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sinfulpetgirlrd · 1 year

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SFM to Daz3d

I’m a very happy cat I’ve figured out how to get SFM models into daz. It’s a bit of a process but of all 3d programs I prefer daz3d. IMO it’s streamlined posing and iray render ability trumps all Since I spent DAYS on this, I’ma share how to do it cause my memory I’ll forget(also others could probably use it. also gunna be long)

You need(not up for debate lol)

~ A SFM Model ~ Blender ~ Daz3d & Genesis 8( male or female which ever your SFM model is ~ This Blender plug in: (clicky me) for those who don’t know how to dl from github. Download the top one, the SourceIO.zip its 10.1MB

~ art program to make the cut out textures(like hair, clothing hems etc) ~ Time, cause this takes a hot minuet. **Set up** 1) In Daz open a new file, load a gen 8 figure(this works for all figures). Do not pose, do not change it’s shape nor add anything to it. Go to Parameters - General - Mesh Resolution. Change resolution lv to base, and shange subdivision vl and render subd level to 0 2) make sure whole figure is selected. Go file - export. Use the drop down; choose blender, change scale to 1%. Make sure your xyz is xyz, daz usualy has it xzy. If they are not checked, check “Ignore invisiable nodes” , “ Write UV ccordinates”, “ Write Normals/ faces/ polylines/ seperateobjects” , “ Write Groups” , and “write surfaces”. 3) DL the blender plug in(should have your SFM model as well) 4) In blender (i’m using the most recent version 3.5.0) Go edit - preferences - add ons. Install your add on. When it’s installed hit the check box to enable it. **Getting the model ready** 1) Clear your blender scene. Import your exported Daz model. (make sure scale is 1, clamp bound is 0, forward axis is -z and up axis is y.)

2) Import your SFM Model( thanks to the plug in there will be a new import option called Source Engine Assets. From there you want the very top option “Source Model(.mdl) 3) Pose/ rotate the SFM model to match the stance of the Gen 8 model. Get as close as you can. The most important things you need to line up are the feet/ the top lip/ the fingers. 4) apply the skeleton to the model. Select the model, go to Modifier properties - the skeleton and apply. (this applies the pose to the base mesh so you can edit the mesh)

5) hopefully your model has body gruops where nothing is really connected or this part will suck. In edit, you want to seperate by selection: the top teeth, the bottom teeth, the eyes( seperate a left and right. not together), the tongue, any dangaly bits like belt straps, eyelashes(trust me). 5) still in edit take the lips and manually seperate them a bit. If you don’t you wont be able to open the mouth in Daz.

6) go back to object, select all(minus what you just seperated and the hair) and join it. Go back to edit. Select all, go to mesh - clean up - merge by distance. Now fine tune your mesh in edit and sculpt. Don’t be afrade to subadize, once or twice to get better fits. daz can handel it. You want to make sure the the SFM models top lip and eyes perfectly( or damn near close) match the height of the daz model.

**Import into Daz**

1) make sure to save all textures as pngs(everything even the normals).

2) export the model n bits as objs. Select a part to export, make sure “limited to selected only” is checked, scale is 1, forward axis is -z and up axis y. Also check “UV coordinates”, “Normals”, and Materials export.

3) go to Daz, load a gen 8 figure(same gender as what you exported).

4) Import one of the body parts of your new obj(just do the main body for now). Settings you want are: scale 10,000/ x,y,z/ read uv/faces/polylines/groups/surafces and material libary. 5) in the viewport/scene tab, which ever. select the obj, go to edit - object - fransfer utality. Your source is Gen 8, the target is the obj. No templates or item shapes needed.

**weight/mesh fixing**

1) hide the gen 8 figure. In the scene tab(has to be here as selecting the obj in the viewport will only select gen 8 not the obj, unless you want to go through the truble of making all parts of gen unslectable) start with the hands as figures with longer than avearge nails can pose issues. Lets do the left hand pinky 3(the tip of the finger).

2) go to gemoetry editor(tool settins, might have to add the tab from window - panes). Left mb to select mesh, hold control to add, and alt to deslect. if any part of the objs left pinkey tip is connected to any other finger, select it. Set targt group to face: choose group “Lpinkey 3″ and hit assign to target group. Contraz you just changed which group that part of the mesh is grouped under. Do the rest of the model fixing what needs to be fixed. (a good way to see is to just hover over different parts in the viewport)

3) now go to Node weight map brush. with that pinky tip still select, click general weights. Go over the pinky with the brush your mouse has turned into. Red means full follow, blue/purple/yellow means different degrees. since this is the pinky you want the tip to be fully red. Repeat for the rest of the hands/feet/face. Face will be a bitch. Best way to do this over all is to SLIGHTLY change the gen 8 pose so you can see if anything weirdly distors. face takes a lot of time espically the eyes and mouth corners. have fun lol. 4) import your other attachements(same import settings as the body part we just did). The eyes, the top/bottom teeth, hair/ one obj for each dangly bit. Parent them to the parts they go. (obj top teeth gets parented to gen 8 top teeth, and so on and so on. Also might need to move around a bit/scale up or down). *Dangely bits, select each one, go to simuation settings - add dforce dyanic setting. With bit still select go to create and make a new dforce modifier weight node. Select the node, go back to node weight map brush. Add map “dforce simultation: influence weights. Use control to remove the weight paint from the portion of the bit that is touching the main obj model. This way you can use simulation to move the bits around after posing. **Textures**

1) lets start with the main obj we imported. select it and go to surfaces(little drop down to see all the materials). apply the corrosponding material and normal to the model, do turn off glossy layered weight, unless the piece is supposed to be metal/glass.

2) cut. Any base materal with empty white space needs to have a cut out created. open the base materal in your art program of choice. (I’m using clip stuido but this can be done much easier in photoshop. Simply turn the white background black and the colored bits of the texture black. Save, and apply to the corrosponding cut out. Your finally done. It’s a process, like I said but I do not have SFM or poser and I prefer Daz for all things rendering/posing. (don’t think i need to say it but do save as a scene because otherwise you’ll have to do all that work again)

#blender #sfm #Daz3D #shitty tutorial #Genesis 8 model #transfering things between these 3 programs is harder than it needs to be #BUT it can be done #just you know it takes a while

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shop-cailey · 1 year

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andatsea · 3 years

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XP-Pen Artist Pro 24 Review

I drew this with an XP-Pen Artist Pro 24, which the team at XP-Pen kindly sent to me for review. I’ve had to opportunity to use this tablet on-and-off over the course of the past several weeks, and while there were a few issues my overall impression is positive.

Unboxing / Contents

Apart from the 24” display tablet itself, the package comes with the usual cabling peripherals, plus some bonus extras. If your machine supports a USB-C connection for display, you’ll only need the one cable (plus the power connection). Otherwise, there’s a HDMI and a USB-C to USB converter included as well.

The extras include: an additional stylus, a one-size-fits-all artist’s glove, and a microfiber cloth.

The container for the stylus twists open to reveal 8 extra stylus nibs. Its cap can also be removed to use as a stylus holder.

Driver (Installation & General Use)

There were a few issues with installation, mostly tied to interactions between the driver, Windows 10 and Windows Ink.

Initially, brush strokes were offset from the stylus’ point of contact with the screen by about 3-4 centimetres when attempting to draw in Photoshop CS6. Random straight strokes also occurred frequently. This same problem did not occur in MS Paint or Photoshop CC 2019. This was fixed by changing the UI scaling setting for the monitor in Windows settings from 125% (which was apparently the default) to 100%.

Initially, brush strokes had no pen pressure in Photoshop CC 2019. Photoshop CS6, on the other hand, did (but suffered from the previous offset problem). This was fixed by turning on the Windows Ink setting in the XP-Pen driver menu. So in other words: CC 2019 needs Windows Ink on to recognise pen pressure, while CS6 didn’t, but was affected by UI scaling.

Interestingly, if Windows Task Manager was in focus and Windows Ink was not enabled in driver settings, stylus input was not recognised at all. There may be other programs that have this issue, but this was the only one I encountered so far.

I will say that I’ve had many problems with Wacom drivers interacting badly with Windows Ink and other things in the past before, so these types of issues are not exclusive to the XP-Pen drivers.

I’m currently using driver version 3.0.5, a beta build that has a lovely UI; it’s clear and laid out well. I did also try version 1.6.4 initially, which was fine — the UI for that version was similar to the layout you find with Wacom drivers.

Apart from the issues during installation that required troubleshooting, I haven’t had many major complaints with the driver in day-to-day use, I do think that there are a few areas for improvement, however.

The driver stops working correctly each time the computer is set to sleep and woken up again. To fix this the driver must be exited from the system tray and then relaunched.

There also doesn’t seem to be a way to bind WIN+SHIFT+ARROW to any of the express keys. WIN+SHIFT+ARROW (left or right arrow) is the Windows shortcut to quickly move a focused window to another monitor, so it’s something I use a lot if I’m on a multi-monitor setup. Unfortunately, attempting to set this shortcut in the express keys menu will simply move the actual driver window over to the other monitor while the custom input is not properly recognised in the text field.

The driver does offer a “switch monitor” option for the express keys that when clicked will transfer your stylus input to another monitor, which is extremely useful.

Screen

At 24” with a 2560x1440p QHD resolution, images are sharp and crisp even when viewed from a close range while drawing. Genuinely, it feels great to paint on based off this aspect alone.

The colour temperature is set to 6500K by default in the the driver settings. I think initially it felt just a touch too saturated, but overall I’m fairly happy with the colour display.

The monitor has touch-sensitive inputs on the top right corner: a -/+ for quickly adjusting the brightness, a menu for further settings, and power. I found myself using these to adjust the brightness throughout the day frequently. The power input requires a few seconds of continued contact from your finger to react, which prevents you from accidentally brushing it and turning the monitor on/off.

The monitor comes with a built-in stand. I found it easy to adjust to different viewing angles and also incredibly sturdy. I had no problems leaning on the monitor while drawing.

The monitor also comes with a pre-applied anti-glare screen protector. I wasn’t bothered by it and it seems to be holding out well after several weeks of use. I think the screen itself definitely needs the additional anti-glare, as being a display tablet means that it’s significantly more reflective than my main display.

Stylus

My first impression of the stylus was that it’s lighter in comparison to the Wacom styluses that I’m used to — there is very little to no weighting on the back end of the stylus, which makes it feel noticeably different when gripped. To be honest, though, I forgot about it when I was actually painting. Still, I would prefer a bit more weighting because I do think it makes the stylus more comfortable to hold overall for long periods of time.

There’s also no eraser nib, but I’ve personally never used those on Wacom tablets (I always use shortcuts to switch between brush and eraser instead) so this was a non-issue for me.

The two shortcut buttons on the side of the stylus sit quite flat to the surface, so I think they would be less likely to bother people who don’t use them. I use them a lot, however, and found that they were still easy to click despite being quite flat.

Unfortunately however I ran into a curious issue with using one of the stylus buttons to activate the eyedropper tool. When the “alt” key is mapped to one of the triggers on the stylus, activation of the eyedropper function in Photoshop (tested in both CS6 and CC 2019) is somewhat unreliable. That is, when the “alt” key is held down, the expected result is that once you tap the stylus on the canvas, a “mouse-click” will be triggered and the eyedropper will activate. While this works perfectly fine if you hold down “alt” from the keyboard (or hold down an “alt” that’s bound to one of the 20 express keys), when you hold “alt” from a stylus trigger I found that tapping quickly with the stylus only seemed to activate the eyedropper about 50% of the time. In order to activate it more reliably, I had to press harder and longer with the stylus, which can become tiring and slowed down my painting process. I also found that frequently, pressing down longer would lock me into the eyedropping function until I clicked the trigger key again.

After submitting feedback about this XP-Pen’s R&D department, I was informed that this issue occurs because the stylus is only able to send one message to the tablet at a time. Pressing “alt” on the stylus and trying to “click” at the same time counts as two messages, which may interact with each other unexpectedly. This is why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.

The buttons seem to otherwise work completely fine for any other functions that don’t require the stylus to send two simultaneous messages, so unless you’re like me and like to bind “alt” to a stylus trigger, this won’t affect you.

Pen Pressure & Activation Force

Most current-gen tablets flash a big number for the pen pressure levels as a selling point. Having used tablets with 512, 2k, 4k and 8k levels of pressure sensitivity, I’d say I noticed the biggest difference when switching from 512 to 2k, but in my opinion beyond 2k the change is minimal and has no real impact on the way I draw. The XP-Pen Artist Pro 24 comes with 8192 levels of sensitivty, which is a very big number, but in practical application all I can say is that it works the way I expect it to and I don’t have any complaints regarding the transition between pressure levels on the default linear pressure curve.

More importantly I did notice that the IAF (initial activation force) was not as low as I would have liked. Very light input is not recognised, or only partially recognised before dropping off and on again. In a practical sense this doesn’t actually impact me through most of (perhaps 97%) of the painting process, but it did give me pause once in a while when I wanted to make a really light stroke and had to adjust my method. The drivers for this tablet do come with a pressure curve you can adjust to your preferences, so this can help a little, although after some tests I preferred to leave mine on the default setting.

Summary of Drawing Experience (tl;dr)

I think the mark of a good tool or piece of hardware is that it does not draw attention to itself during the course of its use. An ideal drawing experience allows me to be fully immersed in the act of drawing without having my focus shifted to dealing with the tool. With this in mind the XP-Pen Artist Pro performed very well for the most part, but was held back by a couple of issues.

Pros:

The monitor resolution honestly feels great to look at; the pixel density means that I can basically forget about pixels even with my face positioned closer to the screen.

The parallax between the tip of the stylus and the actual position of input was very minimal and basically not noticeable for me, especially after the simple calibration process offered by the driver.

At normal room temperature (say up to about mid-20’s celsius) the monitor screen stays impressively cool to the touch and I was never bothered by resting my drawing hand on its surface even when painting for long sessions.

The 20 express keys and 2 roller rings are extremely helpful and I actually found myself using all of them, despite initially thinking that I’d only need half of them. The keys are also comfortable and responsive to click (which sounds like it should obviously be so, but having used some Intuos iterations in the past which had some very annoying-to-click express keys, I don’t take this feature for granted anymore).

Cons:

The driver needs to be restarted everytime the computer wakes from sleep in order to work.

Higher IAF was noticeable when very light strokes were desirable. Also, the input will on rare occasions glitch by performing a completely straight max opacity + max brush size stroke. This seemed to happen primarily when I was trying to get light strokes to register. (It didn’t happen often enough to bother me much since it’s just a quick undo, but it did happen enough times that I noticed it.)

The issue with eyedropping using “alt” mapped to a stylus trigger as detailed above. Quite unlucky for someone like me who has over a decade of muscle memory for this particular mapping.

Overall, as I said at the beginning, my impression of the tablet is positive. While I think it has room for improvement when it comes to driver performance and the initial activation force especially, it also has a lot to offer at a highly competitive price point ($900USD at retail), and it would’ve been amazing if something like this had been available to me back when I first started digital painting. As I do enjoy using it for the most part I’ll probably continue to use it on-and-off in future.

#xp-pen #review

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 3 years

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Lila Rossi: I’d Say She’s a Good Villain, but Then I’d Be Lying (300 Follower Special)

Deception and cunning are easily two of the most important traits an antagonist could have. It shows that even if they don't have the strength to overcome obstacles, their wit is more than enough. This kind of trait is why characters like Lex Luthor, David Xanatos, and Princess Azula are so beloved, simply because of how intelligent they can be as villains and pose a real threat to the heroes.

It's clear that the Miraculous Ladybug writers want Lila to be seen as this, but the writing seriously fails to back that claim up.

Easily one of the most controversial characters in Miraculous Ladybug is Lila, mainly for the writing surrounding her. But there was a time where she was actually more of an ambiguous character, mainly for the lack of screentime she had until Season 3. But unfortunately, the more appearances she's had have painted a very poor portrait of an antagonist.

Lila's Tragic and Sympathetic Motivation for Hating Ladybug

Lila's first appearance was at the tail end of Season 1, “Volpina”. She was a new transfer student from Italy, and quickly made friends with a lot of her classmates for the lies she told, including being friends with Ladybug (which Alya blindly believed without doing any research like any excellent journalist). But because of how close she was getting to Adrien, Marinette, in a rare act of selfishness, transforms into Ladybug just to chew out Lila for lying about knowing her, humiliating her in front of Adrien. And this is the only motivation we get for what Lila does afterwards.

I'm not saying that it's wrong for Lila to get upset at Ladybug for doing this, and I like the moment of weakness Marinette has, but this is literally the only explanation we get for Lila deciding to side with Hawkmoth, a literal terrorist. As much as I hated the way the arc turned out, I could still understand Chloe siding with Hawkmoth, as it was clear that Hawkmoth was manipulating her and taking advantage of her ego. Lila? Ladybug's mean to her one time, and that inspires her to conspire with a complete stranger who brainwashes people to attack the city, which endangers innocent people and causes God knows how much in collateral damage if not for Miraculous Ladybug fixing everything.

I just don't get how a single negative interaction with someone is enough to conspire with a literal supervillain. Even in Season 3, when Marinette and Lila truly became enemies, it was because she risked exposing all the lies she told, which could damage her reputation. Sure, it's petty, but it makes sense for Lila to want to keep up the illusion. If she was simply an antagonist to Marinette in her civilian life like Chloe was before “Miracle Queen” , I'd be fine with that, but the writers clearly want her to be seen as on the same level of evil as Hawkmoth. I'll get into why that doesn't work later on.

Why Lila is an Excellent Liar

In my Master Fu analysis, I had pointed out that despite all the flaws he had, the narrative insisted on portraying him as an incredibly wise mentor. The same problem applies for Lila as well. We're supposed to see Lila as an expert manipulator and liar, but her lies are insultingly obvious. She always claims to be friends with celebrities and does all these awesome things, and in an age where we can have almost any question answered thanks to the internet, nobody ever stops to question her.

It's even more frustrating when you hear Lila talk about saving Jagged Stone's cat, when Jagged Stone is established to be very fond of Marinette (evidentially more than his own daughter), and nobody ever points that out. I think if Lila's lies were more stories about her travels around the world than outright lies about real people, it could have worked. It'd still be hard to believe, but it's something.

But this is a problem with writing shows aimed at children. As much as we hate writers who need to spell out things to kids, sometimes, they just don't understand some of the media they consume. Seriously, I never got this joke in SpongeBob as a kid, and I can't believe Nickelodeon actually approved this.

youtube

So the dilemma when writing a show with children in mind is finding that sweet spot between assuming your audience can figure it out, but not being too vague in your details. It's even harder when you need to find a way to convey the fact that someone is lying without being too obvious. Unfortunately, the show clearly fails to do that

Okay, this is going to sound like an incredibly weird thing to cite, and I only know about it because I used to know someone who was a huge fan of the franchise, but the movie Monster High: Friday Night Frights does a better job of subtly explaining to the audience that a character is lying. Please, just hear me out.

The movie follows the main characters competing in their high school's roller derby for the season after everyone on the usual team gets injured, and the championship match is against another school whose team tends to cheat to win matches. How they manage to do this without getting caught is anyone's guess. While the main characters are practicing, their coach, Clawd, notices a spy for the enemy team taking video of them to study their moves. In response, he calls over one of the athletes, Operetta, to chew her out for her showboating attitude. In reality, he's alerting her to the spy. Only using facial expressions, he clues her, and by extension, the audience, in on the fact that they know what the opposing team is trying to do.

This soon leads to Operetta pretending to tell the enemy team about their secret plan for the championship match, which was really an attempt to outsmart them to gain the advantage in the final stretch. The brilliance of this is how the audience is informed of this with no dialogue, and there's no scene afterwards spelling it out for those who don't get it. It manages to convey deception without being too obvious that Clawd and Operetta are being deceitful.

I think if there were more subtle hints to show the audience Lila was lying, she would be seen in a better light. As it is, Lila's lies are just pathetic, and it's ridiculous that everyone believes her. Which leads me to...

Lila, the Master Manipulator

I once read a Star Trek: Voyager fanfic that poked fun at the series by claiming that the reason a lot of the dumber episodes like “Threshold” and “Twisted” happened was because one of the crew members was an alien who unintentionally produced mood altering pheromones, with Captain Janeway actually realizing they were all high because of said pheromones, while two of the unaffected crew members were wondering what the hell they were doing before they found out the cause. Why do I bring this up? Sometimes, it feels like Lila is an unintentional parallel to the alien in that story.

Like so many characters, it's clear the show desperately wants the audience to view Lila in a certain way, but her actions do very little to actually back up that claim. When she's not using lies to tell stories about so many famous people she knows like her uncle who works for Nintendo, Lila is using strategies to manipulate everyone that are so obviously deceptive, the Thermians could pick up on them. Everyone and their mother knows how ridiculous a lot of what Lila does in episodes like “Chameleon” and “Ladybug” are, and I've talked about them before, so I'll try to be quick.

First off, as someone who had access to accommodations through high school and has had assistance in college so far, there is no way in hell that Ms. Bustier should take Lila's tinnitus at face value in “Chameleon”. If a student has a disability that could interfere with the education process, physical or developmental, not only does the school have to evaluate their performance, and determine if they're eligible for an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, but her teachers would have to be notified in the first place. As her primary educator, Ms. Bustier would be part of the team to oversee Lila's IEP and determine what accommodations she needs to help her learn better with her tinnitus and arthritis. But because the writers don't know what Google is, they just ignore it, assume that Lila can just say she has a disability, and have everyone believe it. Even when Eric Cartman pretended to be disabled to compete in the Special Olympics, he put in more effort to look the part, even if he looked like a caricature.

Then there's the fact that that in “Chameleon”, everyone just believes Lila when she says Marinette stole her grandmother's necklace when not only is said necklace from the Agreste line of jewelry, but Alya, who is Rena Rouge, can't pick up on the fact that it's a fake. All she does to justify these lies is come up with a sob story about how nobody believes her, yet nobody ever tries to defend Marinette except Alya one time, and it was after she got expelled.

Or what about in “Oni-Chan”, where Lila thinks having Kagami kill Ladybug while claiming she'll back away from Adrien is a good idea? Let's say Oni-Chan does kill Ladybug or at least take away her Miraculous, what then? We know Lila wouldn't go through with this promise, and as soon as Kagami sees her harassing Adrien, she'll be ripe for akumatization again. Overall, not a great plan.

And yet somehow, this last example is what made her worthy enough to become one of Hawkmoth's most trusted agents. I'm just going to say it: Lila is not a good fit for the power of illusion. Whenever she's Volpina or Chameleon, she always goes out of her way to make a big show instead of being subtle with her deceptions. “Chameleon” is the worst offender, as even though Lila gets the power to shapeshift into someone else, instead of being discreet and cornering people into kissing them and gaining their appearance, she just runs around to get Ladybug's attention instead of being subtle. Even Felix had the bright idea to pretend to be Adrien to catch Ladybug off guard. How do you lose to something that happened in “Felix”?

Despite all of these screw-ups, we're still supposed to see her as this master of deception worthy of allying with Hawkmoth in both his supervillain and civilian form, when really, she's a terrible liar on the schoolyard and on the battlefield.

Why Lila is an Important Character

In the grand scheme of things, Lila just isn't as important of a character that the show loves to parade her around as. She's nothing more than a plot device used to raise the stakes in an episode, given how much reality seems to bend over just to accommodate for her lies. Even when the show alludes to her being part of bigger things, like her deal with Adrien, or her rivalry with Marinette, they don't even go anywhere.

She just feels pointless when you remember Astruc's brilliant idea to force Chloe into being the final Akuma for the season while Lila isn't even mentioned once. She only really makes appearances whenever the writers feel like it, which is why it’s hard to take her seriously. Why should I take this character seriously as a threat if the writers refuse to take her seriously as a threat? Why build Lila up as a big threat and not give her a major role in the finale? Why even include her in the show in the first place when you could show Chloe being more manipulative to fill in the plots Lila plays a big part in?

As of the time I am writing this analysis, four episodes of Season 4 have aired, three of them have been about lies or deception, and Lila hasn't been mentioned at all. It honestly seems like she won't appear unless the writers need a easy way to drive up the conflict, so they can justify it by saying that Lila's “superpower” of lying is more powerful than the common sense of everyone else.

I'm sorry this post was shorter than the last one, but compared to Master Fu, there's not that much to say about Lila that I haven't already said. Even the show barely gives her any attention, so it's hard for me to really find a lot to talk about.

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liquid-luck-00 · 3 years

Text

Safety Net 2

Part 2

Day 9: Teen Titans @maribatmarch-2k21

Ao3 *** Part 1 *** Here *** Part 3 *** Part 4 *** Part 5

This is based on Teen Titans Judas Contract

~~~~~~~~~~

Marinette became a fully fledged Talon when she turned 18. Six years with the court before they turned her, as to not arouse suspicion with a child. She doesn't remember the events that led to her leaving but she did. She supposes it is the fact she is a Talon that repressed her memories but that doesn't matter the court and all the other Talons are dead. She kept a single vial of the only poison that could end her life. She left not looking back.

She actually didn't get far when she first saw him. His swords danced, connecting to his target, death etched on his blade edge. Then he vanished.

She would see him again and again as she moved from city to city, state to state, even from country to country. One night as she watched the London sky, from her perch in Big Ben, did he come to her.

"Who are you?" His mask deepened his voice, made it colder and more robotic. She turned to look at him, not saying a word, and then turned back to the city.

He apparently didn't appreciate her silence as he stalked closer to her. "Who are you?" he growled the question, the sword tip pressing into her neck, but she didn’t move.

"Talon." was choked out. The voice was gruff and scratchy from being unused. That single word seemed to answer a few of his questions.

"The Court?"

"Gone"

"Orders?"

Now she simply shook her head. The sword was removed from her neck and was placed back in its sheath.

"How would you like to have your own agency again?" His voice was still gruff and cold. It held authority but it was human. She turned to see he had removed his mask. His hair was stark white, small scars littered his face, his eyes were cold and calculating, yet they didn't lie.

Her mouth opened slightly before she closed it. A deep buried resolve began to surface as she nodded in answer.

She followed Slade Wilson out of the bell tower.

---

She was then embedded into the League of Assassins. This was where they needed patience.

She didn't speak, they thought her mute, she played along. Yes she could withstand life threatening hits, but she didn't let them happen. She would strike faster, hit harder, she made herself stronger, so they called her ruthless. She didn't oppose.

Above all she was patient.

The day the coup was to happen she was guarding the Lazarus Pit.

Silently she killed the guard stationed with her and walked into the pit. The water was both cold and scalding. A fog began to enter her mind but she pushed against it. This was no time to be confused or dazed. She felt the chains and commands programed into her by the court, so she pushed against them too until they broke. She breached the surface of the pit. Shakily she stood, breathing heavily, she began to dress, quickly noticing her skin became more pink and her mind was clear. She had to leave this room as, the alarms rang signaling the coup, she ran out, fully dressed and hidden.

She took her position in the cockpit of a helicopter and soon only she and Slade were alone in the air. The others scattered in order to build up a base of operations. An hour later they landed in a small air field where a jet was waiting for them. They transferred their things and took to the skies again.

"How do you feel?" Slade asked her not long after putting the plane on auto pilot.

"Light," her voice was clearer, still raspy, but there was inflection and life traced through the word.

"Anger, fury, bloodlust?" He pressed.

"None." she shook her head.

"Interesting," he murmured.

"How bad?" she pointed to his wrapped head and covered eye.

"We'll find out once we talk with the Doc," a scowl appeared on his face. "so what's your name, because it isn't Talon"

"Um..." she thought hard and long. she had been called Talon for so long, but what did they call her before, "Grayson. They called me Grayson before they called me Talon."

---

Slade became her mentor of sorts, they would spar and train to learn their new bodies and limitations. In fact it was easy for them both. She became known as Phoenix. Her uniform was similar to her Talon one, but while Talon was gold Phoenix was a deep crimson. The helmet was replaced by a hood and a half mask that extended from her hair line to her nose. She took to being a mercenary rather fast, but all things considered it wasn't that far of a stretch.

The only thing that troubled her, were her nightmares, or were they dreams. But they didn't feel like something her subconscious had created. They felt like memories begging to be remembered. She would fly through the air as if on gilded wings. A pair of inviting and smiling-azure eyes of a little boy. A warm smile and reassuring embrace of the same boy would appear constantly. Then the fall, she never hit the ground, but she continued to fall. The cold and dark embraced her smothering her until she woke up.

---

She never stayed in one place long but sooner or later she would always pay Deathstroke a visit. It isn't that she is attached to the Mercenary. Sure she is grateful to him but it's like if she stays close she will find a missing piece of her puzzle. On one of these trips back she met her. A teen with blonde hair and blue eyes, Terra. She was met with a less than warm welcome but oh well.

"What's up old man!" she joked. Slade glared at her and nodded in greeting.

"We have a job."

"What is it?" she sat on the couch.

"Infiltrating the Teen Titans."

"That's what the kid's for," she hummed. "What can she do?"

"Meta. Geokinesis."

"Disassemble the little league before the big one." A calculated smile spread across her lips.

"I knew I kept you around for something." was his answer. To anyone else it would have seemed hostile, but she simply rolled her eyes at the remark.

"Any old memories come back?"

"Nah-uh." She lied, keeping the kind blue-eyed boy a secret, they both went to work.

It was idiotic how easily Terra integrated into the Titans. Slade helped her enhance her power, while Grayson was supposed to help her gain refined control but the younger girl wouldn't listen to her. Grayson couldn't do anything about that, she could support Terra and help her but that didn’t mean the teen accepted. She wasn't her mother or even her sister.

"... Not without my twin sister." A boy's voice echoed in her mind, she tried to shake the voice from her head, but it stayed.

Twin? Sister? I have a brother? I have a twin brother?

Unfortunately all these questions swam in her mind for months as Terra infiltrated the Titans.

Everything was going relatively well until Robin decided to stick his nose in. Unfortunately this was when she learned the truth to the infiltration. They were going to use the Titans and extract their powers and life force. It made her sick. Sure she didn't exactly see eye to eye with heroes, but she saw the good they did. Hell she may be called a mercenary, but the jobs she took aligned with her morals. Even if those said morals were just a 'fuck you opposite of the court,' but it stood, it was hers.

This was how she was found by Nightwing.

"Figured you wouldn't be easy to kill. Here." she pushed a robe into his hands. "Your team is held this way" she started to walk but he hadn't moved.

"What are you doing?"

"Look you can trust me or not, but those are just kids. I will not be the one to let them give their lives without consent or reason."

"Sounds like your speaking from experience."

"So what if I am."

Nightwing jumped down and the fight began. She went and unlocked the restraints on the Titans and jumped into the fight. She, Robin, and Nightwing were all fighting against Deathstroke when Terra regained consciousness. Both Robin and Nightwing stopped their onslaught but Phoenix knew how Terra fought, she knew how to work with the girl. Unfortunately she was thrown over towards Nightwing and Robin, a quadruple somersault led into a rollout allowed her to land safely from the throw.

"Terra!" she yelled.

"Stay out of it Grayson, Slade is mine." A desperate yell escaped the girl, as she unleashed her power. One of the Titans tried to help, but Terra moved him towards the others.

"I'm sorry." Grayson whispered, before she pulled the heroes to safety. They got out moments before the entire thing collapsed.

"Who are you?" A katana was pointed at her neck.

"More importantly the somersault and the name, Grayson, how would you know those?" Nightwing questioned.

"The name is a memory from before," she responded. "And the somersault is just in grained in muscle memory by now." She shrugged and turned to leave but was stopped. "Look I don't want to fight and I don't want to stay so..." None of the heroes said a word but circled around her. 'Sigh' "I'm not gonna get out without a fight huh?"

"That would be correct."

"Fine." Her hands went up in a placating motion, before reaching into a pocket.

"Stop that."

"Relax little birdie." she pulled out a small ring of keys, tossing them to Nightwing. "Don't know about you but I prefer to not walk over two hours to get to Jump city."

They all got to the car but as it only fit five and there were seven of them something had to give. Well she was sat in the middle back seat between Raven and Robin, Beast Boy turned into a cat and sat on her lap. Nightwing was behind the wheel, Blue Beetle on the passenger side, while Starfire flew above them all. Between the awkward silence and closed space she was lulled into a restless sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~

Permanent Taglist: @itsmeevie01 @adrestar @miraculouspenta @vixen-uchiha

Taglist: @alysrose-starchild

#dc x miraculous #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #miraculous x dc #maribat #dickinette #dickinette twins #maribatmarch2021 #teen titans #judas contract

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iconic-ponytail · 3 years

Text

there's always money in the banana stand

riverdale promptathon week 3: yellow + business

Even as the sun sets, even as the breeze blows, the hell furnace of July in Riverdale burns on. It’s triply as sweltering inside the tiny booth running three freezers, offloading heat to sustain the frozen merchandise inside. “How can it be so hot in there when we are supposed to be selling frozen bananas?” JB complains, at least twice a week.

She’s twelve. Complaint is her new first language. She complains about being left in Riverdale while Gladys went back to Toledo. She complains about living in a trailer park that usually does not have warm water. She complains about their father being imprisoned for covering up a gruesome murder. But most of all, she complains about working in the banana stand.

Child labor laws aside, Jughead can’t blame her for that one. He hates the damn banana stand, but it’s their best shot.

Gladys’ monthly check covers rent and utilities for the trailer. Everything else is on him, now. The idiot eighteen year old who decided to petition the court to be his sister’s legal guardian. Well, and his idiot mom who signed off on it. So he needs money, and the Jones family has never been particularly flush with cash, just trampled over by FP’s failed “business opportunities.”

Enter: the banana stand.

It’s not the fastest revenue stream, Jughead finds. But it’s got potential.

Initially, Dilton doesn’t let him sell during the Twilight Drive-In’s concession stand hours. Before or after the movie, sure, but no overlap. “I’m not worried about competition, Jones. It’s just too humiliating for me to watch you sweat through that horrible yellow polo you call ‘branding.’”

But when customers asked him more than twice a night when the banana stand would be open, Dilton caved.

It’s not like being open during the screening hours is a whole lot more preferable. He only just transferred from Southside to Riverdale High last spring; now he’s the rising senior who hands out phallic symbols from inside a giant phallic symbol. Not exactly a boon to his popularity.

Still, recently the money is enough to pay the internet bill and keep JB fed for dinner when she can’t go to the summer breakfast and lunch program at the local park district. It’s still not enough for him to eat particularly well, and the smell of hot dogs and slurp of his classmates’ slushies makes the heat feel like a minor inconvenience.

He eyes the tip jar, willing himself to wait on rampaging the concession stand until the beginning of the film roar dies down. It’s a double feature tonight, which means maybe he can score enough cash to cover those damn college application fees his counselor will start hounding him about week one of school.

Then he sees her—Betty Cooper. She’s laughing, watching Archie Andrews try to catch popcorn in his mouth, tossed by his paramour, Veronica Lodge. She pauses to sip from her slushie straw, her lips—which he’s watched argue against homophobic and racist comments in their advanced lit class, or pressed to the cheek of her other best friend, Kevin Keller. Which he’s imagined, doing slightly less savory things, though the mere thought of said imagining has his heart pounding wildly.

(Jughead’s been eating way too many fucking bananas. Someone needs to check his potassium levels.)

His absolutely pathetic gaze, once available three times a day in their shared classes where Jughead has still not managed to exert any confidence whatsoever regarding speech, eye contact, or general acknowledgement of Betty Cooper’s existence other than whatever drooling may or may not be happening, all of which he finds he has no control over… is all interrupted by the absolute polar opposite of Betty Cooper. Hiram Lodge zooms up to the banana stand on his segway, angling to a stop just before taking out the stand’s foundation.

“Still getting a hang of that, Mayor Lodge?”

Hiram grimaces. “Just checking that you’ve renewed your business permit, Jones.”

They do this once a week. It’s still the same permit.

“You know,” Hiram starts as Jughead rustles for the paperwork to make him go the fuck away, “I could find you an arrangement with a better banana supplier. For a discount. If you’re interested.”

Jughead rolls his eyes. “I’m not interested in your GMO, black market bananas, Hiram.”

Hiram gives him a pointed look. Jughead rolls his eyes even harder. “Mayor Lodge.” He proffers the papers, Hiram waves them away. “I’ll take one chocolate peanut butter dip. With peanuts.”

Jughead kisses his teeth. “That will be $3.50.”

Hiram’s whole face goes serpentine. “Not between business partners, Jones. Put it on my tab.”

Jughead grits his teeth, handing the finished banana so aggressively he hopes that the chocolate splatters and stains Hiram’s $500 tie. It is only slightly worth it to watch Hiram struggle with navigating the segway one-handed, frozen banana in the other.

He muffles a chuckle before realizing he’s used the dead end of the chopped peanut topping, and exits the stand to update the order board hanging on the outside. It’s mostly an excuse to feel a ten degree drop in temperature, a sweet relief he might be able to extend by grabbing a hot dog before the intermission rush.

He’s crossing off peanuts from the topping list and spinning around when he hears a shriek and a sudden, cold slosh across his chest. The yellow polo drips with artificial blue slushie, but Jughead swallows his fucking hell when he sees that the shriek, gaping stare of horror, and stumble in question all belong to his very own blonde kryptonite.

“Oh my god. Oh my GOD, jesus, shit, I’m so sorry!”

Jughead is frozen while Betty grabs about half his napkin dispenser and starts pawing at his shirt in a vain attempt to right the giant sticky blue mess all over his chest.

Finally, Jughead swallows the golf ball in his throat and chokes out. “Honestly, it’s fine. That stand is a sauna. I needed that.”

Betty stops, both her blotting and her stream of apologizing (which includes a fair bit of cursing, and he is a little revolted with himself by how much this turns him on).

“It’s going to get very sticky, soon. Maybe I should buy a bottle of cold water?”

Jughead can’t help himself. “Oh, impromptu yellow t-shirt contest?”

Betty grins.

I did that.

“Do you have any employees who could bring you another shirt?”

Jughead shakes his head. “Just my sister. She’s playing video games at home. There’s no earthly way she’ll bring me a spare.”

Betty cocks her head. “I had a feeling you were more than the silent back row kind of guy.”

The fact that Betty Cooper has, at any point, considered what kind of guy he is triggers full-on nervous blathering. “I’m usually very tired at school. I have this little sister—but I’m kind of um, her guardian. So I’m doing this stupid banana stand thing because it’s like one of the three assets to our entire family name I guess? Anyway, it’s hard to engage with Haggly’s basic discussion questions at eight in the morning when you spent the whole night dreaming about wholesale banana margins.”

He’s essentially vomiting words, but Betty is still smiling.

“Anyway, I should crawl back into my fruit-shaped purgatory and let you go back to your friends.”

She’s biting her lip, hedging. “Honestly, they’re probably using the alone time to make out in the car, and I’d rather let them get all their sexual tension out so that I don’t have to feel it radiating off of them for the whole second half of the double feature.”

Jughead laughs and tamps down the impulse to offer her a frozen banana, because he cannot possibly say something like that without making it sound sexual.

“What are frozen banana profit margins like, anyway?” Betty asks, either genuinely interested or legitimately flirting with him. Jughead finds both potentials baffling.

Jughead hesitates, then ducks inside the stand, pulling out his spiral bound notebook. “I’m still kind of figuring it out. All my records are in here.”

Betty sidles up to the stand, taking up the whole window. They’re both leaning over the scribbled line items on college ruled paper; he can smell her shampoo. She takes the notebook, scanning thoroughly.

“Do you have a pencil?”

He hands her one and observes her going to work, writing out some algebraic formula and calculating quickly in her head. There is a calculator within his reach, but he thinks handing it to her might come off as an insult. (Jughead wouldn’t know; he assumes Betty is in an advanced math class. Jughead is not.)

After a few minutes of watching her devoted focus, thinking about her hands touching his pencil, thinking about her hands wrapped around his hand, or his—

“I don’t know how to tell this to you, Jug.”

The shortening of his name stops his heart for a jolt, and his response is embarrassingly delayed. “What is it?”

Betty winces but smiles through it, a combination she’s surely learned to use when delivering bad news. It’s well earned, it really does soften the blow.

“There’s no money in the banana stand. At least, not with these margins.”

Jughead finds himself less than devastated by this news, mostly because it makes a hell of a lot of sense. The messenger doesn’t hurt, either.

“But,” she interrupts. “I don’t know if you’ve nailed down your course load for senior year. But I’m taking AP Econ? This could be, um, a good project. Like, if you want to take the class. Or even if you don’t. Not that you’re like a project or… whatever. I’m just saying we could figure it out. Make lemonade out of… bananas.”

Betty Cooper is extremely cute when she stammers.

Jughead doesn’t know what to do, so he gives her an easy out. “I can’t like, hire you, if that wasn’t obvious by the whole… deficit spending or whatever the whole negative circled number at the bottom of the page really means.”

She flushes. “No, that would be highway robbery. I just thought there might be an… opportunity. For um, us. I mean, for you and I. I mean—” she clears her throat, as if it’s closing up. “An academic opportunity. Or, in your case, professional. Well, a betterment of your livelihood. Okay, um, shit, just… I should go!”

She turns away, her face the deepest scarlet he’s ever seen.

“Betty, wait.”

She pivots back, eyes down at the ground.

“How about I buy you a new slushie and you come back into the booth. Tell me everything I’m doing wrong for the rest of the night.”

Betty looks up, biting the corner of her smile. “Sounds like a deal.”

They shake on it.

#this is unhinged but i had to ok #I HAD TO #riverdalepromptathon #riverdale fanfiction #bughead fanfiction #riverdalepromptathonweek3

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thiswasinevitableid · 3 years

Note

For the prompt fill, number 3 for Indruck seems pretty fitting!

Here you go! Prompt 3 was “sweet” , Indrid’s design is based on a barracuda and I went with SFW on this one.

“Duck, can you do me a favor when you lock up?” Leo dumps orange taffy into a glass jar.

“Sure, what d’you need?”

“Got some locks for the garbage cans; put ‘em on after you set the alarm out back. Somethin’s been getting into our trash every damn night for the last week. It makes a god-awful mess and I’m worried we’re gonna get a fine for littering.”

Duck nods, turns his attention back to the flock of tourists approaching the window. The afternoon is swallowed up in a pit of sugar-sticky air and blasts of welcome cold from the freezer. There are worse places for a summer job than Tarkesian’s Sweets--he’s right by the water, can watch the wildlife on his lunch break, and Leo is low-maintenance boss--but after eight hours on his feet getting splashed with soda or burned on the popcorn machine, he’s ready to head home. The trash locks have other ideas.

It takes ten minutes of cursing and fumbling to get the first bin secured. He doesn’t even know how the damn things are getting overturned; they seem too heavy for a raccoon or seagull to knock to the ground.

A tiny splash behind him, probably a fish jumping.

Then a crooked, shiny pole slowly enters his periphery. In dim yellow of the streetlight, he can tell the end of it is curved. It pokes inelegantly at the wall, then the locked can, then the wall once again, and then Duck’s leg.

The hook pulls back, pauses, then pokes him again.

“The fuck?” He grabs it when it goes for another jab, pulls up only for his arms to be wrenched towards the water. Not to be outdone, he tugs harder. His opponent retaliates with enough force that he almost tumbles off the pier. He growls, braces his foot on the railing, and hauls the hook and its owner up onto worn wood with him.

It’s a guy about his age, angular face framed by a mess of silver hair and pierced ears. Figures it’s some sort of artsy punk swimming around poking people in the leg. That explains why he’s shirtless too.

It does not, however, explain why he has a tail.

“Rude.” The guy sits up on his hands, silver and black tail flicking droplets of saltwater everywhere, “I don’t go around stopping you from eating.”

“Look man, I just wanted you to stop jabbin me and knockin the trash over.” Maybe if he doesn’t mention the tail it will go away.

“How else am I supposed to get at those odd, pulpy tubs full of ‘cookies and cream’ or ‘bubblegum’?”

“The fuck--wait, you were tryin’ to get the ice cream containers out of the trash?”

“Yes? I also want more of the caramel apples” he pronounces the last word “applees” causing Duck to giggle in spite of himself.

“Look, I have to piece words together from the signs on your store. And you obviously know what I meant or you would not be laughing, so do you have any in the cans or not?”

“Nope” Duck gets his laughter under control, “sold out of caramel apples today.”

“Drat” the visitor starts scooting across the pier towards the unlocked trashcan, “I’ll see what else I can find.”

“Wait don’t fuckin knock that over, Leo’ll be pissed at me if he comes back to a mess, and I don’t feel like pickin up trash because you want a snack!”

“But I’m starving!” The merman, because at this point there’s no way he can deny that’s what’s been rooting through the garbage, whacks at Duck with his tail.

“I know for a damn fact there’s food down there.” He points at the bay.

“Only if you can catch it, and only if it is not in another mer’s territory. Which much of this area is; I am new here, young, and thus have no claim to any patch of sea.”

“You ain’t got any family?” Something pings in his chest. It’s the part of his heart that made him pick out the runt of litter when his mom let him get a cat on his thirteenth birthday, that means he always splits his lunch with Juno because she’s running track and needs it more than he does, that makes him tear up when he thinks about everything a sapling has to survive to become a tree.

“Merfolk leave home at sixteen.” The merman shrugs.

Duck sighs, grabbing his keys, “If I bring you somethin to eat, will you leave the trash alone?”

“Yes.”

He shuts off the alarm, grabs a cone and fills it with bright blue ice cream. The merman is back in the water when he returns, arms resting on the pier.

“Oooh, my favorite!” He takes the ice cream, biting huge chunks out of it as Duck re-arms the door.

Crunch

“...The container is edible!!”

He sits next to the merman’s arms, “Guess you wouldn’t have had an ice cream cone before, huh.”

“No, but it is lovely. I wish humans threw these away more often.” He polishes off the treat, licks his fingers clean with moans Duck hears in his dreams later, and smiles, “thank you for the meal. Goodnight.”

There’s a final flash of silvery tail, and then Duck’s alone in the breezy night air.

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

“That’s a sandwich, correct?”

“AHfuck” Duck knocks over his water bottle in surprise. He’s eating behind the candy store like usual and not expecting an aquatic dining companion.

“Apologies. I have seen you eating here before and thought you may like some company.” He sets a sea urchin on the ground and proceeds to bang on it with a rock.

“Found some lunch?”

“I followed some otters; I was mainly trying to draw them, but they led me to a kelp bed no one else was in.”

“...Wait how do you draw underwater?”

“Let me finish cracking this open and I will show you.”

Duck spends the rest of his lunch break on his belly, the merman showing him a sketchbook and enchanted pen that conjures whatever colors the illustrator envisions. The mer is genuinely excited to talk to him. He assumes the nuzzling is due to him smelling like cotton candy; he doesn’t mind, the mer’s skin is cool and he makes cute little noises whenever he touches Duck.

Before the stands, Duck asks, “You got a name?”

“Indrid.”

“Duck.”

Indrid’s eyes flick to the nearby estuary.

“Yeah, like the bird. It’s a nickname.”

“I like it.” Indrid smiles, dives, and flaps his tail once in farewell.

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

“Cutting school again?” Indrid’s voice bubbles up by his feet.

“Yep.” Duck watches the spring clouds roll by from his favorite spot on the beach. It’s secluded and far from town, meaning no one will give him shit for skipping class and nobody will see Indrid.

He worked at Leo’s until this past summer, only quitting at the start of his senior year of high school when Indrid pointed out that much of Kepler was surrounded by water and that, if Duck wanted to see him, he did not have to keep working at the candy store in order to do so.

“Not that I mind the free food.” Indrid winks.

“Just gonna bring you bulk ice cream from Safeway; no way am I missin out on that chirpin you do when you eat it.”

Duck slides the grocery bag towards the surf, “not like KCC is gonna rescind my offer. Ain’t a fuckin Ivy League or some shit.”

“And you will be happy there?”

“Yeah. They got a decent work-study program with the park, so I can still get a job as a ranger if I want to.”

“Oh. Good.”

Indrid sounds sad, and Duck sits up on his elbows. His friend’s torso is fully on land, his tail fidgeting in the foam.

“What’s up?

“I...Barclay told me his human is going to a school further inland, and I know there are many places you could got to learn. You...you did not choose to stay in Kepler because you feel the need to look after me, did you?”

“Course not.” Duck is sitting up now, aching to stroke Indrid’s hair, “I mean, I’m glad we’re still gonna be able to see each other, and I really hopin I can get a room near the beach so it’s easy to come talk. But this is the right choice for me; if I really want to, I can transfer to a different school in a few years, and I can learn a lot here without takin on a shit-ton of debt. Besides, ain’t like I think you’re helpless; I love bringin you stuff and rubbin your fin when it’s sore, but that’s because you’re my friend. Don’t think you’re helpless. I never have.”

“Not even when I was stealing trash?”

“Thought you were a fuckin nuisance, not helpless.” He playfully nudges his shoulder with his toes.

Indrid turns his head and nips his calf, “How’s that for a nuisance?”

“Not much, felt kinda nice. Uh, I mean, uh, fuck, so, where’d that worry about my stayin come from?”

The mer crawls and wiggles until they’re shoulder to shoulder, “I think my future sight is finally developing; my fathers arrived around the time he turned eighteen, so it makes sense mine would arrive at a similar point. The trouble is, I am having a hard time telling the futures from my own imaginings and worries.”

“That fuckin sucks.”

“I’ll manage. All seers struggle at the beginning. I just wish I was quicker at learning whether certain timelines are really more likely or if they are just ones that I want to be likely.”

“Like what?”

Indrid glances at him, opens his mouth, then shuts it and faces the sea.

Duck smirks, “‘Drid, there somethin you wanna ask me?”

“No. Yes. Maybe? I, I just don’t want to pressure youOOOHhhh that’s not fair” he flops on his back with a groan as Duck scritches his upper tail, “you know I’ll do anything when you touch me like this.”

“Damn right I do. And what I want is for you to tell me the truth.”

Indrid whines, covers his face with his hands.

“Do it or I’ll stop.”

“Rude” Indrid lowers his hands enough that his red eyes peer over the top, “is that any way to treat a mer who wants to kiss you?”

Duck gives his answer by pouncing on his friend, pinning narrow shoulders into the sand as he devours his mouth in kisses.

“You like that treatment better?”

“Goodness, yes.” Indrid pulls him back down, slipping his tongue between his lips and nibbling his neck when he finally stops to breathe. Then his hand flails sideways, grabbing the plastic bag and chucking it further up the beach.

“The, the tide is coming in and I, ah, foresee us working up quite the appetite.” He tugs Duck’s collar down with his teeth, nuzzling and licking across his skin with little hums of pleasure, “so I want to save those for afterwards. Who knows” he grins, “maybe we’ll need energy for round two as well.”

Duck cups his cheek, inhales the scent of the sea and the sight of his future, “I like the way you think, sweet thing.”

#Indruck #indrid cold/duck newton #mermay fills

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transjoyblog · 3 years

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The 5 Most Powerful Lessons I Have Learned from Chasing Financial Independence

Photo by KANIKA PANT on Unsplash

I have always been interested in money. I have always understood the value of saving for something you want and the value in owning your own means of making more money. My mother always told me that working for someone else would never be stable and the only way to independence is owning your own business. This is not exactly true, but this advice did spur my interest in the concept of financial independence. I ran across this idea for the first time when I was maybe 17 years old. I read an article by the great Mr. Money Mustache and ended up doing a deep dive on his website. I was inspired. I thought that I had finally found the solution to the risk associated with owning a business. I was going to be financially independent.

Then I got a little older and had to start providing for myself and my girlfriend. We had a goal of moving out of our parents house, and the tiny little desert town where we grew up, to move to a much larger (read: more expensive) job market. That’s when I learned my first lesson:

Financial independence is simpler than it seems, but that doesn’t mean it’s easier.

If you spend any amount of time on a blog dedicated to the FIRE movement you are bound to come across an article (or 10) about the few simple habits that lead to financial independence. These articles are really informative, and a helpful place to start when building frugal habits, but this simplicity belies frugality’s true nature. Put simply, being frugal is hard. Really hard. My girlfriend and me have made some big sacrifices. When I wasn’t making any money, (think $500/month) we didn’t have many friends. We hung out at my girlfriend’s sister’s house a lot, and we ate really simply. Oatmeal for breakfast, rice and beans for lunch, and we went over to her parents house for dinner more often than we wanted to simply because we would otherwise go without dinner. Other factors contributed to this particularly extreme situation. My girlfriend was very sick, so she couldn’t eat well even if we could have afforded it, and she was so weak that maintaining friendships was basically impossible. We also weren’t perfect about it, even when I was making that little. I failed, messed up, got angry, frustrated, and worn out more often than I was successful, but that all served the larger goal of teaching me that simple habits do matter, but I couldn’t expect them to be easy to execute.

2. Know thyself

This particular period of our lives was also filled with navigating the consequences of our parents financial mistakes. My mother decided to take out huge student loans just to get my sister out of the house, and send her to a rather expensive university in the middle of the country. This proved to be a terrible decision. My sister ended up transferring to her local community college, for which she needed to take out more loans. All told, my sister came out with an AA and something in neighborhood of $60,000 of student debt between herself and the loans my mother took out on her behalf. I’m not sure how much of this my mother helped her with, but suffice it to say my mother was in a terrible financial position for awhile, one from which she has yet to fully emerge. This set of dubious decisions was motivated by more complex thinking than I have laid out here, but the end result is the same nonetheless. My mother stretched herself too thin.

If you are truly pursuing financial independence, you have to have a really clear picture of your finances, but you also have to understand how you react to financial pressure, how much risk you are able to take with your investments, and you have understand what your target is. If you are the kind of person who just throws money at a problem until it goes away, you will find it difficult to save for any kind of future. You have know that you have this tendency and consciously make decisions against this knee jerk reaction. If you don’t like having your back against the wall when creditors come calling, pay off your credit card balance in full every month, and never take out a loan that you expect someone else to help pay for (because there will inevitably come a time when they can’t pay). If you are just aiming to get your kid through college, then look for the most affordable option. Don’t send them to the 4 year right away if you really can’t afford the loans for all four years. An important tip for all you parents out there, know yourself and know your children. Be brutally honest in assessing your child’s ability to perform at university because it is simply impossible for them to be. People simply do not have a clear enough picture of their own abilities at any age, let alone an untested 18 year old. If my mother had done nothing else but this, she could have avoided everything. If she and my sister had just been honest about what my sister could handle, they would have realized that sending her to an expensive, extremely difficult program 1,000 miles from home was maybe not the best idea. She could have even gone to the community college in a better location. That alone would have saved them tens of thousands of dollars. My theory is that my mother was a little blinded by her own history, and she didn’t want to deny her child the same opportunity that her parents gave her. My mother left home at 17 years old for a very expensive (at the time), extremely difficult program at a private university 1,000 miles from her childhood home. This is where their stories diverge. My mother’s university was not nearly as expensive as my sister’s. My mother is also a very different person than my sister. She was the kind of kid who kept track of her own grades from 4th or 5th grade on, and encouraged her children to do the same. She did this because she, in her words, “wanted every single point [she] deserved”. Unsurprisingly, neither my sister nor myself actually did this. Ever. Not even in college. We are just different people. And if my mother had been able to admit this fact, she could have saved everyone a lot of headache.

3. FI is a huge goal, and it may seem impossible when viewed from the start

Most people understand that being the first person of your family to graduate from college is a huge moment for a lot of people, and rightfully so. College can be incredibly difficult especially if you are the first person in your family to attend to completion. The one thing that people like myself, whose family has had 3 generations of college grads, don’t even think to consider is that families that do not have this privilege may not have the full picture of what it takes to finish college. The first person to graduate will not only be doing it alone, but they will have to balance the pull of a family that may not understand or respect how much time, money, and effort you actually have to invest to achieve graduation. The same basic issue arises when you are pursuing financial independence. Your family may not even understand what you mean, or why it matters so much to you. You will have to be prepared for this possibility, no matter what goal you are striving toward. However, just like being the first person to graduate college in your family, being the first person to achieve financial independence is a huge accomplishment.

This something that I thought I knew. I was aware of how large an undertaking this would be before beginning my pursuit, but I call it a lesson because I didn’t truly know how this reality felt until I was in the middle of it. As I get older, and my personal finances are no longer purely theoretical, I have come to understand just how difficult FI is. The pandemic brought this into sharp relief. I lost my job at a bakery, went on unemployment, and moved back in with my girlfriend’s parents while still paying rent in San Diego. I got a job a few months later, and it was a good one. I thought I was set for awhile. I thought we had our FI strategy in view; I was wrong. The company couldn’t afford me anymore and let me go after just under 3 months. All of sudden, we were living off of our small savings. We burned through them because unemployment took about 2 months to get my payment to me. I ended up taking a minimum wage job at a factory. I hated it. We were back to being broke and making minimum wage, this time with less savings, more overhead costs, and no way to know if I would be able to find a better job any time soon. Financial independence never looked further away. This experience did however, serve as a great way to really drive home the fourth lesson:

4. Odds are, it will take a lot longer than you originally hoped, and when you are just starting out you will face major setbacks especially if you are in a lower income bracket

Dealing with setbacks in an effective and resilient manner is something you should anticipate and prepare for, regardless of when you start your journey towards independence. Basically anyone with any level of financial savvy will give you this sage piece of advice. It was losing my job twice in one year, however, that taught me that frugal habits are great tools, and they will help you get out of and avoid a lot of pain and suffering. But that doesn’t mean that these habits are a magic shield that will save you from any downside. Setbacks are hard on you. They can mess with your mind, and cause you to doubt everything you thought about your progress up to that point. When I get into this state of mind, I have found that it helps to remind yourself that progress is not a linear equation. Progress is a lot more like the Japanese proverb “Fall seven, rise eight.” You have to be prepared to have that kind of grit.

5. It is a lot harder to save money, when you don’t make money

There has been a lot of ink spilled, both physical and digital, on exploring the different aspects of the phrase “Money doesn’t buy happiness.” One of my favorite studies to cite on this issue is a study out of Purdue University that explored the concept of “income satiation” around the world. Meaning, how emotionally and physically “satisfied” people report being in relation to their annual income. This is a quote pulled directly from the abstract of the study. “Globally, we find that satiation occurs at $95,000 for life evaluation and $60,000 to $75,000 for emotional well-being.” This statistic has been quoted, analyzed, and touted by many a finance journalist as proof that money doesn’t buy happiness. However, I would be very happy making $60,000 to $75,000. With our current expenses my girlfriend and me could save for financial independence within a decade or so of making that much money. This would include reaching all of our goals of buying a house, and land, and finishing college. But a lot of people simply will never have a salary this high. They may have a total household income in this range, but living in a 2 income household is, in itself, a privilege. Once I realized that I could feasibly never make that much in a salaried position without a college degree, I had to expand my FI strategy beyond just “get a decent job, save as much as possible, invest a ton of money, and wait.” I have to invest in my education. I have to invest as early as possible in the stock market. I have to build something outside of a regular job that could possibly act as a hedge against job market instability. I have to make “earn more money” a huge priority. I never thought that was a worthwhile pursuit but it really is. Making money opens up so many opportunities, if you know what to do with it. Which is why it would be good for higher income earners, and people that have already achieved FI to remember that making money is difficult. Investing time, energy, money, and effort into growing something that may not even pay off is simply not possible for a lot of people, and it would serve anyone well to remember this throughout their journey to financial independence.

Citations:

Jebb, A.T., Tay, L., Diener, E. et al. Happiness, income satiation and turning points around the world. Nat Hum Behav 2, 33–38 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0277-0

#finance #financial independence #entrepreneur

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daisychvins · 3 years

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｡･ﾟﾟ･ — introduction.

introducing ... violet’s demise ! aka grayson aka her big brother she’s been wiring money to stay away in europe <33333

name: grayson swag money jeon age: 22 turning 23 (don’t ask me about his sign that’s for liza to figure out someday <3) gender: cis male; he/him hometown: baltimore, maryland sexuality: bisexual & biromantic

listen i was feeling rlly committed to completing his stats but i’m already over it so don’t ask dont tell xx anYWAYS let’s get on to the juicy stuff hehe

i tend to ramble a lot so this intro is gonna be probably a mixture of paragraphs and bullet points and everything in between but let’s start simple. also i rlly wanna emphasize a massive DRUGS TW bc his character largely revolves around his interest in and addiction to drugs

blackmails

grayson is claiming that he's been in a rehab program for the last year and is now completely sober and reformed when he really was just using the money to party and travel throughout europe.

without his parents paying to support him now, he's had to start dealing to make ends meet and keep up appearances. it’s mostly coke, but he dabbles in harder substances depending on what his connections can get him.

grayson dabbles with calligraphy and was notorious for forging excuse notes and parent signatures all throughout high school and even now sells forgeries for a quick buck. the most notable of these was xavi’s letter of recommendation that helped him get into yale.

background

grayson is violet’s older brother!!1 yes, that’s right, THE big brother who’s been out of the country getting LIT (and by lit i mean he’s been traveling europe on a series of solo trips w his parents’ money and doin lots of recreational drugs)

i haven’t fully fleshed out the dynamic he has w his parents but just know it’s ,, bad ASDHFJNK basically the jeons treated their children like accessories and expected them to be their little trophies and grayson just was not having that as a kid!!! so he acted out a lot and obviously got himself into a pretty bad scene (thank u goosie) and is basically the bane of his parents existence at this point <3 yet they still try to appease him to keep him under control but that’s for the family task to work out hehehehe

despite hating his parents, he adores both of his siblings. before the drug use started, he was always a big nurturer and would have done anything for either of them......now he wouldn’t be caught dead praising violet but he loves her in secret from afar HSJDFKG

yeah basically he met goose when he was around 15 i think????? and got introduced to drugs around 16 or 17 i wanna say and by the time he graduated high school he was just....a much different person than the soft big brother he used to be. his parents sent him off to europe pretty much as soon as he turned 18 under the guise of going to school internationally, but grayson obviously knew the truth and understood that he was being sent away so he wouldn’t be his parents problem anymore.

he basically spent the last four years galavanting europe and just....trying to enjoy it???? but it’s hard to enjoy an extended vacation when u have no family or friends on ur side anymore </3 he basically used the money to stay in hostels and worked odd jobs here and there to stay afloat and keep supplied w the...special goods....but yeah lots of drugs, alcohol, sex, and recklessness but he DID learn a couple languages??? or at least enough to get through some pretty basic conversations in most european countries so <3 guess it’s all okay then!!!!

anyways idk what else to put here that u won’t just find out in the family task so uhhhhhh idk lmk if u need anything else i guess

present/personality

so now grayson is just vibing at yale obviously ummm he actually got super into writing after high school, especially poetry. he used to carry journals full of just random prose about his addiction and his deepest thoughts, as well as probably some lighter stuff about his love escapades or maybe goose idk...basically he used poetry as an outlet and it allowed him to really ground himself and find his place in the world even if it didnt include who he thought it would SO with that being said, grayson got into yale due to a poetry competition he was a part of. he saw some big fancy competition being advertised and on a whim decided to submit some poem about his struggles with addiction and losing his family (a v raw piece that he didn’t expect to ever see the light of day) and he actually ended up winning! it caught yale’s attention and they invited him to apply and, knowing how much it would probably disturb his little sister, grayson very smugly applied and was pretty stoked to see he got in

because that poem gained such publicity, it was assumed that he was a survivor of addiction and was writing from a sober perspective. he didn’t want to correct anyone, so he just went with it and has basically crafted this story about his massive success and has become an advocate for addiction treatment and rehabilitation. of course, none of the companies that sponsor him or the events that host him as a motivational speaker know that he’s snorting lines in the bathroom beforehand or dealing to half the elites, but that’s between grayson, god, and the blackmailer !

basically grayson showed back up because of violet’s blackmail being exposed. he was off in europe, unable to defend himself, and with a massive vendetta against his family so he decided what better way to reenter society than by publicly outing himself as a martyr <3333 his plan is basically to bash the family name to fulfill whatever angsty coming of age arc he has in store for him to make up for the pain of being sent away .... really angsty yeah </3 rip grayson

anyways yeah he’s a total fake. he’s been using his status as a martyr to his advantage a lot, the best example being his recruitment into the elites. he guilted them into accepting him by discussing the PR benefits of recruiting a member that struggles with addiction and how supporting addiction treatment and second chances would be such a good look for them. like he basically threatened to publicly expose them for denying him due to his troubled past and accuse them of being exclusionary so they said boop ! ur in. now the elites are proud advocates for second chances <3333

i would describe grayson as fearless, overconfident, infamous due to his condition being exposed recently, a little gloomy, he’s kind of just got this chip on his shoulder and feels like he has something to prove....he’s gotta be better than his parents, gotta stick it to them and to violet and to everyone who doubts him. he’s a grumpy guy with a massive vendetta and a need for some kind of justice. he just doesn’t know what that is yet. despite all of the bad, however, he’s genuinely a pretty good guy. he’s really goofy and a genuine person, pretty friendly with literally everyone until they give him a reason not to be. basically, unless you are a member of the jeon family he probably likes you or is at least cordial to you (unless we plot differently ofc but u know). he’s just a big lovable dummy with some sweet drug connects and a knack for poetry. he also knows calligraphy but that’s beside the point .

idk if this is enough to describe him but yeah if u have any questions just let me know hehe

this is probably gonna make things hard but considering violet was just exposed i think that he’s pretty new to yale ???? like probably just transferred in/started this spring semester rather than being here for the entire year/a prolonged amount of time so most of our plots will likely have to be newer/center on him first showing up OR we can establish their connections from pre-europe which is also fine w me....idk i didnt rlly think this timeline through so let’s just plot and see what happens aghbfjnd anyways i included some connection ideas to help us all just in case

wanted connections

i’d say he’s the honorary dealer of the elites aghbdfjn so literally anyone who needs a plug could be a potential connection. we can obviously tweak this and customize it to each character <3

maybe someone who met grayson in europe. they could have travelled together for an extended period of time or even just a brief encounter. he was over there for four years, so the possibilities are endless.

building off the last one, this same connection could work with a romantic interest. maybe they were romantically involved for a time in europe and fell out of touch or maybe grayson/your muse just left in the middle of the night and they never saw each other again until now and maybe there’s some unresolved feelings/one-sided longing or need for closure. it could also be that they just hooked up whenever this person was in the area and that was that, no strings attached.

maybe someone who genuinely believes that grayson is actually sober and really admires his strength and idk maybe they’re struggling w their own issues and seek advice from him or maybe they just make it harder for him to actually do his thing bc they’re constantly around and it’s not like they can catch him strung out and acting up

someone in the literature department or with a background in english or writing. someone he could read poetry to, or share his favorite lines with. someone who’s taken the same professors and can tell him who to watch out for or what to expect. idk i just want him to have someone to share his passions with. maybe a little crush is forming? maybe they’re just friends who share a love of fiction? idk i’m open to literally anything

he’s sort of a motivational speaker now bc he advocates for rehabilitation resources and stuff so like maybe ur muse saw him give a presentation or participate in some kind of seminar and they called bullshit on him after the show bc they were like,,, bro i literally saw u partying w max and avery last weekend what the fuck are u on about and now they could potentially hold that blackmail over his head hehe......

exes plots are always fun we love angst in this house

fuck it let’s bring another family member BHJFNGKM no but grayson rlly is a nurturing guy and like....definitely develops unhealthy attachments to cope w his loss of family so he’d love all the sibling-like bonds he can get to kinda numb the pain of “””””losing””””” violet

if none of these interest you i’m literally so down for anything pls just let me know and i’m happy to brainstorm always <333333

thank u for reading this....smooch .

#anyways this is just under 1900 words whoops #stream of consciousness wins again #intro #literally dont even have my tags sorted yet dont talk to me .

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ohwereusingourmadeupnames · 4 years

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Shining Just Like Diamonds Do

Pairing: Peter Parker/Tony Stark (Starker) Rating: General (G) Word Count: 5k Notes: This gem started after I saw this post here. The idea of Peter being the person who hid an engagement ring in plain sight was too hard to pass up. Thanks to @goindownshipping & @starkerscoop for the final push in the right direction. Warnings: There aren’t any - this madness is pure fluffy goodness. Summary:

Peter buys an engagement ring on a whim - he’s ready for the next step, but lacks a plan. Instead of wasting brain bytes worrying about it, Peter makes a challenge out of it instead. The ‘how many ways can I hide a ring in plain sight’ game becomes a thing.

Or - Tony is oblivious and Peter takes advantage of it to be the cutest sneak out there.

Check out more of my writing here and read this story on AO3 here

----

They met at a conference.

Peter loved getting to shed his professor title and get into the nitty gritty of engineering and the technological advances being made. In another life, he took a different route and didn’t end up in a classroom – but in this life, Peter got to escape from it to play with all of the cool tech in the name of continuing education.

That year, however, Peter was tasked as a keynote speaker for the nanobyte technology research he started to work on when Wakanda opened up its borders a few years prior. Being in direct contact with the brilliant Princess Shuri gave him lots of insight and many tangible examples of the technology – her brother’s Black Panther suit design amongst them. He loved his research and felt more than prepared to present upon it. Especially at such a big wig conference like the International Conference on Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – all of the monumental names in the industry would be there.

It wasn’t often that Peter got to leave New York during the school year, so he relished the train ride into Boston without pulling his work laptop out once during the journey. He practiced his talk so many times that he’d been doing it in his sleep for the past few nights. Any more rehearsal seemed like overkill. Relaxing into the 1st class seat he splurged for instead, Peter took a long sip of the complimentary red wine. The welcome banquet started right around the time his train got in – so the harder stuff would need to wait.

When he got to the hotel, Peter made a quick pit-stop in his room to drop off his bag and change out of the suit trousers he started the day in. He bought a brand-new pair of black slacks for the occasion and planned to wear them to their fullest. Splashing some water on his face and undoing the first couple of buttons of his shirt, Peter slung his badge around his neck and headed down to the meeting room the banquet was in.

His sensitivity to crowds never seemed to dull over the years – as a 29-year-old, Peter should’ve been able to control the way too much stimulus affected him. That was not a success he could claim, however. It took several minutes to blend into the crowd and by the time he calmed down enough to fit into it, the line for the bar wasn’t even worth standing in.

He looked around to see if any of his fellow academics were in attendance and was stopped by a soft touch to his elbow. “Dr. Parker, it’s nice to see you here.” Natasha Romanov, the beautiful red head with a mouth like poison and wit so sharp, stood before him, a soft smile on her face. Peter shot her a swift look of gratitude, his own smile shaping his lips.

“We were research partners for 3 years, Nat – you can call me Peter,” he replied easily, his hand finding hers for a brisk shake. They did great work together during their time at Columbia – she specialized in Aeronautical and him in Mechanical – they were the perfect team when GE Aviation came knocking with an idea of how to minimize fuel costs down to the creation of the plane – parts and pieces included. The journey to his doctoral degree was a fun one, the many hours of work made tolerable by the woman in front of him.

“You’re right. The title never does get old, though – the blood, sweat, and tears to get it were pretty memorable, too.” Natasha smirked at him, her blood-red lips enhancing the look. “I saw your name on the itinerary – nanobyte technology, right?”

Not a single bit surprised by her knowledge, Peter nodded excitedly. “Correct. They even gave me the prime-time spot tomorrow night.” He grinned widely, his eyes lighting up at the look of excitement that crossed her face.

“You’re on your way up, Peter. I’m actually glad I caught you, there’s someone I’d like for you to meet,” Natasha said, her eyes moving past his face and over his shoulder. Trying not to look too stupid doing it, Peter turned slightly, his eyes settling on the beautiful brain that was Tony Stark. He turned back around and suddenly berated his choice of no tie – what kind of professional came to a dinner without a tie? The mini freak out ate up his time to make up an excuse, Nat was already calling the man over.

Slipping his hands into his pockets, Peter kept his eyes down until he felt Nat’s elbow press against his arm. “Tony, I want you to meet a former colleague of mine, Peter Parker. Peter, this is Tony Stark,” Natasha announced, her eyes burning into his.

Peter took a quick breath in, his hand slipping out between them in what he hoped was a casual manner. “Tony, it’s great to meet you,” Peter decided on, his eyes finally focusing on the other man. As expected, the tech guru was dressed in a fine 3-piece suit – the shirt and waistcoat both black to enhance the darkness of the ensemble. His pale skin balanced everything out – the well-kept facial hair adding a new and admittedly sexy element to the whole thing. It wasn’t enough to be incredibly intelligent, Tony Stark got to own the obnoxiously sexy title, too.

Tony grabbed his hand and gave it a firm shake – the callouses on his fingers way more developed than Peter expected them to be. He knew that Tony was the brain behind everything that Stark Industries created – Peter wasn’t aware that carried over to creation, too. It made sense, though – what sort of brain didn’t want to have their hands all over the thing stuck in their head? They locked eyes and something just clicked. Whatever it was, Peter couldn’t keep his mind off of it from that second on.

“Nice to meet you, Peter Parker. I saw your name in the keynote spot tomorrow night. I can’t wait to hear more about the nanobyte tech. I’ve been trying to get face time with King T’chala for years – he’s been surprisingly fussy,” Tony said in reply, his mouth moving gracefully through some of the petulant words coming out of his mouth.

It took everything in him to stop the spread of an amused smile – the only evidence of his true feelings reflected in the glow of his eyes. The similar look in Tony’s made him want to laugh even more. “He’s particular, that’s all. I flew out there last summer and met with Princess Shuri, the king’s sister – she’s smarter than you and I put together.”

As if those were the magic words, Peter and Tony spent most of the next couple of hours talking about Wakanda and it’s many attributes, the nanobytes and the technological advancements they could make, and most importantly – how much they were looking forward to playing with the new tech at the booths the next day. Peter was surprised by how nerdy Tony truly was, the man completely enraptured by the topic of particle physics and the latest coding programs being taught to the up and coming engineers of the future.

When the end of the function was upon them, Peter didn’t think twice about accepting the offer of a drink at the bar in the hotel. He felt a certain way and didn’t want it to end – whatever it actually was. A few of the others had the same idea and soon, there were many groups scattered around the bar – the conversation going like there was never a break in it to transfer venues.

A warm hand on his knee when they sat down behind the bar had Peter looking up, a shy smile overtaking his face. Tony looked at him for a moment, then returned the look – the darkness in his eyes highlighted by the low light they were sitting in. “What’s your poison?” Tony asked, his hand staying exactly where it was, the long fingers now cupping his patella.

“I’ll have a whiskey neat,” Peter answered immediately, his own hand landing on top of Tony’s. It wasn’t normal, the freedom he was giving himself in that moment. At the same time, it felt good to be a little reckless – he genuinely liked the things he was learning and wanted to at least see where getting to know Tony went. The fact that the older man turned his hand over and let their fingers slide together sent a tingle down his spine – the warmth of it sitting in his lower back, starting the pool of heat there with a jolt.

Shooting him a smile, Tony flagged down the bar tender and order their drinks – the efficiency in which he did it more than impressive. Tony pulled his credit card out to start the tab, the sharpness of the look sent in Peter’s direction enough for him to put his hand down and stop the reach for his own wallet.

“Tell me more about you, Pete – there’s got to be stuff outside the nanobytes,” Tony said, breaking the comfortable silence they found themselves in.

“There is a lot of stuff outside of nanobytes. I have a beautiful golden retriever named Marla – she’s an agility dog, so we spend a lot of time at the training complex. I’m a New York native, so I spend a lot of time heading to the little hidden gems I’ve found over the years – food spots and little record stores. My most hidden talent, though – is caricature.” Peter paused then, his eyes turning to take in Tony’s reaction.

It was well worth it, too – Tony’s eyes bulged, his cheeks crinkled at the corners – his smile wide. “Caricature? There’s got to be a story behind that,” Tony muttered through a laugh, the free hand that was fiddling with the rim of his glass coming up to swipe at the rogue laugh-tear threatening to spill from his eyes.

“I spent every summer of my undergraduate college years working at Coney Island. The research assistant job I had on campus didn’t pay enough to make rent – so I rode out to the island on the days I didn’t work in the lab to draw families and couples in the silliest fashion I could.” Peter smiled at the memory, his chest warm from the recollection and the alcohol settling in his system. “What about you? Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist – that’s quite the resume.”

A swift feeling of satisfaction rolled over him when the skin of Tony’s cheeks and neck colored, the pale skin there taking on a reddish hue – the blush absolutely divine. “And exaggerated. I’m a pretty big nerd that gets to tinker for a living. The playboy lifestyle went out the window a long time ago,” Tony replied, his eyes moving down to the lock of their hands still resting lightly against Peter’s leg. “I would’ve taken you to bed by now if it hadn’t.”

Though Peter didn’t comment on Tony’s admission, the fact remained between them for the rest of the night. He couldn’t deny that the very thought passed across his own mind a time or two throughout the conversation, and when they headed back to their rooms, Peter gave Tony the go ahead. Yet, he wasn’t surprised by the fact that Tony didn’t take it – his denial seemed to be more about the principal of it than anything else.

Not wanting to leave himself hanging, Peter let his hands linger on Tony’s sides when the older man pulled him in for a hug. Peter dug his fingers into Tony’s trim flanks, the grip just enough to keep Tony exactly where he was. Leaning in, Peter was not disappointed when Tony took the remaining space and met him in the briefest of kisses. The remnants of expensive whiskey and something that could only be classified as Tony sat on his lip, the taste a constant reminder of what a little more time and effort possibly held for him.

----

4 years later, Peter still liked to remember the hurried blow job Tony gave him five minutes after his speech the next night, the obscenity of 2 highly sought-after professionals locked in a bathroom stall together making the moment even more powerful. Tony wasn’t subtle in the way he practically dragged Peter with him towards the men’s room, his eyes were completely overtaken by dark pupils, a sharp look of lust there for anyone to see. Tony muttered endlessly about Peter’s brain and sucked him down with a skill that he still couldn’t describe.

The last night of the conference was spent in the confines of Tony’s room and the next day in the back of the private car that Tony ushered him into without asking about the train tickets that Peter willingly let go to waste. Happy, who took his bag with a knowing look and a stiff nod, turned up the music and made no noise for the rest of the drive from Boston back into the city.

It was easy to get lost in Tony after that. He appreciated Peter’s work and genuinely wanted to help in whatever way he could. Peter tested that theory out and prompted Tony to come and talk with all 5 sections of his coding class – he not only showed up but put on an amazing presentation for the kids that were already looking up at him with dreamy eyes. By the end of the 5th one, Peter was pretty over the moon, too. Tony’s comment about Peter’s brain made a lot of sense after seeing his lover in action – there was something about a handsome man with expertise that really got him going.

In the same way their brains were compatible, their interests lined up, too. Tony was adamant that they take a weekly trip to Coney Island when it was possible and joined Peter for his random walks around the city – the new food places all of the sudden taking on a different look after introducing his favorite person to them. Peter found himself making room for Tony in his life without much of a thought – there wasn’t any reason not to. Since the day they met, they were inseparable.

Which quickly became apparent when Tony asked him to move in before they were together a whole year. Peter was flipping his famous candied bacon with a pair of tongs when Tony saddled up next to him, a peculiar look on his face. “Why don’t you move in? I like having you here, you look good exactly where you are – you’re always over. I can get a key made right now,” Tony babbled, his affinity for speaking while all the words were ripe on his tongue a thing Peter loved the most about him.

The grin that overtook his face hurt a little, the muscles in his cheeks not ready for the intensity of it. “I could get behind that.” Peter spoke nonchalantly, but his hands were shaking, the move obvious in the quake of the tongs in his hands. It would be the perfect time to admit that he was thinking the same thing – he craved the coziness of Tony’s penthouse when he wasn’t around, the man’s presence engrained in every inch of the place.

Peter spent most of his adult years on his own with very little interest in accumulating things, so the transition into the penthouse was pretty seamless – it took them 2 trips across the city to get all of his stuff and another few hours to get it all adjusted into the nooks and crannies that seemed to be there waiting for Peter. Christening every square inch of the place was the best part – Tony took great joy in introducing him to all the different surfaces that Peter looked absolutely divine bent over and pressed against.

Happiness that flowed so easily between them made the rest of that 1st year together fly by. As did their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years together – May always told him not to blink; and now he understood why. Without really knowing it, or giving time his permission to do so, life with Tony sped by. There was so much contentment and ease in their relationship that dates didn’t seem to matter – being with Tony every day felt like something to celebrate. The thought might be cheesy, but the genuine nature of it reigned supreme – Peter didn’t mind the fluff when it came with a Tony attached.

Which is why Peter didn’t feel a single bit odd wandering into a a jewelry store after a rare afternoon without his other half. Despite loving Peter for everything he was, Tony still didn’t like to spend an abundance of time with May and sent him on his own to the bi-weekly lunches his aunt still insisted upon. Though telling Tony was out of the question, Peter cherished the separation – it was nice to have a reason to miss his partner in crime. Shaking his head of the thought, Peter sucked in a deep breath when he was immediately tracked down by one of the workers in the store – his presence a possible commission for whoever got to him first.

Like all things with Tony, Peter didn’t struggle to find the perfect ring for his boyfriend. In the years of knowing him, Peter knew that Tony wore lots of black to contrast his pale complexion. The rich darkness of the tungsten of the simple band would look so good against the creamy white porcelain of Tony’s skin. Despite the dagger of a price, Peter instinctually knew it was the marker Tony deserved – the ring a simplistic, yet complex beauty; not unlike the man himself.

And though he found the perfect ring, Peter never actually meant to slap down the black credit card he carried in his pocket for impulse purchases such as that very one. His eyes bulged with reluctant acceptance at the price, long fingers wrapped delicately around the bag the woman behind the counter slipped the box into, and when he walked into the street, Peter smiled to himself – he didn’t walk into that building with a plan, and still didn’t have one; but, he was one step closer to having Tony Stark as a permanent fixture in his life for all the years to come.

Peter assumed an idea of how to propose to Tony would just pop into his head. When it didn’t in the 20-minute walk back to the office, Peter felt a little miffed. Most things were so simple, especially where Tony was concerned. Yet, a suitable idea didn’t come to him, no matter how hard he thought and willed it into existence. Tony deserved absolute perfection – Peter knew that from the second they met. Striving for anything less in this situation just wouldn’t do.

In an attempt to jumpstart his brain, Peter started carrying the ring box in his pocket. If pre-planning didn’t work, maybe spontaneity would. Trying to force himself into a bubble never worked before – why he ever thought it could for something so important seemed a little silly. Peter worked the best when he was relaxed and stress-free. Proposing felt stressful enough, tacking on a precise plan of attack only added to it.

For the first few days of his plan, Peter worried that Tony might catch on. Not every pair of pants let the box rest peacefully against his leg – the very first day he decided to start carrying it with him, Tony tried to feel him up in the elevator and almost palmed the velvet box instead of his rapidly stiffening erection. A swift move of his hips into Tony’s was the only thing that saved him.

As the days went by, Peter found it easier to keep the secret and quietly delighted at the fact that Tony genuinely didn’t have a clue. The damn thing was right under his nose most of the time – so much so that Peter found himself wanting to test fate even further. If Tony really wasn’t paying attention, Peter wondered how many times he could set the ring out in front of the man without him noticing. Blinking, Peter pulled in a deep breath and let the rightness of that plan settle over him. He wanted creativity and perfection – a little game seemed like the perfect way to achieve both of those things.

His first attempt at it was very minimal. They were sitting in the kitchen preparing dinner together – the whole scene insanely domestic. A rush of want crept up into Peter’s chest and sat there, taunting him to pull the ring box out. He stuffed his hand into his pocket as quietly as he could, the top of the box making the slightest bit of sound when he pulled it open. Looking up, he smiled to himself; Tony was completely occupied, carried away by the oldies rock on the radio and the sizzling warmth on the stove. In the picture, Tony’s hips were swaying, the movement tangible in the blur of his figure.

From there, Peter got a little friskier about it. He took one when they were sitting together on the couch, his back against Tony’s chest, the man’s hair spread out on Peter’s shoulder as they watched TV. The next was in bed later that night, the ring between their bodies while Tony snored obliviously. Peter saved each of the new snaps into their own folder and spent several minutes after taking each one cooing over the cuteness of Tony’s naivety. There weren’t many moments when Tony didn’t know exactly what was going on. Peter allowed himself to revel on the few he crafted.

There were several more encounters of oblivious Tony over the next couple of weeks. Peter planned a picnic and let the box sit in the collection of goodies on the blanket for what seemed like hours before picking it up and storing it in his pocket again. He pulled it out when they were sitting in the drive-thru line at McDonald’s and shared a laugh with the young girl behind the window when Tony went about his business, despite the open box showcasing a shiny black ring right by his face. Peter shot her a wink, the girl’s smile in the photo one of the best mementos of the experience yet.

Just as Peter figured, the perfect opportunity came during one of their many treks out to Coney Island. In the span of the last week, Peter put the actual ring in Tony’s hand while he was sleeping, left the box open on his lab table, and let it sit in Tony’s briefcase all the way from their office into the house. The idea of getting away with his ploy made that finale that much more important. He played with fire enough – it was finally time to make Tony his.

Getting out of Happy’s car, Peter pulled them towards the teacups – Tony’s favorite ride on the island, despite the dizziness it brought them both for the rest of their trip. He wanted Tony disoriented – it was an important part of Peter’s plan finally coming to fruition. Since they were a little earlier than usual, the lines weren’t long, so they were able to ride the cups twice before the idea of waiting became a thing.

Antsy now, Peter pushed through the spin in his head and led Tony over towards his old station. Despite the fact that more than 10 years passed since his job there, artist alley was in the same place – the easels there the same ones he spent hot summer days behind. His eyes met MJ, who made a guest appearance in her old spot for the occasion. Tony knew enough about her to know about their connection, but not enough to put all of the pieces together.

Peter took his seat first, his part of the picture already complete – the rough draft of it sitting on his art counter at home, the design one he sent to MJ that very morning. He sketched himself kneeling on one knee in the mirror twice before it was exactly how he wanted it.

She went through the motions, however – Tony’s nosiness needed to be assuaged while he stood there, waiting impatiently for his turn. Wiggling his eyebrows, Peter relaxed into the chair and let the anticipation build – the ending of his game was quickly spiraling towards them.

It took another 20 minutes for MJ to finish up whatever she drew of Peter and the two of them to switch chairs – Tony’s excited smile making it super difficult not to just drop down on one knee right then and there. Instead, he watched with a huge smile as MJ went about finishing the actual picture she’d be presenting at the end of their little modeling session. Peter crouched down and let his eyes move with the brush of her hand – the sight of the art becoming exactly what he pictured exhilarating, better than the game of chase the last few weeks provided.

With the last flick of her wrist, MJ finished their portrait, her eyes narrowing into the smoothest wink – her immense coolness still a thing after so many years. Grinning in her direction, Peter got up, his heart slamming against his chest. The distraction of MJ’s “do you want to see it?” proved to be enough for Peter to get into position on one knee – Tony’s attention was on the end result completely, his ability to focus so singularly such a gift in that moment.

The soft inhale of air was the only sign Peter got before Tony was looking in his direction, whiskey-smooth eyes glued to him. “Pete?” Tony whispered, his head tilting ever so slightly. The expression never ceased to drive Peter crazy, Tony’s cuteness pulling a soft smile across his own lips.

“I bought this thing weeks ago. When I saw the jeweler on my way home from lunch with May and couldn’t stop myself. It didn’t have any intention of actually getting anything – but here we are. I spent way too many brain bytes wondering how the hell I’d pull off this insane proposal – you’re the personification of all things good and perfect, our first step towards forever needed to be exactly that,” Peter stopped a second, his fingers readjusting the box in his hand. “I finally figured out that there would never be a perfect way, because the perfection is you and the promise of forever, not the proposal or even the question itself.”

As he spoke, Tony moved a little closer to him, his face split into the biggest grin Peter recalled ever seeing. Reaching out, Peter grabbed his hand, their fingers tangling together. “There’s not a better person in this world to spend the rest of my days with. Your brain is marvelous and gives way to the biggest heart I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. Time with you flashes by like the recollection of beautiful memories. It’s exquisite, really – the consuming way love resides in us. There’s no forever without you. Not when my heart beats for you and my thoughts exist in hopes of melding with yours.” Peter looked up; his eyes wet with unshed tears. “Marry me, Tony.”

----

Hours later, Peter spent the entire drive back into the city with his hand covering Tony’s possessively, the coolness of the ring on his finger the best reminder of what just happened. After Tony mumbled a soft ‘yes’, he pulled Peter onto his feet, strong arms wrapping around his neck to pull him into a hard kiss. A soft throat clearing pulled them away from each other a few moments later, MJ’s smiling face meeting them when reality came crashing back. “You two are so sickeningly cute. Congrats, guys,” MJ said, the smile on her face a smooth juxtaposition to her sassy words. Peter shot her a wink, his hands already moving to pull Tony close again.

Between getting the ring on Tony’s finger and making sure their caricature made it off the island with them, Peter got lost in the next couple of hours. They wandered around for a little while before Tony’s demanding hands and tantalizing ideas whispered against Peter’s ear were a little too much. Peter led them back to the Bentley before the idea of the dirty boardwalk underneath them became a good one.

In their fumbling to get to the car, Peter started to describe the whole proposal process to Tony – the whole thing a desperate attempt to distract himself from the boiling attraction that always threatened to consume him. He talked about all of the different places he hid the ring, all the obvious times he let the damn thing rest right under Tony’s nose – each description of the past month’s events making it easier to lean into his fiancé’s warmth without the sizzle of arousal consuming him.

Settling into the back seat of the car, Peter took out his phone, the file of photos opening easily after weeks of navigating to that very spot time and time again. Going through them with Tony made each one feel a bit more special, the other’s reaction and surprise bringing the memory to the forefront, crystalizing its beauty with a whole new coat of affection.

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice. The ring is sitting in the palm of my hand in this one,” Tony remarked, his eyes flashing with amusement as he made the picture bigger, his fingers toggling on the screen. “Oblivious was never a word I’d use to describe myself.” He turned then, his hand finding Peter’s cheek. “Until now. Thank you for this, Pete. The whole thing – it’s gorgeous.”

Their lips met in a soft kiss – the genuine nature of Tony’s words alive in his warmth and attention. Tony’s singular focus on Peter felt like a rainstorm – intense and all consuming, rowdy in the eye of it. The subtle press and pull went on the rest of the drive, Tony’s lips only leaving Peter’s when oxygen became a necessity – they shared breaths when they could and separated mere inches when they couldn’t.

Both knew they didn’t need to rush – that seconds and minutes were no longer a factor.

Forever was an awfully long time.

#starker #ironspider #bobbie writes #shining just like diamonds do

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dangerouslysmartslime · 3 years

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Trying to understand college: My first Academic Development 101 Zoom Meeting

Discussion is going to start, and it’s going to be for Chapters 1 and 7. Academic Development 101… Starting with a check in, so… I didn’t read both parts because it is purely questions that you’d find at a mental hospital, which makes sense but it is a pain. So stop wathcing fucking shows like People Watching and get stuff done.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish this Winter Session

I hope to get used to online classes, unlike my Junior Year of High School, which was quite unpleasant. At the same time I also felt like I was being babysat by the school as there was no on the campus who knew what I was taking. Taking US Government, Trigonometry, English, Environmental, and such but a lack of continual feedback. Just trying to understand things day in and day out and the best thing I could seemingly think to do was to read the material and then look at what other people online thought, and then use both the actual sources and analysis of others. To be a lot better person than that is ideal, however it can be a lot harder than being at a class and there being discussions and then what happens outside of class is review.

There are a lot of folks who are here today, so they’re taking attendance and I feel unsure of what to do. I realize now that the three classes are interconnected, in the fact that they aren’t straight and narrow, they’re pieces that you have to read, go over, then respond with in your ideas. You have two days left before all the assignments are due for the week. A lot of people say they should earn at least a B+ GPA. One must first be stable before they can help themselves. Apparently a lot of people don’t know what to do with themselves, but they spend a great deal of money on education. Where do you take it to and pursue. Improving as a student and being more organized. It’s definitely something that I should work on, as there are Modules 1 and 2 at the same time, and getting it all done is important so you don’t get multiple 0s and fail classes. Just as you ended up getting an 80% in a Quiz just because you didn’t answer the questions quickly and efficiently. Learning better time management as folks can often be procrastinators. Passing, keeping focused, and keeping ahead of assignments.

Transitioning to online classes can be a pain for people. How to apply the tools you have, as there is a difference between getting dressed and being there or being online. And the program they use is something that people get used to. Her name is Stacy Hurley, who’s taught at CCBC Face to Face since 2011, taught Sociology classes in the evening and worked with child protective services for Baltimore City as well as nonprofit and therapy. She is an adjunct, and works with the Howard County. She does dog walking, dog sitting, and tutoring for fun. She likes that she is flexible, and her favorite thing is teaching. She started a post-graduate program, as not only she has a teacher perspective but a student perspective, so she was taking classes as well as teaching. She even asked for extensions, using the tools to keep yourself on track. Any questions? Nope.

Meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, and is a Synchronous class, meeting at those times and you are reading the chapters before class so there can be a good discussion. Know the material, and then review is in Zoom. There are quite a few modules she goes over, and the process is important. The “journey is the point of it” The final point is the “story of me” Where hopefully the class is at a different point in 3 weeks from now. All of the Office 365 applications are used, and there is a way that you can connect the google calendars to the school one. You can add those in there so everything is in one Calendar. Work on understanding everything so you can be organized. You also get a OneDrive to store work, and some people may also use a Google one, and saving it into the OneDrive is important so you can do it on your work computer, or home computer, or a library computer. You can make folders as to organize things by class, then week, then assignment (just as I have already done). I still need to make a To Do List for each week, and getting things done efficiently.

Announcements, and if you need tutoring, then you can arrange them through the virtual tutor. You go to getting Started, a tutorial to get to CCBC Email and Login, then the Keep Learning guide for online resources going from Face to Face, then logging into Blackboard. Going to Blackboard and it’ll bring you up, and if you don’t have it then you have to go to MyCCBC login. For the New Student Orientation there is a video and powerpoint to look at. The information will also be talked about in the next 2 hours (because it’s already been 30min) in the end there was the certificate, which I need to send to Stacy Hurley for Extra Credit.

Students improve and remain in college because of Academic Development 101. Think about Resilience and Grit. It’s not hard stuff, it just takes time and planning to deal with. Schoology is similar, for grades there is All, Graded, Upcoming, and Submitted. How much everything is worth, where you see discussion, assignments, and all of that. When she grades something you will see the grade out of how many points, then a text bubble giving feedback. “Hey you’re missing this, hey I like this, hey you should’ve had this.” And you can submit multiple times, taking her feedback into consideration. Practice your writing and communication.

In general the information hasn’t changed in the newer textbook, but it might be a good idea to buy, and we’re not going to get to all of the chapters. College Policy regarding etiquette for Zoom Classroom. Of course wear clothes. First part of the list, you must read. Student Success Navigators. There isn’t a counselor on campus, but they assist with finding resources like food, housing, applying for benefits, getting mental health help, referring for any of these services. You should be successful and going there is done at any way. Either talking to them or filing a report to need services. Someone contacts you to set up an appointment for what you need. There are disability accommodations, for different mental and physical disabilities depending on if you have a 504, and people don’t tell them why you get accommodations, as it is protected by HIPPA and such. There is also the Student Success Center offering tutoring, and avaliable for tutoring as the class fees pay for it. So use the link. Pay attention to the Academic Calendars, like when you can drop a class and when there are finals. Use proper college English, use proofreading. This is the time to do so. Turn your work in on time. Anything extra that was not assigned will be extra credit. Take advantage of it, as not every class has extra credit. Earn as many points as possible out of 800, so you earn as many as possible, then add the Extra Credit points, then the class grade is that out of 800. Know where everything is by keeping it in one place. Keep it in APA Owl Purdue College Format. It breaks down how to cite. Some courses may use APA, some may use MLA. You will be creating “The Story of Me as a Lifelong Learner” as each assignment builds up to the final project, which will be done using the app SWAY. Given each topic and skill you should be able to build a toolbox. The three words are Grit, Resilience, and

If you want to do the bare minimum, that’s on you, but if you want to do more, then you can. Really it is best to do as much as possible. The biggest Module is Module 4 as there are the most complicated pieces. Career Inventory, a survey that goes along with it, research links to look at careers you’re interested in. Looking at Educational Plan with DegreeWorks attached and information from ARTSYS website to plan Spring classes. I still need to talk to an advisor, so that is rather important. Transferring to another university later. You have to pay attention to each of the pieces. The final project is due February 1st, taking all of the pieces to have a Portfolio,/Presentation/Blog online about you as to finish it. The career piece will be on Animoto. You’re not paying for anything, you’ll just be using the free version. So manage your work and your stress to do what is needed. In person they used to do a career poster. Videos on how to set up Cornell Notes if handwriting. The templates were given for Word. You must write a summary of the chapter to show what you have taken away, it is pretty important. This chapter told me ABC. The notes must be in the format, whether typed or handwritten.

What is ACDV? Academic Development

Helps you be successful in your academics, to identify weaknesses, meant to help you develop good habits in academics, to come up with a strategic plan for yourself. Promoting healthy attitudes, to help sharpen your skills. To help you transition to college, to know where things are on campus and on Blackboard. To help make sure you are choosing the correct career path and educational path, to help you with a work/life balance with a new academic lifestyle, to help you prepare for the future, to help you have an idea of where to go. Getitng to know yourself better, developing academically. Exploring your passions, interests, values, skills, and talents. You can be interested in a great many things but you aren’t skilled in many. But interests can become skill. You can develop new skill based on the interests you already have. What are your values. The jobs that you’re thinking about, what is your motivation. Because if your motivation is purely money, then you could’ve taken a job that costs less to study for. What do you want to accomplish and look at. You don’t want to be a nurse if you don’t like blood or needles. Sure carrying tradition might be nice but it may not be fit for you. Do you want to have a career and not just a job.

What is academic development

To help us know what to do with our lives.

It can be quite difficult as there it can take a third of our lives to become who we want to.

A guide to CCBC and how to perform well in this institution.

What is Student Life is a thread that it has. There is the Community Book Connection as well. A book club, and the newest one is “The Truth about Stories, a Native Narrative” which if you do it, you get extra credit. Campuses are open, and you have to stop, they’ll check temperature and you have to ask questions on whether you’ve been close. The library and bookstore are open to go and get things. It is kind of a ghost town due to the plague, but things are still open. Blackboard has a list of Campus Events, Activities, and Resources she’s talking about. All of the folders are there, and things are due by tomorrow, while for Intro to Human Services my classes are due the day after. It is a pile of things stressing me out and the best thing you can do is to do your best at surviving and making the world a better place. Important things you need to cover, so let’s get done what is needed one thing at a time. Module 1 for ACDV is now due on Friday, and you’d get the rest done by Sunday. On Thursday we’ll talk about Finances, so that will also have to be handled. Filling your mind with sha helps no one, so take it one step at a time, use your peers and teacher. Try first, you will have to deal with things outside of time and sooner or later it will all click. We might not get to everything, so mainly do what is assigned. If it isn’t assigned, then wait until you’re done with assigned work before working on unassigned work or work due far later (following week).

#CCBC #Community College of Baltimore County #Academic Development

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ladyfogg · 4 years

Text

May I? - 3/?

Fic Summary: Ensign Faith Diaz struggles to hide her mental illness from her fellow shipmates aboard the Enterprise until an intrigued Data goes out of his way to try to understand her behavior. At his insistence, Faith tries to figure out what she's truly passionate about and eventually seeks the professional help she needs. Fic Masterpost.

Fic Rating: NC-17

Pairing: Data/Female OC

Warnings: tw: depression, tw: anxiety, fluff, friends to lovers, eventual smut

Data went back to his work.

Before that day he had not had a conversation with Faith and after two he found himself more puzzled than before.

When Geordi had spoken of the ensign, he had mentioned her tardiness and overall dismissive demeanor over the last few weeks. Data could not comment on the tardiness but he had not found her to be dismissive unless questions were directed at her own well-being.

The fact that she used the Jefferies Tubes as a way to escape during her rotation was troubling. Handling stress in a fast-paced environment was essential to any position within Starfleet. If Faith could not handle the stress, how had she gotten as far as the Enterprise?

Data scanned Faith's Starfleet personnel file and found nothing of significance. She had adequate marks in the academy and had served on another vessel before the Enterprise. Her transfer orders included a glowing recommendation from her previous superior officer.

Data concluded that something must have happened in the time between her last posting and her current one. If her behavior had changed once on the Enterprise, then it stood to reason the Enterprise was the issue. He had several hundred theories but not enough evidence for a clear hypothesis.

Switching his main focus, Data finished the project he had been working on and decided it was the best time to dream before the night ended.

He climbed into bed, dimmed the lights, and closed his eyes.

He was in a forest. A dense forest, thick with vegetation. It may have been daylight but he could not tell through the canopy created by the massive trees around him.

Data walked forward, listening to the crunching of the leaves under his shoes. It was the only sound he heard which was strange. Forests had animals did they not? He should be hearing birds at the very least.

"Data."

His name was whispered and he turned in the direction it came but saw no one. He kept moving forward.

"Data."

This time the whisper came from a different direction. Yet still, he saw no one. At first. The harder he stared, the more the plants began to twist and change, winding themselves into a distinct shape. He took a step closer for a better look.

"Data!"

This time the voice with louder, right behind him. Data spun around and came face-to-face with Dr. Soong.

"Father?"

Dr. Soong smiled. "I'm surprised you found this place so quickly, son," he said. "I didn't even program it. It developed on its own when I added your dream function."

"What is it?"

Soong looked around, a mysterious glint in his eye. "The unknown, Data." He turned Data around and suddenly there was an archway of branches and vines, unintelligible whispers beckoning him forward. "The unknown."

Then he pushed Data through.

Data sat up. In the months since he began dreaming, he had cataloged over one-hundred and fifty dreams. In ninety-two percent of those dreams, he had found himself on the Enterprise while the remaining eight percent took place in various locations he had visited throughout his life.

This was the first dream where the location was fictitious. He was not sure how to interpret what he saw. Was Dr. Soong there or did his brain create his image as a "guide" of sorts?

Data was required on the Bridge, which left little time for him to dwell on the matter. He would have to examine the dream another time, perhaps during his session with Counselor Troi the next day.

He reported to his station on time, as always.

The planet they were surveying had no life forms and the previous day's excursion to the surface yielded nothing special.

"What are your thoughts, Number One?" Captain Picard asked.

"It's like I said in my report," Riker responded. "There were a few structures but they were empty, seemingly abandoned years ago. No idea who made them but whoever did couldn't be found."

"Any reason why they were left?"

"I'm assuming it was due to the atmosphere. We were down there for a short time and even then it became difficult to breathe. We just barely managed to leave before storms rolled in."

Picard studied the screen thoughtfully before he sighed. "Best move on then. Data, set a course for the next planet in this system."

"Course set. We should arrive in fourteen hours and fifty-two minutes," Data announced.

"Thank you, Mr. Data. Engage."

And so they moved on.

Data's shift ended hours later and he retired to Engineering to continue his improvements with Geordi.

"Hey, Data, glad you're here," Geordi said when he arrived. "I need your help."

"Certainly. With what?"

"Here, let me show you."

Geordi led Data to the assistant engineer's console where a piece of machinery was physically out of place. It did not interfere with the console's function. Yet it was still troubling.

"Interesting…" Data said. "This reminds me of what Faith found yesterday. There is no reason for this unit to have been disassembled."

"No there isn't." Geordi raised his eyebrow. "Two pieces of Engineering machinery physically moved in less than twenty-four hours? I don't like those odds."

"It is extremely unlikely such occurrences are random."

"But what could cause such a thing?" Geordi asked. "These things are heavy. It would take at least three people to move them, maybe four. And that's if you detach it from the wall."

"The reasoning is also unclear," Data said. "I suggest running diagnostics on both units to ensure they have not been tampered with."

Geordi nodded in agreement. "I'll start on the one Faith was examining. By the way, thanks for taking care of her. Things could have gone south fast if you weren't there."

"It was no trouble," Data said. "Geordi, may I ask you a question about Faith?"

"To tell you the truth, Data, I don't know much about her."

"It is about her work. You said her performance has been lacking in the last few weeks?"

Geordi crossed his arms, leaning against the wall in the process. "More like months. When she first joined there wasn't an issue. I mean, she worked a little slow but still got the job done. Now she seems...I don't know, distracted. She's been late multiple times. Sometimes I ask her to do something and it takes hours, or she gets side-tracked and forgets. She's also had a bit of an attitude." He frowned. "Why? Was she rude to you?"

Data shook his head. "I did not find her rude. Although, I am curious about her behavior."

"What do you mean?"

"She injured herself but was reluctant to seek medical attention. Even when she was bleeding."

Geordi's dismay turned to concern. "That is troubling. Well, I know she's been ordered to rest per Dr. Crusher. Maybe she just needs a break. We haven't had shore leave in a while and who knows when she had a break on her last ship. I guess I never considered she may be overworked."

"It is possible. She was particularly unconcerned regarding her own safety. As her superior officer, I thought you should know."

Geordi stood up straight and adjusted his uniform. "Thanks, Data. I'll keep that in mind and will keep an eye on her when she gets back."

"That would be wise."

Satisfied the matter was settled, Data took a seat at the center terminal to begin to work. A few moments later Geordi joined him.

"Data?"

"Yes, Geordi?"

"Why the sudden interest in Faith?"

Data stared at him, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"You seem particularly concerned about her."

"Should I not be?"

"I'm not trying to discourage you. I think it's great. I guess I'm just curious."

"I am as well."

A sly smile spread across Geordi's face, though Data was not sure why. "Is that so?"

"Yes." Data studied him for a moment. "Judging by your tone you find this amusing."

"Maybe a little."

"May I ask why?"

"I've never known you to show such fast interest in a woman before."

"Ah. You think my interest is sexual in nature."

Geordi snorted with laughter. "Well, is it?"

"It is not. You of all people know I do not have any feelings, let alone sexual ones."

"It doesn't have to be sexual. You can just want companionship."

Data considered Geordi's point of view. "Currently I only wish to understand what Faith is going through. However, I have found our brief interactions pleasant enough, if not confusing."

"Confusing?"

"Yes. Her reactions to certain topics. For example, at times she will be conversing with no issue but when certain subjects come up she shuts down or grows defensive."

"That's not new to you, Data. You've been around plenty of people who don't want to share what's on their minds."

"I am aware of that, Geordi. But this is different."

"How?"

"I do not know. Hence the curiosity."

Geordi still had a slight smile on his face, almost as if he knew something Data did not. "As your friend, all I ask is that you be mindful of your questions. You may not feel, but Faith does. And she may not appreciate the extra attention." He picked up his tricorder. "I'm going to go check that console. Let me know if you need anything."

Data frowned as he watched Geordi walk away. Faith had approached him the previous evening and had even apologized for snapping at him. She did not seem bothered by his interest, only frustrated by the repeated question of her well-being. Data planned to avoid asking that particular question in the future, especially with Geordi's warning.

The more he learned about humans the more he grew confused. Yet, his resolve to be like them never wavered. If anything it strengthened as he hoped to fully understand them someday.

He and Geordi worked for several hours, exchanging thoughts about the latest mystery and reviewing the results of the diagnostics. In Geordi's initial sweep nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Still, the staff was told to keep an eye out for anything that seemed physically out of place.

"I need a break," Geordi announced, rubbing his forehead. "My brain feels like mush and I still have some calibrations I have to run. Why don't we call it a day and meet up in the morning? Start fresh."

"Good idea. I need to feed Spot and I would like to work on my painting."

"Well, enjoy. I'll see you tomorrow."

Data took his leave, heading for his quarters. Spot greeted him when he arrived, meowing and curling around his legs.

"I know it is time for your dinner," Data said, making his way to the replicator.

After making sure Spot was fed, Data turned to his paint supplies. There was an abstract painting he had been working on for a number of weeks, but when he reached for the canvas, he decided he did not want to work on it. He wanted to start something new.

Data propped a fresh canvas in his easel and carefully selected several paints for his palette. His thoughts focused on the dream he had and he found himself painting the lush forest, dark and mysterious with beams of light attempting to peek through the canopy.

When he was finished, he stared at it for some time, reliving the dream vividly. There had been something in the underbrush before his father had appeared. It nagged at him, tugged on his mind until he propped up another fresh canvas.

Without hesitation, he dipped his brush in brown paint, mixing it with a small amount of white to lighten it some.

Then he began to paint.

Data was capable of computing multiple thoughts and actions at once, yet often limited them when he painted. He had been told creative endeavors required your full attention and he made it a point to follow said rule.

Often he knew exactly what he wanted to paint and what techniques he needed to implore to achieve his goal.

This time, it was different. This time, his hand seemed to have a mind of his own, gliding across the canvas in sure, deliberate strokes. It took Data a moment to register what he was actually painting.

Two light brown eyes stared back at him from the canvas. There was no face, no skin, just the eyes framed with long dark lashes.

Faith's eyes.

Data lowered his brush, staring at what he had done and unsure of why he had done it. It was supposed to paint the vines and leaves, twisting together. Not this. He considered stopping but the urge to continue was strong. So he did not fight it.

He added more white to the brown mixture until he was able to match her skin tone, filling in the blank spots on the canvas.

Fresh brown paint was squeezed onto the palette, and this time Data added a drop of black, darkening it to match her hair. The eyebrows came next, thick and dark, with a small imperfection in the left one, no doubt leftover from a faded scar.

Last was her hair, escaping its braid as it swirled around her face. It was not until her image was complete that he finally added the vines he had been attempting to recreate. Various shades of green wove together, twisting just as they appeared in his dream. They blended into her face, almost as if they made her.

Hours had passed by the time Data lowered his brush, staring in awe at the image he had managed to produce. It was nothing like he had ever painted before.

"Most curious."

#commander data #lt commander data #data tng #data soong #star trek next generation

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auburnfamilynews · 4 years

Link

Russell Costanza-USA TODAY Sports

How do the national champions follow up an incredible 2019 season?

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be taking a quick look at every Auburn opponent on the 2020 schedule.

2019 Record: 15-0

2020 Signing Class: 4th (3rd SEC)

Head Coach: Ed Orgeron (5th Season)

Key Departures:

QB Joe Burrow - 402/527 (76.3%) 5,671 yds 60 TD 6 INT

RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire - 215 carries 1,414 yds 6.6 avg 16 TD 55 rec 453 yds 8.2 avg TD

WR Justin Jefferson - 111 rec 1,540 yds 13.9 avg 18 TD

TE Thaddeus Moss - 47 rec 570 yds 12.1 avg 4 TD

LT Saahdiq Charles

C Lloyd Cushenberry

DT Rashard Lawrence - 28 tackles 6.0 TFL 2.5 sacks 3 PBU FR FF

OLB K’Lavon Chaisson - 60 tackles 13.5 TFL 6.5 sacks 2 PBU FF

LB Jacob Phillips - 113 tackles 7.5 TFL sack PBU FF

LB Patrick Queen - 85 tackles 12.0 TFL 3.0 sacks INT 2 PBU FR

S Grant Delpit - 65 tackles 4.5 TFL 2.0 sacks 2 INT 7 PBU FR FF

Key Returners:

WR Ja’Marr Chase (Jr) - 84 rec 1,780 yds 21.2 avg 20 TD

WR Terrace Marshall Jr (Jr) - 46 rec 671 yds 14.6 avg 13 TD

LB Damone Clark (Jr) - 50 tackles 4.0 TFL 3.5 sacks

DB Kary Vincent Jr (Sr) - 47 tackles 2.0 TFL 4 INT 8 PBU

CB Derek Stingley Jr (So) - 38 tackles TFL 6 INT 15 PBU FR

S JaCoby Stevens (Sr) - 92 tackles 9.0 TFL 5.0 sacks 3 INT 6 PBU

Preview

On September 30th, 2017, Ed Orgeron’s LSU Tigers lost at home to Troy. It was the 2nd loss in three weeks and things were starting to get uncomfortable for Coach O just five games into his first full season as the Tigers’ head coach. Rumors of infighting between the head man and offensive coordinator Matt Canada were rampant. With a trip to the Swamp up next and Auburn coming to town a week later, it sure seemed like a possible Ole Miss redux was underway in Baton Rouge. Ed O was once again the joke of the SEC.

But not for long.

LSU has lost exactly five games since that Troy upset. They rallied to beat Florida and Auburn in successive weeks and finished 9-4 in 2017. LSU followed up with a 10 win season in 2018. Then in 2019, Coach O and the Tigers went out and won the whole damn thing behind the most prolific offense in college football history.

Ain’t no one laughing now except Coach O.

What LSU accomplished in 2019 was remarkable. Joe Burrow transformed from mediocre QB that needed max protect every other snap to a Heisman winner who excelled at getting his playmakers the ball behind 5 man protections. It was an offense that was downright unstoppable, only scoring less than 35 points once in 2019. But even in that one contest against Auburn’s stout defense, LSU still put up over 500 yards of offense.

I mean just look at those numbers. Joe Burrow threw SIXTY touchdown passes. Ja’Marr Chase caught TWENTY touchdowns. Justin Jefferson had ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN receptions. Terrace Marshall missed 3 games and still caught THIRTEEN touchdowns. Clyde Edwards-Helaire rushed for more yards than any AU running back last season and would have finished #2 in receiving for Malzahn’s Tigers. Just insanity.

But can they do it again? Joe Brady, former no name NFL analyst turned offensive wunderkind, is gone to the NFL. Long time stud defensive coordinator Dave Aranda is now the head coach at Baylor. Fourteen members of the 2019 national champions were drafted in the NFL.

Winning championships is hard. Winning multiple championships is much harder. Just ask Larry Coker, Gene Chizik, Mack Brown, Jimbo Fisher and countless others who reached the mountain top only to see their programs crumble underneath them. Will Coach 0 join them or is this only the start of his ascension?

Fortunately for LSU, elite talent remains, it’s just unproven. Myles Brennan has the daunting task of replacing Joe Burrow. A former blue chip prospect, Brennan has patiently waited his turn and folks in Baton Rouge think highly of his upside. But he won’t be as good as Burrow this fall. The question is how big a step back does LSU’s offense take from Burrow to Brennan?

Luckily for LSU’s new starting QB, plenty of skill talent remains. Yes, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Justin Jefferson and Thaddeus Moss are all gone. But the nation’s best wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase is back as is former 5-star Terrace Marshall Jr. LSU also returns two former 5-star running backs in John Emery and Tyrion Davis-Prince along with former blue chip Chris Curry. There’s also an assortment of young WR talent that looks poised to make an impact including 5-star freshman Kayshon Boutte.

Oh and they signed one of the freakiest athletes of the 2020 class in Arik Gilbert. Seriously, this kid is absurd and will be a bone fide stud in LSU’s offense.

Probably the most underrated piece of that LSU offense last season was its offensive line. The Tigers often relied on only 5 man protections and this unit was outstanding all year HOLDING up against elite pass rushes. However, four starters have departed with right tackle Austin Deculus the lone man returning. There’s definitely plenty of talent up front it’s just about getting it to gel quickly enough to execute the Tigers RPO heavy offense.

On defense, Dave Aranda is gone and a familiar face has returned to roam the Tigers sidelines. Bo Pelini is back in Power 5 football following five years as head coach at Youngstown State. He took the Penguins to the FCS National Championship his 2nd year but was unable to replicate that success in his following 3 campaigns. Under Pelini, LSU will be transitioning back to a four man front meaning some pieces on this defense will have to adjust to new responsibilities and positions this fall.

Up front, LSU is loaded as always. K’Lavon Chaisson, Rashard Lawrence and Breiden Fehoko are all gone but plenty of talent returns. The Tigers have some big fellas to eat up the middle in guys like Tyler Shelvin, Saiki Ika and Glen Logan. On the edge, LSU will have to make some adjustments transitioning from 3-4 OLBs to 4-3 DEs. There are a lot of different faces that will get looks at this position but keep an eye on former JUCO TE prospect T.K. McClendon. Ed O has been consistent in praising his development and the scheme change better fits his skillset. He could be a breakout player for this Tiger defense in 2020.

One of the positions hardest hit by attrition was linebacker where Patrick Queen and Jacob Phillips both decided to leave for the NFL following the 2019 season. Luckily for LSU, they landed one of the premier grand transfers on the market in former North Dakota State star Jabril Cox. He will likely earn a starting role on the outside while someone like Damone Clark takes over at the MIKE.

Two starters depart in Thorpe Award winner (lol) Grant Delpit and cornerback Kristian Fulton. But arguably the nation’s best corner, Derek Stingley Jr, returns along with nickel back Kary Vincent Jr and safety JaCoby Stevens. Former Auburn commit Cordale Flott looks to be the incumbent at the corner spot opposite Stingley while former AU target Maurice Hampton likely fills in for Delpit at safety. The Tigers also signed the #1 CB in the nation in the 2020 class in Elias Ricks who could easily see time early on the back end of LSU’s defense.

2019 was a magical season for LSU. They put a fun brand of football on the field and used it to obliterate most every opponent that stood in their way. But 2020 will likely provide a few more stumbling blocks. So much production is gone and with two brand new coordinators, it’s hard to see LSU repeating in 2020. Auburn gets the defending champs at home this fall. If Gus Malzahn is ever going to beat Ed Orgeron, it better be this year.

War Eagle!

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2020/7/9/21319019/sneak-peek-the-lsu-tigers-ed-orgeron-myles-brennan-jamarr-chase-jabril-cox-derek-stingley-jr

#IFTTT #Blogger #auburn #auburn fast #wareagle #AuburnFamilyNews #war eagle #sec #football news #aubu

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tenchiforum · 5 years

Photo

For the first time ever, the Toonami versions of OVA1/2, Universe, and Tokyo are available online! On their respective archive.org pages you can access each episode easily.

Watch now: OVA1/2, Tenchi Universe, Tenchi in Tokyo.

For users who keep up with contemporary anime communities, we also have an upload for the entire run available on Nyaa.

It’s been quite a journey in getting these episodes from analog to digital. If you’re interested in reading about the process of how these almost lost-to-time edits came into our hands and how we’ve gone about preserving them before the tapes rot, then sit back and enjoy the story below!

Part 1: Toonami – A Love Story.

Tenchi Muyo! and Toonami are tied together like the red thread of fate often times referenced in many East Asian myths. For those who aren’t aware, Toonami was a programming block on the Cartoon Network channel. Starting in 1997, it did one thing for anime that no other channel in the English-speaking world had ever done: showcased anime during “PrimeTime” (In North America at least, this was 4pm to 7pm Eastern Standard time). Before the internet, having this block of time meant having the most eyes on your product, meaning exposure was huge. Oftentimes whoever got on this block, regardless of the channel, was “made.”

However, it wouldn’t be until mid 1999, with a soft-rebranding, a new host, and an almost entirely anime-focused block, that Toonami would take over the world.

And on July 3rd, 2000, an entire generation was introduced to Tenchi Muyo! for the first time.

youtube

- The now legendary two minute Toonami promo.

Thanks to the efforts of Jason DeMarco, Sean Akins, Gill Austin, Sean Polinski, and the rest of the Toonami crew, the “Toonami generation,” still to this day, is the largest block of Tenchi Muyo! fans. Whether it was Toonami US, UK, or Australia. Tenchiforum is a testament to this fact. I personally would not be here were it not for Toonami, so to say that fans of Tenchi Muyo! hold Toonami in a high regard is an understatement.

I had always wanted to somehow, some way, get the Toonami version of Tenchi up for everyone to see again, but my old Toonami VHS recordings were long gone, and I figured trying to piece together the Toonami version from other people’s tapes would just be too hard with how many episodes were broadcast, that was until… 2012

In mid-to-late 2012, I found out that Pioneer actually released a home video version of what was shown on Toonami. It was simply released as “Tenchi Muyo!” in those big, white, clam shell VHS cases (that most people probably remember for old Disney movies). I felt as though I had struck gold! I was able to get a hold of the first two OVA, and was able to rip them to my computer.

- Vol. 1 & Vol. 5 of “Tenchi Muyo!” – No distinction was made that they were separate series.

Though I was high on my endorphin-induced nostalgia, I ran into a couple of unforeseen problems.

First and foremost, the equipment I was using was not great. I used an old StarTech composite to USB dongle and the software that came with it. While this isn’t necessarily bad at first glance (it doesn’t support Windows 10), I had no experience whatsoever in the field of digital transfer. While I think my rips were okay for the time, I knew even then that they were too low of bit-rate and the quality of the rips suffered for it.

Because I also had no VCR at the time that had S-Video output, I was only able to output from composite, which meant the whopping 240p equivalent VHS tapes look fuzzier than they probably should. (I realize that VHS is technically an analog format, meaning that a 1:1 equivalent digital representation is hard to pin down or that someone might argue that it did technically output 480i over composite, but basically it was 240p.)

Another problem was the software itself, I had no idea about Virtualdub, AmaRecTV, or other helpful capture software, so I only recorded at a lower bit-rate, again producing an inferior quality rip.

I also ran into the problem of showcasing the videos. Funimation (who now owns the vast majority of the Tenchi Muyo! franchise in North America) had finally started really cracking down on people uploading videos to Youtube. Even though my videos were not completely the same, the algorithm immediately flagged and blocked them. This led me to uploading the videos to Facebook. I had to cut them in half because of Facebook’s restriction to roughly only 12 minutes of video. Somehow in the process, some of the videos had audio drop out for a minute or two, and for some the audio dropped out completely.

Arguably the biggest blow though, was when I learned that this set of Toonami tapes was incomplete. Pioneer stopped producing the Toonami version for home video after they finished releasing Universe. Meaning, the only way to get the Toonami version of Tenchi in Tokyo, was hope that someone, somewhere, had taped it 11 years earlier.

While Tenchi in Tokyo has been getting more appreciation from fans as of late – thanks in part to most newer entries in the Tenchi OVA sucking harder than a vacuum – in the year 2000, it was the black sheep of the Tenchi Muyo! franchise. So expecting fans to have recorded any of it, let alone the entire series, was the long shot of all long shots. But even still, I made a post on the forum in 2013 asking if anyone knew anyone that might have anything.

Naturally, no one had any leads, and all of these previous problems meant that this project would, frustratingly, have to be shelved indefinitely.

Or at least, that’s what I thought.

Part 2: Deferred Dreams Don’t Die.

On April 5th, 2019, a person by the name of Talos dropped into our Discord server, and posted an introduction. Like so many, they had gotten into Tenchi through Toonami, but what would change everything, was this.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading, someone actually had it!

Instinctively, I reached out to Talos via PM to ascertain how to go about acquiring these tapes, and admittedly, to see how legit this claim actually was. Because the fact of the matter is, when you’ve been around Tenchi fandom as long as I have, you’ll quickly realize the best bullshitters in the world come from this fandom.

But Talos was more than the genuine article! They sent over pictures and an incredibly detailed analysis of the quality of their tapes, watching through them all again to prove to me that their claim was valid.

It can’t be said enough that this all would not be possible without Talos, their willingness to work with me and send me their own personal tapes that they’ve kept for almost two decades just goes to show how awesome they are and how much they care about the fandom.

So the deal was struck, and the dream that laid deferred for almost six years lived again.

- A time capsule from another era.

But with dreams from the past, come the demons that plagued them way back when. I still only had the setup I once had, and at this time I was really trying to be tight with my finances for a number of different reasons, but this opportunity was too good to pass up, I wasn’t going to let this dream go, even if it wasn’t perfect.

Talos’ tapes showed up, and I rolled up my sleeves.

So I put in the first tape, the first seven episodes of Tokyo, into the old VCR I used to originally rip the Pioneer tapes, a JVC HR-VP650U….

And static…

Or rather, a tape that would play for 3 seconds, then immediately drop to static.

This wouldn’t work.

I then tried my other VCR, a Sony SLV-N50 from the mid-to-late 90’s that I was able to “fix” by removing the old Android Kikaider tape that got stuck in there many years prior.

It worked!…..but…..not all that well.

While it did actually play the tape relatively smoothly, the colors were completely washed out in comparison to the JVC, and it had this weird color flickering that was particularly noticeable when black backgrounds were on screen. (This was not unique to this tape, it did it with everything I put in there.)

As much as it pained me, there was no way I was going to rip it with this setup.

So the hunt began for not just a replacement VCR, but one that was high quality and recommended among enthusiasts for digital transfer. Which meant research and long winding rabbit holes of non-answers and vagueness, and unfortunately, money.

Without a doubt, the de facto list of best VCRs for transferring comes from digitalFAQ.com. This list is not only informative but gives you a broad range of ones to look for in the event you can’t find an “elite” one. However, this list has also become the de facto list used by people who are hawking their sets on eBay to try and get every penny from enthusiasts and new-comers as possible.

After three frustrating weeks of losing bid wars on eBay, someone finally put up one of the good sets, the JVC SR-V10U. I quickly sent them what I thought was a reasonable but not bank-breaking offer….

And they accepted! The beast was finally mine.

Immediately upon unwrapping and testing it, the quality difference between what I had then and what I was looking at now was staggering. The SR-V10U had beautiful color, while having the incredible ability to stabilize the old tapes with its TBC (Time Base Corrector), as well as onboard Video Stabilization option. Combined with the ability to output video via the superior S-Video cable, I now had something that, despite its age and typical old VHS wear, was way better than I could have imagined.

Part 3: No Need for Nostalgia.

You’re probably thinking to yourself “Dagon, why go through the trouble? The OVA has a beautiful Blu-ray release, and Universe and Tokyo have pretty decent DVD releases. Why would you ever want to rip old VHS tapes of an inferior quality release that was in some cases censored?”

- The now famous Toonami “bikinis”.

Because this version of Tenchi Muyo! is a piece of history. Not only is it a piece of Tenchi history, but a piece of Toonami history as well. Being able to preserve this in the best quality possible is being able to point to future generations and say “This is why I’m here.”

For a lot of us it’s about taking us back to a simpler time, grade school, high school, university. Taking us back to a time before the internet was what it is today.

So now we can, after almost 20 years, re-watch the version of Tenchi Muyo! that brought so many of us joy and wonder.

#tenchiforum #tenchi muyo #toonami #toonami promo #cartoon network #tenchi universe #tenchi in tokyo #toonami tenchi muyo #anime nostalgia #90's anime #vhs #vhs anime

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altschmerzes · 4 years

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Can you do like a roll call for your ocs? Like their names, descriptions and something interesting about them? I looove hearing about ocs

yooooooo hell yeah!! i’ve got two main projects, one of them i’ve been working on a lot longer than the other, so i’ll just give a brief summary of the projects and then put the cast under a cut.

74 seconds: spy thriller focusing on like, the b-team’s b-team. focuses on mobile unit a4, a rapid response deployment unit within molloy inc, a vigilante/spy for hire agency. it is explosively discovered molloy has been infiltrated by the karlson group (a rival organization of mercenaries, this is not very high brow tbh it’s pretty straightforward mission impossible nonsense), and a trusted member of a4 is a double agent, sending him on the run. except he isn’t. he’s a triple agent who’s been undercover the entire time. when another member of a4 disappears, he is the prime suspect, and is left to figure out what actually happened on his old, while evading his own team.

along the road: anachronistic urban fantasy type thing. a city/town set deep in the bend of a river. one road in and out, and along the road is the house of the caretaker, who maintains the road and cares for the travelers along it. anyone who needs a place to stay is welcome for the night in her guest house with one rule: you stay for breakfast. sometimes, they stay much longer. a small-time actor on a moderately well-known television show experiences a tragedy, causing him to bolt from his life and land on the road. he decides to stay, at least until he comes up with a better plan, and gets to know the caretaker’s patchwork family, all the while hoping none of them learn who he really is.

74 seconds cast:

aleksander “sasha” lyall - our resident triple agent. awkward but sincere, uncomfortable in most situations that aren’t undercover assignments. probably too serious for his own good. his much older brother max gained custody of him when he was fourteen, and he was recruited by molloy inc shortly before max’s death. shortly after max died, he agreed to go deep under with the karlson group, and has been operating as a triple agent ever since. undercover specialist.

melody kaplan: transferred to a4 from a now defunct csi-type sector in molloy after her mentor was exposed to be a massive fraud and also just a terrible person, causing the woman’s entire department to be dissolved and restructured. prickly and combative a lot of the time, she’s hard to get to know and even harder to like. very close to sasha. lives with pierce when they’re not in the field. computer and technology specialist.

amanda teller: newest addition to a4 from another mobile unit, a7. she was the only survivor of an assassination attempt that killed her entire team, and was intended to kill her too. fiercely loyal and determined and impossibly stubborn - once she’s decided on something, it’s impossible to talk her out of it. the only one who never for a moment believed sasha was responsible for pierce’s disappearance. weapons specialist.

pierce mawdsley - a4′s tower contact. the tower is where the support members of the mobile teams are stationed, and as a result most tower agents, including pierce, are not field certified. incredibly smart and for the most part optimistic and cheerful. geeky, for sure. feels disconnected from the rest of the team because of his placement in the tower. he’s the one who goes missing, from the parking garage when the infiltration is exposed.

vincent “vin/vinny” alverez: a4′s second in command. quiet and reserved, but protective and kind. very good listener. has been with molloy the longest of anyone on a4. was part of a pilot program testing a type of memory altering technology that was discontinued after errors with the initial rounds of testing. as a result of this, vin cannot see the color yellow, instead seeing a kind of static, or thing-you-can’t-look-right-at feeling. listens to and sings along with a lot of johnny cash.

phillipa “pippa” baker - head of a4. feels unqualified because between her and vin, he has seniority, but she was picked for greater leadership potential seen by the current leader of the organization, claire molloy, with whom pippa is longtime friends. has a lot of doubt about pretty much everything but disguises it well. a pragmatist. personally selected every member of a4. feels responsible for them in a major way.

assorted others

along the road:

generally FAR less worked through as i’ve had 74s for literally years

the caretaker - woman of indeterminate age and indeterminate mortality. no actual name known, and she doesn’t answer if asked. called the caretaker, or, often to the family, mama c. maintains the road and watches over the travelers and has been here longer than anyone can remember.

dallas friday darling - minor-league tv actor, always referred to by his full name a la neil patrick harris etc. mostly goes by ‘friday’ to people who know him personally. shows up after a major tragedy introducing himself as dallas. doesn’t tell anyone who he was.

yadriel salazar - a teacher at the only school for miles. widely seen as pretty no-nonsense and irritable sometimes, but secretly a master of practical jokes. dead-pan humor. much better with kids than he is with adults his own age.

william daniel rodgers - local handyman and mister fix-it. goes by ‘wd’ because he insists ‘william daniel, two first no middle’ is a name you have to earn, and he’s still trying to figure out how to get his shoes on the right feet in the morning. happy-go-lucky. honestly a bit of a himbo. we love wd but we despair for him.

judith glassman - synagogue coordinator in the nearest actual city, also works in the faith house in their own town (a small multipurpose building that is useable for anyone who needs a place to pray or celebrate holidays, the place is too small and eclectic to have much that’s specific). highly organized. is the one despairing for wd. has been head over heels for the town’s florist, naomi, for months.

elizabeth lee - runs the paper by herself with two part-time interns. opposite of highly organized, but she swears she knows where everything is. incurably nosy and channels this into her profession. can’t really turn the journalist in herself off, which can be good and can be bad.

#original: along the road #original: 74 seconds #gav gab #gav answers #SORRY #Anonymous

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bongaboi · 4 years

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Florida: 2019 Orange Bowl Champions

The Orange Bowl between No. 9 Florida and No. 24 Virginia may not have been the most anticipated New Year's Six game when it was announced. However, it turned into an entertaining game of back-and-forth momentum swings with a little Las Vegas drama at the end to boot. Ultimately, the Gators walked away winners with a 36-28 final score. The victory moves Florida to 4-0 in the Orange Bowl all-time and gives it an 11-win season for the first time since 2012.

Monday night was also the Gators' best bowl performance of the decade offensively. They finished 549 yards of offense, the most since the 2010 Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati -- Tim Tebow's final game. Additionally, it gives Florida consecutive BCS/New Year's Six bowl wins for the first time in a decade (2008-09), making coach Dan Mullen the first coach in history to accomplish that task in his first two years at a school.

It also puts the team at 21-5 in two seasons under coach Mullen. Only Urban Meyer had a better record in his initial back-to-back seasons in Gainesville, Florida.

"Just under a year ago, this team was born, and we talked about going from four wins to 10 wins was special, but to go from 10 wins to 11 is going to be a lot harder, and those guys bought into it," Mullen said after the game. "They started working last January, and they worked, they grinded all season long in everything that they did. ... A couple years ago, this senior class, a new coach got brought in and we told them, 'Hey, if you buy into what we're doing, just buy into what we're doing, believe we're going to be successful.' They've done that, they've bought in. Back-to-back 10-win seasons, back-to-back top-10 teams, back-to-back New Year's Six bowl victories. They've bought in, and they've restored that Gator standard, and they get to walk out the door knowing they've restored the Gator standard to what it is, building that foundation of a team."

Gators quarterback Kyle Trask, who was tremendous in place of Feleipe Franks this season, was a little shaky in the game, completing 24 of 39 passes for 305 yards, a touchdown to running back Lamical Perine and an interception; Trask also nearly fumbled the ball, but the play was not overturned on review. Trask's numbers weren't necessarily bad, but a lot of his downfield throws were erratic. It was a good thing for the Gators to have a more reliable weapon in Perine.

"I think this win is huge for this program, not only for the program but also this team and the seniors that bought in when Coach Mullen first got here from Day 1," Trask said. "They worked day in and day out, and as far as my season went, I couldn't be more happy the way that my teammates had my back when I won versus Kentucky, and we just continued to grind every single week and get better each and every single week and here we are winning the Orange Bowl. That's pretty incredible."

While the game was close at times, the only real drama of the night came at the end when the game was pretty much in hand. With under a minute remaining, the Wahoos attempted a trick play by passing to an offensive lineman for a score. The play was called back, though, as an illegal forward pass. Still, Virginia scored two plays later, and while it didn't get the win, it secured the cover.

Here's what else we learned from Monday's Orange Bowl.

1. The Gators decided to run, and Perine was unstoppable: Three of Florida's four touchdowns on the evening came from Perine, a valued senior who totaled 181 yards on 18 touches -- just about 10 yards per touch -- and three touchdowns to receive Most Valuable Player honors. Perine has long been one of the most underrated (and perhaps underutilized) parts of Florida's offense, and he was absolutely untouchable against the Hoos on Monday night running for a career-high 138 yards with 43 more in the passing game. Who knows where Perine will go during the NFL Draft weekend. He may not hear his name called for a while. But he's one of those players who probably meant more to his offense than the stats indicated. He accomplished all of this behind a Gators offensive line that struggled mightily throughout the season, unable to create holes for its rushers. It appeared to step up as well.

2. Florida's defense turned it on for a short while: The first 30 minutes of the Orange Bowl was like a tennis match. Each team was volleying points back and forth waiting to see who would blink first. For a vaunted Florida defense, that didn't seem ideal. However, credit the Gators for drawing up some good halftime adjustments and having a bigger impact in the second half. The pass rush was good most of the night but certainly more effective both on and off the stat sheet in the third and fourth quarters. Florida finished with three sacks, five tackles for loss and two quarterback hurries. Virginia countered Florida's defensive front in the first half with quick passes and a moving pocket with successful results. UVA QB Bryce Perkins even made a few incredible individual plays in the face of that rush. But when it needed stops and negative plays, Florida came through and built a large enough lead that it was able to hang on to a lead late. However, it did ultimately give up 375 yards of total offense, including Perkins' best passing game.

"I'm looking at what they've got coming back. ... I'm excited. I mean, this is only just the beginning of it, honestly," said graduate transfer Jon Greenard, who showed out in his final game. "Last year was a little taste of it. We keep building. We got 11 wins, which is really difficult. So next year, a couple plays this year and we would've been right where we wanted. Next year, they are just going to capitalize off of that, understand where we were this past year, and national championship in my eyes. So we've got that in our eyes now."

3. Perkins will be missed at Virginia: The Hoos' signal caller will be an interesting late-round/undrafted prospect, but there's no denying what he's meant to this program. It took him all 60 minutes, but he broke the school's record for total offense career with 7,910 yards. The mark was previously held by quarterback Shawn Moore. That's pretty incredible in and of itself, but even more so when you consider all the problems Virginia had up front this season. For Perkins to be able to rack up yards running and throwing, usually in the face of pressure, says a lot about his playmaking ability. He didn't have a perfect night against Florida -- he missed a couple of surefire touchdowns that he'd love to have back -- but he also did things like this on his way to 323 yards passing with four touchdowns and an interception.

4. This is why conference tie-ins should be removed: Virginia played hard, gave Florida a game and has nothing to be ashamed about, but let's be honest: a four-loss team shouldn't be playing in a New Year's Six game. Conference tie-ins don't always produce bad matchups in these major bowl games, but in a year like this one when the ACC was average at best, you get this type of result. It wasn't bad, per se, but it could have been a lot better. So what's the solution? Ditch the tie-ins and use the College Football Playoff Rankings to help determine the games? It's interesting that there's so much disdain for the CFP Selection Committee in terms of their selection criteria for the field of four, because you could actually make an argument their process would be better suited for drumming up interesting matchups in these games without being held back by conference tie-ins.

#2019 #college football #bowl season #florida gators #orange bowl #new year's six

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