#I need to collect this data ASAP

[reiderwriter]

Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You🃏

Chapter 1 of That's What You Get

Next Chapter

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female Reader

Word count: 5.2k

Summary: After three weeks on a case in Vegas and a particularly draining phone call from your mother, you decide to take Reid up on his offer to show you the sights of Las Vegas. When you wake up the next morning, you realise one of those sights was a 24hour Wedding Parlor, and that you're now Mrs. Reid.

Warnings: Alcohol consumption, loss of memory, marriage (yeah that needs a warning), mommy issues, mentions of emotional abuse, implied sex scene, use of handcuffs in a sexual way, they theorize a possible creampie but I will neither confirm nor deny at this point, talk of contraception, no actual smut though, you guys are gonna have to wait for that. 18+ Minors DNI

A/N: The first chapter is here! Sorry for drawing you in with a silly little premise and then giving you mommy issues, I swear that after this chapter it's not bought up all that much. If you enjoy this chapter, you can sign up to the series taglist here, check out my masterlist and if you want leave a request! :D have fun reading!! ✨

Las Vegas, city of sin and entertainment capital of the world. Population approximately 600,000, home to the most famous casinos in the world, and unluckily for you, your latest unsub.

You’d been in Vegas for three weeks trying to hunt down this specific murderer, but now the case was all wrapped up and you could finally breathe, the weight of the stress you’d been carrying for almost a month now dissolving as you finally finished up the paperwork in the local precinct.

“Thank god that’s over. I cannot wait to be in bed with a good book and an empty head,” you groaned as you met the eyes of Penelope Garcia, your favorite tech analyst in the entire world and absolutely the only one you knew. She’d ended up having to join you on this case because some of the crime scenes just happened to be casinos that weren’t so happy sharing their data, but also didn’t want to be lumped with the warrant from the FBI. She’d been working between their offices and the precinct, and looked just as haggard as you felt.

“Oh, I feel you sister, this free travel experience thing is nice, but I would like to be back at my own perfect little desk hovel ASAP, thank you very much.” The two of you shared a small laugh, and then began collecting your stuff.

“Come on now, baby girl, you’re telling me that you don’t want to hit up the strip while we’re here? See the sights a little?”

“Sweet cheeks, I have been working from the most harrowing of surveillance units all week on that very strip. I have already seen the sights and they were not pretty, and definitely not worth using up my precious vacation time for.”

“Unfortunately Garcia, I don’t think you’ll be needing to use any of that vacation time to stay here,” Hotch announced as he walked in, and every member of your team snapped to attention to hear what he had to say. “I just got off the phone with Quantico, there’s a storm cloud moving in directly in our flight path and we haven’t been cleared for take off. They’re extending our stay by another day.”

“Shit,” you let out a silent curse, and noticed that your other team members didn’t seem all that happy about it either. JJ quickly excused herself from the room to call Will, Garcia let out a faux sob and fell back into her chair, and Rossi had the look of abject Italian disappointment on his face that he usually only got when you talked about your love of pineapple on pizza.

“How’s about that drink now, baby girl?” Derek Morgan teased, but it was half-hearted and you knew it. You were all desperate for bed, and you could only imagine the mistakes you would make if you went drinking now after the month you’d all just survived.

The only member of the team who didn’t seem put out quite yet was Reid, but you chalked that up to the fact that this place was his hometown.

“If you guys do change your mind, I know a bar downtown where you’re 34% less likely to be propositioned, robbed or over-charged.” He smiled over at you, and you couldn’t help but let out a giggle knowing the man was 100% serious.

“Dare I ask how you found that statistic, Reid?” Emily inquired from the other corner.

“One part actually reading the annual crime report, one part personal experience?” Reid replied, and you laughed again, unable to hold it back.

“Count me out, thank you,” you replied, and you could have sworn for a second you saw a flash of disappointment flash over his features, but you didn’t get the chance to question it, because a call was lighting up your phone screen.

You quickly excused yourself and moved to pick up the call from your mother.

“Mom, hey, what’s up?”

“What, I can’t check in on my daughter now for no reason?” you sighed and rubbed your temples, knowing exactly how this phone call was going to go, because it was how the last ten calls home had.

“Yes, mom, of course you can. How are you?”

“Terrible. Cindy’s daughter is getting married, and it’s all she’s talking about now. Can you believe it? The girl was absolutely wild when you were friends with her in high school and now she’s settling down with a lawyer of all people. Someone should warn that young man before he realises what he’s got himself into,” she scoffed on the other end of the line and you did your best to not get worked up. If you got angry it only made her more self-richeous.

“I know, Mom, Jessica sent me an invite, and I’m sure Trevor knows exactly what he’s getting into since they’ve been dating since high school.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know that? You never tell me anything.”

“I’m sorry, Mom, I’m in the middle of a case right now, can I call you back later?” You did your best to escape the conversation before it devolved into something you really didn’t want to talk about, like yourself, and more specifically your love life. But the gorgon had you frozen through the line and you weren’t about to make the mistake of hanging up on her.

“I’m sure your boss could spare you for five minutes, over-working you like he does. You haven’t had the time off to come and visit me since you got that fancy little job of yours, so you can do me this favor at least.”

“Sure, mom.” At times like this, you knew it was best to just let her talk and ride out the wave.

“And I’m sure you don’t even have time to date. Are you taking care of yourself, at least? Making sure you’re at least presentable, I hope? Its like I always say, you could meet your future husband in one of those precincts, you know. Get a big, strong man to take care of you.”

You had to resist the urge to throw your phone. You’d explained to your mother time and time again that you were perfectly content being the big, strong man for yourself, but there was absolutely no getting through to her. You received one of these phone calls everytime one of her friends or coworkers kids announced an engagement, got pregnant or bought a house, three things that she was desperate for you to do, as well. As soon as you saw the instagram post from Jessica you’d been counting down the days, almost thankful for your mothers lack of online presence.

“A crime scene isn’t exactly the most charming of meet cutes, Mom.”

“Well, then what about Virginia? There are some fine men working at the FBI surely. What about that one coworker of yours, what was his name?” Your heart-race increased for a moment, praying she wasn’t about to put a thought in your head that you wouldn’t be able to escape.

“Derek Morgan, was it? Now, that’s a fine young man.” This time you couldn’t stop the startled cry that came from your mouth. Sure, Morgan was an incredibly attractive man, but he’d joked around with you like a brother ever since you’d taken down your first unsub with the team. Your team was your family and your support system on the road, and they had your back on the case, so really, had your mother said anything, you’d have responded with incredulous guffawing. Hotch was like your dad, Rossi a fun Great-Uncle or something. You saw the sister’s you’d never had in JJ and Emily and of course Garcia was your best friend and you shared so many likes and dislikes that you regularly joked about being long-lost twins separated at birth. And Reid was Reid.

“Just give dating some thought, would you at least? The clock is ticking for you, you know.”

“Mom, I’m not even thirty yet. I’m in no rush.”

“That's what your Aunt Linda said, and look at her.” Your Aunt Linda was a perfectly content single woman in her late forties who had a high paying executive job, in NYC of all places, so yeah, you were in no rush at all.

“Listen, Mom, I’ve got to go, Hotch is calling me into the office to talk about some case files. I’ll speak to you later?”

“God, it’s like you don’t even want to talk to your mother for even five minutes. Go on, then, go do your big fancy job. Call me soon.”

“Yeah, Mom, I will.” And with that you finally hung up. Running a hand through your hair you paused for a breath for a second, closing your eyes and letting your hand just grip your hair for a second before releasing your breath for a second.

In the grand scheme of things, you knew that your mom wasn’t all that much to complain about. You and Emily had bonded over your respective mommy issues early in your time on the team, and you knew a lot of the other team members were either lacking some family member or the other, so you were just thankful that she was still around to annoy you, but god did she make it difficult sometimes.

Realising that any second, you’d have one profiler or the other come find you and ask you (with the best of intentions) what was wrong, you plastered a smile on your face and walked back into the office. You didn’t exactly want to relive that call anytime soon.

“Back so soon, Y/N? I thought that was your mom,” Morgan questioned you when you stepped back in.

“Yeah it was. One of my friends from highschool is getting married and you know how she loves to gossip.” You’d learnt early in the profession that you were in that the best way to hide something was to tell the truth about it for as long as you could, and then change the subject.

“Hey, Reid, you still up for a drink at that bar?” You looked hopefully at the man in the corner, and prayed noone would bring up your absolute change in attitude. “I was thinking a glass of wine or two after a successfully closed case couldn’t hurt, right?”

“Yeah, sure. You wanna head back to the hotel first and change, or do you want to go from here? Hotch said we’re free now until 2pm tomorrow.” You could see a questioning look from Morgan to your left, but you kept your vision focused on Reid, quietly thankful for the rest of the teams disinterest.

“Give me five to drop off my badge and gun in my room and freshen up a bit and we can be on our way. If this bar is bad though, Reid, you know I’m never letting you hear the end of it, right?”

“I ran the statistics, there’s only a 14% chance you’ll dislike it.”

“You know what’s scary is, I can’t even tell if you’re being sarcastic or not.”

–x–

Sarcasm or no, you had to admit, the bar he’d taken you to was pretty nice. It was a low-lit bar only a twenty minute taxi ride from your hotel and whilst it wasn’t exactly on the strip, it wasn’t so far out to be inconvenient. The best part about it was that it was lined with bookshelves, and each booth was blocked off by another, making it feel more like a library than a watering hole. You almost forgot you were in Vegas when you stepped in.

“Yeah, this is definitely a Spencer Reid place,” you said as you took the final swig of your wine, the glass you’d ordered on arrival having gone down easier than you’d expected.

“How so?” Spencer said as he returned to your table, carrying the replacement drinks he’d gone to order with him.

“Come on, Spencer. I’ve never seen the inside of your apartment but I’m sure it’s just this place with less furniture and more books.”

“Y/L/N, are you profiling me right now? Because that sounds pretty close to profiling?” Spencer teased and you rolled your eyes at him, grabbing your next drink from him and giving it a stir - the wine was good but at the price per glass you’d decided maybe cocktails were the thing for tonight.

“Besides, you did mention wanting to curl up with a book tonight, so I thought this bar was probably a good fit for you too.”

“Whose profiling who now, Doctor?” It was his turn to roll his eyes, and he took a sip of his drink. You knew he didn’t drink that often, but he seemed pretty open to the idea tonight, and you were absolutely glad for the company.

“Okay, I won’t profile if you don’t, but do you mind me asking you a question, Y/N?”

“Fire away,” you were playing with the stirrer in your cocktail, waiting for him to ask the question but he’d hesitated for a moment before speaking again, causing you to look up directly into his eyes.

“What’s going on with you and your mom? I don’t mean to pry and I didn’t overhear any of your call earlier or anything, but when you came in again you were all tense and you had that strained smile on your face. Then you suddenly changed your mind and decided we should get drinks so, I’m just guessing here, but you could probably do with talking about it, right?”

You let out a groan and let your head hang a bit. Yeah, you were starting to regret taking that role in the team of profilers. But at least Reid was sincere, and you knew his intentions were good. Of all the members of the team, you’d probably have described him as the safest. It was strange to think, considering all the comfort you found in your other friends, but there was just something so reassuring about Reid’s presence, the way most people overlooked him at first, how he could easily fall into his work and how you could see the cogs moving in his head as he made one genius leap to another that just made you think that everything was going to be okay if he was there.

So because it was him, you decided to talk.

“She’s just…She’s just a little much sometimes, you know?” He smiled back a knowing smile, but didn’t try to add anything and encouraged you to keep going.

“She’s been really persistent recently in bothering me about hitting some of lifes big milestones - marriage, kids, you know? And it always leaves me in a panic because though I’m pretty sure I want those things just yet, I don’t want the pressure of having them yet.” You swallowed the bile in your thoat and continued

“Everytime she says something, I feel bad that I don’t have them. And the way she talks about them its like they’re some kind of… of personal failure, that I’m not trying hard enough to catch a man or something, and I just wonder what if she’s right?” You start slow but you feel yourself gaining pace as you begin rambling, by the end you’re left wondering if Reid even caught any of that.

“I’m perfectly content living alone, but what if I’m secretly not, and I end up forty and alone and can’t even get a guy to look at me.”

“I can pretty confidently say that that’s not going to happen, Y/N.” Reid replied when you finally grabbed your drink ready to take another sip.

“How come?”

“You won’t have to put any effort into catching a man, Y/N.” Reid replied.

“You’re saying that because you’re my friend and you care about me Reid, of course you think that.”

“No, I’m saying that as an FBI Profiler that’s noticed the barman, the man on a date in the corner and the group of guys smoking outside the door eye you up since we’ve been here. And considering we’ve been doing paperwork all day, and the only change in your appearance since 8am this morning was the fresh coat of chapstick you put on while we were in the taxi, I’d think you hadn’t really put that much thought into what you look like right now.”

“You’re exaggerating,” and you really believe that, until you turn to look at the guy on the date and see him avert his gaze from you quickly, and you realise there might be something in what he’s saying.

“Okay, but that still doesn’t mean that I need or want to hear those things from my mother.”

“Y/N, take it from me, mother’s can be complicated.”

“God, I feel so stupid talking to you about something so trivial with my mom, I shouldn’t be doing that, we’re here to have fun.”

“Y/N, its okay. I can do the mommy issues talks, I’m perfectly qualified, but…” he trails off and grabs his drink for another sip and you find yourself hanging off his words begging for him to bring you more comfort and spoken caresses.

“But what, Reid?” you finally ask, as you realise he’s dragging this out on purpose to tease you a little.

“But how about a distraction instead? Have you ever been in a Las Vegas casino with a man that is banned from gambling in most of them?” He wiggled his eyebrows a little as he asked that and you giggled again, grateful for the reprieve from the serious talk.

“That doesn’t sound all that fun, Spencer.”

“Oh yeah, it’s not, but we could always use those vouchers we got as a token of appreciation earlier in the bars and drink some pretty fancy alcohol?”

“Spencer Reid, you are finally speaking my language.”

“I’m still speaking English Y/N, but if you wanted me to switch to russian or some other language, I could accommodate that depending on your linguistic preference.”

“It was a joke, Spence, now let’s get out of here.”

With that, he stood and dramatically offered you his hand like a gentleman, placing your hand in the crook of his elbow when you took it and guiding you swiftly out of the sweet bar. You were with Spencer, your safe friend, close work colleague and probably the least likely member of the BAU Team to get into trouble in a bar in Vegas. What’s the worst that could happen? You thought, as you took a final step out into the humid night air of Las Vegas.

–X–

The first thing you noticed in the morning was the pounding in your head, and it was pretty much the only thing you noticed for quite some time. When you managed to finally unglue your eyes, the second thing you noticed that this definitely wasn’t your room. The third thing you noticed was the gaping hole in your memories that explained how you possibly could’ve ended up wherever it was that you were. Or really any memories from the night before at all.

Letting out a quick groan you sit up in bed and take stock of your surroundings. Although the layout is different, you quickly recognise the interior matches the hotel you’ve been staying at, so you’re thankful that you’re at least somewhere relatively safe, and most likely in familiar company. The room looks to be neat on the whole, but there’s obvious signs of a drunken escapade strewn everwhere - two champagne flutes and a drained bottle, the contents of your purse spilt onto the chair in the corner, some random balloons in the corner you must have picked up somewhere in a drunken stupor, your clothes discarded in a trail to the bed.

That last one wakes you up a little bit more, and almost embarrassingly, you look down at yourself and see your lack of clothing, pulling the covers of the quilt closer to you as you feel yourself flush.

Fuck.

There’s a shifting in the bed next to you, and you look down in horror to see exactly which member of your team got you so plastered last night. You try to move to see who it is, but theres a tightness around your wrist and you’re pulled right back down into bed. You look down at your arm, and that’s when you realise you’re really screwed.

There, around your wrist and restraining you against the bed, is a set of handcuffs. FBI standard. The insinuation flames your face as you whip around to see which close friend and coworker you maybe - possibly - hooked up with last night, too embarrassed to look at your hand any more.

Luckily, your mystery man shifts again, and you catch sight of the nest of brown curls right before he turns over to see you, so when you finally meet the eye of Doctor Spencer Reid, you don’t scream in surprise.

“Y/N? What are you doi-” he cuts himself off as he lets his eyes trail down your body, quickly noticing your state of undress and pulling himself up into a seated position. He is similarly disrobed and it takes all of your strength to pull your gaze away from his bare chest to look literally anywhere else, your face practically flaming now.

“Spencer, would you mind helping me out over here?” you manage to squeak out quickly, as he does his best to avoid your eyes. “I seem to be a little stuck?”

That draws his attention back to you, and he finally notices the strange position of your arms and the handcuffs keeping you pinned to that spot in the bed.

“Shit, Y/N, I’m so sorry, fuck,” he quickly pulls on the pants he discarded by his side of the bed and scrambles over to you, tripping over once in his haste.

“Do you know where the key is?” you ask as he arrives at your side again, your free hand clutching the sheets over your breasts like your life depended on it.

“If that’s my pair they should be in the safe in the nightstand with my creds, give me a second to look.” After a second, he reaches the aforementioned safe box, pulling it open. He roots around inside it for a few seconds and then he spots something ad you watch the blood drain from his face.

“Spencer, what’s wrong?” you spit out quickly, tongue still heavy, and lips probably still swollen, from the night before, so you trip over the words a little. He pulls out the keys from the draw, and you let out a sigh of relief, but you’re still tense as he reaches back inside the draw and pulls out something else.

“Y/N, there wouldn’t happen to be a ring on that hand would there?” Spencer still isn’t looking at you, still staring intently at whatever else is in his hands. You try to angle your head to look, but between the restraints and the fact that Reid had turned his back to you couldn’t quite see what it was.

“What? No, I don’t wear a ring on this hand-” you cut yourself off abruptly as you look down and see it. There on the fourth finger of your left hand, the one that is still chained to the bed by your partners handcuffs, is a ring. There’s a ring on your ring finger. You just woke up in Las Vegas with no memory, in your coworkers room, naked, with a ring on your ring finger.

Your heart drops to your ass as you snap your head back around to Spencer, who finally works up the courage to look you in the eye.

“I think you should look at this” he stutters out and finally presents you with the other item he pulled out of the draw. Your jaw drops open and the pounding in your head turns into a continuous buzzing as you see yourself presented with a marriage liscence. Pinned to the corner with a paperclip is a polaroid picture, and you recognise yourself and your clothes from the night before, with the addition of a veil and bouquet, your arms slung around Reid’s neck as he pulls you in for what you can assume was a pretty passionate kiss.

“Y/N I think we got married last night.”

For a second you could’ve sworn your heart stopped. This was not happening, not to you, not right now. How stupidly drunk could you have gotten to have actually gone and married someone you weren’t even dating. And considering your current lack of clothing, it was dawning on you that you had probably done a little bit more than what was in that photo.

“Spencer unlock these handcuffs right now, so help me God,” you breathed deep and screwed your eyes shut, hoping that wihtout the distraction of the glaring lights you’d be able to remember some of what you’d done last night, but nothing came to you.

Reid, for what it was worth, got you unlocked quickly. You winced slightly as you pulled your arm away from the position it’d been in for however many hours.

“Sorry, I’m so sorry, I should have undone those last night, I don’t know why I didn’t, I’m usually pretty good at remembering stuff like that.” Reid rambled, running a hand through his hair and pacing slightly at your side of the bed. You pushed yourself up and watched him for a minute, just looking at this man who was now, probably, your husband.

Your husband.

You shook the thought from your head and cut his rambling off quickly.

“You put me in these?” you asked, just desperate for any clarification on any of the events of the last 24 hours, not fully grasping the implications of what you were asking until Reid was looking down at you with a flushed face and a mouth gaping like a fish, struggling to find the words to say.

“This is my hotel room. Those are my handcuffs… I kind of just assumed…” he trailed off the thought and you were right with him, the embarrassment heating your face just as much as it had his. You found it hard to meet his eyes the, and dropped yours to your lap.

“So you don’t remember, either?” You almost sighed in relief at that. If even a genius with an IQ of 187 and an eidetic memory was in this state after a night of drinking, then you really couldn’t be blamed for getting so drunk you married your coworker and most likely had some pretty kinky sex with him, remembering absolutely nothing on top of that at all.

“Do you need me to grab you something to wear?” he asked as he looked down at you, letting his gaze trail probably a little bit too low for a little bit too long. You grew heated under his stare, as your body reacted, and you realised how easy it must have been to fall underneath him last night if this was how you were feeling from just one look.

But you pulled yourself out of those thoughts quickly, and it seemed that so did he, as he began grabbing clothes from the floor and handing them to you, turning away as you started getting yourself into a semi-decent state.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” you heard Reid mumble to himself as he made his way around the side of the bed, and in your concern for him, you called out.

“Anything specific those curses were for, Spence? Because I know this isn’t exactly the most ideal situation, but four Spencer Reid swears in a row is a cause for concern.” You tried to joke, hoping to relieve some of the anxiety of your predicament.

“I can’t find…” he started and then dragged a hand over his face, trying to wipe the exhaustion from his eyes. “Y/N, I think we didn’t use protection.” You could see him panicking now, and for a second you thought of joining him too, but you crossed the room and grabbed his arms.

“Spencer, look at me, it’s fine. If we did end up… doing that, I’m on birth control, and we probably have time to grab something extra just to make sure, right?” he looked down at you then and after a moments hesitation, he wrapped his arms around you.

“I’m so sorry about all of this, I’m so stupid for suggesting we go to that casino bar last night, I don’t know what I was thinking. You even said last night that this wasn’t what you wanted for yourself, right now, god I’m an idiot, you don’t deserve this.” He buried his face in your neck and held you tight, and you pulled yours up to his back, rubbing circles into his skin slowly.

“Spencer, listen to me. I can think of noone I would have rather had a shotgun Vegas marriage with, okay? This isn’t your fault, we were both drunk, and I’m sure a Reid who was thinking straight could give me some kind of statistic about inhibitions dropping with a certain amount of alcohol.”

“A study in the United Kingdom found that there was an increase of risky sexual behavior in young people who had participated in binge drinking, including unprotected sex with a new partner and the use of emergency contraceptives and I’m not sure why I’m still talking when that was probably rhetorical, right?” You smiled at his panic, finding him just as endearing as ever, even in this predicament.

“What I’m saying, Spencer, is that we’re going to be okay. This isn’t the first time someone has gotten married in Vegas on a whim. Hell, this isn’t even the first time it’s happened to someone on our team. In a sense, this was a very traditional wedding.”

He groaned into your neck again and you laughed up at him. Sure, you were panicked still, but just having him in your arms there sharing his honest feelings with you instead of bottling it up and leaving you to deal with it on your own in your head too was doing you a world of good, and you found the words you used to reassure him soothing you, too, in turn.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. One, find the nearest pharmacy. Two, find whatever Elvis-inspired love shack wrote that marriage license and figure out if it’s actually legally binding. Three, avoid all of our coworkers until 2pm. How does that sound?”

Reid pulled himself out of your neck then, and you were almost sad at the loss of that warmth near you.

“It sounds like I made the smartest choice of a wife I was ever going to make,” he smiled down at you.

“Oh you got jokes now, Doc? I see.”

“Thought I should let you know all my deep dark secrets now we’re married.” You shared a laugh, and standing there amongst the debris of the night before, despite all the mistakes, you knew you were safe, and that the two of you would always be safe together.

🏷️ @sailortongue @bethanyhaas01 @reidscaffeine @high-functioning-cosplayer @average-sunflower @multifandom-on-the-side @anniewhalelover @prentissesredtanktop @abbyshmaby @academiareid @hugyourlungs @w-windy @babybluecakes @SwaggySagieWagie@reidandhotchsgirl @lover-of-books-and-tea @star0055 @Zaapsite @daddy-dotcom @bluecandycake

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog: Wakfu Season 2 (episodes 1-5)

Episode 1 - Monsters and Chimeras

I didn't mention it in the liveblog of season 1, but I think it is probably common for a person in a group of adventurers to be a scribe/quest journal keeper.

(putting on a crepinjurgenite tinfoil hat) We know that Kerubim keeps one canonically, and that as a child Joris liked scrap booking, so my headcanon is as follows:

While travelling alone, Joris keeps a private travel journal nobody is allowed to read (it has: drawings and photos of views he found beautiful + quick sketches of maps and notes on environment to refine at home (HE'S CANONICALLY INTO CARTOGRAPHY, BESIDES PHOTOGRAPHY) + he gets sappy&mentally ill about it all, so it's cringe to him.) (Unsurprisingly, it never contains any sensitive political data or his objectives, and if he does need to write something like that down, he tears that page out asap)

Atcham doesn't keep journals as a rule (having a literal paper trail might reveal to the investigators the location where he hid the bodies)

While travelling as a group, Kerubim keeps the journal, and it's a pretty pragmatic one (for him. He writes down the most random things, from important info, to actual fucking recipies he learned and personal notes à la "NOTE! next morning after we exit the tavern i should buy tangerines. i think Joris is beginning to suffer vitamin C deficiency but is keeping silent about it as usual"). Unlike Joris, he isn't into photography or doodling, HOWEVER, he will purposefully ask Joris to take photos and draw maps/landmarks in that journal. Because Joris is good at it. (And because he has had a folder of Joris's art through ages 4-600 in a hidden room in the house, all framed and sorted alphabetically, and he NEEDS more items in the collection.)

Episode 2 - Rubilaxia

It was mentioned at the end of the previous episode that Eva would be making her way through the Cania plains, and I am glad the series shows us at least one of the unique rocks found in Cania.

I don't know why, but it feels nice when the games and the cartoons represent the same place the same way. That's why I'm pointing that out.

Episode 3 - Remington Smisse

(coughs) This sword appears in episode 1 of the critically acclaimed (and worldwide-beloved) show under the name "Dofus: Aux Tresors de Kerubim"

Once again, the show has been planting seeds for Adamai's joker arc for its entire run, and still managed to squander it during season 3.

I have never seen a show fumble the bag that bad, I'm sorry.

Episode 4 - The Return of Percedal

Big believer in rubitristeva. A family can be a dad and swdad (sword dad) and a mom.

Episode 5 - The Dragon Pig

Wakfu Cannibalism Counter: 1

The reason I point this out is that, with every instance of inter-adventurer cannibalism in canon, the chance that Joris, Kerubim, and Atcham have tasted human flesh (outside of Waven) grows.

On the topic of Waven Cannibalism Lore, strangely, porkassess, AKA the pig people who are stuck in a mutual cannibalism war with Bonta under Joris's rule (technically not cannibalism because they are a different sentient species from twelvians, similar to goblins and bworks, but I doubt it's much better...) worship the minor god Ougah (who is a mushroom)

It is unknown (at least, to me) what the hell the Dragon Pig is.

But he is definitely tasty.

While they were busy grinding their professions and doing pizzlarva quests, he was dungeon crawling with his guild.

Also, let me be real, the whole conflict of "boo-hoo, nobody respects Tristepin" is random, mean-spirited, and out of character, inserted into the show simply to create conflict. Tristepin got resurrected after weeks of them thinking he was dead. They should not, logically, treat him this way (at least yet).

Reasons I think Dragon Pig might be an immortal, perpetually reincarnating/perpetually killed porkass: Does this to a person who lives in areas surrounding Bonta.

[the-way-astray]

Wrote a strie(efe) fic enjoy it. It's called Sixteen Months

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stria was minding her own business, walking down the street, when she spotted Keefe talking to Katie. Great. Her two least favorite people in the world.

Well, that wasn't fair to Katie. Katie was only occasionally bad. Keefe, on the other hand? That was a whole other level of hatred.

Stria was going to simply be on her way, but then remembered that Keefe talking to Katie could NOT be good. So she walked over to the two of them and overheard their conversation.

"Are you telling me what to do with my life?" Keefe was asking.

"No, of course not. That would ruin the experiment."

"You're demanding for me to participate in an experiment."

"I'm not demanding anything from you," Katie countered. "The experiment is ongoing and I never asked for your cooperation, I just did it. The fact that you figured that out is not my problem."

"You're stalking me!"

"It's not stalking if you're fictional."

Stria decided she needed to get Keefe and Katie away from each other ASAP. This was a recipe for disaster.

Sixteen Months Later

"But... what about Isa?" Stria sputtered.

"Oh, yeah." Katie laughed nervously. "Me and Isa are actually the same person. I just put on a wig to be her, and all our text conversations are fake. I just liked the idea of having a cognate. But I mean it when I say I love you."

"Why would you love me?" Stria asked. "You love Keefe, and I hate him."

"You don't, though," Katie said knowingly. "After all this time, I've seen how you've softened to us both. You've fallen for both of us."

"I have not!"

"Not even me?"

Stria gritted her teeth. "Okay, fine. Maybe I've developed feelings for you. But it would never work out."

"Why?"

"Because we always end up fighting over Keefe!"

"I have a feeling that won't be much of an issue anymore," Katie said. "You're telling me all this time you've spent realizing you like me, you haven't realized you like Keefe? Not even a little?"

"No," Stria said. It was the fastest answer, though there was more nuance. Katie wasn't wrong when she said Stria softened towards him.

"Fine then. Does THIS fix that?" Katie pulled a booklet out of her pocket. On the front cover it read, 16 Things I Love About Stria by Keefe Irwin Sencen. "He even included his middle name so it would be sixteen letters," she pointed out. "And it's sixteen pages."

Katie made a compelling argument.

"I do love the number sixteen."

"Then why don't you read this?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stria, Katie, I'm sorry, it's for the bit

i, stria sixteen, hereby give "sixteen months" anon (and any following anons and non-anons) permission to call the ship between stria sixteen, kathryn myfairkatiecat, and keefe irwin sencen "katrieefe" instead of "strie(efe)"

katie is nowhere near my least favorite person in the world

"katie was only occasionally bad" LMFAOOOO

correct i hate keefe way more than katie

oh boy this is gonna be a fic where katie stalks keefe and then collects a truly ridiculous amount of data on him, isn't it. i can smell those ones a mile out

how did keefe figure out katie was stalking him. i know i joked about her breaking into his house and him catching her but let's be so honest. realistically katie would not be caught by keefe if she was trying to gather data on him

be right back, i'm going to go tie katie and keefe to opposite sides of a room

i see this anon is a stanch proponent of the katie-is-isa theory. did they see that horrific comic sans presentation

sixteen months would make me hate keefe more, not less. think of my hatred toward his as an exponential function

why are there love confessions already. i know it's been sixteen months but like. it's not enough

"maybe i developed feelings for you" i'm going to pass out. or maybe pass away

I WOULD NOT SOFTEN TOWARD KEEFE

"katie made a compelling argument" she did not make a compelling argument. she just said a bunch of sentences that contain the word sixteen. this is not an argument that would work on anyone that's not me. unfortunately it is me therefore it works

EVEN IF IT'S FOR THE BIT YOU NEED TO PAY FOR MY THERAPY

@myfairkatiecat there's more of them

[britt-kageryuu]

The stream is welcome to the sight of a large greenhouse/warehouse with multiple raised garden beds, large pots, multiple metal racks, and a large tank of water, all with multiple fruit bearing plants, bushes, shrubs, a variety of flowers and various produce. The pool has visible reeds, and some water vegetation, but it's not clear what else is in it.

Donnie is wandering around checking the plants, his model dressed in dark overalls with knee pads, combat boots, his mask, and a purple flannel under the overalls. His tail swaying contentedly behind him, visibly longer than the last time the audience saw it. He was also carrying a large basket that he was tossing various plants he picked into.

The audience can hear him muttering and talking to his recording device, about the plants conditions, and calculating when some would be ready to harvest. Donnie obviously wasn't paying attention to the stream even though he set up the stream to basically just watch him tend to his greenhouse, while still wearing a mic.

Donnie does pause every now and then when notifications go off, but otherwise hasn't acknowledged the stream, too absorbed in his data collection.

Some of the audience is happy to see both Shelldon and River going around in the garden helping out. River is carrying a watering can and stopping every now and then to pour a bit of water on some plants. Shelldon in floating around the bee boxes that are scattered around, scanning for possible problems.

"Shelldon can you turn on some music? If I remember correctly, some of the plants loved when I left some playing before." Donnie calls out, while looking over a coffee plant.

Shelldon perks up, "You got it Dude! Some mondo awesome music coming right up!" What sounds like an 80s jam starts playing through speakers around the warehouse.

Now while Donnie was walking about his tail is wagging and flicking to the beat of the music. Then slowly Donnie just starts to dance, and groove about, skillfully dodging around the pots and planters, and gently puts down the basket before outright jumping about dancing to the music.

The chat is now spammed with music or dance based emotes and emojis.

Donnie while still grooving, goes over to the water tank, and checks out the conditions of the plants. Then plunges his head under the water... leaving many confused, until he pulls out and starts excitedly talking about some plants in the tank looking close to a good harvest point. Then he shakes off the water before moving to some monitoring devices on the tank.

Then back to dancing about while check more plants, only to pause at a plant just out of veiw, let out a loud gasps before running to grab his collecting basket to start picking what ever plant he was excited about.

"Shelldon, River, we finally have a new ingredient ready to use in our coffee and tea making! Go prepare the equipment, I want to run trials on this ASAP!" They announced loudly while speed walking towards the stream camera. "Sorry viewers, but I need to put you in the basket while I move the set up to the work station. Then you can watch how I make our tea and coffee!"

The next few minutes were a view of the mix of leaves, berries, and flowers in the basket, before being moved to a shelf close to a modified kitchen/science workstation.

The rest of the stream was mainly just watching Donnie go about the process of preparing the ingredients to turn into the tea and coffee blends.

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

Masterpost

I honestly didn't know where I was going with this, but the inspiration struck, and I ended up writing this.

[rallamajoop]

Resident Evil 7 Ending Text

The ending sequence of RE7 features panning shots of a document containing various photos and text about the project that created Eveline. The text repeats every few paragraphs (often several times in the same image), but it does include some interesting details about Eveline that don't show up elsewhere in the game.

A few lines of the same text even show up again on the side of the Rose flasks in RE8 ‒ Recently deceased. Procedure is untested and early subjects were destroyed too quickly to collect definitive data ‒ and elsewhere, If injections are skipped for prolonged periods of time, the product will age rapidly... (If you have really good eyesight, you might even notice this snippet continues underneath the 'Stabilising Compounds' header.)

But the complete text from RE7 is much longer. I've stuck what I could patch together from the ending sequence under the cut.

The product is a bioweapons commodity created by the Bioweapons Division. It takes the form of a child (in this case a girl named Eveline) which can be purchased and raised to suit individual client needs. Its purpose is mind control — up to and including inducement to violence. Application can vary from political to military to economic destabilization. Method of inducement: chemical transference of psychotropic compounds via skin to skin contact between Product and Subject inducing a mentally suggestive state in the subject responsive only to the product. Known dangers: The Product is currently in the prototype stage and is both mentally and physically unstable requiring regular maintenance injections of stabilizing compounds. If the injections are skipped for prolonged periods of time the Product will age rapidly — 25 Xs faster than normal. Eventually the Product will become insane and a danger to all around it. No tests have been run on subjects depriving them of maintenance chemicals for more than 6 months as the situation became too dangerous for observation. The Product also affects its environment mutating plants and promoting the growth of a highly toxic psychotropic mold, the ingestion of which causes insanity and severe mutations in those who ingest it. There is some indication the use of the mold could revive the recently deceased. However, this has yet to be tested. Early subjects were destroyed much too quickly to collect definitive data on this. Product should ship with a minimum of two Handlers each with serum immunizing them to the Products mental control as well as Stabilizing Compounds. Handlers should be equipped with equipment tuned to Product's biochemisty. One of the Handlers should imprint on the Product as a close relative, either as a mother or as a father figure. This will aid in controlling during field operations. Product is ready for field testing which should be initiated as soon as possible. Suitable clients exist in the Americas, and one should be selected ASAP for test delivery.

Among the more interesting details is that bit about having a handler 'imprint on the Product as a close relative', which is made to sound like it's simply a part of transport procedure ‒ just another thing for handlers to be equipped with. I'd assumed the 'imprinting protocol' Mia refers to in the game meant she must have been involved with the project that created Eveline from early on, but this makes it sound like part of a pre-departure checklist. Could Mia have met Eveline and been 'imprinted' only shortly before they left?

Far creepier is the loud implication that the 'parental' bond of handler to 'Product' would 'aid in controlling during field operations'. Mia gets an awful rap around this fandom, but it's hard to imagine she'd be happy being shipped off as Eveline's permanent field-handler to some foreign government or terrorist organisation ‒ especially given how eager she is to be done with her "babysitting job." But once Eveline was past the 'prototype stage', that sounds like exactly what the Connections intended for handlers like her to do.

Then there's the bit about giving handlers a "serum immunizing them to the Products mental control," which could certainly explain how Mia was able to resist for so long, and is presumably the same agent the Connections supplied to Lucas (I wonder if Zoe ever got her hands on some?) Must be a different serum to the one that actually cures you of the mould, however, since Lucas pretty clearly isn't cured.

Also: There is some indication the use of the mold could revive the recently deceased. However, this has yet to be tested. Early subjects were destroyed much too quickly to collect definitive data on this. Yeah, I'd say that one's been pretty well tested by the end of RE7!

As for that part about Eveline aging 25x faster than normal if not regularly injected with the stabilising compound, the numbers add up surprisingly well! Eveline escaped in October 2014. By September 2016, when Lucas reports she's showing grey hairs, she'd have aged around 2x25=50 years, making her apparent age close to 60. By Ethan's arrival in July 2017, that's 2 years and 9 months, or almost 70 extra years of aging, for total of 80 years old.

Yeah, looks about right to me.

Getting back to RE8, what does it mean that some of this text was reused on the side of the Rose flask? All that stuff about rapid aging clearly applies to Eveline, but seems completely irrelevant to baby Rose.

Much like the RE7 ending, I don't think the text is meant as much more than a bit of convenient lorem ipsum-style filler material ‒ though the fact she's labeled EVE No. 3 is obviously a reference to the project that created Eveline (and yes, the same number appears on all four flasks ‒ it's not a flask number). Which raises the question: who were 1 and 2? Eveline's referred to as E-001, so could 2 be the other member of the E-series we see being killed in necrotoxin tests in the lab photos? Or was Eva 1 and Eveline 2, by Miranda's reckoning? Were these flasks previously used to hold the remains of a previous E-series member tagged E-003?

It's not like it's essential lore or anything, but it'd be interesting to know which version was on the mind of whoever created that asset all the same.

[yjlom]

About MS Recall

The problem

So, apparently Microsoft decided to put an AI on their operating system that uses regular screenshots to store, index, and describe every single thing the user does on their computer. If you enter a password -- it's stored and indexed; if you send a message: it's stored and indexed. It stores all that in a neat little unencrypted database that doesn't require elevated privileges to access, meaning any hostile program only needs a few seconds at most to perform weeks worth of data collection, and it's already processed for easy use by the cracker. Even if the data stays on device, the applications for facilitating domestic abuse are absolutely terrifying.

I don't use DOS, so it doesn't affect me, right?

Wrong. Chances are, your bank, your hospital, your employer, your school, your tax office use it. This "feature" can be deactivated, and I seriously hope it will be on every single system handling sensitive data (or better stop using that operating system altogether), but it only takes one employee viewing it on their personal computer for a major data leak to occur.

The wider problem

The data is supposedly and presumably stored on-device which should mean Microsoft doesn't collect it, but the operating system as a whole is also proprietary and closed-source, meaning:

it's very hard to tell what the system does or doesn't do, the only recourse we have are to look at outgoing data packets (not foolproof) or study the disassembly (difficult and illegal)

it is both extremely hard and illegal to make and maintain forks (modified versions), which means if they do something their users absolutely can't agree with, they're left with three choices:

use an outdated version -- not the best for security, and Microsoft makes updates mandatory

switch operating systems -- can be time-consuming and costly to do, especially if the user relies on system-specific functionality (I'd recommend getting started on this asap)

just accept it -- what most will probably end up doing

[07planetarium]

📂💻🧠❤️‍🔥🔬💭📖🧪🌃  pt. 3

here was part 2!

so hiii...... 2024 was insane (understatement). so many highs & lows & lessons learned through them - i tweeted about it, wrote at length about it (Whatever the name of the catastrophe, it is never the opposite of love), talked my friends' & love ones' ears over it, & will continually be processing it as I live... but onwards, upwards, forwards. thank you for being here.

i'm really happy to say that I actually did start a lot of my TOWARDS in 2024. i joined kolektif semai🌱🌹 (a local collective focused on learning-unlearning-healing-organizing through a feminist ecosocialist lens) through being introduced to Rafa at purplecode (💗) during DekodeFest 2023, thus my more political-philosophical-theoretical readings will constantly be influenced by what we discuss hihi. menuju penelitian yg militan ygy!!!!!! i've also solidified my research areas as below:

poetical science | sains puitika

aphantasia & cognitive science as a whole | afantasia & ilmu kognitif secara luas

critical approaches to tech & AI | pendekatan alternatif-&-kritis terhadap teknologi & AI

Indonesian literature & history | sastra & sejarah Indonesia

memory- & archive-keeping | perawatan ingatan[memori] & pengarsipan

though ofc what I am & what I'm interested in knowing of extends beyond this (& i really hope i/us as a society don't need to keep prefacing this - constantly needing to affirm that we are & can be multidimensional because there still being others who doubt that). as always, carrying over books from pt1&pt2 but reprioritizing & c.

books i’m reading 2025 + i’ll be at literal in terms of book-logging as always! ( *^-^)ρ(^0^* ) though i am definitely going to be saving the data on my local drives ASAP. no dev updates since 2022 is... uhhh......

currently reading + on hand Konferensi Asia-Afrika 1955: Asal Usul Intelektual dan Warisannya bagi Gerakan Global Antiimperialisme oleh Wildan Sena Utama (harus tahun ini selesai... Tolonglah....) Journal of an Ordinary Grief by Mahmoud Darwish Talking to My Daughter about the Economy by Yanis Varoufakis Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov Workers of the Earth: Labour, Ecology and Reproduction in the Age of Climate Change by Stefania Barca The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa Deluge by Leila Chatti (terima kasih, kak norman) Averno by Louise Glück

to read Human Acts by Han Kang Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Alternatif Sebagai Strategi: Akses, Infrastruktur & Pengetahuan oleh Nuraini Juliastuti The Political Unconscious by Fredric Jameson The Cipher by Molly Brodak Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844: Human Requirements and Division of Labour by Karl Marx The Prose of the World by Maurice Merleau-Ponty WHEREAS by Layli Long Soldier Matahari Yang Mengalir oleh Dorothea Rosa Herliany Kejatuhan dan Hati oleh S. Rukiah Catatan-Catatan dari Bulan oleh Rieke Saraswati Membisikkan Bekal untuk Perjalanan yang Sangat Jauh: Pendekatan Feminis dalam Kerja Seni Budaya by various writers, with the support of Peretas (Perempuan Lintas Batas) and Puan Seni (Jaringan Seni Perempuan) The Case for Degrowth by Federico Demaria, Susan Paulson, Giorgis Kallis, Giacomo D′Alisa Waktu Bintang (tr. Gladhys Elliona) oleh Clarice Lispector The Technological State in Indonesia by Sulfikar Amir Jalan Raya Pos, Jalan Daendels oleh Pramoedya Ananta Toer Aksi Massa oleh Tan Malaka

etc Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson Indigenous Species by Khairani Barokka Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are by Kevin J. Mitchell On Decoloniality: Concepts, Analytics, Praxis by Walter D. Mignolo, Catherine E. Walsh

will obviously be reworked & mended & tinkered with.... Friday Findings & baca bareng medindin responsible for a lot of that uhuk

[polldatavisualizer]

tumblr poll results are often misleading for polls that involve more than one variable

my mission is to create representations of data collected in tumblr polls that allow the data to be interpreted meaningfully, and to improve statistical literacy on this website.

if you’re like me, you’ve probably looked at polls interrogating more than one variable, you know, ones like this:

Q: ARE YOU WEARING PANTS RIGHT NOW?

OPTION 1: Yes, and I’m a horse that uses tumblr - 0.1%

OPTION 2: No, and I’m a horse that uses tumblr - 0.7%

OPTION 3: Yes, and I’m a human - 69%

OPTION 4: No, and I’m a human - 30.2%

and thought to yourself, “man, a bar chart without any kind of normalization is a super confusing and possibly misleading way to represent these data.” or maybe that’s just me.

I feel strongly about good data viz, and I started doing this for myself because I was curious how certain poll results would look if the data were represented better. this is (mostly) a lighthearted blog.

if I reblog your poll and you want my reblog deleted, tell me via the ask box and I’ll delete it—but you need to provide a reason (“this poll was a joke” is a perfectly valid reason, as is “I don’t like your vibe”—you just have to tell me something). this is because lack of statistical literacy and bad data representation being seen by large swaths of young impressionable tumblr users genuinely concerns me a little bit. please note (before you, poll creator, get offended) that tumblr’s polling system is at fault here, not you, poll creator, trying to collect information with a very limited data collection tool.

you can submit polls you want interpretation for and I’ll do my best. rules for submitting polls:

the poll doesn’t have to have closed, but I won’t interpret the data until the poll closes. for obvious reasons.

you can submit joke polls, but I will treat them the same as any other poll.

some polls are formulated in such a way that makes the data collected inherently uninterpretable. if you submit a poll that I feel is uninterpretable, I will say so. don’t get mad, it’s my opinion.

please DO NOT submit polls from fandom-oriented poll blogs (character tournaments, the like). I just don’t care and don’t want to get caught up in drama surrounding those sorts of things.

about the mod: I’m an adult. mid 20s. my pronouns are he/him. I am white, transgender, autistic, and queer. I’m a biologist, which is a field with a serious data misinterpretation and misrepresentation problem, which is why I’ve got this big ass chip on my shoulder.

I do data viz in R using ggplot2, which is overkill for this application, but it’s fun for me, and stupid easy to crank out plots. I’ll publish all code I write for this blog. Learn R! She’s open source! She’s kinda wacky and illogical sometimes as a result but we love her!

no terf shit. no racist shit. no cop shit. no zionists. kill yourselves and go to hell. will do my best to check OPs for these things but if I reblog a poll made by someone who falls into any of these categories please let me know ASAP so I can delete and block.

[woodcutchimera]

I got my brother to help me pick out a laptop because he gets people laptops for work except he gets cancer researchers laptops and they're really expensive super amazing laptops but then again I am doing cancer research. I'm just currently bad at it and still in school but not good school kind of shitty school because i fucked up in undergrad by having "depression" and substance abuse/fun so now i need to get a masters degree in data science asap while working in the clinical research field so i can apply for good bioinformatics programs without them immediately looking at my undergrad transcript and seeing that i flunked my bioinformatics class because i did but only because i didnt have my own personally collected large data set with appropriate research question and did not realize those were like prerequisites + too scared to zoom call office hours to ask if one could be provided for me because it was 2020 and that was a lot. and paying for it (the laptop) myself instead of being backed by a top 20 research medical university with a fuckoff budget

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

Well, well, well, sick again, I see. Yes indeed I am. This time it’s not a stomach virus, this time it’s a common everyday cold. Stuffy head, runny nose, tired. It’s annoying. 🤧

Let’s get to the links. Enjoy!

Evan Symon • California Globe

A new ballot effort aimed at asking Californians if the state should remain in the union was approved for signature gathering to appear on the 2028 ballot on Friday.

This is nothing more than performative as it’s illegal to secede from the Union.

I mean, seeing California, Oregon, and Washington becoming their own country or joining Canada would be amazing. I’d certainly want to move back ASAP. 🤣

Isaac Halvorson

Lately I’ve been on the hunt for a personal database application that I could use to store, manipulate, and explore data important to me. I think I’m at least now able to articulate what it is I want, but I haven’t yet been able to find anything that perfectly matches the daydream.

This is really interesting. There are a number of database products available for the Mac, I personally use Base and love it, but something a bit more user friendly could make for an amazing product for someone. I’d personally love to see a forms creation product with a database behind it so I could make custom forms and put them on an iPad, iPhone, or Mac. It would be great for folks who do sidewalk questionnaires.

Something like this probably already exists. I just haven’t looked for it.

Ernie Smith • PC Gamer

For the first time in nearly 20 years, WordPress no longer feels like a sure bet if you need to get a website online.

Ah, yes, the WordPress saga continues. I wonder what Matt is up to? It feels like he’s partially giving up. I hate to see that as WordPress is critical infrastructure on the internet. It powers so many sites and I can see it doing so much more.

Roger Monty’s • Search Engine Journal

Three unrelated things happened in the world of WordPress and Content Management Systems which may point the direction of how content is published on the web. Two of the developments are directly related to WordPress and has the feel of pieces falling into place.

This is a very interesting piece. If a community rises up out of WordPress and forks it I could see Matt losing out and losing control of the future of WordPress. It would be really nice to see him do something similar to what Eugen Rochko did for Mastodon.

Joan Westenberg • The Index

Tesla is dying. The company’s fourth-quarter earnings read like a eulogy for the electric dream. Revenue crawled up just 2% to $25.71 billion, missing analyst estimates by over $1.5 billion. Automotive revenue - the heart of Tesla’s business - collapsed 8% to $19.8 billion. Operating income cratered 23% year-over-year to $1.6 billion. The operating margin withered to 6.2% from 8.2% a year earlier. These are the vital signs of a company in free fall.

I can only imagine it’s gonna get worse. Who wants to buy a car from a company with a Nazi as CEO?

The Tesla Board needs to grow a collective pair and fire the man. Get someone who will turn Tesla around.

I wonder when we’re going to see a round of layoffs from Tesla?

Charlie Stross

Microsoft Word is a tyrant of the imagination, a petty, unimaginative, inconsistent dictator that is ill-suited to any creative writer’s use. Worse: it is a near-monopolist, dominating the word processing field. Its pervasive near-monopoly status has brainwashed software developers to such an extent that few can imagine a word processing tool that exists as anything other than as a shallow imitation of the Redmond Behemoth. But what exactly is wrong with it?

Charlie is a professional writer and he has a monster hatred for Microsoft Word. That made me ask myself what do writers actually use for writing their novels and books?

I know John Scalzi uses Word, but does he strip it down or just use it out of the box?

George R. R. Martin uses 1980s era WordStar for DOS.

From the article.

But then he did one better. He told Conan that he has two computers, one that’s up-to-date and has Internet access, and one that’s ancient and runs DOS. He uses the newer machine for browsing the Web and checking emails, but he turns to the older one when it’s time to write. And his late-’80s software of choice is the classic word processor WordStar 4.0.

I’d love to see someone collect data on what famous authors use as their word processor or typewriter of choice.

Andrew Cunningham • Ars Technica

But regardless of geography, it feels an awful lot like OpenAI wants to benefit from unlimited access to others' work while also restricting similar access to its own work.

I LOL’d when I read OpenAI isn’t happy about DeepSeek possibly using ChatGPT to train their model, given OpenAI crawled the web and trained their LLM with our work. Oh the irony.

Chris Smith • BGR

“When I think about where I’ll raise a future family or how much to save for retirement, I can’t help but wonder: Will humanity even make it to that point?” he asked.

I think it’s healthy to have a bit of skepticism about LLM’s and where the future of actual AI leads us. Doom is not such a bad answer. Let’s be cautious and slow down the pace. I’d definitely hate to see someone crest SkyNet. 🤔

Dustin Albino • NASCAR News

Corey LaJoie to run partial Cup schedule for RWR, joins Prime Video as analyst

I’m happy for Corey! I’m a fan. He’s been an underdog forever and may not have the skill of top drivers but the man doesn’t give up. I’m excited to see how his own team — Stacking Pennies Performance — does this year! Getting the 01 number was quite clever. Since he’s not a chartered NASCAR member it means he’s not guaranteed a spot on the grid. What does that mean? It means there are only so many spots available to racers and he will have to qualify his way in! He starts his new adventure at the Great American Race in Daytona this month. If he qualifies it’s a victory given the number of racers qualifying Open cars.

If I were some super rich dude I’d definitely get behind this guy.

Jim Acosta

I struggled for a bit trying to decide what to write about in my next Substack. But as this - how should I put this - batsh*t crazy week came to a close, I came to the conclusion that this post needs to be about you.

Man! I wish I were enough of a somebody to get Mr. Acosta to listen to me. All of this attention focused on Substack is not good. They support Nazi and white supremacist content on their platform but so many writers and reporter, like Mr. Acosta, just ignore it.

It’s mind boggling how they can ignore the sins of Substack while covering the likes of Donald Trump and the hate and cruelty he foists on so many groups of people here in the United States.

Get off the platform.

Politics

Ethan Jones • Bylines Cymru

Donald Trump has entered the White House again, an astonishing number of American voters seemingly unbothered by his authoritarian rhetoric, let alone the fact he’s an adjudicated rapist and 34-time convicted felon. No wonder the ‘f’ word is in use more than ever, especially due to the actions of Trump’s apparent right-hand man, the unelected Elon Musk.

Keep saying it. Donald J. Trump is an adjudicated rapist and 34 time felon. Oh, and he’s a fascist to boot.

Piece of garbage human.

PZ Myers

I’ve been getting reassuring emails from my university to let me know that they have assembled a team to respond to the federal government shut down of NIH and NSF funded research. In case you hadn’t heard, they canceled review panels at NSF and suspended research at NIH. They made the uncertainty that has always haunted research funding far more shaky. This is a warning shot — they’re going to make everyone conscious of the fact that the Trump team, a collection of idiots with no qualifications in science to throttle any and all science they don’t like.

It’s depressing to see the greatest nation on the planet shut down scientific research. The Marmalade Messiah is trying his best to turn the United States of America into an Idiocracy.

Levi Rickert • Native News Online

The Trump administration’s intensified deportation efforts have created unexpected challenges for Navajo citizens living in urban areas like Phoenix. As the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began widespread raids in major cities across the country following the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, concerns have surfaced about Native Americans being mistaken for undocumented immigrants.

I knew something like this would happen. It was bound to given how gung-ho ICE has been about “rounding up” brown skinned people.

What an absolute shit show. One that will affect so many lives. It’s terribly cruel and pathetic.

[unsolicited-opinions]

I admit being puzzled by your critiques, but you may know more than I do and maybe I'm misunderstanding. Please let me know if I'm missing information? (Like you, @indecisiveavocado, I'm a neurodivergent Jew (AuDHD), so it perhaps shouldn't be surprising that I have a need for things to make sense. Please know that I mean no hostility by what may seem like fisking - I just genuinely don't understand...and I really dislike not understanding.)

You wrote: "Liberation from Jordan and Egypt: Part of the problem was that, put simply, Palestinians were not building a state."

Isn't that part of the point? If they'd ever actually sought a state, they would have sought it then. If Palestinian statehood had ever been the goal of Fatah, the PLO, the PA, or Hamas, there'd be a Palestinian state. It was never sincere, it was a way to seek the end of Israel. They had no problem being ruled by Jordan or Egypt because they didn't claim to have a national identity and didn't seek a state until the 1960s. Is not the fact that the leadership of the Arabs of the levant did not seek a state until after Israel took control of the territorty in defensive military action, in itself, telling...? You wrote: Gaza: To be fair, Gaza isn't exactly ideally situated. It's like Las Vegas or Phoenix, but it doesn't have the sheer money pouring in to develop it.

What Barsky wrote is "They could’ve built up Gaza after the Israeli withdrawal in 2005." <- I don't see anything there about Gaza being ideally situated. As you point out, neither were Phoenix or Las Vegas...yet those cities built infrastructure and grew in population and capability at the same time. (I agree about life in the southwest US, btw, and have suggested to friends living there that it would be wise to sell their land there and move north ASAP.) More importantly though, Gaza absolutely did have development money flowing into it. We have ample evidence of that, including records from the many nations who donated showing that their checks cleared. How did Hamas manage to build 450 miles of tunnels under Gaza?

Partly, Hamas diverted (a polite euphemism for "stole") construction materials paid for by international donors for development projects, including about 20% of the concrete and steel which entered Gaza. Those materials, we know now with certainty, were put to use building the tunnels.

Billions (measured in US$) have been handed to Hamas since 2005 and they declined to use it to build infrastructure or prepare for statehood.

Just between 2014 and 2020, UN agencies expended nearly $4.5 billion in Gaza, with over 80% of this funding channeled through UNRWA. Between 2012 and 2018, Qatar poured $1.1 billion in aid into Gaza. Approximately 44% was allocated to infrastructure projects, 40% to healthcare and education, and the remainder supported various groups within the territory. CNN says Qatar contributed another $1.3 billion since 2019, according to OECD data. Qatar also helped pay the salaries of Hamas government employees. Estimates suggest that since 2005, Gaza has received about 10 Billion US Dollars in development aid, which Hamas exploited. In 2016, Mohammed El-Halabi, the Gaza director of the Christian aid organization World Vision, was accused of diverting up to $7.2 million donated for humanitarian aid annually to Hamas's military wing for building tunnels and buying weapons. When I read Palestinians from the West Bank, from Gaza, or in their diaspora, I see almost uniform belief that Hamas and the PA are both rife with corruption and have diverted (stolen) deveopment funds to enrich themselves and buy weapons. How else did Hamas leaders in Qatar and now Turkey get rich? Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Mashal, and Moussa Abu Marzouk were reported to collectively hold assets worth approximately $11 billion USD. Where did that money come from if not diverted (stolen) from development and humanitarian aid?

Help me understand your assertion that building up Gaza wasn't an option and that Hamas did not explicitly, mindfully chose to invest in death and their own corruption rather than investing in the people of Gaza, Gaza's infrastructure, or the statehood which only people who haven't read and listened to Hamas itself believe Hamas ever wanted...?

You wrote: "Rockets: This is kind of unfair. Hamas held one election before most Gazans could vote; indeed, Gazans are growing in their dissatisfaction with their rule[...]It's like saying of Russians that they could have chosen not to invade Ukraine; yes, but also the blame is pretty squarely on Putin and it's unfair to blame your typical Russian for this."

Barsky wrote: "They could’ve chosen not to fire tens of thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians." Could Hamas, the elected government of Gaza which enjoyed majority support in Gaza, have decided to invest in peace instead of in death? How can there be any answer here other than yes?

You seem to be saying that nobody in Russia except Putin himself has any responisiblity for Russia's unprovoked, unjustified invasion of Ukraine.

In international relations, are not the state of Russia and the government of Russia regarded as responsible for the crimes comitted by the Russian military? You seem to be saying that only its autocratic leader has any responsibility, and I confess being confused by that.

Were sanctions put in place against Putin? No, they were put in place against Russia. Were sanctions put into place against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? No, they were put into place against The Islamic Republic of Iran. If Russia does not own the responisiblity for this criminal invasion, only Putin individually...who owns responsibility for the events of October 7th?

The hands in the envelope which did the actual murdering, raping, and maiming of Israelis were those of Hamas, other Gazan islamist groups, and assorted citizens of Gaza, right? That's a lot of risk and murdering for people who object to it.

Except they didn't object to it. In November of 2023, 63.6% of Gazans polled expressed support for the October 7 attacks, with 47% strongly supporting them. Support was higher in the West Bank, with 83.1% expressing support.

Do you really believe that even a large minority of Gazans opposed the launching of rockets into Israel? I've seen no evidence of that. Whether or not we like Netanyahu's leadership, doesn't responsibility for the actions of the IDF wholly rest with the state of Israel and its government? The ICC and the ICJ seem to think so, right? Why have this standard for Israel...but not, in your argument, for Gaza or Russia...?

You said Barsky made mistakes here in saying "they could’ve chosen not to fire tens of thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians"

I'm not seeing any mistakes, misrepresentations, falsehoods, or attempts to mislead. It seems reasonable and supported by evidence.

What I am missing here that I find your critique baffling? Make it make sense...?

Thanks!

This is grim, but...where's the lie?

They could’ve chosen not to massacre the Jews of Hebron in 1929. They could’ve stayed in Jordan and Egypt instead of migrating to the Land of Israel in the 1920s in search of work. They could’ve accepted the Peel Commission recommendations in 1936. They could’ve accepted the UN Partition Plan in 1947. They could’ve chosen not to launch a war in 1948. They could’ve demanded “liberation” from Jordan and Egypt, who ruled over them until 1967. They could’ve followed through on the Oslo Accords. They could’ve made peace at Camp David. They could’ve accepted Olmert’s offer. They could’ve built up Gaza after the Israeli withdrawal in 2005. They could’ve chosen not to fire tens of thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians. They could’ve chosen not to carry out October 7th. But they didn’t. Every single time, they chose war. Choices come with a price. It is all on them.

Oren Barsky

[the-firebird69]

SCA CAA Kirk and I get going on this all of the ones that were shut down on the North House 40 and to the panhandle... A cork we're going on now and we're going to mark them and we are going to mark them and we have Bob behind us and he's calling the president we have to put these in it says no we don't it's probably mandatory to what temporary ones in and to put the permanent ones in ASAP so he's trying to find out if we have any on store and he's asking around and Mac is on the line and knows where they are doesn't come at 5:00 and right now or four more in Florida is looking for the defunct ones probably where they came from and we have to add security measures and stuff so it's a green light and cork it's a blind Man's bluff in Florida it says they're all in the 75 so we have to feel our way around to find them. He's saying affirmative and it's a go and we have the generic beer coming out and he wants me to go buy that cheap beer it's like 10 bucks a case and put your generic beer wrap on it and you have to buy it warm so it fuses to it and there's a certain thing you can do and he says he's going to go do it now and try and sell it for a little bit more and the question is is it worth the money so he says I sort of get that but I can sell it for a dog or each parties I said that's fantastic a dollar each at parties and so you can pull up and sell for a dollar each maybe so 10 or so five here or three there so he's saying that's a good idea and I bring like some cheap buckets with ice and that's a good idea cuz you make money then eventually it could be a truck so it's moving out now and we're going to watch you make fun of them no he says we should probably make it nationwide a cork and sometime tonight we'll begin the process and they'll be behind of course no pun intended and a cork says pun intended and don't use my name in vain it's too many times it says what can I tell you generic beer is less expensive about the same filling it tastes better and he acknowledges is true. A cork female and she says warlock female is fine and he says okay so we're proceeding to do that and we're marking it and we are not well liked for it and we're notifying them that they need to put in temporary facilities but they're doing is dangerous to people and it's true it causes exploding poops and other stuff and it's a way to collect data impossible demons and Tommy f doesn't like it so we're going to head with it now and we're of course heroes and Camilla will come in this come into US cleaned up once the mess is cleaned up we're moving out female morlock. I have to have the last word everybody have a good night and I'm pleased to work for everyone and I got a job out of this and it's no joke we are using those blocks for highway stuff and for utilities and more and we know how to get them and how to use them and what cement to use that fuses it and really that wall looks great these things are very nice and you can paint them all sorts colors it's beautiful it's beautiful stuff and it will flow over the top the way we did it and it'll be beautiful it's nice and we put a railing on the other for the heights and it's going to save a ton of work this is a great idea to put these rest stops in and it is Tommy f and we're going to put that out there and we're going to send it to the highway people and they should know we're doing good work a cork

Your method is not approved yet it's working so we're going to go with it we're going to follow behind you and pull out the deposits as it were which they're not worth much but we have to treat them like they are and we will go ahead and install new facilities as they become extremely Mark and we are told if I have to drive a four wheel drive Camaro there we need to rest stops with food places LOL right on the highway and this is a dream that helps monitor and securities there and we're going to proceed now and remember him stopping and he stops at almost all of them and he likes to walk around and drink things look at people talk to people by something yeah really it's what a lot of people like and driving is a lot of work sometimes and we're going to go ahead and do this

Dot executive

This is a lot of fun I had a lot of experience gained I know how convenient doesn't have to be torture and we should try and help each other and we're going to climber each other so we're gone if we don't that's terrible

Bob Marsh

We have a lot of work to do like this and rest areas are going to help because people need to work and you can't poop in your car and restaurants are tired of it they come in and they poop and they leave and send a full-time job and you're dealing with food and poop and it's not right and he's right these people did it on purpose they're blaming the more luck who are lending a hand and they're getting their butts right into the job there's other things like that like motels and hotels that are defunct and some can be fixed and some can't their owners around they don't know who they are we really don't some of these properties quite a while running it so I want my guys to volunteer and nobody's running them and we need people out there and we need security and we need walls and these walls will work and there's a footer you put in and you dig it I really does machines to take footings they go pretty straight you have to go straight let me use a standoff line and you go straight that's true and you just poured in concrete in it's like two feet wide 3 ft wide and it's like a foot and a half deep and need to support it and put the wall on it and it fuses to the footer as down there too like 3 ft usually and you can cast the wall but if tons of these walks blocks and we need them for some things to see walls that we need but we need really big ones and we don't have a lot of those we need them for pill boxes yeah but we need them for the highway and we're not going to put too many pill boxes out it's not really worth it we're going to start doing this highway work right now we have other utility work power plants water treatment plants in this block works great he says it too but then water treatment you can spray the you put the block in you have circular ones and you spray the inside was kind of it makes a big tank with gunite and you seal it we're going to go ahead and do that the water table doesn't matter too much cuz it's always full of water and we can make these and we're going to go ahead with it and it's a good idea and I really don't want to go through this we know where to put them we might have to have cork lend a hand it's going to have to be like a spy thing figure out where they're going to go and we don't want to dump stuff there we want you to take a dump it's like forcing to happen is such a pain

Mac

Before you go pinching a loaf all over the place we have to have a meeting to see if anybody's getting arrested for it and her friend says what for and that's kind of our attitude I didn't hear anything and the pseudo empire is working with you on this crappy deal and you guys the wall guys and you never guess it he says cuz he can't put up a wall Street if you paid him with the blocks and things and our walls are pretty straight they did a lot of it in California tons of it and these are interlocking it's quick and easy it's like a kid's toy I've never seen something so much fun and they saw their solid as hell it's a concrete wall is smooth the front of it and you paint it with a coating and it looks really nice nice bright yellow for us ing weight is confusing even though a lot of us are color blind you can still see the yellow difference. and having some parties believe us. We're not that great at brewing we need to hire Brewers and it seems to be these guys we're fighting so we're going to try and hire them and maybe it'll smooth it over and maybe we'll make it worse that's a subconsciously remember that we can't brew sh. He wants us to try and make deals Alabama and Georgia to have them help make these cars and those two states are huge Auto company places in half of them are shut down and we don't have anything to make cars out of it's not coming here and I've seen the car it looks nice and Brad can help and he's our kid and he said not your kid of his kid he says you're a child of ours and he says yes so you can help out cuz we need you to and you'll have a job up there and this is going to be great he might have to drive his four wheel drive Camaro up there and he thinks it might be okay if it doesn't know how he would ever get it excuse me pal I've got a four wheel drive and oh that sounds like fun and maybe that's how and I've got the idea and I'm going to help out and I'm a cork and I'm from Miami I hear these ideas and I see what he's saying and he wants me to help Jose Gonzalez no Jose Gaspar start up his rum company. The one that is doing now is a Mac it's not really here doing it so we know what it is and we get that and BG knows all about that stuff he's a very famous pirate and we know that but what you say is going to question people and we suck. Use the question you and he always does and you shouldn't be I have a name and my name is Mike p so people can use that and it's not DJ and it sounds funny but yeah

Mike p

We're getting on this and I'm going to get down there and I'm going to open my company I'm glad my friend suggested it and I do need your help Mike p and I sort of get what you're saying but we're going to find out but we don't think it's them so it's not and look if Mike tew can look and they found out a lot of stuff

Bg

The last stuff going on and this is going to be great and we need to do the car thing and we got to get up there and find out who's running it Trump is saying he is 20% of what's left here so what exactly and running

Mike p

We know who's running it and I have like 30% and practically none of it's working this is a great idea so we're going to have some bread go up there Brad go out there and we're going to try and get the plants going it's not that hard to make the stuff it's a real simple car and that's the idea we do like the versions the four versions I'm going to get going on this it's impossible and it's his brand and his name. And cheese man what's the car thing and it really does

Mac

Is that what you're saying they don't really want me doing that with their friends and things like that and it's really bad actually but I haven't just another stuff one of them is this RTA motorcycle is saying finally something. So we are getting into it now and we are finding out what's going on and I see what you're saying the design is not really that complex and you can put the inserts on the inside as well the two edges or you can actually put it all the way together and do a nice fill it weld instead of what people do it's like a surface although it's sometimes it goes all the way through and that's what you could do too and then you would puddle it and I'll tell you that's really strong that connection there's only a few of those you have to make and the way it works is awesome in the swing arm would be the same really cool idea you make salt no cast the solid inserts and if it's RTA it would be pulled up bolt up and they could weld it if they get a chance and I do see that but RTA is the way to go and you do the same thing you just put the joints and you put a couple bolts in each that's it really and you keep all the controls in the motor very simple just wondering if you start out with a the old lawn mower trick or if I can get any other kind of motor and we're in Alabama and they make Briggs & Stratton and they don't make too many of the motorcycle ones or we can start later on and you're right these motors look great and the transmission is right there there's so many of these motors in the city around now but they're really easy to make any change the line up a little and it's really fast and the design would be like that thing and you have the bar going up around the tank and I see why and you could do the several versions but really people would want just the motor you make it really simple and just do one bike it would be like a be like a smaller well it's like that bike from China for the gold suspension and it'll be lower like that the yamaha's tires are too big at least a rear tire is too big I looked at the big tires and they're not that great but a little bit bigger than normal would be nice the ride is nice and we can't do airless and a lot of parts are real cheap right now because the scooters not selling at all I'm going to get this going I might just build them too it says is you should like do an RTA and get a name and then build them cuz it's tough to get into this market and this price would be really good how to sell them for 800 bucks and then start assembling them and then put a real motor in and it would be really nice probably really fast and we know all the speed tricks now it's funny too I'm going to start off with the lawn mower motor 35 and go like $180 and she's up to 45 in different sprockets those 250 and those are super bikes and a sport bike and no one can argue it I mean that is super fast and I do have a name for it. I got to do this cuz I think I can make fly cycles too and racing pods people can't really get together and I need them to be customers and to sponsor it and even invest if they want to and they'll send lots to your people so I need yours to come forward mine first I guess that would be great had a grandson is willing to do it and he wants to so he's going to go ahead and we have some others so I'm going to start doing it now

Terry cheesman I have some designers and it's better to do it in house he says I get that it's not really complicated no

We have an idea too it's me and myself to make a car is so cheap that people can afford it he's trying to do that with Brad he sells his for 10 grand in Australia and I'll tell you what that's a really good price and it's hard to do that even in Australia I'll tell you what everybody needs to buy one in the canister on doing nothing I have all this plants to open I'm probably should have so much trouble. And it could be a kit to start so he says why not and I seen a few of these and some of them look very basic and their metal and it's not shaped metal or stamped and I can do I can do the stamping it's not really the point play just put the kit and he says that the way you attach it and things like that after you really simple everything's got these cars is very complex way over the top it's not needed if you can both run bolt It off and bolts it on and I see what it's saying you want to ship it with the panels inside the panels and things like that and door panels we you know assembled two sides to the one door and wait it sounds like a good idea. You make it penalized and you can ship the whole thing and you can assemble it much quicker in the factory it's going to be a good idea and you do the roof the same way it has to come as one piece but really the box is going to be good sized. I'm going to try and do that cuz it sounds like a good idea and this bunch of names that come to mind and trumpster Junior is not one of them it is funny though and I get to get off the news it's just making it worse.

Trump

Well he's trying to be nice so we can move next door and be a pill and we don't want it.

all stuff sorts of stuff to happen tonight I'm ordering. One of them is not to allow him near him they're trying to kidnap him out at the house and he's watching them and that was her son like a hawk and stressful and it's not worth it we got to stop them from doing that I don't want to hear any of this dumb crap about them getting close and saying that we need to be stopped they understand that they're just sitting here sorry everything for happening and we hear everything look bad so we can start doing this work

Thor Freya

Olympus

[strobbylemonade]

HELLO IF YOU LIVE IN AUSTRALIA AND REGULARLY CATCH PUBLIC TRANSPORT I NEED UR HELP

What's this? This is part of a research assignment regarding the convenience, use, and usability of Australia's public transport system.

Who's it for? People who live in Australia and catch public transport regularly. It is focused on Urban NSW, but open to other responses from Australia as well.

What will you do with my information? All responses will be anonymous. No names or emails will be collected. Any personal information will only be used for demographic purposes and will not be shared with the public. Data collected will be used to develop a hypothetical app/interface to address the needs and concerns of public transport users (everything is for educational purposes and will NOT be used for monetary / public gain).

I'm not Australian / I don't use public transport :( Reblog / share for me! I need around 30 responses for this for a decent sample size :') Or send to someone who does :'))) please :')

There's something wrong with the survey DM me and I'll fix it ASAP!

if you fill it out i give you kiss mwah <3

[menasors]

Text Version:

Motormaster:

Who gives a damn. King of the road.

Terrible anger issues, potential autism and/or ADHD, refusal to learn things unrelated to battle.

Likes: ME

Driving, roads? Come on, kid.

Relationships:

Menasor - I don't know

Breakdown - paranoid dumbaft

Dead End - left blank

Drag Strip - won't listen

Wildrider - too nousy

Data inaccurate. Clear care for brothers.

Dead End:

COME BACK ASAP. YOU NEED THE PHOTO TO COMPLETE THIS.

I'm still not seeing the point of this.

Autism, depression, suspected anxiety.

Likes: I enjoy reading as a pastime, and occasionally find myself enjoying the odd musical theatre play.

Relationships:

Menasor - sweet, though loud.

Motormaster - Can be a bit much, though he's been kind to us as of late.

Breakdown - Quite quiet compared to the others. I occasionally offer him help, though it does not always work as intended.

Drag Strip - I'd prefer we not share a bond, but here we are.

Wildrider - As said with Menasor; Sweet, but quite loud.

Breakdown:

A bunch of scribbles in blue pen covered with sticky notes.

Autism, psychosis - thinks he's under constant judgement, skilled technician, intense paranoia. *Collected by peers.

Likes: Computer hardware, art - namely drawing and painting, preparing for the worst. *Collected by peers.

Inconsistent data collected for relationships.

Drag Strip:

Coolest Stunticon, Coolest Decepticon.

NPD or something similar, potential ADHD, anger issues when he doesn't get his way.

Likes: me, winning, racing (winning), games (winning)

Relationships:

Menasor - cool right arm. He gives me answers in our games (don't tell the others)

Motors - asshole always tellin us what to do

Dead End - Booooring...

Breakdown: he needs to chill out cuz he keeps putting his anxiety on me in the bond!

Wildrider - best racing buddy! Best duo since Rumble n Not Rumble.

Be nice to your brothers.

Wildrider:

:)

Schizophrenia, ADHD (needs constant noise for both), either fine motor skill issues or boredom with doing as he's told.

Likes: drawing, brothers, frogs, demolition derbys.

Relationships:

Menasor - Very fun!! Love you Menasor. Sweet.

Motors - very angry but nice to us sometimes

Dead End - don't see him much but nice

Drag Strip - fun to play games with :)

Breakdown - understands me :)

Menasor:

Considered to be youngest brother, ADHD, Autism(?), anger issues, highly sensitive.

Likes: doodling, building & destroying things, his brothers, watching cars, unsurprisingly.

Relationships:

Breakdown - protecive over him

Motors - closest by bond, looks up to him

Dead End - says he's too boring

Drag Strip & Wildrider - the "funnest" brothers to him

Hook made them do those elementary school “Get to Know Me” pages that double as a medical record. Did not go to plan.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Have you seen the spotify mess BPP?? Now I understand why Armys are so obsessed with numbers and stats! By golly what a shit show.

**

Anon, I don't think the latest asks on this topic have come from you, and perhaps it's only a couple of Anons frantically spamming my inbox with the same asks, but I figured I might as well post my abridged draft response to you now so those Anons see what my initial comments in the 3rd paragraph of that post were actually in response to, and hopefully get the context to leave my inbox alone. Lol. I had hoped to add more sources, links, and figures when I had more time before posting, but I need these crusaders out of my inbox ASAP before I board my flight.

*

Hi Anon,

There's a concentration of knowledgeable people and attention to detail in the ARMY fandom that I appreciate just as a matter of fact.

This 'obsession' with numbers that ARMYs are notorious for, is something I saw the fandom develop in real time, in response to the way the media treats BTS.

In 2015, when k-pop stans and Korean media accused BigHit of Sajaegi it wasn't like Sajaegi accusations that had been made towards other groups/companies before. The accusations in 2015 against BTS were so insidious, they targeted Jimin's family because of a supposed connection to Big Hit (in reality, none exists), they included claims of coercion from the members themselves towards K-ARMYs to be complicit, and of course the most commonly known one, they accused BigHit of running the whole operation mass buying their own albums during a time when BigHit was still seeking funding from the KIC. BigHit eventually showed in the court of law how all those claims were bonkers, and they partly relied on data pulled from ARMYs to do it.

In 2016 during the Break Wings project, this was the first time I saw ARMY begin collecting data in earnest. Though it's dismissed now as something only a tiny amount of k-pop stans did, back then I'd seen people do blatant chart manipulation against TVXQ and for Block B and this was very much on par with that. I saw the ARMY fandom scramble to get the numbers to prove all BTS's releases and sales/chart performance at the time were kosher and done by the book.

In a hyper-competitive environment when k-pop stans have more incentive to argue water isn't wet if it means defending their faves, ARMYs increasingly had to resort to numbers to get out of increasingly more absurd situations.

The bigger BTS has gotten, the more organized with data collection ARMYs have become, because men lie, women lie, but numbers don't. I've noticed many ARMYs are musicians themselves or people very passionate about music, so I completely understand why many of them take things like this seriously.

I want to be clear about one thing: it is very silly to reduce this shit show to ARMYs wanting Jungkook to be number 1. The music industry, like any industry in 2022, is a system managed by profit-takers who default towards 'exploiting inefficiencies' to increase profit. I've seen ARMYs learn the hard way that if they want fair recognition for artists they support, they need to understand how the industry works and proactively collect the data to support those artists. This attitude reminds me of Beyonce's Beyhive in 2008, of the Navy in 2010, and of Halsey's fans in 2018.

Not all of the fandom is like this, obviously. Most fans would like to just chill and listen to music and not worry about any of this stuff, many even hate that some ARMYs collect data, but I have only seen the benefits not just for BTS, but for other music artists impacted. Whether or not stans on Twitter/Tumblr think this ARMY response is overblown is irrelevant. All you have to do is look at what is happening in the real world, to realize there is real impact to artists beyond BTS for actions taken now. This is one thing rhetoric and emotional concerns around the optics of the fandom, just can't deny. This shit show is something Spotify never expected to happen, because most regular Joes on Spotify aren't tracking this sort of data anyway. But ARMYs do. For good reason.

##Add link to spotify lawsuit. This latest mess with Spotify and the VMAs showe###

**

New comments separate from my draft: I realize this Anon was referring only to deplorable behaviour from ARMYs on Twitter dragging Spotify, Blinks, and Lisa. While I partly agree with the Anon, as I've said before, stan behaviour on the platform is uniform across the board given how practically every community on that platform behaves and what the algorithms amplify, and you must either be very siloed in ARMY shooter spaces, or ARMY anti spaces to even think this is unique to ARMYs at any scale. Like if you dipped your pinky toe in 2nd generation k-pop stan Twitter, or Black Twitter, you'd be back out looking like you'd just survived the Dien Bien Phu. Plus, if the topic is comparing and ranking bad behaviour from fandoms, I'm not interested in doing PR for a fandom of at least 20 million people based on what 20,000 people with Musk's bot accounts are doing. But in any case if the subject is bad behaviour, rest assured ARMYs have a lot of competition in that department. What I see little sense in doing, is wasting my attention on it when there's much bigger issues at hand.

[iliiuan]

First, just to be clear, I agree 💯 with the narrative being excellent. Robert Jordan wrote it that way on purpose. Anyone who has had a PhD advisor knows exactly what it's like to watch an expert in one area flail in another while pretending they're an expert in everything. The White Tower is a most satisfying portrayal of the same.

Now, about the Aes Sedai view of Accepted being diverted to clerical work: They were not pleased. Accepted teach novice classes, which Sisters now had to do. Accepted weren't available during regular hours for their lessons, so Sisters had to rearrange their schedules. The amount of griping was exactly as expected. So I stand by Accepted being a poor choice for the task.

While the Tower clerks do have regular work to do, I don't think it would be terribly difficult to hire temporary workers to complete a census. And having the class of people who usually do a task doing that task is generally less conspicuous, just as a general rule. They'll also do better, more thorough work, which won't then have to be redone, meaning fewer man-hours overall. They might have other loyalties, but obscuring the task in bureaucratic requirements could easily create red herrings for enemies to waste their time on. (Brown Sister Whoever is researching the effects of wartime on birth rates and distribution. White Sister Someone is exploring the application of empirical vs theoretical approaches to population modeling. The White Tower has decided to track all births in its vicinity for the foreseeable future. Like, there are Options.) What good is a list of baby names to someone who doesn't know the Dragon has been Reborn? I'm sure they'd find uses, but I doubt they would impede the true purpose of the census. Even manipulating the data randomly on the principle of sowing chaos wouldn't have been any worse than the results from using Accepted. Overall, given both the arrogant need to interfere and the desire for secrecy, using clerks would have produced the best results.

Your point about largesse does make sense. Enough to buy a farm still feels excessive, but that's colored by current housing prices in our world. Land probably wasn't worth very much (comparatively) in the slowly depopulating civilizations of Randland. The offer was enough to pull a poor woman out of poverty and enough to bestow honor on a noblewoman, ensuring that every name would be collected (except the one that mattered, but there were probably supernatural factors at play for that one).

Regarding the Warders, yes, people will be watching their movements, but again, I think they could probably play it off as checking on troop movements/ ensuring the Aiel are retreating/ seeing whether city supply lines have been affected by the war. There are plenty of perfectly reasonable cover stories under which to go see if any babies were born on the side of the mountain two nights ago. Having a lone agent doing the enquiring could be potentially more efficient, if they were a skilled spy. But you have to have a Warder in order to have this option. So.

Yes, taking a Warder is highly personal, but if my companion was having Foretelling about the Dragon as frequently as it's rumored Gitara was, I'd be down at the practice grounds to choose one out asap, and I'd use the bond that includes compulsion. But that's just me. Tamra clearly had different priorities.

Ultimately, it was for the best that the Aes Sedai did not find Rand before he was grown. His upbringing in the Two Rivers was so important for his development and was pivotal in him being able to defeat the Dark One without destroying the world. So while it is frustrating to watch the Aes Sedai be incompetent, I wouldn't have the story be any other way.

While we're at it, I really need to vent about how foolish this whole hunt for the baby dragon was. The illogic of Hears prophecy -> wants to hide prophecy -> starts manhunt as poorly disguised baby compensation program just annoys me.

The baby compensation amount is ridiculously high. Yes, to attract any woman who perhaps wasn't very interested in the money, but it screams desperation.

The method of acquiring data is sloppy. Accepted are NOT good scribes, as evidenced by Moiraine having to transcribe most of the entries. They also focus on the wrong details, because they don't know what is actually important, because keeping the birth of the Dragon Reborn secret is really important. But here we get stuck in a quagmire of casting a large net -> too much data with not enough detail, while casting a tighter net -> getting caught and losing the secret. Which is why using Accepted to accomplish this task was foolish.

What would have been a better plan?

First option that comes to mind is to do nothing. This has the advantages of not signaling that you are looking for someone important to the Black Ajah. It protects your secret most thoroughly.

Of course, then you can't protect interfere with the Dragon Reborn as he grows, because you don't know who he is. (Not that they succeeded in this goal anyway, which leads us back to Do Nothing as a reasonable response.)

Really, if the goal was to find Rand secretly, sending your Warder seems like the best course of action. In the moment of the prophecy, this should have been the very first response. Oh, what's that? She didn't have a Warder? (Gnashes teeth. Unprepared Aes Sedai, as usual.)

But back to the census. If what they really wanted was a high-quality list of babies born on Dragonmount, it would have been much, much better to have actual clerks do the work. White Tower wants a census, they have their reasons, no one's going to be suspicious about such an academic pursuit. Clerks doing clerk work? Also very not suspicious. Normal boring stuff. Nothing to see here.

All of this to say, Tamra doesn't impress me as being very slick. She painted a target on her back unnecessarily, especially since Do Nothing was a perfectly reasonable strategy.