using that site. If you also have MAX, it should be available for streaming on there.

Comics wise, I apologize for not putting individual issues. I've also included links to readcomicsonline for each comic.

DCAU Tie-In Comics

These tie in directly with the show, and as far as I know, were released at the same time.

Batman Beyond I

Batman Beyond II

Superman Adventures #64

Unlimited and 2.0

The unlimited and 2.0 comics take place post show, and are in the same universe as the DCAU so I personally consider it canon to the series.

Batman Beyond: Hush Beyond (2010)

Batman Beyond: Industrial Revolution (2011)

Batman Beyond: 10,000 Clowns (2012)

Batman Beyond Unlimited

Batman Beyond 2.0

Justice League Beyond

Justice League Beyond 2.0

(and optional, the Superman Beyond comics. I think Terry only has some cameos, but it's always fun to hang out in the world a little bit with different characters)

Superman Beyond 2011

Superman Beyond 2012

N52 Futures End and Rebirth

Futures end is... personally, I'm not a fan. While Terry isn't Batman for the entirety of 2015, 2015 takes place in the aftermath of futures end, while Rebirth is the aftermath of 2015, only a few months later.

N52 Futures End #1-17 #18-30 #31-48

Batman Beyond (2015)

Batman Beyond Rebirth

Neo-Year

A reboot of BB, Urban Legends #7 and Neo-Year set off as Terry's own personal sort of 'year one' as Batman, one without Bruce. I'm personally highly enjoying it so far, and I feel like it does treat his character very well. Neo-Gothic is currently on-going.

Urban Legends #7

Batman Beyond: Neo-Year

Batman Beyond: Neo Gothic

Optional Individuals and Cameos

Batman #700

Superman/Batman 2010 Annual #4

Milestones 30th Anniversary A story with Static and Terry

Batman 2016 #135

Countdown #21 (Just a brief cameo)

Justice League vs The Legion of Superheroes #3

Batman: Beyond the White Knight

This is as comprehensive of a list as I can get, including almost every appearance of Terry's that I can think of. I hope that this helps anyone who is interested about Terry, he's personally one of my favorite characters and I think he's really fun and compelling.

[ponett]

Is there any way to read the whole IDW sonic series without individually buying them all?

Like how you can get a marvel membership and binge the whole world war hulk in one weekend without buying each issue

At a glance it seems like most of the series up through issue #68 (of 73, currently) is available through Comixology Unlimited on Amazon. That should get you most of the way there

[tackyink]

This was supposed to be for @asususasa but in the middle of writing I thought this could be useful for someone else, so here's Tacky's general list of otome recs. It took me over an hour to write so I'm not proofreading it.

DS

Not much to say here because back in those days otome games didn't get localized. The stand outs are Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 1st Love Plus and Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Season, who have English fan translations. Slice of life games where you play as the protagonist through her three years of high school. And if you feel like a student-teacher romance that would make Sakura Kinomoto's mom proud, these are your games.

PSP

Still well into the no localizations era with one exception: Hakuouki Demon of the Fleeting Blossom. Not recommending it on PSP because there are better versions. Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 3rd Story Premium also has a fan translation and should be played over its DS counterpart because it has added functionalities. Sadly this time around the teacher is a secret character and a shota.

3DS

There's Hakuoki Memories of the Shinsengumi. Still not recommended because we can do better.

PS3

Hakuouki Stories of the Shinsengumi includes the original game and the fandisk with some neat animations added. This is the version to play if you want the original experience. If you want even more routes, go for another version.

Vita

Hakuoki Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms, Collar x Malice and Amnesia are the best games you can get for the Vita imo. Some people dig a lot the Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk and Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly (I've only played BB, it was good but wasn't the best; wouldn't rate it as high as the others). There's Code Realize and its two fandisks (Future Blessings and Wintertide Miracles) and many people swear by them, but while I liked the common route in the first game, the rest didn't do it for me. You can find all of these except CxM and the CRs on Steam, and the Hakuoki games get dirst cheap on sale. Best bang for your buck of the saga. The CR games have PS4 ports and CxM has a Switch one, which you already know.

Switch

*rolls up sleeves* LET'S GO.

To get it out of the way: Hakuouki KW and EB are getting a Switch rerelease and a new translation and will be released as a single game, Hakuoki Chonicles of Wind and Blossom, on August 1st.

Collar x Malice fucking nails the mystery and lowkey horror vibes with and excellent plot that's interconnected in every route. CxM Unlimited is its fandisk and only recommended if you really have the CxM itch, because it's mostly fluff and the little plot there is is at most functional. It has a route where Ichika joins Adonis and you get to see its inner workings though. That was very interesting.

Bustafellows is 100% found family vibes with a very assertive protagonist. It's a mystery/action story and the team dynamics are sort of Ocean's 11-ish. Hilarious, heartbreaking at times, I've never felt more dread in a game than heading towards the basement in a certain's guy's route. There are two unlockable stories after you finish the routes of the guys, one of which I thought was glorious, another which sets up a sequel and is a big downer but I also really liked. It gets heavy at times with murder, suicide, sexual assault, human trafficking, among other kinds of violence, but despite it, it's generally a very funny and upbeat game. We're getting the sequel next year. Also available on PC.

Café Enchanté baits you with the premise of being a girl who manages a coffee shop patronized by handsome supernatural beings, so it's a real surprise when the cannibalism shows up. Anyway. Great game, but I'm afraid saying more would kind of defeat the point. Reminds me of Megami Tensei games, so if coffee shop AUs with supernatural world-ending threats are your thing, go for it. Just be warned that the fandom has kind of collectively agreed that poster boy's route never happened.

Birushana is a hidden gem that goes on sale super cheap and is also probably a hit or miss thing. You play as the legendary Yoshitsune, who in this game is a girl disguising her gender, but she's an amazing warrior as in history. It has the best otome couple I've ever seen, bar none, with Yoshitsune and Noritsune. The game is worth the price just to see them fall in love on the battlefield and watch Noritsune chug down Respect Women Juice all the way through it. The thing is... the rest of routes aren't great. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed how utterly unhinged they got at times, but the plot got worse as it deepened. Still. Noritsune. And I loved that most of the guys respected her as a warrior and were aware she was as capable or a better warrior than them and she didn't need a man to protect her. Very refreshing. One of my faves got done dirty by the translation because they started pulling lines out of thin air to make him creepier. Just him. Why. It's not like he needed the help.

Virche Evermore Error Salvation is also a good one if you can handle continuous drama and see egregiously bad science and say, "You know what? It's magic. Humans in this world are just built different." The worldbuilding is really interesting and the characters very enjoyable, though they don't feature a lot in each other's routes or aren't that friendly with each other. The continuous tragedy may tire you out, or maybe it'll work and emotionally destroy you. It didn't get any emotional reaction out of me until a certain point near the end, but I enjoyed the game a lot, nevertheless. We're getting the sequel this November and I'm really looking forward to it.

Variable Barricade: a fun romp where a young heiress has to chose a fiancé among the four disaster bachelors her grandpa has selected. It's not really similar to Ouran, but it reminded me a little of it at times. It's a pretty light game. The BFF is a gothic lolita otaku who has the time of her life shipping you with the guys, and the butler... oh boy the butler.

Amnesia, as I mentioned earlier, has a PC port as well as the Vita version, as well as two localized fandisks for the Switch (Amnesia x Crowd) that I can't speak of because I haven't played them yet. The protagonist has supernatural amnesia and must piece together her life while avoiding that other people realize she's lost her memory. It's a super intriguing game the first time you play, really nailed the being completely and utterly lost in the protagonist's shoes. A required play to get in on the cage jokes. It's sort of a rite of passage for otome gamers.

Jack Jeanne has probably the best group dynamics of any otome I've seen. I think some people have issues with the protagonist because they find her passive, but to me she felt the complete opposite. Everybody is adorable. A sentimental story of hard work, being young and and fighting for your dreams, 10/10, no notes. I lied, there's a note: Tanakamigi deserved a route! Where is our Tanakamigi route! щ(゜ロ゜щ)

Last but not least at all, the two Piofiores. Mafia games where all trigger warnings you can think of apply. Well, maybe not the cannibalism, that's still Café Enchanté's crowning glory. Fated Memories, the first one, has its ups and downs, but has very enjoyable characters, rock-solid worldbuilding, an amazing atmosphere set in 1920s Italy with a jazzy soundtrack that ends up living rent free in your brain. The last routes of the first game, Gil's and Finale, are worth the full price of the game alone. Piofiore Episodio 1926 is a masterpiece of the otome genre. It doesn't have a single boring route, and the final stretch (Advent Calendar-Alternativa-Secret Character route) has the best writing I've seen in an otome. Lots of points of view and situations interconnecting, an excellent final couple, top notch interactions between the main characters. Just the best.

[maitressebrie]

About me

Because no one actually reads a profile:

I am a 33 year-old, bisexual, dominant American woman. Generally speaking, I'm interested in women for sex and men for pain - theirs. I'm on Tumblr for casual online fun...and the porn. Love the porn.

Hobbies/Interests:

I'm a runner and enjoy the occasional 5K/10K. Trying to get into obstacle course racing (Tough Mudder/Spartan) if I ever get my butt in gear.

Reading: I love to read! I enjoy history, classic detective fiction (like Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammet), le Carre spy novels, Albert Camus, Haruki Murakami, Hemingway, and too many others to name.

Yoga/Pilates

Surfing (aspirational at this point)

I've been getting into investing recently, but just casually.

Kinks:

Femdom (duh) - I get off on control...and occasionally your suffering...ok...more than occasionally...

Bimboization - there's nothing better than a soft, dumb, big-titted, fat-booty slut ready to do whatever I tell her. Follow my sideblog (@bimbomenagerie) if you're interested in my taste in women.

Feminization/Sissification - a close second is turning men into soft, obedient, sexy gurls.

Chastity - male or female

Watersports/Bathroom Use Control (giving) - all your bodily functions should belong to me.

Denial/Edging - all my gooners should follow @goonermenagerie. Go ahead and waste your life pump puppies.

Humiliation/Degradation - I know I'm better than you...I just want to drive it home so deep that you can't even escape me in your dreams

SPH - I'll rate your little peepee, but ask politely first. Unsolicited dick pics get you blocked.

ABDL - MDlg preferred.

Hard Limits:

Kids - it's disgusting that I have to even say this. For real - if you're evening thinking about it just go walk yourself down to the police station right now...or into a wood chipper.

Animals - also...fucking ew....

Actual misogyny - I LOVE submissive women, I even love degrading and humiliating them...but that's their choice to make if it makes them happy.

Race play

Sending pics - for any number of reasons this is a non-starter for me.

DMs/Inbox:

I like to chat but my time is not unlimited and I engage based on my interests and availability. Feel free to reach out - for tasks, dick rating, some chat (kinky or not) - but be interesting. Don't just send me a list of your kinks and a picture of your dick...I don't care about either of them. If you reach out I assume you're interested in something in my list, so you should be thinking about how you can satisfy my desires first and foremost.

I'm not here looking for anything IRL. I have other venues for that, so don't even ask.

If you read this far, edge twice for me for being a good little girl or boy - don't even think about cumming of course. And don't forget to say thank you.

[milkteamoon]

She wanted to be a cop.

It’s not something that she goes about broadcasting to anyone now; you don’t tell people that you wanted to be a cop if you don’t end up being a cop. It’s just something that you think is cool as a kid, watching all those crime shows with simple, clear-cut villains, and then you grow up and learn that cops aren’t all that the telly made them out to be because there’s no one putting pen to paper on who the bad guys are, so you keep that bit about childhood ignorance to yourself. It’s not like Alice wants to be a cop now, anyway. It’s just something that she thinks about from time to time — what it’d have been like if she didn’t have a bad back from that childhood injury and had chosen a different path, traded in her baton for a gun. Alice doesn’t think she’d like carrying a gun. Too noisy and too messy, from what people who have actually shot one say, and she’s much happier when things are quiet and uncomplicated.

So: Alice Tonner isn’t a cop, even if she may have wanted to be one a long time ago, and that’s fine by her because her current job has unlimited paid leave and her coworkers aren’t too nosy as to get on her bad side. Most of the time she doesn’t see them at all, being the number one choice for night shifts, but they still invite her out to drink even though she never gets drunk, and she still goes along because she doesn’t have anything better to do. Mostly, she just goes along to see Basira. There’s something about her that just intrigues Alice; every time she goes home for the night, she tells herself she ought to talk to Basira more when they aren’t squeezed in some dingy bar, and then she never does. But she’ll do it next time. She just has to remember.

The point is, Alice isn’t a cop, so the email she gets addressed to “Detective Tonner” stands out like a sore thumb in her inbox, to the point that she almost thinks it’s spam.

She’s not even sure why she opens it instead of deleting it immediately. The address doesn’t offer any sort of identifying features — doesn’t even have a name attached to the handle, just “js” with a string of seemingly random numbers behind it, and c’mon now, Alice isn’t stupid. She did all that pain-in-the-ass phishing training when she got hired, and if this is one of those “exercises” her boss thinks will teach his employees the dangers of technology when all it really does is just royally piss everyone off, then it’s doing a very, very poor job at it.

But it doesn’t seem like that, is the thing. There are no links, no flashing lights. No strange fonts or misspellings or promiscuous language. There’s not even the promise of millions from a nigerian prince if only she’ll send her credit card information — it’s just...a letter. Addressed to one Detective Tonner. Asking if she’s available for work, and offering to pay for her time, and apologizing for wasting it if she isn’t. It’s not like Alice isn’t a stranger to freelance work, dealing security at some rich tosser’s birthday party or standing outside a concert for six hours just to make sure no one decides to climb the fence. Simple work. Straightforward. Most of the time, the job is easy and the pay is good. Most of the time, she takes the check without asking questions.

This doesn’t feel like most of the time.

...She really should delete it.

So instead, she goes to her fridge, grabs a beer, and then replies, asking where to meet.

Funnily enough, the mysterious stranger decides on a bar.

It’s a bar that Alice knows even. Sorta. The owner, Calvin Benchley, is a boy she went to school with, though she doesn’t think he’d remember her all those years later. Probably for the best, if she’s being honest with herself. Always was a bit of an arsehole.

There’s only a handful of people inside when she arrives  — easy enough to pick through, if needed  — though the stranger she’s looking for zeros in on her immediately. In fact, she’d reckon that she frightened him, the way he’d jumped up when he’d seen her. Looked just like he’d seen a ghost as he looked her over from head to toe, then shuffled out from the booth he’d been seated at. Meandered over with his hands close to his chest. Looked up at her with these big, wide eyes that look more like a sad animal’s than a man’s, and hell, Alice almost feels bad about the way she towers over him. Like he didn’t even get a chance, as scrawny as he is.

“D— er, Miss Tonner?”

“That’s me,” Alice tells him, “though Alice is just fine.”

The man nods, wrings his hands together, then sticks one out in a belated sense of politeness. “J-Jonathan. Jon. Uh, Sims. Just Jon is fine.”

“Pleasure to meet you, ‘just Jon,’” she says wryly as she takes his hand. The texture of his palm is strange, she notices, and glancing down she can see that it’s scarred over. Huh.

The nervous energy flitting around him eases slightly at this, and he even manages the smallest of smiles beneath all that painted-on worry. “Right,” he says softly, then clears his throat, and repeats louder, “Right. Shall we sit down then?”

Alice shrugs, but doesn’t argue as he leads her back to the booth.

The thing is, once she settles in and gets a proper look at her date, Alice realizes he’s nothing like she had expected him to be. Something about the bar being in Chelsea had her picturing an old bastard in a stuffy sweater vest and dress pants — in truth, Jon’s wearing jeans and draped in a jumper about two sizes too big for him that can’t possibly be his own. His hair is long and braided, looking as if it took the brunt of the morning’s humidity, and while the hand had been the first abnormality to notice, she now can see that his skin is peppered in small, circular pockmarks, spread in clusters all over. Not like acne, exactly, more like cigarette burns. They don’t fit him at all, she thinks to herself.

“Would you like a drink?” he finally asks once he’s squirmed enough under her scrutiny.

Alice half shrugs, half nods. It’s only noon, but she doesn’t have to work until nine. “Sure. Get me—”

Jon’s already risen and wandered over to the bar before she can finish, and a moment later he returns with a beer for her and a glass of water for himself. The strange thing is, it’s the brand she typically drinks anyway. The even stranger thing is, Jon doesn’t seem to find this strange at all.

“...Right,” Alice says as she takes it from him. The lid pops off with barely a flick of her thumb. “So then. Business.”

“Business,” he echoes.

“What kind of gig are we looking at then? Office party? Concert? I don’t really like dealing with things that are too private, so—”

"What?" Jon cuts her off, brow furrowed in genuine confusion. "It's— I didn't contact you about a security job."

That makes Alice pause. She stares down the neck of her bottle at him, trying hard to parse his tone. If he’s cracking a joke. Jon doesn’t look like the type of guy to make jokes, if she’s being realistic, but if not a security job, then what? Something that requires knowledge of one? "...No?"

"No," he says agreeably. And then he takes a long sip of his water and says, "I lost someone recently."

“Oh,” Alice replies. She doesn’t know quite what to say to that, but the sense of finality is so palpable that all she can think to respond with is, “Sorry.”

"O-oh, no he isn't— ah. Well, thank you," Jon ends up settling on, smiling at her in a way that feels as if he's the one consoling her. “I um. See, the reason I contact you is...I’d like your help in finding him.”

Alice blinks. That is...not what she’d been expecting. Slowly, as if the moment might crack like an egg at any misstep, she asks, “Find...him?”

“Um. Yes.”

“You...do realize I work security, right?”

Jon flushes. “W-well, yes, I know, I’ve seen your work history — um, very impressive, by the way — I just thought...”

“You’ve seen my work history?” Alice asks, face neutral. She sets down her bottle as softly as possible. “Where?”

“It...was on your employer’s website.”

“And I take it that’s where you found my email?”

“...Y-yes.”

Liar, Alice thinks, and a poor one at that. She knows her personal email isn’t listed anywhere online, and that’d been the one that he contacted her with. Enough of a lead to snag him with, surely. but she sets aside as she presses on.

“So this,” she begins slowly, folding her hands in front of her, “‘person,’ you’re looking for—”

“Martin,” Jon supplies. “Martin Blackwood.”

“He’s...what to you? Friend? Family?”

Jon’s mouth twitches into a mournful sort of smile. “My partner.”

“Hm.” She nods. “Lover’s quarrel drove him off?”

Jon laughs a little, and Alice catches another scar in the light, just across his neck as his adam’s apple bobs. Deeper than the rest, she reckons by the color. Cleaner too. Like it was intentional. “If only it were that simple.”

“So why not go to the police?” she asks, genuinely, “or hell, even a P.I. Seems like you have a case for a missing person.”

Jon swallows visibly, shifting in his seat. “Ah—” he starts, “we, er, w-we were sort of living off grid...”

“Huh. Legal troubles?”

“Not...not quite legal.”

“You don’t so sure.”

Jon snorts at this. “I’m not sure of much of anything around here, to be honest,” he explains. “I-I mean I know he’s...he’s here, somewhere— i-in the U.K., at least, but it’s...difficult to see clearly here. Suppose it’s to be expected...”

Alice glances up at the tacky light fixture overhead, a horrid myriad of colored glass that was probably the cheapest in the catalogue. She isn’t exactly sure what he means by that; it seems bright enough for her, anyway. Passively, she chooses to ignore the comment.

“So you lose your boyfriend, you can’t go to the police, so you hire...a security guard to find him?” Alice muses, not maliciously, just trying to put things together. Trying to find the line of thought in a seemingly random string of actions.

Jon winces, grimacing as he sinks back into the booth’s fake leather. “Well, I guess it does sound pretty terrible when you put it like that.”

That barks a laugh out of her. She’s not exactly sure why. In the half hour she’s known him, Alice can say that Jon Sims is definitely one of the shadier men she’s met in her line of work — and she’s met plenty of corporate arseholes who spend their breaks doing coke in the company bathrooms — but there’s something about him that she finds awfully...genuine? Candid, she supposes. Endearing, even. Maybe it’s just part of getting old. Maybe she’s just going soft.

Alice takes a sip of her beer, then nods to his folded hands. “What happened to your hand?”

“What?” he asks, brow furrowing before following her gaze down to the spider-webbing scar that wraps around his palm. “Oh. The scar?”

“Yeah.”

“It...um, a wax burn.”

“And...” she gestures to the side of her face in a mirror of where the little circles are heavily clustered on his own, “this?”

He looks at her sheepishly. “Uh...worms?”

“Wh— worms?” she repeats, the bafflement bleeding past her composure into her tone.

“Lots of worms,” Jon agrees, and she gets the feeling that she’s not going to get much more of an answer than that.

“...Right,” she says, swirls her drink, and then— “What about your neck?”

That seems to be where she finally finds the nerve.

Because as soon as she asks, Jon winces, hand reaching up to the line across his throat. Covering it, possibly, as if he doesn’t want her to see. Protecting it, maybe, like she’s going to cut it back open. He opens his mouth slowly, then closes it. Opens it again as he fishes for words. There’s a line there, Alice recognizes, that she’s in danger of stepping over — maybe she should pull back. 

She doesn’t want to pull back.

“...Pocket knife,” he finally says, barely above a whisper.

It’s not really an answer, if she’s being honest with herself. Alice decides against pressing further.

Instead, she looks to her bottle and swirls it around. She takes in the sounds of the bar around her — the soft chatter between bartender and patron across the room, the low television hum, the fan ticking above. Jon breathes in, and breathes out. And then he doesn’t breathe anymore. She counts in her head, just how long he holds it, until she loses count and has to start again.

“You know,” she starts slowly, finding his gaze on her hands, “I’m not a detective.”

Jon frowns like she’s saying something trivial. “I know.”

“Or much of a hunter, really.”

“I...yes, I know.”

“Sims,” she begins. That draws his full attention. Good. She can see his eyes better, like this. They’re brown with just the faintest hint of green around the rim, in a way that reminds her of colored contacts; though, something tells her that isn’t the case. “I don’t think I’m the man for your job.”

He’s already small, seated with his shoulders hunched in over him, but she can still see him deflate at the statement. The disappointment as it flickers across his face. The way his mouth twitches and quivers as he swallows, painfully, and he nods before moving to stand, to get away from his discomfort. “R-right. Right. I’m sorry, I don’t know why— I’m wasting your time, I’m very sorry. I’ll—”

“Sit—” Alice snags his arm, giving him a yank back into the booth, “down.”

Jon sits without another word. She’ll give him credit — at least he’s obedient.

Alice downs the rest of her bottle, watching him closely. 

Here’s the thing: despite his timid voice, his skittish nature, his eyes that never seem to quite meet her own, Alice Tonner knows without a doubt is that Jonathan Sims is not prey. That much is obvious. Call it intuition. Alice knows the type and she know how to deal with them, and she could easily put the strange little man sitting adjacent from her in his place with one quick motion, if she cared to.

She isn’t going to, though.

Because the fact that he’s out here asking someone else to hunt for him? Now, that’s the part that she finds interesting. That’s the part she desperately wants to learn more about. She is going to learn more about it, one way or another.

“I think,” she begins, leaning onto her crossed forearms, “that I’m going to give you two options. The first is that you can get up and leave. Get out of my sight, and never contact me again.”

Jon flinches at this. He chews his chapped lip. “...and the second?”

Alice feels a smile tugging at her lips. “The second is that you tell me your story, and I sit here and listen. And then once I say you’re finished, I’ll tell you what I think.”

That gives him pause, clearly taken aback.

“...Everything?” he asks softly after a long moment of thought. She can see the gears in his head spinning. She so desperately wants to stick her fingers in between them.

“From the very beginning,” she answers.

Jon heaves a breath, like he’s just remembering how to, and nods. “Right,” he agrees quietly, to himself, “from the very beginning.”

Alice watches as he picks up his glass, takes a long drink, and then proceeds to tell her everything.

[rabbiaharon]

As we stand, within the 10 days of repentance, from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, it is fitting to stress the importance of tefillah (prayer) and its role within Judaism. While there is some dispute among poskim whether or not tefillah is a scriptural command, or whether it is rabbinic, there is an agreement that the obligation to pray every day, as well as the current text of the siddur is rabbinic. However, the actual obligation to communicate with Hashem, to praise him, and to ask for one’s needs is scriptural. Thus, while the rabbinic obligation is fixed and limited, the overall idea of tefillah is unlimited, as a person has an opportunity every minute to connect with the divine. One can delve much deeper into this by learning “Shoresh Mitzvas HaTefillah” (The Root of the Commandment to Pray) in Derech Mitzvosecha (Path of Your Commandments) by the Tzemach Tzedek (the third Rebbe of Chabad). We also believe that there is no need for “intermediaries” which stand between a person and G-d, contrary to what is often believed by adherents to other religions referred to by scholars as “abrahamic”.

The idea that a direct connection is available to the Ribono Shel Olam (Master of the World) is a fundamental belief of judaism. While there are many examples of the idea of “intermediaries” having its own place in our faith, such as one midrashic interpretation of the angels ascending and descending upon the ladder in Yaakov Avinu’s dream, we believe that a person need not rely on this natural procedure, but can simply reconnect their soul to its source and pass a signal directly. The ease of this is, of course, affected by a person’s intentions when coming to pray, as well as their location and the time of day or time of year. There are places and times when tefillos are more likely to be accepted, such as at the gravesites of the righteous, praying with a quorum of 10 jewish men (a minyan), or at the Temple in Jerusalem. Likewise, there are times, such as right after halachic midnight on every night of the year, as well as during the 10 days of repentance - and especially Yom Kippur (and on Yom Kippur, especially at the time of Neilah, by the end of the day, just before sunset), and praying at the same time that the local community is praying. At these times and in these places, it’s easier to cross the wires, so to speak, and connect your neshama directly to the high voltage current coming down from above, at least long enough to send a signal up the line. This isn’t only spoken about in chassidic discourses and kabbalah, but also in nigleh in dozens of locations (The revealed aspects of the Torah) For example, in Masecta Berachos 7b, the talmud describes a situation where one cannot make it to the shul. The gemara states that ideally the individual should gather a minyan to daven at their house, and if they are unable to do so, at least they should daven at the same time as the community does. The gemara then continues on 8a “מאי דכתיב ״ואני תפלתי לך ה׳ עת רצון״. אימתי עת רצון — בשעה שהצבור מתפללין” - “‘May my prayers to you be at an auspicious time.’ What is considered an auspicious time? The time that the community is praying.”

At all times, and especially those, one can pray in their own words, in a translation to whatever language they understand, or they can use a traditional text (nusach), and they will fulfill their scriptural obligation to connect with the Ribono Shel Olam. That said, there is a powerful advantage to praying using a real nusach- based on whatever your family custom or personal custom is (whether sefard, ashkenaz, mizrachi, chassidic, or the like). Even when praying at an auspicious time and place, one’s prayers can be compared to a trip through the forest at night. To follow the paved path - a traditional nusach - will guarantee your safe arrival home (i.e. connecting with your soul’s source), because even with no light (i.e. no understanding of the Hebrew you are reading), one’s feet can tell the difference between a paved road and untamed brush. By making up the words to your own prayers (trying to cut your own path through the forest in the dark), or using words someone else recently decided to come up with (following a slightly cut unpaved worn area), or using abridged versions (trying to follow a broken and fragmented paved road - all in the dark, should you not understand your words) of the nusach, one complicates the procedure, making it more difficult (although of course not impossible) to connect to the level you want to reach.

With all the challenges we face these days, and what we’ve experienced over the last year, we should all be careful with the mitzvah of tefillah, to each at their own level. And may our prayers be at an auspicious time! May they be received before the Ribono Shel Olam like the cries of children for their father, for revealed good in every part of our lives. In the merit of this, Hashem should fulfill for us the posuk (verse) “And I will bring them to my holy mountain, and rejoice with them in my House of Prayer, their offerings received with delight upon my altar, as my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”

Gmar Chasima Tova.

–

Rabbi Aharon

[azure-cherie]

Paid services [closed]

Hi lovelies i would like to introduce you to my paid services section, I am an intuitive reader+ a tarot reader , i also have been learning vedic astrology+ persona charts and asteroids , my main aim to introduce this service is to save for my future , along with helping anyone who is in need . I will keep the service open for times when I'm available energetically and not caught up in my life.

Please note that I only use Google Pay :) for now

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Tarot + intuition

Each of the readings will be supplied to your email id through pdf format .

One card reading - INR 150 , $1.82

Two cards reading - INR 170 , $ 2.07

Free mood boards for lifestyle and essence for each reading below :

Frequency check :

A brief overview of your current energies, your frequency. INR 250 , $ 3.04 ( includes the colour of your aura, your current frequency waves in hz )

Amaranth :

•Your essence

•your effect on others

• what are your best qualities when it comes to endeavours of love and charming others .

INR 1300 , $15.61 , individual questions for INR 500 , $6.08

Godmothers brim :

•Messages from your ancestors

•advice on any topic you want from them

• How can you connect to them and honour them

INR 1300 , $15.61 , individual for INR 500 , $6.08

Snowflake rendition:

What is holding you back in love , what should you do about it

INR 900 , $ 10.94

Your calls :

• your hidden talents

• what should you work on

• what can you make a career out of

INR 1300 , $15.61 , individual for INR 500 , $6.08

Dreamscape

What do your dreams want to convey ? INR 500 , $6.08

Your months : for aug , sep , oct , nov , dec

Get a monthly subscription for readings in each month generally in the 1st , in case of inevitable delays , get it by the first week. Includes advice , events and lessons .

INR 2000 , $24.30 for ; individual month reading , INR 500 , $6.08

You a baddie ?( Mini readings)

• what kind of a seducer you are ? INR 150 , $1.82

• what energy suits you best ?INR 150 , $1.82

Clarify me

• clarity on a situation.

•What is the other person thinking of me

• how to correct the damage

• Will the actions lead to good outcomes

• is this person good for me

• their true intentions towards me

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Extras

For deity related and NSFW related questions please dm pricing will be according .

Specials

Any question of your choice INR 600 , $ 7.29

Unlimited questions for a month INR 4000 , $48.61

starts from 1st of aug , can be asked anytime during the month , I will answer within a day

Astrology

Astrology readings will take time usually a week for smaller ones and 2 weeks for the detailed ones

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Interpretation of an individual asteroid placements , upto 5 asteroids together (tell me before hand I will answer if I know about the asteroids ) INR 300 , $ 3.65

Interpretation of a persona chart (tropical) - INR 500 , $ 6.08

Fashion preferences ( detailed report on your best colours, fabrics , hair , jewellery etc ) - INR 1500 ,$ 18.23, detailed with pics and links ,

Who will you marry , based on d1 and d9 charts - their looks , traits , possible meeting places.INR 900 , $ 10.94

Full vedic d1 chart interpretation ( this will be very detailed containing placements, effects , remedies) INR 3000 , $ 36.45 , for non detailed small interpretation, INR 1500 , $ 18.23

Finance and career reading based on your vedic chart - INR 900 , $ 10.94

Dm for special requests , I'll answer accordingly.

Subliminal

Subliminal on a topic of your choice INR 900 , $10.94 for detailed , INR 50O $6.08 for simple affirmations. For subliminals , buy 1 get 1 free for the first 5 people who book .

Stuff to know :

You can get a first time discount if you have been an old supporter of my initial days .

You can get a discount if you buy 2 detailed readings together.

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Financial issues , dm I'll reduce the price if i find you authentic

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