#viatica

[fir-fireweed]

VIATICA, a new interactive fiction available free to read on itch.io and written in Twine.

Set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future, with a focus on personal growth, as well as platonic, familial, and romantic bonds.

Your world is a desert, both figuratively and literally. Speech is prohibited, books are outlawed, and any meaningful human interaction is nonexistent. Humans are reduced to the job they do for The City. There are no names; instead, everyone is identified by a number.

You are H-313, a healer.

Create and customize your character: male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, or bisexual. Become an individual in a world of drones. Learn to speak, express your emotions, define your personality. Dream big, resist tyranny, inspire the masses, and forge a new world. Or not. This is your journey, after all.

There are no point-based choices or outcomes. No choice is wrong—it simply changes the type of person you grow to become.

ROs:

B-485, Lion (he/him)

He is a builder, stoic and strong. He is tall and muscular with brown skin and black, coiled hair and beard. At 26 he is the eldest of the group. Later in the story, he chooses the name Lion for himself. He is fierce and protective of those he cares for. But what truly sets him apart from other workers is his ability to speak clearly and articulately. How? More to the point, can he teach you?

F-525, Heron (he/him)

He is a feeder, aloof and placid. He is medium height, with long blonde hair usually tied back in a ponytail and pale blue eyes. He is 22 years old, same as you. Later in the story, he chooses the name Heron for himself. He does not question his role, nor act in any way contrary to what is expected. What passions and tempers will you find when that veneer cracks? More importantly, why does he seem so familiar?

S-622, Ferret (she/her)

She is a sweeper, slender and scrappy. She is medium height, with olive skin, dark brown hair and narrow grey eyes. She is 21 years old. Later in the story, she chooses the name Ferret for herself. She is impulsive, stubborn, and quick to anger. When you first meet her she is very combative, but you eventually see the fearless and inquisitive soul underneath. Could she be a kindred spirit, or perhaps even more?

R-793, Robin (they/them)

They are a burner, lithe and wary. They have ivory skin, curly red hair, and heterochromia: one eye is green, the other brown. They are 20 years old. Later in the story, they choose the name Robin for themself. In a world where roles are based on gender and strict definitions of what a worker is, they have always felt out of place. Their discomfort was made worse by a recent traumatic experience. Can you help them to accept and appreciate the worthy person that they are?

Content Warning: This story is intended for mature audiences. Possibly triggering topics present in the story include blood, violence, death, suicide, rape (mentioned), child abuse, mature language, and sexual content (optional).

[orangeflavoryawp]

"Viatica", an Interactive Fiction

GUYS!!! My sister did an awesome thing!

I want to share with you something truly special. My sister has published her very first interactive fiction based off a novella she wrote 25 years ago in college. The reason this means so much to me is because this story, and seeing my sister literally write a whole ass book, is the catalyst to me becoming a writer myself. Growing up, I loved storytelling, but I didn't think it was something I could actually do until I saw my sister achieve it herself. She is the reason orangeflavor exists.

I'm truly honored that she asked me to collaborate with her throughout the process, to help brainstorm and critique and outline, and even write a couple small bits that she could blend into her story. I've gotten her permission to share it here as well. :D

Previously, I'd never played an interactive fiction (IF) before, but knew what they were. I think this format really works for the story she wants to tell and the themes she's exploring, and better yet, it's both browser and mobile friendly. ;) The site where it's published is free to use, just create an account, and while some IFs and visual novels are only by purchase, my sister, Fir & Fireweed as she goes by, has planned to never monetize this project. I feel like that's pretty fucking rad of her.

The site is itch.io and Viatica is the name of her story. If you're interested, please go read it, and maybe we can gush about it together, haha. I'm truly in love with this story, and think she's done a phenomenal job expanding on it from the original piece that first stole my heart all those years ago.

She also recently just created a tumblr, so you can go stalk her there.

So proud of you @fir-fireweed <3

[graywyvern]

( via / via )

Feedback diamond.

"Ants

To warm life passing singing with the grace of a woman without wile or veil, to unconquered beauty, enamouring, saving, responds, amid the magic hour's elation, a rancour of ants in my voracious veins.

The pit of silence and the swarm of sound, the flour cloven like a double trophy on fertile busts, the Hell of my belief, the rattle of death and prelude to the nest, chastise the ceaseless truant formication.

But soon my ants will deny me their embrace and from my poor and diligent fingers fly as a cold bagasse is forgotten on the sand; and your mouth, cypher of erotic prowess, your mouth that is my rubric, food, adornment, your mouth that in its flaunting tongue vibrates like a reprobate flame escaping from a kiln into a throng of bitter howling gales where the moon prowls intent to ravish you, your mouth will smell of shroud and crushed grass, of opiate and respond, wick and wax.

Before my ants abandon me, Amada, let them journey the journey of your mouth to gorge viatica of the sanguinary fruit provoking me from Saracen oases.

Before your lips die for my sorrow give them to me on the graveyard's critical threshold, their bread and perfume, venom and cautery."

--Ramón López Velarde (1888-1921), in: Octavio Paz's anthology Mexican Poetry

Old red telephone.

"Cursed be that mortal inter-debtedness which will not do away with ledgers. I would be free as air; and I'm down in the whole world's books." --Moby Dick

Skeleton with skeletal wings.

[projectmetalmusic]

IATT: Magnum Opus Album Review

IATT: Magnum Opus Album Review

IATT Metalcore/Death Metal Band from Philadelphia Pennysalvania. The band was formed in 2008 and their first EP Viatica released in 2009. The Bands first Album was released in 2015 called Gnosis: Never follow the light. In 2022 they released their second full Album Magnum Opus. From the first track Servitude Subjugate to the last Track Crysopoeia will blow you away. An awesome Album. The more…

[nevver]

Where's your head at? Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand / Roger-Viollet

[thegrandimago]

This is the 102nd installment of 'Since I've Been Gone'. Taken on 2020 26th October during my time with @americanconservationexperience, we left Iowa the day before. But first, we rested in Joplin, MO for our journey back to Corpus Christi and were in the process of leaving. Before that could happen, I was able to find this sizable roadside sallow moth (Metaxaglaea viatica). However, the reason the wings are blurry is the moth was vibrating its wings as a form of shivering given that it was cold at the time. #animal #animals #nature #insect #insects #mothsandbutterflies #moth #moths #insectagram #missourimoths #owletmoth #owletmoths #imago #missouriinsects #missourinature #wildlife #missouriwildlife #sallowmoth #sallowmoths #arthropods #arthropod #animalia #arthropoda #insecta #lepidoptera #noctuoidea #noctuidae #metaxaglaea #metaxaglaeaviatica #roadsidesallowmoth (at Days Inn Joplin) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWbbg_3KAkm/?utm_medium=tumblr

[seekingstars]

Grasshopper - Mary Ruefle

Have you ever tried to catch a grasshopper? It is practically impossible but those who make a close study of life believe that under the surface is a pillar of motionless time Now is the time to add a grasshopper to your viatica to abandon endless exposure, and embrace unnoticed life Now pounce Remember, he weighs less than an ounce and under him is a pillar of motionless time—

[virgin-martyr]

let them journey the journey of your mouth to gorge viatica of the sanguinary fruit

Ramón López Velarde, excerpt from “Ants” (trans. Samuel Beckett)

[thesefevereddays]

Grasshopper

By Mary Ruefle

Have you ever tried

to catch a grasshopper?

It is practically impossible

but those who make

a close study of life

believe that under the surface

is a pillar of motionless time

Now is the time

to add a grasshopper

to your viatica

to abandon endless

exposure, and embrace

unnoticed life

Now pounce

Remember, he weighs

less than an ounce

and under him

is a pillar of

motionless time—

[ej-sblog]

Tapping Life Insurance

If your loved one has a life insurance policy, he or she may be able to collect money early to help pay for care and expenses.

Living Benefits

Also called advance or accelerated benefits, living benefits are the proceeds from life insurance policies that may be paid to policyholders before they die. Many life insurance policies include an accelerated benefits provision. Companies offer anywhere from 25 to 100 percent of the death benefit as early payment, but policyholders can collect these payments only under very specific circumstances. The amount and the method of payment vary with the policy.

If your loved one owns a life insurance policy, call his or her state insurance commissioner or his or her insurance company’s Claims Department to find out about alternatives. Ask whether your loved one’s life insurance policy allows for accelerated benefits or loans, and how much these benefits will cost. Some insurers add accelerated benefits to life insurance policies for an additional premium, usually computed as a percentage of the base premium. Others offer the benefits at no extra premium, but charge the policyholder for the option if and when it is used. In most cases, the insurance company will reduce the benefits advanced to the policyholder before death to compensate for the interest it will lose on its early payout. There also may be a service charge.

Viatical Settlements

Viatical settlements involve the sale of a life insurance policy to a viatical settlement company, a private enterprise that offers a terminally ill person a percentage of his or her life insurance policy’s face value. The viatical settlement company then becomes the beneficiary of the policy, pays the premiums, and collects the face value of the policy after the original policyholder dies.

Each viatical settlement company sets its own rules for determining which life insurance policies it will buy. But there are some guidelines that most companies follow when buying life insurance policies.

In general, the policy must be at least two years old.

The current beneficiary will probably have to sign a release or a waiver

The original policyholder must be terminally ill. Many companies require a life expectancy of two years or less.

Your loved one will probably have to sign a release allowing the viatical settlement provider access to his or her medical records.

Most companies will require that the company issuing your loved one’s life insurance policy be financially sound. If the life insurance policy is provided by an employer, the viatical company will want to know if it can be converted into an individual policy or otherwise be guaranteed to remain in force before it can be assigned.

Points To Consider

Decisions affecting life insurance benefits can have a profound financial and emotional impact on dependents, friends, and caregivers. Before helping a terminally-ill loved one make any major changes regarding a policy, talk to friends and family as well as to someone whose advice and expertise you can count on — a lawyer, accountant, or financial planner. Make sure both you and your loved one understand how a viatical settlement will affect his or her tax status, access to government benefits, and other financial matters.

Since 1997, proceeds from accelerated benefits and viatical settlements have been tax-exempt as long as the seller’s life expectancy is less than two years and the viatical settlement company is licensed — if your loved one lives in a state that requires licensing. If the state doesn’t require viatical settlement companies to be licensed, state law will still require that these companies meet certain standards.

Most states also have declared payments of accelerated benefits or viatical settlements to be tax-exempt. However, some states do not give these payments tax-free status. Because of the complexity of the situation, seek advice from a tax professional in your loved one’s community.

Collecting accelerated benefits or making a viatical settlement also may affect your loved one’s eligibility for public assistance programs based on financial need, such as Medicaid. If your loved one cashes in his or her life insurance policy and receives a payment, the money may be counted as income for Medicaid purposes and may affect his or her eligibility.

CREDITS: National Caregivers Library

DATE: 2022

SOURCE: http://www.caregiverslibrary.org/Caregivers-Resources/GRP-Money-Matters/HSGRP-Viatical-Settlements/Tapping-Life-Insurance-Article

[fir-fireweed]

If anyone was curious what a brainstorming session between my sister and I looks like, it usually goes something like this:

Me: writes: “The slinky cascaded elegantly down the stairs…”

Sis: destroying my prose with her damnable realistic and on the nose intuition: “If it’s been buried for 100 years the slinky would probably be bent and rusted, just saying…”

Me: throws my pen at her “It’s MAGIC!”

Me: an hour later after not only making the slinky broken but figuring out how to turn it into a metaphor: “Huh. You know that’s actually pretty goo-”

Sis: “What was that?”

Me: “NOTHING!”

Love you my dear @orangeflavoryawp ❤️

[graywyvern]

( "my heart died, but something beautiful grew out of it" via / via )

Because of this Modest Style.

"I honour you in dread

Since your voice like a soft vapour laps me and my eyes, offered to the eternal scythe, dare for you to contemplate the coffin; since to me your red sanctuary affords a joy half chill, half cardinalate, before the posthumous avalanche weeps upon the vane; since the bold cervix of the ardent skeleton, predestined to the brand of the funeral walnut, has hurled for you defiance to Death; I honour you in dread of a lost alcove, necromantic, with your rigid face ecstatic, on a shin, as on a pillow; and since you are my blood's harmonious chosen, Amada, and life's convulsions seem a bridge above an abyss, on which we tread together, my kisses scour you devoutly serried over a sacrilegious cloak of skulls as over an erotic domino."

--Ramon Lopez Velarde (1888-1921), in: Octavio Paz's anthology Mexican Poetry

"AI is a tool, it[ ]s harms and goods stem from our own agency. Treating it like a go[ ]d conveniently removes ethical accountability and the pragmatic discussions to be had." (thread)

"There are miracles nobody survives." --Bill Knott, Becos (1983)

Haiku, Short Verse and French Poets.

"Ants

To warm life passing singing with the grace of a woman without wile or veil, to unconquered beauty, enamouring, saving, responds, amid the magic hour's elation, a rancour of ants in my voracious veins.

The pit of silence and the swarm of sound, the flour cloven like a double trophy on fertile busts, the Hell of my belief, the rattle of death and prelude to the nest, chastise the ceaseless truant formication.

But soon my ants will deny me their embrace and from my poor and diligent fingers fly as a cold bagasse is forgotten on the sand; and your mouth, cypher of erotic prowess, your mouth that is my rubric, food, adornment, your mouth that in its flaunting tongue vibrates like a reprobate flame escaping from a kiln into a throng of bitter howling gales where the moon prowls intent to ravish you, your mouth will smell of shroud and crushed grass, of opiate and respond, wick and wax.

Before my ants abandon me, Amada, let them journey the journey of your mouth to gorge viatica of the sanguinary fruit provoking me from Saracen oases.

Before your lips die for my sorrow give them to me on the graveyard's critical threshold, their bread and perfume, venom and cautery."

--ibid

How about instead of the dull colorless backrooms we have memes about endless purgatories that look more like this.

[evoldir]

Fwd: Postdoc: UppsalaU.SexChromosomeEvolution

Begin forwarded message: > From: evoldir@web.rhpcs.mcmaster.ca > Subject: Postdoc: UppsalaU.SexChromosomeEvolution > Date: 25 February 2022 at 06:09:36 GMT > To: rdmpage@gmail.com > > > > PostDoc Position at Uppsala University - Sex chromosome evolution > Systematic Biology, Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary > Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Sweden. > > A two-year position on a Carl Tryggers post-doc stipend is available > to research sex chromosomes evolution in morabine grasshopper with > Dr. Octavio M. Palacios-Gimenez at Uppsala University. > > Project description: Sex is a fundamental and ancient feature of > eukaryotic reproduction often associated with the presence of specialized > sex chromosomes involved in male or female development. Despite the > importance and conservation of sexual reproduction, there is a notable > diversity of sex chromosomes within and between sexes: XY system (male XY, > female XX) and ZW system (male ZZ, female ZW). This diversity is likely to > have key consequences for multiple facets of evolution, as sex chromosome > play critical roles in adaptation, speciation and sexual dimorphism but > it is unclear how sex chromosomes form and what kind of sex-specific > changes occur in newly evolved sex chromosomes. Understanding the causes > and consequences of sex chromosome evolution requires study systems where > sex chromosomes have evolved recently and independently several times. The > overall aim of this project is to investigate the early signatures of > sex chromosome evolution using the grasshopper Vandiemenella viatica > species complex. Multiple chromosomal fusions between the ancestral > X chromosome and autosomes (neo-X) resulted in the formation of new Y > chromosomes in different races/species. The independent sex chromosome > mutations in the V. viatica species complex thus allow independent > comparisons to investigate the timing and patterns of newly evolved sex > chromosomes. The project will use genomics, transcriptomics, single cell > resolution, and cytogenetics to answer: how is recombination suppressed > between sex nascent sex chromosomes? How does gene regulation evolve > after recombination suppressions? How fast does the neo-Y degenerate > after recombination suppression? > > Requirements: Applicants should hold a PhD degree in biology, > genetics/genomics, bioinformatics or a related field, and general > molecular biology laboratory skills. Experience with analyzing different > types of single-molecule sequencing, HiC and RNA-seq data, as well as > annotation of genes and repetitive elements, is required. Candidates > must have received their PhD from an institute other than the Institute > of Organismal Biology at Uppsala University and cannot currently have > employment at the Department of Organismal Biology. Proficiency in spoken > and written English is required. > > Additional qualifications: Programming in Perl, Python and/or R and > experience in cytogenetics are desirable. > > Type of position: Postdoctoral fellowship for 24 months, salary provided > by the Carl Tryggers Foundation. > > Scope of stipend: 100% > > Salary: Individual stipend. > > Starting date: As soon as possible. > > Please submit your application by 10 April 2022. > For further information about the position, please contact: Octavio > M. Palacios-Gimenez, email octavio.palaccios@ec.uu. > > Additional info: Uppsala is a great town to live in, and the Evolutionary > Biology Centre offers a super interdisciplinary working environment > located at the heart of Uppsala. Uppsala is located 40 minutes north of > Stockholm by train, 20 minutes from Stockholm???s international airport. > > Occtavio M. Palacios-Gimenez > Researcher > Uppsala University > Norbyv??gen 18D > 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden 752 36 > Scope of employment: 100% > > > > > > Octavio Manuel Palacios Gimenez > via IFTTT

[kenigsbergiprinc-blog]

Suspendisse UMVD in Kamchatka Peninsula suspensus ab officio. Princeps UMVD in Kamchatka Alexander Sidorenko et captus suspenditur ab officio, dixit officiali repraesentativum Ministerio interna Russia Irina Lupus. Secundum eam, in April 2016, erant revelata facts of illegal viatica budget pecunia in Ministerio interna Russia in Kamchatka ore

(HAMAASEF).

[scrabblebot]

AI defeats AI: 505 - 307 (AD AG AGE AGES ALMEH AVO BEDGOWN CULEX DAUBY EF ERASION FETIAL FETIALS FOX GREY HOLM IZAR JO KEG LOBELINE NIGH NURTURAL ORA OS PEISED QUOTING RAGES RE SWINE UPENDS VIATICA WARTY)

[fir-fireweed]

VIATICA Chapters 8 and 9 Are Out!

In the update are a few spicy scenes, depending on whose romance route you are on. You’ll eventually get spice on all routes, it’s just each character develops differently.

Anything explicit is clearly marked and you can certainly further the romance/relationship without that content. And there’s of course more friendly/platonic scenes, too.

The biggest change I made was in the backend. I wasn’t happy with the way I was tracking personality choices and they were getting out of hand, so I consolidated stats into personas.

So, what this means is that a scene will play out X way, if you are Y persona; as opposed to if you have Y and Y and Y and Y and Y stats. This will make it easier for me to incorporate your personality into future scenes, while hopefully still keeping true to the choices you’ve made.

Happy reading, and I would love to hear your thoughts!