#truly this is about them. it's just applicable elsewhere

[rosieofcorona]

my ideal man is a wife guy who is suffering some measure of unspeakable grief and is very divorced, both against his will and as a direct result of his own actions. also he's hot

[ante--meridiem]

Have a feeling I won't be accepted to any of the things I applied to here for next year and will have to move again, which is fine, I wasn't expecting to stay and I've applied to plenty of other things many of which are objectively at least as good.

But goddamn it I wasn't expecting to start actually feeling at home here and I only just got to that in my last couple of months.

[fantasticsandwich]

yandere influencer x fem! reader (pt 4)

The aroma of freshly ground coffee wafted through the air, encasing your senses as you and Cillian stepped into the threshold of the cafe. A buzz of chatter from the crowded space filled your ears, punctuated by the clinking of porcelain and the hiss of steam frothing milk. The cafe's modern decor, a blend of industrial chic and cozy warmth, seemed to draw in half the city, leaving  you and Cillian at the end of a winding line of impatient patrons.

You fidgeted with the hem of your sweater, an eclectic pattern of colors that you had chosen to appear both sophisticated and approachable. Entering the queue, you the weight of the many eyes skimming over both you and Cillian—some curious, others envious. He stood beside at your side, the epitome of effortless elegance, his dark hair catching the soft glow of the pendant lights above.

“Looks like we’ll be here for a while,” he remarked. “I hate when something I like becomes popular.”

“Seems so,” you replied, your tone light but your mind elsewhere. You slipped your phone out of your pocket, thumb flicking across the screen with swift, practiced motions. Emails, job listings, opportunities—they cascaded down the display as you filtered through them with a sense of urgency that belied the calm front you tried to project.

“Are you looking at anything interesting?” Cillian asked, peering over at your screen with a curiosity that felt too close, too keen.

“Just looking at some job postings,” you said, minimizing the list of applications before he could glimpse the titles. You knew he didn’t truly understand your need to earn your keep, to build something for yourself without the crutch of connections or favors. “It’s difficult to find something with flexible hours and decent pay. I want to find something that fits, you know?”

“I figure it’d be,” he said with a shrug.

Once he retreated out of your personal bubble, you scrolled through one listing after another, occasionally pausing to submit your resume into the void of potential employment. Each tap on the 'apply' button was a tiny leap of faith—a hope that somewhere out there was a chance for you to prove yourself capable, independent.

The cafe was stifling. You removed your cardigan and settled it over your arm, only for Cillian to sweep it into his arms. You glared as he draped the sleeves over his shoulders, tying them into a knot. It was an eyesore against his monochromatic ensemble, but as always, he wore it well.

You shuffled forward in the line, your eyes trailing over the scuffed tile floor of the bustling cafe. Cillian loomed beside you, his body heat seeping through the thin fabric of your blouse as he leaned a little too close for comfort, arms pressing into your side.

“I love this,” Cillian whispered, his breath warm against your ear. “Our weekly meet-ups are all that get me through the week.”

You nodded, a quick jerk of your head, wishing your frazzled hair would shield you from the intimacy of his gaze. Your attention shifted to the chalkboard menu above the counter, where playful script offered promises of bold new flavors and exotic blends. You considered ordering a raspberry mocha or the spiced chai latte, something to break the monotony of your usual orders.

“Hey, Lee, what do you think about those new items> Do they look—”

“No. You know how particular your stomach is,” Cillian cut in, his tone laced with feigned concern as he placed a hand on your shoulder. "You should stick with the usual, and I’ll get the new stuff so you can still try it." Before you could protest, Cillian turned to the barista, his charismatic smile in place. “Two of the usual, please. And could you grab one of those pre packaged blueberry muffins?”

Whatever. I’m eating on his dime, you thought as he swiped his card.

With a sigh trapped behind you lips, you smiled and watched as he paid for the order, his flamboyant duct-tape wallet—the same one you made for him during a particularly boring summer—flashing briefly before being tucked away. The idea of eating another stiff, cellophane-wrapped muffin seemed ridiculous when there were trays of fresh pastries just a few feet away. But he was paying, and arguing seemed like it would cost more than you were willing to spend.

“Come, let’s find our table. Did you know the owner started reserving the one in the back for us? It’s nice when loyalty is rewarded.” Cillian steered you gently by the elbow toward an empty table in the corner. Releasing you, his fingers curled around the back of the chair, sliding it out with a graceful swoop that seemed practiced, almost theatrical.

No sooner than you sat, a broad-shoulder man rushed over with their drinks. “Here you go,” he said, gently placing them down. “I knew what to make as soon as you walked in.”

You settled into the seat, your eyes drifting to the cup placed before you—a frothy concoction topped with swirls of caramel and a mountain of whipped cream. You wrapped your hands around the warm ceramic, feeling its smoothness against your palms, the heat barely penetrating the barrier between them.

“Thank you,” you mumbled, more out of habit than genuine gratitude. Bringing the cup to your lips, you took a tentative sip, the sugary liquid flooding your mouth with an intensity that made you wince. It was cloying, too much, like the heavy-handed perfume of someone trying to mask their insecurities. With each visit, the sweetness seemed to grow, or perhaps it was just your weariness of this routine that soured the taste.

“Say 'ah',” said Cillian, tilting his drink to you. “I asked you to open your mouth. I'm giving you the first sip.” He tilted his head, curved lashes rising and falling with each blink. “Or do you want me to make you? Would you like that?”

“I want none of that. It's embarrassing.”

“Fine.” Cillian snatched his drink back, his lips curling into a contented smile as he savored a flavor that  you could no longer stomach. His phone appeared in his hand—sleek, the latest model—as if by magic, and he began to fuss over their table setting, rearranging the silverware and napkins with meticulous care.

“Wait,” he said, holding up a hand to halt your movements as you reached for a muffin. “Let me get a picture first.”

Sighing, you withdrew your hand. You should’ve just shut up and drank from his cup. He was probably punishing you now.

You were forced to watch as he positioned his phone just so, angling it to capture the perfect composition of their prepackaged desserts. The shutter clicked repeatedly, a staccato rhythm that echoed the tapping of your foot beneath the table. With a sense of dettachment, you observed the scene through the screen’s glow, detached, as if viewing it all from a great distance.

The cafe buzzed around them, a hive of activity and chatter, but in their little corner, only the soft light of Cillian’s phone display and the artificial sound of captured moments filled the space.

“Perfect,” Cillian finally declared, his voice threaded with satisfaction as he admired the digital gallery of confections and cream. “I can make even cellophane wrap look appetizing.”

“So talented,”  you replied, tone flat, the single word falling short of enthusiasm. You watched him now, as he edited and filtered reality into something palatable for public consumption, something that would garner admiration and envy in equal measure.

Finally allowed your beverage, you eagerly dug in, first savoring the whipped cream before it could’ve further melted into the beverage. Scooping some into your mouth, a dollop of whipped cream perched precariously on the edge of your straw.

It was then that the inevitable happened. The whipped cream betrayed you, a small glob landing with a soft plop on your nose. You froze, a flicker of annoyance crossing your face as you reached for a napkin. But Cillian’s hand was quicker, his fingers skimming your cheek, then swiping the cream off your nose. He lingered a second too long.

“Got it,” he murmured, tongue slithering out to lick his fingers. He wiped his saliva on the sleeve of your cardigan, which was still settled around his shoulders.

Your breath hitched. Although a more sensible part of yourself fought the urge to scream at him for the act, a quieter, darker corner of your mind began to race.

“Thanks,” you mumbled, drawing back slightly. You eyed your portion of the desserts, the artificial brightness of the strawberry topping almost mocking in its vibrancy. You scooped up a small bite, the saccharine taste doing little to satisfy the craving you couldn't quite name.

Cillian watched you, his dark eyes gleaming. He seemed oblivious to the fact that your routine outings had become a suffocating ritual, a showcase for the curated life he projected onto his Instagram feed.

“Isn’t it delicious?” he asked, his tone expectant, a hint of coercion nestled between the words.

“The same as always,” you echoed, though the flavor was as hollow as the affirmation. The consequences of defying Cillian’s vision for your friendship loomed large and his approval was a drug you had been conditioned to crave.

Your spoon clinked against the plastic container, a soft sound. You ate mechanically, your thoughts drifting away from the table, away from Cillian and his veiled demands. You imagined stepping out of this scene, leaving behind the cloying sweetness and the confines of expectations. In your mind's eye, you pictured yourself tasting something real and complex, something that didn't leave you longing for more.

Your eyes wandered from the busy baristas steaming milk to perfection, to the patrons hunched over their laptops or lost in murmured conversations. The clinking of cutlery on porcelain provided a rhythmic backdrop to the muffled chatter around them. You inhaled deeply, the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee filling your senses, yet you found no comfort in the familiar scent. Instead, it underscored a sense of monotony that had been creeping into your days, a desire for something more than these meticulously staged outings.

“Y/N?” Cillian's voice threaded through your thoughts, smooth and commanding. His eyes were fixed on her, expectant, as he leaned forward slightly, his posture perfect, his smile practiced. “You seem distant today. You know you can share anything with me, right?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” you assured him, pressing your lips into a smile that didn't quite reach your eyes. “Just thinking about a paper I have due.”

“Your dedication is admirable,” he replied, his tone laced with an affection that felt like a velvet glove masking a steel grip. “Admirable, but irritating. You need to learn to relax a bit. Don’t worry, I’m here to take care of you.”

You nodded. You watched him as he adjusted his phone on the table, the screen alight with notifications—likes, comments, a digital chorus singing his praises. It seemed that he had already uploaded the images, a new record. Cillian seemed to exist in two worlds simultaneously: the one before you and the one inside his phone, each moment curated for maximum effect.

“Let’s take a selfie,” he suggested suddenly, his voice light but insistent. “We haven’t updated our cafe chronicles in a while.”

Before you could respond, he had positioned his phone, the lens aimed at capturing the dessert and you smile.  You obliged, tilting your head just so. You braced yourself for a barrage, but he merely snapped one image.

Your stomach curdled. Was it alright? How could he be satisfied by only one picture? Were you ugly and was offering to take a picture with you merely a way to maintain the farce of friendship? He was always buying you things, and you had never stopped to wonder what he was getting in return. Was it a sick sense of charity?

“You’re so pretty here,” Cillian declared, reviewing the photo with a nod of approval. "Our followers will love this."

“Our?”

“They’re mine, but they like seeing you, too. I guess I should share you, sometimes.”

“Right. Yeah, guess that makes enough sense.”

You couldn't help but wonder if there was anyone out there who saw past the facade, who understood the reality of the smiles and the sweetness that left a bitter aftertaste. You longed for the authenticity that no filter could provide, a life where moments were lived and not merely documented for the hollow validation of strangers. You wondered what kind of person Cillian was without that glassy shield.

“Your turn,” he said, pushing the phone toward you. “You should post something too. Keep up appearances, you know?”

“Right,”  you murmured, your fingers hovering over the device. You glanced at Cillian and then back at the bustling cafe, the world spinning around you in a blur of motion and sound. You glanced up at Cillian, who was animatedly discussing his latest social media strategy, his features alight with enthusiasm.

“Imagine the likes we’d get if we posted every weekend.”

“What’s your goal with this?” you abruptly asked. “Why do you post so much?”

He paused, his gaze lifting from the screen to meet hers, a half-smile playing on his lips. “I have dreams, Y/N,” he said softly, almost tenderly. His dark eyes held a glimmer of something fierce, something hungry. “I want to be more than just a face in the crowd. Modeling—that’s what I see myself doing. My face on billboards, in magazines���”

Your heart skipped a beat, not from surprise but from the sudden realization that he had been serious about his ambitions all along.

“Then I support you,” you murmured. The words felt hollow, even to your own ears, as if they were being swallowed by the grandeur of his dream.

But as Cillian spoke, detailing his strategies for building a portfolio and networking within the industry, your attention waned. You nodded mechanically, your mind drifting. Your could hear the passion in his voice, see the fire in his eyes, but it was like watching a play through a thick pane of glass. You couldn't reach him; you couldn't touch the world he was so vividly painting with his words.

The conversation began to feel like a soliloquy, his voice the only sound in the room, resonating with aspirations that soared high above your understanding.  Your gaze settled on the phone still clutched in his hand, the screen alive with notifications—each one a confirmation of his allure, each one pulling him further away from her. The light from his phone cast a glow on his sharp features, throwing shadows that danced across his high cheekbones. He was talking about headshots now, about finding the right angle to accentuate the stark lines of his jaw. You tried to listen, tried to be present, but a storm brewed within her, dark and relentless.

Cillian was sensitive, his heart an exposed nerve, and the world he so desperately wanted to conquer was unforgiving, ravenous. The beauty industry would devour his gentle spirit; you could almost hear the snap of its jaws in the distance. Your stomach churned at the thought of him, caught in the maelstrom of criticism and rejection, those princely features twisted in pain.

A shiver ran down your spine upon drawing a cruel conclusion. You wanted to see him crying, but you wanted to reserve the sight for yourself. He would look pretty even when crying—you had seen it before, the way tears clung to his lashes like morning dew, the way his blue eyes deepened into stormy seas.

Your lips parted, breath catching. It was a troubling realization, one that made your cheeks flush with heat. You didn't want the world to witness that vulnerability, to see him stripped bare of the confidence he wore like armor.

“You’re beautiful. The world will love you," you managed to say. “It will devour you whole.”

He paused, his eyes locking onto your, and for a moment, there was silence. “You really think so?” he asked, tentative hope threading through his words.

You nodded, your throat tight. “It’s impossible not to,” you said, and it was the truth. But buried beneath that truth was a coil of scales and green, that dreaded jealousy snaking around your heart. It was a silent plea that begged him not to share his beauty with anyone else. In a world where you often felt mismatched and uncertain, his adoration was the anchor that kept you from drifting too far into the sea of your own insecurities. The only thing you had was him, and the thought of losing even a sliver of that connection was more than you could bear.

“Y/N?” Cillian's voice sliced through your reverie, laced with a hint of suspicion. “Really, what’s wrong? You seem spacey today.”

“Sorry,” you replied, your voice barely above a whisper. “Only tired, that’s still all.”

As you finished eating the desserts,  youur restlessness clawed its way up your throat, desperate for release. With each bite of the overly sweet cake, you tasted the blandness of repetition. The same cafes, the same dynamic, the same Cillian — it was a pattern woven into the fabric of your daily life, one that now chafed and constricted.

You pushed the plate away, the remnants of frosting clinging stubbornly to the porcelain.

“Next time, let’s try somewhere new,” you ventured, your voice steadier than you felt. “Maybe something less curated? We could take a stroll around town and see where we wind up.”

“New?” Cillian laughed. “Why fix something that isn’t broken? This place is us. It’s our spot.”

Your gaze fell to the empty plate, the hollow echo of ‘our’ ringing in your ears. No, you thought, a slow-burning defiance taking root. This isn’t us; it’s you, and I’m just along for the ride because you pay for everything.

“Guess so,” you murmured, the word sticking in your throat like the last taste of artificial sweeteners. Cillian continued talking, oblivious to the seismic shift occurring within.

You bit your lip, gaze lingering on your phone before shifting to your bag, the dog-eared textbook inside. Reluctantly, you retrieved the device and opened your emails, sifting through the job listings yet again.

“Applying to jobs? You can do that anytime.” Cillian’s lips curled into a half-smile, though his eyes narrowed slightly—a fleeting shadow crossing his otherwise immaculate features. “Why are you worrying about that, though? If you need money, I can talk to my father. He’s always looking for competent people at the company.”

The offer hung in the air between you, a gilded temptation laced with implications. Your fingers paused on the page, the words 'cognitive dissonance' blurring before your eyes. You took a deep breath, trying to steady the fluttering in your chest.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” you replied, more to yourself than to him. “I want to earn my way, not just land a job because I know someone who knows someone.”

Cillian leaned back, his expression unreadable as he regarded you through half-lidded eyes. “As you wish,” he murmured, the phrase an echo of acquiescence that seemed to dance on the edge of something darker, something you couldn't quite place.

Turning back to the textbook, you tried to lose yourself in the psychological complexities it held, your mind tracing the intricate pathways of human behavior and motivation. Yet, a part of you remained acutely aware of his presence, the weight of his gaze, and the unspoken challenges that brewed like the coffee behind the counter—bitter and potent.

“Really, Y/N,” Cillian said, his voice smooth like velvet but edged with something colder. You could feel his eyes on you, burning with an intensity that made your skin prickle. “You don’t have to do this. I can make things easier for you. You’re not just anyone to me. But you aren't family either.”

“You’re not getting it. You’re just a friend, and connections can be so easily severed. I’ve done it since secondary school, and now that we’re entering adulthood, I don’t want to keep relying on you. I want to feel like I’m doing something for myself for once.”

“Fine,” Cillian’s voice dropped, a shadow passing over his face that matched the darkening sky outside. “But remember, my offer to take care of you is always there. It would be much simpler than all this.”

You felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cafe’s air conditioning. You tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear, hands trembling slightly. Your ambition battled with the gnawing doubt that his words left in their wake.

“Simple isn’t always better,” your murmured, your attention ostensibly back on your phone, but your senses were hyper-aware of the man sitting across from you.

Your fingers paused over the screen, the list of job postings blurred by a growing resolve. Swallowing the lump in your throat, you met Cillian’s gaze with an icy detachment.

“What do you even want?”

“I need to contribute to my brother's school fees. He deserves that chance.”

His eyes narrowed, and for a moment, the cafe's buzz dimmed under the weight of his scrutiny. “Which school is he at?”

“Some snooty international boarding school,” you replied, your protective instincts flaring. You didn’t know why, but you didn’t want him to know.

“A prestigious place. Must be expensive.”

“Very.”

“A good education is vital yet costly. Surely, for people of your financial status, there are scholarships, grants…”

“None that cover everything,” you interjected, your tone laced with the fatigue of countless hours spent searching for financial aid.

“Then work harder,” Cillian suggested, his words wrapped in a honeyed tone that did little to sweeten their bite. “Or not. You could always reconsider my proposal.”

“I already said no to the job.”

“Not that one.”

You recoiled, as if the words were a physical blow. “Stop joking about that,” you stated, your voice quiet but fierce. “It makes me uncomfortable.”

An unreadable expression crossed Cillian's face before he masked it with a charming smile. “As you wish. But the world isn’t kind to dreamers who walk alone.”

Your heartbeat quickened, not from flattery but from the veiled warning in his tone.

“Excuse me,” you murmured, your voice barely more than a whisper as you clammbered out of your seat, sidestepped away from Cillian. Your fingers trailed the cool, marbled countertop of the cafe as you headed towards the sanctuary of the restroom. Inside, the air was perfumed with lavender and vanilla, an artificial calm that did little to soothe your troubled thoughts.

Standing at the sink, you turned the cold tap and splashed water onto your face, watching as droplets clung stubbornly to your glasses before tumbling down. You looked up, meeting your own gaze in the mirror. The girl reflected back at you had eyes wide with determination, yet shadowed by doubt. With a trembling hand, you pushed the glasses up the bridge of your nose and took a deep breath, trying to wash away the worry etched into your forehead.

“Can you believe we happened to come here at the same time as them?”

“As who?”

“That’s  Y/N L/N,” a hushed voice pierced through the quiet, followed by the sound of stifled giggles.

You stilled, your heart skipping a beat. You recognized the voices of fellow students, their words weaving through the space between the stalls and sink, ensnaring your attention.

“The one who's always with Cillian?” another whispered, a note of envy threading through her tone.

“Exactly! I thought they were just friends, but seeing them here together, they must be dating. She’s so lucky; he looks like he walked out of a fashion magazine… Vogue, who?”

Your hands paused, water dripping from your fingertips. Their words wrapped around you like a velvet robe, heavy with implications you’d never dared to consider. To them, you were no longer invisible, no longer just a friend clinging to the edges of Cillian’s spotlight. You were the object of speculation, the center of a narrative spun from half-truths and assumptions.

Your reflection in the mirror now seemed different, caught in the crossfire of jealousy and admiration. It was unsettling, this new role you hadn’t auditioned for. And yet, part of you reveled in the novelty, the taste of a life where you weren’t just surviving but thriving in the eyes of others.

“Seriously, what does he see in her, though?” the first voice added with a scoff, the sound sharp enough to cut through your fleeting fantasy. “She’s not even that pretty, and she doesn’t even dress well.”

“Who knows? Maybe she's not as plain as she looks. Or maybe it's her brain. Isn't she a biomed major?”

“Whatever it is, I wish I had it.”

You exhaled slowly, the air leaving your lungs like the deflating of a balloon. With one last glance at your uncertain reflection, you adjusted your clothes and stepped out of the restroom. Your eyes scanned the café until they settled on Cillian. He sat at a corner table, his princely features bathed in the soft glow of your laptop screen.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” you said tentatively, approaching him.

“For you, I’ve got all the time in the world,” Cillian replied without looking up, his fingers dancing across the keyboard.

You leaned over his shoulder, watching as paragraphs morphed under his command. You noted how he supplemented your notes with additional information, his edits weaving through the essay like intricate lacework. A warmth spread through your chest at his helpfulness.

“Your argument here is strong, but you’ve missed some spelling errors, and the grammar is wonky in some bits,” Cillian pointed out, highlighting the words with a click. “You need to pay more attention to detail.”

The feelings of admiration died.

“Thanks for catching those,” you murmured, trying to match his attentiveness with an appreciative smile. Yet, as Cillian continued to point out every tiny mistake, you felt the weight of his scrutiny. It was as if he were peeling away layers, exposing the flaws you had worked so hard to hide beneath vibrant colors and earnest smiles.

“Here, another one,” he said sharply, almost triumphantly, correcting a misspelled term with a swift stroke.

“Right. I’ll remember that.”

For a moment, you stood motionless, observing Cillian's meticulous grooming mirrored in his meticulous editing.

“Your words are comprehensive,” he commented, finally meeting your gaze. “But sometimes, it feels like you're not quite sure of yourself. You could be more assertive.”

“Maybe,” you conceded, tugging at the hem of your blouse. “I don’t know how to write well. I just want it to be perfect, you know?”

“Just rest up and let me worry about perfection,” Cillian said, his tone leaving no room for debate.

You closed your eyes for a moment, the screen’s glow imprinting on your eyelids. The day replayed itself behind your closed eyes: all of it now seemed trivial compared to Cillian's insistent editing, his fingers deftly correcting your words as if they were errant children straying from the path.

Opening your eyes, you glanced at the computer screen. His changes were precise, the document almost gleaming with perfection under the cursor's blinking supervision. But it was your essay, your thoughts—your voice, now polished by someone else's hand. You felt a pang of something akin to betrayal, though no promise had been broken.

"Is it better now?”

“Better,” you replied, your voice lacking conviction. You noticed then how the light caught on the angles of his face, a visage crafted to be admired, to be envied. It struck you—how many others had been captivated by that same light, only to find themselves lost in the dark?

“Thanks,” you added, a necessary courtesy.

“Anything for you.”

You turned back to the screen, retreating to your essay to calm yourself. But even there, doubt crept in, whispering that perhaps you were losing yourself in the pursuit of an image—a place beside Cillian, envied by strangers and shrouded in false admiration.

[hwajin]

hey! the feedback anon back again

I mean, there’s nothing wrong with just writing for fun and just putting it out there flawed, things don’t have to be perfect to be worth sharing. it’s all just fun and if you want to tell a story you should tell it. its what makes the world go round.

but I think saying “I don’t know how to do it differently” isnt true! have you tried taking a few steps back, coming back to edit it after? check out how other writes do it, learn from them? I think if you wanted to spend the time, and again, it’s optional, it’s a hobby, you could definitely learn. like if you’re aware you overexplain, why don’t you go back over a passage and delete some of it and then read it again to see if it still makes sense? ask a reader for feedback?

idk, I’m just rambling and it’s all up to you, but I think if you tried, you could fix these things <3 it just takes time and some courage and application, but effort always equals reward

take care~

i mean i probably could at some point write differently, but then again, idk i rlly could if that makes sense jfjsjdjd. also, if i even want to — the way i write now suits a certain type of writing i feel like, and i rlly rlly like the way i write, when it comes to drabbles and one-shots. changing my style would mean getting weaker in what i feel confident in, i think. i always say this, serieses and long stories etc etc are my number one weaknesses, and no matter how often i take inspiration from other writers on here i think my writing style simply isn't rlly fit for long stories. like, to a certain point i do rlly think that i can't write differently. like, i have one writer on here in particular who i look up to immensly and no matter how often i read her stories, i can't get behind how she can write the way she writes — it's rlly fascinating because she has strengths everywhere where i have my weaknesses. then again, i sometimes see her saying that one-shots aren't rlly her thing; so yes, i maybe could write differently, but my series won't ever be as good as my one-shots, because everyone's strengths lay elsewhere, i feel like, and we can't master everything! it's kinda like an artist who specializes in a specific style of painting, and lacks in other parts; yes, they could become better at one style if they put enough effort in, but the style they prefer and have a maybe natural talent in will always be better and stronger, and come more naturally, i feel like.

and yes, i do edit my stuff, i do take steps back (probably too much lmao), but what i end up doing is adding things, actually, because it simply feels too vague and not deep enough when i first write it; then again the entire story isn't deep per se, so idk jfjejdj. as i said before, my problem is mainly my inabilty to create worlds because maybe my creativity is limited, or maybe my brain just comes up with stuff in a different way than other ppl's brains, esp those who are very much able to write serieses; even just today, while i was writing on chapter 3, i forgot if my character's a smoker or not, and i feel like that shows my writing process and the fact that i simply do not even know my own characters, because i'm not rlly, like, able to truly create them. it's kinda always been like this, too, long before i started writing for skz and when i still wrote for different artists; i've been trying to write serieses for ages and never even finished one before 'twin flames', and i only truly found my writing style when i discovered one-shots.

so, idk, ig if i rlly wanted to i could learn, in a way, to write serieses/ long story-lines, but then idk if i RLLY could esp since i've been trying to for so long, and it's nowhere near my strength, and also not entirely what i truly enjoy about writing!!! i just wanna dip my toes into smth different from time to time ig, it just sucks a bit that ppl aren't much interested in that!

[meatriarchived]

you know, pre-house, start-ish of her time at uni, as open and as friendly and social etc that maria's always been? i definitely feel she struggled in alot of ways to feel comfortable being away from home.

the constant worry about being away from mama flores when he health isn't good, leaving that responsibility more into the hands of extended nearby family and ana. knowing if something went wrong it'd take a while to hurry back home, and the stress and anxiety thoughts along those lines bring up ( esp considering, no cells, so she'd be in the dark the whole way there ). there was alot of guilt she held onto, for not being home, passing that responsibility elsewhere instead of 'being a good, oldest daughter' and being home to handle things herself.

ana ended up doing alot of maria's applications for uni with their uncles and aunts because, simply, maria hadn't felt like she should go and kept putting things off - and ana, even just being closer to what, a freshman or being in 9th grade at the time, had already watched maria give up the last few years since ramon took off stepping in basically in his shoes and trying to make sure everything got done, bills got paid, mama flores got to her appointments, ana was keeping on top of her schoolwork and everything, getting her back and forth where she had to be. ana saw how much of herself she was spreading thin, how much she took on. how little she was able to keep up with her long-term childhood-thru-hs friends. ana knew maria needed to do something for herself for once - and letting her go off to uni was one of those things.

and those first some weeks, months there, maria was very much homesick. she cried alot, she missed her baby sister, she missed her mama. she missed her old friendgroup. but after graduation they all went their separate ways, left the state, lost touch. and again, while maria is very much a social butterfly, very much a gentle and friendly presence, i do feel at the start there was alot of hesitation reaching out to classmates, etc for anything not class-related. she had her roommates at the time, sure, but only really saw them at the end of the day, if that.

so when i say that when she met julie things drastically changed? i really do mean that.

julie i feel really did help her branch back out, from just being her even more social butterfly self. introduced her to different types of people, scenarios, experiences. most of her very first uni parties was what julie had dragged her to - maria was never much of a partying girl, really, but she had alot of fun sticking with julie and meeting the different people she was friendly with. julie brought out her confidence again.

and so when julie then dragged our lil hissy cat ( future bestie ) connie into the lil beginning of the friendgroup? maria was so excited to meet her. but also saw that she was more in her shell, too, so toned down the bubbliness, tried to pay closer attention to what she was comfortable with, really truly wanted to be connie's friend but also didn't want to spook her being too overly-friendly or overly-sweet and affectionate.

but once connie warmed up enough to her? her and julie were maria's ride-or-die girlies. the original besties + danny bestie. and maria was so very happy having found herself another lil friendgroup, with people she can say she very genuinely loves, adores, cares for, is devoted to, and frankly each addition being so unique and lovely that in her eyes, they truly are the greatest bunch of friends she's ever had.

[astralprisms]

@seynne, thank you for these! My ask box should now actually be open if anyone is trying to send messages. I forget it's not on by default. From the Weirdly Specific Questions list

How often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing?

I don't think that Xa'rok is intentionally deceptive about their emotions, but they are hard to read if you don't know them well. If asked directly and divulging doesn't put them or those they care about in danger, they would be honest about what they're feeling, but there are some things they prefer to keep to themselves. Persuasion and Deception are their particular skill avenues of choice, and so they're fairly aware of what they are presenting to the world and what effect it might have/what effect they might want it to have (either on the audience as a bard, in concert, or in their line of work as a convincing public speaker), so they're very adept at managing a crowd's expectations and emotions; a skill I can only assume they continue to excel at as an illithid.

Being so in tune with their emotions and how they are perceived does make it easy for them to hide what they want to keep hidden, though, should they choose to do so.

What’s the most obvious difference between their behavior at home, at work, at school, with friends, and when they’re alone?

This answer varies over different parts of their life.

I think they prefer to present as someone who has their shit together, and prefer to reserve their doubts for close friends and quiet moments. They can let their guard down around certain people, in certain places, and elsewhere they remain vigilant for threats and show little weakness. Most of this attitude was borne out of necessity: life in their northern creche was often harsh, uncompromising, and despite the insistence on training in units, incredibly solitary. But they are social by nature and deeply curious. They long for connection and take joy in finding it. They love to talk, and take pleasure in an audience. They are at their best when connecting with others, and find the psionic boost from the tadpole, and later, illithidom, a boon. To touch someone's thoughts and know their mind makes making those connections easier.

At 'work' they are by turns diplomatic and charismatic. They have spent a long time learning how to read a room and how best to construct a narrative or a story or a song to capture its occupants' attention. In front of a listening crowd, they are in their element. But they are aware of their charm and can be impulsive in its application. While they usually know when to drop the performance, there are times where their persuasive public-speaking persona will take over and they can become a little too pushy or manipulative. Their good friends will tell them to stop or remind them to mind their manners.

At home and alone is where they truly put all the performative parts of themself away and just allow themself to be. This becomes even more important once they go full illithid and get over the (very arduous) hurdle of readjusting to their new form. The Emperor was correct: home is where one can be their truest self, without guile, without pretense.

When do they feel the most guilt? How do they respond to it?

Failing to live up to expectations. These are largely internally set expectations and thus hard to gauge from someone else's perspective. But they take pride in being able to perform to the best of their ability, whether in their line of work, in their playing, in battle, or in following through on a task they have been given or accepted for themself. Falling short of those expectations really stresses them out. They work doubly hard to make up for it, and sometimes injure themself as a result.

What do they commonly misinterpret because of their own upbringing / environment / biases? How do they respond when realizing the misunderstanding?

For someone whose life's mission is to unpack cultural biases, Xa'rok is certainly not immune to perpetuating some of their own. They have long sought to be open-minded but they still find themself falling into old patterns of thinking reflexively. Mostly this tends to resolve itself in "your experience is not universal" type situations. Surely all children are exposed to the harsh and uncompromising trial of combat. Solo survival training is a common rite of passage for everyone before a certain growth milestone. That sort of thing. Growing up in the far north, they are resistant to and unbothered by deep cold and harsh winters, and so they are continually perplexed by anyone who cannot stand the cold. They find gender and its societal constraints a perplexing and unfathomable puzzle. They actively work to take their own missteps in stride and find no weakness in admitting they may have been wrong about something to which they have not had enough exposure to to know otherwise.

[transientpetersen]

There's a lot going on here. A lot. Certainly the most provocative segment is the long quotation from elsewhere called Connor Goes Deep [and Weird] so at the risk of missing the point, I'm going to complain to the sky and exorcise the mental poison through the keyboard.

I do not understand the appeal of using metaphor when you know it creates an unnecessary translation barrier between yourself and your audience. The section is loaded with jargon and references but there's nothing deep about those references that demand their use. And the constant invocations of "length of a tweet" - so why be confined in the format? But then I was never a believer in the usefulness of that platform so maybe I'm the wrong person to answer.

A modern adaption.

You've grown up in a small town in a dying part of your country. Dying because both agriculture and industry have moved off and find no use for your people. So what do you do? You leave. You go where there's density enough to host industry, find the places where "everyone agrees" the "people who are worth associating with" live.

You meet new people. You learn new skills. You change perspectives many times.

What are some of the outcomes listed in the original (suitably translated)?

1. Go home shortly after leaving. You don't like the city or you cannot hack it or someone back home needs you. Life goes back to normal with shades of regret and might-have-been. 2. Stay in the city indefinitely. You like it there, you grow used to it, you disavow who you were (you've outgrown them). 3. Stay in the city awhile and return home with some flash and some fashion and charm the kids back home with your new manners and your aura of cool. You feel better about yourself but is your life truly that different in substance? 4. Stay in the city awhile and return home with skills and knowledge that lets you bring some jobs. You start a local business. You stave off the decay for a while. The churches still close around you, one by one, but you don't feel that as a loss anymore. 5. You stay in the city. You travel to your home town. You return to the city. You decide that the difference between the two is less than its made out to be - it's all just people. People who don't much like those different from them. Not that that shuts you out because you can code switch. You build people up wherever you go because you're not carrying the anxiety of place around anymore.

So Connor is saying, "You moved to the city. You couldn't cope with the full range of human expression there so you carved out a little space that you felt safe within and let it cradle you until you forgot your home and forgot the scary and you're telling people the truth when you encourage them to find a sanctuary in the city but that's not what you came here for. You've lost your way."

No jargon; no fuss. Just a story.

I believe that agency is cultivated and power is a skill and responsibility means building both of those competencies. Useless anxiety is definitionally both a distortion of agency and a misapplication of skill and I wouldn't encourage anyone to cultivate it. On the other side, you do not understand how to use power if you do not use power - it's not something you rehearse in your head to prepare for the perfect application, that's so incredibly far from how it works.

I don't believe that the five scenarios I sketched out above are ranked. People fall into each bucket as circumstances push and pull - or they were never in the buckets to begin with. Judging where they landed or talking about which bucket they should be aiming for is a category error. Decide your aim, pick your vows, and do your best to make the world better around you.

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: Hi there, and Happy Holidays! I hope you’re doing well. I’m having trouble determining my type - I’m currently torn between INFP and INFJ. You seem very well-informed on Jung’s theory, so I’d like to ask for a type assessment from you. My main conflict is what feeling function I use.

For extra info, I’m 21F. I have ADHD-PI, social anxiety and depression, as well as some trauma, which may affect how I present myself as well as my level of health. I think, regardless of which functions I use, I use them in an unhealthy manner. It’s also worth noting that I don’t have a lot of life experience due to a sheltered upbringing (over-protective parents and relatively lavish home life meant that I never felt the need to demand much from the outside world).

INFP:

Dominant Fi:

I do have a one-sidedness when it comes to my values (if you could call them that, I’m really not sure), deeming types of hobbies, fashion, ambitions, and as such subsets of people as superior or inferior depending on what I think of them. My judgment affects how I see others in a big way. For example, I’ll judge people for dressing in a way I perceive to be “lazy”, because “do they not realise how they look to other people?”. Then, I’ll assume that they’re not associating with beyond common courtesy. Obviously, I know this line of thinking could seem haughty of me, so I don’t express this to others.

I place a lot of value on sophistication, intellect and manners, and expect the same of everyone else as well. My values mostly revolve around my expectations of how people should behave. I’m easily disappointed when I fail to notice these values in others, because my perspectives are based on what I truly believe is best for humanity at large. I recognise that this could be seen as imposing, and I never directly call people out for behaviour I dislike - I would rather persuade them to my side diplomatically.

I’ll be honest, the main reason I believe my feeling process to be introverted is the fact that I just can’t connect to my country’s culture, and it makes me resent it. It’s so heavily focused on everything I have no interest in; drinking, sport, nights out, TV. There’s a worrying amount of anti-intellectualism beginning to prevail too. It bothers me to the point that I want to emigrate, just so I can find likeminded people elsewhere. As such, I have difficulty seeing any values I hold as objective (as much as I wish for them to be universal), when I’m so disconnected from the objective world around me.

Inferior Te:

I lack the fundamental ability to implement solid solutions to my problems. I’m generally very inefficient and dependent on others to help me with this, such as homework in the past or filling in applications. I do struggle to fathom how people navigate the business world and the likes so seamlessly, and I often find myself admiring their ruthless nature. This is probably because my lack of natural assertion has led to problems within my personal life.

I become extremely cold and judgmental under stress, and only care about myself. I tend to self-centredly blame everyone but myself for the issues in the world, including me not being able to identify with those around me, and desperately want to “correct” them. This could be construed as black-and-white thinking in terms of morality. I rely on external standards to amplify my self-image, such as high grades in the past. Despite my coldness, I can flip to being ridiculously sensitive when someone makes me feel inadequate or beneath them, and it can lead to me being snappy with others.

Auxilary Ne:

I believe I use Ne as an escape from the world. I’ll often turn to fantasy as a way to cope. I have used this to procrastinate more pressing issues that I didn’t want to deal with, preferring to live in my daydreams where everything is easier. While I do have very complex worlds in my head, this can be enriched by things outside of it too. For example, I’ll admire the dynamics of a friendship group in a show, and wish for that for myself. So, I form an ideal group in my mind. This serves as a double-edged sword, because while it can be meaningful inspiration for me to implement in reality, it can also lead to bitter disappointment if these ideals can’t be realised.

However, Ne can cause larger issues than just procrastination. I will envision only negative outcomes to situations, leading to complete inaction. Eventually I lose hope altogether, thinking there’s nothing in the future for me, and reject the world altogether. My mind becomes more narrow, only choosing to stick to very specific situations and trains of thought.

I often turn to external forms such as music to identify my feelings, seeking to find myself within the feelings and expressions of others. I then wish to embody the images I find within the song, in hopes that I can discover my identity that way. This also gives me the opportunity to explore different perspectives, which can often help liberate my typical one-sidedness.

Tertiary Si:

In terms of Si loop, this tends to manifest in the form of craving my childhood back. I wish I could lose the responsibility on my shoulders and just go back to playing imaginary games and being completely oblivious to the world.

I also have a tendency to become closed-minded, immediately shutting out other people’s ideas that don’t “fit” in my own head. I would rather take no action at all than risk making the wrong move, because the regret would just be paralysing. My past experiences tend to drastically influence how I perceive things, and it’s difficult for me to wrap my head around how someone can see things so differently to how I do. As such, I cling onto my perceptions of the world heavily.

INFJ:

Dominant Ni:

I have always been known as an idealist, and someone that lives in my head. My mind was always my escape from the harshness of reality. Ever since I was young, I’ve developed deeply personal mental images and narratives, and purpose has been my driving force. When I was a child, I had myself fully convinced for years that I was a fairy queen doomed to live inside a human husk to test my fortitude for my “kingdom’s” sake. Even now, I always need to have some sort of abstract ideal propelling me forward.

The future has always been my main priority in life. Even if I don’t have a concrete idea of my life’s trajectory, I always know if something does or doesn’t fit into it. Others around me have complimented my insightfulness and my ability to predict what will eventually become of a situation. This can be anything from the plot of a story, to a relationship, generally anything can lead my mind to spiral towards a single-minded prediction.

However, this has been a large source of pain and isolation throughout my life. When I’m at my lowest, I make sweeping generalisations such as “everything is meaningless”, “everyone is so boring”, “every form of media I consume is shallow”. It makes me feel self-conscious, wondering if my expectations are too high, but I can’t seem to let go of my ideals regardless. I’ve been noted as a very detached person, taking my inner world too seriously.

Inferior Se:

The mundane has never interested me. I’ve never taken the world at face value, which does lead to warped perceptions and dashed expectations at times. I honestly tend to look down on those that exhibit more impulsive, hedonistic traits. I’ve been told that I need to “let loose” more, but I just can’t fathom doing that. I don’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to be in full control of themselves and their presentation at all times. I can’t envision my life or the world without meaning, and as such, I unconsciously reject anything I deem surface-level or crass. This does tend to overlap with typical Se traits.

However, there are times where I fall into Se traits during stress. I blurt out things I don’t mean to say, hyper-focus on insignificant details to the point that I lose sleep, and indulge myself needlessly in sensory pleasures, such as food, or deliberately delve into more shallow forms of communication, such as social media. A lot of the time, I obsessively seek out people or outside circumstances that prove my personal narrative about a concept, in a way to prove it to both myself and others. I expect and take from the world, but ultimately provide nothing.

Auxilary Fe:

As probably highlighted in my Fi section, I do exhibit some resistant behaviours towards Fe. Generally, any area will come with stereotypes of those that live there, and I don’t fit that mould at all. I’m quiet, prudent and abstract-minded in comparison to what’s expected. It’s a complicated experience for me, because as much as I resist what a lot of common behaviours represent, another part of me wants to beat myself up relentlessly for not fitting in perfectly. I often hope that I’m just viewing people negatively and tarring everyone with the same brush, so I will find my crowd eventually. I have never once rejected the concept of following objective values - if anything, it appeals to me greatly. I just think I have been extremely unlucky with the ones I’m expected to follow. Rather than following a greater purpose or meaningful relationship, I feel stuck in the monotony of my home.

Honestly, my default state is still to go along with everyone else’s wishes and forget my own feelings. It got to the point where I questioned if I could feel at all sometimes, and I’d lose my sense of identity altogether. I can’t bear any kind of conflict and I’m always trying to harmonise with those around me. The resentment I mentioned has only blossomed within the last few months, when I realised that the environment can’t always play to my preferences and strengths. It came to me like a flash of lightning. I often find myself wishing I could “unsee” the issues that led me to this constant frustration, so I could lose myself again and just comply. At least that sort of mindset could be seen as romantic or pitiful - my feelings now are just pure pettiness, and deliberately targeted at those I seek validation from.

I adjust my behaviour quite a bit to suit the emotional atmosphere, both to avoid exposure and to be seen in a positive light. I know what I can and can’t express, maintain etiquette, and try to carry myself well. As well as adjusting, though, I do try to have some sort of influence and warp the atmosphere to suit myself as well. I always strive to be a positive influence on others, and tend to view myself in the light that I want to be seen by the world at large. This is all in the hopes that eventually, I’ll be recognised by everyone as the ideal I’m trying to live up to, and others will follow in my footsteps.

I’m ridiculously sensitive to any form of criticism or rejection, and isolate myself often to protect myself. Any negative comment made towards me, even someone looking at me the wrong way, can completely throw me off and ruin my self-perception. This is amplified tenfold when around new people - I’m extremely self-conscious and try to come across as almost too perfect.

Tertiary Ti:

I see detached analysis as a comfort, in a strange way. The relief that comes with being able to detach and let go of emotional baggage is therapeutic for me. However, when I do use Ti to navigate my emotional life, it tends to take the form of rationalising my feelings, figuring out why I feel a certain way before I can accept it and express it to others. Naturally, this line of thinking extends to how I work around other people’s feelings, too.

However, I believe I can use Ti in an unhealthy manner too. When I detach from the emotional realm too much, this can quickly lead me to a misanthropic and cynical worldview. I tell myself that nobody is worth engaging with because they won’t understand, let alone accept, what’s going on in my head. I flip between desperately wanting to be loved and questioning why, when I can only think negatively of people.

I acknowledge that my logic can be flawed, but it’s hard to grasp that in the moment. It really throws me off when someone points out holes in my logic, though - even if I know I’m wrong deep down, I will often cling to my way of thinking just for the sake of it.

Any insight would be immensely helpful, I hope I followed your instructions well enough. Thanks so much if you read all of this.

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

You're really pulling and stretching at the INFP functions to try to make them fit and even ignoring strong counter-evidence, whereas the INFJ functions are a much more natural fit. You seem to have a long journey of function development ahead of you but I believe Ni+Fe lie at the heart of the project rather than Fi+Ne. As such, I would conclude your type is INFJ with a high degree of confidence.

[sloshed-cinema]

Cleopatra (1963)

The highlight of any Shakespeare unit during high school English was always when we got to act out scenes rather than just read them out loud.  Our teacher always doled out the roles, and I always tended to get handed the character who would die within that given scene, playing Mercutio and Romeo and Macbeth in turn.  In hindsight, I don’t think this choice was out of some petty revenge to have me die over and over, but rather that I had a propensity for corniness, almost braining myself on a desk once as I collapsed to the ground with a meterstick-sword clutched under my arm.  Get your yucks while you can, old man, but looking at this sprawling epic it seems I was in good company.  Cleopatra boasts sumptuous production design and awe-inspiring sets, but underlying it too is a thread of pure camp which comes to the fore whenever someone is tasked with enacting the end of their life.  A maid collapses to the floor, dropping a poisoned chalice.  Sosigenes gets speared in the gut, carefully falling down to make sure the rig stays in place.  Mark Anthony falls on his sword in the most delicate way possible.  Even while still alive, characters within the story can’t resist spreading some mustard on their performances.  Octavian once recognized by Julius Caesar as his heir becomes a scenery-chewing orator, screaming first of war against Egypt and then at Anthony’s greatness upon his passing.  But truly, with so many gold-plated sets and massive statues and more costume changes for its title character than could ever be counted, it’s easy to see the impulse in delivering the story at its most heightened.  The glistening jewel at the center of it all is the setpiece where Cleopatra arrives in Rome on a massive golden sphinx.  Presumably the Egyptian delegation measured everything to the millimeter as when Cleopatra’s literal red carpet is rolled out and her complicated litter conveyed down the stairs, it couldn’t have been better planned.  Cleopatra certainly knew how to do PR.  And she knew how to deliver a scathing final burn, dying by the asp in her most glamorous garb while making her interns clean up the mess.  A classic move.  She definitely used coded terms like ‘fast-paced environment’ in her job application descriptions.

At the core of it all, peeling back the glitz and glamor of the production, the film is essentially a four-hour exploration of people not thinking they’ll ever have to face the consequences of their actions until dammit there’s an army at my doorstep.  Who could have ever seen these problems coming?  Cleopatra’s leadership is distilled down to imperiousness in Elizabeth Taylor’s turn here, the queen snapping and making demands no matter what was her position in negotiations.  If there is interest to be found in examining the gender politics and inter-kingdom relationships in this conflict between the Roman Empire, née Republic and Ptolemaic Egypt, one will have to look elsewhere.  Joseph L Mankiewicz’ sprawling narrative boils down to the Romans decrying Cleopatra an “Egyptian whore” while first Julius Caesar and then Mark Anthony think with their other head when considering alliances and matters of state.  I will give Julius this much: he’s one sassy bitch, as close as we’ll get in this sort of film to Tony Stark quipping mid-battle about something or other.  Mark Anthony is a serial moper and a bit of a himbo, not one for strategy nor one to stick around to see his mistakes through to the bitter end.  Why face the consequences of your actions when you can just bid others to paddle you away, only to collapse under the weight of your guilt later?  All of the machinations of ambition and diplomacy are distilled down to their simplest form.  It’s four hours long and yet the narrative still requires jumps forward, sequences which would have been interesting to see unfold onscreen explained away with either a tossed-off line or the entire frame becoming a crumbling fresco while the narrator fills in the details.  That said, what it does allow us to watch is a spectacle on all levels, something that was probably worth all of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into its production.

THE RULES

PICK ONE

Select either ROME or EGYPT and sip when that empire is named.

SIP

Pompey gets name-dropped.

Caesar is a sassy queen.

Someone salutes.

Cleopatra has a new hairpiece.

BIG DRINK

Narration begins.

New form of transportation reliant on tons of dudes hauling something on their shoulders.

Someone puts a scoop of something in a fire.

[birklurks]

Hi Birk,

I just wanted to say that I agree with the asker of your last ask, and the tone of your answer was what prompted me to send this.

We've interacted briefly in the past, and I know we've probably not seen eye to eye because of that, but I've followed you and genuinely enjoyed your engagement in the Naruto fandom (even though it's a fandom i tend to lurk on the outskirts of, my main interests lie elsewhere). That being said, it has been saddening to see how bitter you appear to be when discussing the fandom now. Surely this aggressive bitterness isn't sustainable? I do understand the comment debate - and I'll admit I probably don't have much of a stake in it because I live in very small fandoms - and I respect you for sticking to your guns and your beliefs. I wish that this was done with a little less open hostility that at times seems to come across like an attempt at making others feel guilty for how they participate in fandom (whether this is intended or not).

I'm truly sorry if someone has at one point made you feel like the way you engage in fandom is wrong. I really am.

Hi there @temporary-dysphoria​ 👋🏻,

Yes, of course I remember you! 🤗

You are the person who wrote this post based on your... whimsical, interpretation and application of “copyright law” (which was actually rife with unsubstantiated fear mongering hyperbole and misinformation 🥴).

BUT, I genuinely (no joke) have to hand it to you - when I respectfully reached out to ask you for citations to back up your fanciful claims, at least you were honest enough to admit that:

"The original post was done in 10 minutes based on my memory alone and a quick google search". 

So, kudos to you for that! Although, you also said you would get back to me about my request for weighted authorities and substantiation... (which of course, you never did... probably because they don't exist 😬). 

So unfortunately, you're batting a 0% average here when it comes to credibility.

That being said, I never assess any person based on a one-off interaction. So, let's see what you have to say. 😊

(Birk reading... scrolling... reading some more..... DONE.)

_________________________________________

Ahhh, so this is another one of "those" asks.

To start, the thing that never ceases to surprise me about people on Tumblr is how singularly focused they are on "tone" or how something is “framed” rather than the actual SUBSTANCE of what is being said. Which I know is silly, because the reason for this is excruciatingly obvious: 

In the context of fandom, folks send me asks like this (making lackluster attempts to try and spin my posts as indicative of some sort of degenerative “bitterness” that is supposedly “saddening”), because they cannot honestly, competently, and rationally address what is really going on without acknowledging the ridiculous, rude, and highly inconsiderate nature of the behavior I am unabashedly mimicking without any “uwu” sugar coating.

I mean honestly, what about my tone really prompted you to send this ask? 

Does one person plainly stating the glaringly obvious (albeit, quiet) parts out loud, and holding up a mirror to the realities of silent lurkership make you that uncomfortable?? 

And most importantly - why can you freely lurk, but not me??

“I wish that this was done with a little less open hostility that at times seems to come across like an attempt at making others feel guilty for how they participate in fandom (whether this is intended or not).”

This is genuinely puzzling.... “open hostility”?? 

Are you serious? 😦

All I’ve ever done over the past 5 months is hold up a mirror to the glorious nature of voracious silent lurkership for what it objectively, FACTUALLY is. 

I am an “equitable” silent lurker now. I get everything I want, when I want it, how I want it, and as much as I want it at the expense of everyone else’s extraordinary labor, sacrifice of time and effort… for absolutely nothing in return. 

That is just a fact.

If you think the statement (or mere reflection) of a glaringly obvious fact = “open hostility”, I seriously question how you could possibly communicate in any context with other rational adults (in any setting other than a carefully hyper-curated 100000000% validating internet echo chamber).

As for my posts coming across as “an attempt to make others feel guilty” - huh??

Why is that on me?? All I’m doing is holding up a plain 1:1 mirror here. 

If people feel guilty or uncomfortable by what they see in that mirror, maybe they should think about why that is. That’s on them.

Because I sure as hell don’t feel guilty. Far from it. Why should I, when fandom has unequivocally taught me that nobody owes anyone anything??

So of course I’m having a ball!! As a fellow lurker - aren’t you??! 💃🏻🥂✨

As for this odd blurb:  

“I'm truly sorry if someone has at one point made you feel like the way you engage in fandom is wrong. I really am.”

What a weird (and frankly, inapplicable) sentiment to express to someone who is just existing and having the time of her life enjoying the endless benefits of effortless silent lurkership no differently than you do. 🤔

But you know what - if sending me thinly veiled, patronizing fake platitudes make you feel better, then by all means go to town, I guess.🤷🏻‍♀️

At any rate, once again -  I do genuinely respect the fact that you had the balls to send this ask as an identified user. It’s more than I can say for the overwhelming majority of unprincipled cowards in my inbox.

[tiredelirium]

D.7

I haven’t read nearly as many books in my life so far as I should’ve. When I was a kid I used to consume them like kindling. One time I read an entire two hundred page book in the backseat of my mum’s car while she was shopping. She was only gone for maybe half an hour, but the words out of that book flowed pretty easily to me. My memory is bad, so all I remember of that particular book is that it was an Ursula Le Guin one, though I couldn’t tell you which cause I read so many different things back then.

As I got older I stopped reading books as much, only because I found the reading elsewhere. RPG games had so much reading, as did online games like Runescape and WOW with their forums. I started reading more comics and manga, in a wide range of stuff, from Cardcaptor Sakura and Bleach to the likes of Death Note and Berserk. Though I never really watched Anime as much, I think that was partly because I always liked the art in the manga better and, like with most media, lots of content gets cut from the pages to the screen.

I still read from time to time, two of my favourite writers, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett being books I always picked up when I could. I reread a lot of old stuff too with fresh eyes after movies and tv shows came out, like the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series.

Harry Potter was always a weird one to me even before a reread. While I could enjoy the magical concepts of the world, so much was nonsensical that it just drew you out of the story. Like, why would a magical world such as this be so afeared and secluded from the rest of the world that they’d need a underfunded department to *study* non-magicians?

However, I still enjoyed it when I first read it, because I was a kid at the time of the first book, and could envision myself as a wizard in that world without being able to truly conceptualise all the wrongs present, and the writer’s own opinions and hidden thoughts plastered throughout.

Between the ages of 10 and 13 I was fairly active on an avatar website, forums built largely for teens to talk and talk to others about hobbies and interests. Here was the first place, and arguably last, that I actively wrote with others. The reason why I mentioned Harry Potter, despite the superior Discworld franchise or the funner Sandman works, is because one of the first interactive role plays I took part in was a Harry Potter one.

Each person involved -after sending in a forum application with their character idea with name, personality, history, goals highlighted- wrote a single post, often a paragraph or two in length. Others would work on their own responses, and so the story was written by the parts of many influences.

It was my first foray in role play writing, and I enjoyed it immensely. But, like all internet activities, I practiced safety. Never sharing my real name, pictures or information with the people I wrote with, even months into that experience.

A part of me regrets that. Especially now so long after that account has been buried and forgotten alongside the website it was on. I think if I had’ve I likely would still be friends with those people today, maybe even still writing. All I know about that first group is that one of them was French and another Filipino, I think most of the others were American, and I was the only English.

It was fun to write those back and forths, effortlessly engaging, and likely the driving reason why a handful of years after I stopped using that site I’d find myself watching a lot of TTRPG content. I didn’t have the confidence to do anything in person, and despite living in the city finding a place where one could even play ttrpgs was a task. So I watched. I consumed. I read some more.

The original series I saw was Roll Play, by ItMeJP, who ran many different liveplay dnd shows before they became the more mainstream option like they are now, where everybody and their mum has a dungeons and dragon’s podcast with their own spin on it. It was a good series, full of enjoyable creators working together and having a blast, and I got to have a blast in tandem listening to them.

Sadly that series ultimately ended due to a slew of reasons that I won’t get into, but it gave me inspiration and made me want to play too.

At the end of university I finally got round to having courage enough to ask some people if they wanted to try it out. These people were my housemates in my third year and I liked them all, as they were all pretty fun and nerdy in their own ways. I think if I was a more driven person I likely would’ve been able to maintain friendships with them after uni, but alas.

The first game I ran took into account the groups love of the Walking Dead, and was a simple setup. Not classic dnd stuff really, not even a module. This was largely because every liveplay I’d listened to or watched over the years had never been based on an existing module but a homebrewed setting instead. Though my setting for those games wasn’t something built entirely, it was a basic fantasy.

The party awoke in the woods where they were camping for the night, having been disturbed by noises in the bushes, after having a run-in on the road with some silk merchants, two men and a boy, who they helped out by fending off some wolves. Surrounding them in the woods were hundreds of corpses slowly wading through the bushes toward the camp clearing. As they looked on in terror, some spell came over them, rendering them asleep. The one who rolled the highest on their save got to notice two things before they fainted: that all the corpses had a marked etching on their forehead, and that there was someone else in the woods beside the corpses.

When the party awoke they were trapped in a cell underground. They broke out handily, and began to head up the stairs, finding themselves within a sealed tower, no sign of the silk merchants. With the door sealed in a way they couldn’t open it they were forced to head up the tower to seek exit or means to unlock the door and find freedom.

In the tower the party encountered a handful of living dead guards, a lab with notes of strange experiments, and living quarters. One of them was able to recognise a corpse that attacked them as being one of the two silk merchants, while another found the body of the other silk merchant, left a cadaver on a slab as an object of study. As they finally reached the apex of the tower, having found no means of escape as yet, they encounter a large undead creature whose body radiates death.

They find the boy who worked for the silk merchants, now mutated to anything but a boy.

This was their first boss, and they handled it well. Around the boys neck was an arcane key that unlocked the tower, while the room held an altar with a book bound in flesh, marked with the same symbol the party saw on the boy’s head.

This marked the end of that game, that had taken place over the course of two sessions, several months apart. The first session had been in person, as I’d travelled to their house in their fourth year to play, and had used a roll out gridded matt to make maps on. The second session had taken place over a skype call while using Roll20.

That was the last time that I ran a game for them. Not because I didn’t want to run more, or because they didn’t want to play anymore, but because times had changed and we all were doing different things. University had ended, with some of them doing master’s degrees at that uni, while others had went elsewhere. I’d went home, and, like always terrible at communication, began to message less and less. The straw that broke the camels back there was when I lost access to my facebook account due to email issues I kind of lost my ability to reach out to them as well.

I could probably try, and I think they’d probably answer, but it’s been so long now that I don’t think I have the guts to even attempt the reach. Who knows where they are now or what they’re doing, especially with the way things in the world have changed and altered so much.

It was fun though. That was the first game I ever ran, and it was by no means the last.

[verofax]

How Augmented Reality Solutions Can Increase Footfall in Retail Stores

Envision strolling into a garment store and seeing a virtual runway show highlighting the most recent assortment. With Augmented Reality , this can turn into a reality! Stores can utilize AR to make intuitive shows and encounters that catch customers’ consideration and make them need to investigate more. For instance, AR mirrors permit clients to take a stab at garments practically, perceiving how various outfits look on them without evolving truly. This recovers time and adds a great component to shopping.

Improving Product Data

At any point, ended up perplexed by the range of products on the racks? AR can assist with that as well. By pointing your cell phone at a product, you can get definite data about it, including surveys, value correlations, and even how it’s made. This improved product data through Augmented Reality Solutions assists clients with pursuing informed choices rapidly and effectively, making the shopping experience smoother and more pleasant. When individuals realize they can readily access all the data they need, they’re bound to visit and return to the store.

Rejuvenating Products

Imagine a scenario in which you could perceive how a household product would thoroughly search in your family room before getting it. AR can do that! With AR applications, clients can envision how products will fit into their lives. For instance, in a home stylistic layout store, customers can utilize Augmented Reality Solutions from a top service provider like Verofax to put virtual furniture in their homes, guaranteeing it matches their space and style. This element isn’t just beneficial, but additionally urges more individuals to visit the store to give it a shot.

Intelligent In-Store Route

Enormous stores can in some cases feel like a labyrinth. AR can transform this into a tomfoolery experience with the intuitive in-store route. By utilizing AR maps on their cell phones, clients can easily track down their direction to explicit products or segments of the store. A few stores even make expedition-style encounters where customers can follow AR pieces of information to find extraordinary offers or fresh debuts.

Customized Shopping Experience

Personalization is critical to prevail upon clients, and AR can take it to a higher level. By utilizing AR, stores can propose customized proposals in light of clients’ inclinations and shopping history. For example, when clients stroll into a store, they can get customized AR ideas on their telephone, directing them to products they like.

Consistent Coordination with Internet Shopping

AR can consistently overcome any issues between on-the-web and disconnected shopping. Clients can utilize AR to filter products coming up and add them to their internet-based truck for later purchase. This coordination guarantees that regardless of whether a client purchases something right away, they can undoubtedly do so later, either on the web or during their following visit.

Building Brand Trustworthiness

Clients with a positive and novel shopping experience are bound to foster areas of strength for the brand. AR can assist with building this dedication by offering significant and drawing in encounters that clients can’t find elsewhere. Cheerful clients are bound to become recurrent guests and even backers of the store, getting new clients through informal exchange proposals.

Considering everything AR can upset how we shop, making it more intelligent, connecting with, and helpful. AR can fundamentally increment footfall in retail locations by creating exceptional encounters, improving product data, and offering customized administrations. In this way, whenever you’re shopping, look out for these astonishing AR highlights – they’re certain to make your shopping journey to the store more charming!

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Blog source: https://verofax.com/blog/how-augmented-reality-solutions-can-increase-footfall-in-retail-stores

[vampiresbloodx]

Be my dog.

Synopsis: struggling to look for a new job, your friend, happens to be a CEO and is friends with another CEO who is also looking for a new assistant, helps you get hired by Wanda Maximoff.

Pairings: Wanda Maximoff x Reader

word count: 2.5k

Trigger warnings: oral s*x (Wanda receiving), bottom!reader, top!Wanda, petplay, boss/employee relationship, slight fluff, praise kink, slight angst.

Wanda Maximoff liked to think of herself as a patient woman. 

She was the owner, CEO of Maximoff industries, the company that invests in nothing but the best of the best, including all things Tech. If you’ve ever bought a new phone, tablet, Laptop, you’ll recognize Wanda’s family name on the brand. 

Her father before he passed away, would have given the company of to Pietro, her twin brother, but after the accident… he wasn’t suitable to run it. 

Truly, he was devastated, as was Wanda. 

She didn’t exactly have plans of taking over the family's company when she grew up, she was more than happy to not have that burden on her shoulders and let her father bat an eye at her to let her do whatever she wanted. 

Wanda just wanted to live her life freely. 

She didn’t really have big ambitions like most people in her family did. She wasn’t a quick thinker, it took time for her to learn new things, she wasn’t well knowledgeable in business, but she studied very hard when Pietro couldn’t anymore. She learned it all for him, knowing it would make him happy, even if it didn’t bring her any happiness. 

She wanted to make him proud, she wanted to hear him to speak highly of her whenever people asked about his sister. 

And she did just that. 

In a span of a few years. 

The family's company grew even more successful, thanks to her. 

She found she was actually good at this kind of stuff, managing business and people, negotiations, planning, all that, maybe it was just a part of her. 

Of course, there comes a time where every CEO needs their assistant. 

For years she didn’t go without any, because they’d all been just rather terrible at their jobs. 

She didn’t know why they even bothered submitting their applications. 

Wanda was strict, stern, scary to some, intimidating, cold, but deep down, she just cared a lot. 

She needed to find someone who would be the perfect fit to her and the company. That wouldn’t trail along and can handle her orders. 

Today, she happened to have an interview, with a recommendation by one of her friends that were in her inner circle, Natasha Romanoff. 

Who was also a CEO. 

Natasha knew Wanda for a while, even before Pietro’s accident. She knew how much all this meant to her, she also knows how hard she works. Wanda just wants the best and so does Natasha. 

And natasha just wanted to lend a helping hand. 

“So, you’re saying this person is good?” Wanda asks, taking a sip of her tea as she stares at the redhead from across the table. 

Natasha nodded. 

“Definatly, you know me, Wanda, I wouldn’t set you up with someone who’s going to fuck with you” she said curtly. 

Wanda grins, “depending on how they fuck me is the real question.” 

Natasha laughed, shaking her head. 

“Always a way with words, aren’t you?.” 

“You know me.” 

Checking the time on her phone, Wanda sighed. It wasn’t even time for the interview yet she was bored. And for a workaholic, that was shocking. Wanda was always at her desk, or busy elsewhere, she just hoped that this person that Natasha recommended wouldn’t be late to disappoint her. 

After twenty minutes passed, there was a buzz on her door and a worker stepped in. 

“Yes?” Wanda said. 

“Someone is here for the interview,” the worker said. 

She nodded, “let them in.” 

Wanda stood up, taking her jacket off as she ran a hand through her hair, grabbing a tie to tie it up in a bun. She was ready for a nice hot bath when she got back to her penthouse. 

“Miss Maximoff?” a voice called out to her and she turned around, facing the nervous looking shy person standing in her office. 

Was this really the recommendation Natasha gave her? 

She raised an eyebrow at them, looking them up and down. 

“Are you the one Ms. Romanoff sent me?” she asks, sitting back on her seat. 

“Y-yes” you stammered, nodding your head, shyly avoding her gaze.

She smiled in amusement.

Normally those shy types of people would annoy her, but you were just that adorable.

You wore a white shirt, black pants and a low sleeve black cardigan, along with nice boots to top it off. It seems Natasha might have given you a head start, on how to dress properly for the interview and in a way it'd please her.

“Good to know you're on time, I like that” she said, putting away some files. “So, tell me about yourself, why do you think you'll be a good fit for not just me but the company.”

You sat down in front of her, she heard you take a breath in and out, she waited, watching you.

“You need someone who can keep up with you, follow your orders and demands without any hesitation or complaints, you want someone who can also contribute to the company and help it grow with even more success than it already is, I can be that person.”

Wanda raised an eyebrow at you.

“Mhm” she hummed, taking a sip of her coffee.

There was a brief moment of silence, but for you, it felt like eternity.

She stood up, straightening out her jeans as she walks over to the large open windows, looking out at New York.

“Have you always lived in this city?” She asks.

“No, moved here” you answered, unsure if this was a part of the interview since Natasha didn't prepare you for this particular part.

She turned to face you, licking her lips.

You couldn't help but stare at them when and the way her tongue moved across her mouth.

“I don't think I was completely honest when I said I was looking for a new assistant” she said, so casually even though you were so lost as to what's happening.

“I'm sorry?.”

She chuckled, sitting back down but instead she was now in front of you as she sat on her desk, leaning forward.

“You're too cute, you know?” She purred, grabbing you by the collar of your shirt, “Natasha claims I need to have more fun in my life, more excitement, don't get me wrong, I do need assistance, but… not in the retail sense” she grinned like a wolf.

You were stunned like a deer in the headlights.

“Isn't this wrong, if we get caught you'll be in trouble-”

“Oh honey” she cooed, “I own this company, I run everything and everyone, no one can get me in trouble, that's silly” she teased.

“Oh.”

“i can give you more than what you'd earn here on your weekly check at your current waitressing job-”

“How did you know I did waitressing?-” 

“I can give you whatever you want and need, the only thing I ask in return is you be my dog.”

“Your… dog?.”

She nodded.

“My most loyal dog” she smiled, cupping your cheeks in her hands. “that takes orders from me, when I say run, you bark, when I say stop, you stop, by can you be that for me?” 

It didn't even look like you had a choice, neither did it sound bad anyway.

You nodded.

“Yes.”

“Mhm? I didn't quite hear that, what did you say?” She asked.

You were confused, but then remembered what she said before.

Your cheeks burned as you bit down on your bottom lip.

Your mouth opened as you let out a happy bark sound.

She grinned.

“Good pup” she chuckled. “Now, does puppy want a treat?” 

You nodded.

“But what do good pups need to do before they get that treat?” She said.

“Uh, do a task for you?”

“Yes, good puppy, from now you're hired as my assistant, in everyone else's eyes, but to me, in my office, in my penthouse, you're my puppy” she gripped harder than necessary, her hand on your throat as you couldn't stop the moan coming out.

“Ah, sounds like you like it when I choke you, mhm?” She laughed, “good puppy. Now, I'm gonna send you off to go grab a few things with my credit card, if you can do that, I might just reward you.”

Your eyes lit up at the sound of that.

She pressed a kiss to the side of your mouth, teasing you, making you want more.

“Now go be a good puppy for mommy.”

–

After that day you got your new job, you rushed to send the good news to your friends. 

And of course that was natasha. 

Nat: ofc you got the job, thanks to moi. 

You: yeah yeah, I’ll treat you to a girls night when I get my paycheck. 

Nat: I’m holding you to that one ;). 

You rolled your eyes, smiling to yourself as you walked through the streets of New York city. It was like every other day, people walking (or running) to work, students on their way to school, people walking their dogs, taxis honking their horns and cars driving by, you preferred this over the small town you used to live in, more than anything. 

It was almost 7:30 and you were on your way to Wanda’s favourite cafe she told you about, one that makes the best croissants and bagels. You wanted to try them when you got the chance if they pleased Wanda. 

You still couldn’t wrap your mind over what happened between you and her. How she almost kissed you on the lips, you were inches apart, if you’d lean in more you would have kissed her. 

Instead she was the one to lean in, pressing her lips slightly near yours. 

You were a little bummed out that she didn’t outright make out with you right there in her office, you wouldn’t mind not one bit. Maybe she was testing you, how loyal you really are to her. 

Because even after you had run your first errands for her, she didn’t give you a reward like she had promised. 

Which upsetted you no doubt, though it’s not like you can whine to her about it. 

You just wished she’d kiss you then, when she had the chance. 

It’s been on your mind ever since. 

You haven’t been able to think about anything else. 

The smell of her perfume overwhelmed you, it was intoxicating, she was addicting, like a drug. 

You wanted more. 

With her it won’t be that easy. 

After grabbing the things she listed down for you to get, you made it back in time to her office, where you waited, listening to her talk to someone on the phone, by the sounds of her annoyed grunts it didn’t seem good. 

When it was over she hung up rather aggressively, throwing her phone literally across the room, breaking it, causing you to flinch as you walked in. 

“It looks like I need a new phone” she huffed, looking at you with a smile. 

She took her cup of coffee from your hand. 

“Everything okay, Miss Maximoff?” you questioned hesitantly. 

She groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose, taking a sip as she let out a sigh. 

“Fucking Tony” she muttered, “won’t just accpet a deal over the phone, has to do it in person, old school, fuck. Does he think I have the time to be doing that shit? No.” 

“You mean Tony Stark? The owner of Stark industries?” you said. 

She huffed. 

“Yes, obviously Tony fucking Stark.” 

She looked back at you, seeing how uneasy you looked with her acting like that. Usually, Wanda would be more professional with her emotions. But men like Tony liked to piss her off. It was only eight in the morning and she wanted to get out. 

“I’m sorry for my tone, that was inappropriate” she sighed, placing down her drink. 

You shook your head, “no it’s okay, I get it. You don’t need to apologise to me.” 

Her face softened as she stepped closer to you, getting into your personal space. 

“Look, I respect my workers, most importantly my assistant, I don’t ever wanna use that tone on you ever again, it wasn’t right of me, I have more respect for myself than that.” she placed her hands on your shoulders, giving it a squeeze. “I know I can be… scary” she chuckled, “I never want to be that way with you.” 

At that moment you really believed her. 

“It’s okay” you said, your entire body felt like it was burning. “Really, please don’t apologise. You were annoyed.” 

She nodded. 

“Yes, at Mr. Stark, not you.” 

She sighed, walking away from you to sit back down in her chair, you could tell she didn’t seem to get a lot of sleep or ate that much, you don’t think you’ve ever seen her eat, not that it was your business how she took care of herself, that didn’t stop you from caring.

“Can I do anything to cheer you up?” you asked, biting down on your bottom lip. 

She raised an eyebrow at you, there was something in her eyes that you couldn’t quite read. 

“You want to cheer me up?” she teased, “well, I am looking for a bit of cheering up, come here.” 

You obeyed, she grabbed you and forced you under her desk. 

“How am I supposed to cheer you up when I’m down here-” 

“Hush now” she demanded, pushing you further in between her legs. “You offered to make me feel better, now use that pretty mouth of yours and eat my pussy.” 

Your eyes widened, seeing the sight of her dripping bare cunt right in front of you, she wasn’t even wearing anything underneath her skirt, you felt your own core throbbing with want, licking your lips, you went in greedily, sucking at her clit. 

She gasped, Natasha didn’t tell her you were good at eating pussy. 

You continued to lick and flick your tongue along her cunt, hearing her breathy moans and sighs from above, the sounds were addicting, you wanted to hear more, she sounded so beautiful, you wished you could see what she looked like right now, but you didn’t want to stop. 

“Good puppy,” she moaned, “such a good slut for mommy” Wanda threw her head back, her eyes closed as she tightened her thighs around your head, she whimpered. 

She felt the coil in her lower belly about to burst, her moans getting louder, not caring if anyone heard, this was her office, her company, she can fuck whoever she wanted and do whatever she wanted. 

“I’m close, fuck, don’t stop-” she whined, gripping onto the sides of her desk. 

Wanda then came with a cry of your name, she wanted to let you know how good you were doing and how good you made her feel, she couldn’t deny that was the best orgasm she’s had in a while. 

Pushing you away from her, she grabbed you and pulled you towards her, she wrapped her hand around your neck, kissing you. 

“My good puppy” she purred, kissing you softly, “who’s my good puppy.” 

You happily gave her a bark. 

She smiled. 

“That’s right, you’re my good puppy, my one and only.” 

You hoped you were all she needed.

[mitrasprayers]

Tractor Sprayers: Revolutionizing Crop Care in Agriculture

In the ever-evolving landscape of modern agriculture, the quest for efficiency, sustainability, and precision has led to remarkable innovations in crop management. Among these innovations, tractor sprayers have emerged as a revolutionizing force, reshaping the way farmers care for their crops. These versatile machines have become indispensable tools that enable precision application of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers while optimizing resource use and minimizing environmental impact. In this article, we will explore how tractor sprayers are spearheading a revolution in crop care and why they have become essential assets in the agricultural sector.

The Rise of Tractor Sprayers

Before we delve into the transformation brought about by tractor sprayers, it's essential to understand their emergence and the factors that have fueled their rise.

Mechanization in Agriculture: The transition from manual labor to mechanization in agriculture marked a significant turning point. Tractors became common farm equipment, and their power and versatility opened the door to various applications, including crop care.

Integration of Sprayers: As tractors gained popularity, the integration of sprayers became a natural progression. The ability to mount sprayers onto tractors transformed them into multipurpose machines capable of planting, cultivating, and protecting crops.

Precision Agriculture Revolution: The evolution of precision agriculture practices demanded more than conventional spraying methods could offer. Tractor sprayers evolved to incorporate GPS technology, advanced control systems, and variable rate application capabilities, enabling precise and efficient crop care.

Key Advancements and Impact

Tractor sprayers have ushered in a new era of crop care in agriculture, impacting various aspects of farming practices:

Efficiency at Scale: Tractor sprayers are designed to cover large areas swiftly. With substantial tank capacities and wide spray booms, they allow for fewer refills and faster field coverage. This efficiency translates to time savings and resource optimization.

Uniform Coverage: The precise control offered by tractor sprayers ensures uniform coverage across the field. This consistency is crucial for effective pest and disease control, as well as even distribution of fertilizers.

Reduced Labor Dependency: Mechanized spraying reduces the labor required for crop protection tasks. Operators can cover more ground in less time, allowing labor resources to be allocated elsewhere on the farm.

Precision Application: Advanced control systems enable precision application of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. This minimizes overuse, reduces waste, and maximizes the efficacy of treatments.

Environmental Responsibility: Tractor sprayers are equipped with features to minimize environmental impact. These include reducing spray drift, minimizing runoff, and adhering to regulations for responsible chemical application.

Safety and Comfort: The design of these sprayers prioritizes operator safety and comfort. The stable and ergonomic platform ensures safe operation during long hours in the field.

Resource Optimization: By optimizing the use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, tractor sprayers contribute to resource optimization. This not only reduces input costs but also minimizes the environmental impact of crop management.

Conclusion

Tractor sprayers have truly revolutionized crop care in agriculture by enhancing efficiency, precision, and sustainability. They have become invaluable tools for farmers seeking to optimize resource use, maximize yields, and minimize environmental impact. As technology continues to advance and precision agriculture practices evolve, the role of tractor sprayers in the agricultural sector will only grow in significance. These machines are not just tools; they are the embodiment of progress and sustainability in modern farming, ensuring that farmers can meet the demands of a growing world while nurturing the planet we call home.

[futureailist]

Turbocharge Your Writing and Content Marketing Efforts with Unsummary Unlock the Power of AI-Generated Summaries As a writer or content marketer, your time is precious. Crafting engaging content for your audience is your top priority, but the task of sifting through vast amounts of information from books, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and people profiles to create summaries can be incredibly time-consuming. The more time you spend on summaries, the less time you have for what truly matters – your content. The Costly Struggle For companies that hire individuals to create summaries for market research or content creation, the costs can quickly escalate. Time and money are resources that could be better allocated elsewhere. What If There Was a Solution? What if there was an assistant, tirelessly working to provide you with crisp, concise summaries of books, movies, TV shows, podcasts, people, and even any piece of text you desire? What if you no longer had to delve into web articles, read lengthy Wikipedia entries, search exhaustively for bios, or scour Amazon for key book insights? Introducing Unsummary Welcome to Unsummary, the revolutionary web application that could be the answer to your dreams. With Unsummary, you can effortlessly search for books, movies, TV shows, podcasts, or people, and let our AI take care of the rest. In mere seconds, you'll have a succinct summary ready to seamlessly integrate into your masterpiece. Six Ways to Transform Your Workflow Here are six ways Unsummary can save you time and money: Summarize Books: Access summaries of over 40 million books to enhance your literary content. Summarize Movies: Simplify your film-related content creation with summaries for 630,000+ movies. AI Summarize TV Shows: Streamline your TV show analyses with summaries for 230,000+ shows. Summarize Podcasts: Easily summarize podcasts from a vast selection of 4.1 million episodes. Summarize People: Obtain quick summaries for profiles of over 1.2 million individuals. Summarize Text: Need to condense website text, about pages, or Wikipedia articles? Unsummary has you covered. Copy, Paste, Tweak, and Go With Unsummary's AI-generated summaries, you're in control. Copy and paste these summaries wherever you need them – in blog articles, reports, presentations, newsletters, or anywhere you desire. Skyrocket Your Writing Productivity Unsummary isn't just about summaries; it's about reclaiming your time and saving money. Register now for 10 FREE Unsummary credits and experience the future of content creation.

[venomgender]

Hey I saw your tags on a prev post, can you tell me how you pirate content safely? (you can publish privately) thanks!

ok im going to start out that im not the 'end all be all' of piracy im like. constantly improving my craft (lol) but i'll explain everything i do to make sure i dont get caught while extensively downloading media

before that though if you just want to stream media and not torrent it you can just go to r/piracy's megathread and click the links through there

i WAS going to put this all under a read more but i was trying to link additional resources and this post has most of their explanation under a read more and since they deactivated their account you can't access it anymore. so on the off chance i deactivate i want to keep this post accessible, sorry its so long lol

some of this tutorial is only truly accessible if you have a computer that can stay on 24/7, which i know is not viable for everyone, so i went ahead and highlighted the things you need a computer thats always on for in blue

(honestly, you probably do all the things you need an always on computer for with a raspberry pi but i dont know jack shit about those (yet) so you'd have to look elsewhere on how to do that) i do all of my piracy on a windows desktop computer

1. the first thing you want to do when beginning your torrenting life is purchasing a good vpn.

i personally don't trust any vpn sponsored by youtubers to not sell you data to companies for profit, so i use ProtonVPN since i use their mail service and their servers are based in Norway i believe which has EXTREMELY strict privacy laws. they have a free version of it but it doesn't allow you to torrent.

NEVER USE A FREE VPN FOR TORRENTING EITHER! they are like. the least secure vpns in the world . a vpn is expensive but basically all of them are for plans that last well over a year so its a worthwhile investment

2. the next thing you'll want to do is select and set up your torrenting client

i personally use qbittorrent and it works great. DO NOT USE UTORRENT. while their are some versions that don't have a cryptominer attached to it, basically all of the versions do at this point so its better to just steer clear

once you have your torrenting client downloaded, you will want to set it up to only be able to connect to the internet through you're vpn. the images below show you how to do it in qbittorrent

(image descriptions available in the alt text)

once you've done the steps in the image, click "apply" and then "ok" in the bottom right of the settings tab

the next part is only necessary if you are going to seed torrents (which i recommend you do if you can)

if you ARE going to seed torrents, you are going to need to enable port forwarding in your vpn and connect your torrenting client to the port specifed. the following images will show you how to do that with ProtonVPN and qBittorrent

(image descriptions available in the alt text)

once you've done the steps in the image, click "apply" and then "ok" in the bottom right of the settings tab. you will want to make sure that connection status button, located two buttons to the left of your displayed download speed is a GREEN electrical cord plug. if it is red then you cannot download or seed. if it is yellow then you can download, but you cannot seed. it will take a couple of minutes for the specified port to update and the connection status to turn green.

3. now that you've done the hard part, its time for the EVEN HARDER part (this is, however, all completely optional). it is now time to set up tracked tv shows, movies, etc to automatically torrent when updates or a better quality becomes available

you do this using Radarr (for movies), Lidarr (for music), Sonarr (for TV shows), and Prowlarr (as your indexer to manage what torrent hosting clients you want these applications to use). when you download these applications and install them, you are going to want to

you first want to download all of these applications using the links above. you can choose which applications to download based on the things you're going to be downloading, however for any of these applications to work you are going to NEED to download Prowlarr. for simplicity sake i will walk you through setting up all of these from the beginning of my list to the end, except im starting with prowlarr first because that's what you need to set up the rest.

however, when installing ANY of these applications, you are going to have to choose whether to install it as a system tray application or a windows service. I'm going to copy and paste from the Prowlarr wiki what the difference means, though it applies to all of the applications

A Windows Service runs even when the user is not logged in, but special care must be taken since Windows Services cannot access network drives (X:\ mapped drives or \\server\share UNC paths) without special configuration steps.

Additionally the Windows Service runs under the 'Local Service' account, by default this account does not have permissions to access your user's home directory unless permissions have been assigned manually. This is particularly relevant when using download clients that are configured to download to your home directory.

It's therefore advisable to install Prowlarr as a system tray application if the user can remain logged in. The option to do so is provided during the installer.

now that you've installed the programs you want, its time to set up prowlarr. i am once again going to show you how to set it up using pictures

(image descriptions available in the alt text)

that is how you add what torrent indexers (the websites that host torrents) you want to use to prowlarr. I only used TorrentGalaxy as an example, I don't actually use that site. I recommend being VERY careful and selective with what websites you use if they are a public tracker, as any of their torrents can host viruses. do your research before adding them. for convenience, however, I will list all of the public trackers I use so you can add them to Prowlarr if you like:

1337x

IBit

Internet Archive

Nyaa.si

Rarbg

Shana Project

SubsPlease

Torlock

YTS

you can also add private trackers, which is basically the same setup except you will have to input your username and password and/or an api key to allow prowlarr to access your account. I will explain private trackers later.

i will now show you how to connect prowlarr with the other applications you downloaded, once again with images

you want to do this with every application you're using.

that's the basics for setting up Prowlarr. you can further customize it with the help of the Prowlarr wiki if you'd like, but this is all I'll be covering in this tutorial.

setting up the other applications pretty intuitive if after setting up prowlarr, however if you do need help this is the video i watched to set up the rest. you only need to watch how to set up one of these applications to know how to set up the rest, and you can ignore literally everything this person is saying besides how to set up sonarr radarr and lidarr. seriously, don't listen to the rest of what this person has to say it will only confuse you. i have the video hyperlinked to where you need to start to learn how to set up these applications (the one she walks you through in depth is sonarr)

4. now that you've set up the torrent trackers (or skipped that part, those are, again, optional), it's time to go back to your torrenting client and configure how it handles your torrents.

you can only download so many megabytes a second, and when you have a million torrents downloading at once it makes every single torrent download at a snails pace because of that. so, what you're going to want to do is set it to download only a certain number of torrents at a time, and queue the rest to download once one torrent finishes.

this setup is pretty self explanatory, so I won't use images and just explain it.

go back to the settings of your torrenting client, and click on the "BitTorrent" tab (this might be a tab specific to qbittorrent, if you are using a different client look for a tab that is called something similar) (you can alternatively just google how to set torrents to queue for your specific client)

click the checkbox next to the option "torrent queuing"

customize how many active downloads and uploads you want. I personally recommend having no more than 6 torrents downloading at a time so that way they can all download relatively fast. i have my seed (upload) limit set to 60 because I'm in private trackers (which i will explain more about later), but if you don't want to seed for whatever reason you can set that to 0 and it SHOULD (don't quote me on this) automatically stop your torrent once its finished downloading. this could also potentially throttle your download speed because torrents don't like it when you're not uploading them while downloading them, don't quote me on that either having downloads set to 0 is not something im familiar with at all

you can optionally also set your download and upload limits in the "speed" category of settings, though i recommend keeping them both at infinity

5. setting up your downloaded media so you can watch it

this part is really easy and ALSO technically optional but it makes your life so much more convenient so i really recommend doing it. we're going to set up Plex Media Server so it can auto sort through your libraries and organize everything.

download plex and create an account

launch the server and go to the settings page, indicated by the wrench icon in the top right

scroll all the way down the settings directory until you get to the 'Manage" subheading and click on "Libraries"

assign your media libraries to the folders on your hard drive. for this you are going to want to keep movies, tv, and music all in separate folders, and you are going to want to keep your tv shows within your tv folder separate as well.

click 'scan library files' and watch plex update your library in real time

there will be times where plex isn't able to grab the metadata for a piece of media you have, but i can tell you how to (hopefully) prevent that from happening:

in the settings menu, go to the "network" tab under the "settings" subheading

uncheck the box next to "Enable server support for IPv6"

thats it! it should be able to get the metadata for all your media now

6. joining private trackers

this is honestly some Advanced levels of torrenting, and you shouldn't join them if you don't have a device that can be on and seeding 24/7

private trackers are torrent trackers that you can only use if you have a registered account with. they generally have a higher quality selection of torrents with faster download speeds due to a higher seeders to leecher ratio. each tracker has their own rules you need to follow, but they all have similar baselines

maintain your download-to-upload ratio (this will be specified in the trackers FRQ)

after you finish downloading something, you then need to seed it for a certain amount of time (normally a week) or else it will be considered a 'hit n run' and you will face the appropriate consequences

some things are free leach, which means you can download them without it contributing negatively to your ratio. if you seed and upload free leaches they will count to your ratio positively, however

most private trackers are invite-only, but some do occasionally have open signups which you can track on r/opensignups

when joining any private tracker, i recommend only downloading things that are free leach until you have built a good buffer between your upload to download ratio.

this is barely a drop in the water explanation of private trackers, but it's a part of torrenting that i feel like most people don't know about and/or don't know how to get started with, so i felt like it was worth mentioning. r/piracy has a more in-depth explanation (and a better "how to get started" guide on their megathread

and that's it! this is my indepth beginners guide to torrenting and piracy. i will maybe come back to this later and add more / make the formatting better (tumblr post formatting has such bad options...)

linked below are some useful resources for torrenting and pirating in general that i have saved.

my favorite public torrent tracker

r/piracy megathread

r/roms megathread for video game console downloading (direct downloads mostly, not torrents)

r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH megathread

r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH beginners guide to piracy

nintendo switch roms (direct downloads)

nintendo switch emmulator

ns emmulator setup guide

sideload apps on an apple device

hacked spotify ipa (ios app) that you can use above link to sideload

a less convient way to sideload apps onto apple if altstore doesnt work for you