Reaper Ch.1
Chapter 1: People don't get it
[Prompt] You have the ability to see possible futures. You’ve used this ability to prevent countless catastrophes from ever occurring. The world thinks you are an infamous serial killer. In reality, you are maintaining the best possible reality
Since the age of 10, I was called the symbol of good fortune in the town I lived in simply because I could tell when disaster would befall the town and offered solutions to prevent those disasters. It wasn’t much to me but for the town it was everything. I was 15 when suited figures came to the house on a fine saturday afternoon. They came to take me from the town. it was a struggle yet in the end, they had managed to rip me away from everything I knew. I was given a new identity and was trained in the task force until I was 18.
By that age, I was given my first assignment. It was an investigation on a serial killer case. Multiple women and children fell victim to this madman. Luckily I had that gift of seeing futures so the whereabouts and the next victims were found in no time. The next problem was how to subdue this madman. He was armed to the teeth with guns, knives and judging from the few possible futures I saw, a few hand grenades. What would have even stopped so many deaths at that time? They had him cornered and soon this man would eventually get so desperate that, he would possibly use one of those grenades and do suicide bombing. No, I can't have that, not on my first mission. So I shot despite the orders to simply standby. I got him square on the head and the look on the chief’s face when he looked at me could very well mean my removal from the ranks.
What was unusual was that I wasn't and for the proceeding missions, it was always the same. I was never questioned why I kept killing the suspects that were assigned to me. Eventually word came out that I might very well be a psychopath that was well on their way to becoming a serial killer with how much blood stained my hands. If only they knew.. If only they could see the horrible futures I could see.. I simply wanted to prevent death, So many disasters and lives being lost. I wanted to find the victims fast and I did what I could with the extent of my abilities.
It wasn’t my fault I wanted a better reality.. How I wish they would come to understand that but for now I will endure.
At 25, I had enough. I was openly called a serial killer at that time and there was no longer a reason for me to stay at the task force. The service they mandated on me was over. The task force had fully used me to the best they could yet they had the balls to ridicule me and my abilities.
It wasn’t worth helping anymore. They could all die on missions for all I care. Maybe I’ll do my own private investigations since these people are so slow. I don’t need an informant and a commanding officer as I did in all those years before. I’ve decided. I’ll go as far away from these people as possible. Good luck trying to find me while I purge this world of evil.
Chapter 2 https://read.cash/@Hanzell/reaper-ch-2-28de0f66
I think I'll base this entire series on the prompts on reddit. A lot of those are really fascinating and i think they'd work well on this
Normality? I want that
**[Prompt] Write a story that revolved around a kind, compassionate character and then make them evil in the last sentence**
Living in the slums was enough to make anybody lose all traces of humanity at times. Aside from Carl’s living conditions, his father was one that could not survive without his regular doses of drugs now and his mother… his once kind and beautiful mother was but an empty shell he could no longer recognize. Bruises and cuts adorned her features. They say his father was a potential boxer until he suddenly had a losing streak. First it was alcoholism then he resorted to drugs that he would inject in his system every few days. Carl couldn’t even remember the time his father was ever sober and a time when his mother wasn’t beaten to a pulp. This didn’t stop him from wanting to study though.
At times he would escape to visit his grandmother that lived not too far from the school he was studying in. Despite her hatred for his father, she cared for Carl at least and felt great dismay for her daughter. There in that house, Carl would hear stories of what normality was. How his mom was when she was normal and he was taught how kids his age would normally act.
At school, Carl was the ideal student, good grades, helps his classmates and was even active in a club but at home, he wished nothing more than to experience the normal his grandmother would tell him about.
One afternoon, while Carl was walking home, a group of ambulances was at their house. He heard that his father had died of overdose. He could only show the people how blank his expression was and the people did decide to leave him alone because of that. And thus started his life alone with his mother. They were far more peaceful in his point of view and he had earnestly hoped that his mother would eventually show any expressions on her otherwise blank face. But then one day, as they were having their meal together, she simply stood, went out the door then left.
It was pretty normal for such things to happen, after all and even after three days passing, Carl still hoped that his mother would return. He mostly visited his neighbors that were his classmates to help with homework and such to keep himself distracted but to no avail, he would at times still cry over having been abandoned by his mother. Even the mother of the other kids would wonder why such a kind kid would have to suffer at such a young age, especially when he’s been helping their kids out as much as the child could.
It had been nearly a week since the disappearance of his mother and news seemed to reach his school, and ultimately his grandmother. Unfortunately his grandmother wanted him to live in an orphanage seeing as she would not have enough time to raise him given her age. Carl said nothing and simply went to the kitchen to get something and naturally his grandmother simply followed. That was her mistake. “I wanted to live normally, mami. I thought killing that b@st@rd of a dad would work but no! And now you want to take me to the orphanage? You deserve to die next!” The next thing that came on the news was of an old lady that had died of overdose and was said to be affiliated with the first overdose case.
You know how what seems normal for you may not be normal for other people? He was jealous of other people's normal yet what was normal for him now was the violence.
GUYS GUYS GUYS!!!! YA GIRL JUST GOT HIRED FOR HER FIRST JOB ❤❤❤❤❤❤ I've been busy gathering the requirements but I'll be starting after Halloween >w< OMG !!!
I became a reaper
[writing prompt]
There is more than just one Grim reaper- there is the sorrowful reaper, the envious reaper, so on and so forth- one for each emotion behind the death. You were chosen to take over one of the reaper roles… Welcome to day one as the Puzzled reaper.
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Another day, another soul to collect. It’s been years since the puzzle reaper had started doing this yet he could still remember how he came to be so vividly as if it only happened yesterday. He was a special case, at least now they would say. Thus why he was appointed the role of the puzzled reaper.
1999
He was 25 at that time, the prime of his youth. That time he had just moved into the new city and performed street magic for a living. He had met various people but five people struck him the most. One was of a woman that always wore red. She was beautiful and apparently was the owner of one of the most famous diners around town; one that eventually became a favorite of his as well. The other was another street performer but this one was different. This man was well off to being a professional singer for all anyone could say and with the beauty of his voice. The third one was the so-called town idol. Everyone knew her and everyone liked her. Her beauty wasn’t one to take lightly too. She was definitely one the town could be proud of. The fourth and fifth were twins, genius ones at that.
One by one each of those five people suddenly disappeared. And the cause… was him from 1999 to 2005, he pursued each person. As to why? well because he found the true nature behind each person. Yes, he soon discovered what horrors each person hid in their own closets just to attain their current standing in society. Each was horrid in their own way. And he was equally horrible for having rid of them. Later on he found out that the people he had murdered and brandished as alices were not in their own minds.
Each had made a deal with the devil. And now the devil grew furious that each of his hosts perished without having to consume them fully. Perhaps he did the people a favor with having murdered them but he didn’t have time to think of his deeds when the devil soon came for him. In just a matter of moments and in an attempt to possess him, it was soon over and he found himself being guided to some hall by this hooded figure.
At the end of the hall was something like a conference room. and there stood multiple hooded figures yet what was different was the kind of item each one held. At the very center stood a figure that held the traditional scythe, the grim reaper. Yet those that surrounded him were apparently reapers of different kinds, he couldn’t tell which was which but one thing was for sure, they were the ones to pass judgement on him. The hall erupted with voices and whispers of his most unusual death. Death simply by being too weak to possession was not common anymore, much more was simply being possessed in the year 2005 but what was most puzzling was why the devil didn’t drag his soul into the underworld seeing as devils were the reaper’s rivals with soul. He was a very special case and thus was granted a special place among them as one of the grand reapers whose deaths were all special cases in itself. After much debate and a brief confirmation of his last emotion during his death, he was given the role of the puzzled reaper.
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I'm sorry for my absence and for not finishing the inktober prompts. I've been job hunting and has been getting stressed with the interviews and all. So yeah, my depression was getting the best of me again. Anyways, this is just a plot i thought of. Should i expand it to a series?
Inktober D-8: Teeth
Just as the conversation of utilizing the rat became a conversation for the men that had captured the rodent, the same
squeaking sounds resounded in the area close to them. The crowd was then asked to keep quiet so as to hear the
sounds better. The squeaking came louder, and so did the scampering of tiny feet. It seemed as if there were more than
just a few. Was this the colony’s attempt at rescuing their captured brother? who knew but for sure, the men needed to
make use of this opportunity to capture as many rats as they could. the size didn’t matter as long as they could get
more. it would definitely make transportation and exploration much easier than what it has been for the past days now.
The sounds seem to surround them. Perhaps it was a bad idea to cook the meat or maybe to capture one of the rodents
but it’s too late to turn back now. It was definitely a fight or run moment but running seemed to be the least of their
options now. As the men started coming forward, a pair of sharp teeth came closing in front of them. A rat was trying to scare them away. The rest of the rodents soon followed the action and started baring their teeth at the people.
They definitely lacked a plan and these rats seemed smarter than what they were given credit for. It was perhaps the lack of a strategy which eventually led Frankie to the idea of pushing the large chunk of remaining meat in rats’ direction. that meat was the best diversion they could ever come up with but the movements didn’t stop there. Once the mice all started huddling towards the meat, the men started their attack by tying up as many of the rats as they could. They’ll have to worry about the training after but for now, they just needed to capture and study them the best that they could.
By the time the rest of the rats had managed to run off, they had successfully managed to capture twenty of them, including the one they had managed to capture earlier. They kept the creatures tied up while they built a sort of cage for them.
The rats were fed regularly throughout the night in hopes that it would earn their favor but in the end, it wasn’t the men that won over the loyalty of the rats but the women. It became quite the dilemma because of the fact that the women tended to be better at the handicrafts based on the men’s previous attempts at the task but now, the women seem to have found a new contribution to their group and that was, to be the new explorers.
Inktober D-7: Fancy
Upon the men’s return to camp with the rodent, of course, the first thing they observed was a change in the food that was being cooked by the females. Did they do an exploration of their own while in their absence? perhaps. But what did get their attention was the large chunk of meat that they were trying to cut down and cook.
Ah meat. It’s been a while since anybody had the pleasure of consuming that. nobody knew what kind of animal was edible, after all. But in that moment, a full chunk and probably an unlimited meat fest, if that wasn’t anything one could call fancy in their current situation then who knows what could. Just the meat definitely wouldn’t suffice seeing as it was such a rare occasion, so it was agreed on that some of the men would return to the freezers for the ice cream they had found just before they stumbled upon the rodent. It was a long haul. Luckily by their return, the meat was being distributed whilst more still came their way.
Nothing could have beaten such a fancy meal. No complaints on why it was mostly bread and chips, in that night, they feasted to their hearts contents and hopefully for the following few days as well, until they’ve been assured that the area had been evacuated and they would need to vacate the area too. By the morning, however, they definitely needed to explore the stores more as well as outside the store too but for now, they had time to cast their worries aside and just enjoy the moment. Perhaps they would be lucky enough to find a way to cook noodles too but they can’t survive off their fancy new treasures forever. They’ll need to go back to bread and chips after a while, of course. and the thought of having to transport such large items would definitely prove to be a struggle for them.
They had limited usable technology; and of course, even their phones seemed to be useless the moment the world shrunk. Besides when the radio was discovered, this was also one of the few times the group had sincerely celebrated anything. It wasn’t any sort of victory but the simple pleasures they received on that day was definitely something to be motivated with. Maybe having captured a rat could also be a reason to celebrate but if they were to celebrate that, they would need more so they could utilize the rodents more.
Inktober D-6: Rodent
With the explorer up front, leading the people as they walked past the grasslands, they soon found themselves on concrete roads. One the explorers stumbled upon on one of their ventures. Roads were good, it made their traveling easier. It meant less bumps for the carriages to pass through and less spillage of their supplies. But from then on, it would be a struggle to gather more food. They definitely had to make do with whatever food supply they had managed to collect in the previous days.
As dusk neared, the group had decided to set up camp inside one of the stores they had found open. Inside seemed as if it were a mansion. It came as a surprise that some establishments weren’t really shrunk. Perhaps the Giant mechanical fishes only targeted people and structures which contained large amounts of people in those times. It didn’t matter anyways, as long as they had shelter to stay in for the night; and being in a store was a change for all of them. They could see if there were other survivors as well as collect more food for the remainder of their unknown journey.
As the ladies were left to set up camp, a number of the men went off in search of items they were sure they could bring along for the road. Of course the chips and biscuits were always a favorite. And it was sheer luck that the freezers were still lined up with a number of beverages and most of all, ice cream! they would need to come back for those later so they could share with the group.
As the men progressed deeper into the store premises, faint rustling sounds could soon be heard; and it wasn’t just that but also the sounds of tiny footprints came. The sounds seem to be drawing closer and the group started to compress themselves as their acquired blades were brought out as well. Could it be the aliens that shrunk them? It couldn’t be, no one ever saw what those creatures looked like to begin with. But the sounds were coming just from behind the chips on one shelf. They took careful steps then pushed the bag of chips away. It was a rodent! A big one whose height seemed to double their current size.
As soon as the rat caught sight of the group, it scampered away, unfortunately, some of the men went off on a chase with it. if they could acquire that rat, it would mean a more permanent transportation method. With rope in hand, one of the men came in and tried to tackle the rat down and eventually tie it up so they could drag it back to camp. For now, they would need to tame the rodent while they continue to stay in the area in search of more survivors. What they feared though, was if the rest of the colony that rat belonged to, would end up looking for it. They better be prepared for it too.
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SOMEBODY STOP ME FROM PLAYING RESIDENT EVIL-- I'M NOT MAKING ANY PROGRESS ANY MORE 😭😭😭😭😭
Inktober D-5: Blade
Surprisingly, the radio’s battery lasted pretty long. It gave out after a week of continuous playing. In that time span, they had managed to get everything ready for their much awaited new exploration. From a population of two, it eventually became close to a hundred by the time the music stopped.
On the first day since they found the radio, they had managed to create with the grass. The females that first came to them were part of the handicraft club their school had established so weaving baskets and bags from the dried grass they had found wasn’t such a heavy task. By the afternoon of that day, they were equipped with baskets which they put all their gathered food in. On that same day, they had managed to make a makeshift carriage as well from parts of old toys the men had managed to find while scavenging for food.
On the second day, the exploration continued for the men while the women tried to create more items from the grass and from whatever items they could find around the area. On that day, more people came. It seemed the radio truly was the one attracting people. How long has it probably been since some people last heard music.
On their third day, they had managed to make better tents and sleeping bags for the settlement. They had also managed to acquire the help of some insects in exchange for some food they had managed to collect over the days. It was as if they had become a tiny civilization of their own with their own pets. It would be an unusual sight had this happened so many days ago. For now, they could only reminisce and hope things revert to normal.
Things became much more peaceful for them and by the fifth day since they had decided to settle in the area for the time being, they had managed to explore the surrounding areas much further and with a larger number of people. One of their new findings were blades. Small toy blades they had acquired from the small toy soldiers that were left scattered on the ground of what was formerly a playground. Or so it looked like with the huge slide still standing proud at the center of it.
Their discovery of the blades definitely made things much easier for them. It made cutting materials and defending their small area from threats less of a struggle than what it originally was. It also saved much more time for them, which helped increase their productivity. By the sixth day, the radio sound had weakened, meaning its battery was probably almost used up. By the time it went completely mute by the evening, Frankie had come to make an announcement of their departure from their settlement. It would definitely be a struggle but it was needed. They needed to find more people and simply staying there would do them no good with how their food resources would eventually deplete with their increasing number. On the seventh day, they departed in search of a new place to settle in and hopefully, a new radio to help attract more people.
Inktober D-4: Radio
The variety of trash that came scattered about their current area varied so much. Still no houses though, even after who knows how many hours both had seemed to have walked. Luckily they had managed to find something edible such as crumbs from the abandoned food packages they had passed by. They were surviving at least, and that was what mattered in those moments. But they couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the rest of their class, and the school population they were with just before they were chased down by the giant ant. They were clueless but definitely hopeful that they would be seeing other human beings soon.
It was nearing sun down again yet still no trace of civilization. They had opted to set camp out soon but beyond a few more blades of giant grass, a radio came into view. It was one of those small battery operated ones, though it could hardly be called small in this case. Hopefully it still worked
“Frankie, let’s try to see if this thing still works” With a nod, frankie went to check the back for a switch of sorts while Mike tried to climb to the top to check the control panel and dial it seemed to have
“I found the switch” Frankie excitedly claimed “Maybe there would be some kind of news broadcast up “ Static boomed over the speakers as soon as the switch was flipped. Mike had the greater task of looking for stations which would still be up despite the disaster that seemed to have befallen them. After a few tries, and eventually with the help of Frankie, nothing came up except this station that played pop music they used to listen to before. Perhaps the DJ put everything on a loop before they got shrunk too. Anyways, having music around never hurt while they set up their camp. And maybe later on, they could create their own dance party after all the work needed to be done.
As the boys set up their camp, a figure emerged from the grass. It was a girl from their class. What was she doing alone? Another one soon appeared, then another one.
“We heard the music. We thought there would be people around” The idea probably never occurred to them but it was fortunate they kept the radio on. Hopefully by the time the battery ran out, there would be enough a crowd to make exploration a lot easier. They would need to stay there for a while.
“We thought you guys may have been eaten by the giant bugs around here. Glad to see some people after a while of just us two” Frankie was first to approach as Mike had gone off again to get more materials to set up more tents. Much work would need to be done if the plan of exploration was changed to temporarily settling in to find more people. Well, it wouldn’t be that bad, more people, more chances of survival and more hands to help them around. Or at least until before they need to move around again.
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Kinda getting irritated with the storybook style illustration ;;-;;
Cute that my bf decided to join inktober though because he knows how important this is to me now
Such a cutie >w<
Still kinda wishing my sister would let me use MY laptop again just so i can fix the links
The only wip i have because i was in a video chat UwU
Inktober D-3: Bulky
“Frankie quick, the entrance!”
As soon as they found themselves near the cave, Mike noticed a large enough boulder that could cover the entrance so that the ant would not manage to get them. He was already pushing the boulder, and with Frankie’s help, they managed to secure their safety for the night. Once the boulder had been secured to place, A breath of relief escaped both boys as they plopped down on the ground out of their exhaustion.
“Hey Mike, next time don’t go off and don’t go looking for ants that want to eat us. I love my life” Frankie spoke, his tone obviously exasperated yet Mike could definitely feel the sarcasm in his words.
“No worries. I’ll try to behave from now on” A soft chuckle left Mike’s lips as he tried to sound less sarcastic as he hoped he would, but both boys knew such a thing would never happen, not with Mike’s curious nature and definitely not when the world they now live in has shrunk to the size smaller than that of insects. There was no telling what either of them would pull off but for the time being, they needed to rest, for tomorrow, their search for their missing classmates would begin. Hopefully no more bugs would appear on their search, and if such a thing happened again, hopefully the Will O’ the wisp would guide them to safety again like what it did earlier.
There was no sun to greet the boys a good morning, but what did greet them was sheer darkness. Had it not been for
the damp earth they were lying on and the memory of last night’s grand chase, they probably would have thought the
world was finally destroyed
Frankie had managed to wake first being the early bird that he was.
“Hey Mike, are you still there?” He called out, unfortunately there was no response. “Mike!!” he all but shouted but
upon remembering how deep a sleeper the latter was, he heaved a deep sigh and eventually got upon his hands and
knees to get a feel of the ground. Crawling made things easier for him, he didn’t want to accidentally step on a sleeping
mike. although on normal circumstances, he would probably do so without even needing a reason but for now, he
couldn’t risk losing an exploration buddy, or so he thought they were. A few moments after prodding around, a hand came to his grasp. There he was, definitely still fast asleep with how limp Mike still was. Much energy was spent on shaking Mike awake and after doing so, they both tried to find the boulder they had set in place. Once it was removed, the only thing they could see was the tall grass from last night then trash. Bulky trash that seemed to come as an obstacle course or even as hiding places for the humans with their sizes now.As promised, they went about exploring.
Now they would get to experience what climbing a mountain of trash would be like.
Inktober D-2: Wisps
Will fix the links later. This is the previous chapter 😊
https://read.cash/@Hanzell/inktober-d-1-fish-4ae1db82
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“Are we even in our country?!?!” One of the teachers shouted and as soon as the students heard it they came flooding out of the doors just to see the changes after the flash of light. It was true, it seemed like they weren’t even in the Philippines anymore. The country never had such big plants before, in fact, everything was huge. Whilst the student body stuck with the group, the ever curious mike thought otherwise. He took that moment to observe. Lucky Frankie already saw this coming and offered to go exploring with him.
As they walked, Mike couldn’t help but think that maybe they were transported or something.“I don’t think those fish beams could be a transporter though?” muttered Frankie
“Why not? I mean, look at all the weird plants? They’re huge though they do remind me of grass” Grass.. Grass? Were
the plants grass? Just as Mike was about to check, he came face to face with the most unusual creature, a giant ant
“Frankie, Run!!!!” Mike shouted from the top of his lungs as he dragged Frankie by the arm in their attempts to run away from the giant ant. What else could they have done with the size they were in now. Had they not been apparently shrunk, they wouldn’t even bat an eyelash for a single ant. But that was not the case, now here they were, trying to outrun a single ant who was catching up to them. It probably thought of the boys as enemies. Hopefully it was just that and not as food. Oh yes, being ant food would seem like the last thing on their list right now.
Where they were headed to did not matter, what was important was that they were getting away and that the ant doesn’t eat them. Yes, that was the only plan they had but how would they escape when they barely knew their surroundings. Both boys honestly wished that a guid would pop up, just something to lead them to safety. their lungs were beginning to yearn for air and as much as they hoped that it was not the case, their legs were starting to give ache.
It won’t be long now before their bodies would give out to exhaustion. Just as it was starting to get hopeless, a flash of light appeared before them. at first, they thought it was just someone lighting up sparks but what kind of spark would be blue right off the bat? It wasn’t a flashlight, that was for sure. Their doubt was greatly increasing but then there it was again, and again. Each time they passed it by, it would simply make a reappearance. How strange could the day get?
First they were shrunk, then the giant ant, and now this strange wisp was kept appearing before them
“Mike! Mike, they’re wisps!” Frankkie then realized what the flickers of blue light meant. “Follow them, they’ll guide us to safety”
Mike could only nod in agreement before turning to run towards the direction where the wisps were leading them. After a few more minutes and a bit of a climb, they found themselves in a cave .
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When my cave doesn't look like a cave and it looks more like an aquarium set up than anything because the grass looks like seaweed 😂😂😂 I also only know will o'wisps so that's the wisps I drew
WIP
Inktober D-1: Fish
“Mike, Mike! Wake up! This isn’t the time to be sleeping!”
Mike didn’t think anyone could fall asleep with all the commotion he was hearing as well. Why was everyone shouting?
What the hell was going on? All he did was take a nap after he ate his lunch, why did it get so loud all of a sudden?
“Mike!!! Wake up, you lazy bum, we need to get out of here ASAP”
The cool Frankie he knew wouldn’t normally react like this. Something was definitely up. As soon as he peered an eye open, all he could see was Frankie desperately trying to shake him awake. The classroom was left in disarray. Papers, pens, even the tables were scattered in a mess that it made Mike instantly get up just to confirm for himself that there was absolutely no one besides him and Frankie were left in the room. Panic struck him and the first thing he did was to look out the window to see what was actually happening.
“Fish…” was all Mike could mutter before Frankie grabbed him by the arm and tugged him away from the window. He could understand why everyone left in a panic. Fish. Giant mechanical fish was flying in the sky. And as if that wasn’t enough, the fishes also shot lasers out of their eyes.
Mike was honestly left dumbfounded after witnessing the scene before him that he just allowed himself to be tugged, nothing besides panic was coming to mind, luckily Frankie didn’t stop pulling him until they reached the ground floor of their school building where the rest of the student body was gathered. The faculty tried their best to calm down its students. Some of the students were panicking and some were even crying, wailing like lost 5 year olds even. Anyone would, everyone had the right to when their peaceful lunch on planet earth was suddenly invaded by alien fishes that seemed to be making attempts at destroying whatever they were flying over.
They were fortunate enough that cellphones and the internet were still with them. Over the news, the same horrors Mike saw were being broadcasted. Giant mechanical fishes covered over the largest cities and highly urbanized areas, all shooting laser beams from those weird googly fish eyes. And as if things couldn’t get worse, there was still no update on what those green beams could do to a human, no person dared try and see how it would affect them, everyone was left in panic on what to do neither with the fishes nor with their current situation. Everything was way too out of hand.
Just as the school faculty had finally decided to see what would happen if someone went out, the next thing they saw was a flash of green light which only seemed to pass by for just a few milliseconds. Upon observing, it didn’t even seem as though the green light affected anyone so the faculty went ahead as planned. They went outside the school for a quick check
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WIPs
I kept forgetting to take shots :"""
I was in a rush to finish the rest. But right now, here's my prompt for day 1!
So... does anyone work in HR here? Maybe you could offer tips on what to do with the resume or CV and all? Because the company I contacted a few days ago asked me to submit an updated resume/cv and i have no idea what to do 😅 send help please
Art speaks
Warning: don't read if your depression is bad, it might add to it.
As most people say: art speaks a thousand words with merely just one image. It's a way of expressing oneself at any age and will continue to do so for everyone who desperately needs it.
Such as in my case. I wonder how many times I've told people that art and writing has been my therapy. It has been for a long time and probably will continue to do so until I no longer need it. Though I doubt I'd give it up. It's been almost 12 whole years since I've been reliant on it, after all.
As to why I started art? Well...
2009
My grandfather passed away just a few short days before All souls day. My comfort and safe place was gone in an instant. I was neglected more. But even before that though, I was basically a ghost to my paternal side of the family. And also, I'm the eldest of us 4 siblings. It shouldn't have been that bad but then by this year, I've had so many cousins that added to my baby sitting and "maid duties" as I've always called it. So when I had time, or when the kids needed to do school work, I would draw while I taught. The people on my father's side could care less about their own kids and since I was also the eldest granddaughter, all the kids were dumped to me. I barely had a childhood.
2011-2012
My 2011 never really had anything memorable about it. Still had to care for the kids, still had to tend to the house, grocery shopping added to that list but I was fortunate that the house was still peaceful during these times. By 2012, one of the things I realized late happened. One of my paternal uncles started molesting and sexually harassing me. I had no escape then since he was the one to drive all the kids to and from school. It started with just touches, on the thighs, shoulders, those creepy touches on my arms then they did eventually escalate.
This year was also when my father's friend saw how I could draw. He taught me all the basics because he was a painter. He invited me to some galleries when I was free and gave me that spartan art training I now appreciate so much.
2013-2014
The touches did escalate to my bottom and breasts. I tried everything to escape him, even as far as to just walk home from school since it wasn't that far, maybe 30 minutes from my house. But in these years, the fights between my parents worsened. At times, I heard things from my dad that I wish I never did like "I would be much happier by now if I didn't have kids" and in on some nights that he would drink alone, he would sometimes tell me that I was such a huge mistake. It took a while to convince myself that I wasn't. But at times, I would still look at the knives my grandfather left me, still as sharp as when he used them. I sliced my skin sometimes to keep me grounded but never to kill myself.
My art by these years often had double meanings. The more colorful my art was, the deeper the pain it held. Those were the ones I sold off in the art exhibits and auctions I was asked to join. The people seemed to enjoy watching my depression. What's amusing was that even when artists could see the emotions in the art, they always had something to say. And being the youngest in their community was no help either. But I did continue with art. I needed it. Writing eventually added to this list and I started to keep a journal for my thoughts. I read those at times to remind myself how far I've come.
In 2014, my dad kicked my mom out of the house. What was already a pile of chores to be done doubled and extended to budgeting and doing everything alone. I couldn't manage any form of savings back then. My dad knew I earned from art so he would always cut the house budget short so that I would be forced to use whatever I had to add to it. My sisters and cousins I raised never came to help when I asked. I started to cut deeper and hoped I would eventually bleed to death while I slept but I didn't so I had to conceal my arms. I became known as the hoody girl for the rest of my highschool years.
2015-2016
After much overdose attempts, mostly from paracetamol, ibuprofen and a few sleeping aids I could get my hands on, I became resistant to those drugs. It was unfortunate and I kept questioning why it's so hard to die. The harassments from my uncles escalated to the point that he would press his crotch on any part of my body and he would move to relieve himself. There was a rape attempt at one point too and a death threat that went along with it, thus why I hid in my room since then. I also lost my scholarship because my dad seemed to think that threatening to kick me out of the house a day before a major exam was a good idea.
I also had my first check up with a psychologist in these years. I had General Anxiety Disorder that caused most of my depressive symptoms. I was given medication that I tried to use for overdose too. Nothing worked. I wanted a clean death and it was only my body that was fighting but my mind honestly gave up on everything. I couldn't handle the harassments and the fact that I was like a servant to everyone in that house. It was miserable. I barely had friends because I was always needed to be at home asap because no one would tend to the house. I stopped asking my sisters for help, they needed to study. They seem to have a better future than I did. I was a mess. Constantly tried to get myself run over, was still constantly looking for clean ways to die. I eventually took refuge online and met someone. He was a college student and we eventually did date. He was the basis for my Primrose story but we didn't have a happy ending like they did. He succeeded in his death because by the time we met, he was already terminally ill. My body never allowed me to follow him.
2017
Things started to turn to the bright side by this year. The harassments stopped. My mom came back and my dad left instead. He went to that office mate of his that he was flirting with in the absence of my mom. By those times, my mom allowed us to adopt puppies which is sebastian and Victoria, the ones I have. They were also therapy to me. I was still suicidal but my attempts got lesser and lesser. I shifted from geology to chemistry and I gained a friend. A really good friend in all those years of silence.
What I learned from my attempts?
Nothing much, really. It's just that these things will just pass. It's up to you if you'll find your own form of therapy or not. And it's also up to you if you'll keep living in your trauma. The best you can do for yourseld is to keep yourself busy, honestly. Else you'll end up spiraling back to the dark hole you've been trying to escape for so long. Can't say I've stopped my attempts though. I still cut when I get really bad anxiety attacks but what people don't understand is how much I hate what's inside my head and how bad it keeps dragging me back. Pain grounds me to reality. I don't do so without a reason.
Quick sketch 6
2 days until Inktobeerrr! And just making rough sketches isn't satisfying me but then I'm still lazy to get on with the line art and the inking part 😂 I was supposed to be sleeping early too but @bmjc98 had asked me to draw dogs. It's rare for people to request me to draw anything despite the fact that I do ask suggestions every now and then.
It's nice to receive requests though UwU so I went to work on this one asap. What sucked though was that... I didn't have a decent picture of my dogs 😂 they always have overgrown fur or no fur at all when I do think of taking pictures of them. And most of my pictures of my dogs are for meme purposes such as this
And a lot more others 😂😂😂
Anyways, from my gallery, I've only found two decent photos of them that seemed easy enough to sketch. I don't really sketch animals that much to begin with because I dislike drawing fur sometimes, specially when the firis mostly white like on one of my dogs.
This is the reference photo I'll be using for Victoria. It's also the same photo I use for my sponsor logo UwU she's too cute not to be put on display at times but half the time she's just a slobbery mess
I started my sketching at around 9 because I needed to feed them first too. They eat way too much recently, I swear
Not sure if it even looks like her. I just honestly wanted to make a quick sketch of them because I needed to sleep early tonight
Kind of sad that I can't see any of their bright eyes in any of my photos. I guess they'll be needing more shots after they've had a trim
Sad the orientation doesn't cooperate with me. So this is the reference photo I used for sebastian. I started on it as soon as I finished with Victoria's sketch
I also don't think it looks alike. My dog usually looks sad and miserable after all, yet here, he actually looks happy 😂 probably because my skateboard is his favorite toy when he gets lazy to go on walks with me.
Surprisingly the orientation cooperated with me this time UwU this is the final outcome of Sebastian's quick sketch. I had no idea if I should have tried to at least draw the asphalt but then my laziness and sleepiness was starting to hit me.
That's all for now. If you'd like to request anything besides self portraits, I'd love to sketch that. Self portraits are things i should be charging again 😂😂😂
Inktober preparations
Inktober is just a few day away and since this will be my first time participating, I've made the most of my vacant time to work om the 31 prompt words that were prepared for this year's inktober celebration
This is the official list I have been following and I'm proud that I've already written the prompts until the 14th day which is armor. I had incorporated everything into a really long series so for 31 days, please bear with the weird series I'm writing up 😂😂😂 I honestly plan to finish writing the prompt for everything by the 29th so that by the 30th, I could focus on the sketches the prompts will be based off.
Sadly I get easily distracted and instead of writing again, right now I had just managed to finish a rough sketch of one of my series character named John Doe. He's from "I will escape one day" and there, I described him as a curly blonde boy with blue eyes. I have no idea how to draw kids, really since I don't like them enough so John ended up becoming an adult 😂
I used the Saemiart watercolor I had recently acquired here and i made use of wet paper, wet brush technique (I swear I need to write that watercolor guide soon). This makes blending easier for me but honestly, blending would still depend on preferences
Here he is after an additional 2 layers of a different shade of peach then brown. Water colors are mostly painted on by layers which is why it's so time consuming, plus the drying too before adding the details. I started everything at around 10am in the morning. It took me an hour for the initial paint layer
At around 11 am, I ended my painting to prepare food. I came back to this just around 10:30 pm because I got distracted again by super mario world and from writing down more prompt chapters. It was really dry by the time I checked back on this
I used a pencil to add in a bit more shading and to add a bit more depth into his features. Then black ink for tge parts that really needed to be flat black. He looks like a tired teen than a young boy in his 14s or 15s, really. But I guess that's what sleepless nights and abuse does to you.
I just finished it up with pencilling in hair details as well since I have no idea how people use paint to actually paint on hair. I'm still trying to look for good videos that would teach me that.
3 more days until inktober for me and hopefully you guys don't get tired of all my drawings 😂😂😂
Biological leaching of metals from printed circuit boards
I just thought of sharing my old research when I was still studied geology. Yes, I've liked microbes even back then XD It's a bit of a long read but I hope you find it fascinating
Introduction
Electronic waste or e-waste is described as discarded electrical or electronic devices which have reached the end of their useful life (Das et al, 2016; Peralta, 2006). As of date, E-wastes generated increases at an exponential rate of nearly 10% yearly (Sakunda, 2013; cited in Kaya, 2016) and has been an alarming problem since e-waste manufacturing is a factor that causes metal depletion. It was also cited in the work of Torres, 2016, metals like Copper, silver, iron and gold as well as an additional 15, to 40 (Arshadi, et al., 2016), to 57 valuable elements (Kaya, 2016) contained in the PCB are either in its elemental form or exists as an alloy (Cui and Zhang, 2008; Tuncuk et al., 2012; Yang et al., 2011). Although some components to these e-wastes are harmful to the environment like an e-waste’s non-metallic components and the heavy metals which are embedded in it, it is still a feasible source of metals; a secondary source or “Secondary ores” as it’s called, in the process of urban mining (Das et al, 2016). Recovering metals from these e-wastes in the form of recycling provides a good solution to minimizing the e-wastes that go into landfill which will pose a greater problem to the environment.
Recycling methods for e-wastes include mechanical separation of components, chemical dissolution of the metals and metallurgical processes, all of which are either energy intensive and high cost or makes use of highly toxic chemicals with low metal recovery rate or if not low then are non-selective to the metal of interest. These methods have been the traditional ways of recovering metals from e-wastes for the past few decades; none which offers a solution in delaying environmental destruction but rather, worsens it. In light of these consequences, bioleaching was found to be a good alternative method for recycling e-wastes.
Bioleaching, or biological leaching, which is under biometallurgy, exploits the ability of a microorganism of either bacteria or fungi, to transform solid compounds into soluble and extractable metals which can be recovered (Krebs, 1997). The microorganism produces lixiviants or leachates which are at a biogenic level than that used in chemical processes to form water-soluble metal complexes or salts with the metals of interest. Advantages for this method, as cited by Kumar, 2017, is the lowering of demand for resources such as energy, ores and landfill space, but its application is only in its infancy (Ruan et al, 2014) since further research on bioleaching has only boomed when the first patent was published in 1958 and has continued to progress, especially in 2016 when earth was at the peak of its toxicity and numerous researches about bioleaching was done in said year. But despite its infancy, the last 20 years of research on bioleaching has led to 10 bio-heap leaching plants, 7 bio reactor plants for sulphidic concentrate and countless pilot scale operations have started worldwide (Kocadagistan, 2017). In the Philippines, the only people to have done research on bioleaching as of date is the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) which took place in 2013, and some applications of bioleaching in the mining industry but besides that, no further development has occurred in the field of bioleaching in the Philippines.
Besides the method being a good alternative to the above mentioned traditional methods, the execution of leaching itself is simple since steps involved are only culturing of microorganisms, addition of the shredded e-waste and the collection of the e-waste particles from the leaching medium after a given time. The entire leaching time usually takes 3-4 days to one week, depending on when the addition of the shredded e-wastes was and based on which bioleaching method was used. Methods for bioleaching include “one-step” where the shredded e-waste is added whilst culturing the microorganism, “two-step” which is done by adding the shredded e-waste into the culturing medium when the major lixiviant/leachate production is reached, and “spent medium” leaching where the microorganism is separated from the culturing medium and the shredded e-waste will only be added after removing the microorganism.
All methods are appropriate for all types of microorganisms that can produce metabolites which can leach metals but in bioleaching, three main microbial groups are often used in this process, as cited by Isildar, 2015, those being: chemolithotropes, those which get energy from non-carbon compounds via oxidation (Xiang et al. 2010), heterotrophic, microbes that cannot produce their own foods and instead take organic materials as sustenance (Chi et al, 2011), and thermophiles or heat loving microbes (Brandl et al, 2001). An addition to the list would be the cyanogenic microbes which are able to produce cyanogenic compounds as a metabolite or as a secondary metabolite; this microbial group is specific to recovering gold since it is a known fact that cyanide is a primary leachate to gold.
Primary sources:
Das, S., Natarajan, G., Ting, Y. P., (2016), Bio-Extraction of Precious Metals from Urban Solid Waste, AIP Conf. Proc. 1805, 020004-1–020004-8, Retrieved from: 10.1063/1.4974410
Isıldar, A., Van de Vossenbrerg, J., (2015 November 22), Two-step bioleaching of copper and gold from discarded printed circuit boards (PCB), Waste Management 57 (2015) Pp. 149-157, retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2015.11.033
Kaya, M., (2016 August 16), Recovery of metals and non-metals from electronic waste by physical and chemical recycling processes, Waste Management 57 (2016)Pp. 64–90, Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2016.08.004
Drunk
Hello, I haven't really been around because I've been on an anime marathon since the other day 😂😂😂 I need to shorten my "to watch list" because once I get my diploma and start working later on this year, I won't have the time to again.
Anyways, I was rewatching the entire Shingeki no Kyojin series from season 1 up to the last (yes, it took me the entire day) and among every conversation exchanged in that entire anime, A particular line stuck to me. "People are drunk. Which is why they can keep living"
By definition, drunk means Drunk being in a temporary state in which one's physical and mental well being is impaired by an excess of alcohol or if one is **intoxicated**. Intoxicated, that's not just something you'll get from alcohol. You can get that from other things too like from a highly satisfying smell or taste but mostly from a feeling. Overwhelming happiness, lust, affection, grief, greed. Those are common things that really come to intoxicate a human. So I came to agree, humans can't survive if they aren't drunk.
Not the drunk kind of drunk on alcohol but the kind of drunk that would motivate them such as being drunk on a dream or vision. In these case, peopleqould strive but eventuallysome get overly drunk that they get drunk on greed after. Being drunk on affection and praises too, which escalates to being drunk on fame. The list would likely go on if I kept enumerating it.
Later on, I also got to thinking, are the people who claimed their own lives or those who get mental illnesses the ones who sobered up? The ones that lost all the toxins from their mind and bodies? It made me think a lot while watching that anime. Was it that these people finally woke to reality? Is that why they don't strive anymore? And why it seemed like all that fake valor seemed lost? As for me, I would never know. It seems as if i was immune to getting drunk from the start. Or perhaps I may have forgotten the feeling after losing everything for so long.
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I really need to make a schedule where I can finish a series and still check up on here enough but i think I deserve this anime marathon time because I've finally finished all my revisions and all my papers are in the process of being published
Okay so... i was out for most of the morning and when i came back home my mom was in a call with my granma. Apparently she bought a mushroom farm. Anybody here know how to plant mushrooms??? That's outside of anything i know-
A chemist
So a few days ago, I asked what you guys assumed a chemist to be or do and what you think of them. A lot of you answered that chemists are cool and when i showed it to my batch, they were all really happy to see and I think some of them even got a good laugh out of it. I showed them before replying to you all, actually so they never saw the rest of it but we all sincerely thank you guys for thinking so.
But despite some positive light on it, there are still some funny assumptions we all though needed to be corrected
**Chemists are nerds and are studious**
Honestly, all serious college students become nerds and get really studious when they need to or when exams are coming, it's not just us XD
**Chemists don't have love lives or a life outside of the lab**
I beg to differ, you'd be surprised how often people from my batch hook up with other chemists from other schools when we have our regular district meetings per semester. Plus a lot of us actually have lovers, me included XD as for our lives? well we do our own thing outside of school and all the group study meetings though
**We have unlimited access to chemicals**
nope, we don't. almost every chemical we use is under regulation but there are chemicals that need a police escort when you buy them XD I experienced this. I only needed a liter of acetone but when the school head chemist was informed, I was suddenly given guards to accompany me to the school's supplier. Those which could be used to make illegal drugs have stricter regulations
The video below is also another chemical under regulation and I think you can understand why if you watch. That's how concentrated ethylene diamine is. I was using this for my research but it was only for a trial. I also still needed the police escort to buy this because the lab ran out of it ;-;;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAI3IhI2VwM
**We make bombs and drugs**
Well, my batch was taught how but it was a special case because we had a military chemist as a professor then so we were safe from being caught. same thing with the drugs, we were taught how to make crack but that was only because we needed to see how easy it was to detect it and it explained why making it required a lot of running from one place to another, it stinks like hell. This was taught in our forensic chemistry minor subject. But again, chemicals for both materials are under very strict regulation and I do not need another pair of guards watching my every move
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rSo05reqVU
This is something we do for fun though. I apparently lost all the old videos we had of the stuff we did XD but I think this will suffice. Our military chemistry professor had left the school by that time so our fireworks creation was put to a stop then. Some chemistry related courses like chemical engineering also do this, it's called the flame test or metal validation test
**Don't get on our bad sides?**
We had no idea how to react to this because we don't really splash acids and chemicals on other people when we're mad. That one was an unusual assumption but we can't blame them, they don't get to see us in the labs and how often we burn ourselves with acids when we accidentally spill on ourselves. Lol you guys have no idea how many clothes I've ruined and burnt because of those acids- so knowing deadly it is, do you think we would even dare do that to other people?
**We are creative and make a lot of stuff in the laboratory**
Not sure about this one, we mostly just follow procedures for regular analysis. We only get the chance to modify or make our own methods when we experiment for out own researches, really.
**We make things explode?**
I'm not sure? I thought it was only me? The freshmen set the lab on fire a lot though but it's rare for things to explode. It mostly happens when we work with high pressure extractions like in distillations. I remember the first explosion I caused was the fractional distillation we did. It was really scary because we were purifying gasoline then and the fumes went all over the place, then the most recent was the microwave at home... because I was trying to do my research at home... but it just got me banned from the kitchen... so now I need to beg my mom for food when I'm hungry so that I can access the kitchen ;;-;'
**We work with high-tech stuff?**
No, we don't really have that many laboratory equipment in the Philippines to begin with. We're lucky with our school because we at least have the most common instruments used for analysis but none of them are high tech at all. most of the stuff we have are close to being obsolete, really XD but the stuff in Japan though. It's a common dream for us materials researchers to go to their NMR park so that we can test our samples for free
So I think these clarifications are enough. And on that note, I'll leave you with this myosin molecule. This cute enzyme is responsible for transporting endorphins to your neurotransmitters. They're called waling happiness because they literally walk around with the hormone that makes people happy
https://youtu.be/n7UFDUcstW0
I honestly watch this to lessen my stress XD
New watercolors
I'm really really happy that my new watercolors finally got delivered to me (>w<). I've never had such good watercolors before, I swear. I've always had to make do with those really cheap ones that cost some $0.5 but now though- I think I can make better watercolor paintings and even complete the entire 30 days of inktober with very colorful art ❤
I was originally saving up for a good quality one but even those would cost around $15 which is honestly no joke to me since I'm still waiting for my diploma so that I can apply for work. But what I wasn't expecting was for @Telesfor -san to add to my funds ;;-;; seriously, I don't know how to thank him enough ;;-;; because nobody's ever been willing to support me and my art interest besides my old art teacher/neighbor
I got this, its brand is Saemiart, still a china brand but of much better quality than the old ones I had. The pigments were so vivid ;;-;; I honestly cried while I was trying the pigments out because that kind of pigmentation was the type only achieved from tube paints. @ZiraZir this was what I told you about. Sadly the ones you suggested never got restocked because of a lot of shipping issues here but it was still such a great buy ;;w;; and totally worth it too!
That color chart is not printed, I painted that in, it's the trial sheet to see the color and how it would look like. What I love about this set is that it really doesn't have a chalky finish like all the other watercolers I've had ;;w;;
Of course, I wasted no time in painting with this set after appreciating the color outcome on the sheets for a good 5 minutes or longer, I wasn't sure but my sister said I was smiling like I won the lottery
I had wanted to start off with flowers because I wanted to test out the blending capacity of all the colors but my sister wanted me to draw a galaxy sky for some reason. I just nodded then did so, as long as I can see how it blends.
As you can see though, it blends really well ;;w;; it makes me really really happy because it doesn't damage the paper. Some paints are really hard to blend, specially block types so those really end up tearing the paper but with this one though- it was really nice and again, no chalky finish ❤
Just leaving it like that wouldn't be good though since it lacked details to me so I added a lot of white ink on it. I originally just wanted to highlight things but the stars looked like snow so I thought thise place could be a winter wonderland.
I'll be using that image later to make a sample of how the next stories in series event will be as well so I hope you stay tuned UwU
I will escape one day Ch. 5
And now I can return to writing this. though this chapter wasn't as good as the previous ones but I'll still try to edit eventually
These are the first chapters in the case that you didn't get to read that
**Chapter 1: Sold** https://read.cash/@Hanzell/i-will-escape-one-day-ch1-21bf53c8
**Chapter 2: Training** https://read.cash/@Hanzell/i-will-escape-one-day-ch-2-45e577d2
**Chapter 3: I never noticed her before** https://read.cash/@Hanzell/i-will-escape-one-day-ch-3-75665d40
Chapter 4: Auction https://read.cash/@Hanzell/i-will-escape-one-day-ch-4-975781dd
Chapter 5: Shame
John’s appearances were still limited to thrice a week in the entirety of his year as a 13 year old. The rest of his days, however were spent, once again on “training” with the sex doll and at times, with some of their female workers in the brothel. His duties in the mornings were eventually passed on to one of their new hires. It seemed as though fate had listened to his plea for once. The more people he had come to service, the more he felt that he should not associate himself with Ying Yue. He was tainted, damaged, and it will only get worse in the preceding years. His services, of course, did have its perks such as the tips. It was the only silver lining that John could come to see, and the fact that within a year of service, he was already halfway with the amount he needed to buy his freedom from the wretched establishment.
“*It shouldn’t take long now”* he repeated to himself in the times that he would be left in his room to rest. He never did rest at times, but instead, he would be counting the tips and the small pay he receives from Mo Chou. He needed to make sure everything was exact, that nothing, not even the smallest of yuan would escape him. He wanted to be free. He so desperately wanted to show himself to Ying Yue as he was, no more masks, glasses and hats to cover whatever it was Mo Chou had been protecting from the public ever since he became Mo Chou’s “precious gem”. Not a moment passed in that year that he did not wonder what Ying Yue would be doing, or if she ever thought of him. He had hoped that by the time they would meet again, he could bravely tell her what had happened during his absence without feeling revolted by his own body. He had hoped that one day; she would be the one to accept him openheartedly like how she did in their limited time together.
The day John turned 14, his nights spent servicing customers and regulars at their establishment were changed from 3 nights to 4. It was fortunate however, that he was given the 3 days off to rest. He was allowed to roam the city then, yet John chose not to. He couldn’t bear the thought of getting intoxicated with this temporary freedom he was given, thus why he spent his days of freedom often locked in his room or by walking around the gardens of their establishment. That place where he spent most of his time strengthening his body with those ridiculous weight lifting activities; as well as the actual gardening for the area. It seemed only those memories filled that place yet it was the only area in the brothel that he actually felt at peace in. What an unusual case he was indeed.
In one of John’s walks in the garden, the strangest event happened. In one of the bushes hid a crouching Ying Yue who had caught him by surprise. Why? Because she was not allowed inside the brothel; both by her father and by Mo Chou. What’s more was that outsiders were not allowed inside the premises in broad daylight. He was about to ask her what she was doing inside but she ended up speaking first
“Sir, do you happen to know if there was a John that works here? I came here to look for him”
John couldn’t believe it. Ying Yue was actually there, she was looking for him. Did this mean that she thought of him too? As soon as he spoke, just the words *“I am john”* he immediately noticed the shock. He was then reminded of the fact that he never revealed his features to her, not once. John merely laughed to himself and asked her to follow. Through the halls and a few flights of stairs they went until they reached his room. None dared to speak, fearing that they might be caught but once they were in the isolated room, john was greeted with the most comforting embrace he’s ever received in his life, and it was probably the first one he’s ever received as well.
“I found you… I’m happy your voice hasn’t changed that much yet…”
He could only nod in agreement and as much as he wanted to return her embrace, he could not. It seemed he was completely wallowed up in his shame.
Just a thought. What do you guys assume or think of chemists? Because my relatives think I'm a scary person to deal with
What's next for stories in series?
I'm still really happy that the event we held was a huge success! thank you to the participants who made it in time! and to the readers who really encouraged our participants to continue with their stories! @marblely @Charlotte @hamedbkh @Eybyoung @wakeupkitty Thank you so much for giving us your time and participation! as for those who didn't get to finish their series, @Alther @sheensheen13 (honestly not sure if yours is complete or not because I prolong reading until it's complete but ozzyy didn't include you?) @Itrshoron I still hope you guys finish what you were writing because I'm sure a lot of people would still love to read your current series and the community will definitely be here to support your series.
Announcing the First Stories in Series Contest https://read.cash/@Ozzyy/announcing-the-first-stories-in-series-contest-6e0b334b
And The WINNERS Are!!! https://read.cash/@Ozzyy/and-the-winners-are-4eba9009#comment-bf3e1082
The first ever event of stories in series has come to a close and the winners have been announced, hopefully prizes have been but what comes next? I and @Ozzyy have thought about it for a while last night and since Inktober is just a few short days away, we thought, why not **incorporate art into the stories?** This was mostly my idea because I seem to have become an supporter of artists here XD
What will happen:
The participants will have the entire month of October to write their series but this time, **it will need art in it.**
The kind of art can be done in **sketches, paintings, photography** (if it has high relevance but if you're just going to go about it just for the sake of having something there, please don't bother)
If you want to create a sort of **graphic novel, a webtoon, manga, comic or even a picture book**, that choice would be up to you.
For those who will do webtoon, manga and comic style entries, at least one full page would be good and on this kind of entry, one-shots will be accepted but hopefully you can finish this by the end of October because the of the art
It's different from a photo essay because here, you will need to show characters, not just objects, you will need to show actions and emotions too in your pictures, thus why We'll be allowing some use of photographs. it would be good if your photography style matched your previous art for your series though.
As for those that plan to do visual novels and picture book styled series, an entire part/chapter of your series should **include at least 2 images of your chosen art.** And again, it should either **describe the happening in the story or the whole story could revolve around that/those certain scene.**
These will serve as the most basic rules but please be reminded to keep grammar in check ^u^
Prize pool and distribution: To be announced but I'm more than willing to save up $10 for this event, the tips will of course be excluded. Not sure on Ozzyy's part though
**Submissions will start on October 1st**, the same day Inktober starts in the community **Stories in Series (99cf)** https://read.cash/c/stories-in-series-99cf
Deadline will be October 31st and hopefully the results will be announced the day after. Updates will be given regularly
Subscriptions, short posts, articles about this, etc would not be required, we just want to show the RC community what you guys are capable of, really. I and @Ozzyy will also be making our own entries (OwO) but no prize for us because we're hosts. We'd also like to ask if anyone would love to **help us judge?** the last event ended up too hard to finalize with just the 2 of us (;;-;;) so if you guys could help out though.
Lastly, It would be a huge help if you **mention in the comments people who might be interested!**
@ZiraZir @Charlotte @OverThinker @Imdadul.hoque @Athai @Civort@Aella @Oriyanura66 @Terilastovicka If you guys could participate though, I would love to see it <3
Pointillism
So I recently met this new user, @Terilastovicka who is a friend of a user here that I like talking to and I saw that she worked on pointillism style a lot on some of her artworks. It was so rare to see, specially in here. And I honestly have so much respect for people who use this kind of style because of the extreme amounts of patience needed to finish a piece made entirely out of dots or points. Not a lot of artists really do make use of this technique unless they use it as a shading technique or for added details and such. But to make use of it entirely for a piece is definitely not something a lot of artists would be up for nor have the patience for, I mean, even with the simplest blending technique on oils and acrylics, it would still take some people days just to finish a piece, what more if they used dots, right? Can you even imagine?
So just a brief history on this. The technique first came into use by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac way back in the 1880s. Though many other artists used this, like Van Gogh (she loves this artist a lot) and Picasso but they only did so at the start of their careers and their art styles changed to impressionism, I think? At some point in their careers until their passing.
They used to do this with pure color, unmixed paints and they just make distinct dots. The finer the dots, the smoother the blending seemed to look despite not actually blending the paint together. But the dot size could always vary. Some actually made use of large dots, probably made by a large tipped brush whilst most made use of smaller dots. It's also worth mentioning that this was where printing technology was based off.
As you can see here, your prints come out as just small dots under the microscope because your toner actually just sprays ink as mists that will eventually come out as microscopic dots on the paper. It actually gives better details on the art too compared to the other techniques and can come off as one of the most realistic kinds of styles there is but honestly, I mostly use this style only to test out a new medium I've acquired and mostly it's ink, pastels, watercolor and crayons as I'll be showing below
This is ones of my very first attempts. Took me an entire day to make because of the size of the paper and because I wanted to get as much detail as I could on my imaginary fruits hut as you can see, eventually I gave up and ended up making squiggles that complimented the glowing fruits
Later on I got faster nad improved on the details and tried applying it to a person. He was on the school band and I don't know why but he pkays the saddest songs on the trumpet when he practices alone. I always thought he would fade away one day if he kept playing sad songs like that such as leibisleid. I think that was his favorite
Ode to potatoes for potatoes hold so much wonders and deliciousness but it's also a piece I never got to finish because I honestly lack the patience and also because I didn't have brown inks before
This was when I attempted a Tim Burton kind of style because honestly, I love his drawing style so much but I also didn't get to finish this because the ink on my orange pen ran out and I kept forgetting to buy a replacement that would match the original ink color
I'm pretty sure I've posted this before but this was made by pastels. I made it when I first got the sticks. It was a means to test out the color and the blending capabilities of that pastel set and I was satisfied that the colors came out easy to blend, really.
That's all from me. I hope you guys enjoyed knowing the truth about printers and in seeing my work.
There goes my first attempt in incorporating science into art UwU I hope you found this interesting
Getting to know your coffee
I'm pretty sure almost everyone here can say that they love coffee since it's become a part of our mornings and even afternoons at times. It wakes us up and keeps us hyper for the day (or at least in my case XD ) but then, did you ever wonder about the types of coffee you're drinking? Brand aside, how much do you know about your coffee?
For starters, we should really **get to know the beans**. There are 4 main types of coffee beans used in the market but honestly, there are too many strains of coffee beans people make use of. Here, I'd like to focus on just 2 because I'll be focused on the manufacturing, really
So here we have **Arabica and Robusta**. these are ones that are fairly easy to differentiate. Robusta is round while arabica is long and a bit flat. As for market uses, Robusta is what you would find being used for brewed coffee shops (but it varies too, really. If you see cheap coffee shops, they'll mostly use this. Starbucks also uses these beans, that's why their coffee keeps me up for 2 days straight), mostly because it has a stronger scent and flavor but then Arabica is the one mostly used for instant coffee manufacturing.
Why? Well simply because they grow faster, the plant which these beans are gathered from only take 7-9 months to reach maturity compared to the robusta which takes around 11 months to mature and bloom. Another is that it's easier to grow. Almost 3/4 of the coffeee beans cultivated around the world is arabica because they don't require special environments like the robusta plants so it makes it easier for the beans to be gathered by machines.
Coffee processing
So this is one of the most basic flowcharts I could find (too lazy to make my own, sorry) that shows each step of coffee processing. What's fascinating about this particular product is that almost each step will have a marketable product of its own, it would just depend on the manufacturer whether they would make use of that or just sell their coffee as is.
From **green beans treatment** where the beans are washed (you see green coffee beans being sold too, right? either as whole beans, crushed beans or powdered) and if they need to be decaffeinated, that will be done so in either this step or later on. Nest on you'll go to **roasting** where they roast the coffee until it's brown. The temperature will vary per bean but usually, it will not pass 250 degrees else it will lose all its aroma and and it might burn (roasted coffee is also marketed as is XD).
If you can imagine the smell of that though- some manufacturers (specially the large scale ones) actually collect the steam/smoke generated from this step and use it later on in the process
Once the coffee is roasted, it gets **ground** to make it easier for flavor **extraction** (again, ground coffee beans is also sold but not much on extracts) then from extraction, they'll usually get a paste like item which can be decaffeinated, turned into the instant coffee in a can/bottle mix like what nescafe (the ones in the tetrapack box with the french vanilla and macchiatto flavors) and kopiko (kopiko brown, 78, black, blanca) do (these have better nutritional value than your instant coffee tbh and it explains why these drinks have a stronger buzz feeling than the instant ones), or they undergo further treatment either by **drying**
So we should know that there are 2 main types of drying. One's the **spray drying** then there's freeze drying. on a comparison, spray dried coffee is honestly the cheaper kind of coffee and the less nutritional one too if we're talking about that. Why so? because the extract from the previous step will have to undergo extreme heating just to get a powdery form like that. Under extreme heat, most of the nutrients will have already degraded. leaving you with the less satisfying coffee (this is what they use for the 3 in 1 mixes here. don't like those much though). Sometimes large manufacturers even use the steam/smoke collected from the roasting process to cheat the aroma into the powder but it's still not that satisfying to me. They can be further processed into **agglomerates** though but here in my country, this is not that popular an option.
Then for freeze drying, this one is the healthier option on instant coffee because most of its nutrients is retained. The extracts gathered is placed in a freezers and cooled to -60 degrees. they will eventually form crystals but on the other end, it's also on the expensive end of the coffee product. Some of the brands that use this method is Folger's, Maxwell house (the first to introduce this method tbh) them there's Nescafe gold
So now that you know a bit about your coffee, tell me which ones you guys usually drink
@charmingcherry08 I hope this satisfies your need to know more about coffee? Though a bit late
More science articles?
**Chemistry for the day: Chocolate and Caffeine poisoning** https://read.cash/@Hanzell/chemistry-for-the-day-chocolate-and-caffeine-poisoning-51b29117
**Chemistry for the day: The brain loves sugar** https://read.cash/@Hanzell/chemistry-for-the-day-the-brain-loves-sugar-3de075c5
**Chemistry for the day: Kojic acid vs. Glutathione vs. Collagen** https://read.cash/@Hanzell/chemistry-for-the-day-kojic-acid-vs-glutathione-vs-collagen-24d03cca
**Chemistry for the day: Eating alcohol** https://read.cash/@Hanzell/an-index-of-all-the-article-written-so-far-09a31fba#bad-link
I'm going home from a lazy date with bf and it's amazing that I still get surprised whenever he needs to answer calls from work. It's so hard to imagine this man who comes off so cold and serious is the same man that whines like a child whenever i leave the bed to get something like food or for when I need to get home. Though he whines much more when I have to go home and keeps on a pouty face until I've boarded whatever vehicle i need to board to go home. Such a cutie >w< ❤❤❤
Anyways. I'll be focusing on science materials again from tomorrow onwards. The old stuff got buried by art and literature
Quick sketch 5
I'm back with another sketch because honestly, since the exams, I haven't gotten the full time to sketch at all and I really missed doing so. Another reason as to why I sketched is because I really wanted to use the charcoal pencils my sisters gave me for my birthday recently. Charcoal is honestly an expensive medium and much more so was the white charcoal but now that I'm a bit free, I finally made use of them and finished the last piece I was working on
This is the charcoal. It was apparently still pretty pricey even for the raw charcoal type but the color output was simply beautiful.
I wonder if you guys remember the cemetery I hung out at before? There was this one particular bridge there that my grandfather used to enjoy taking me to. I still never knew why but the air was really nice there, and the bridge edges were wide enough that I could lie down then when me and grandpa visited there at 3am, we would not go home until the sun came out (I had sleeping problems and he seriously wakes up around those times). He would tell me stories often. Of how he courted my grandmother, of his trips abroad, of his time on the boat, even some of his favorite recipes he would not tell grandma. They were lovely memories. Yet now, the bridge was replaced with a new one. So I can only draw from memory what I would remember it to be like
It was a rather long bridge though I could not remember how many arches it had. And I could definitely remember the amount of moss and grass that clung onto it's stone that eventually became the reason for its weakening. The river under it didn't smell as bad as it does 10 years ago when I last saw this.
Manila after 6 months
It feels good to be writing again after such a long while. I'm happy I've managed to go through my notification flood and to have gotten out for a while yesterday, September 14, 2020.
The department chairperson actually summoned the entire batch to clear out our university thesis lockers and we did just that.
At around 8am, I was ready to go. The commute was too tiresome just by getting there and the routes were much more different now than before. I took this car to the bus terminal then from the terminal, I had to travel through makati just to get to the MRT (train station)
I had more photos but they came out blurry. It was raining yesterday too so now I'm down with a bit of a runny nose. I also get lost a lot in makati and yesterday was no exception 😂😂😂 it took me some 15 minutes to find the MRT station so that I could ride it to the end then take another train to get to my University. So far, train fares didn't change but the carpooling services and buses doubled in fare price
The trains were far more spacious than before the pandemic. It was nice and everyone got the chance to sit. Plus they ran faster now with lesser mess ups and travel stops compared to before
Upon arriving at my stop. I noticed that the food street almost every student around U-belt (University belt) loved, was gone and got converted into a garden of sorts. It would make sense seeing as nobody would be eating there for a while anyways but I think I'll miss that one Japanese stall that sold takoyaki, okonomiyaki and cheap ramen the most. Also some of the sweet shops there too
The building diorama is a layout of my school since I wasn't allowed to roam the school ground anymore, the map will suffice. Then that small building at the far end with an L shaped structure is my building. That's where my beloved laboratory is
This was once the largest chemistry laboratory in Asia and was a school that participated in making bombs during world war 2 or so our student manual told us but that place is not where the graduating students do thesis. We do our research at the far end of this building. That's where all the instruments and special equipment are placed. Unfortunately the instrument room was locked so I couldn't take photos. I only managed to get pictures from the general lab then the wet lab. That's where we prepare our samples and standards and also the busiest area in the entire laboratory
I've missed this and the smell of chemicals so bad. It was always the hottest place in the lab too so it was never a question why our university never had overweight graduates before 😂😂😂
I had initially only planned to clean out my locker but then I found that my sample crystallized- I couldn't tell it it was because of the sulfuric acid in it or if it was slowly turning into a diamond but it was water soluble in the end so it may have been a mutation in the carbon layering. I never could find out because I couldn't use the instruments to check. Plus we were all kind of being rushed to finish the clean up.
I finished everything by 3pm. My phone died shortly after but after the clean up, me and my close college friend went to get a huge bucket of fries then went on the trip back home since we take the same route back
To have returned here with almost 300+ notifs. Dear me, there's too much to read through 😭😭😭 and i see the mark as spam button is gone. Oh well. At least I'll be back to writing soon
For tomorrow I'll get a chance to clean out the chemicals in my university locker 😊😊
Then by thursday, I get to have a date ❤ because this past week was stressful as hell
@Hanzell
