#or should average over an entire document

[horsesarecreatures]

Are we still breeding or are we just multiplying?

At the VZAP general meeting, the agricultural scientist Andreas Perner gave an interesting lecture on current problems in purebred Arabian breeding, which we used as an opportunity for the following interview. This is about undesirable developments in Arabian breeding, which have arisen primarily through specialization and selection on individual characteristics, and he sees parallels in cattle breeding where the changes are scientifically substantiated.

IN THE FOCUS: Mr. Perner, in your presentation at the VZAP general meeting you pointed out some parallels that exist between cattle and horse breeding. Why should we concern ourselves with cattle when we are actually interested in horses?

Andreas Perner: Because there are numerous parallels. The primitive cattle were characterized by an enormous chest cavity with plenty of space for the organs, relatively fine legs and a pelvic shape with a high sacrum so that birth could proceed quickly. Through breeding selection, a major change in this appearance has taken place over the last 100 years, including extreme specialization in beef and dairy cattle. Since cows as farm animals have long been the focus of science, one also has easy access to data, e.g. milk yield, slaughter weight, but also bone measurements, etc., which can also be used to document such changes. In animal breeding, a distinction is made between two constitution types: the asthenic and the athletic. The representatives of the Holstein cattle, a highly specialized breed of dairy cattle, today almost exclusively belong to the asthenic constitutional type: large, tall and narrow, i.e. less space in the chest for the organs, rather poor feed conversion, etc. Male calves of this breed are so weak in the muscle development that they no longer have any economic (slaughter) value. Before this extreme specialization in milk production, this breed corresponded to a dual-purpose cattle (milk and meat) and thus more of the athletic constitution type, which has become very rare today. One can definitely draw parallels here with Arabian breeding, where the Arabian show horse was bred through specialization – and became also an asthenic, tall, long-legged, with little depth to the trunk. And among Arabians, too, the athlete, the medium-sized, broad, deep-rumped Arabian of the “old type” who is also a good feed converter, is becoming increasingly rare. From a population genetic point of view, this is a major catastrophe and countermeasures must be taken.

IN THE FOCUS: If we ignore the outside appearance, i.e. the conformation – are there any other changes that have occurred as a result of this specialization?

A. P.: In the last 30-40 years, dairy cattle have increasingly been bred for maximum performance (milk production) in the young animals, i.e. there has been conscious selection for early maturity. This has resulted in serious changes in the animals: through selection for early maturity, the useful life has been extremely shortened due to high susceptibility to disease and fertility problems – the latter is the main cause of loss in cattle breeding. This can also be proven with figures: In Germany today a cow has an average of 2.4 calves, but biologically it can have 14-15 calves. The “useful life” of cows is now at an all-time low. The selection for early maturity also has an impact on the quality of the claws: the early maturing animals need claw care three times a year, because the claws are soft and grow very quickly. In contrast, slow, long-lasting growth – i.e. late maturity – ensures healthy development of the entire organism and a long lifespan. Late-maturing cattle only need hoof care once a year, sometimes only every two years, because they have extremely good, strong hoof horn. All this can also be transferred to the horse, because the horse’s hoof horn is also of better quality in late-maturing animals. This all depends on the high quality of the connective tissue. If you breed late-maturing animals, they often look underdeveloped when they are young and breeders often do not recognize their true quality. It is also a feature of breeding for longevity that it produces healthier animals, which statistically incur significantly less veterinary costs (i.e. only a quarter of the costs) in cattle breeding. Here, too, the parallels to horse breeding seem clear to me: the late-maturing types have no chance at shows in the junior classes, which is why show horse breeding promotes the early-maturing type. Late maturing horses often look like “ugly ducklings”, but often they only become “beautiful swans” when they are 6 years old or older. Egyptian breeding has had this problem for a long time, which is why you see fewer and fewer Egyptians at international shows or they have their own shows where they are not in competition with the early-maturing “show horses”.

IN THE FOCUS: When you say that a late-maturing horse is characterized by long-term growth, which then ensures healthy development of the entire organism and a long lifespan, the Russians come to mind. But it is precisely these that are tested on the racetrack very early, as early as two-year-olds. Isn’t that a contradiction?

A. P.: As far as I know, the two-year-old horses are prepared very carefully for the racetrack and the trainers make sure that they are not overstrained. The horses also have time to develop further – they are encouraged to exercise without being overstrained. As a result, they develop better, become wider in the chest, more muscular overall, the entire organism becomes stronger, etc. But ultimately what matters is: How old do the horses get in good health – and therefore without major veterinary costs? And in the case of breeding animals there is also the question: How good is their fertility? There are Russian stallions with racetrack careers who are still mating naturally at the age of 28, mares who still have foals at well over 20 years of age, and the Arabian mare Nefta in Pompadour, France, had one foal every year between 1975 and 1995, i.e. 21 foals in total! I don’t know of any such examples from show horse breeding without the use of embryo transfer (but I’m happy to be informed!). In warmblood breeding you can see what selection for early-maturity does, especially with show jumping horses, the horses often have a nerve cut at 8 to 9 years of age, then you have two more years of use, so to speak, and then they go to the slaughterhouse. Or think of the hypermobility of dressage horses, which have weak connective tissue and the resulting weakness of the joints, capsules and ligaments as well as the tendons and muscles. That cannot be the breeding goal.

Any selection that is not also focused on fitness and longevity or long-term performance automatically causes these characteristics to deteriorate.

IN THE FOCUS: To what extent have modern selection methods influenced the development of specialization?

A. P.: Specialization in cattle has been driven forward in the last 10 years by genomic breeding value estimation, which has now also found its way into horse breeding. For this method, the entire genome had to be sequenced and all performance parameters were then assigned to specific gene loci. Then, using complicated calculations, one could get an estimate of what performance the animal in question will perform in the future. In this way, it was possible for a young cow to achieve a milk production of over 40 kg per day, but the animals are no longer physiologically able to absorb enough nutrients to be able to achieve this output at all! As a result, over 90% of young cows end up with severe organ damage in the slaughterhouse. This means that the animals can endure it for a certain amount of time, mobilize all their body reserves but at some point their metabolism switches off and liver damage occurs, which ultimately leads to death. Part of the problem is that selection according to the wrong parameters took place. Instead of taking “longevity” and “health” into account, they only selected for “milk production”. A lot of breeding knowledge is also lost due to the convenient catalogue selection. The people who are in charge of cattle breeding today only use the preliminary breeding value or the genomic value for planning the matings. We are not quite there yet in horse breeding and especially not in Arabian horse breeding. But here too, a lot of breeding knowledge has been lost in recent years!

IN THE FOCUS: How can you avoid such a development in horse breeding as you have outlined for cattle breeding?

A. P.: In our association “European Association for Natural Cattle Breeding” we have selected cow families that have proven to be long-lived over several generations and in which the animals have produced over 100,000 litres of milk in the last 3 to 4 generations. We buy bulls from these cows. We have also inseminated such cows with semen from bulls that lived 30 or 40 years ago, and we now have the first 200 daughters of this F1 generation of the appropriate age. What’s exciting is that the animals produce almost as much milk as their “high-performance relatives”, but are significantly healthier! The question now is: How to continue breeding with the F1 generation – this requires a lot of breeding experience and knowledge. But this is exactly what young farmers are missing. In horse breeding we have the same problem, where the most diverse bloodlines are crossed together and due to Mendel’s rules the appearance then splits in all directions in the F2 generation, and top horses that cost a lot of money produce maximum average offspring, as can be seen from the example of the gelding Agnat (pedigree see AP 2-22). That’s why we offer information in our association on the topic: How do you have to breed in order to achieve a high level of heredity reliability? To do this you have to use the old breeding methods, i.e. line breeding, occasional inbreeding, always working with blood connection. Then I don’t have the problem of anything splitting.

IN THE FOCUS: Let’s stay with Arabian breeding: What are the breed-typical characteristics that you should select for?

A. P.: Breeding means selecting. That doesn’t mean that the horses that are not suitable for breeding go to the slaughterhouse. But you have to decide which horses go into breeding based on which characteristics and which don’t. Those that do not go into breeding should still have enough quality that they can survive in their respective market segment (riding horses, show horses, racing horses). Characteristics typical of Arabians that need to be maintained are a hard constitution, suitability for long-term performance, high age, high fertility, good feed conversion, lively but benign temperament, sociability and people-oriented nature. The suitability for long-term performance is due, among other things, to the fact that the Arabian has the most haemoglobin per litre of blood (compared to warm-blooded and cold-blooded horses). Haemoglobin is responsible for supplying oxygen to the muscles, and it is therefore important that the Arabian can also mobilize the haemoglobin reserves in the body most efficiently at the same time. In this context there is also a high regenerative capacity. All of this is deeply anchored genetically, but if you don’t pay attention to these characteristics, i.e. if you don’t select for them, then these characteristics are lost within few generations. In animal breeding we speak of genotype-environment interaction, i.e. if I decrease the selection for certain characteristics, then these are gradually (and unnoticed) lost. The lifespan of Arabians is often 25 years, and horses over 30 are not uncommon. Regarding fertility, there are examples from the state stud farms where mares had 15 to 20 foals and demonstrated high fertility into old age. In addition, the Arabian horse has the highest milk yield (in grams) per kg live weight, which is also a sign of good feed conversion and efficiency. In Tersk Stud, milk production is used as a selection criterion because they don’t want mothers who don’t produce enough milk.

IN THE FOCUS: Which other results from constitutional research on cattle can be transferred to horses or the Arabian horse?

A. P.: A whole series of points come to mind: we have already covered some of the constitutional types and early maturity/late maturity, plus there is sexual dimorphism, i.e. the difference between male and female animals, breeding rules, breeding methods, the importance of mare families, the selection for size and the effects of show breeding, which also occurs with cattle!

The more masculine the male animals are in their appearance, the more feminine are their female offspring.

Sexual dimorphism is a true secondary sexual characteristic caused by different hormone constellations between the sexes. These sex hormones are produced in the adrenal cortex of stallions and mares. In addition, testosterone is produced in the testicles of stallions and estrogens are produced in the ovaries of mares. One such secondary sexual characteristic is, for example, the “stallion neck or crest”. If we now breed horses where stallions and mares look the same, where there is no longer any visible difference between the sexes – what happens on the hormonal level? The natural hormonal balance shifts, testosterone decreases, and the stallion’s neck disappears. In the long term, however, we are selecting against fertility, i.e. fertility will deteriorate! That’s also what you hear more and more often – behind closed doors: stallions have poor semen quality and mares are becoming increasingly difficult to conceive – you often have to use all the tricks of modern reproductive technology to get the animals pregnant at all. By the way, there is an old animal breeding law that says: “The more masculine the male animals are in their appearance, the more feminine their female offspring are.”

IN THE FOCUS: Breeding is a very complex matter, as we can see. What breeding principles can you give to a “young breeder”?

A. P.: Yes, what have we learned for breeding from all this research?

Never massively select for individual traits if you don’t understand the whole thing. This is going to shit. I would like to cite one of the most significant experiments in the history of animal breeding here: In the 1950s, the Russian biologist Dimitri Belyayev and his colleagues began to capture wild silver foxes, select them for tameness and repeatedly breed the animals selected according to this criterion with each other. The aim was to recreate domestication (becoming pets) in an experiment. So what happened? Already after the 3rd generation, serious changes occurred in the phenotype (external appearance): change in fur color, lop-eared ears, curly tails, shortening of the extremities, shortening of the upper and lower jaw, change in the texture of the fur, change in torso length, etc. There are a number of hypotheses to explain this phenomenon, but explaining them here would go too far. It is important to know that only a small part of the entire genome is activated; the rest are so-called “sleeping genes”. Environmental influences or selection pressure from outside (= breeding) do not change the genetic material itself, but rather the intensity with which certain parts of it are read and converted into molecules such as hormones. The conclusion for the breeder remains: selection for one characteristic ultimately changes entire complexes of characteristics!!!

Any selection that is not also aimed at fitness and longevity or long-term performance automatically causes these characteristics to deteriorate. As already mentioned at the beginning, the physiological basis for longevity and long-term performance is slow, long-lasting growth (=late maturity). Opposite to this is the complex of characteristics of “early maturity”, i.e. fast, short growth, high and intensive performance at a young age and the associated rapid aging. Research on cattle has shown that intensive selection for early and high milk production of the animals dramatically reduces their useful life. Before the animals are even fully grown (with 4 calves), a very high percentage of dairy cows have to leave the stable due to illness. These early-mature animals are physiologically incapable of maintaining this performance. On the other hand, late-maturing animals begin with medium performance, develop slowly and only achieve high and highest performance when they are fully grown. The organism with all its metabolic processes is then well “trained”, connective tissue, cartilage, joints, tendons, ligaments and claws are of high quality (because they have grown slowly) and the animals produce well into old age without any health problems. Everything that has just been said also applies in reverse to horse breeding. The rapid success pushes breeding towards early maturity with devastating consequences for the horses and ultimately for the horse owner.

Function determines form. I have to think about what breeding goal do I have? If I want to breed a riding horse, it needs certain riding horse points and it has to be ridden so that these can be checked. If I want to breed a racehorse, it has to be fast – it is this function (speed) that dictates the form. But if I want to breed a show horse, it has to fit into a conformation template that was developed by some people (judges). So here the form comes first, and the horse is bred to adapt to this form, which is fundamentally wrong.

IN THE FOCUS: There are different breeding methods to achieve your breeding goal. Could you briefly explain to us what these are?

A. P.: I actually come from a generation before population genetics. My grandfather had nothing to do with these theoretical considerations. But these people still developed different breeding methods based on their experience – and these are still valid today. The breeding methods commonly used for the Arabian horse are:

Line breeding – this means that we find a (minor) relationship on both the father’s and mother’s side, so we bring together related genes, so to speak, from breeding animals that correspond to our breeding goals and are selected as best as possible. Because of the slight relationship, I have a high degree of certainty that the next generation will be as good as or better than the parent generation.

We talk about inbreeding when you have outstanding breeding animals and you want to consolidate or increase this gene pool through breeding close relatives. Of course, inbreeding is only possible if the animal is free of any genetic defects. Inbreeding not only solidifies the good sides, but also the hereditary defects or undesirable traits and brings them forward. Two recessive genes can appear homozygous, i.e. monozygotic, through inbreeding. If the genetic makeup then contains a genetic defect, this genetic defect is present in a monozygotic form and it comes into play (e.g. CA, SCID). How close the inbreeding can be is a matter of debate. Basically, a generation postponement is always good. Before it was possible to test for hereditary defects using genetic tests, father-daughter matings were made – if the father was a hidden (recessive) carrier of a hereditary defect, this would come to light. Today’s genetic tests can save you from having dead or deformed foals. In any case, the use of inbreeding must be embedded in a breeding plan and strict selection must take place!

“Unplanned mating” – here the nice stallion around the corner or the super show crack is used without much consideration as to how well he suits the mare and what effects this has. Let’s take Agnat’s example again: His sire Empire was bronze champion at the European Championships as a junior and in the top ten at the World Championships. Grandfather Enzo was US National Champion, his grandmother Emira was All Nations Cup Champion, his other grandfather QR Marc was World Champion, and Kwestura was also World Champion and the most expensive horse at a Polish auction. His pedigree really shows the “Who’s Who” of show horse breeding and yet the combination of all these illustrious names resulted in a completely ordinary horse. So what happened there? It’s simple: In this pedigree everything is mixed together and then Mendel’s splitting rule kicks in and it splits in all directions in the F2 generation. As a consequence, the major show horse breeders then switch to embryo transfer, producing embryos from different sires, e.g. B. 10 foals, 9 of the resulting foals do not meet the requirements of a show horse and are sold cheaply, and the one that meets expectations goes into the show. But the fact that 9 foals do not meet the breeding standard is kept quiet. This is “trial and error” and has nothing to do with “breeding”. That’s why I am an absolute opponent of these methods.

Outcross – how an outcross works properly in terms of breeding is generally not known to many. So here’s an example: the stallion Kurier, bred at the Khrenovoje stud farm, a stud farm that was known for its extreme racing performance breeding. The damline is Russian, the outcross comes through the stallion Egis from Poland, a Derby winner of which the Russians have hoped to get not only a blood refreshment, but also the highest performance. In terms of breeding, the way it works now is that the stallion Egis gets the 5 best mares from the entire mare population to cover and his two or three best sons then go into breeding. Only these sons are then widely used in the broodmare band. Breeding means thinking in generations!

Displacement breeding – generally speaking, this involves replacing certain traits with others. In animal breeding, this is usually done by crossing with other breeds. In Arabian breeding this happens through a different type of horse within the breed. This can currently be seen in the Polish state stud farms, where show horse stallions, sometimes in the third generation, are being used indiscriminately on the thoroughly bred Polish mare base, so that Polish blood is being increasingly suppressed. What is currently happening there is a displacement crossing with show horses. In doing so, within 20 years they are ruining everything that has been built and consolidated over 150 years of breeding work.

Selection – in the large stud farms you could actually still select. Every year you have 50 or more foals and you select the 3 to 4 best ones, the rest go to the remonte, i.e. they become riding horses and are therefore taken from the breeding gene pool. But if, as a small private breeder, I only breed one foal in 10 years, the selection becomes difficult. The golden rule in animal breeding is: always double the good! Then you have a high degree of security in inheritance.

IN THE FOCUS: Mare families traditionally play a major role in horse breeding – and in Arabian breeding in particular. Why is that?

A. P.: Scientifically, this can be attributed to the so-called cytoplasmic inheritance. During fertilization, the stallion only contributes the sperm, and of that only the cell nucleus. The mare, however, contributes the egg cell with the cell nucleus and around it the cytoplasm with the cell organelles, and especially the mitochondria. The mitochondria are also carriers of genetic material and are responsible for the energy metabolism of the cells. These mitochondria are always passed on from mother to foal in the egg cell. A colt has the benefit of this, but cannot pass on this mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to its offspring. Only a filly can pass this on to the next generation. Therefore, the female line can be traced back into the past using mtDNA. Maternal performance lines such as Sabellina in Poland and Sapine in Russia are also known in Arabian horse breeding.

IN THE FOCUS: What advice would you give to a breeder who wants to buy a mare for breeding?

A. P.: A breeder should look at the damline of the mare in question. If possible, you should choose a mare from a damline that has undergone performance tests. Ask the breeder about the number of foals for the mother, grandmother, etc.? This gives an indication of fertility. If the last three generations consist of mares that meet all the criteria, you can also count on a resounding inheritance in the mare that you want to buy or with which you want to breed, i.e. a high degree of heredity security. If you buy a broodmare that has already had foals, you should ask whether this mare gave birth without any problems, did she become pregnant immediately, did she accept the foal? If we select better with regards to fertility, this will save a lot of unnecessary veterinary costs! The problem today is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain such data, because even studbooks usually only contain those foals that are born healthy and are considered “worthy of registration” by the breeder – the number of coverings that are used to become a mare pregnant, the number of resorptions, abortions, stillbirths, all of this is unfortunately no longer recorded today. Another problem is that most broodmares are kept by small breeders where they have no chance of having 10 or more foals because they are only bred once or twice in their lives. Based on today’s studbook data, it is not possible to determine whether a broodmare that only had two foals in 10 years was bred more often but did not produce a live foal, or was only used for breeding twice. And a good broodmare also has good milk production! In the large state stud farms in Poland and Russia, this was recorded as a selection criterion because it is also one of the good maternal qualities.

IN THE FOCUS: How can the “lack of data” be remedied, since it is the members of the associations who have decided that only the absolutely necessary data will be recorded, or that stillbirths or abortions will not be reported to the stud book at all?

A. P.: Yes, that is a problem. But I think we’re at a point now where we have to think about where do we want to go with breeding Arabian horses in the next 20 or 30 years? The breeders should arrange for the associations to collect the relevant data. The same applies to proof of performance, regardless of whether it is equestrian sport, racing, endurance or show.

IN THE FOCUS: Let’s move from mares to stallions: Stallions have a much greater influence on breeding in terms of numbers. For example, QR Marc has sired over 850 offspring in the last 15 years…

A. P.: What makes a good stallion? For me he has to have performance-tested ancestors, he must be free of hereditary defects, proven performance, best conformation and – very important – an impeccable character. If a stallion is problematic and cannot be handled, he has no place in breeding. Let’s get to the question: How do I breed a good stallion? For me, this is the most exciting question of all! I currently see far too few good young stallions in Arabian horse breeding in order to have a few good stallions available for breeding in 5 or 10 years. How to address this problem? In breeding you can say: behind every good stallion there is a good stallion mother. The mare from which you want to breed a future sire is extremely important. Good mares in particular should remain in breeding and planned, targeted matings should be encouraged.

IN THE FOCUS: What dangers do you see in show horse breeding?

A. P.: My job here as a population geneticist is to point out developmental trends. One must be aware of the dangers of where the path leads if we continue in this direction for a long time. I want to come back to the cattle here to show what effects show breeding has, because it really runs in parallel:

Just like in Arabian breeding, in cattle breeders try to achieve a straight topline. The topline must be completely straight, only then it corresponds to the show standard. But what happens when this has been achieved? By selecting for the straight topline, the sacrum descends into the pelvis and makes birth more difficult. The birth ducts become smaller (narrower) because – as desired by breeders – the sacrum lowers.

Poorly developed muscles in the hindquarters – let’s remember again the male calves mentioned at the beginning, which have poor muscles. This is due to the fact that the spinous processes of the sacrum have shortened by 2-3 cm due to incorrect selection. This means that the attachment area for the muscles is lost and this creates these muscle-poor pelvises. And I see exactly this tendency with the show horses.

In cattle breeding, a survey has shown that over 90% of Holstein cattle are asthenics, i.e. tall, narrow animals, while less than 10% are athletics, i.e. the medium-framed type with the broad chest, which could compensate for this in the population. Now you actually want to breed an animal that is as well balanced as possible, but to do this you would have to have a medium-framed, broad stallion/bull available for the vast majority of animals. However, these only make up less than 10% of the population. And this is exactly the direction horse breeding is going in!

The position of the hip joint, in cattle this is called the inverter, meaning the point at which the thigh attaches to the pelvis. The selection for the straight topline tends to shift the hip joint backwards, which means that the animal has to put the hind legs behind the body, which in turn has a negative impact on movement, creates kidney pressure and significantly worsens the resilience of the back.

The extreme “typey” head with dish is, in my opinion, a deformation. Anyone who demands a minimum level of performance from their horse will recognize that a horse with an extreme dish will have trouble breathing. This would require research to understand the exact connections. But we know from dogs and cats that the shortening of the nose does not reduce the amount of mucous membrane material in the nasopharynx. However, this is no longer tight, but rather “wrinkled”, which leads to the familiar wheezing breathing noises. The lower jaw and the ridge are no longer straight, but are curved, which leads to dental problems. Teeth change very slowly in evolutionary terms. The desert Arabians’ teeth are too large for today’s delicate heads and therefore have space problems in their jaws.

The refinement of the head in particular, but also of the entire horse, and the associated lack of gender type in the stallions. This has, for example, effects on the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland controls the entire hormonal process in the organism. It shrinks and you intervene directly in the animal’s hormonal balance and ultimately select against fertility. Here is also an example from cattle breeding: we are increasingly receiving feedback from farmers about weak contractions during birth. What happened here: the hormone oxytocin is responsible for water retention in the tissues before birth and during birth for triggering contractions. All of these natural regulators are significantly weakened by the change in the pituitary gland; the hormone levels are too low. As a result, the contractions during birth mean that the remaining blood is not sufficiently pressed from the placenta via the umbilical cord into the foetus. A normal calf has around 7 litres of blood in its system shortly after birth. If contractions are weak, the calves are usually taken out using mechanical pulling aid and the calves often only have around 3.5 litres of blood in their system and are therefore clearly weak and have to be brought with great effort through the first three weeks of life or even die.

Insufficient depth of the thorax means that the animal has no space for the organs, especially for the heart and lungs. Such animals lack endurance and performance, and the performance of the lymphatic system is significantly reduced.

The middle section is too long – although a feature of the Arabian horse is its short back! Nevertheless, long backs are selected here, which means that the animals have backs that are far too soft and the backs are no longer stable. The long back causes the loins to sink and the animals can no longer walk without pain.

Significant weaknesses in the connective tissue. Selection for early maturity and the associated rapid growth lead to a significant weakening of the connective tissue. We examined this in cattle over long periods of time based on the suspension of the uterus in the abdomen/pelvis and the back formation of the uterus after birth. Swollen legs and swollen hocks are a sign of this weakness in the connective tissue in horses – and these animals are ultimately completely useless as riding horses.

IN THE FOCUS: An important aspect today is size. The Arabian horse, which was imported to Europe 200 years ago, was often smaller than 1.50 m, but today customers demand a horse that should be 10 cm taller. What “dangers” can we expect when our “cultural Arabs” become bigger and bigger?

A. P.: In cattle, we examined what happens when the animals get bigger and heavier and what effects this has. On average, a cow weighs around 600 kg. If we now have 100 kg more body weight, this inevitably means an enormous increase in resources just to maintain the body. I agree with H. V. Musgrave Clark, an English Arabian breeder who valued small horses around 1.45 m and did not use any animal for breeding that was over 1.53 m. He lived in America for several years and worked there as a post rider and his insight was that medium-sized horses always had the greatest endurance. For us, this means that selection for excessive size, i.e. for animals that are over 1.60 – 1.65 m, is not effective. The size must fluctuate freely, which means there may well be animals that are larger, but you shouldn’t select especially for this.

IN THE FOCUS: What could happen next?

A. P.: The state stud farms are dissolving, unfortunately one has to say that. In Russia, Khrenovoye was privatized and Arabian breeding was abandoned. Tersk is also privatized and today has three different breeding programs, racehorses, show horses and “Classic Russian”, although this last group is becoming smaller and smaller. In Poland we have seen that displacement breeding with show horses is taking place. If this goes on for another 10 years, there will be nothing left of the original Polish Arab. But there are also small glimmers of hope. A very interesting project was launched in Spain back in 2003. A breeding value for performance tests was developed; there are different selection levels, including young horse selection, tested sires and elite sires. Finally, I would like to introduce a project that we have launched here in cattle breeding. We have decided to maintain long-term performance breeding because this type of cattle has no chance at all due to genomic selection and breeding value estimation as currently carried out. We therefore founded an association and then looked for cow families that met our criteria for long-term performance breeding. Then we bought bulls from them, i.e. we now have almost 40 bulls in the insemination station, we have our own semen depot, and we use it to supply farmers who are interested in this type of breeding. Something similar could also be applied to the Arabian horse. You would need a Europe-wide breeding platform, and of course you have to think about how you could finance something like that. Then you need much better data collection, research work would have to be done, you would have to network the individual initiatives (like in Spain, see above), record stallion and mare lines to see which ones are at risk, start a survey to find out which frozen semen from older stallions still exist and – and this is very important to me – there needs to be a transfer of knowledge. It would be necessary to offer breeding advice for the next, younger generation of breeders, because otherwise the old hippological knowledge would be completely lost.

IN THE FOCUS: Thank you very much for your clear words and your commitment to preserving the old values in our breed.

The interview was conducted by Gudrun Waiditschka.

#arabian horses #horse breeding #great interview

[qwib]

Looking For VtM Players

Hey ho! Two of my players have recently put down their roles for the foreseeable future. They're sticking around as friends, but that means I'm looking for new players to add to my roster.

New Orleans by Night has been running for two and a half years and is entering its final arc. Interested? More details are under the read more.

Chronicle name: New Orleans by Night / The Dusk Club

Base system: V5

Any homebrews?: Many. V5 is basically unrecognizable save for the basic roll system.

Language: English

Preferred time/timezone: 6pm GMT+1 (Berlin) / 12pm EST (New York). We have players from both the US and Europe, so this is the time we stick to. Our sessions tend to run an average of 5 hours. Day of the week is subject to change depending on player needs.

Where: Discord, sessions held weekly in text. (Meaning sessions are scheduled weekly the same as they would be for a voice session, except everything takes place in text.)

General description of the chronicle: Current applications are for my Chronicle “New Orleans by Night”; but as that chronicle is nearing its end within the next year, we are exclusively looking for players that will also want to join us for our next upcoming chronicle, “The Dusk Club”. 

The Dusk Club: Led not by me but @cthylla-rlyeh, this Chronicle will start running after New Orleans is finished (roundabout a year from now). Cthylla has been a player of mine for almost 2 years now and is one of my best friends as well as an incredible Storyteller.

New Orleans by Night: Following the Beckoning, New Orleans is left in a power vacuum. Countless parties are vying to be on top. A Tremere Prince works hand in hand with the Second Inquisition to stay in power; an ancient Tzimisce considering herself Lilith reborn is sacrificing Thinbloods in droves in an attempt to awaken an Antediluvian she believes to be sleeping underneath the city. We are Anarchs, trying to create a world in which Kindred of all walks of life can live together in peace - but some nights, it’s hard to even catch our breaths.

This chronicle has been running for two and a half years and we are well into the story, but I have prepared a timeline document summarizing prior events. Feel free to ask for the document at any point in your application. Your character will receive all the XP the other characters have accumulated over past seasons.

Nothing interesting ever happens in Mosspoint. A sleepy little town by the sea, the most earth shattering news you heard in recent years was when it-girl Caroline Kyng cheated on her boyfriend. Meaningless gossip. 

But everything is about to change. What was supposed to be a nice evening out at a concert will turn into a massacre, thrusting you into a life you never would have believed possible, all while coming to terms with your own death… and what it means to be a Thinblood in this world.

All players will be playing Thinbloods in this Chronicle, but your sire’s Clan will affect your abilities, merits, and flaws. The daywalker merit will come free to all Coterie members. A primer document exploring Mosspoint exists.

Required experience level: Should have at least a general overview of the setting. Given how far we are into the chronicle, I would rather not be explaining the system to you.

How to apply: Simply send a message introducing yourself to either me or @cthylla-rlyeh

Anything more?: As a group made up entirely of queer people, we are exclusively looking for other queer people. 

We are extremely invested in these stories and our characters, and would love for you to bring the same level of enthusiasm to our table - we promise to welcome you with open arms. 

Our chronicles are filled with extremely triggering content. If you are sensitive to themes of sexual assault (kept off-screen, but discussed), body horror, gore, addiction, disability, self harm, suicide, and homophobia, our table is not for you. If you have any specific triggers, feel free to ask. 

We will not be jumping right into the chronicle with you. Rather, we will be holding multiple one shots with applicants to vet how we work together. The number of one shots we hold will depend on the number of applicants so we can give everyone a fair shot.

Ultimately, we will be looking for 1-3 new players.

#vtm #vampire the masquerade #world of darkness #wod #v5 #vtm rp #vtm chronicle #vamily #homebrew #join us... be gay do crime

[candywife333]

King Squishy

{TEASER}

SLATED TO RELEASE IN DECEMBER

alien king (jabba the hutt looking) yoongi x chubby secretary reader

She stared at the screen, squinting her eyes, completely tired from the strain of focusing on the screen in front of her. King Squishy, his ugly blob Majesty, trudged over to her. She had been recruited by the planet, Xalaxia, to manage their secretarial works requiring communications with earth. Since she knew the Xalaxian dialect and English with fluency, she had been the perfect gal for the job.

Y/N wouldn't have minded working on the lush green planet with pink golden sunsets, if not for her treacherously annoying and strict boss. The king of the planet himself. King Yoongi. Or as she liked to refer to him as, the bane of her existence. He would always harp on her to finish the work quickly even when she was ahead of schedule. And he would unscrupulously watch over her every move ,as though she were committing a crime by working diligently on behalf of his stale, rank pumpernickel ass.

He wasn't fluent in English, so he relied on her a lot for even diplomatic efforts of his planet. Here he came, entering the room with an infuriated face, waddling his squishy amber, amorphous ass resembling jelly like a duck. All the people on this planet had two forms, one that resembled something more similar to humans--average heights reaching up to 6 feet and up. The other form most of them carried was that of a a normal human face on top of what could not be described in any other words other than a goopy blob that would shapeshift to form humongous tentacles. The black appendages would sometimes drip inky obsidian fluids as they walked, leaving what Y/N called , a "xalaxian trail".

Y/N tiredly drawled out as she typed a document without moving her eyes off the screen, "What service would you like to procure from me today your Majesty"?

Yoongi snarled as he threw a bunch of papers onto her desk, "Is this what you call a complete financial report of the trade embargo we have between Earth? It has a bunch of typos, even I would be able to tell!!!! Why are you so incompetent, you lazy woman"?

I bristled, alive with fury as I attempted to calm down, staring at the document he threw at me. I felt like laughing when I figured out what his problem was. "Ummm, Sir, you do know that these type of letters require more official language ,right? The spellings are all correct. Whatever you have marked in red ink is just the past tense of regular English verbs. We don't say ever say the word "thinked", we say "thought", to express past tense".

His entire face blanched as he started sputtering in a fury, "F-f-fix it then, you human imbecile"!

And he immediately scurried away, his prominent trail viscously dripping after him. I had to not choke on my own laughter, as I stared at a human blob try to run away from me. His magestically goopy form, was trying to get away, but the massive size of his tush was not letting him, making him look like he was twerking and wiggling his butt as he tried to abscond.

Xalaxians did not wear robes or any clothing for that matter in their blob-like forms, they only wore them when they were humanoid in shape.

Y/N sighed, the days on Xalaxia were becoming monotonous, as she felt encumbered with all the excess transmissions to be translated. She was leaving late nowadays from her work station, dropping down on her bed exhausted, instantaneously falling asleep. It had been exciting in the beginning, with all the cuisines, colorful people, and beautiful outdoor environment. But with the way she had been transferred from working with the kind council member Taehyung to becoming the king's secretary, it had been a less than pleasant transition, putting it very lightly.

She pondered with her hands holding up her chin, maybe she should apply for the yearly mating banquet. Humans were allowed to participate. It was quite simply put, a banquet where people found mates (permanent mates, not casual ones). Y/N had not participated in the last two years she had been on Xalaxia. But even she was feeling a bit lonely from time to time. Maybe a mate would help curb that. She wasn't getting any younger.

Xalaxians mated for life, and since their life span of 1000 years instantaneously conferred upon their partner once a mating bond was formed, it was a very big deal who your partner was. Y/N dreamily imagined finding a kind Xalaxian who would treat her right and give her children, something she had always wanted. They would live in a gorgeous garden estate and relax, sharing a marriage bed. She felt like blushing at the mere thought.

She typed up and submitted the application form on her bed. A tinkling sound came from her lap top indicating that the form had been submitted. Before Y/N could even process the happiness and possibility that would come of starting the search for a mate, she got a phone call.

As she picked up the call from an unknown number, she heard a screeching voice, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME??? HOW COULD YOU SUBMIT A MATE FORM WITHOUT MY PERMISSION, WHEN YOU ARE MY SECRETARY? I FORBID YOU Y/N, I FORBID YOU FROM LOOKING FOR A MATE"!

Y/N's indignance peaked, who the hell did this king think he was? Forbidding her from finding a mate, something that was mandated by law as a privilege allowed to every resident of Xalaxia. Y/n calmly replied, "And I fail to see how that is my problem, you rank ass goop ball. Don't test me, sire. If you infringe upon my rights, I shall merely quit the job. What exactly is your problem anyway"?

He yodeled back, exasperated, "YOU. YOU. It's always fucking YOU". Y/N felt so irritated and frustrated at his vague proclamations. "And what do you even mean by that, Sire"?

He sobbed , clearly inebriated from drinking, as he would never show such expressions of emotion otherwise. "You wouldn't work for me anymore, if you found a mate".

Y/N sniped back, rather confused at his intent, "And how is that supposed to be my concern"?

#chubby smut #bts x plus size reader #yoongi #yoongi x chubby reader #yoongi x curvy reader #yoongi x plus size reader #bts #smut #angst #comedy #alien yoongi #alien #emotional constipation #yoongi likes situationship but y/n be like no way bitch

[eponymous-rose]

A full day today, so I figured it might be fun to write up what a professor's day might look like when not lecturing!

6:30AM: Got up early to virtually attend a friend's wedding on the East Coast! <333

8:00AM: I have been very careful this quarter to shuffle lectures/meetings around so that I have a little time to myself in the mornings to sit at home and drink coffee and eat breakfast and pet a cat while I get the day's work started. No exception today! I pull up an application my PhD student has been putting together for a tech grant and use the proverbial red pen to make some (a lot of) comments. It looks good overall, though! I send him a note to encourage him to send it to our collaborator in the computer science department when he's done with edits. Monday's the deadline, we gotta get moving on this.

9:00AM: I load up a bag with books I keep putting off taking to my office, plus some extra Halloween candy I found to add to my office candy bowl, and head out to take the bus in to campus. Also, pet the cat goodbye (she is unconcerned).

9:45AM: At the office, books and candy put away! Time to prep for my first meeting, which is a committee meeting with someone else's PhD student. He struggled a bit with a recent exam (entirely his advisor's fault, but that's a different story), so we're reconvening as a group to see his progress and cheer him on. He sent an update document, so I run through that and take a few notes. Then it's responding to e-mails (setting up my participation in a federal review panel next year, responding to two prospective graduate students interested in working with me - the combo of a fun research topic and a beautiful campus means I'm now up to 20 inquiries so far this quarter, eep - and sending out an update to the department about the charitable giving opportunities I'm coordinating).

10:30AM: Great presentation by the PhD student about all the things he's done since our last meeting back in April-ish. He's made huge changes to his work, and we applaud (literally and figuratively) how much he's accomplished in such a short time. Also, amazing data visualization! Great work all around. He's set to defend his PhD by 2025 at this rate, definitely back on track.

11:30AM: Time to rush back to my office to meet with my own PhD student! We usually meet on Fridays, but we get tomorrow off for the holiday so we jumped the meeting back. He's a few minutes late due to a missed bus, so my next-door colleague and I talk about cats for a few minutes. As you do. When he does arrive, he's got some cool stuff to show me - we talk about the notes I made on his grant application, and I remind him (and myself) to book flights to a conference in December that is rapidly approaching somehow. (I guess this means I have to do some cool and innovative research before then that I can talk about. Go figure.) He also shows me some cool preliminary results from a project he's been doing with a friend out in Pennsylvania. He's late enough in his PhD that my role as advisor is primarily to get out of his way and make sure he has enough supercomputer core-hours to get his work done!

12:30PM: A break for me! I start in on e-mail again, sending a coordinator my bio and abstract for a talk I've been invited to give (virtually, thankfully) at a student conference in January. I also realize that, because of the break tomorrow, I should really put together a homework assignment and next week's lectures for the class I teach Monday-Wednesday-Friday. Hmmm. I dig through last year's lectures and assignments and realize they've gotten a little out of sync this year. The solution? I may just offer 5 instead of 6 assignments over these ten weeks and give them this one a week later. Class average has been extremely high on them, and I think the students will appreciate a bit of a break. Also means today's job is just to prepare a few lectures based on last year's material. I've got a big chunk of open time later this afternoon to deal with course stuff, so back to e-mail. Going to be joining a friend (who I can't help but think of as the undergrad who sat in during all my grad classes, but is now somehow a full research scientist) on a very cool project putting together a new thunderstorm dataset. Also reached out to another friend about setting up biweekly meetings to hopefully start a new research collaboration and... possibly some fieldwork! I also almost forgot to put a forecast together for our forecasting competition, but I got there in time. Phew.

1:30PM: Meeting with a colleague and the undergrad research intern we co-supervise who is sadly having to leave to go attend school closer to home. This meeting is mostly just us reinforcing to her that we're still here if she needs advice/reference letters or ever wants to work on a similar project with us remotely in the future, but we are going to continue with the research until the end of the quarter, at her request. After the meeting, I get an e-mail about another undergraduate looking for a research project! I present her with the options of a cool lightning project with my colleague next door (waiting to hear back about federal funding for that project, fingers crossed) and that other cool thunderstorm project led by my friend in Oklahoma.

2:30PM: Seminar time! A very cool freshly-minted PhD from California tells us all about her research, a complicated topic about which I knew very little going in and now know... slightly more. There was a very geeky moment in which she showed what happened to a particular part of the climate system when CO2 was added, then showed what happened when CO2 was removed, and the asymmetry of it made everyone in the room gasp and then self-consciously giggle.

4:00PM: Post-seminar snacks acquired (a big cookie and coffee are definitely a good late lunch, right? I kid, I kid, I had a big breakfast and have a big dinner waiting at home) and small-talk survived, I scramble back up to my office. Time to get those lectures ready for next week (pretty quick to do - rather than last year, where I'd show the code on the screen and we'd talk about it, I'm having us write the code together live and debug as we go; harder in the moment for me, but the students are learning so much better!). Get an e-mail back from the new undergrad research intern expressing interest in the lightning project, amazing! Time to get her registered so she gets credit for this starting in January. Also finally get a teensy bit more editing done on a draft of a review article that one of the top scientific journals in the world tapped me to write (???? still surreal beyond measure).

5:30PM: BAND PRACTICE. Our department is so nerdy that the faculty/staff/postdocs/grad students put together a giant band to perform popular songs but as covers so we can make the lyrics about our nerdy research. This tradition has been going on for 30+ years, and the big performance is for an hour at our holiday party every year. It's a riot, and this is my first year joining in the chaos (I'm on keys on three songs!). There are like 25 of us, we have a horn section, a professor plays the mandolin, the students create elaborate musical roasts of their professors, it's great. My parts go great, to the point where when there's some trouble with key drift during an a capella part they call me in to play chords under it and keep them grounded. I love playing music with other people!

7:00PM: Time to pack up and head home for dinner. Phew.

Long day, but also LONG WEEKEND BAYBEE. I don't actually have to do any substantial work this weekend, so that means BALDUR'S GATE WEEKEND BAYBEE.

#eponymous academia tag #long text post

[mysterious-animated-skulls]

A self-indulgent MSA x DP crossover. Oneshot.

@solitaria-fantasma

Vivi’s hair at the back of her nape stood up.

She had ventured into her fair share of creepy basements. Only three of them had been hidden in average houses – although she could argue nothing about the Fenton’s house was ‘average’.

She didn't even mean the eye-searing ad bolted (?) to the house's roof. Between the automatic anti-ghost defense system and the fridge’s contents, this house was worryingly high on the list of ‘most haunted places I’ve ever encountered’.

But it was just their luck warning signals only were blaring in her mind in the fourth basement of an average seeming house.

She tightened her hand around her bat. The parents had left for a ghost convention several states over. Tucker was monitoring their phones so they wouldn’t receive any surprise meetings. She still felt watched as she hopped the last steps down. Her whole body jittered with nerves.

Looming at the lab’s far back was the reason for her dread.

A massive octagonal metal door covered almost the entire wall. Various warnings signs had been slapped across the surface, but less than there should be in her opinion.

The door was the source of the humming. Vivi fiddled with Obaa-chan’s newest protective charm. The humming had settled inside her teeth when she passed the basement door, but she had ignored it while checking the floors.

The hum grew heavy as the door opened, revealing the other side was unpainted lead.

It had become louder when she descended the stairs.

Where the fuck were the security measures compared to the upper floors? Even without this supposed portal, the Dres. Fenton were working with dangerous chemicals and weapons! Even Tempo High had had better lab safety when she was in school.

But. Oh wow. She ticked off a mental tally of the number of lethal weapons laying around on tables or hanging on the walls, just ready to be stolen. She adjusted her assessment of danger-

Focus. She had promised Jazz and Danny not to do anything but reconnaissance. Or first wave reconnaissance. It wouldn’t do anything to check out this place if the defense system attacked Lewis or Mystery or Arthur. She idly swung her bat in a vertical circle, carefully making her way to the side of the portal.

The power was there. Immense power. Familiar, from other tears into other realities she had encountered with the Mystery Skulls, although this one was still unique. They rarely encountered portals into afterlives, and this one radiated death. But not only. It made sense as that not every ‘ghost’ people called as such was the spirit of a dead person. Supernatural beings could come into existence in various ways.

And yet the portal was different. Most portals, even artificial ones, closed quickly if magic didn’t keep them open. Vivi sensed no such magic from the door.

Inhaling, she let some of her powers flow through her. She passed her free palm in the air across the door, snow crystals forming and melting in the same moment. A simply scan spell.

Still nothing. Only the energy from the tear itself, rather what was containing it.

Crud. Mystery would have kittens.

Was this truly technology only? Just how had the Dres. Fenton achieved that?!

Vivi needed more help in figuring this out. Definitely Arthur, and the kids. Even if their parents had forgotten to document the process how they developed this portal, between the two younger Fentons and Arthur and maybe Mystery, they could figure out this thing.

She hoped, at least.

#mystery skulls animated #vivi yukino #danny phantom #msa x dp #dp x msa #mystery skulls animated au #mystery skulls animated crossover

[reimenaashelyee]

ok, I've read your article on your website about creating a gn pitch. did you have to pitch Alexander to hiveworks to get it printed? also, was seance published thru hiveworks or another publisher?? how difficult is it to get a publisher to actually pick up your book and have it printed + distributed? sorry for so many questions lol. I have a lot more but I'll refrain for now

Feel free to send your questions but please do separate asks if they are somewhat different subtopics

Alexander

Alexander is a special circumstance because Hiveworks is actually where I work as a dayjob. Staff members and creators already part of Hiveworks can get their webcomics hosted/printed with no barrier should they choose to be picked up by the studio - though they still need to make a pitch document to check whether the content matches the editorial catalogue.

Before this though, I had shopped Alexander out to other traditional graphic novel publishers. Which didn't work out because 1) there is still no viable market for adult graphic novels that isn't political, educational or memoir, 2) Alexander is a risky book, cost-wise and content-wise, 3) I wanted it to be webcomic too, 4) pandemic

Seance Tea Party

Seance Tea Party (and My Aunt is a Monster) is through Random House Graphic, a kids/young adult graphic novel imprint of Penguin Random House - the largest traditional publisher globally. I am only stating this to situate the difference between Alexander and Seance's homes. Hiveworks is absurdly tiny, hyper-independent and almost entirely digital. Random House Graphic is part of a big ecosystem that almost all your favourite authors past and present are part of: bookstores, libraries Hollywood, TV adaptations, ads on the bus or magazines or radio, Oprah's book club, worldwide distribution...

About the difficulty, it really depends on your specific situation.

For starters, you really need to have some kind of record of being able to finish something (mini-comics, a decently sized (100 paged) webcomic)... or in the case of long, ongoing webcomics, the ability to maintain it.

This should be enough to get you to make an attempt for Hiveworks (or Webtoons/Tapas...). But then you also have to consider the genre, subject matter, "representation", length, style of the work you're pitching... all the things I talked about in my GN Pitch article. As I have hinted at Alexander failing at being picked up by traditional publishers, some comics are just not able to break in to certain markets due to a variety of factors. Adult graphic novels are still seen as risky by traditional large imprints, so you tend to see them more in indie publications - like Fantagraphics, D&Q, Selfmade Hero, First Second, Silver Sprocket... or webcomics. However, if you're pitching a kids or young adult book - especially in the memoir, queer contemporary romance, POC (tailored to Western lens, RIP) fantasy, educational genres - then you'll have a way better time.

You still have to look at the publishers and see if your vibes match theirs. Then if you're interested in opening up the option to pitch to traditional imprints (and add more credibility to your submission), you really really really NEED an agent. Some GN imprints like Ballantine or Alfred A Knopf do not accept submissions at all except through agents and known contacts. Pitching to an agent is a whole other barrier... though once you get that agent, you can almost entirely hand over the grueling work of shopping pitches to them.

I think, on average, breaking into publishing is moderately hard. But I cannot guarantee it. I know for myself and a friend of mine, we broke into it easy: we got our agents quickly and secured our first book deals through major traditional publishers - though we had almost a decade of webcomics experience and community presence to back that up. Then for most of my peers/friends, it's months and months of rejection, no answers, editors/agents telling them their work is not for the market etc. Some of them overcome those troubles. Some of them become sick of it and go full independent self-published. Speaking of, there are still options outside of the mainstream. You can engage specialised, single-purpose services like White Squirrel to distribute, or Mixam to print your comics. You can host your work online and gain your own readership through updates, festival appearances, etc.

Again, it really depends on what you want to do, what your work is about, and the fallbacks you have. Please do your research, and prepare your strategies, and approach pitching with a realistic, pragmatic lens. Hope for the best, expect the worst. Everything above your must-have is a bonus.

#publishing #pitching #comics

[popcultureoverdosed]

The Curse of Saki Sanobashi

I'm writing this journal entry to document my experience with a certain film. I'm probably already dead if anyone is reading this, but please read on. I hate Saki Sanobashi and what it has done to my life. Most importantly, I hate the depraved bastards who made it.

Until recently, I've been an average college girl with only one notable quality: I love searching for lost media. Most people get a thrill from watching a good horror movie and I'm no different with lost media. There's just something about the elusive nature of it that makes the hunt so fascinating. There's a countless amount of entertainment that vanishes from the public eye for whatever reason and many remain completely forgotten. That never sat well with me. Maybe it's the history buff in me, but I believe every form of content should be preserved. It's scary to think that something that brings you joy could one day be forever lost to time.

Saki Sanobashi is a name that's been plaguing me for the last few years now. Every lost media enthusiast worth their salt has at least heard of it if they haven't already joined the hunt. I'm one of the several archivists who plunged headfirst into this monstrosity of a goose chase. I, like many others, got hooked on its tragic premise of a bunch of schoolgirls trapped in a bathroom where death is the only way out. The morbid curiosity in all of us compelled us to search high and low for this elusive anime.

That was years ago.

Now? Saki remains a distant memory in the minds of once optimistic researchers. Dead end after dead end had led to the entire thing being labeled as some elaborate hoax. Even I began losing faith in the search despite all the time I invested in it. It was disheartening knowing that one of the most fascinating lost media searches of all time could be fake. I would've quit entirely had it not been for that one fateful afternoon.

It was a typically brutal winter in Toronto which meant that a snowstorm would be picking up before the day was over. I thought it best to go to my favorite comic and stock up on my favorite books before the storm trapped me at home with my girlfriend. Marque Noir was different from other comic shops in that there exists a secret section of the store only a select few know about. Because I've been a loyal customer for a few years, the owner trusted in showing me the back room. I was hesitant at first to enter a secluded room alone with a man due to being a woman, but I figured he wouldn't try anything with customers still in the store.

What I saw in that room was the stuff of wonder. Several shelves were stocked with underground comics so obscure even the most hardcore archivists probably didn't know about them. The type of comics you can't even find on the internet. It was heaven on earth for a lost media obsessed girl like me. The original post mentioned Saki being an anime, but I was desperate for any type of media out there. What's fascinating is that there were also movies stocked with the comics. The cover art on each DVD case was incredibly low quality, to the point that I assumed the store owner hand-made them himself. There were no ISBNs or distributor info anywhere to be found so my theory seemed fairly likely all things considered.

I filled my bag with as many items as I could afford( which isn't a lot for a broke college student)  and excitedly swiped my card at the counter. The store owner gave me the weirdest of grins as I made my purchase. He seemed amused but almost in a mocking sort of way. He hardly ever emotes in the first place so that smile really caught me off guard.

I left the store and boarded the closest train to drop me off at the dorms. Though Halloween comes in the autumn, I feel like winter is the most ideal season to indulge in horror. The cold weather is like a reflection of the spine chilling fear I get whenever I read a good comic. I stepped inside my dorm room and immediately began browsing through my latest collection. They all looked so good I didn't know where to begin. As I rummaged through the pile of DVDs, I noticed something that threw me for a loop.

One DVD case was completely blank. The cover was pitch black and so was the back. There wasn't even anything on the spine. I couldn't imagine myself buying something like this so how it ended up with me was a mystery. Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit intrigued by it. There could've been literally anything on that disc and the only way to find out was to start the movie.

I waited for my girlfriend to return from campus before starting the movie. Emily's a cute brunette, but she has zero tolerance for horror. She always shrieks her head off whenever I play my movies in the living room. All that blood and gore drives her crazy. She greeted me with a kiss on the lips and then paused when she saw the devious smirk on my face. She already knew what I had in store for her. Emily, of course, protested but I pleaded with her to watch the movie with me. Seeing her scream like a child over on screen murder was sometimes more enjoyable than the movie itself. She remained firm in her stance against it but eventually broke down after enough of my begging. It feels good having things my way.

I quickly inserted the DVD into an old game station and stared at the screen with anticipation for what was about to start.  After several seconds of a blank screen, some Japanese text appeared with an English subtitle that read " Requiem of the lost girls." The title naturally left me curious so I watched on with excitement.

The scene then faded back to black and what I saw after that made my blood freeze solid.

Three schoolgirls in a bathroom.

All of them had miserable looks of utter despair.

The scene was unmistakable. It was a scenario I ran over in my head countless times. It was Saki Sanobashi, the anime searched years for! Having the legendary film before me after all this time was almost too good to be true. And to think it came from my favorite comic shop. I've been shopping for years now and never even had a hint something like Saki would be there.

Emily was confused as to why I was so excited so I told her we just discovered the holy grail of lost media. The gravity of the situation was unsurprisingly lost on her but she smiled anyway for my sake. We watched the movie unfold just like the legend went. The girls remained trapped in the bathroom and lamented their misfortune all the while. As the film progressed, the agony in their expressions became increasingly visceral. Their eyes looked so hollow, their skin was so pale. Emily clutched into my hand with a hint of anxiety in her eyes.

The tone of the video was much more somber than I expected. Seeing the girls take turns telling the others about their hopes and dreams, trying desperately to alleviate their situation, felt oddly melancholic. I was growing attached to these characters to the point I hoped they'd find a way despite that going against the lore. We eventually reached the part where the girls realized there truly was no way out of their situation...except for death.

Their deaths were just as horrid as I expected them to be. One girl goaded one of the others into drowning her in the sink and another clawed at her own neck with visceral detail. The most painful part of it all was the bloodcurdling scream the last girl emitted as she bashed her head against the wall. It was far more realistic than it had any right to be.

Despite all the fear, my heart raced with excitement. I had to write a blog post to let everyone know about my discovery! The internet would go wild once I told them the good news. I quickly went to my Tumblr to start writing, but the site wouldn't load. I tried other social media sites but nothing was working.

I tried stepping outside in the hall to get better reception but the door wouldn't budge. The knob didn't move at all no matter how hard I pulled. My girlfriend and I were both freaking out at this point. We tried opening windows, calling 911, and banging on doors, all of which were in vain. We were somehow completely severed from the outside world. I wondered how the hell was any of this possible when the image of the movie flashed into my mind.

We were trapped just like the girls in Saki Sanobashi. Was the film cursed? That seemed to be the only explanation. I should've trusted my gut instincts and never let that guy lead me to the backroom. I knew there was something off about him and now I fell into his trap. So far we've spent two weeks in this hellhole of an apartment. Food has long since run out and any sense of hope is dead. It pains me to see Emily's body as pale as winter, her eyes devoid of life. Neither of us can last much longer. I'm writing this document as a warning to anyone searching for Saki Sanobashi.

Stay the hell away from it. It is a cursed film that dooms its viewers the suffer the same fate as the girls in the bathroom. I imagine the curse will be lifted once we die and our belongings will be collected by our loved ones. Hopefully, they will see this document and spread the news. Or maybe they'll brush this off as the crazed rantings of a lunatic.

I honestly don't know anymore. All I can say is to stay safe and never attempt to watch this damned movie.

#saki sanobashi #horror #short story #Fiction #Lost media #Anime #Lesbian protagonist #missing episodes #creative writing #web fiction #literature

[racefortheironthrone]

Advice About Grad School

Public history guy and yes, I think I did get a little confused. Sorry about that.

Any advice about grad school would be amazing! I’m going in on a graduate assistantship, but it’s been a few years since I finished my B.A due to life issues and I’m a little concerned about getting back into it.

Advice about grad school I can do.

The first piece of advice I can give is that you should not go to grad school unless you are fully funded. In the past, pursuing graduate education was a pretty reliable ticket into the ranks of the economically secure if not the outright affluent, but unfortunately the transformation of academic job markets over the last 10+ years has meant that even a PhD is less and less reliable, as full-time jobs became scarcer and competition for those jobs increases. 

So it’s of vital importance that if you want to pursue a PhD for non-monetary reasons - whether it’s a particular topic that you find fascinating, or whether you love teaching in a university setting, or whether you love archival research and uncovering previousy unseen documents, or whatever - that you don’t go into debt in the process. A PhD in history requires on average of eight years where you can’t work full-time because of coursework and reading and research and teaching, and where university jobs don’t always pay the most, so it’s going to be an economically stressful time. You don’t want to make it worse by having to take out loans to pay tuition, health insurance, and living expenses, so make sure that the package you’re offered provides enough in the way of tuition remissions, living stipends, and/or university employment to cover your entire time at grad school. 

The second piece of advice I have to give, and here I’m speaking as both a former grad student and a former grad student union activist, is to not self-exploit. One of the things that you will find in grad school is a dizzying array of activities that all seem like important opportunities - research and publication collaborations with professors, invitations to attend workshops and conferences, offers to teach more advanced discussion sections, offers to be a part of student academic journals, offers to be a part of departmental student governance, etc. And then of course there’s wanting to do a good job as a teacher, and you can always spend more hours in classroom prep or written feedback on assignments or more office hours, and so on. 

The larger point is that there’s a lot of social pressure to say yes to all these requests and they can all feel potentially highly useful and important to your future prospects, but one of the most important things you have to learn as a graduate student is when to say no. There are only so many hours in the day and getting your own work done so that you actually complete your PhD on time really has to be your first priority. So one of the most valuable skills you can pick up as a graduate student is a sense of which opportunities really are worth the time commitment and the ability to tactfully decline offers that are not. And when it comes to teaching in particular, remember that you’re only getting paid to work a certain number of hours a week - if you put in extra hours over that, you’re giving your employers overtime for free. 

The third piece of advice I can give is to practice self-care. As I’ve already suggested, grad school can be a very stressful time: not only is there a lot of high-stakes academics and long-term job market issues to worry about, but there’s also stress about low wages, high rents, long hours, and commute times, and then there’s also the stress of your daily life. And sadly, one of the things that grad students often do is to mismanage their stress by focusing on their academics and/or their jobs and in the process neglecting themselves in dangerous ways. In my case, I dealt with my stress by stress-eating and put on a lot of weight and I developed stress-related ulcers and acid reflux. Even worse, I became really negligent about going to medical appointments and dentist appointments, so that smaller problems became bigger problems. But my biggest problem is that I wasn’t talking to anyone about my stress, because I think just about anybody who would have heard that list of bad behaviors would have told me that I was really harming myself and needed to change my routines in order to improve my quality of life. 

So one of the things that I absolutely recommend is to make use of mental health services from the beginning. Having a trained professional to talk to, even if it’s just about how things are going and what your day-to-day is like, who can give you advice about ways to handle things better or who can warn you when you’re not handling things well, is really invaluable, especially since grad school often means you’ve moved away from your previous support structures and need to rebuild them. Likewise, make sure that you have a convenient primary care provider and dentist and make sure that you do regular check-ups and other forms of preventative care. 

The fourth piece of advice I have to give, and this is where I’m actually going to talk about academia and job markets, is to develop multiple strings to your bow. With the academic job market going the way that it is, you can’t rely purely on your dissertation, your publications, your fields of study, and your letters of recommendation to get a good job in your area of expertise if there aren’t any job openings in your area, or if every job has 15 applicants with unbeatable resumes. 

So keep an eye on the AHA and OAH’s job listing databases, but also keep an eye out for museum jobs, state and local history society and commission jobs, the National Parks Service, state parks services, where having a degree in public history can be a big advantage.

Moreover, acquiring skills and knowledge bases that aren’t covered by your fields or your dissertation can be really helpful in applying for jobs outside of history. In my case, even though I was a public policy historian, I did a lot of independent reading and blogging on contemporary public policy and public policy analysis and public policy design, which helped get me some paid gigs writing reports for think-tanks, and it all helped when I ended up applying for public policy teaching jobs, and then ultimately teaching in public policy. So make some time to read widely throughout history, social science, and any other field that interests you, because it might help down the road in applying for a job in that area. 

At the same time, one of the things I regret is that there are certain skills, like statistics and quant in general, or graphic design and photoshop, or programming at least to the extent of being able to build websites, or additional language skills, that I never took the time to pick up, because there’s a lot of NGO jobs and the like where they get huge numbers of well-educated applicants but where what we could call general professional skills are in demand and thinner on the ground. 

#history #academia #job market #academic job market #advice for grad students #higher education #my day job

[missmyloko]

Getting To Know Me - Part 8

On The Third Day of Fun I present... the continuation to the last piece! Sorry if it feels like a bit of a Debbie Downer subject, but I'm really passionate about the subject and wanted to use my platform to get it all out so that others feel like they aren't alone. Continued from Part 1 I still attended school throughout all of this. However, it was around this time that just having drop in appointments with a psychiatrist like, once every 6 months at my doctor's office was going to fly anymore, so I was referred to a psychiatrist at our hospital's outpatient clinic who could look after my medication full time. The wait time at that time was 14 months, and I waited. Thankfully, it was worth it in the end. I had someone who could balance my medications, figure out why I went through them so quickly, and I could see them as often as I needed. On average I was running through an entire course of a medication (ie: from its lowest to its highest dose) in about a year, and that's unusually high. Well, it turns out I wasn't hyper-metabolizing them, but rather hypo-metabolizing them; My medication, once ingested, wasn't done running its course through my body before I took the next dose, so I was actually (unknowingly) over medicating myself. To combat this I now take my major medications every 36 hours so that they have time to work through my body and stop the over medicating (low dose medications that act as augmenters are taken every day though). It was during university that I had my first major depressive episode (that I medically knew of, I probably had them before but just didn't know), which is a time where my depression is just kicking my ass beyond normal reasoning and, because of this, I actually ended up flunking a few of my courses. I had to petition the dean to drop the courses from my record to due health reasons, which was accompanied by a letter and documentation from my psychiatrist stating what was going on and that it wasn't my fault. I ended up having 2 of them during my 6 years of university, so I had to petition twice. While in school I did receive special accommodations from the student wellness center regarding exams and assignments and such, which is a fantastic resource that anyone with mental health issues should take advantage of at their schools, and that definitely helped make life easier during those trying times (heck, it helped even when I was feeling decent). Near the end of my university tenure my psychiatrist and I actually managed to find a medication that really worked for me. I was feeling great, my symptoms were under control, and I was feeling like myself for the first time in a long time. However, it was another medication that no one told me right away would cause weight gain and, since we had now figured out how to make medications last, I was on it for a few years. I only ended up going off the medication 4 years ago, but by that time I had ballooned to over 200lbs (I believe I was around 230ish). Unlike the last time, the weight didn't come off as I had developed thyroid issues (they sadly run in my family on both sides), so I was now a depressed again, overweight wad who had gone past the point of being able to do what I loved: wear kimono. It's ironic that I was in the process of publishing a book about something I could no longer wear, but that's life for you. However, not everything ends badly (heck, there's positives, or else I wouldn't be here telling this tale!). Within the last year I finally have a concrete date set for my book to come out (June 28th, 2024!), I've lost exactly 49lbs since going on Ozempic (and diet changes) and can wear kimono again (yay!), and I'm working with my psychiatrist, who is awesome by the way, on changing my medications to make them work for me by understanding exactly what they do and their side effects beforehand. So, hopefully my tale has opened up some feelings inside of you to know that you're not in this alone, it happens to everyone, it does suck, but it does get better.

#mental health #mental health awareness

[aronarchy]

DO THE BASTARDS EVER HELP?

Reading the above, you may be tempted to ask whether cops ever do anything good. And the answer is, sure, sometimes. In fact, most officers I worked with thought they were usually helping the helpless and protecting the safety of innocent people.

During my tenure in law enforcement, I protected women from domestic abusers, arrested cold-blooded murderers and child molesters, and comforted families who lost children to car accidents and other tragedies. I helped connect struggling people in my community with local resources for food, shelter, and counseling. I deescalated situations that could have turned violent and talked a lot of people down from making the biggest mistake of their lives. I worked with plenty of officers who were individually kind, bought food for homeless residents, or otherwise showed care for their community.

The question is this: did I need a gun and sweeping police powers to help the average person on the average night? The answer is no. When I was doing my best work as a cop, I was doing mediocre work as a therapist or a social worker. My good deeds were listening to people failed by the system and trying to unite them with any crumbs of resources the structure was currently denying them.

It’s also important to note that well over 90% of the calls for service I handled were reactive, showing up well after a crime had taken place. We would arrive, take a statement, collect evidence (if any), file the report, and onto the next caper. Most “active” crimes we stopped were someone harmless possessing or selling a small amount of drugs. Very, very rarely would we stop something dangerous in progress or stop something from happening entirely. The closest we could usually get was seeing someone running away from the scene of a crime, but the damage was still done.

And consider this: my job as a police officer required me to be a marriage counselor, a mental health crisis professional, a conflict negotiator, a social worker, a child advocate, a traffic safety expert, a sexual assault specialist, and, every once in awhile, a public safety officer authorized to use force, all after only a 1000 hours of training at a police academy. Does the person we send to catch a robber also need to be the person we send to interview a rape victim or document a fender bender? Should one profession be expected to do all that important community care (with very little training) all at the same time?

To put this another way: I made double the salary most social workers made to do a fraction of what they could do to mitigate the causes of crimes and desperation. I can count very few times my monopoly on state violence actually made our citizens safer, and even then, it’s hard to say better-funded social safety nets and dozens of other community care specialists wouldn’t have prevented a problem before it started.

.

#repost of someone else’s content #policing #police abolition #abolition

[love-toxin]

so this is dumb but one day I’m hoping to start doing writing commissions, but I don’t have an clue where to start? Do you have any advice on like, pricing for word length, or how many slots I should open to start with, etc? sorry for bother you! ;-;

not at all!! it's a good question--ill give you a longer answer down here! ⬇️

so the base rate that a lot of independent writers charge is about 1$ per 100 words, but it really depends on the quality of your writing, if you have an editor (or edit yourself) and how long it might take you to write. i would suggest practicing writing longer pieces and get a gauge on how much time it takes you to write 500, 1000, 2000, etc so you can give an accurate estimate of how long the commission will take, too. i would only open a couple slots to begin with so you don't get overwhelmed, but once you've got good time management with writing your pieces you can probably open more if you want to! and of course, you can increase or decrease the overall price based on the content--like i usually charge another dollar or two for writing someone's oc because it takes extra time for me to research them and go through their character sheets, or I'll do the same if the commissioner wants nsfw or something that's very complicated that will take more time than an average piece.

I'll also say that keeping guidelines is really important! not just for you but for your commissioners to know exactly what they're getting by coming to you. if you don't want to write certain topics or you're only comfortable with particular content, make sure you state it clearly wherever you post your commission sheet or make an entirely separate document and link it to your original post. i haven't personally done commissions in a long while because i just kept getting an influx of emails from people who wanted me to write things i was so not comfortable with, and that's happened when i have specified what i won't do, so be sure to protect yourself and don't be afraid to block people who try to cross those boundaries. or just block creeps in general bc I can't tell you how many people I've encountered who think I'll write whatever they want if they offer me enough money. obviously that's not to scare you but it's certainly something that won't hurt to prepare for if it ever does happen.

aside from that and on a lighter note, try not to stress yourself out too much over it all. figure out what you can do comfortably and adhere to that, if you make mistakes or need more time to finish a piece, just be honest with the person you're working with and 99% of the time they'll be understanding. if you don't want to write something somebody asks for then politely decline, or block their contact if they harass you or ask for something wildly inappropriate. and it doesn't hurt to ask for more details! if you need some more guidance or inspiration on a piece most commissioners will be more than happy to talk further about their idea.

i hope this helps, and i hope you have fun with it! <3

#commissions #ellie chats #anons

[clatterbane]

I appear to be having some brain glitching getting in my way here tonight. And, I know that I've got some mutuals who no doubt know way more about this subject than I do. So, I thought I would go ahead and ask for some guidance over here, partly because y'all are likely to be nicer than average about it.

So, what I am trying to accomplish atm: finally get bbolli's tumblr-utils up and running locally, primarily to run personal backups. I am familiar enough with python scripting. What I have fuck all experience with thus far is OAuth.

I do know that I need to obtain my own API key, roughly how to do this, and where to paste that info in.

My major practical level wtf right at the moment is the same as this person was asking about, over 10 years ago:

That is the most relevant thing I could readily find searching. And there was nothing of direct help in replies.

On the registration page, Tumblr is asking for a couple of mandatory fields that I am not sure how to fill in, where the "application" that needs to call the API is a few personal scripts running entirely on localhost.

For that matter, I was not sure what to put in under an "Application Website:" URL, but figured that probably made less difference. It's not like this is for public consumption whatsoever, so it got a placeholder.

The only thing I could find about this in tumblr-utils documentation:

Get your personal Tumblr API key. Before June 2020, the author's API key was distributed with the source code, the then Tumblr denied access using this key. Now, each user needs to get their own key at https://www.tumblr.com/oauth/apps. Follow the instructions there; most values entered don't matter. The API key must then be copied between the single quotes in the source code at around line 105 (the line starts with API_KEY = ).

So, does it actually matter what goes into those particular fields in order to get the API key? Or should I just fill in some placeholder URLs for this particular use case? Do these instead need to refer to some script-relevant locations on localhost?

[ETA: From what I understand, the CALLBACK_URL is indeed intended so that Tumblr can call the application back during registration. I am just not sure how this is supposed to work with a local script. Same thing with the OAuth2 redirect URL called for there. What, if anything, would that be? Is it relevant here?]

As is no doubt clear by now, I have zero prior experience in this department. Feeling pretty dumb right now. And I really would appreciate it if anyone with more knowledge could offer some practical advice here.

Right now, I should probably take a little refueling break.

#personal #help request #because tumblr is my tech support now #apparently #i never claimed to be smart

[uintaundead]

Y'know, after having a significant hand in implementing security measures and training of dozens of people to protect assets like money, merchandise, company documents, weed, and liquor I'm dumbfounded that we'd barely afford anything to protect our children. All the money in an armored truck is insured to the fraction of a cent and there's still at least one guy in there with body armor and a gun in there as well as an inch of steel and 360 CCTV and a GPS tracker. We'll have guys with stab vests and OC spray watching tee shirts at a mall keeping them from getting lifted by bone head teens, we'll have guys with long guns guarding gold bars that are nearly impossible to liquidate if stolen, we'll have someone with a pistol on their hip watching over a pawn shop and keeping an eye on everyone coming and going. But when it comes to protecting kids, something infinitely more valuable than anything else, we then fall upon worthless half measures like annoying drills, doors with locks that tenured teachers prop open because the district skimps on the AC, a camera system no one consistently monitors, or an unarmed off-duty cop/security guard who may have one foot in the grave anyways.

This is a fucking joke, it really is. I'm not saying to make a school into a full on prison (they're already halfway there through other means tbqh) but hire a security firm and get them to set up a proper armed guard staff and a properly monitored camera system and let your teachers carry their concealed firearms. This shit is basic, truly it is. If you want something protected you don't put big ass signs saying "no guards or guns in here : )" but that is what many schools and completed braindead individuals seem to want. These ghouls have no interest in actually protecting anyone at all as it does not serve their narrative to do so. To be exposed to the inconvenience that is actual physical security frightens these weak-minded individuals so much that they will do anything to avoid acknowledging the necessity of it. If you are not willing to go to any length to protect your child, up to and including killing one who means them harm then you are utterly unfit to be a parent. And if a teacher, someone who I trust the life of my child to for 8+ hours a day is unwilling to do that or have someone on hand who is then they should seek employment elsewhere as you are woefully inadequate for the task. There's plenty of openings at McDonald's where you don't need to protect anything aside from some fries and a till.

The average police response time is between 15-146 minutes depending in department size, the day itself, and if you ask most cops even the phase of the moon. The average reaction time of a human being to a threat is 4 seconds. Having an on-site security team, even of just a few people, and a well-briefed group of staff with concealed weapons can cut violent incidents like a school shooting, stabbing, gang attack, or what have you down to the nub in terms of damage done if not entirely deter the threat. This can be done, it IS attainable and will be of minimal disruption to daily operations just as it is when you go to a mall, a concert, or other public or private place that has some sort of security or loss prevention measures. Don't just do SOMETHING, because then you will find yourself swept up in doing SOMETHING STUPID as prompted by talking heads and billionaires looking to gobble up your rights and agency.

TL;DR: Protect our schools and our kids to the same degree we do money and other paltry things. Don't just ban guns and pray for the best like an idiot.

#firearms #guns #gun control #usually never rant like this but goddamn as someone who acts as a consultant this is frustrating

[library-of-crow]

The most terrible thing about it wasn’t just what happened, but rather that it happened on a regular day.

A day so normal, so unassuming, that Valdoria would have otherwise forgotten about it. A day that would have been lost to memory, a day that should have been uneventful, a day that she desperately wishes to go back to and make into an average day.

Alas, it was not.

It was the latter half of the day when it happened, Valdoria was between tasks and enjoying a moment of peace in the garden with her brother, Valdun, and her advisor, Sam. In moments like these, they agreed to not discuss any of the day’s work and avoid worrying about any documents that need signing or speeches that need editing. Once Liddy arrived, they had planned to play a card game, loser traveled to the Midlands for a meeting with one of the more eccentric lords. 

“I’m just saying, I think the city would look better if we had, like, one really, really big tree. We could name it, make a landmark, say there’s some fancy story associated with it.” Valdoria pitched to the other two while sitting on a bench and mindlessly sketching her surroundings with a quill. Valdun sparred lazily with the air while Sam sat by Dory’s side, occasionally approving the images she turned to show her but otherwise bided her time gazing at the clouds above. 

“Why fabricate a story? We can just plant a tree.” Valdun replied, sticking his sword in an imaginary enemy. “I’d say everyone likes a good tree. We can name it in honor of the revolutionaries.. Or something.” He punctuated with a shrug before returning to striking at the air. 

“That could actually be quite nice. Honor them and the new age and whatnot.” Sam added, her eyes not leaving the sky. “Should we have made a plaque or something for that by now?”

“I’m sure it's fine,” Valdun quickly replied, “this is also beginning to sound work-y. As your King, I request a topic change.” Though his attention remained on the dramatic striking of the air in front of him, he laughed with the other two who booed his use of titles. 

“Alright fine, big guy, what do you suppose we talk about?” Valdoria finally said, putting her quill and parchment down beside her and folding her hands in her lap expectantly.

“Let’s talk about how Dance Master Lyon made me look like a fool yesterday.” Valdun’s response earned an uproar of laughter from both girls, causing him to stop his sparring to turn in their direction. He drove his sword into the ground in front of him and rested a hand atop it. “Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad.” 

Neither Dory nor Sam’s laughter showed signs of slowing. The two of them leaned into each other for support as tears threatened to spill from Dory’s eyes. They were both there when the Dance Master attempted to teach Valdun a new dance, and they both witnessed the sharp crack of his wooden stick as Lyon corrected Valdun’s posture multiple times over. 

“It was pretty bad.” Sam managed, desperately trying to catch her breath between fits of laughter. Valdun frowned at the pair, entirely unimpressed. “Why, in Fetari’s name, would you bring that up?” Dory gestured to Sam in agreement with her question but Valdun just rolled his eyes in response and returned to his sparring. 

Wiping at her eyes, Dory finally sat back up and sighed to catch her breath. She opened her mouth to quip about Valdun’s lack of grace but suddenly froze. Something was very, very wrong. The smile immediately faded from her face as a lump formed in her throat and she found herself feeling crushed by the weight of an unknown force. Her hand fell to the edge of the bench to stabilize herself as the sound of Sam and Valdun continuing their conversation became nothing but white noise behind the amplified sound of her heartbeat. It felt like she was choking or being ripped apart from the inside. The scar where Sam had stabbed her all those years ago began to burn like it was being reopened. There was nothing but pain and fear and- was that despair?

“Hey, Dory, you alright?” Sam asked, noticing the princess had stopped responding to the conversation. Her hand lightly touched her shoulder when she received no reply and Dory’s head didn’t rise from staring down at her lap. A shuddering breath from lips prompted Sam to speak to her again before gently moving some hair out of her face. At this point, Valdun had stopped swinging his sword around and sheathed it to cautiously approach the bench.

There was no response from Valdoria. She couldn’t even hear the question, much less formulate some sentence that expressed in any way how she was feeling. It was getting harder and harder to breathe as panic began to set in. Something was terribly wrong but she couldn’t figure out what. She finally lifted her head, eyes red and tear-streaked as she met Sam’s gaze. A look of horror was plastered across her face as she attempted to swallow past the lump that hadn’t stopped growing in her throat. At this, Valdun rushed to his sister’s side, kneeling on the ground beside her and desperately searching her face and body for any sign of what may have happened. 

Another wave of pain and Dory twisted her eyes shut as a sob wracked her body. She couldn’t hear him but she knew Valdun was begging Sam to help in whatever way she could while Sam continued to try and get her attention. Their efforts were entirely in vain as the pain moved to her head and both of Dory’s hands shot up to claw at her scalp as if she could dig it out. Sobs turned to wails as Dory forced herself off the bench and to her knees in the dirt. The feeling was beyond indescribable. Was it her heart being forced from her chest? The burning feeling of someone digging through her insides and twisting them into painful shapes? 

No, she realized, it was her soul being broken. A piece was being dragged away, discarded and left to rot. 

A piece of her soul was alone and afraid. 

The wails became screams as tears and snot coated her bright red face. Her body folded, hands finding the dirt and grass that always brought her comfort in the past but now found nothing. No matter what Sam tried, Dory was inconsolable. She didn’t calm until exhaustion took her and Valdun was forced to carry her to her room, his own face streaked with tears and turned emotionless from the horror he’d just witnessed.

When she awoke the next day, Valdun was sleeping at her side. He was hunched over, resting on his arms at the foot of her bed while sitting on a foot stool. Sam was similarly slumped over at the desk in the corner but a small stir from Dory woke her right up and she quickly jumped over to fuss over Dory. The movement woke Valdun, who joined in the fussing. 

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Dory muttered, as Sam tried to look her over for any signs of injury or corruption. Sam looked altogether unconvinced but allowed Dory to push herself out of bed and make her way to her desk. Her throat felt raw. “Something’s happened. I don't know what and that’s horrifying, but something’s happened.” She produced a piece of parchment from her drawer and began assembling the items required to write a letter. Valdun stopped her, removing the quill from between her fingers.

“Whatever it is you’re about to do, it can wait. You need to rest and talk to us.” He said, while Dory looked up at him with shock. He noted her swollen eyes and the sunken look of her dark circles. His baby sister was suffering beyond her years and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

“I need to figure out-”

“You need to rest.” His tone was firm. Valdun was unyielding. 

“Fine.” She spat, rising from her chair. “At least have someone look into things. There could be something awful spreading as we speak.” She almost whispered, unable to make eye contact with Valdun, before walking back towards her bed. 

Valdun shared a knowing look with Sam, who nodded in agreement, before he moved to exit her room. He put his best guards to work, searching the continent for signs of corruption or the like. They found nothing. Dory was furious. She hardly slept, spending night after night in her study trying to find some answers. The month and a half following was brutal, on her and those around her.

She almost didn’t notice that the letters from Ibex had stopped. 

She almost didn’t know why Trick had shown up at the castle unannounced, clutching Sable tightly to their chest. 

#valdoria truefire #princess hunt #dnd ocs

[selfboredom]

MOTHERS MISTAKES

CHAPTER THREE :⠀ANOTHER BEGINNING

PREVIOUS CHAPTER

summary :⠀When Arven went to Lab Zero, he expected to be tearing his mother apart for everything she put him through. For abandoning him. Only to find yet another that was left behind in the wake of her mistakes. But some small part of him held out hope. Hope that together they could fix things, and not let anything else be ruined by her.

ao3 link :⠀link

content warnings :⠀parental neglect

fandom :⠀pokemon⠀( scarlet version )

word count :⠀3110

        The trio sat around the room, silently staring at Arven and Sada. Listening closely as they finished their recounting of the past hours' events. None of them could think of anything to say, just in pure shock. Nemona finally broke the silence that had settled over the lab,

        “Dear Arceus… I can’t believe you two had to go through all that…” She whispered.

        “Well, it does seem in character. At least from what Arvens told me about his actual mom.” Florien said with a small shrug.

        “This is absolutely unbelievable. How did the professor manage to program a truly sentient AI? If this could be replicated…” Penny murmured, closely examining Sada.

        “I was programmed with the professor's memory and personality. That’s why I seem more lifelike than an average AI. Replicating me without a human as a basis would be near impossible.” Sada said, enjoying the younger students’ fascination with her creation.

        “Interesting. But you also mentioned you’re the ‘vessel’ for the time machine security system. How did Arven shut it down without… Uh…Getting rid of you?” Penny asked, finally backing off from the professor.

        “Well, that’s what we need some help with. She’s linked heavily with this lab, but if we can rewri-” Arven began, getting cut off abruptly by Penny-

        “That’s impossible.” She said flatly, not bothering to let him even finish the word.

        “Yeah, even with Penny that would be an impossible task,” Nemona said, looking sympathetically towards Arven.

        “It’s not entirely hopeless. The professor wasn’t the only one developing me. My programming should be documented thoroughly. You would have to dig around for it though.” AI Sada explained, placing a gentle hand on Arvens shoulder.

        “Still… It would take a lot of work.” Penny said, remaining unconvinced.

        “Look, if I could do this myself I would. There’s no other way. And I refuse to leave her behind without trying.” Arven replied, his voice cracking ever so slightly. The trio shared a concerned glance before Penny let out an exasperated sigh.

        “Fine. But you’re taking care of the body yourself, Arven. And helping me find that documentation.” She said, freezing up as she was suddenly captured in a hug. Arven couldn’t stop blurting out ‘thank you’ as he tightly squeezed the other teen. After a few seconds, he let go, regaining his typical standoffish composure.

        “Anyway… We can’t exactly move in here, so we need to get a copy of the code to take out of the lab. Uh, how big would that be?” Arven asked, turning to face the AI.

        “I hope you can afford a lot of hard drives.” She said bluntly.

      Arvens knees buckled as he struggled to lug the final boxes of SSDs into the lighthouse laboratory. He carefully placed them with the others. He collapsed onto the floor immediately after.

        “You know when she said the size was in petabytes… I did not imagine it would be this many terabytes.” He groaned, gasping to get oxygen back into his system while Penny stepped over him.

        “Well at least we know how many SSDs a Mudsdale weighs now.” She said, plonking herself down in the creaky office chair in front of Sada’s computer.

        “You were more than welcome to help, Penny.” He mumbled into the floor.

        “I’m already dealing with the programming for you.” She said, waving her hand dismissively as she logged into the massive desktop.

        “Now. Where’s this documentation she was talking about? It wasn’t in the Zero Lab or the research stations, so this is the only place left.” She said, talking to herself as she began sifting through the heinously messy hard drive. 

Years-old note files, random photos and downloads. It was a miracle the computer even ran with the amount of junk clogging it. Even now it took minutes at a time to load a single folder.

        “Arceus knows. She left the place a complete mess when she went down to Area Zero permanently. It should be on this first floor though-” Arven said, properly sitting up from the floor.

        “Arven, how do you think the documentation was stored?” Penny asked, cutting him off and slowly turning around to look at him.

        “I mean, she kept almost everything handwritten…” He mumbled, fidgeting slightly in place. Suddenly hyperaware of how long the cable for the computer mouse was.

        “Arven. Please for the love of Arceus. Tell me you don’t actually think the professor wrote down the documentation for a sentient AI in a PHYSICAL. NOTEBOOK.” She said, raising her voice slightly in the end. Something that Arven did not think the programmer was capable of.

        “So anyway, I’ll get to building the SSD rack.” He said, scrambling upstairs, Penny following closely behind yelling at him.

        “WE ARE NOT JUST DROPPING THIS SUBJECT SANDWICH BOY-”

        Arven slotted the final SSD into the rack. He plugged in the cables finally connecting AI Sada’s programming to the computer. Penny sat at the desk reading through the documentation that she had finally found. Though it was almost as messy as the hard drive itself, it at least made the code decipherable.

        “The SSDs are all up and running. You can edit her programming now.” He announced, walking over to the wall of monitors.

        “I just found the section about the security protocols. They don’t seem to be baked into her core functionality. So they should be removable while keeping her working. It's going to take a while though. I need to be a lot more cautious than with the league” Penny said, not looking up from the screen.

        “Thank you again, for this Penny. I can’t say it enough.” He said quietly, hugging his sleeves.

        “It’s fine. I might not like my dad constantly being around… But I can see why you want to salvage Sada.” She said, giving Arven a sympathetic glance.

        “I’m gonna go get the robot from the Zero Lab. I’ll be back soon, alright?” He said, walking out the door to meet with Florian and head back down to the crater.

        Arven sat on the floor with the robot. silently chipping off the tera crystals that had formed around her. It was tedious work. The tera crystals embedded themselves into her. It was impossible to scrape off completely. Though it was only a millimetres thin layer of crystal left after being scraped.

        “I’m going to fix this. I promise… I’ll fix her mistakes.” He whispered, knowing that she was unable to hear him. He diligently continued scraping her exterior nonetheless.

Over the next week, Arven managed to clean up the exterior as much as he could. His time to work on the repairs was limited but he made do, pulling a few all-nighters. Now, he had to deal with a much more delicate operation.

Arven took in a deep breath, carefully removing her exterior shell. As he held it, the reality of just how human-like she was hit him. The synthetic skin felt so realistic. Almost like he was holding a corpse, ice cold in his hands. He writhed uncomfortably at that feeling, barely resisting the urge to chuck it away from him. 

He set it aside safely and out of view before examining the robot's internal mechanisms. A pristine metal skeleton sat inside, almost mimicking a human exactly. Even down to a ribcage, providing extra protection to her central battery and motor. Behind the skeleton, a massive motherboard covered her entire torso.

The damage wasn’t too severe overall, only a small amount of tera crystals got inside. Though her legs were badly crystallised, they only broke a couple replaceable cables. He got back to scraping away tera crystals, extra careful not to damage any more of her internals. He hummed quietly as he worked, trying to distract himself from the utter emptiness of the lab.

He should be used to this. But being back in his mother's lab… It felt a lot more lonely. Surrounded by mountains of documents and work. Work that she always prioritised over him. Now stuck fixing another of her victims.

In a few days, Arven finished his work on the body, reaching her head. He recoiled back feeling the hair. It felt… Real. He knew it was likely some type of synthetic material, but it was still unsettling. The subtly bumpy texture. The way the strands so naturally fell between his fingers. Another reminder of the AI’s humanity.

He carefully removed the face plate, luckily not causing any damage. Like her main body, only a little bit of the tera energy had gotten inside. Though, unlike her body, the mechanisms of her head were infinitely easier to break. The electronics inside were crammed tight. There wasn’t even a millimetre of wiggle room.

Stress began to get to the teen. He knew that this was the most important part. One wrong move here could potentially break everything. With that in mind, Arven began to methodically scrape away at the tera crystals.

Over the days working on it, he found a comfortable groove. But at the last possible moment. A deafening crack sounded throughout the silent lab. Panic instantly set in, throwing his tools to the side. Frantically trying to find the damage. In the end, it was the port for one of her eyes that fell victim to his slip of the hand.

Arven let out a deep sigh of relief, removing the wire from the broken port. He thoroughly checked for any more damage to the circuit but didn’t find any. He reattached the face plate, sure to not make any more mistakes.

He took a few steps back, looking at the reassembled robot. The leftover crystallisation on her skin gave it a crystal vitiligo effect. Hopefully, it wouldn’t interfere anymore with her motor functions. Her hair was still laden with tera crystals, though due to the nature of the material he couldn’t help much with that.

        “Sorry about your eye. Hopefully, everything should be working though. Even if your legs were a bit rough with tera crystals.” Arven said quietly, waiting a moment for a response he knew wouldn’t come.

        “Penny isn’t finished adjusting your programming yet. But she’s down to removing the Paradise Protection Protocol now. You should be back soon…” He continued, standing next to the robot. He glanced over at her, greeted by empty voids for eyes.

        “Goodnight Mom… I’ll make sure you don’t get dusty before we can reboot you.” He whispered, wrapping her in a small hug. 

She was still completely cold. 

        The wait for Penny to finish fixing Sada’s programming was torturous. But Arven finally heard the familiar ring of his rotom phone late one night. 

        “Hey, I think I finally cracked it. I can’t be sure, the code was a complete mess. But I’m pretty sure the security protocols are gone.” A tired voice rang through the speaker. Only conscious via the power of copious energy drinks.

        “So if we link her to this code we can safely deactivate the time machine?” He asked, a hesitant hope seeping into his voice.

        “If everything goes well, yeah. I’ll meet you at the lab tomorrow and we can see if she functions right.” Penny mumbled, her voice barely picked up by the microphone.

        “Thank you, thank you so much for doing all this.” He said, barely containing his joy. The only response he got was a low groan followed shortly by the call disconnecting. After putting his phone away, Arven crept up to the lab's second level.

The robot stood as motionless as ever. Still exactly where she was left last. 

        “Hey, Mom. Penny finally fixed your programming. At least we think she did… Either way, you’re going to be back tomorrow. You’re… You’re going to be better tomorrow okay.” He said, hope lacing his voice. “Please… Please be better tomorrow. And if you aren’t…” He continued, tears beading in his eyes as he stared at his imperfect repairs.

        “Please just know we tried, Mom. We really did… I really did… I never wanted to abandon you. Not like her.” He whispered, voice cracking as he hugged her tightly. With no one else around, he let the tears fall. Crying silently into her chest as his grip tightened.

        Arven stood by Penny, uncharacteristically fidgety. Watching Penny link the fixed AI to the robot shell. Switching on the power, nothing happened for a few minutes. The only sound coming from the robot was the sound of internal fans running. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, only showing a dim electric blue iris in the still functional one.

The pair stayed silent, watching the robot continue to boot up. Another minute passed before she started rapidly blinking. Soon revealing her more human eye once again. 

        “Arven? Penny? Where… Where am I?… This isn’t the Zero Lab.” She said, looking around the messy room. It felt familiar. But she couldn’t specifically identify any memories of the place despite that. Her vision was also drastically limited.

        “This was the professor's ‘home’ lab. Is everything in you functioning properly?” Penny asked, trying to assess the AI’s condition as best she could.

        “My vision… It’s much reduced from before.” She murmured, her words slurred as she continued to boot.

        “That’s on me. While I was getting the tera crystals out of your head I slipped. Sorry…” Arven said, avoiding her gaze as he rubbed the back of his neck.

        “I should be able to adjust to it. Is everything else inside functional?” Sada asked, a small smile resting on her face.

        “The tera energy was pretty thick around your legs, but otherwise you should be fine.” He said, looking over to Penny to take over.

        “Do you feel anything different inside? Memories being hazy, forgetting things, stuff like that.” Penny asked, examining the professor's exterior for any other defects.

        “No. Now that I’m fully booted I don’t feel any different. Thank you for your help, Penny.” Sada responded, all lack of clarity finally leaving her voice. She seemed to be running completely normally now.

        “That’s good. If you start bugging out, uh, I apologise.” She said quietly, looking over at Arven. “I have Eevees to get back to, I’ll leave you pair be.” She said before walking out of the lab, leaving the others by themselves.

Once Penny had left, Arven leapt into a hug with Sada, clutching her as if she might just disappear if he let go. Sada tenderly wrapped her arms around Arven in turn, the pair staying still and taking in the moment. It was nice feeling her warmth again. Her arms wrapped around him again.

        “I knew you and your friend could do it, Arven.” She whispered, breaking the silence that fell upon the room. 

        “I mean, Penny did all the hard work. I just fixed your internals, and I didn’t even get that right.” He murmured, feeling guilty over breaking her eye. Sada’s only response was hugging him tighter before she spoke again.

        “I’m still proud of you, regardless. And thankful… I’m finally free of that lab.” She said, tenderly running her hand through Arvens hair, “I… I can go explore. I can pursue my own dreams.” She said, joy apparent in her voice despite its robotic undertone. 

        “Well, before you do that there is one issue we need to take care of,” Arven said quietly. Tension quickly entered the air around them. He reluctantly parted from Sada.

        “Of course… Hopefully, your friend was successful in removing my security protocols.” Sada said, the prior emotion leaving her voice. Only leaving behind dread and concern.

They had a time machine to shut down.

        Arven and the professor stepped out of the elevator. Once again greeted by the blinding brightness of the tera crystal walls. The cracks left behind from Koraidon’s battle were as it was when Arven had first left. 

Embedded in the ceiling was the camera shutter-like machine, as imposing as ever. It was in sleep mode, but they knew at any point it could reactivate itself and wreak havoc. 

        “Would you do the honours… Mom?” Arven asked, the last word coming out barely audibly. He’d said it before, but when she was actually conscious… It came a lot harder to him.

        “Of course. Hopefully, it won’t happen, but being out of raising floor range is good.” Sada said, taking the Scarlet Book from the teen. Her grip on it tightened as she approached the pedestal in the centre of the room. She couldn’t stand the thought of possibly hurting Arven again. 

He didn’t have Koraidon with him either, so in a worst-case scenario, he would be completely defenceless. She was taken out of her own head feeling a hand grab her wrist, just now noticing her hands shaking out of control. She looked down towards Arven, calming herself down enough to place the book into its slot. The pair stepped back, hearing the familiar voice over the speakers.

ID CONFIRMED: PROFESSOR SADA.

ACCESS GRANTED.

EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN INITIATED.

PLEASE WAIT…

PLEASE WAIT…

Arven and Sada stood still, staring up at the time machine. Sada had Arvens hand in a vice grip, trying to calm herself down as they kept waiting. Waiting for something to go wrong. 

For the security protocols to be reactivated. 

For history to just repeat itself.

EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN SUCCESSFUL.

The announcement cut through the suffocating tension that took over the room. The once blinding walls gradually shut off, becoming obsidian black like the floor. The shutter up in the ceiling groaned to life. This time instead of blooming outwards, it twisted itself tightly shut.

If she physically could, the AI would have been in tears. Instead, nearly collapsing she hugged Arven crushingly tight.

        “You did it! You actually did it! Dear Arceus, thank you. The professor's dream is finally over.” She said, small convulsions running through her body. “And I’m… I can leave this all behind… I can be the parent you deserved. I can go on my own journey, without anything or anyone telling me what to do.” She whispered, her voice breaking slightly.

        “Arven, I can never truly tell you how thankful I am… Thank you for not leaving me behind. For letting me… Us… Have a new beginning.” She said, releasing the teen from her grip and replacing it with a gentle hand holding his cheek. 

Arven stayed silent. Tears trickled down his face as his lips pulled themselves into a tight smile. They couldn’t just go back to rewrite the past, to erase his mother's mistakes. But now… The future looked a lot more hopeful. 

It wasn’t at all certain, but it was theirs to write. For themselves. With no one else to answer to for once in their lives.

#drabble dump #mothers mistakes #rewriting the past #pokemon fanfiction #pokemon #arven pokemon #ai sada #professor sada #pokemon scarlet fanfiction #pokemon scarlet #pokemon scarlet and violet #writing #fan fiction #fanfic #angst #hurt comfort #fix it fic #canon divergent au #retelling

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BEAUTY

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The Pros & Cons Of Having Sex With Different Penis Sizes

It's equal opportunity over here!

Ashley Cobb

Sep. 02, 2022 04:00PM EST

Anyone who says that penis size doesn't matter is lying. If you've got a penis, or you have sex with a penis, you know that certain sizes and shapes feel better than others. There isn't a right or a wrong size, nor a good or a bad. All penises are great, no matter the size, but there are some pros and cons for each. 

Here are some sex tips for every sized penis.

Sex With a Small Penis

Men with smaller penises are often much harder when erect than those with a large penis – as the blood flow has less space to fill. I don’t know about you but a harder penis equals a good time to me.

The Pros of Sex With a Small Penis: 

Better and more attentive lovers

Quiet as it’s kept, small penises can be more enjoyable than larger ones. Almost every tiny dicked dude I've had sex with was a better lover than his big penis counterpart. Guys with less-than-average penises tend to have a lot to prove, and who am I to try and stop them?

Better for anal play

When it comes to anal sex, size most definitely matters. Most women complain that anal hurts. A bigger penis tends to be too much for butt sex. I’m way more excited to have anal sex when I see that the guy doesn’t have a third leg. Small penises are ideal for backdoor fun because they don’t cause pain, tearing, bleeding, or discomfort.

Easier to make adjustments

You can always make a small penis larger, but you can’t make a large penis smaller. With sex toys such as penis extenders any penis can become a bigger penis. Penis extenders are external devices that stretch the penis to make it longer. You can also use a cock ring to create a firmer, bigger erection. As well as penis pumps—a vacuum pump— that can temporarily grow a penis up to an inch in both length and girth.

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The Cons of Sex With a Small Penis:

Limited range of motion

Smaller penises tend to “fall out” more often, creating a limitation in the type of sexual positions they can perform. Positions like doggystyle and spooning are great positions that will give maximum access. As a general rule, people with smaller penises should stick with positions that facilitate deep penetration, to utilize the entire shaft length. 

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Sex With a Average Penis

Random fact, most men are average. The average penis in America is just over 5 inches. Only 15% of all men have penis larger than 7 inches and just a tiny 2% are bigger than 8 inches, as documented in a study published in theJournal of Sexual Medicine. So by these statistics, most men have an average normal penis of about 5 inches. But average doesn’t have to mean bad, in fact, when it comes to sex, its a good thing.

The Pros of Sex with an Average Penis:

Works with most positions

If a guy is on the smaller or bigger side, certain positions can be tough. If he’s in the average range, the world is your sexual oyster and you can pretty much try anything without too much discomfort.https://www.xonecole.com/-2657960587/sex-with-a-small-penis

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Sex With a Average Penis

Random fact, most men are average. The average penis in America is just over 5 inches. Only 15% of all men have penis larger than 7 inches and just a tiny 2% are bigger than 8 inches, as documented in a study published in theJournal of Sexual Medicine. So by these statistics, most men have an average normal penis of about 5 inches. But average doesn’t have to mean bad, in fact, when it comes to sex, its a good thing.

The Pros of Sex with an Average Penis:

Works with most positions

If a guy is on the smaller or bigger side, certain positions can be tough. If he’s in the average range, the world is your sexual oyster and you can pretty much try anything without too much discomfort.

Limited sex positions

Excess length poses a real problem with heterosexual sex: vaginas are not bottomless pits and the cervix at the back end is for most women very sensitive. This means that certain positions like the ever-popular doggystyle are off limits, but sex positions like cowgirl and missionary are better suited because they avoid thrusting too deep. 

The Pros of Sex with an Average Penis:

Works with most positions

If a guy is on the smaller or bigger side, certain positions can be tough. If he’s in the average range, the world is your sexual oyster and you can pretty much try anything without too much discomfort.

Limited sex positions

Excess length poses a real problem with heterosexual sex: vaginas are not bottomless pits and the cervix at the back end is for most women very sensitive. This means that certain positions like the ever-popular doggystyle are off limits, but sex positions like cowgirl and missionary are better suited because they avoid thrusting too deep. 

More comfortable

Average penises just feel better. Contrary to popular belief, most of us don’t enjoy having our cervix banged up. Average sized penis fits more comfortably in the cervix. Never have I ever heard someone say that sex was painful from an average penis. The most sensitive part of the vagina is the lower part, and a man with an average penis will have no problem reaching it. He can cause all of the pleasure without all the length.

Better blow jobs

It is a lot easier to perform oral on a man with an average penis than on a man with a larger or smaller one. When he’s average, you don't have to worry about it fitting in your mouth or gagging and they’re easier to deep throat.

The Cons of Sex With an Average Penis:

I see none! Moving right along!

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Sex With a Large Penis

For some people size really does matter. Although size has no bearing on its ability to give and receive pleasure some people just prefer bigger. The bigger, the better. There's nothing wrong with that, we all have preferences. To each their own.

Limited sex positions

Excess length poses a real problem with heterosexual sex: vaginas are not bottomless pits and the cervix at the back end is for most women very sensitive. This means that certain positions like the ever-popular doggystyle are off limits, but sex positions like cowgirl and missionary are better suited because they avoid thrusting too deep. 

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Featured image by LaylaBird/Getty Images

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Featured image by LaylaBird/Getty Images

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