#this was 2.35 when i was growing up | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

curiousherbal · 5 years ago

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Growing P̶e̶r̶i̶o̶d̶ Pains

Mystic Messenger

*Also read Growing P̶e̶r̶i̶o̶d̶ Pains on ao3*

707 / Luciel / Saeyoung Choi x Reader ; 707 / Luciel / Saeyoung Choi x MC

Fluff & Angst (borderline crack; also dash of h/c)

5.9 k

Rated: T ; TW: Blood

Summary: In all fairness, you had meant to clean up the blood before Seven got home.

*reposting this story in case ppl on tumblr would rather read it here :) ; be wary of Seven route spoilers*

In all fairness, you had meant to clean up the blood before Seven got home.

But it had been a rather tiring day; a tiring, exhausting, not-so-very-comfortable, bloody day. Oh, how the day had been bloody.

It was also only 2 pm.

But you were on your period, so you were allowed to announce the day as ended before it had even begun. Right?

Usually your monthly flows were relatively well-contained, provided you were provided for of course – that is with “all-night” pads (false – they lasted 3-5 hours max on your heaviest days) and supersized tampons (you rolled your eyes at the arbitrary naming of tampon sizes – I mean what’s so “super” about recreating The Shining every day for a week once a month anyway?).

The silver lining in the sea of red was that, as an adult, you were now fairly adept with dealing with Mother Nature’s gifts, a feat that only took many soiled pants, innumerable ruined bedsheets, and the adolescent trauma of tied sweaters around your hips – to accomplish.

You made a mental note to talk about that last one with your therapist next week…

“Ugh,” you let out a groan as you blearily blinked your eyes open. The sunlight streamed through the window blinds in the bedroom that you and Saeyoung shared.

Well, if he were here.

“Disgusting.” You muttered as you yawned and started to disentangle your sticky legs from the sheets.

Your hacker boyfriend had gotten called away late last night, err – more like early morning. Very early morning, you mentally amended with a displeased grunt. He left in a hurry, promising a quick return as he lobbed this and that into a scuffed duffle bag.

“I’ll be back for dinner, my sweetie!” He ruffled your hair and kissed the corner of your upturned mouth, bouncing on the balls of his feet like it wasn’t 1:46 AM. And like he wasn’t about to leave his sleepy girlfriend alone for the night.

“Really?”

“Why – would the Great 707 ever lie to his darling kitty?” Seven grasped at his chest, a look of mock hurt exaggerated across his naturally goofy features.

Resisting a grin at his silly antics, you made him promise to return safely. And by dinnertime, nonetheless. “I’m going to want ice cream tomorrow evening.” You stated drily with a slight twitch of your eyebrow.

“Ice cream?” Seven had a subtly puzzled expression, which he rapidly exchanged for his charming grin, “Of course! My princess requests!” And with that – a kiss on your hand, and a pat on the head to the robotic cat standing guard at the flat’s entrance – the secret agent had disappeared into the night, the last sign of his leave being that of the revved engine from one of his prized sports cars.

In retrospect, maybe you should have been more explicit when hinting that you were going to be on your period.

But you were on your period, and he was a 20 something year old man, and once again, you were allowed to be however you damn pleased, and he should know that you were about to have that time of the month again. Right? Right.

“FUCK.” You dropped your forearm dramatically across your forehead. “Really? Are we really doing this right now?” You picked up the habit of talking to yourself when Seven was away.

“Fine – guess so…” With a sigh of resignation, you braced yourself for the physical exertion required of one to get out of bed.

Your insides churned a bit; it was the tell-tale feeling that only accompanied that of your body prepared to spew blood the second gravity went against your favour. You felt it. You knew it was going to happen; you just didn’t expect for your period to get so heavy so fast, and only overnight too.

“Well there’s nothing for it, Meowy – we’re just gonna have to make a run for it…” You cocked your head to the side, narrowing your eyes at the feline robot that was now preventing the unassuming Roomba from dutifully trying to gain entrance to your bedroom. “On second thought – maybe I should attempt the Tooty-Ta instead.” You laughed grimly to yourself. I’ll have to show Seven that ridiculous dance when he gets home. Lord knows he’d love it.

Gritting your teeth, you peeled back the sheets and carefully swung your legs over the edge of the bed. Your knees knocked as you clenched your thighs together. A bead of sweat rolled down your temple. “Great, heat flashes too? I’m not that old yet, damn.”

“Mrrrrr?” Meowy rolled over to your side, stiffly upturning her neck to regard you curiously, her programming having sensed that you were in distress.

Taking a deep breath, you braced your clammy palms on either side of your hips and gradually began to rise.

Gravity is an incredible thing. An incredibly, predictable, annoying, but necessary force of nature – much to the chagrin of the uterine force of nature you delicately clutched between your legs at present.

One wobbly step. Two. You rounded the bed post and began to reach for the door frame. So far, so good. Encouraged, you picked up the pace. Maybe I overestimated the amount of blood? You smirked confidently and entered the hallway. The bathroom was at the end of the hall, adjacent to the kitchen. Alright – let’s get this bread. You began your penguin-shuffle down the hardwood hall, leaning against the smooth, eggshell finished walls as you attempted to maintain the delicate balance required of your makeshift dance. Ten steps. Eleven. You reached out for the bathroom door, expecting to latch onto the glass doorknob when –

“Agh!!” You tripped over the Roomba.

The blood gurgled and began to plummet (as liquids, and pretty much anything and everything else, are wont to do) now freed from the desperate clenching of your thighs.

With a cry of despair, you clutched at your abdomen as you felt the large swash of bodily fluids exit your aching genitals, seep through your thoroughly ruined panties – Nooo, these are the cute ones with cats on them that Seven got me! – and splat quite dramatically onto the floor.

If it weren’t for the ruined underwear, the upturned Roomba, and the general resignation of being on one’s period – you would have been rather impressed at the size of the splatter that now decorated your floor in a lovely, concentric pattern.

“This…. Has never happened before.”

And it hadn’t. Usually, your periods started in the evening, not the morning. Usually, they were the heaviest on the second day, not the first. And usually, they weren’t of such a viscous consistency and atrocious metric volume that they glitched right out of your body, through your clothes, and landed in a terrific mess on the floor.

“It’s the Honey Buddha Chips; it must be!” You let out a wail of disgust, blaming the sweet and salty junk food as the reason behind your abnormal flow. “Saeyoung Choi, you WILL be paying for my ice cream tonight!”

You failed to realize that ice cream was also categorized as junk food too.

With nothing left to lose, blood still dribbling down your legs, you pivoted on your feet and marched back to your bedroom. Fine. It’s gonna be that kinda day, huh? You angrily snatched a clean change of clothes from your dresser – this time with your designated Period Panties™ – and made your way back down the hall towards the bathroom. A nice, cold shower will do just fine. You tried to convince yourself it was to counteract the annoying heat flashes you had seemingly picked up as a symptom of your menstrual distress, and not to cool the hot, balmy tears of frustration that now streaked your flushed face.

And if it weren’t for the ruined underwear, the upturned Roomba, and the general resignation of being on one’s period – then maybe you would have noticed how your toes and heels squelched as they made contact with the glob of period blood still lying inanimately on your floor.

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

Meowy was stressed.

Well, as stressed as her CPU could be, the mini gears and sensors running vapidly in her plastic and metal cat-shaped vessel.

Her auditory sensors reached warning threshold when her master’s precious one made loud noises of displeasure. Her visual sensors were already busy fighting off that dratted antagonist-of-a-cleaning-robot from earlier. And now her thermal sensors picked up the trace of something biological splatted on the ground. Something biological… and warm. Meowy saw red. But unfortunately, the cat robot couldn’t appreciate the literal nor figurative accuracy of that statement. She just knew she was stressed, even if her insentience didn’t quite allow her to know why, and even if that stress was purely mechanical, rather than emotional.

Master could purrrrobably add that feature in a future update, she surmised. Well, if robots could surmise, that is.

You were being quite a bother. And by bother, well, you were the source of your boyfriend’s cat robot’s overstimulation.

Upon showering, you exited the bathroom in a cloud of steam and clean clothes, fit with a cushy pad to catch the rest of your ebbing flow. Your bloody night clothes littered the cool tiles of the bathroom floor, and the goopy glob of period blood still sat, just as liquids are wont to do, inanimately in the same place as before (albeit, perhaps sporting a rustier hue as oxidation took effect).

It’s nice to be clean, you had thought, though the here-and-there prick of abdominal cramps and sporadic dizzy spells are nothing to long for. You had figured that some food and a glass of water would at least help the latter ailment, so you had proceeded to attempt to make yourself a late, light lunch.

Meowy frantically circled the small kitchen, letting out her programmed mews of concern every 2.35 seconds. During her 3rd or 4th worried lap, she ran right into your left foot, which you were precariously balancing on by habit.

For the second time that day, you yelped out an elegant “agh!” and dropped the knife you had been using to spread your favourite strawberry jam on the toast that you were planning to eat. The red-rimmed knife fell to the floor with a cacophonous clatter. Forgotten.

“Meowy!” You snarled as you towered over the cowering robocat.

Instantly, your rage dissipated to remorse as you felt empathy for the poor creature. Unpleasant images of Seven smashing the cat in a fit of similar rage accosted your brain, and with it, the tremulous and turbulent emotions from that past event too.

“I’m so sorry!” Your despondence flared suddenly and tears formed in the corners of your eyes. Mortified at how you treated your emotional support robot cat, you fled the kitchen in a teary haste. You tore down the hallway, intending to crash back into bed until Saeyoung came back home to make amends with Meowy and yourself –

Only to trip over the Roomba again.

“Oof!” Your knees crashed to the floor abruptly, your palms quickly reaching out to catch yourself from falling face first –

Only for them to slide out from under you after making contact with the slick pool of blood and period gunk that you neglected to clean up earlier.

And for the third time that day, you let out a final “AGH!”

SMACK!

Your face rammed into the ground, the bridge of your nose catching the pool of blood on your way down. Resigned, you didn’t move a muscle for five minutes, wallowing in your despair for yelling at Meowy, a lovely hybrid of self-loathing and disgust for not cleaning up the blood, and lonesomeness that ached every time Seven left on an indeterminable, clandestine trip.

Utterly wretched and still just as exhausted as when you had woken up approximately… you glanced at the clock at the end of the hall… 5 PM already??? … three hours ago, you cautiously raised yourself back to your knees. Tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, you sighed dejectedly and stood the rest of the way up.

Trudging solemnly back to your bedroom, you froze as you looked at the state of your sheets.

“Are you kidding me?!”

The sheets were rumpled from your hasty wake-up from earlier in the day, yet that wasn’t what caught your eye. No – your eyes lamentably traced the spotting and pools of long-dried blood that stained the center spread of sheets in the dip where you had slept. I must have leaked before I woke up, and I didn’t even notice.

Dehydrated, fatigued, and entirely resigned to end the day, you turned around and walked the short distance across the hall into the guest bedroom that Saeyoung most often used as an office space for work. (Less often, his twin Saeran would camp out in the small room, though recently he refrained from spending the night, too afraid that he’d become further traumatized by the excitable noises that tended to emit from his brother’s room late at night.)

You didn’t care that there was still blood trekked all over your apartment. You didn’t care that you were now just as soiled as before you had showered. You didn’t care that Meowy was short-circuiting in worry. You didn’t care that Seven had yet to return. You didn’t care. All you wanted to do was crash and wake up from this nightmare of a day.

Just a quick power nap, and then I’ll clean it up before Saeyoung gets home.

So, you curled up on the couch beside Seven’s work desk and cocooned yourself in a large comforter. With your back to the room, you entered fetal position and drifted off to sleep almost instantly, the crown of your head just barely visible from between the cushions.

And if Meowy was yowling as if possessed, well, you were too exhausted to notice.

Not that robot cats could be possessed, of course.

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

Fresh-faced and lively – Saeyoung was ecstatic.

The agency work turned out to be nothing more than a casual revenge-driven hacking: a harmless ploy orchestrated by a disgruntled employee trying to find some scrap of solace by antagonizing their rich, snobby boss’ computer system. Yes, it had been unfortunate that the job was sudden and required on-location skills, and yes, Saeyoung was rather reluctant to leave his adorably cute girlfriend alone for the night… but the goodhearted jokester couldn’t help but crack a smile as fond memories from just hours earlier accosted his mind…

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

“Mrr?” Elizabeth the 3rd let out a perplexed mew as the penthouse front door opened silently.

Seven creeped in, a finger brought to his lips as his eyes widened upon seeing Jumin’s cat. “Elly!” He immediately clasped his hand over his mouth, embarrassed that he let his excitement upon seeing the pure white Persian cat be audible.

“My darling! Uncle Luciel has come for you~~” He playfully whispered as he set his bag down and crouched beside the spoiled feline.

Elizabeth sauntered up to the intruder, presenting her lushly furred back for caresses.

“Don’t tell Mr. CEO, but I’m working here tonight. I need to access his Wi-Fi network directly.” Seven ran his fingers up and down the cat’s back, encouraged by her accelerated purring. “Don’t worry, ‘tis nothing nasty my friend – he’ll just be forced to do all of his work by hand tomorrow. I think his computer deserves a bit of break, no?” With a conniving twinkle in his eye, Seven began unpacking his equipment, settling cross-legged with his computer on his lap and Elizabeth sprawled out at his side, butting her head against his thighs periodically as his hands flew rapidly over his keyboard.

A large snore startled the mischievous hacker.

“Pshhsh!” Agent 707 brought up a hand to conceal his mirth, desperately trying to muffle the delirious laughter that threatened to escape his throat. Elizabeth glared at him, displeased that the large hand had ceased massaging her backside.

“I’m sorry, my kitty-love, I just didn’t expect Jumin to sleep so soundly!” Seven cooed lovingly.

Within the next few hours, Saeyoung finished up his early-morning hacking endeavors as instructed and deftly returned his equipment back to his bag without making a sound. He stood up and adorned a wistful expression, sad to be leaving his Elly all too soon.

“Meow~”

“Oh, my dear – we mustn’t!” Seven scooped up the cat and swung her around, crushing her flat face against his sharp nose. “You know not the extent that this sweet parting brings me pain, but alas, our love is forbidden!”

“Mrrrrr…”

Seven gently placed the cat back down. She immediately began grooming her mused fur, unimpressed with Seven’s soliloquy.

“Always the lady.” Saeyoung bowed reverently, a hand on the door to leave. “Wait!” Digging excitedly in his duffle, the young man pulled out a thin, red, satin ribbon. A small pawprint locket charm clinked on the ribbon.

Gently fondling the jewelry, Seven clicked open the locket and gazed adoringly at the image within. “Ah, it’s perfect. A representation of our love, my Elly!” With one final glance, Seven clicked the locket shut and bent down to tie the ribbon loosely around Elizabeth’s neck, covering up the collar Jumin had gifted to her prior.

Elizabeth, none the wiser, mewled an unbothered farewell as Saeyoung patted her once more affectionately and made his departure with a cheeky air-blown kiss.

The hacker disappeared from the CEO’s penthouse, slipped past the guards once more, and vanished into the early morning – having one or two more things left to accomplish for the agency before he could return home.

What those tasks were? Well, perhaps it’s best that only special Agent 707 would ever know for sure.

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

This will pay the bills all for next month! Saeyoung thought with a grin, drawn back to the present as he lovingly slid his palm over the curve of the leather steering wheel. Plus, maybe this will teach Jumin not to overwork his minions. The young hacker smirked. He could already sense Jaehee’s displeasure when she would find out that RFA’s very own security hacked her boss for entertainment. And a bit of cash.

Seven wound his way through the hilly countryside, enjoying the dip and curve of the roads. He glanced at the car’s clock: 5:36 PM.

It was approaching dusk, and he was eager to return home. He moved his free hand over to his baby car’s console and pressed down on the window switch.

“Yahoo!” Seven stuck his head out of the window and let the wind ruffle his untamable ginger hair. His striped glasses pushed comfortingly against the bridge of his nose, as the golden hues of the setting sun reflected in his mutually golden irises.

A sudden pang of yearning overtook the young man, thinking about his princess at home. Though it happened without fault every evening, Saeyoung couldn’t help but feel anxious about missing the sunset. He wanted to watch every sunset with you; this would be the first one that you both had missed since you started living together.

A reversed flick of the window toggle and a harder stomp on the gas pedal later, Saeyoung sped back home with renewed urgency. We can catch the tail end of the evening together if I hurry.

Unbeknownst to him, the red, rosy fingers of sunlight that stretched linearly across the horizon were complementary towards the organic drops of red that currently decorated your shared home.

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

It was a quarter past 6 when the door to your shared apartment finally received its missing tenant. The last of the sundry locks popped open, the metal restraints finally allowing the port of entrance to swing on its hinges.

“Honeyyyyyyy~ I’m hooOOOMMMEEE!” Saeyoung sang loudly as he shouldered his way through the frame. Closing the door behind him, the totally-averagely-paranoid hacker wasted no time in redoing all of the locks. Turning around with a relieved exhale, Seven carelessly dropped his duffle on the floor and toed off his shoes impatiently.

No less than two steps deeper into the flat, Saeyoung was just starting to acquire a sense of strange foreboding when a white blur came barreling around the corner of the hallway –

“Master! Master! Your precious one!” Meowy, hysterically wheeling herself towards her creator, belted as loudly as her speakers permitted.

“What the hell?” Startled, Seven eyed his rambunctious robot, unable to fathom what in the world could trigger his creation to act so frenzied.

“Master! Your precious one! Blood! Bleeding! Help!” Meowy shrieked, her pitch increasing steadily and becoming disconcertingly garbled, her processors unable to cope with the sensory overload.

Saeyoung froze.

Time stopped.

Her… blood?

…

BLEEDING?!

“What?! Where? Meowy what happened?!” Seven pushed past the yowling cat, crying your name as he further entered the apartment.

Seven frantically rounded the corner, his panic only increasing with every second that you neglected to greet him at the door. You always greet me when I come home! Where are you!?! He shouted your name a second time, his heart hammering in his chest, muscles constricting painfully as his mind began to whirr with confusion and pain. You can’t be taken… not again… We just got this together... us.

“Honey?? This isn’t funny!” Saeyoung quickly glanced to his left as he passed the kitchen.

He froze.

There. On the ground.

A knife.

It’s red.

Clumps of something that was equally red and sticky looking surrounded the knife. The knife that should not be laying carelessly on the floor. The knife that very obviously fell on the ground in a struggle and was currently tainted red.

His airway felt constricted. His sense of hearing muffled, despite Meowy still shrieking incoherently at his feet.

As if in his own personal horror movie, Saeyoung pivoted his head to his right, now looking in to the bathroom. Terrified eyes locked onto small, red footprints that graced the floor. They traveled from the hallway onto the cold tiles. He assessed the criminal scene with widening eyes: blood stained clothes were thrown haphazardly before the shower. Your nightclothes. Your nightclothes that you had definitely been wearing. His own t-shirt that you so adorably asked to wear at night, citing that it smelled just like him. The large shirt that he gave you in mock exasperation, secretly fawning over your cuteness when you slid it on.

Look Seven, it’s like a dress on me!

With another frantic gasp, Saeyoung wailed your name brokenly. Once again compelled to action, he tore his gaze from the bathroom and began to sprint anxiously down the adjacent hallway. He needed to find you. Now. It was dark. The air was stale. His nose twitched in distaste as he sensed the twinge of iron that faintly permeated the hall before him. It felt like there had been little movement in your apartment today. He fumbled for the light switch on the wall. His trembling fingers just missed it. His body was already surging forward, so he continued his aching search into the hall blindly, his feet shuffling against each other lamely –

Why is there blood why why why this can’t be happening

Saeran and I… we got rid of Mint Eye, we survived, we did we DID!

but what if they came back

Why did they take her clothes off??

unless…

Seven’s stomach sank nauseously.

what if they took her what if – no no no nononono NO!

There was a sign of a struggle; she’s bleeding, she’s hurt!

She’s …. Dying.

…

NO please God no–!

Saeyoung suddenly tripped over something heavy. He crashed to the ground, blinking away the tears in his eyes despite not being able to see anything in the dark.

His scuffed palms instinctively reached out to catch him. Angry at his own clumsiness, he fumbled for his phone in his back pocket, swiping up to access his flashlight.

“AGH!” He sprang back in a shocked stupor.

A worryingly large pool of dried blood stood out conspicuously where he had just fell. Darker red, nearly black, glossy clumps of something sat atop the dried blood, having congealed to the consistency of rancid jelly.

Without turning back to see what he had tripped on, Seven screamed your name in utter despair, propelling himself upwards as he desperately searched the last two places you could be. Not wanting to confront the bedroom just yet, he yanked open the door to his office space, quickly glancing around in a fretful daze. Not being able to locate you immediately, he finally turned to your shared bedroom. His phone’s flashlight zeroed in on the bed. The empty bed. The empty bed that was speckled with the same blood that stippled the hallway. And the bathroom. And the kitchen.

You weren’t here.

You were taken.

You were injured.

You were gone–

“No!” Saeyoung collapsed to his knees, struggling to dial the keypad on his phone. He wasn’t even sure whom he was calling when a meek voice sounded out behind him.

“… Seven?”

Dropping his phone in alarm, Saeyoung spun around, ignoring how the carpet burned his knees as he pivoted.

You. You were there.

You were clutching at the bedroom door frame, highlighted only by the last surviving streaks of sunlight creeping through the blinds. You looked… fine. Maybe tired at worst.

Saeyoung choked out your name, his eyes instantly filling with tears. Both of you were frozen for several moments, him out of complete bewilderment, and you, cranky but concerned, having finally been woken from your deep sleep by wails of despair. And then –

Seven rushed to his feet and crushed you against his chest. You could hear and feel his heart thumping erratically in his chest. His breath came out hot and moist as he pressed his lips to the top of your messy hair. His lanky arms wrapped tightly around your startled frame, his fingers finding their desperate purchase around your waist and the small of your back. His taller frame shook, and you soon felt something wet streak down your temple. “I thought I lost you.”

Still utterly confused as to what exactly was happening, you just returned his terrified embrace, perplexed as to why your eyes suddenly filled with tears too.

“Seven… Saeyoung…”

He clutched you even tighter, the symptoms of a full-blown panic attack likely to ensue.

“Luciel.”

Alarmed, you leaned your face back and looked deeply into his blown eyes. You placed shaking yet comforting palms against either side of his sharp cheeks. Fighting past the cotton in your throat, you sought answers for his critical state.

“What do you think happened?”

He let out a wobbly sniffle and returned your intense gaze, gathering the courage needed to answer you coherently.

“Your… your blood. Why is it all over the apartment?” He croaked painfully. As if spooked again, his eyes widened almost comically once more: “You’re not hurt, are you?? Oh God, I didn’t even think to check first. Of course you’re hurt; your BLOOD is all over the place. Oh fuck, it’s on your face too. oh my god. Don’t move, I’m taking you to the hospital oh God…” Saeyoung began to stoop as if to pick you up but you hurriedly made to halt him.

“What – no Saeyoung, stop. I’m fine. See? Why ever would you think that… oh.” You gulped nervously, the hot flush from earlier now creeping up your neck and overtaking your face in shame. Well… fuck.

“Please don’t be mad… um,” you nervously averted your gaze, your hands dropping to pull his wrists out from your sides. You laced your fingers together. “Let’s sit down, yeah?” You guided the shaken man to the end of the bed and then turned away.

Thin fingers suddenly encircled your wrist.

“My sweet, I’m just turning on the lamp. It’s dark now.”

“Oh… right. Of course.”

You padded over to the wall, flicking the switch so that the yellow overhead fluorescent bathed everything in a sad hue.

“Okay so…” You took a shallow breath and eased yourself down onto your boyfriend’s lap, his arms wrapping around your waist once more. You began to card your fingers through his hair. It was a position that brought you both immense comfort and security. “Don’t laugh, but… uh, and I’m really sorry for causing you so much distress, but ahh I guess maybe my body was just so surprised that you got called away real early this morning, remember? Oh of course you remember, you just got back... And so – oh Seven, it must have been the chips! I’m so sorry! I’m a terrible person; I yelled at Meowy and – the underwear! With cats! Saeyoung dear, please understand I didn’t mean to! We can get another pair. But I really blame that stupid Roomba for all of it.” You trailed off pitifully, averting your embarrassed eyes in favour of studying the corner of the bedroom instead.

Silence settled in wake of your rambling statement.

“You… what?” Seven loosened his grip and stared up at your fretful eyes with utter confusion. “Babe,” he took a shaky breath alike to yours, “you know I love you, always, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, but – what the fuck are you talking about?”

Unable to hold back your torrent of hormone-induced emotions, you blurted, “I’m on my period!”

“You…”

“It happens every month, Saeyoung.”

“Yes, but… it’s not supposed to get all over the floors! And the walls! And the bed – Babe! The knife! There are clumps of FLESH in the hall!” Seven held your arms in a tight grip, forcing you to look right at him.

“I know! I… it was a heavy flow.” Your eyes cast downwards pathetically. Oh man, do I wanna curl up in a ball and die…

Abruptly, a chuckle resounded off the walls. The chuckle grew into giggling, which then grew into bellowing laughter. You joined in with your boyfriend’s mirth, both of you laughing to expel any of the remaining insecurity and fear you both felt. For every laugh, a tear was shed, and for every hysterical giggle, your interlocked hands squeezed the other.

Growing pains and period pains, your relationship had both.

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

You didn’t get to watch the rest of the dwindling sunset together.

After calmly and patiently explaining your abnormal and premature flow, accompanied by the resulting afternoon fiasco via Meowy’s unfortunate presence, you had gotten Seven back to a stable mental state. He blushed furiously, embarrassed that he reacted so dramatically to something as old-hat as your menstrual cycle. But you shushed him, gave him gentle, chaste kisses, and assured him that his reaction wasn’t unfounded. It had been… upsetting for you too, even if your feelings were rooted in annoyance and crankiness more so than fear.

Still shaken by the sight of your blood, Saeyoung insisted that you both cleaned up the flat together. He didn’t want to leave your side, after all. With a light smile, he suggested maybe a game to make the task less grisly. An unassuming pair of handcuffs (which were actually the tipping point for Saeran moving out the day he saw them), a large sponge, and some soapy water later, you and Saeyoung were racing down the hallways nearly on all fours, jointed at the wrists, challenging yourselves to stay upright as you both pushed the same waterlogged sponge across the hardwood floors.

You were both giggling loudly, which only became amplified when you realized that you both still hadn’t up-righted the miserable Roomba.

“Left! Left!” Saeyoung shouldered your direction leftwards, and you both were able to – finally – avoid a third collision with the sad robot.

When you both released yourselves from your metal confines and entered the bathroom, you sadly presented your soiled cat panties to Seven. He wasn’t quite quick enough to hide his grimace. The little cats sure do look hellish with all the blood splatters… You cringed in agreement. The footprints were scrubbed off the tile, and you gathered your discarded clothes to put in the hamper.

“See, my lovey, it’s just the underwear that are bloody.” You held up his t-shirt that you had taken to sleeping in. Seven blushed harder and stammered an apology. “Don’t apologize, everything else was pretty much covered in blood… it’s natural to think that the shirt was too.” You offered an easy, albeit still concerned, smile. He gratefully returned it.

Saeyoung stammered the most upon seeing the knife in the kitchen. “I uh –, “ he cupped the back of his neck, “I didn’t really inspect it earlier. I just saw… hehe… red.” His face turned the colour of his hair. Meowy let out a mewl of approval.

Cracking a grin to yourself, you shook your head. “I know.”

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

It wasn’t until an hour or two later that you both had finally cleaned your flat of the remaining incriminating evidence. Both tired, you were entirely resigned to spending the rest of this nightmarish day cuddled with your boyfriend in bed. It seemed this was Seven’s train of thought too, until his eyes suddenly lit up with excitement.

“Babe!” He twirled you around the kitchen, picking you up and settling you down on the counter. He wedged himself between your legs as you were winding your arms around his neck. “I didn’t forget.”

“Hmm?” You offered him a dazed expression.

“You scream~” He began to improvise one of his many cutesy melodies, “I scream~~”

Your eyes brightened with sudden realization: “We all scream for ice cream!”

“Yes! My princess requests! And so, I shall deliver!” He kissed both of your cheeks, helped you down, and then shucked off his coat. Wrapping it tightly around your shoulders, he tilted your chin up, “Cute.” Wink.

“Allons-y!”

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

Jumin had had a terribly frustrating, annoying, absolutely baffling day.

Upon arriving at work, he was met with a flustered Jaehee.

“Sir, something’s wrong with the network,” she glanced down at her clipboard, “And, ahem, well your technologies, sir.”

An arched brow. “My technologies?”

“It appears everything fed through your devices ends up not going through. I’m afraid we’ll have to complete all documents the old-fashioned way today.”

The other arched brow. “The old-fashioned way?”

“Handwritten, Mr. Han. Everything will have to be done by hand.”

Assistant Kang’s words sealed Han Jumin’s fate. His hands cramped. He had ink smears over his pinstriped dress shirt. And his hair now sported commoner cowlicks.

Jumin returned home around 9 PM, exhausted and bleary beyond belief. “Elizabeth, my love – come and comfort your father.” Jumin stumbled into his penthouse, intent on cuddling his cat since she somehow eluded him earlier that morning.

“Meow~” The stunning Persian vocalized lazily as she sauntered up to her master.

“Ah, what a fine lady you are.” Jumin scooped her up and nosed her long fur. Something round and cool brushed against his skin. Curious, Jumin fondled the delicate metal lock attached to an imposter satin ribbon looped around Elizabeth’s neck.

“What is this?” He scoffed, irritated that one of the guards must have thought to play dress up with his cat.

Jumin set Elizabeth down and removed the ribbon. He clicked the locket open. Inside, there was a photoshopped photo of Saeyoung and his Elizabeth recreating American Gothic, but with childish doodled hearts and horrendous text in Comic Sans font:

707 x Elly forever!!!

“Luciel… I expected no less.” Jumin rolled his eyes. “Well done I suppose, though I’ll have next draw, of course.” The tall man smirked enigmatically to himself and went to bed.

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

But for now, somewhere in Seoul, you shared an ice cream sundae with Seven.

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

Notes:

Several notes ~ hello! I am relatively new to the mysme fandom (quarantine really said hey, why don't you go ahead and fall in love with the RFA boys, and I woefully agreed) This story is actually sort of based on something that happened to me, believe it or not. I mean, beside the having Seven as my bf part T_T I had a really heavy flow one month, like my body decided to just do the period all at once on one day instead of drawing it out for a week or so like normal. So yes - I woke up, felt impending doom as one does, and then stood up to make it to the bathroom. Well, gravity check - like all this blood and ya know the squishy period stuff fell out instead and I was like??? ok???? This was also at like 4am, so I cleaned myself up, and went back to sleep. Sadly, I had to clean up the massive splatter on my floor when I actually got up several hours later. That was probably tmi, but hey, periods are a natural part of life so~~ I'm fine, dw. Periods just be weird sometimes. ANYWAY - you can leave me prompt ideas or send them to me on tumblr via the same username (curiousherbal). The end of this fic sorta alludes to another fic I have in mind ;) EDIT: Which I have now posted, it may be found here Thank you so much for reading! This was a mammoth. I only ever wanted it to be around 1k, but here we are nearly 6k words later.... I just love seven ;_; ok bye bye

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cinemavariety · 5 years ago

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The Director’s Series: Nicolas Winding Refn

The director series will consist of me concentrating on the filmography of all my favorite directors. I will rank each of their films according to my personal taste. I hope this project will provide everyone with quality recommendations and insight into films that they might not have known about. Today’s director in spotlight is Nicolas Winding Refn

#9 - Fear X (2003) Runtime: 1 hr 31 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

When his wife is killed in a seemingly random incident Harry, prompted by mysterious visions, journeys to discover the true circumstances surrounding her murder.

Verdict: Refn’s most forgotten about film, even I have a hard time remembering that this film is part of his oeuvre. Nevertheless, Fear X is a quiet and lingering exercise in style. It’s a surrealist film noir with heavy influences from David Lynch. It’s also the first time where Refn began experimenting with color and started to move away from shaky cam.

#8 - The Pusher Trilogy (1996/2004/2005) Runtime: 1 hr 45 min / 1 hr 40 min / 1 hr 30 min Aspect Ratio: 1.66 : 1 / 1.85 : 1 / 1.85 : 1 Film Format: 16mm / 35mm / 35mm

A drug pusher grows increasingly desperate after a botched deal leaves him with a large debt to a ruthless drug lord.

Verdict: I made the decision to categorize all three Pusher films as one entry for this post (otherwise it would just be too many). Nicolas Winding Refn started off his career with the strong crime tale of Pusher, and made the last two films to complete the trilogy after his English language debut Fear X ended up bombing. While I love the first and third entry more than I do the second, all three Pusher films are captivating and anxiety-ridden crime docudramas. It’s a great way to see how far Refn has evolved by starting with these films first.

#7 - Bleeder (1999) Runtime: 1 hr 38 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

Two stories for the price of one: Lenny works in a video shop and tries to get acquainted with the waitress Lea. Leo can't cope with the pressure of becoming a father, leading to trouble with his pregnant wife and especially her brother.

Verdict: While Bleeder might be Refn’s lowest budget film to date, and not all the violence comes off as extremely convincing, I enjoyed it more than all three Pusher films because of the emotional stakes within the story. Multiple characters lives intertwine and interconnect in oftentimes disastrous circumstances. I also loved how Mads Mikkelsen’s character is a huge film aficionado, all of the scenes he is featured in bring a much needed reprieve from the turmoil and abuse.

#6 - Too Old to Die Young (2019) Runtime: 15 hr Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Film Format: Arri Alexa Digital

The numb existences of Martin Jones, a police officer with secrets to hide, and Jesus, a traumatized avenging son, collide in a ghostly Los Angeles where several ruthless criminal gangs fight for their turf and dictate who lives and who dies. Verdict: Too Old To Die Young finds the celebrated auteur, Nicolas Winding Refn, sharing his view of humanity and society at its most despicable. All of his usual motifs and creative decisions are employed in full force with Too Old To Die Young, sometimes to an almost unbearable degree unless you are a truth Refn aficionado. His long takes, infinitesimal silences between lines, neon lighting, synth score and characters belonging to a criminal underworld are all utilized to great affect within the series. And while I believe that Refn’s sensibilities are best conveyed through a film medium, the limited series allows Refn to explore what he wants to convey like an artist adding layer upon layer of colors onto a blank palette.

#5 - Bronson (2008) Runtime: 1 hr 32 min Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

A young man who was sentenced to 7 years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending 30 years in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter ego, Charles Bronson. Verdict: Bronson is quite possibly Tom Hardy’s most impressive performance, and that’s saying a lot. It exudes such a hypnotic quality that every time I watch it, it’s as if I am seeing the film for my very first time. It tells the true story of one of Britain’s most infamous criminals.Refn’s visual flair and unique filming style make it unlike any other prison film I’ve ever witnessed. This is the beginnings of Refn’s disinterest in traditional narrative structure.

#4 - Only God Forgives (2013) Runtime: 1 hr 30 min Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Film Format: Red Epic Digital

Julian, who runs a Thai boxing club as a front organization for his family’s drug smuggling operation, is forced by his mother Crystal to find and kill the individual responsible for his brother’s recent death.

Verdict: This is easily Refn’s most frustrating film. Whenever I watch it, I’m unsure whether I adore it or dislike it. But the fact that it’s the Refn film I have probably revisited the most is extremely telling of the ambience that Refn creates. Only God Forgives is arguably the most beautifully shot film from Nicolas. The neon drenched streets of Bangkok are presented to look like a netherworld. It’s a revenge fantasy thriller mixed with Oedipal undertones. Also, Gosling looks like a treat in every frame.

#3 - Valhalla Rising (2009) Runtime: 1 hr 33 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: Red One Digital

1000 AD, for years, One Eye, a mute warrior of supernatural strength, has been held prisoner by the Norse chieftain Barde. Aided by Are, a boy slave, One Eye slays his captor and together he and Are escape, beginning a journey into the heart of darkness. On their flight, One Eye and Are board a Viking vessel, but the ship is soon engulfed by an endless fog that clears only as the crew sights an unknown land. As the new world reveals its secrets and the Vikings confront their terrible and bloody fate, One Eye discovers his true self.

Verdict: Valhalla Rising is Refn’s dirtiest and bloodiest work, and it certainly finds the director at his most surreal and existential. If anyone wants to know a film that epitomized what it means to be considered art house - this is it. It’s a film about a slave finding emancipation from his tyrannous slave owners, and finds himself on a doomed voyage to the New World with a group of fanatical Christian vikings. The story is told in separate chapters, with each section the audience finds itself traveling down a rabbit hole that resembles something of an acid try gone awry.

#2 - The Neon Demon (2016) Runtime: 1 hr 57 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: Arri Alexa XT Plus Digital

When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.

Verdict: The Neon Demon has grown to become my second favorite movie from Nicolas. The film succeeds in shedding light on the hedonistic lifestyle of deranged young women in a tongue-in-cheek, almost satirical fashion. It’s one of the best looking Refn films to date, with even banal or commonplace locations drenched in neon hues. Composer Cliff Martinez outdoes himself with the synth-heavy score which guides the audience along a fairytale of horrors. In Refn’s surreal vision of Los Angeles there is no such thing as going too far to reach fame, even if it means bloodshed. As one character says in the film: “Beauty isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” It would be nice to write off this statement as pure subjectivity, but what else has the media taught us but this ideal?

#1 - Drive (2011) Runtime: 1 hr 40 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: Arri Alexa & Cooke S4 Digital

A Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman for criminals discovers that a contract has been put on him after a heist gone wrong.

Verdict: Seeing Drive in theatres back in 2011, without even having seen a film from Refn and not knowing much of the plot in general, is hands down one of the most memorable and inspiring theatrical experiences I ever had. Drive, among many other films that came out around that time, acted as a catalyst for me to branch out and discover more independent and arthouse filmmakers. I believe that it is undoubtedly Refn’s best film, and I might dare say that might be credited to the fact that is one of the only Refn films in which he didn’t write. These characters, while quiet and mysterious, have more depth to them than any of his others. The quiet romance between Drive and Irene provide more emotional stakes than any of his other works as well. All the elements of Drive complement each other and build off of each other. As cheesy as it may sound, if any film could be considered cool - it’s this. It’s already gained a cult status and it will most definitely go down in history as one of the most beautiful crime noirs ever made.

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befuddledpanda · 4 years ago

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ARRP: Iron Gold

This review is for Iron Gold by Pierce Brown (author of The Red Rising Saga). It is the FOURTH book in the saga and was published in 2018.

Premise:

Since this is the FOURTH book in the series, I won’t go into the details about the premise. I keep the review as spoiler free as possible.

Review:

I have a confession. I started reading Iron Gold in 2019...According to Goodreads, I started reading it on August 1, 2019. I finished reading it on November 17, 2020. Life things happened (including a move) and I put Iron Gold down for a while. I got to around the 200 page mark at the end of September 2019 and didn’t pick it back up until the tail end of August 2020. Here’s the thing, Iron Gold is not a book meant to be binge-read. Pierce Brown himself acknowledged this. And I took it to heart apparently. :P

Anyway, with that out of the way, I enjoyed Iron Gold. It was more expansive than the original trilogy and I loved seeing Pierce Brown grow as a writer. Instead of a single perspective, we got 4 different POVs. There’s one POV that I didn’t enjoy as much but I appreciated the depth the character provided to the overall story. I acknowledge that my choppy reading experience of Iron Gold contributes to how I feel about the book. I want to re-read it (and do so in a shorter timeframe) when we know the release date of book 6 and I can plan my re-read of the series. Alright, let’s get to the breakdown of my review:

Characters - I didn’t get enough of the characters that I loved from the original trilogy. But I love a couple of the new characters we were introduced to. Those new characters have me very excited for the rest of the series. I really enjoyed the multiple POVs and the depth of characters we got to see. Brown is good at creating morally grey characters and I love to read them. There was one POV that I found to be a bit too depressing for me. I understand why the character is the way they are but I also wanted to slap them in the face a few too many times. So my rating for characters is a 2.5.

Worldbuilding - With the multiple POVs, we got to see more of the world Brown started building in the original trilogy. I really enjoyed the expansion. I didn’t find any of the new stuff mind-blowing but it was fun to see more details of some places that I cannot say because spoilers. I’d say that the characters are stronger than the world. So my rating for worldbuilding is a 2.5.

Storytelling / Writing Style - This book had Pierce Brown written all over it. There’s was just more of it than the previous books. There’s the pattern of Action, info / setup, action, lull, psych, omg. It was an emotional roller coaster ride. I found myself not wanting to binge read the whole thing and sometimes, I needed to force myself to pick up the book. I ended up using the audiobook to help me keep up momentum to read more of it. It’s weird. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy the book but I also wasn’t itching to pick it up or read it in one go like I did with the previous books. Pierce Brown himself acknowledged Iron Gold isn’t one to rush through. It’s to be savored. I heartily agree. It is a different pace and having the multiple POVs switch the way they did contributed to that. I think having some longer chapters for each POV would have helped the pacing be more even - especially when he had back to back chapters for the same POV. For this category, I give a rating of 2.

Logic - Upon my first reading, I didn’t have any major problems with the logic. I can’t say it is perfect but I didn’t have any major issues (that I can remember...). So with that, I give the logic a rating of 2.5.

Enjoyment - I enjoyed the book when I was reading it. But I did have to take it in small bites. It was like nibbling on rich, bitter, dark chocolate and savoring the small piece as it melted on my tongue. Can’t have too much at once. My rating for enjoyment is a 2.25.

Conclusion:

Iron Gold was recommended to me by the LibraryThing. My averaged rating for this book is 2.35. I knew going in that this book was going to be a bit different from the original trilogy. I also had been putting off starting it for a while and then put it down and didn’t pick it back up for almost a year. This was not the ideal reading experience of a book I was anticipating to read. But it is what it is. I’m glad I stuck with it and finished it. I am looking forward to reading Dark Age and knowing it will punch me in the gut, break my heart several times over, and have me jumping up and down shaking my fist at the ceiling. But I will also very likely love it. I’m not going to start Dark Age until I know when book 6 is coming though. :P I can’t handle that stress.

#algorithm reading recs #book review #booklr #reading #pierce brown #iron gold #red rising saga #howlers #librarything #befuddledpanda

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a-point-in-tumblspace · 5 years ago

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I’m trying to get all my reading done for Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms reading group a week ahead of time, so I can present highlights to Tumblr. Here’re my notes on the first 3 chapters, which we’ll be discussing at 1pm Pacific Time on Saturday.

Chapter 1 - ⭐ Black magic to derive Stirling’s approximation (p.2 by book numbering) - Formalize the problem of communication over a noisy channel. - Examine communication over a noisy “binary symmetric channel,” i.e. where each of the bits you’re sending gets flipped with some probability. - Exercises 1.9-1.10, on p.14, I found entertaining. - ⭐ Section 1.3 is crazy. I want to be Claude Shannon when I grow up.

Chapter 2 - Lays out the probability-theory notation that the rest of the book will use. - (A curiosity: if you come up with some formalization of “degrees of belief” that obeys certain very reasonable rules -- surprise! It’s synonymous with standard probability theory.) - An assortment of classic intro-to-statistics problems. - (Some terminology: P(x) is a “prior” on x, P(data|x) is the “likelihood” of x given the data, which is emphatically not a probability.) - An assortment of exercises that look interesting (though some I haven’t yet done): 2.6, ⭐ 2.9, 2.10-11, 2.22, 2.35.

Chapter 3 - ⭐ p.47: exercises 3.3 and 3.4 really helped me grind the rust off my Bayes. - p.50: MacKay’s love for Bayes comes out in force: “The posterior probability distribution (3.4) represents the unique and complete solution to the problem. There is no need to invent ‘estimators’; nor do we need to invent criteria for comparing alternative estimators with each other. Whereas orthodox statisticians offer twenty ways of solving a problem, and another twenty different criteria for deciding which of these solutions is the best, Bayesian statistics only offers one answer to a well-posed problem.” - Applying Bayes to some simple problems... - ⭐ I found Section 3.4 to be very valuable. (Take a stab at exercise 3.4 before reading it.) - p.57: exercises 3.8 and 3.9 might be good, if you’ve never done a rigorous analysis of Monty Hall before. - ⭐ Exercise 3.11 (cw domestic violence) was very valuable for me and might be for you too.

#information theory inference and learning algorithms #learnings #statistics #recommendations #notes

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jordanianroyals · 5 years ago

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Interview: Jordan to learn much from collaborations with China in varied fields: Jordanian Queen

Source: Xinhua | 2018-09-04 18:32:46 | Editor: huaxia

For full article, please click this link.

Queen Rania of Jordan has praised China for playing an influential role in global economy and aiding refugees in the Middle East, while hoping that Jordan will learn much from collaborations with China in varied fields.

The queen made the remarks in a written interview with Xinhua ahead of her visit to China to attend the second Alibaba XIN Philanthropy Conference 2018 due on Sept. 5 in Hangzhou, China, at the invitation of Jack Ma, founder of China's Alibaba Group and the Jack Ma Foundation.

"I have very fond memories from my previous visits to China, and I look forward to visiting again," the queen said, adding that she has a lot of respect for Ma and the work that he is doing, as well as his vision for philanthropy.

"It is very uplifting to see that people are embracing philanthropy, within China and beyond," said the queen, founder of the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development (QRF).

During his May visit to Jordan, Ma announced the first-stage funding of 3 million U.S. dollars to the QRF to support the development of its online learning platform, Edraak, as well as the training of school principals at the Queen Rania Teacher Academy.

"Going forward, we are looking forward to collaborating further and exchanging knowledge with the Jack Ma Foundation, so that we can work together on our common goal to promote access to quality education for all," the queen said.

CHINA'S GREAT PROGRESS, GENEROUS REFUGEE AID

In the interview, Queen Rania lauded China for having made "tremendous progress" over the past decades.

"It's the world's biggest exporter, it's second largest economy, and there is no doubt that it plays a critical and influential role in development and in the global economy," she said.

The queen noted that China is now classified as the world's top technology hub and home to some big companies on par with Silicon Valley giants like Apple and Amazon in the United States.

"I can only be delighted to revisit China at such exciting times as these, and I am certain that my trip will be rewarding on so many levels," she said.

Jordan is a small country with a young and driven population that can learn so much from collaborations with China, especially in the fields of technology, commerce, trade, and education, she said.

Talking about the refugee crisis that has placed a heavy burden on Jordan, one of major host countries of refugees, Queen Rania said Jordan is "tremendously grateful" to China for its longstanding support to ease the burden of hosting refugees.

"Over the years, China has not only provided food assistance and humanitarian aid to refugees in Jordan, but also supported the development of Jordan's overtaxed infrastructure," she said.

The queen mentioned that, just two months ago, China pledged an additional 15 million U.S. dollars in aid, "which will go a long way in helping us meet refugees' needs."

She also commended China for recently donating 2.35 million dollars to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which faces the worst financial crisis in its 70-year history after the United States recently cut its fundings.

"UNRWA is a lifeline to more than 5 million people in the region, 40 percent of whom live in Jordan alone, and China's generosity will contribute to alleviating some of the pressure on the struggling agency," said the queen.

Jordan, which is spearheading efforts to secure necessary funding for the agency to continue its services, is hopeful that other countries will follow China's example, she said.

The ultimate solution for this crisis, however, can only be found through a negotiated settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and all its final status issues, the queen stressed.

EDUCATION CAN MAKE MIRACLES

Queen Rania, a strong advocate of education and a passionate philanthropist and peace maker, underlined the power of education to address most pressing challenges of today, including unemployment and radicalization.

For the Jordanian queen, education has remained at the forefront of her activities over the years.

"I believe in the power of education because it holds the answer to many of the challenges we face today," she said.

She established the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development in 2013, out of her belief that investing in children is the best investment that can be made in the Arab world.

"Knowledge, creativity, and talent are key ingredients to any country's success, and that all begins in the classroom," she noted.

The QRF has implemented a number of initiatives and programs to support education reform in Jordan. Queen Rania set up the Queen Rania Teacher Academy, which offers educators critical training and professional development.

Four years ago, she also launched Edraak, one of the first non-profit online Arabic open education resource platforms, to provide Arabic speakers with the opportunity to learn online.

Focusing mainly on adult learners seeking higher education and professional development opportunities, Edraak has so far reached 1.7 million registered learners.

Education is the key to addressing the most pressing challenge on young people's minds today, which is unemployment, the queen said.

"Our challenge is to continue to invest in the right kind of education, and to grow our economy in order to create more opportunities for them within Jordan," she said.

Queen Rania stressed that education also plays a key role in fighting terrorism, a major part of which is the fight against the "extremists' false narrative of hate and the twisted ideology of the outlaws of Islam."

"I always say, you cannot kill an ideology with a bullet. You can only kill it with a better idea. Extremists prey on hopelessness and despair, taking advantage of vulnerable people who feel as though they have no other options," she said.

The queen said she is convinced that a large part of the solution to eradicating terrorism lies in education.

"If we can equip our youth with the skills they need to succeed in the world and jobs to make their lives purposeful, then there is no cause for desperation or resentment," she said.

PHILANTHROPY IS SHARED RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL

In the interview, Queen Rania also voiced her optimism about the power of philanthropy to create opportunity and reduce inequity.

"I am inspired by how committed and energetic some people are about philanthropy. I think it is critical that we encourage and support those looking to help, to make a difference, to bring innovative ideas to the field of philanthropy, whether in China or throughout the rest of the world," said the queen, a mother of four.

Philanthropy is "a shared responsibility of all," she said.

The queen said philanthropy should be "a collaborative effort," in which the public, private, and civil society sectors complement each other's work and build on shared successes.

She said she believes that philanthropy lives in the hearts of humans, "because giving is something that is built into our DNA and deep-rooted into our human conscience."

"Giving is part of what makes us human ... In a sense, we see giving as the best way to improve ourselves," she said.

WOMEN'S SUCCESS STARTS WITH EMPOWERMENT

Queen Rania, who believes that the pathway to a woman's success begins with empowerment, has been a passionate spokesperson for women's rights.

Serving as a positive role model for Arab women, the queen uses her international platform to shed light on the most pressing challenges facing Arab women.

"I think it is often easier for people to paint us all with the same, stereotypical brush: downtrodden, uneducated, and voiceless," she said.

The reality is that Arab women from all walks of life are increasingly leaving their mark on every level of society, not just as homemakers, but also as professors, doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs, she insisted.

Arab women have emerged as role models in almost every industry, breaking through glass ceilings and providing an excellent example to both girls and boys of the next generation, she said.

That said, in many cases, progress has been slower than expected. Unfortunately, sexism is not limited to a single country or region, and women everywhere are at risk of discrimination and abuse, the queen added.

This is true particularly in areas of conflict, where women are always the hardest hit. In times of conflict or political upheaval, women's hard-won gains are reversed and their rights are treated as afterthoughts, she said.

For Rania, who became Queen of Jordan in 1999 as the youngest queen in the world, balancing private life as a wife and mother with public duties as queen does not seem to be an easy task.

"Twenty years is a long time. A lot has changed since 1999. I've also changed and I've learnt a lot," she said.

"I have faced tough challenges, but they have made me more authentic, truer to who I am, and less fearful ... I am not afraid of standing up for my values and beliefs," said the queen.

While expressing her sadness and concerns about the continued turmoil and violence in the Middle East, Queen Rania said most people in the region still hope for a better future of peace and justice.

"No matter where we come from or what we believe, at the heart of it, all people want the same things: a safe place to call home, the ability to work for a living, and a quality education for our children," she said.

These things are achievable, but only when people put differences aside and collaborate on comprehensive solutions, she said.

"Our shared humanity is so much stronger than the labels that divide us, and it is in our best interest to work together to achieve sustainable global development and create a world worthy of the next generation," said the queen.

#Queen Rania #interview

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aethercal · 5 years ago

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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s WARREN WORTHINGTON III/ANGEL && ARCHANGEL, a HERO from MARVEL! HE is 33 years old and look an awful lot like PETER GADIOT. I hear that they work as a CEO OF WORTHINGTON INDUSTRIES. Rumor has it they were AGAINST the Accords and ARE NOT registered under the new laws.

I wonder what they’ll find with their new beginning!

basics —

NAME: warren kenneth worthington iii

ALIAS: angel

he only turns into his archangel persona when under immense stress. he’s gotten to a point in his life where he’s capable of keeping that side from coming out. he doesn’t like what he does when the angel of death makes an appearance

SPECIES: mutant

OCCUPATION: ceo of worthington industries

his company deals with aviation technology, alternative fuel, fancy frozen yogurt, and owns the guardian newspaper

AFFILIATION: x-men

was a founding member

RELATIVES: warren k. worthington sr. (paternal grandfather, deceased), warren k. worthington jr. (father, deceased), kathryn worthington (mother, deceased), burtram worthington (paternal uncle), mimi (maternal aunt)

his family is the fifth richest in the entire country

HAIR COLOR: blonde

EYE COLOR: blue

yellow when archangel.

HEIGHT: 6’0” (1.83 m)

WEIGHT: 150 lbs (68.04 kg)

UNUSUAL FEATURES: hollow bones, pair of feathered wings coming out of his back

his skin turns blue and wings become metal when archangel

EDUCATION: college degree from xavier’s school for gifted youngsters

PLACE OF BIRTH: long island, new york

RESIDENCE: new york, new york

he lives in a penthouse in manhattan, but also has a room at the school that he will stay in frequently as well

early life —

warren kenneth worthington iii is the mutant son of the wealthy warren k. worthington jr. and his wife kathryn, neither of them were aware that their son had developed a large pair of feathered wings. on the other hand, doctor stuart who delivered warren knew immediately what he would become by spotting the distortion of his shoulder blades.

warren would attend many boarding schools growing up. his superhero career first began after a fire broke out in his dorm. he disguised himself with a wig and a nightshirt. he ends up lowering two students to safety with a rope. he also saved a fellow student who would become a lifelong friend.

he would briefly become a costumed superhero known as avenging angel. this caught the attention of the professor who recruits him as the third founding member of the x-men. he was a carefree student, often flying-off during his lessons and in public.

he would end up becoming known as just angel after becoming an x-man.

powers and abilities —

warren is capable of switching between his personas.

assume he’s angel unless it’s stated otherwise. thank you!

ANGEL —

WINGS: possesses the superhuman ability to fly by means of his natural wings, which spanned sixteen feet from wingtip to wingtip. fully feathered like a bird's, the wings have a very flexible skeletal structure, enabling him to press them to the back of his torso and legs with only the slightest bulge visible under his clothing. angel flies by flapping his wings, as a bird does. the strength in his natural wings can easily break a man's arm or leg, or even put someone through a wall.

FLIGHT: his normal cruising speed averages around 70 miles per hour (112 kph), though he is capable of diving swoops that reach up to 180 miles per hour (290 kph). he can fly at 150 miles per hour (240 kph) without the help of a tail wind for up to half an hour at a time before tiring to an appreciable degree. though he generally flies beneath the height of the clouds (6,500 feet/1981 meters), he can reach a height of 10,000 feet (3000 meters) with little effort. with severe strain he can attain the highest recorded altitude of a bird in flight (african geese at 29,000 feet (8840 meters) above sea level), but can only remain at that altitude for several minutes.

AERIAL ADAPTATION: angel’s entire anatomy is naturally adapted to flying. his bones are hollow, his body processes food more efficiently than a normal human body and does not store any excess fat, and he possesses a greater proportionate muscle mass than normal. as a result, his strength, speed, agility, flexibility, endurance, reflexes, coordination, balance, eyesight and hearing are at their peak. elements of his anatomy are comparable to those of birds, especially birds of prey. his eyes can withstand high-speed winds which would damage the average human eye. he can breathe at high velocities or altitudes, and he can cope with the reduced temperatures at high altitudes for prolonged periods of time.

he shares some quality with birds including the sense of direction while his eyesight is on par with the one of an eagle, allowing him to spot movement and details even from higher distances than the average human (or mutant) could. his enhanced, avian eyes allow him to "see everything" even in the dark!

PEAK HUMAN STRENGTH: he can lift up to 500 lbs!

SUPERHUMAN STAMINA: he can physically exert himself at peak capacity for several hours before the build up of fatigue toxins in his blood begins to impair him. his physical stamina while in flight is considerably greater. the angel can fly non-stop under his own power for a maximum of approximately twelve hours.

SUPERHUMAN DURABILITY: his body is structured to withstand the friction caused by flying at high speeds. he can also withstand impact forces that would severely injure or kill an ordinary human with only mild to moderate discomfort.

EXPERT COMBATANT: he’s a skilled combatant, especially in aerial hand-to-hand combat.

BUSINESS SENSE: a talented businessman whose wealth ranks him in the lower part of the fortune 500 list.

SWORDSMANSHIP: aced in his fencing class without ever picking up a sword, and only using his wings. he can use a sword if needed someday.

ARCHANGEL —

TECHNO-ORGANIC WINGS: was given techno-organic wings by Apocalypse as part of his conversion to the Horseman Death. Their feathers could be launched as flechettes which hit like bullets and able to pierce steel, due in part to their incredible endurance and composition.

FLIGHT: these wings enabled him to fly approximately at mach 1, possibly even faster considering he had little trouble out-flying a fighter jet which can travel a speed of mach 2.35 (2,903 kph) and later still showed out flying the blackbird while above sea level at mach 4.2 (roughly 5,189 kph).

WING BLADES: his t.o. wings have razor sharp edges running along them, most likely mono-molecular in sharpness, making them very deadly bladed weapons for him to use. it’s suggested they can cleave semblances with the toughness of diamond being sharp enough cleave stone, tear through tempered steel slice, and can easily cleave grown men clean in two.

WING SHIELDING: due to their metallic trans organic nature they made decent shields to protect his body by covering up in them. able to resist an arrow barrage, bullet fire, flash flames, a missile strike and lastly can tank a bio-nuclear microwave blast from the mutant holocaust.

REGENERATIVE HEALING FACTOR: has the ability to regrow damaged and destroyed tissue due in part to both his mutations.

HYPERSONIC SCREAM: can emit an intense acoustic shrieking which could cause disorientation and internal bleeding.

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545}

#beginagainintro #ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʀᴜғғʟᴇ ᴍʏ ғᴇᴀᴛʜᴇʀs! [ MUSE ]

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x5red · 6 years ago

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The lost Supergirl

To its detractors the 1984 Helen Slater Supergirl is an underwhelming, disjointed, and self-contradictory attempt to profit from the Superman franchise beyond the Man of Steel. To its supporters the 1984 Supergirl is a much misunderstood blending of super-heroics and fairy-tales, creating a magical story of adventure and courage. But no matter what your take on this movie, no one can deny that it failed to meet box office expectations and did not garner anything like the same reputation as Chris Reeve’s first two iconic Superman outings.

But with the passing of time comicbook fans seem to have slowly mellowed towards Slater’s Supergirl. Sure, it may never be considered a classic, but many fans now acknowledge that Helen Slater’s time in the red cape has a lot of charming qualities, qualities that are sadly lacking in many of DC’s modern offerings.

So, what caused this shift in attitudes?

Well, thanks to the internet, today’s fans have a greater awareness of the intentions of director Jeannot Szwarc, who (we now recognise) was pitching at a younger audience than the Superman movies -- hence the looser fairy-tale quality of the plot. But, more importantly, there’s also a growing awareness that many of the movie’s weaknesses were made far more glaring by the distributor’s brutal editing for US markets.

As more and more of the cutting room floor footage has been seen, so criticism has softened. Although still far from perfect, 2000′s extended 138 minute cut is generally recognised as a more balanced and coherent experience than 1984′s US theatrical version of just 105 minutes. But fans have speculated that yet more footage is still to be found. Rumours circulate on the far flung reaches of the internet concerning a possible 150 minute edit, smoothing over even more of the disjointed elements of the story.

In this article I want to first attempt a fact-packed recap of the editing history of the Supergirl movie, noting when and why its numerous cuts were created; then I want to briefly speculate on what might be in the still-missing 12 minutes (if indeed they exist), by pulling together the various rumours and looking at their evidence.

So, let’s begin...

From silver screen to small screen

Supergirl got its debut in London on Thursday 19th July 1984, as part of a Royal Charity Premiere screening attended by Princess Michael of Kent (whose husband is the current Queen’s first cousin, as I’m sure everyone knows(!)) This UK version was distributed by Columbia-EMI-Warner and ran at 124 minutes. Initial critical reaction was mixed, leaning more towards underwhelmed.

As US fans waited for the Maid of Might to fly onto their cinema screens, the movie began to open around the world. Ireland and Japan got Supergirl just days after the UK, then August saw Supergirl open in the Philippines, Australia, and Spain. In October it was the turn of France and Canada. Meanwhile Kara Zor-El fans in her (adopted) home country had no choice but to wait... and wait... and wait... The delay in the US release was caused by Warner Bros. dropping out of negotiations to promote and distribute the film in US theatres midway through production. As the movie was in post production, and overseas distribution deals were being struck, the Salkind family (the producers) scrambled to find an alternative distributor for their biggest market.

Finally, on Wednesday 21st November 1984, the Maid of Might launched onto US screens thanks to TriStar Pictures, but the switch in distributor had not been without major consequences. American Supergirl fans were treated to an experience that had been cut down to just 105 minutes, removing key exposition scenes from a movie that was already criticised for struggling with plot coherence. Supergirl grossed $5.7m on its opening weekend, and went on bring in $13.6m in the US market. On an estimated production budget of $35m, it was not considered a success.

At the same time as the US theatrical release, a 125 minute LaserDisc version appeared in Japan, marking the first time fans could watch the Girl of Steel in the comfort of their own Fortress of Solitude. The advertised 125 minute running time likely represents a rounding error rather than 1 minute of new material. Although not sold into US markets, some copies apparently did cross the Pacific. The LaserDisc version was likely a pan-and-scan copy (no documentation suggests widescreen), with Supergirl’s wide cinematic 2.35:1 image cropped drastically to fit television’s nearly square 4:3 ratio.

Pan-and-scan would also have been done to the initial VHS release into US markets by U.S.A. Home Video in 1985, which used the 105 minute cut that had appeared in US cinemas the year before. In 1987 a second pan-and-scan edit was created by TriStar for HBO‘s cable tv screenings, which was then used by the ABC Network when it broadcast a brutal 92 minute cut in February 1987. (It was common practice for ad-supported tv to heavily edit movies, making space for commercials without stretching the running time too far.) This super-slimline cut was later thrown together with other Superman movies into a tv syndication package by Viacom. The Internet Movie Database suggests that there was also a VHS cut that ran to just 89 minutes -- this may have been either the Avid Home Video release (1991) catalogued on the same site, or it may refer to an unknown overseas VHS release.

Lurking in the depths of the vaults

By the late 1990s the full 124 minute cut of Supergirl had still never been legitimately made available in the US. The rights to the Supergirl movie had subsequently been snapped up as part of a bundle of films by Canal + Distribution in France, and they allowed Anchor Bay Entertainment to release the two hour so-called International Cut on VHS. Many Supergirl fans now thought that they, at last(!), had copies of the most complete version of the film. But rumours quickly started to circulate that this was far from the case.

Not long after the International Cut’s release, speculation began that Canal + had found something interesting lurking amidst the dusty film cans they’d acquired as part of their rights acquisitions. A previously unknown 138 minute cut of Supergirl featuring a mono soundtrack had been unearthed, which quickly acquired the moniker of the Director’s Cut.

(Note: one citation-free internet comment suggests that the Director’s Cut was actually discovered at Pinewood Studios, in a box marked “do not use”. Although the early Superman / Supergirl movies were filmed at London’s Pinewood soundstages, it seems odd that a finished edit of the film, complete with soundtrack, would be discovered there.)

In mid-2000 Anchor Bay Entertainment released a two disc DVD set featuring both the 124 minute International Cut, and the new 138 minute Director’s Cut, both in widescreen format (2.35:1 letter-boxed to widescreen tv’s 16:9 ratio.)

So, thought fans, surely this is the definitive Helen Slater Supergirl... right..!?

Well, apparently, no..!

The rumours didn’t end with the Director’s Cut. Some evidence suggested that there were still scenes shot at Pinewood that didn’t make it into the 138 minute edit. Speculation was that somewhere in a rusting film can there might lie yet another 12 minutes of unseen footage, bringing the total running time of the film to a whopping 150 minutes -- that’s almost 50% more Supergirl than was seen by the original US theatrical audiences in November 1984.

So, what’s missing..?

First, let us rule out what we can say with certainty is not in any potential missing footage.

The original script for Supergirl, penned by David Odell, made heavy use of Christopher Reeve’s Superman. According to director, Jeannot Szwarc, the main plot device always revolved around the recovery of the Omegahedron, but in early drafts Superman was to encounter Supergirl in space, and the pair were to share a heartwarming scene in which he teaches his cousin how to fly, involving dancing together in mid-air. At a later point in the script Supergirl was to rescue Superman from a prison, where he languished as an old man having lost his immorality.

Regrettably, the producer’s hopes of securing Chris Reeve fell apart not long before shooting began. Without Reeve, Odell’s script (which, Szwarc claims, had already suffered numerous rewrites at the behest of the Salkinds and/or original distributors Warner Bros.) underwent yet another a major overhaul. As such, we can say with absolute certainty that none of the possible missing footage includes Christopher Reeve’s Superman.

So what might it contain?

A draft of the movie’s script, dated Monday 17th January 1983, is available online, and it seems to mention scenes that never appeared in any publicly available cut of the film, including the Director’s Cut. The draft’s date is just a few weeks away from the alleged filming dates: Monday 18th April 1983 to Thursday 11th August 1983. The script does follow the story line of the finished movie, although it is apparent that some action segments have been reworked and some of the dialogue is only vaguely similar to the filmed version.

A second source of information comes from an apparently test audience viewing in the US, with online accounts of this screening at sites like IMDB seeming to bear out the rumours that some of the elements in the draft script may have been filmed and included in this screening.

Speculation suggests that a number of clips featuring Selena are still lost. These include more material with Selena and the Omegahedron, and a clip during Selena’s takeover of Midvale in which the angry townspeople are cowered (except Lucy) by Selena when she uses an ice spell to kill a woman.

There’s also speculation that two short interactions with Linda at school are absent. The first involves Nigel quizzing Linda about her plans for the weekend (this happens immediately before the scene, 50 minutes in, with Linda sitting outside the school as other girls leave with their parents, when Lucy invites Linda to join her later in Midvale.) The second is a chat between Linda and Lucy about clothes and fitting in on Earth.

One interaction that always seemed a bit odd in the movie takes place immediately after the shower sequence (when Kara uses her heat vision to punish the two school bullies.) Entering their shared dorm room, Linda asks Lucy to comment on her new hairdo -- Lucy replies that it looks the same as before. In the script however (and in accounts of the advance screening) there is a segment with Supergirl using heat vision and a bathroom mirror to cut her blonde hair, but she forgets that she has reverted to Linda’s brunette wig when Lucy offers her critique. The second half of this interaction appears in the movie (albeit with different dialogue to the script), so fans have speculated that the laser haircut footage may exist too.

The January 1983 script also does a better job of tidying up the story’s loose ends. For example, rather than have Linda Lee just vanish without explanation, school principal (Fred?) Danvers uncovers Linda’s secret identity after she fights the energy monster, explaining why he won’t be frantically searching for her once Supergirl returns to Argo City. No accounts, rumoured or otherwise, suggest that these segments were filmed, however.

Conclusion

Even at 150 miniutes, Supergirl would still be a flawed movie. But then perhaps, as Jeannot Szwarc has noted, its intentions were never properly understood or promoted. The film isn’t trying to be the Christopher Reeve Superman, but rather a children’s fairy-tale in which the hero uses Kryptonian superpowers instead of magic. One internet commentator noted that Slater’s Supergirl is best enjoyed as a series of unconnected vignettes -- forget that the overall plot doesn’t make sense and just enjoy each scene on its own. I think there might be some truth in that analysis.

Despite its flaws, the 1984 Supergirl movie has amassed a loyal fanbase. The special effects are superb (even Richard Donner apparently admitted that the technique Szwarc used to make his Girl of Steel fly was superior to the zooming-lenses trick pioneered on Superman), the story is unapologetically lighthearted, and Helen Slater’s endearing portrayal as the Maid of Might is still considered by many to be the definitive live-action Supergirl.

Restoring the extra footage won’t overturn the movie’s shortcomings, but it will further soothe some of its inconsistencies, while sprinkling just a little more magic dust onto what its loyal fans already consider to be a charming and bewitching cinematic experience.

The movie’s heroine succeeds in her quest to find the Omegahedron and restore Argo City to its former glory -- we can but hope that one day her fans will find any missing footage, and restore her movie to its fullest length.

Timeline:

124 min (2h 04m) international theatrical release, July 1984.

105 min (1h 45m) US theatrical release, November 1984.

125 min (2h 05m) Japanese LaserDisc, late 1984.

105 min (1h 45m) initial US VHS release, 1985.

92 min (1h 32m) HBO / ABC television cut, 1987.

89 min (1h 29m) VHS release, unknown date (1991 perhaps?)

124 min (1h 04m) Anchor Bay VHS release, 1998.

138 min (2 hrs 18 mins) Director’s Cut DVD release, Summer 2000.

150 min (2 hrs 30 mins) speculated original cut, as yet undiscovered.

Sources:

imdb.com : Supergirl main page.

imdb.com : Supergirl alternative footage.

movie-censorship.com : Supergirl International vs Director’s Cut.

supermancinema.co.uk : List of VHS and tv cuts.

maidofmight.net : Director Jeannot Szwarc interview.

Thanks to Corrine, aka supergirldiaries, for the initial inspiration.

#supergirl #dceu #comics #movies #dccomics #dc #precrisis #superhero #superheroine #superman #helen slater

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daydreaming-away-reality · 7 years ago

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Waiting to Meet You

707 x Reader | ☁️ + ☔ + 🌠 | 1.4k | Soulmate AU

Sending a warm goodnight message to Yoosung, you couldn’t help but let out a sigh as you closed the chatroom. For the past few days after discovering a strange, mystical messenger app and talking to ‘Unknown’, your life had been changed drastically.

Despite all the doubts and concerns surrounding your sudden addition to the RFA, you were rather optimistic to your situation. The timer on your wrist had been ticking closer and closer to meeting between you and your destined significant other.

Currently stuck in Rika’s old apartment, you looked around the place. It was a small place, but there was so much you didn’t dare touch - Seven and V had warned you there was sensitive material that would trigger alarms. You couldn’t help but wonder, would this be where you would meet your soulmate?

With your timer reading 43:52:03, you couldn't help but make that assumption.

Grabbing a late night snack, you thought back to what happened today. Everyone had been receiving strange notifications and emails, leaving the job of figuring things out up to Seven. From what you could tell, the poor red haired guy was already super busy with work as a hacker and having to deal with the security of the messenger app was probably another layer of stress.

Not to mention the calls from V every 2.35 seconds...

Sitting down at the desk, you munched away on your snack and plugged in your earphones. As much as you wanted to help Seven, there was only so much you could do in your position. Playing some music, you sang along, hoping to keep your mind off of things and stay out of trouble.

“Please be well, Defender of Justice,” you murmured, closing your eyes. “I believe in you.”

After another day of growing trouble among all the other RFA members, you couldn’t help but worry that you were next. You had yet to see any emails or receive any strange messages since ‘Unknown’, but a gut feeling told you that there was something foreboding coming.

The happy façade you were keeping up with Seven was hopeful - but you knew things were troubling the boy too. How long would it be until he completely broke? Despite only knowing him for a few days, you couldn’t help but want to protect and help him no matter the cost.

Rubbing your wrist out of habit, you couldn’t help but look down at your timer.

20:06:51

With all this trouble around, was meeting your soulmate now a good time? Fate must have a strange way of arranging things...

You just had a heartbreaking conversation with Seven over the messenger about keeping your distance from each other... Was he losing hope? Seven was good person no matter what he said. He was keeping you safe.

You didn’t know if Seven was your soulmate or not, but you couldn’t help to feel concerned for him. Your relationship with him was strange, sure, but you treasured it.

If only Seven felt the same way.

You just closed a chatroom with NAME when a sudden robotic voice filled the apartment startling you off your chair.

‘The special security system will be acti- acti- act... act...’

Frightened, you mustered up your courage and tried to find the source of the notification.

Glass shattering filled the apartment as you spun around to stare at the window. The apartment was pretty high up, who would be trying to break in at this height?

A strange voice filled the air.

“Gosh... I didn’t plan on making a sound but I supposed I failed on that. Hey miss, just stay there. You’ll hurt your feet if you step on glass. I’m climbing over the window.”

A guy with white hair with tinged red tips slipped inside. Wearing a black face mask, red tank top and black leather jacket, you wearily stared at him. The tattoo on his shoulder looked really familiar to you - and you then remembered why, Mint Eye.

“Hello. You know who I am?” the stranger greeted.

You glanced down at your wrist before answering him.

00:06:30

“The hacker?” you guessed calmly.

“Smart lady. You might be able to understand me then.”

He slowly approached, walking over the glass in with his boots.

“Wow, it feels so strange to see it like this. Do you know that?” He paused, eyes glinting. “I’m the one who first talked to you about that missing phone. I left that strange message a couple days ago... And I’m the one who sent that email. How was the email I sent? It is an invitation. Our paradise, where everyone is happy. Magenta of hopes and dreams.”

“Mint Eye,” you murmured and Unknown nodded.

“I’ve come to take you there... The RFA is only filled with false hope. Especially those men named V and Luciel, they are all lying. I will explain everything once we get to Magenta.”

You stepped back, defensive.

“What are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere!”

“Sorry, but you don’t have any say. You entered the RFA because of me. And thanks to me, you’ll be able to get out.”

As Unknown approached, you backed away, trying to find a way to escape.

“I’m no going anywhere!” you repeated. Hoping for the best, you called out the one person who could help you. “Seven! Help me!”

“He will not come. Even if he does, he’s already to late,” Unknown sneered.

‘The special security system will be acti- acti- act... act...’

“What is this...?” Unknown asked, puzzled. His green eyes narrowed.

‘The special security system has been deactivated.’

“No way...! Where is this sound coming from?!”

There was a bang, and the apartment door flew open. Gold eyes made contact with your (E/C) ones and you felt time freeze. A tingle ran through your arm and you looked down to see your timer finally stopped.

00:00:00

Trying to register everything at once, you listened to Seven confront Unknown - his twin brother. With the threat of a bomb and reaching Seven safely, you now had a heavy secret to carry and a soulmate who was avoiding you.

So far, the past day with Seven had been tough. He was constantly trying to look out for you and keep his distance at the same time in this small apartment. He didn’t show any signs of noticing his timer stopped, probably having been caught up in the moment and the long sleeves.

The entire time he’s been in the apartment, you had been persistently trying to communicate with Seven. He kept telling you that he didn’t deserve happiness in life - there was no worth to his life.

As his soulmate, your heart was breaking.

Seeing the Robot Cat, Meowy, chatting with Seven, you decided to approach him. You couldn’t help but flinch as Seven lashed out at the poor robot and broke it.

Listening to him rant about his worth, your eyes welled up. He carried so much with him and now the person he trusted the most betrayed him. Seven was enduring the worse moments of his life and all you wanted to do was be there for him.

Through thick and thin.

“The person you like is the 707 in the chatroom, not me...!”

You ran up, giving him a back hug. Pressing your face up against his back, you could feel his warmth as tears slipped down your cheeks.

“Then let me understand the person in front of me...!” you cried out. “I’m your soulmate. This entire time, I’ve been waiting to meet you. I don’t care how dangerous and complicated your life is, I like you. I can’t change my feelings for you or change fate! Please, I’ll give you time to accept me, but, please, don’t push me away.”

Eyes filled with tears, Seven looked down at the timer on your wrist. He didn’t expect to have a soulmate, but knowing it was you made it harder to reject you. In all honesty, he cared for you - he really liked you - but there was too much going on and his life was too dangerous... But you were so hopeful... Perhaps...

“Saeyoung,” you breathed out pleadingly.

Seven looked into your (E/C) hues, muddled among his own confusing feelings with a definite answer on his tongue.

“Okay. Give me time.”

Because all this time, I’ve been waiting to meet you too.

#mystic messenger #mystic messenger imagine #707 imagine #707 imagines #707 x reader #choi saeyoung x reader #707 #saeyoung choi #saeyoung #choi #luciel choi #x reader #reader insert #imagine #imagines #soulmate #soulmate au #waiting to meet you

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dawcast · 3 years ago

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This 1 App Could End Up Replacing Everything

If you’re a social media fiend, chances are you spend all day everyday scanning Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Or, maybe like some, you like spending most of your time on TikTok and Snapchat (other social networks be damned…). Either way, you probably have something to share or offer. Maybe you like to make beats in your spare time. Perhaps you have a YouTube channel you’re looking to grow. Or maybe you’re a writer on Medium whose latest article just went viral. The bottom line is, we all have links we want to direct our audiences to – Patreon, OnlyFans, YouTube, or otherwise. Given that this is inevitable, the app (or link in bio) you use to promote your works should be something that helps you get results, shouldn’t it? And preferably, it should be an app that makes the process simpler and more streamlined, not more convoluted. After all, no one wants one more app.

What About Landing Pages?

I know, I’m a big fan of landing pages too. I’ve created and leveraged many over the years. But builders are kind of pricy (you’d better be using one if you want access to the best templates), and let’s face it – unless you have a perfect offer to market fit, getting people to sign up is hard. Even when you have the perfect offer, Campaign Monitor says the average conversion rate for a landing page across all industries is 2.35%. That means you need to draw 1,000 visitors to your landing page just to get 24 conversions (rounded up). Sure, landing pages sometimes do better. But exactly how much time, energy, and money do you want to spend on endless A/B testing with fonts, colors, copy, imagery, videos, button variations, and more, just to get a few signups? It's too much for the average person.

Enter Link in Bio Solutions

Obviously, there are a few “link in bio” solutions out there. And they’re all great. Honestly, I’m not here to diss any of them, because I’ve tried a few myself, and I can’t say I’ve had a bad experience with any of them. The great thing about these solutions is that they bypass a lot of the guesswork. You can prioritize the links you want to show first, so you can get more clicks on those. With most, you can usually include links to your social media profiles, and sometimes embed your latest media, like your latest podcast episode, music release, or YouTube video. But that’s all most link in bio solutions have been designed to do. Is that wrong? No. But someone realized that link in bios could be taken to the next level, that they could be the best of both worlds, or in this case, all worlds.

The 1 App That’s Transforming the Link in Bio Concept

The newcomer that’s fast transforming the “link in bio” landscape is Koji. When I saw it for the first time, honestly, I didn’t know what to expect. But once I started digging a little deeper, I quickly realized that it offered more than any other solution out there. For FREE. It has built-in mini apps that allow you to collect donations, crowdfund your next project, sell locked content and NFTs, create Cameo style videos, collect emails, and more. If you’re going to send people to a link in bio, it should be one where you can do all of that anyway, right? After all, aren’t you sending people to Patreon, OnlyFans, YouTube, OpenSea, PayPal, Kickstater, ConvertKit, and other destinations anyway, even if you’re already using another link in bio platform? Wouldn’t it make your life a whole lot easier to be able to do it all from one central space, AND direct people to one link instead of half a dozen or more? That’s why I recommend checking out Koji.

Is Koji Just for Musicians?

Not at all. It’s great for all types of creators – NFT owners, eCommerce businesses, artists, musicians, and more.

What Does Koji Cost?

It’s FREE!

Are You Playin’ Me, Bro?

No, I just think it’s a great app you should check out. That’s why I brought it up. 😉 So, join the likes of Melissa Etheridge, Def Leppard, and Walk Off The Earth who already have their own Koji link in bio. Read the full article

#CampaignMonitor #ConvertKit #Koji #linkinbio #TikTok

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woodframehouses · 3 years ago

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A glimpse inside NYC’s rare wooden houses

By Zachary Kussin

The powdery blue sky melts seamlessly into this Dean Street cottage.

Travis Mark

Standing tall on a Brooklyn Heights corner, this sandy house with wood siding commands rare curb appeal in a city where brick, stone and glass buildings dominate the streetscape. Its scarlet shutters and picket fence seem to befit small-town America, not the Big Apple.

The 4,007-square-foot, seven-bedroom spread at 24 Middagh St. is one of New York City’s few remaining wood-frame row houses — and it’s on the market.

“I walk by and I go, ‘I can’t believe I grew up in that,’ ” says seller Celeste Weisman, a 61-year-old marketing and advertising professional. Referred to as “the queen of Brooklyn Heights houses” by the city’s top architecture guide, 24 Middagh, asking $4.99 million, is said to be one of the oldest homes in the area, completed in the early 1800s. “It has a charm and a grace to it.”

Enamored by its period features, Weisman’s late parents purchased the home in 1958. She says the wide-plank pine floors are likely original, as is the ornate ecru woodwork surrounding the crimson-colored front door. “We always thought it was special,” she adds.

Celeste Weisman grew up at 24 Middagh St., a wood-frame beauty with 19th-century details. It’s listed for $4.99 million.

Zandy Mangold

And it is. At least 13 timber-based houses, which have only survived in certain neighborhoods from Park Slope to Washington Heights, are up for sale between $1.62 million and nearly $5 million. Though there’s no sense of how many still exist within city limits today — due to unavailable records, demolitions, even facade renovations that replaced wood with bricks or stone — brokers agree those that remain come to market somewhat regularly.

Nevertheless, the listings mark opportunities to own a type of property that hasn’t been built in over a century due to a ban in their construction for safety measures.

“They really stand out, and they’re exquisite,” says Jessica Buchman, a Corcoran broker who’s representing 24 Middagh St. with Bryan Rettaliata. “They’re like little candies. It’s like you want to eat them.”

These cottage-like dwellings, known for endearing facades in hues from blue to pink, owe their origins to cost-effectiveness. Early developers took advantage of wood as a cheap construction material and built timber houses for merchants and tradespeople in the 19th century, as Manhattan and Brooklyn were growing denser. Sometimes the end results were standalone homes, but working-class housing — particularly in Brooklyn’s South Slope and Gowanus — meant long rows of them. They predate brownstones, which came into vogue in the late 19th century as tastes of the more moneyed set changed.

Splinter sell: Wooden gem 490 Classon Ave.

Melanie Greene

Other wooden houses include 2,400-square-foot 490 Classon Ave. in Clinton Hill — which has gray wood siding and a front porch — that’s being marketed by Compass for $2.35 million. There’s also the newly renovated 343 Prospect Ave. in South Slope, listed by Corcoran for $2.49 million.

Manhattan doesn’t have as many wooden homes for sale right now, but they are clustered in Greenwich Village, the West Village, the Upper East Side and Washington Heights. In the latter neighborhood, a 1,625-square-foot property at 11 Sylvan Terrace — a row off West 161st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue lined with yellow homes with green shutters — is asking $1.62 million with Stribling.

Wood-frame homes are less common in Manhattan because of their fire risk. Beginning in the mid-19th century, when the borough was a separate city, a number of fires that destroyed hundreds of buildings led to codes banning the construction of the flammable residences. Officials implemented the first ban on wood frames in 1816 for the area below Canal Street. In 1849, the zone grew north to 32nd Street. By 1882, no wood-frame construction could rise below 155th Street. (Brooklyn implemented similar rules in various waves, but at later, unspecified dates.)

“They’re miraculous survivors,” says Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. He estimates the number of existing wood-frame homes in Greenwich Village and the West Village — including the well-preserved 17 Grove St., which dates to 1822 — is in the “low double digits.” Adds Berman, “They maintain an element of surprise, history and charm that you can’t recreate.”

By contrast, Brooklyn has maintained more of its wood-frame gems because of its relative developmental stasis.

“Brooklyn urbanized and then it stayed that way,” says Andrew Dolkart, a professor of historic preservation at Columbia University. “It has not gone through the periods of development and redevelopment that Manhattan neighbor-hoods have gone through.”

One Brooklyn hotbed of still-standing wood-frame homes is along Webster Place — a one-block stretch between 16th Street and Prospect Avenue in South Slope — where the properties are both brightly painted and well-preserved.

“There’s so much color and texture,” says Elizabeth Finkelstein, a writer and urban historian who previously ran the Wooden House Project — a blog that profiled wood-frame homes in Brooklyn — between 2011 and 2014. (The blog ceased following a move upstate.)

Brooklyn’s Wallabout area is home to historic 155 Washington Ave., asking $2.19 million today.

Douglas Elliman

Wallabout, a neighborhood near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, has the city’s highest concentration of these homes.

“In addition to Greek and Gothic Revival [wood-frame] houses with original or early porches, cornices and other details, brick and stone row houses in Italianate and Neo-Grec styles line the streets between Myrtle and Park avenues” in Wallabout, says Kathleen Perkins, of Douglas Elliman, who’s marketing a just-listed wooden row house at 155 Washington Ave. for $2.19 million. “James Marston Fitch, founder of Columbia University’s Historic Preservation program, described the area in 1973 as an ‘outdoor architectural museum.’ ”

Equally as fascinating as the places with a bevy of wooden row houses are the areas with just one.

Such is the case in Crown Heights, whose single remaining wooden home from the time when the neighborhood was settled — an 1855-built villa at 1375 Dean St. — has just been reborn as the Elkins House Condominium. Sandwiched in between larger brick buildings, this now-spiffy-looking blue home contains four townhouse-style units from $2.3 million via Compass.

Crown Heights’ only wood house was just turned into four condos.

Travis Mark

It had previously fallen into disrepair. “The way they built the foundation back then was they just gathered together rocks,” says Amber Mazor, of Komaru Enterprise LLC, the project developer. “Over time the rocks moved and deteriorated; as the foundation for a house, that became problematic. Then you have the wood frame, and the problem of decay because of age, water damage and termites.”

Following a lengthy renovation, the now-steel-supported building is as good as new — and with recycled materials, to boot. For instance, 2-by-4 pine beams that framed the home were repurposed inside for staircases. Original wood rafters in the attic have been used as beams in residences. And it’s a good get for buyers looking for a home with history and turnkey convenience.

Of course, being old structures, wood-frame row houses do require facelifts — most of all, to make them less prone to fire, their 19th-century drawback.

Mariya Kemper-Reiss and family renovated a South Slope wood house listed for $2.97 million.

Zandy Mangold

Similarly, stay-at-home mom Mariya Kemper-Reiss, 44, and her husband, Brian Reiss, 45, who works in financial consulting, upgraded their wooden home at 196 15th St., now on the market with Corcoran for $2.97 million ahead of a family move to Florida.

“With a wood-frame home, you can have more variety in terms of your choices in design,” says Kemper-Reiss, who has kids Logan, 11, and Cooper, 9, and dog, Slinky.

The previous owners gut-renovated and expanded the late 1800s property in 2011; Kemper-Reiss and Reiss added an open, loft-like entry level. The result: a home with hints of its rich past but all the 21st-century conveniences.

Additional reporting by Jennifer Gould Keil

#nyc'swoodframehouses

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noble-pro · 5 years ago

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The Best of 2019 - What an Adventure It Has Been!

If you look at my race results for 2019, it has been a disaster. No legit Personal Bests anywhere, two atrocious road marathons, 2 failures to make the GB team, and even a few DNFs (Did Not Finish) next to my name. 2019 starts really well for me. Being named as ambassador for ON and Noble-Pro feels brilliant. I am also really excited about taking over the world with my Drone Running (Drone Running is where I run around the hills with a drone following me and filming. Completely my own genius idea which will surely bring me instant fame and riches). My racing picks up quickly, I run my 2nd fastest ever Half Marathon on a windy day, and off a 100 mile week. I get big PBs in my local parkrun and National Road Relays. Brighton Marathon is being sponsored by ON, so I run it. It goes terribly. I try and be clever and run my own race. But end up running the whole race completely isolated, into strong winds, and pulling my calf in the process. 2.28. Not so clever then. London Marathon two weeks later is a very quick turn around, but I have nothing to lose. I give it a shot, fully commit, but despite all my positive self-talk, my calf goes again. I’m proud to make it to the finish in 2.35.

I haven’t done any serious damage to my calf, and find that my fitness is still high. I start bending my attention to the GB Mountain Running trials, which are being held as part of the Snowdonia Trail Marathon. I am so motivated about getting my first GB vest and running the World Champs in Argentina, that I tell very few people about my aims. My races are all aimed at improving my chances in the trial. Things start to go really well for me, with some promising race results, including 2nd place at Snowdon Uphill race, where uphill is not my strong point. A few weeks before the race I start to feel really weirdy and fatigued. I know the tough races (when I say tough, I mean ‘nosebleed and blood-piss inducing’ tough), 30 mile training runs, and 110 mile weeks have taken their toll. But I still manage to pull myself together and give the race a good crack. I’m up in the lead till mile 18, where things fall apart, and I go through the most horrific race experience of my life on the moody slopes of Snowdon. Get down in one piece, still finish 10th, but leave a piece of my soul up there. Bit dramatic. Find it very difficult to find my mojo again after this crushing defeat. Drop out of a race, and am constantly thinking of quitting during races. I’m not used to negative thoughts. My little squad of runners at Track Tuesday Treborth is growing and I’m really enjoying feeling part of something good. It keeps me turning up week in week out and I have an unexpected great result in the short course GB Mountain Running trials, with 8th place on a very hot day.

It starts to become apparent that I am not going to win the internet with my drone footage such as it is. After a year of agonisingly difficult skill acquirement, I realise the technology is just not good enough yet. I start coaching training partner and good friend, Tom Roberts, for his debut marathon, Marathon Eryri. We work well together, and Tom gets into serious sharp shape for the race. On the day, if Tom ran sensible, he was good enough for 2nd place. But he wasn’t interested in 2nd place. He threw his chips in the air and went for gold, running a 5km pb during the race! He did incredibly well to hold on for 4th, and he gave the spectators one of the most thrilling races ever. Thanks for the heart attack, Tom.

Callum Rowlinson, winner (left). Tom Roberts (right) I am getting a bit perplexed with my blog. I love blogging. But it’s been 3 years now and my stats seem to have plateaued. It is not wrong to enjoy external validation. No matter what I write, I get roughly the same number of loyal readers (love you guys), no more, no less. I decide to change the tone and put out some comment. I write a post about the Nike Vaporfly Shoes and instantly my stats are booming. I get loads of comments, lots positive, some negative, but I enjoy doing something fresh and different. I am getting into good shape in training, and run a PB in Dulwich parkrun off some high mileage, but I want to back the Vaporfly blog post up with something bigger and more audacious. I go all in, and spend a ridiculous amount of time on the Farah & Salazar post. I write over 100 pages on it, then boil it down to 25. It consumes my life for a period. I’m working late into the night, eating junk, not getting enough sleep. I’m a big believer in sleep. It’s no surprise to me that I pick up a calf injury and am getting grouchy and quick tempered. I’m proud of the post, and stand by it. It gets 10,000 views, not much more than a normal post. Even though I have worked so much harder. I was hoping for 100,000 or a million. Newspaper editors are not banging down my door asking me to write for them. There is no book deal. I have not broken through. I am left fat and out of shape, with my calf injury, and a lot of making up to do. Then, on Christmas Eve, the most astonishing thing happens. I walk into a shop in London and the guy behind the counter instantly recognises me. He remembers me from when I worked as a Teaching Assistant in his primary school. I used to coach running there, 16 years ago. Just play-time at first, then lunch, then after school, then travelling to tournaments around London, often without pay. It grew and grew. We started winning competitions. We had to build a trophy cabinet. After 3 years we had the best runners in Southwalk. I worked really hard coaching those kids. I would arrive early, leave late. But I never thought of it as work. I loved it so much. I didn’t know why, I never needed validation. I just did it for the joy of doing it. To have this guy recognise me like that, 16 years later, it reminded me what a special thing we had built back then. Even though this guy is 6″5 and 26 years old now, I can remember him. He can’t wait to tell his friends he’s met me. They are still “inspired”, and go running around Dulwich park some weekends. He tells me their names and I remember them too. This blows my mind. These guys are not in the demographic you would expect to see running around the park for fun. I tell him I’ll be running the London Marathon, he says he will come and watch. I have to rush cos Nina and the kids are waiting in the car. Also, I don’t want to say anything stupid and ruin the moment. I’m still glowing from it now. It’s a deep glow. A lot lot deeper than getting likes on Insta.

My most liked post on Insta this year, over 1000 likes, if you’re interested. You can see my foot is blurred cos I have just literally jumped onto the rock before the auto-timer I might have some talent for writing. But I don’t think I would enjoy being a full-time writer. I don’t enjoy being couped up indoors for hours and days on my own, with my thoughts. I love working with people, outside, and getting them running. Because running is so good for us. I believe in it. I don’t believe in fate. It was a coincidence I met an ex-pupil that day. I wasn’t in the midst of some depression that his words pulled me out of. But it just goes to show… small pebbles can create big ripples. Or something profound like that. If I have a New Years Resolution for 2020, then that is it? Non-Running Related Highlight of the Year I leave my job as a builder to go full-time on our project. Turning a massive, long abandoned Chapel House into an AirBnb business. We are nearly finished, taking bookings from Feb. Wink wink plug plug. See our listing here Also my Brother in Laws wedding in France. Beautiful peoples, views and vibes. Perfect weather, food and location.

Movie of the Year Joker Song of the Year Imagine Dragons – Zero Series of The Year Fleabag Season 2 Book Of The Year The Fox Of The North. General Kutuzov- Roger Parkinson 1976 Read the full article

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dailydosefact-blog · 5 years ago

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Ranveer Allahbadia aka Beer Biceps transformation from being overweight to becoming health & fitness icon.

By Dailydose.fact Staff

02 November 2019

I’m like those who simply Google everyday “how to lose weight” and there are those, like Ranveer Allahbadia, who become a YouTube sensation and make a career out of being fit. If you are active on social platforms you may already know Allahbadia by his YouTube handle, Beer Biceps. The channel has over 2.35 Mn subscribers and his Insta following stands at 672k. Beer Biceps is one of India's first fitness YouTube channels that caters to the unique fitness needs of Indian men. However, you should know that Ranveer Allahbadia wasn't always ripped; Should I say he wasn't even fit. So how did aka Beer Biceps go from fat to fit and go on to become one of India's best-known fitness icon?

Ranveer was 15 when he was diagnosed with a gall bladder stone. "It's what happens to people in their late 40s or 50s," he says. "This came as a rude wake-up call and was also a major indication for future health complications. I was told to get my ducks in line, but due to my engineering entrance exams taking up all my time, I remained out of shape for the next two years. When I was 18, I finally decided to do something about my situation and start leading a healthier life before things got worse."

It didn't take him long to figure out that engineering was not his cup of tea. "It wasn't that I was bad at studies but I didn't enjoy the subject. I realized that at the end of my course, I would only have three options: do an MBA, go abroad or get a job. I couldn't see myself being happy doing any of these three things but I also wasn't sure of what I wanted to do."

By now, Ranveer had already begun asking himself how to lose weight before it got too late. Before long, he got interested in fitness and completed a certificate course from Peak Performance, a fitness academy that his coach, Binny Sreedharan, runs. Soon after he graduated, Ranveer and his coach tried their hand at launching a start-up that, as he describes it, was an Uber for fitness and yoga coaches. "When we took the idea to an investor, he bluntly said that one of us would need to get famous for something like this to pick up and that would be a good marketing strategy," he recalls.

"So, I took a chance and started putting out videos on YouTube to get the word out. Back then I didn't even know that YouTube pays for content. While I was trying to get fit, I watched a lot of foreign fitness channels, but I felt like they didn't answer the questions I had as an Indian. That's when I realized there was an opportunity and grabbed it with both hands."

When time came to name his channel, Ranveer called it Beer Biceps "because I believe in having fun and staying fit at the same time."

How do i lose weight, get ripped according to someone who's done it “I asked”

Ranveer says he lost his first 10 kg simply by doing cardio. "But that was the wrong way," he says, "Because when you're only doing cardio, along with the fat, you're also losing a lot of muscle weight and your health almost always ends up going for a toss.

"This is a common mistake a lot of people make. A lot of teenagers tell me that they only eat 1,000 calories a day, which is a bad thing because it ends up stunting their height and doesn't give the body the required amount of nutrition. Just doing cardio is not the answer to lose weight."

Ranveer learnt this lesson early on when his coach explained the science behind it. "He suggested that if I wanted to know how to lose weight, I should combine weight training with cardio so that I build muscle while burning fat at the same time." Hmm Interesting.

Can I lose weight by eating right?

Ranveer says that the key to weight loss is by focusing on consuming protein. "Ever since I started my weight-loss journey, I've maintained a portion of 150 gm of protein in my diet daily. I usually have five portions of 30 gm each, but it also depends on how the day goes. Sometimes if I've not eaten much all day, I eat 3-4 heavy meals. Otherwise I try splitting it up.

"Generally, breakfast comprises an omelet with multigrain toast or a fruit. I usually have a big serving of chicken or fish with brown rice, curry and vegetables for lunch. A little later in the day I have some protein shake with a lot with some nuts.

"Then I go to the gym and again follow it up with another protein shake. Dinner is just like lunch and if I get hungry again at night, I'd whip up some eggs or have some more protein shake." Isn’t that healthy and yummy.

What are the worst foods for weight loss?

"If you want to know how to lose weight, just go slow on sugar," he says. "It might seem like common sense but it's amazing how little we pay attention it. Sugar is the culprit behind any fatal disease, be it heart-attack or diabetes or even joint problems. Directly or indirectly sugar intake is the key root of most health problems. Even deep-fried food is not as bad as it. Generally, you consume a lot of sugar when you have some dessert and along with that, you're also consuming a lot of dirty fats.

"At the end of it, sugar is an addictive substance and that pastry will lead to you injecting all those dirty fats and clogging up your arteries. This is something people really need to know about. Talking about eating the right kind of food is one of the main goals of my channel."

How to maintain the weight loss

Ranveer says he spends about an hour at the gym. This is over and above the time he spends shooting videos for his channel. "Being a YouTuber is a stressful job, because you're working for yourself and it's seven days a week. At the end of it, when I hit the gym, it's like I'm disconnecting and unwinding. For days that I can't make it to the gym, I've got an exercise bike at home and make it a point to spend at least 30 minutes on it so that my body gets the movement it needs."

When he started out on his weight loss programme, Ranveer went from 92 kg to 68 kg. But as he started to bulk up, he went back up to 90 kg before settling at 70 kg. His body fat percentage now stands at 13.

Water intake forms a major part of Ranveer's diet. "Since I follow a high-protein diet, I take my water intake very seriously. Generally, protein can act as a catalyst to escalate health problems if your body is not hydrated at all times. Not drinking enough water would generally create problems like kidney-stone and uric acid. But I make sure to have at least four-five liters of water a day and I keep a track of my urine. If your urine is yellow in color, your body is telling you that it's dehydrated," he says.

So, what does a day in the life of a fitness vlogger look like?

"I have the liberty to start my mornings a little late because we generally work the nights," he says. "I wake up around 11 and prep for the day: meditate, get freshened up have breakfast. We then kick off the day by shooting or writing or conceptualizing, whatever is the need of the hour.

"Then from 4-6, I help my team edit videos and from 7 pm to 8 pm we brainstorm on how to take the business forward. I hit the gym by 8 pm or 9 pm and come back and unwind for a bit. I am usually up until 3 am writing or scripting videos."

Growing his YouTube channel was a major challenge. "The initial growth to 10,000 subscribers is very difficult and slow. It's a really testing and demotivating at times because nobody is watching your videos. But being consistent is key. Once we got past that, even the older videos that no one watched started getting a lot of hits."

For someone who comes from a family of doctors, making such an unconventional career choice was a bold move. Ranveer says that while his mother had some reservations in the beginning, his father was always supportive of him. "There was a period when things weren't picking up and that was worrisome for my parents. But later, when their patients came and spoke about my work, they were relieved and started getting an idea of what I was doing. Until then, they didn't really understand how YouTube works. But now, that we've picked up and even opened up offices, they see the work happening and the money raking in and are now happy."

2020 will hopefully see Ranveer working on an original web-content series. But for now, he's focusing on “The Ranveer Show” (TRS) Interviewing successful role models and inspirational figures.

#ranveer allahbadia #beerbiceps #how to lose weight 2019 #weight loss foods #indian weight loss foods

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rensfic · 7 years ago

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Coming to Save You, Part VIII

TW for use of the 6-letter slur that starts with f.

Seeing the stone lions at the downtown Manhattan public library makes Peter’s heart jump a little. He mounts the great stone steps, feeling just like he did when he was eight and came here because there was a book here on technology that he couldn’t find in his neighborhood library. It’s nice to feel it again. His eyes are wide as he takes in the big doors and enters through them, scanning the room immediately for threats. Nothing dangerous. Just some of the old Protectron assistants. Everyone else is dead. He steps forward and heads for the nearest terminal to start searching. Meanwhile, Wade is having his own library experience.

Wade walks among the books, scanning the titles, remembering the last time he set foot in a library. He remembers it clearly, because he swore that day to never go into a library or borrow a book again. He’d picked something out that looked interesting to him. Something about African rainforest birds. He’d been very curious as a child and liked learning things like that. When he got home, his father had found the book and slapped him for it. He said he wasn’t going to let his boy grow up to be some kind of brainiac… Wade winced as he remembers the slur his father had used for him. He doesn’t want to, but he thinks about it, and it comes out anyway, because his brain has been a mess ever since The Thing.

“Faggot, faggot, faggot,” he says to himself, browsing the titles, without thinking about it. He stops in his tracks and shakes his head. “No. Stop. Not faggot. Well, okay, yes faggot. But that’s okay. There is nothing wrong with me. Oh shut up. You always knew he wouldn’t approve. Since when was Dad wrong about anything?” He takes another step, huffing. “He was wrong about a lot of things, okay? He was right about army shit and that’s it. That’s all he was good at.” Relaxing his shoulders, he wills himself to believe. “Okay, fine. But you’re still a-- fuck off, I get it, stop already.” But the word still rings in his mind, no matter how hard he tries to stop thinking about it. Then he loses his patience. “Faggot, faggot, FUCKING FAGGOT!” He shouts into the silent room, hoping that thinking it loud enough will clear it from his head. Then there’s silence. And then Peter’s voice.

“Wade? You okay back there?”

“Wh-what? Oh! Yes. I’m fine. Everything’s fine. You found anything yet?”

“No, the archives aren’t accessible from here. I have to go lower into the basement, probably. I’ll be back. Uh, if anyone tries to get in, get rid of them, please?”

“I’m on it!” He can feel his cheeks reddening. He really likes Peter. He has absolutely the most ridiculous crush on him, has for a long time now. Over two centuries in the making. He jokes with himself for a moment that he should’ve recognized Peter’s ass right away when he came out of the vault. He’s stared at it enough, God knows. Unfortunately, Peter’s straight. Very straight. Always has been. So Wade has to suck it up and see if he can date someone else. He misses Vanessa a lot. He wishes he could visit her grave but there probably isn’t one. Just a skeleton lying somewhere, or if she was lucky, nothing. Just vaporized in an instant.

Wade shakes his head, then looks up at the books, desperate for anything that might distract him. He reads the title of a book. He’s somehow wandered into the biology section. With a snort he wonders if that book on animals might be here somewhere. He looks around, but this isn’t children’s nonfiction-- this is some kind of bioengineering section. Peter would love this. Textbooks, journals, reports… he grabs a random journal and flips it open, then chuckles when he sees Spider-Man mentioned in the title of one of the articles. He opens to it. Spider-Man’s Senses: Precognitive Warning Effects in the Brains of Animal-Morphized Humans, the title declares, with a little graph underneath. He scans the abstract, now wondering if there might be something here Peter would want to know.

Experiment used trials of twenty animal-morphized humans with a control group of ten, and a variety of animal types: Spider, bat, iguana, lion, eagle, frog, and salmon. Chart above shows species distribution of hybrids along with their alert time before the advent of either a dangerous event or one that is desired strongly by the subject. Bat-morphized humans were found to have the greatest ability to detect such events before their occurrence: brains show marked increase in nervous system activity 3.20 seconds before the conscious brain perceived them. Spider-morphized humans came second with 2.35 seconds, frog-morphized third with 2.12 seconds, iguana-morphized fourth with 1.96 seconds, eagle-morphized fifth with 1.88 seconds, salmon-morphized sixth with 1.75 seconds, and lion-morphized last with 1.55 seconds. One note is important to make: If the desired event is the one which is taking place, it is always present in cases where the subject is repressing their desire for the event strongly. Subjects who did not repress their desire for the event did not show any animal-morphized response, as indicated by follow-up therapy sessions.

Wade blinks at this, and then immediately closes it and walks back toward the basement stairs to keep watch. About three minutes later Peter comes back upstairs, carrying a few books under his arms, and Wade holds the journal out to him.

“I found this over in bioengineering. Some kind of brain journal. They have something about animal-morphized-- I mean, people like you. Spider people and bat people and others. Thought you might want to check it out.

“Sure, yeah,” Peter replies, taking it from him and sliding it under his arm. “The more you know, right? Ready to head back?”

“Yeah. Let’s get going.” He smiles, hoping that he’s found something helpful for him. Peter smiles right back at him.

Back at the park, Peter sets all of the books down to start reading, but the first one that catches his eye is the journal. He’s curious. He wants to know what’s in there. He reads the abstract, frowning. A desired event, the desire for which is repressed strongly? He can’t remember ever having his spider-senses go off right before a desired… oh. That moment. With Wade. His brow furrows. What kind of event had he been hoping for with Wade? Well, he supposes that if he’s repressed the desire, it must be something he would find uncomfortable, or even upsetting. He’d been hoping for… for Wade to look at him. That can’t be right. But he knows it is, he can feel it. He’d wanted Wade to look at him, to pay attention to him, to be the center of Wade’s world for a moment. Why? He knows why. But like the article said, he doesn’t want to admit it. He’s always thought of himself as completely straight.

But he’s attracted to Wade Wilson.

#ctsy

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danuellebennet-blog · 5 years ago

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Assessment of Different Sunflower Genotypes under Agro-Climatic Conditions of District Malakand Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

Authored by Saif Ullah*

Abstract

The present study was conducted with the aim to evaluate sunflower hybrids under agro climatic conditions of district Malakand. A set of 8 sunflower hybrids was evaluated in randomized complete block design having two replications in spring 2014. Each sunflower genotype was sown in five meter long two rows 75cm apart with P-P distance 25cm. Data were recorded on yield and associated traits such as days to flower initiation, days to flower completion, days to maturity, plant height, head diameter, grain yield and 100 grain weight. Significant differences were observed among the genotypes for all the studied traits. The minimum days (80) to flower initiation were observed in Hybrid-14013 while maximum days (85) to flower initiation were observed in Hybrid-14009. Data regarding flower completion showed that Hybrid-14021 took maximum days (95) in flower completion while minimum days (86) was recorded for Hybrid-14013. Data pertaining to plant maturity compiled that Hybrid 14021 took maximum days (120) followed by one day (119) interval rest of all. A maximum plant height (132cm) was observed in Hybrid-14035 while minimum of 109cm in Hybrid-14013. Data related to head diameter showed that a maximum diameter of 17.80cm was recorded for Hybrid-14021 and minimum of 14.20 cm for Hybrid-14048. Maximum 100 seed weight 5g recorded in Hybrid-14041 while maximum (1666kg ha-1) grain yield were noticed in Hybrid 14021 and minimum yield of (661 kg ha-1) in Hybrid-14048. It is concluded that Hybrid- 14021 performed better in agro-climatic condition of Malakand valley and produced maximum yield.

Keywords: Genotypes; Hybrids; Traits

Introduction

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an annual plant native to the Americas. Early settlers grew sunflower for food and garden decoration. European brought sunflower along trade routes to Spain, Italy, Egypt, Afghanistan, China, Russia [1]. It possesses a large flowering head, which is inflorescence of sunflower. The sunflower is named for its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image are often used to depict the sun. It has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads of flowers. The heads consist of many individual flowers which mature into seeds, often in the hundreds, on a receptacle base.

In Pakistan although it was introduced as an oilseed crop 40 years back but its expansion in acreage and production is fluctuating due to various production and socio-economic constraints. Its seed contains 35-55% oil contents. Research work on this crop has shown that there is great potential of growing it under all the soil and climatic conditions in rain-fed as well as irrigated farming system in different agro-ecological zones (PARC).

The total cultivated area of Pakistan is 20.69 million ha. Out of this cultivated area, 16.48 million ha or 79.65% of the total cultivated area are irrigated. In 1970-71, oilseeds occupied nearly 3% of the total cultivated area, which decreased to 2.5% by 2002-03 [2]. Major share in domestic production of edible oil comes from cottonseed and canola, 67 and 19.6%, respectively. The remaining 13.4% are contributed mainly by sunflower [3]. Edible oil is basic need of every country. In country like Pakistan, About 80% of the total needs are met through imports while only 30% come from local production. Major growing areas of sunflower in Pakistan includes, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Faisalabad in Punjab, Peshawar, Malakand in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Khairpur and districts of Hyderabad division in Sindh [4]. During the year 2011-12, the total availability of edible oil was 2.748 million tons. Local production of edible oil remained 0.636 million tons while imports were 2.148 mill tons. The import bill during 2011-12 stood at Rs.216.4 billion (US$ 2.426 billion). During the year 2012-13 (July-March), 1.738 million tons of edible oil valued at PRs. 153.3 billion (US$ 1.595 billion) has been imported. The local production during 2012-13 (July-March) was 0.612 million tons. Total availability of edible oil from all sources is provisionally estimated at 2.35 million tons during 2012-13 (July-March). (Economic survey of Pakistan 2012-13)

Uses of sunflower

I. Sunflower oil is used as edible oil in many parts of the world.

II. Sunflower oil could be used as fuel for cars or trucks.

III. Sunflower oil is an ingredient in salad dressings and cooking.

IV. Sunflowers are used to prepare some special paints.

V. Sunflower oil is used to prepare certain kinds of glue.

VI. Soaps made with sunflower oil.

VII. It has been used in certain paints, varnishes and plastics because of good semidrying properties without color modification associated with oils high in linoleic acid.

VIII. The use of sunflower oil (and other vegetable oils) as a pesticide carrier, and in the production of agrichemicals, surfactants, adhesives, plastics, fabric softeners, lubricants and coatings has been explored

IX. Also use as bird feed.

X. In human diet it is used as snacks and this trend is increased since 15years.

XI. It can be used as a double crop after early harvested small grains or vegetables, an emergency crop, or in areas with a season too short to produce mature corn for silage.

XII. Non-dehulled or partly dehulled sunflower meal has been substituted successfully for soybean meal in isonitrogenous (equal protein) diets for ruminant animals.

XIII. The growing herb is extremely useful for drying damp soils, because of its remarkable ability to absorb quantities of water.

XIV. The Sunflower is a good bee plant, as it furnishes hive bees with large quantities of wax and nectar.

XV. The unexpanded buds boiled and served like Artichokes form a pleasant dish.

XVI. Sunflowers, when the stalks are dry, are as hard as wood and make an excellent fire.

XVII. Of the ash obtained from burning the Sunflower stems and heads (apart from seeds) 62 per cent consists of potash.

XVIII. Being so rich in oil, they are too stimulating to use alone and should only be used in combination with other feeding stuffs.

XIX. The Chinese grow this plant extensively, and it is believed that a large portion of its fiber is mixed with their silks.

Botany of sunflower

The sunflower is a member of the plant family Asteraceae, or Compositae. Asters are remarkable for their type of inflorescence, which is a head of florets. The head is also called capitulum. The “flower” of the sunflower is actually made up of lots and lots of little flowers, called florets. The center, darker florets are disc florets; while the outer, petal-like ones are ray florets. Sunflower seeds are indehiscent achenes. The genus Helianthus, to which the Sunflower belongs, contains about fifty species. It is an annual herb, with a rough, hairy stem, 3 to 12 feet high, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves, 3 to 12 inches long and circular heads of flowers, 3 to 6 inches wide in wild specimens and often a foot or more in cultivation. Chromosome number of sunflower is 34. Sunflower is highly cross pollinated crop. For instance, the sunflower genome 3.5 billion bases long [5], slightly longer than the human genome [6].

Flower

Sunflower is a member of the aster family. A capitulum or head, the characteristic inflorescence of the sunflower family (Asteraceae). The inflorescence consists of ray flowers, disk flowers, or both ray and disk flowers. The ovary of each flower is situated below the attachment of the corolla and stamens, a condition referred to as epigenous or inferior. The disc florets are located in the centre of the composite flower, and the ray florets bear the outer ring of petal-like structures. Ray florets are sterile, and disc florets have both male and female structures, including a single ovary that develops into a sunflower seed. A single flower head may have up to two thousand disc florets, each with the potential to develop into a seed (Figure 1).

Roots system

Sunflowers (Helianthus spp.) have a single taproot and smaller, hairy secondary roots. Sunflower roots usually grow 1 to 3 feet deep, and more than 5 feet long roots are also measured (USDA).

Stem

A sunflower stem sample has many vascular bundles along the edge of its sample. Unlike other plants, fibers are visible next to the vascular bundles. The center part of the sample is called pith, in which most cells are found. Stem have leaves and a terminal head (Figure 2).

Leaves

The leaf of a sunflower is considered a simple leaf, which consists of a single blade. The plumule gives rise to the first leaves of the plant that will go on to grow into organs for transpiration, with the opening and closing of the stomata found within the cell structure of leaves; for photosynthesis, and for other metabolic activities.

Yield contributing traits in sunflower

Seed yield is a quantitative character, which is influenced more from climate and environmental factors in sunflower because of being controlled by large number of genes. To increase seed yield, the study of direct and indirect effects of yield components provides the basis for successful breeding program [7]. Head diameter, 1000 seed weight, plant height are other valuable yield parameters that determine yield improvement in the sunflower [8].

Objective of the study

Present study was carried out to;

I. Check performance of eight sunflower hybrids, obtained from National Agricultural Research Centre Islamabad (NARC) under field conditions of district Malakand.

II. Record data on various quantitative traits.

III. Find out the best sunflower hybrid for the area.

Materials and Methods

A total of 8 sunflower hybrids obtained from NARC oilseed section were sown in the field of district Malakand during February 2014 for yield and associated traits. Plant material was sown in randomized complete block (RCB) design having three replications. Each entry was assigned a two row plot having row to row and plant to plant distance of 75 and 25cm, respectively.

Location

The Research field is located at 34.56 ˚N, 71.96 ˚E, at an altitude of 454m above sea level in the Malakand valley. Malakand is located about 1437 km north of the Indian Ocean, 156km from river Kabul, 96km from river Swat and has semiarid climate. The research farm is irrigated by the Dargai canal from the river Swat. Soil texture is clay loam, low in organic matter (0.87%), extractable phosphorus (6.57mg kg-1), exchangeable potassium (121 mg kg-1), and alkaline (pH 7-8.5) and is calcareous in nature. The climate of the area is semiarid where the mean annual rainfall ranges (400 to 500mm), 60-80% rainfall occurs in summer, while the remaining 30-40% rainfall occurs in winter (Table 1).

A. Parameters studied: Data were recorded on the following parameters.

B. Days to flowering initiation (DFI): Days to flowering initiation was recorded from date of sowing till about five percent of the buds opened flowers in each plot.

C. Days to flower completion (DFC): Flower completion data was recorded when about 90% of the buds opened flower in each plot. This was also calculated from date of planting.

D. Days to Maturity: Data for days to maturity was recorded when back of the heads turned yellow and bracts started turning brownish in color.

E. Plant height (cm): A total of five plants randomly selected in each plot were measured from ground level to attachment of head with stem to record data on plant height. Plant height was recorded at the time of maturity.

F. Head diameter (cm): Head diameter was calculated as it is yield contributing trait in sunflower. Five plants from each line were selected at random and data for head diameter was recorded. Head diameter was measured from one edge of the disk to other.

G. 100-seed weight (g): 100 seed weight was also calculated for each hybrid. An average of three samples of 100-seeds for each hybrid, were taken to record data on 100- seed weight. Seed was weighed in grams with the help of an electronic balance up to two decimal points.

H. Grain Yield (kg ha-1): Total produce after threshing was sun dried for 2-3 days and then seed was weighed with the help of an electronic balance for each hybrid.

I. Statistical analysis: Data after compilation was statistically analysed using STATISTICA 8.1 software and means were separated by LSD test.

Results and Discussion

Days to flower initiation

Analysis of variance revealed highly significant (P=0.01) differences among all the Genotypes (Table 2). Days to flower initiation ranged from 80-85 days. Hybrid-14001 took minimum days (80) to flower initiation whereas Hybrid-14009 took maximum days (85) for flower initiation (Table 3). These results are partially in line with those of Shah [9]. The differences in results may be due to differences in Genotypes or due to environmental effects.

Days to flower completion

Analysis of variance revealed that days to flower completion showed significant (P<0.05) differences among all the Genotypes (Table 2). Days to flower completion ranged from 80-92 days. Hybrid-14023 took minimum days (86) for their flower completion while Hybrid-14035 took maximum days (92) to complete their flowers (Table 3). Furrkh [4] also found significant variation for days to flower completion.

***Significant at 5 and 1% level of probability respectively, whereas NS= Non-significant.

Days to maturity

Analysis of variance revealed that days to maturity showed non-significant (P>0.05) differences among all the Genotypes (Table 2). Days to maturity ranged from 119-120. Hybrid-14005 took minimum days (119) to be matured whereas Hybrid-14021 took maximum days (120) to be matured (Table 3). Khalid [8] also found non-significant differences for days to maturity.

Plant height (cm)

Analysis of variance revealed that plant height showed nonsignificant (P>0.05) differences among all the genotypes (Table 2). Plant height ranged from 110-135cm. Hybrid-14013 had minimum (110cm) plant height whereas Hybrid-14021 had maximum (135cm) plant height (Table 3). Khalid [8] found the plant height to be non-significant.

Head diameter (cm)

Analysis of variance revealed that head diameter showed significant (P<0.05) differences among all the Genotypes. Head diameter ranged from 14-18cm. Hybrid-14048 had minimum (14cm) head diameter while Hybrid-14021 had maximum (18cm) head diameter. These results confirmed the earlier findings of Arshad [1] also found significant variation for head diameter.

Grain yield (kg ha -1)

Analysis of variance showed non-significant (P>0.05) differences for grain yield among all the genotypes (Table 2). Grain yield ranged from 817-1666kg ha-1. Hybrid-14041 had minimum grain yield (817 kg ha-1) whereas Hybrid-14021 had maximum grain yield (1666 kg ha-1) (Table 3) Khalid [8] also found Non-significant relation for Grain Yield kg ha-1.

100-grain weight (g)

Analysis of variance revealed that 100-grain weight showed non-significant (P>0.05) differences among all the genotypes (Table 2). 100-grain weight ranged from 04-05g. Hybrid-14013 had minimum 100-grain weight (04g) whereas Hybrid-14041 had maximum 100-grain weight (05g) (Table 2). Anjum [1] also got non-significant difference for 100 grain weight.

Conclusion and Recommendations

There is sufficient genetic variability in the tested sunflower hybrids which is useful tool for grouping of different hybrids according to their adaptation through the environmental condition, Hybrid 14021 produced highest grain yield (1666kg ha-1) followed by hybrid 14009 (1517kg ha-1) and thus are considered best among all hybrids evaluated during this study. From the above study and data obtained from results it is recommended that Hybrid 14021 and 14009 fits well in the agroclimatic conditions of Malakand valley and produce maximum yield [10-12].

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